January ended with record breaking weather and it continued right on into February.  On the 6th of February we had a first dock party of the year:

This usually doesn't happen until April, but it was too nice to ignore it.  It's always so much fun to catch up with the neighbors. 

Zak and Scott decided to study tides for the science fair this year and created a great project.  Of course Scott was out of town for the fair, so the kids and I headed to the school to set up everything.  We found out a couple days before that we weren't supposed to have any liquids in the projects, but Zak's teacher told us not to worry about it.  Zak's project was definitely a hit:

All the kids loved watching the water come in and out.  Zak was doing great explaining things and I had to go find Ellie, so I left him on his own for just a little bit.  Of course, I was only gone for a couple minutes when Zak comes running into the cafeteria telling me that there was a major spill in the hall.  I guess he left the water draining out too long and the bucket was a little too heavy to put back up on the table.  So he missed the table and all the water spilled into the hallway.  Oops.  It was kind of embarassing, but we got it all taken care of and now realize why they didn't want water in the projects. 

The kids were out of school for the whole week after President's Day, but we couldn't really do anything because Scott left Thursday of that week to go back to Ethiopia.  We did get invited to sail along with the crew of Hawkwind to Blake Island.  What a blessing!  It was so great to get out on the water and do some exploring on Blake.  We left Friday morning around 10am and got over there nice and early.  After getting tied up on the dock, we packed a lunch and headed over to the West side of the island.  KC and Elaine have 2 dogs (Bailey and Abby) and they need just about as much exercise as Zak & Ellie do.  It was a great hike over to the other side.  Lunch was fabulous.  We then did some beachcombing, kids played on the beach and Elaine, Ellie, and I tried our hand at building Fairy Houses (more on that below).  Here's some pictures from the Beach:

KC and Elaine

Ellie

Zak

Sun Star

Ok, so about the Fairy Houses.  I found a great book for Ellie called Fairy Houses Everywhere.  Here's what the cover looks like:

We all have fallen in love with the idea of building little fairy houses all over the place, so our first try was at Blake Island.  It was fun, but we want to gather some more items and continue adding to it:

The Location:

The Fairy Boats:

And starting to build the house:

It was so much fun and we can't wait to create some more or build more onto this one. 

The weekend was so much fun and I did great on beachcombing.  Check out my stash:

Finally, this past weekend was another great one.  We just returned home from Friday Harbor.  We headed up there so I could go to a friend's baby shower.  Her husband Darren took the kids while I did that.  It was a great weekend for all of us.  We stayed aboard Darren and Lisa's boat, the kids did some shrimping and fed Popeye the one-eyed seal, we saw some great friends and just had fun:

Ellie and Popeye

Cleaning the shrimp they caught, so they could cook them up and eat them.

What they ended up with:

The kids didn't really like the shrimp once they cooked them, so hopefully they will remember this for the future.

The drive home was beautiful. We could see the fields of daffodils from miles away and got some great pictures:

I can't wait to head up for the Tulip festival in the next month or two.  It was so beautiful.  We saw this strange white patch that we thought could be some type of flower:

But when we got closer, we realized it was flocks upon flocks of snow geese:

It was a beautiful sight.  I really can't believe it's already March.  Crazy!

This January has been said to have been the hottest January on record and I'm not complaining one bit.  We really enjoyed the nice weather.  Unfortunately Scott's work schedule didn't allow us to get the boat out, but we had a good month anyways.

My Christmas present this year was a solo weekend away.  Scott planned it all.  A hotel room for 2 nights in Friday Harbor.  He had the weekend off and would take care of the kids while I had some R&R time.  It was absolutely wonderful!  I headed up there on a Saturday morning, parked my car at the ferry terminal (I had a 3 hour wait) and went and visited some friends, Larry & Helen from S/V Waltzing Matilda.  It was great to visit and catch up with them.  The weather was beautiful when I got back to the ferry terminal and I had to get a shot of the mountains:

Of course the picture doesn't do it justice.  It was a great trip over to San Juan Island.  And I almost teared up when we pulled into Friday Harbor:

Of course then my battery in my camera died, so I couldn't get any more pictures of coming into the harbor.  Oh well.  I checked into my room at Tucker House Bed & Breakfast.  What a wonderful place.  I had the "Secret Passage" room.  It was perfect for a relaxing weekend.  They even had some fresh baked Chocolate Chip cookies waiting for me. Yummm:

I decided to have a nice quiet evening, so I stayed in and read a book and took a long relaxing bath in the jacuzzi tub.  The next day, I headed to dining room for breakfast, which was amazing, and then off to South Beach for some beachcombing.  The beautiful weather from the previous day decided to dissapear (bummer) and it was pretty blustery out.  Oh well, I had a wonderful walk along the beach. 

