Bald Eagle Nest

If you haven't seen this, yet. . . . .you must!

(picture above, not related to the link)

The link is to a baby bald eagle cam, in the nest, real time in British Columbia, Canada. After clicking on the link, scroll down a little way and click on the play button. Watching it can be a lot of waiting, but if it's feeding time or something more exciting like that - it's worth the wait! Hearing the birds sing and watching the wind ruffle the feathers makes you feel like you're really there! The kids will enjoy seeing it when they get home from school today.

Fishing Derby

On Saturday, the lake had a Fishing Derby. The fishing was not so good and the weather was even worse. It rained most of the day. Lots of people still turned out for the event so there were many boats on the lake. The kids and Keith only caught two fish, the largest being about 14 inches. The winner was just over 20 inches. At 5:00 PM, everybody gathered at the restaurant on the lake for the drawings. Brooklyn came home with a six person tent and Jaeden came home with a ball. Fortunately, Sunday was a dry day so the kids insisted they try out the tent. They set it up on our 2nd story deck overlooking the lake. Prime real estate, I'd say. What a view out their front door.

(click on picture above to get a better view)

Yes, they even spent the night out there. The report in the morning: Brooklyn said she stayed warm and cozy, but couldn't sleep 'cause of all the noises. Jaeden said he slept well.

I remember sleeping in a tent in our backyard with my brother when we were kids. Our view wasn't quite as nice, but we had a great time. Makes for fun memories!

What's a Girl to Do...

...on a Sunday afternoon? Make bouquets, of course! Brooklyn was looking for something to do and decided to fill all my canning jars with fresh bouquets from what was blooming around the yard. Two of our neighbors were lucky recipients as well!

Beautiful pink Rhododendrons and sweet Bluebells.

We now have bouquets on the kitchen windowsill, on the dining table, on an end table in the living room and even on top of the wood stove.

Ahhh . . . . Spring in the Pacific Northwest.

Front Yard

This is what our front yard looked like last October when we moved in. Not horrible, but too messy for Keith's standards. Doesn't our house look itty, bitty from this view? You can't see the daylight basement that adds that much more.

Pavers laid, block wall installed on right for seating/raised flower beds. . . . . The house and shop will get a whole new, matching coat of paint this summer.

New white picket fence to be painted this summer. I keep thinking of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn when I think of my kids whitewashing it this summer. Speaking of Huck Finn, Keith left a couple of Huckleberry's by the fence and trimmed them back. Saturday, we went plant shopping. We decided to go with a monochromatic scheme - whites.

A Contorted Filbert. Love the curly branches. I think it adds fun character.

Keith built an arbor that has a darling little picket gate. We planted a white jasmine and a white (of course) clematis to go up the arbor. There are a variety of green mosses, a variegated holly, a creamy white heather, lily-of-the-valley (May's flower for my twin and I) and ummmm..... I can't remember. . .Keith??? I need to pick his brain again. . . .

He added a block wall on the right side of the little shop where we store our garbage cans out of sight. There's a sloping gravel pathway where we can easily wheel the cans out to the lane for pick up.

The kids and I did all the digging and planting Saturday while Keith shoveled the bark and then the kids and I raked it out. There was a little reluctance on the teenager's part because it was raining, but once we all got out there together, we had a great time - mud and all!

In the picture below, you can possibly see that it was absolutely pouring rain! It hadn't been raining that hard, but after the kids and I had finished up and Keith was putting the finishing touches on the arbor, it came hard and fast. He climbed down and ran under the cover of the shop's porch. It'd subside and he'd climb back up the ladder. As soon as he got up there, it'd start pouring hard again. He went up and down a few times and finally, on the third time, he gave up and just kept with it.

In the raised, rounded area, we'll add lots of pretty white flowers next month when it's not so cold out for them. I'm thinking a really large, old barn wood bird condo would look cute on the big stump or a pretty birdbath. I'm on the lookout for a pretty cast iron/metal one.

As a reward for finishing early with every body's help, Keith decided to head out to go fishing for a couple of hours in the light rain. The rest of us had come in and gotten dry. Unfortunately, the next day Keith came down with a fever and chills. Must have been from being soaked to the bone for so long. We're glad to report that he's better now!

A picture the next day with the front of the shop cleaned up. When Keith built it, he made the sliding door out of old barn wood and the window is a really old one from one of our previous homes. I think it even has the original wavy glass in it.

As I type this post, Keith is out in the shop making me a fun little potting bench to go where the chair is on the porch. Can't wait to see it! We'll hang the life vests somewhere else. We're also going to add hanging baskets to the posts in front of the shop. We'll show more pics of the yard as the mosses and flowers start filling in. So handy-dandy being married to a landscaper! What do you think?

