June 2013

This was a month of saying good-bye.  We've had seasons in our life before where we've had to do this, but usually it was us leaving.  This time, we're staying put and others are leaving our lives.

Hanging out with their great-uncle Tim at Richmond Beach

One sweet military family from our church moved to Kansas.  Another friend moved to Arkansas.  Our neighbors whose son was quite close to Buddy moved to Virginia.  We wish all of these great friends the best in their new endeavors, but they do leave a little hole in our hearts.  We've also had people pass through this month that we haven't seen in a while and won't see again for quite some time.

We've even had to prematurely say good-bye to our own home even though we'll most likely be staying for another three years.  Buddy said good-bye to his preschool teachers, and MOPS ended for the year.  I said good-bye to my steering position on MOPS since we won't be attending next year since Buddy will be in Kindergarten.  It's definitely been a month of transition.

It's been a good month too.  We've had mostly great weather which has meant that we've been outside A LOT.  We've had fun just in our backyard with the wading pool and sprinklers.  We've also been able to go to the beach a number of times and visit many parks.  We've already written about some of those here.

Playing in the sprinkler

Wading Pool

Another fun outing was to North Creek Park in Bothell/Mill Creek.  We love walking along the boardwalk and seeing all the different birds.  This time we actually got to get close to some older ducklings and watch them wade around for a while.

Mama with her ducklings

Us!

We also finally went back to St. Edwards Park in Kenmore.  We've loved this park, but we haven't been there in a few years since we haven't had a Discover Pass for WA State Parks.  Since we bought a yearly pass for our trip to Wallace Falls, we now can go whenever we want!  The boys and I hiked down to the water first and counted the number of black slugs we saw on our way.  We counted 24!  It was quite exciting.

The Old Seminary

Playing in Lake Washinton

My cute boys

Black Slug

We also got to go to one of the extreme low-tides at Carkeek Park for lunch one day.  We saw starfish, anemones, mussels, lots of different kinds of seaweed and little tiny crabs.  The boys had a blast making the seaweed into kites.

Watching the train go by

Touching the starfish

Seaweed Kite

Sea Grass