San Juan Island Boat Trip

Yay! For my birthday Bruce was a very busy bee. He managed to get almost all of my family (Des had a class) to come to the San Juan Islands for a boat trip (it was a whale watching trip, but that didn't happen, so it is a boat trip now). I was in shock that he managed to do all this stuff behind my back without me having any idea!

We got up super early on Saturday morning to get ready and we caravaned up to Anacortes where we took the ferry across to Friday Harbor. It was absolutely beautiful there. After days and days of rain (and some snow - in APRIL!!!!) we were blessed with sun!!! It was already a perfect day. Friday Harbor is so quaint and just being next to the water lifts my spirits.

We got ready to set out on a whale watching tour - Orcas had been spotted the day before hunting for food just an island away. Would we get lucky? Unfortunately, we didn't see Orcas but have no fear I was in love with being on the excursion with my family and birthday twin, Stephanie,and her husband. The only ones missing were Mike and Des who were teaching a class, so what are you gonna do? Steph and her husband were great substitutes.

Bruce and my dad each spotted Harbor Porpoises but there were too quick to capture on camera. They looked like mini-Orcas because they were black and white. We also got to see Harbor Seals sunning themselves and splashing around in the water. Then there were Stellar Sea Lions singing and sunning themselves. Every time I tried to capture their singing on camera they got shy and quiet. We saw an island that had exotic deer and sheep (?) brought to the island to hunt. There were lots of babies and males with curly horns. Of course there were bald eagles everywhere - apparently 10% of all the bald eagles in the US live in the San Juans! There were more birds that I can't even begin to remember the names of and I loved seeing them capture fish. There were falcons but I can't remember the specific kind. At one point we stopped in a huge kelp bed that grows 1 foot or more a day and is harvested for use in things like toothpaste.

 Harbor Seals

 Ryan on the lookout

 Sprits high looking for wildlife

 Attentive lookouts

 Ryan enjoying the sunny day on the water

 on a constant lookout

 Coming up to more Harbor Seals

 They all started jumping in the water - I hoped as bait, but that's just mean

 Stellar Sea Lions sunning themselves

 Stephanie trying to avoid the spray in some really, really choppy and windy waters

 Michael tirelessly on the lookout

 Ryan after his nap

I guess San Juan Island area is a very nutrient rich environment and has an amazing array of wild life above and below the water. The islands are actually tops of what used to be glacial mountains that were formed when the glaciers began melting and rounding out the tops of the mountains to become the cluster of islands that we know today. Gorgeous!

Overall it was an AMAZING day and I couldn't have asked for a better time. Thanks so much to my family and friends for getting together with me as an excuse. I love you all!

 

Just because it was funny - it looks like the boat was driving itself :) 

First Trapeze!!!

I say "first" because we are definitely going again! It was terrifying and crazy but so fun (especially since we survived) so we have to do it again. I went with Brittany as well as my co-workers Lindsay and Brenna. Here's the video from our swings and some fun photos of Brittany:

Brittany's 1st swing

Brittany's 2nd Swing

Brittany's 3rd Swing

Brittany's 4th Swing in Still Photos:

Melanie's 1st Swing

 

Melanie's 2nd Swing

Melanie's 3rd Swing

Melanie's First Complete Catch

Whirlwind Weekend

Birthday weekend in March means we celebrate daddy's and Ryan's birthdays. We had a family party on Saturday. I made a giant cupcake (mmmmm....spice cake) with a blue bottom because they are boys and an orange top because it's Ryan's favorite color. Apparently, some thought, it looked like water washing up against a beach or, as Ryan put it, a tsunami wave coming up over Japan. It's a cupcake, people!

I don't think the weekend would have been so crazy if it wasn't for that we had to get up early so we could get our new washer/dryer delivered (I'm so happy) and then Bruce ran to Kent to pick up the new accent chair I had bought during the week (did you know that if you don't like a price you can haggle for furniture? now you do). Then we had to get ready for family to come and cook lunch and I just made the cake that morning so that needed to be frosted. 

Family party was fun. As everyone was dispersing Ryan's friend Michael came over for a sleep over so he could go to Ryan's friend party the next day. Bruce and I spent that evening frosting sugar cookies to look like Star Wars characters to go with the theme of Star Wars Exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. Apparently I was being tough on myself but I thought they looked like doodoo but everyone else said I did a good job. It was ok for an amateur I guess.  