I headed back into town to warm up and do some browsing around town.  Everyone was so talkative and friendly.  I think they were bored, because there was no one else in town.  It was so quiet, it seemed strange.  Oh well, I helped boost their economy a bit and headed over to some friends' house for dinner.  It was great catching up with them and we had a very yummy dinner.  The next morning I headed out, but stopped in La Conner on the way home.  It's a very cute little town that I've wanted to explore for a very long time.  It was a good end to the weekend.

The next on our list of to do's for the month of January was pulling our mizzen mast for some much needed work:

So Ghost is a Sloop for now.  Luckily the rot that we had found in it isn't so bad, so the project hopefully will go smoothly.  We just need Scott home so he can work on it. 

Last on the January Calendar was our Italian Night Aboard Ghost.  We tried setting up a monthly gathering with our group of friends from Adams Elementary, but we were all too busy during the holidays.  So, we decided to do Italian night.  Everyone would bring a different sauce and we would cook up some different types of pasta.  It was absolutely amazing.  I ate way too much, but it was worth it:

I still can't believe we got so many people aboard Ghost.  The kids all had a great time, too:

The month started with Scott working in Africa.  The time went by so fast, but it was a little difficult at first when we couldn't communicate.  Once he got some internet time and we were able to Skype, life was much better.  The kids and I had many guests over, which really helped the time fly by.  It made me happy to cook and it's always easier when I have someone to cook for.  We definitely were missing scty/Daddy.

The kids and I went and picked out the Christmas Tree this year.  I think we did a good job.  We had to compromise because Zak wanted a big bushy one and Ellie wanted the Charlie Brown type.  We found one that was in the middle:

When Scty got back from his trip we only had a week until we left for Boise for Christmas.  That's where my family is from.  That week was full of Christmas shopping and trying to pack.  It flew by.  The drive to Boise wasn't too bad.  As soon as we got there Scott had to fly out to go to work.  The next couple of days the kids decided to get a touch of the flu, so my last minute Christmas shopping had to wait until last, last minute.  Scott came back into Boise on the 23rd and would be off until the 26th.  It was nice to be able to spend the actual holiday with him.  We made cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve:

And then had family over for snacks and opening presents.  The kids had a very good Christmas this year.  On Christmas morning, the kids woke up to find that Santa had left some goodies for them under Grandma & Grandpa's tree.  They were so excited.  Then Uncle Kerry, Jeff, Josh, and Amanda came over for a breakfast of Strawberry crepes and Uncle Kerry's Treasure Hunt.  My brother put together a treasure hunt for all 4 kids.  It was amazing.  They all had clues and clues to work out together.  He made a website that they had to go to to get some of the clues.  The kids (and adults) had so much fun.  Here are some pictures from that:

It was a great Christmas.  Scott headed back out flying for the next couple of days and the kids and I enjoyed our time with family.  The day we were planning on leaving it snowed around 4 inches , making it a pretty nasty drive back home.  But we made it with no problems.  Upon returning to the boat, the kids saw that Santa had also visited Ghost on Christmas Eve and left the family a Wii.  Since Mom and Dad were against buying any video games, they were extremely thrilled.  It was so good to be home and wonderful to celebrate the arrival of 2010 aboard Ghost.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Well, we have been horrible about taking pictures this month and don't really have any to share.  Scott has been preparing for his trip to Ethiopia, so not much has been happening on the home front.  We had a very nice little family Thanksgiving on the Wednesday before because Scott took off Thursday morning.  He is keeping his blog update, so check that out for updates on his adventure:  http://ghostsailors.com/blog-africa/ .

The kids and I doing great!  Can't wait for him to get home.  Everything on the boat is good.  Really hoping we can take her out sometime soon.  We have a ton of projects that need to get done this winter, so we can have a summer full of cruising.  Hope everyone is well....Ang

Pictures from October 2009

I'm always amazed how fast the months of September and October fly by.  It seems that during these two months, we hardly ever have any pictures and really don't have many stories of adventures to tell.  The kids started school the 1st part of September and Ellie started soccer:

(yes, I know she has the shin guards on backwards, it was a learning experience!!!)

