{{Our Visit to Washington: Lynnwood}}

Since I've slowly been posting about our vacation, the days just keep ticking by and it's almost October!

After our time in Oregon, my sis-in-law Rachel drove us north to meet up with Anna.  It's great having those two families in the same vicinity!  It was a 2 hour drive for Rach and about 1 1/2 for Anna.  We met up at a McDonalds and the kids each had a sundae.  She'd brought the 3 littles with her, so they were all excited to see sweet Chasey and vice versa!  I think Chase was in shock and trying to pinch herself to see if they were for real :)

We lounged around the house a LOT while we were there.  It was just so nice to be a family, that nothing else really seemed so important. The Seattle sites will always be there, right?  The kids had so much fun being together.  And Uncle John was in his glory playing with Toby and Drew nerf gun wars!  I do believe if there was a vote/prize, Uncle John would win "best uncle award".  It makes me sad that we don't have that regular contact with those kiddos anymore for exactly that reason.  And him even sadder.

But one day we emerged and took a ferry ride from Edmonds over to Kingston.  About a 30 minute ferry ride...we got to experience the true WA life that way.  Kingston is just a SMALL one block downtown area, but they had an open field right on the harbor, so we picnicked there and played good old fashioned races for a while (another Uncle John fave)

We ended our stroll with ice cream, followed by running very quickly to make the ferry ride back over!  We were all a little out of breath when we got there, with ice cream melting down our hands.  We actually saw the tiniest bit of Mt. Rainier this day.  But I mean tiny, shrouded in clouds.

One night we walked over to the local park at a school.  We all had fun running around there and Uncle John got to play ball tag with the kids in a spread out area.  Afterwards we walked home and had a birthday celebration with the 3 summer Hitchcock kids (Toby, Drew, Whit) and Chase's fall birthday.  Abby had made a yummy cake and the kids had fun opening gifts.  Before the park we had a traditional "Hatch-cock" dinner of fun-due!  This time the fundue was made from scratch and Ellie had made homemade bread.  Probably the best rendition EVER!

This was the night that we announced that I am pregnant!  That was so fun to do in person!  Better than we'd hoped.  Everyone was very excited.  Ellie had even asked me on our walk home from the park if I was ever going to have any more children.  Can I bluff or what???

One beautiful sunny afternoon we headed over to a little harbor town called Mulkiteo.  Chase and I had been here before.  There is a great playground and a "beach" and a lighthouse.  The kids had fun skipping stones and they even found a crab that they tortured  played with for a while.

Whitney and Chase were forever playing dress up and dancing and making things up.  One afternoon they did a show for us...

Chase has a way to go to catch up to Whit's talent, but she is coming right along.

Oh what a joy this time was!  It will be remembered and cherished for a long time.  Who knows when our next trip up there will be...I do believe that they will come down and visit a cute new little niece or nephew in the spring.  Boy!  Some people have to go to great lengths to get a visit!!  Just kidding.  It will be a joyous time for them to come...and maybe we'll even be able to have a baptismal by the Pastor.

Anna has several great posts with pictures on her blog to check out as well.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. 

A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{{Our Visit to Oregon: The Coast}}

While in Oregon, we had the opportunity to rent a house in the coastal town of Manzanita.

It was such a quaint town.  One main drag that consisted of a few restaurants, a couple of coffee shops, some little boutiques, a family owned (read expensive) grocery store, a fun Friday night Farmer's Market.

The house we rented was perfect for us.  Larger than needed, nicely equipped and decorated.  They had bikes that we could use, beach toys, chairs, etc.  It was a 5 minute walk to the beach and about 10 to the main street.  We walked everywhere.  I fell in love with bike riding while there, maybe a new hobby was born.

The beach is not like our beach!  It was COLD and windy!  Chase was not too fond.  You don't wear a swimsuit, you bundle up.  Like with your hood tied around your head!  But, it was gorgeous!  So beautiful with the green mountains coming right down to the beach.  

I could see us going back there.  Don't know about John...he's not much for repeat trips.

{One of the days while beach walking, this what Chase insisted upon...wrapped in a towel along with fall type clothing}

{The dunes reminded us of the East Coast}

On Saturday afternoon we got to watch Adam finish his 200 mile relay race, Hood to Coast.  That was really fun to see.  His work participated in this for profit race.  He ran 3 legs for a total of about 18 miles. They were a team of 12 and it sounded like quite a team building experience.

{Here you can see Adam nearing the finish line, he is in a blue shirt and white headband}

After the race, Adam and Rachel joined us at our beach house for the night.  We had a great time relaxing with them.  Adam took Monday off of work, so we asked the homeowner if we could tack on an extra night, but we couldn't.  Instead, she let us stay there all day Sunday, not having to check out at 11, for free!  So we had a nice day...we went up to a close-by state park, called Ecola State Beach.  It was lovely.  We went on a 1 mile hike or so.  Chase walked almost the whole way.

{We told Chase all about Bigfoot as we were driving there.  We even asked the park ranger as we paid if he'd been spotted recently, he said the day before!  She had fun looking for him the whole time}

Oregon was great!  It was a new state for me to visit.  I'm glad we'll have more opportunities over time to visit and get to know the area.

::First Day of 3 Year Old Preschool::

Tuesday was Chase's first day of 3 year old Preschool!

She is back at Rancho Bernardo Community Church Preschool

So happy to be reunited with classmates from last year...

This year she has a new teacher, Ms. Baldwin.  This was her first time meeting her as we were out of town for  meet the teacher day...

Mama's happy that Chase is ready to be back in school!

And look who should be at our school this year but BFF's Ava and Emi!!

This year she goes 2 days a week for 3 hours a day.  What a real treat for me!

We still haven't gotten out of her what she is doing there...she is like a 15 year old when we ask her what she did....NOTHING!  Fabulous!

{We hope for lots of learning, independence and new friends this year}

{Our Visit to Oregon::Portland}

We finally got to visit Adam and Rachel in Portland! 

We were with them for a few days and also a house rental on the Oregon Coast.

There's quite a few pictures...sorry!!

Happy Chase's arrival at Aunt Rachel's house

We arrived about lunch time, tried to rest, but couldn't, so got up and explored some neighborhoods...

In case you didn't know, Portland is the Rose City...apparently they have special growing conditions!

We walked around this amazing Rose Garden...

...here Chase came across a real live Princess!!  She was enthralled to say the least.  

Needless to say, it was a girl celebrating her quincinera!!  

...a beautiful view of Mt. Hood...and we are thankful that we actually got a peek!

The next day Rachel took us around another area...we took an aerial tram up to a hospital area.  It seemed strange to see dr's, etc. boarding this tram to go up the hospital!  But the view was great, again, Mt. Hood made an appearance!

Portland is a lovely city, especially when sunny.  Although, strangely enough, it was HOT the first 2 days we were there!  It was a bit bizarre.  Lots of bridges (also known as Bridgetown), lots of unique food trucks.  We got to experience eating at several of the food trucks around the city.  They were delish.  I enjoyed my Pad Thai Chicken that I had 3 times immensely!!!

Adam and Rachel have a lovely, old home.  It is very big (guest room for visitors with a very comfy bed), live in great, old, historical part of the city, from what I could tell.  Walking distance to a little downtown area.  They are taking up the Portland lifestyle with lots of bicycling.  

I think they are very happy here and it seems to fit them better than Texas did.  

Thanks for hosting us A & R!!  It was great!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. 

A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.