Strawberry moments, YUM!

Yum! We went of to Biringer Farms today and did some strawberry pickin'! It was a wonderfully fun time with our friends the Barretts and the Chavez's. We also had a picnic lunch together and played in the play area for a while. It was a nice time out with friends. And a gorgeous day to enjoy outdoors. Here are a few more photos of our day:

A moment away.

Happy Anniversary! Scott and I are celebrating our 18th anniversay on Monday! We decided to get away to La Conner for the weekend. It was a wonderful time. (Doesn't Scott look happy?!) LOL! He was waiting for the timer to go off on the camera, and I don't look as good in the second picture, so I decided to put this one up to share! HA! So, we stayed at the historic Hotel Planter, it had all the charm of an old home. Although we found out we are very spoiled by the quiet we enjoy in our home, we had a horrible time sleeping with all the noise in the hall and outside. They have original windows, single pane, blocks absolutely no noise. But the place was wonderful anyway. We loved visiting the Gaches Mansion, it is a beautiful place and just filled with beautiful quilts on display.
This is the original fireplace that the gaches had brought over from Europe and the photos above are of the family that built the 4200 sq ft mansion. The woodwork was incredible, doors, moldings, everything was such a joy to experience. The lady there was so surprised to find someone more interested in the mansion than the quilts that she really took some time to chat with us and tell us about the fire and restoration that had taken place at the mansion. She also told us that if we walked a particular path back to the main street we might get to see the family of wild turkeys living in La Conner, so we followed her directions and:

WE FOUND THE TURKEYS!! It was great fun, Scott was going to try to pet one, but he walked away and joined the others in someones front yard. In total we had the opportunity to see six of them! I forgot to tell you all about how we were so blessed while there, on the first night we had visited an art store, and in it was an artist showing how she creates her painting and giving folks an opportunity to try it. Her medium is painting on silk. As we watched she explained that they would be having a drawing for the silk scarf that everyone was working on and for a piece of her original art, but you had to be present to win, the drawing would be later that evening. We decided to come back later to see if would win and WE DID! The artists name is Karen Sistek, click on her name and it will take you to her sight. Go about 3/4 of the way down the page and look for the white poppy painting called "Kay" and that is what we won! It is beautiful! When we find a place to hang it, I will post it for you all to see. The whole weekend was very fun. The kids had a great time with their Grandma Sheila although we missed them much and they missed us too. But it was a nice time for everyone.

Can you see the birdies????

What an amazing find! Under our very own front porch we had a robin build her nest and in it we found four blue little eggs. We watched these eggs regularly and last week while sitting in our playroom Jordan heard peeping sounds, quite loud. He jumped up, ran out to the porch and sure enough, we had baby robins! Jordans first reaction was that they were "hideous!" Atira thinks the babies are so cute. But bald little birdies, with a couple of feathers sticking out here and there is not the same as the cute little image of a yellow little puff ball of a baby bird. We tried to get some pictures to share with everyone, but they are hard to see. We had to use a mirror as that is the only way you all could see into the nest. For those of us here, we crouch down on the floor of our deck and peek through the slats of wood. This has made our spring so very memorable!

Todays moment....

Today's remembrance will be that of Scott's Grandpa Dick Hall. To our utter surprise he passed on today. So tonight, I would like to share a bit of my own personal memories about Grandpa Dick. This Mustang is not his, I do not have a picture of it, however this is something I remember about him, his Mustang. A car it seemed he was forever working on. He was always working on something. He was not a man to sit too long, there were no weeds growing under his feet at any moment from what I could tell. In his retirement he was working towards passing the bar exam after a long and succesful career in aviation. He was fun to chat with and always gave his open and quite honest opinion, which I loved. He could often be found wearing a tshirt with a quirky saying on it and it was generally an opinion he strongly agreed with! He was incredibly intelligent and quite witty and a blast to chat with if you ever had the chance to spend some time with him. So, for today, my memories and thoughts are about him. We last saw him about 2 years ago and he was so incredibly alive and vibrant it is hard to believe that his light no longer shines here on earth. His life and memory will continue through those who know him and love him.