Jamie and Evan's Day Trip Extravaganza

So today, because Colton was gone all day in Vancouver, Ev and I decided to do something fun...preferably involving his fancy-schmancy new truck.

I will say that going on this mini-roadtrip of ours sure made me wish the fantastic four was back together again! *tear*

Anyhow, we took a trip over to Leavenworth...more for the drive than the destination (though the town is great too)...so many beautiful places to stop along the way.

My new favorite place...Eagle Falls. (That's Ev in the distance...waving.)

So many rocks and crevices. So much fun to play!

Evan expressed his love for my fancy camera. (Ev, I'll trade my camera for your truck. JUST KIDDING! I would never get rid of my lil Rebel.)

Hmmm...how do I get back across?

Though I wouldn't normally support graffiti on natural beauty...but I think this describes Evan's jump he had to make to return to the safe side haha.

There were fun little arches, stoops, ledges, caves, etc to satisfy my monkiness for the whole day!

Secret aagggeeenntt woman! (On an itsy-bitsy ledge.)

This is where Ev lost his nice sunglasses. We've come to the conclusion that he is never to take expensive sunglasses near any bodies of water (he lost his previous pricey pair to a lake). Sorry Evie :o(.

Such a pretty place!!

Pondering life...or something.

(Seriously...look how amazing that water is! It'll make you ponder the meaning of life every time.)

Playing with rocks.

I wanted some pics of a waterfall...this is as close as we got. HAHA I think the term "raging river of death" applies here...

(We kept passing all the good ones, and by the time we noticed, it was too late. Bummer.)

Clearly I'm surfing...duh. (It was actually much harder than it appears!)

Antique tree.

I love this place.

Evan and Jamie...just missing Colton and Angela

Yep...that's Evan's new truck. I think it deserves a good name Ev.

Roadtrip 101: Choose the perfect location. (Oh, and always have GPS...just in case haha.)

It's like Lindelof...in German!

There was a festival going on...and this was the only thing that attracted our attention. It was a strange little festival.
The hat shop. Could you guess?

Husky pride! My hubby was there in spirit haha. Love you babe.

The most yummy impromptu lunch ever.

Oh yeah...we bought cowboy hats...cuz we're cool like that.

"Are you sure this water is sanitary? It looks questionable to me."

Beautiful.

Majestic mountain.

These crazy geese thought they could outswim the rapids...they were wrong haha. But they were troopers and decided if they couldn't beat it, they'd join it. This is them trying to escape...they were unsuccessful.

Me enjoying the day and laughing at the silly birds.

(Look, we found a mini beach to satisfy my desire to go to the ocean!)

Old bottles through a dusty window. (That could be a country song!)

Gelato in Leavenworth?! How lovely. MMMM.

He's only had his hat for a couple hours and he's already an old cowboy.

Mr. Evan

One of the stops on the way home.

Back to the first location...I made Evan stop again...couldn't resist!

It is so stunning there. I didn't want to leave.

But it did start to get a LITTLE chilly haha.

Exploring.

Layers of rocks.

Thanks, Ev, for such a fun day!

What a fun day! Can't wait for the next trip with Colton, and maybe one day...Angela too?

How do you not see God in something so beautiful?

The End (for now).

Port Townsend

Ok, so I know I was supposed to blog about our Lewis County shoot first, but these are currently more accessible to me. So here are the shots I took on my bday when dad and Colt and I took a day trip to adorable Port Townsend.

A fascinating little town with too many good buildings to photograph. I was in photography overload...it only took me about 30 minutes to take ALL the pictures of Port Townsend (below is just a sampling haha).

On the road again.

It's such a nice drive to Port Townsend.

A beautiful view from the fun restaurant we ate at.
Another view.

Where we ate lunch.

My dad.

A little park.

Beautiful architecture all around.

Just a little bit of sass.

Local shops.

I feel like this is very true haha. I'm giving you fair warning :o)

Too cool.

Reminded me a bit of European decor.

Kayaking anyone?

My daddy long legs :o)

Remnants of the past.

I wish all buildings were this full of character.

Random door in the middle of Port Townsend.

Felt like Robin Hood (or someone equally cool) would come bounding through at any second.

Down on the water.

Bikin' it around.

In case you can't read that...it says "Over-weight Mermaids -->"

Hmmm. I was curious to see what was down there haha.

Back alley.

So much color. So much flair.

Birthday Fun

Ok, so turning 24 isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I swore I was going through a quarter-life crisis...but eh, not much change so far.