Our weeks and weekends soon filled up with soccer practices and games, but it was so worth it.  Ellie is a natural soccer player and she loved it!

Around the middle of October we had a dinner party with our friends from Adams Elementary.  We decided on having Greek night and also decided to do some pumpkin carving for the kids.  It was so much fun:

The kids always love creating their pumpkin faces and the end results were wonderful:

The Greek food was amazing:

It was a wonderful evening.  I think both the kids and adults enjoyed themselves very much.

Later in the month Zak was able to invite a friend to go with him and Scott to the Museum of Flight.  He chose his friend Marlowe and they had a great time:

It's always Zak's favorite place to go, of course.

Halloween this year was great, as always.  On Friday the kids dressed up at school and did their parade outside on the grounds.  Scott was able to join and help out for the parade and a party in the classrooms afterwards:

On Saturday night, the whole family dressed up to head out onto the docks for our annual trick-or-treating. 

This year we had 5 kids to do the trick-or-treating on the docks and about 20 boats to go to.  Once again our neighbors went above and beyond and the kids were well taken care of:

After trick-or-treating, we always invite the neighbors down to Ghost for drinks and desserts.  Luckily the weather allowed us to hang out on the dock.  We had a tarp up in case there was rain and a little fire going to keep us warm.  It was a perfect night:

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween and a great October.

Since we weren't able to go sailing much this summer, one of the main things that I wanted to do was to go camping where I grew up in McCall, ID.  I miss Payette Lake during the summer and wanted the kids to see how beautiful it is up there.  The drive over was pretty uneventful.  We got to Ponderosa State Park and set up camp.  This is the 1st Camping trip we've taken in probably about 5 years.  We had to aquire some of the essentials (like the tent) and it was pretty exciting to get it all put together:

After getting the camp set up, we decided to take a walk to the lake.  It was such a beautiful day and Payette Lake was gorgeous, like always.  We even decided to pose for a family picture:

On the way back to camp the kids and I started finding tons of huckleberries:

Yummm!  I think we ate everything that we picked, but decided we would be back with bags to take some to Grandma & Grandpa in Boise.  We had a great night by the fire and reading the last few chapters of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  It was a perfect setting for it.  The next day we decided to do a little exploring and spend some time at the beach:

The water was great and it brought back so many memories of summer days at that same beach when I was growing up.  The plan for the next day was to go fishing.  We brought our Sea Kayak and wanted to check out the rivers north of the lake.  We loaded everything up, found a spot to launch the kayak and all loaded in.  It was a bit crowded, but not so bad.  The water was pretty shallow and so clear.  We didn't see any fish.  So we headed back to where we started and decided to fish off the bank.  Scott had just cast and handed the pole to Zak when there was a bite.  After that one every time we cast the line a trout would bite.  It was amazing and perfect for the kids.  We all had so much fun!

I found some more huckleberry patches and decided to load up.  It was a great day!  The next day we headed to Boise to see my family.  It was a little sad to leave McCall, but I think we will definitely do some more camping in that neck of the woods.  The visit in Boise was absolutely wonderful.  Saw some great friends and caught up with family.

Our 6th annual Latitudes and Attitudes Pacific Northwest Cruiser's party was a bit different from our previous parties.  For the past 4 years Ghost was deamed "kids boat" with activities onboard, projects, and the most fun....movies on the sail once it was dark.  After having 4 years of not being able to go the big party together, we decided that this year would be "our" year.  So the kids stayed with Scott's brother and we went solo to the party.  We had so much fun!  It was wonderful to meet up with our friends and actually visit with them.  Here's some pictures from the party:

Friends hanging out aboard Ghost one evening

Dave Calhoun playing Trop Rock on the docks

Scott and Rich sitting on Lorien watching Dave play

The girls dancing to the music

Dressing up for the Seafair Pirates arrival

Group shot when they arrived

Ghost pulling out of Poulsbo

We had such a great time and absolutely loved it, but the kids will be back next year.  It's just not the same without them.