Steamboat Island, WA

I went to visit Keith at a job site his crew was working on and couldn't help but take a few pictures of our neck of the woods. This was looking from where we were at in Shelton across to a little island called Steamboat Island. If you were to drive it, it's almost 29 miles, but as the crow flies. . . .it was just a short swim across the water. Click on this link to get an aerial map view. Amazing, huh!?! And all that water? Love it! That's just another part of the beauty in the Pacific Northwest.

Feeling Blue

What happens when a kid from school's parent sends a blue ring pop home for your kiddo.

Thanks, whoever you are!

Seabrook Randomness

A few more pics from our stay in Seabrook, WA before I move on to another post.

Stairs leading to the beach - great exercise!

Sunset from the top of the stairs above the beach.

A trip to the beach is NOT complete without building a sandcastle.
A door plaque on one of the cottages.

Fitting name to the road our house was on.

Well, hello Jordan! He was playing with his mini-helicopter.

Inside our fabulous cottage - dining/kitchen area.

Dining/living room

Living room, door to master bedroom

A gorgeous sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

We'll definitely visit again!

Seabrook, WA

We took a mini-vacation in February to Seabrook, WA where we rented a fabulous 3 bed/3 bath beach cottage. If you're ever on the Washington coast and want a place to vacation, click the link above to plan your own!

Blogspot never seems to upload pictures in order any more and because of the amount of pictures on this post, I won't bother to sort these this time. If you are adverse to looking at a bunch of architecture/beach homes, you better skip this post.

If you are game for reading to the end of this post, thanks for humoring me!

The first thing on our agenda the morning after we checked in was to take a walk through the neighborhood.

A cute row of beach cottages facing a small park.

Nothing like the details - beautiful lighting, transom windows, wood siding . . . must I say more?


Enclosed porches.
Painted shutters

Cedar shake siding

Wraparound porches

A fave - one of several

Arbors at the front gate - remember this was winter so the flowers weren't blooming, yet. Would love to go back when the vegetation is beautiful.

New beach camp cabins under construction
A great shuffleboard game in progress between Jaeden & Keith!

It comes in handy when your outfit matches your bike! This blue house below is one of my top picks! It even had a matching breezeway and attached garage. Very nautical looking with blue and white and the red accents.
Love the cheerful yellow color!
A 2nd floor balcony and a 3rd floor dormer - cute!

This one could be a keeper! I think it stretches the "cottage" idea, though.

An abundance of fabulous lighting choices.

Great architecture abounds. . .although some of these almost look too formal for the beach, in my opinion.

The super-wonderful market that so kindly stocked our fridge for us before our arrival. That in itself felt like a vacation to not have to haul food for 6 people x 3 days on a "camping" trip. Loved it from a mom's standpoint!

See a peek of the ocean through the trees?

One cottage that even had a "lodge" look. Cute except it seemed out of place at the ocean instead of in the woods somewhere. Adore this bell. If anyone comes across one just like this, let me know - would ya?!?

Great little cafe, although we didn't get an opportunity to check it out. We tried, but they weren't quite open when we went by. Guess they don't do "early". Life at the beach. . . . The great Pacific Ocean

and a peek at the progress of the 2010 Coastal Living Idea House. Click on the link to view the latest updates. I cannot wait till it's open for the public to view. Coastal Living is one of my all-time favorite magazines ever! And their Idea Houses are awesome. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read in one of their magazines (or maybe it was their website) that they were building one this year in our neck of the woods. So this is proof that we were there during construction.

Notice the house above and the picture below. They are the exact same house. Above was taken in February of this year and the one below was taken in August of 2007 when we happened upon this brand-new community just being built. Also, the flowers were all in full bloom and the grass was gorgeous. Now do you see why it would be great to go back when everything is flowering? What a difference it makes!

We could just take our pick of a couple of beach cruisers to use during our stay. They said they were phasing out that perk because of the abuse the bikes got and people wouldn't return them. The neighborhood association would have to go around the community and collect them after people left. Also, the salt water is very harsh on them and they rust easily. Costs are too great for it to continue being a free service. Anybody want to open a bike rental shop?

Our rental was the green Craftsman, pictured below, called the Seastar Cottage. Three sets of French doors opened up onto the porch where we grilled our meals.

Oyster shells lined the streets and walkways. How fitting! Although, Keith assured me that it wasn't the best of ideas. The bits of shells track into the houses and onto the hardwood floors so easily and sure enough, he was right! We had to do lots of sweeping to keep from scratching the floors. So - cute idea, but not practical!

A couple of houses across the street from us. I'd like to rent the one in the middle just to see what it's like. Loved the beachy color scheme of white with aqua trim/shutters. Not all of the houses in the neighborhood are for rent, some are just part-time vacation homes for the owners. There are only about 8 actual owners that live in the community year-round.

Thanks for your patience! Wasn't that fun? Which one would you pick? It might have felt like I took a picture of every house there, but that was just a few of them.