the long long road, then a missed boat or four

what a lovely mini vacation it was. never long enough. we set out to whidbey island, and naturally made it there in record time because we drive 90. ok, 80, but i wish that we dove 90. nathan and i had our much needed date a nice 'day to ourselves'. we get this about 2 times a year, so there was no way we would skip out on this. PLUS, it was kind of celebrated as my birthday and o got to spend the whole day buying whatever i wanted and i did just that. after a long hard grueling day of hardcore shopping we headed back to the boat which of course we missed. the universe would actually fall off it's tiny little axle should we make it. can't have that happen, so we volunteered to miss the boat by one entire minute. it was awesome. lot's of words were had. we jetted to hans and cam's new place, which is just darling. we were made a really great dinner. we loved it so much that i had to go buy all the ingredients tonight so i can make it too. we laughed the night away as usual and then left with full bellies and a slightly drunk husband. we made a wrong turn and ended up in the Gabeliens driveway. there was a deer standing right in front of us and my husband drunkenly remarked "did you see the look on his face? it was like a deer in the headlights"...and i lost it. i had to pull over to laugh really hard and then blow my nose.

easter. you can read more about that in cam's blog as well. it's pretty damn funny.
lanna hunted for eggs with a magnifying glass-what else? the easter bunny brought her a woody. relax, it's a doll.

hans, cam and my dad came over and we ate and chatted all day, and it was really great. the weather was really confused so we stayed inside to beat some kids up and put potatoes on their heads. it was great.

hans (nord) and cam.

lanna and pop pop

monday we met nathan's mom at the dog house for a lovely lunch. we had a nice visit and a walk around langley. nathan and i got our rings cleaned by Pat, the man who made our rings and it is always nice to see him. nathan's mom brought us all kinds of goodies that we got to take back with us.
tuesday we headed to the ferry that we missed by another cursed minute where we headed to have lunch with the usual suspects. i was forced to eat subway, but somehow i lived. i am still amazed. i loved doot's comment on that. in a very angry tone, "i guess i'll eat fresh..."
the hub was closed on the count of spring break, so yo have to take what you can get. it was that or a frozen burrito called the "BOMB". we chose subway so there would not be a BOMB in our pants i suppose. who knows. we then headed off to kind of the whole purpose of this trip...ann and jo's house. i had a new bundle of perfect cuteness to meet. daphne. what a snuggle bunny. she is absolutely adorable and looks so much like all three of them! i can't decide who she looks more like. they have a little downstairs apartment like area that was just perfect for us. lanna and lij were like 2 peas in a pod. they had all of the same toys and interests. she is still going on and on about him. she missed him dearly before we even got out of seattle. on the way out ann took us out to lunch at red robin and we had super yummy lunches. the kids drew their masterpieces and pretended to eat while daphne just took it all in. she is such a great baby. lanna and daphne. she really took to her.

it was so hard to say goodbye. i just wanted to stay the rest of the day.
lanna and lijah
we then headed home. we made a quickie stop at the north bend outlets because god forbid that i pass up a gap outlet and wonder what could have been. i love this stretch of road when we hit vantage. it is my favorite piece of road all along this whole trip. it is generally the most sunny, dry and right on the columbia river. it is also exactly the half way point to our house. so you can kind of take a deep breath here and realize that it's almost over and you butt can take a break from being totally numb.

here are a few of the wonderful birthday gifts that i got.
delicious vanilla bean tea..thank you miss shelly.
prints from the black apple. thank you cam and nord! (yes, they are already hung)

the week was wonderful. the end.