The next day we had to get up early for the exhibit. We drove up Katie's kids, Ryan's cousin and uncle, his friend Michael, Brittany and us of course. It was nothing like the Harry Potter exhibit - it was total madness. I'm glad the kids had a good time but it was a lot of work wrangling 6 kids. Here are some pictures of Ryan and his friends at the exhibit.

Learning is a Life Long Process

I love to learn. I watch nature show, medical shows, read articles on the internet and randomly select books all the time to learn something new. My subjects are random many times and I am so into googling things that pop into my head that Bruce's fingers get ready by just me looking at him when I wonder aloud "hmm, what is 'insidious'?" He says "I'm on it."

Just last night I had to ask him to google "use soy milk as a substitute for milk in cookies" - he said there were too many answers and gave up....but he only put in "soy" - you have to be specific sometimes in your search for knowledge. So, here I am today, learning about something that has happened a lot this week and had been more sporadic in the past. Of course, it has to do with sleeping again, but give me a break - this is a major preoccupation in my life right now.

Throughout this week, I have felt I have been awake and had been engaging in common activities but then I find out I had been asleep the whole time and was just then waking up. For instance, I believed I had gotten out of bed in the morning, opened my closet and was picking out my clothes for the day. I was getting into each side of my closet and selecting what I would wear - I could see it and feel it and thought I was doing it but I found that it hadn't really happened. Not too disturbing because it's happened in the past, but is has happened almost every day for a week...so an investigation ensues.  When this happens, is it a dream? Is it a hallucination? Is it something else?

When I dream, I know it's a dream. I can't really see people's faces but I know who they are; normal things happen in strange places; familiar places have strange changes, yada yada yada.

When I hallucinate, I know I'm hallucinating (shortly following it's disappearance) because I am sitting up and reaching for or retaliating from whatever I had seen (kids, spiders, ruins, whatever).

What has been happening this week felt like something in between dreaming and hallucinating - I was still laying down in bed not moving but mentally I had gotten up and was getting ready or talking to people. Bruce wasn't there so I assume I looked like I was still asleep; however, it didn't have the dream quality. So was it a dream or not?

What I learned was this:

False awakenings
A false awakening is one in which the subject seems to wake up, whether from a lucid or a non-lucid dream, but is in fact still asleep.Sometimes the experience is so realistic perceptually (the sleeper seeming to wake in his or her own bedroom, for example) that insight is not achieved at once, or even until the dreamer really wakes up and realises that what has occurred was hallucinatory. Such experiences seem particularly liable to occur to those who deliberately cultivate lucid dreams. However, they may also occur spontaneously and be associated with the experience of sleep paralysis.

I know I experience sleep paralysis (yay narcolepsy), but I didn't realize this was a part of it until it happened one too many times in a week.

Ok, TMI time. You can stop  if you like. I have been paying close attention to my ups and downs so I have a theory on why it happened so consistently this week. Menstrual cycle. After more digging, I found out that a lot of women suffer from the same problem but the doctor's don't know what to do about it. My symptoms get worse all around and I have trouble getting out of bed, maintaining alertness throughout the day, so why not some hallucinations and sleep paralysis to top it off. I thought maybe it was all in my head, but reading about other women going through this has made me feel better that it's not a problem I'm making up but something that actually occurs. Studies have proved it but there doesn't seem to be anything that will help it. Some suggest increasing iron during that time. I'll have to try it next time.

Planning, Planning, Planning

Planning seems to be the thing to do right now.

Bruce and I were planning for a vacation in San Diego this summer - I had the itinerary all laid out and everything. Then things outside of our control (annoying) changed our plans, but we recovered quickly with a really fun trip change that (bonus!) saves us a lot of money. This was taking some priority because it's Ryan's summer vacation and there's lots to plan around.

But...hello!!! We have to plan for Cozumel, too! On top of that, we told Stephanie and Mike that we would go to Maui with them at the end of September (our first year anniversary present before making a baby).

So, we still don't know WHAT we're going to do in Cozumel but we do know we're going to be there May 20th through the 27th so we can celebrate Des and Mike's wedding on May 26th!