This weekend was definitely a fun and celebratory few days.

Started off Friday with a delicious dinner cooked by my hubby (surprise dinner with presents...yay!). He gave me a beautiful cross with a moving Bible passage...very inspirational. And the book the Love Dare. I was a little intimidated, but am really looking forward to growing and connecting even more in our relationship as hubby and wifey. He also gave me some cash to spend at our adventure the next day...see below.

Then we watched the M's kick butt, and then drove home to spend the night at my parent's house. EAARRLLY the next morning, we woke up to go to the HUGE community garage sale at the fairgrounds...and oh my gosh...it was like fun-times overload. I didn't know where to start, or finish. (This is where the cash was needed...and used.)

Then we went to Melder and Calvin's wedding. It was beautiful. She was beautiful. I wish I had more time to get to know Calvin, but I'm excited to get to know him better as he slowly adjusts to our crazy little group. (we'll know he's perfect if he can handle all the insanity haha...like can he eat a gallon of ice cream and then go hiking? oh yeah, and then race to do sit-ups?)

It was like a huge reunion. Great fun at the wedding...seeing everyone. I took some photos that I'll post later. Then afterwards, we went to Rex and Jenny's for a mini coaches' meeting. Rex thought since there were five guys, he needed to make about 200 shishkabobs...seriously. Turns out...even the five eaters couldn't handle that amount of food. So while the boys digested and drank more "sodas", Jenny and I went to get smores, pick up the last two books of the Twilight series for moi, and check out her mom's incredibly cute puppy! (He's a serious fluff-ball.)

And this morning, i kicked off my bday with a yummy hot cocoa and fun shopping at the antique shop (during closed hours...so jenny and I had it all to ourselves). Found me some cute little treasures. Then, Colt and I went back up to Oly to catch a ride with dad to take a cruise up to Port Townsend. It was such a beautiful day! It was a long drive, but once we were there, we met up with Bill Porter...the coolest guy ever. Just to give you a taste, he goes by "Red Pine". Then we went for some yummy food at a little hole-in-the-wall eatery called Sirens. And then of course I had to run around and get some shots of Port Townsend. It was too beautiful and quirky to not. Then we headed home, and then HOME home. Colt and I just chillaxed. I talked with my mom on skype, i played with my bday presents, and then capped off the night with some Twilight reading and Friends.

Really, this was like the ultimate Jamie weekend. :o) Thanks, all, for contributing to a beautiful time!

Aging gracefully...Jamie

Stewards of God's Earth

I've never been a green thumb. In fact, my thumb is usually a mish mash of colors because the extent of my "yard work" has been to paint outside in the yard (otherwise i would get paint all over our house). But thanks to Colton...I'm kind of hooked.

If you've read previous posts, there was one where I mentioned our wonderful weekend of gardening and other yard work...spending the day in the beautiful sun being stewards of God's amazing creation.

I am going to post some pictures for those who read this (my family and friends). There will be more to come since we are not done haha...but hopefully this gives you a nice idea. I love spending time in our yard now!

So here is a picture of a cool old stool I bought at an estate sale hehe.

It makes a nice little flower stand.

So this is our flower bed, and at the time of the picture, consisting only of roses. The two beds in the back are Colton's garden and they have already been prepped. We are just waiting for the right day to put his little vegetable babies into the ground haha. The flower bed in this picture is actually already much nicer than it was...colton dug up all the rocks and re-stacked them, and we had gotten most of the junk out of there. But you'll see a difference...

Here my hubby is working hard.

After shots...

This is another portion of our yard, a smaller bed. We planted some flowers here that attract hummingbirds. This it the before...

And the after...

Ok, there's definitely more to come. Lots of yard to work on haha. But just wanted to post an update. Yay.

Much love...

Oldie

omg...

I can't believe I'm turning 24 in a little over a week! YIKES! Where did the time go?

Looking over my life...I've definitely had a wonderful and fulfilling life. What a blessing for someone so young. (Yes, I'm sticking with the "young" comment...makes me feel better. haha)

Wow, my little sis is turning 21. Weird. (For those who don't know, my sister and I share the same birth date. My parents are very organized.) I remember when I was turning 21. Oh dear. Another quarter of a century from now, I'll be repeating these same words over and over haha.

Anyhow, just wanted to comment on the fact that I'm not a big fan of getting old...er.

For all those who are older than me...this post only refers to myself aging, and nobody else...you all are wonderfully wise and stunningly beautiful :o).

Hopefully forever young (at heart)...jamie