Been Busy...

I feel like I have been M.I.A. from the blog recently.  My nephew was in town for three weeks which meant that if we were not at work we were filling our time with adventures.  At the end of his three week stay with us in Sitka we (all 5 of us) flew south to Seattle.  My parents just purchased and moved into their retirement home on the Washington coast and my own family and my sisters family were all going to convene on Ocean Shores, WA to help my parents settle into their new forever home.

Its been a week of painting rooms, unpacking boxes, organzing the garage and setting up bedrooms.  It was exhausting but I feel really good about all the work we did with them.  They have purchased a gorgeous home that is sandwiched between a lake and the Pacific coast.  If you know anything at all about where my Trav and I grew up and where my parents just recently left then you could easily understand why they chose this area.  

The new house

Coming from the Mojave Desert of southern California to the Pacific coast has always been a dream of theirs for as long as I can recall.  To be able to help them settle into this beautiful area has been a pleasure.  They now own a gorgeous house, on a lake.  We can all lay in bed at night listening to the rain or the frogs on the lake.  We rise in the morning to birds, geese, beavers, deer and racoons enjoying the habitat that the lake offers.  We bird watch, a family favorite!  We walk the beach in the evenings collecting shells and sand dollars while enjoying the breathtaking sunsets.  Life here is vastly different from life in the desert and I will no longer dread having to return to the desert to see my parents.   I am so happy for them and proud of their desire to attain a better life outside of the brown, windy, dry, hot desert.  

This is our family paver at the Astoria Column purchased before we transferred out of Oregon in 2005!

Aside from all the work we put in this week, the family has been able to enjoy one another immensely.  We have cooked out, laughed, celebrated birthdays, drank lots of beer, eaten tons of fresh seafood and completed 18 holes of minature golf.  We took a day trip to Astoria, Oregon and overall had a great time.  Its not frequent that all of us can get together at the same time.  When we do, it is a blast.  

  

Tomorrow my Trav and I will leave to head home.  We are taking a short overnight detour to Port Angeles, WA to survey the area (possible retirement spot)  and also hit up a few stores, can you say Target, REI, the mall and Cabelas before we fly home Saturnday.  I am very anxious to take a quick road trip up the coast to the Olympic Peninsula.  The kids will be staying here with the grandparents for two weeks.  Trav and I will have to find ways to fill our time.  What do a couple of 30 somethings with no kids do...I guess we are about to find out.  

I will miss my family.  I will miss the warm feelings I get in my parents home.  I will miss hearing the laughter of cousins fill the house and the converstations between the adults.  It is always good to come together but on the flip side. two weeks with my husband and no children is likely to be a great time as well.