But, back to us. We are definitely excited to go snorkeling. We LOVE snorkeling so we can't wait.

I've also heard that we can take a trip to some Mayan ruins, which I have always wanted to do, so that may be a "must do." Really, many things depend on how hot it is. We thought we were going to do hiking and all sorts of outdoor activities in Aruba, but we were too hot to move most of the time so we would lay by the pool or the ocean but not a lot in between - unless it happened to involve water. For that reason, we're not really planning anything until we get there. 

Our Summer vacay with Ryan is a different story. That involves a lot of planning. Thankfully, I'm awesome at that. We're doing a  (drum roll, please)

ROAD TRIP!!! 

I have some fond memories of doing them when we were younger and we did mini ones all the time when Ryan was younger and Bruce was working in Oregon a lot. So, we decided as a family that this was the best option. The things Ryan is most excited about include:

1. Riding an ATV in the sand dunes
2. Visiting Wild Animal parks to feed animals and pose with them in a picture
3. Drive through a redwood tree

We also plan on spending time at Cannon Beach to fly kites and rent sand bicycles. We're going to the Lava Caves in Bend (which I tried to do a few years back but they were closed the day I went).  We'll do the Kalamath River, too. Lots of things to do on this trip for about a week.

Stephanie has also been asking me to get together to plan our trip to Maui. We've never been but we're supper excited about it.  Aahhh...not a bad life :)

Scuba Diving Again

When Ryan came over the other weekend he said, "When are we scuba diving?" Sorry, bud, but it was going to be the next weekend that he visited. Then he asked, "Am I going into the ocean?" Sorry again, but he has to wait until AT LEAST 10 years old. He was soooo bummed. He said it was too many years away, but really it's only one. Hmmm...maybe it could be a 10th birthday present.

We went to the pool again this weekend. Ryan may want to go to the ocean but he'll take a pool if that's all he's got.

Bruce and I - not having been trained in anything yet - are getting better about getting Ryan in his gear without much assistance. We're learning what needs to be plugged in, how to prevent chaffing, and how to make sure Ryan is safe. Bruce said he was going to have to pay for me to take lessons soon (notice how he doesn't even ask if I want lessons, or even consider it. If Ryan's going in, someone has to go with him and it sure isn't going to be Bruce - that's the message he was sending.)

Anywho, I took some video this time so Bruce could see what Ryan is up to down there. This is Ryan just messing around underwater - sorry I didn't crop the video:



Now here is Ryan doing a handstand underwater. He can hold it for a long time :)


Oh well, if there's something for him to be interested in, this is pretty cool.

Reminiscing

Definition of reminiscing: Indulging in recollection of past events.

I've been doing that a lot lately. I love looking at our photos of Aruba. It was such a perfect week following such a perfect wedding day. I want to go back and do it all over again, but not be in charge of anything. I just want to show up and celebrate. Part of the reason I like to reminisce about our wedding day is that it all happened so fast and I don't actually remember that much. I want to do it all over again and put those memories back in my head so I don't have to have a picture tell me. (And I would tell the photographers to focus on family photos a little more. Couldn't one of them focused on me and Bruce and the other on family members?).

Anywho...we have a new computer and I found the photos from my wedding dress hunt. I'm gong to post them now because, honestly, I was beautiful in everything.

My First Day - Mama, Britt and Des came with me



Too Ornate in the Wrong Way


Much Prettier than the Picture Shows but it weighed a TON!


I loved the top on this one but no one else did!


This One Always Looks Good in Magazines I I Looked Good in it But it Wasn't "The One"








Another Pretty One


Mermaid dress- hard to tell because I as still wearing the giant crinoline underneath!

I'm so pretty, but the dress isn't nearly as pretty as some of the others I've tried

Pretty, but not it

I Loved this one, just not the price tag....or the woman who was trying to sell it to me.

Simply Marvelous, Dahling:


I Loved, Loved, Loved this one in magazines - I still do LOVE it. I guess after trying on all the dresses I wanted a little more bling, though. And it was expensive. So that settled that.

I LOVED the Last Two - so hard to decide!!!



The Second Go-Around I went with Daddy, Des and Erin. It was down to the final 2 and they helped me make a decision!





Daddy Tried to Help a Lot :)



This is the ONE