This was an extemely special outing, at least for me.  Every year to kick off Seafair here in Seattle, the Seafair Pirates invade Alki Beach.  Our cruising group escorted them last year and were planning to do the same thing this year.  They wanted as many boats as they could get to fly their flags, dress up, and shoot cannons.  Scott was going to be working, so my plan was to go with one of our neighbors.  But, and this is a big one, as the day was approaching, I decided that I wanted to make this my first outing without Scott.  My other neighbors, Curtis & Cynthia agreed to crew.  My co-worker, Jenny came along, too, and we have her to Thank for all the wonderful photos.  I was nervous, but ready.  We all got dressed up in our pirate garb:

We pulled out with no problems and followed the fleet:

Upon arrival, we all lined up to do a pass along the beach.  Everyone else had their cannons firing ( we didn't have one) and the shore was packed with people:

I followed the group, but kept an eye on the depth.  Didn't want this to be a bad first outing, so when I saw my depth start to come up, I pulled out of line a bit.  Right after that, the leader of our group came over the radio to tell us not to follow him because he had just hit bottom.  Luckily he didn't stick, but "no thank you".  We kind of just circled around a bit until Lady Washington and the Seafair pirates arrived.  Upon arrival the plan was to follow the Lady Washington in, kind of as an escort.    As I went out to get behind the Lady Washington, they thought we were someone else and we got broadsided by both her and the pirates:

It was so much fun!  As the pirates landed most of our group was closer to shore shooting off cannons, and we decided to head home.  The docking wasn't all that great, but nothing was hit and I learned some big lessons.  We ended the evening with a huge dock party (of course)  It was a successful day.  I will try again sometime soon, but really want Scott to be on the dock for my return.

After getting back from our Blake Island trip, we had a week to do some sailing in the Puget Sound.  We reprovisioned and headed out to Blakely Harbor.  After a weekend of not getting any sailing in and always being in somewhat of a hurry, I asked Scott that we turn off the motors and just relax a bit.  It was a great time to get the spinnaker out and we had a great spinnaker run all the way to the harbor:

We stayed two nights at Blakely and spent the next day exploring Blakely Rocks and heading into Eagle Harbor to check out the town of Winslow.  We had a great time checking out the town.  We headed back to Ghost, but checked out some beaches on the way back.  The evening was beautiful and I got this great shot of downtown Seattle as the sun was setting:

The next morning we headed out pretty early to make the tides at Agate Pass on our way to Liberty Bay.  We decided to stay 4 nights in Liberty Bay for the 3rd/4th of July festivities.  When we pulled into the bay there were probably 3-4 boats anchored out:

By the 3rd it looked like this:

The picture doesn't really show just how many boats were out there, but at least you get an idea.  In Poulsbo/Liberty Bay, they have their fireworks show on the 3rd of July.  It was a great show this year.  We had a raft-up of about 9 boats and had a great weekend with our neighbors:

It was such a great time.  The weather was perfect for us this year.  We headed home on Sunday so Ellie could go to a Birthday party.  It was the coolest Birthday party I've ever seen.  She went to Stone Gardens Rock Climbing gym and learned how to climb:

More Pictures

Why didn't they have Birthday parties like that when I was young?

It was a great week.  Not enough time to be out on the boat, but Zak has summer school this year and Scott and I will be working.  BUMMER!

That night after the auction, we all headed to Ghost for drinks and devised a plan to go sailing together.  To the amazement of all of us, we picked a date that worked for everyone and after having a couple pre-planning gatherings, we were set.  Two of the families stayed with us, aboard Ghost, and two others brought their own boats.  It was one of the best weekends we've had in a long time.  We wanted to try to get into the marina at Blake Island, but it wasn't meant to be.  We headed to the west side of the island and found a great anchorage close to the beach:

All of the people in the group had girls Ellie's age, so Zak was pretty outnumbered:

But him and the youngest member of our crew became good buds:

She's such a cutey!  We spent most of the weekend on the beach, beachcombing, hiking, geocaching, and just plain relaxing.  It was a great time and I think all of us are hoping we can do it again in the near future:

We see many beautiful sunsets aboard Ghost and most of them right here from the dock, but don't take many pictures of them.  Why?......I don't know, but this month I got the camera out and got some great shots:

We've also started the task of restoring our woodwork aboard Ghost.  This is my new favorite thing to do and I'm really loving how it's turning out.  We are trying something new this year called Semco.  It has a very natural finish.  We'll see how it holds up against the elements this winter.

Before

In the Process (almost finished)

We still have quite a bit to do, so we'll show some finished pictures later on.

Camping on Ghost?......yes, we can do that:

The kids wanted to sleep up on deck in the tent and had a pretty good setup.  It looked pretty cozy in there.  They lasted until around 9pm and got a little scared and came down below.  The weather wasn't all that great for it either, so maybe next time.

It's been a great start to the summer.  Our Seattle weather has been amazing and we have been enjoying it to the fullest.

May was a busy month, so we had to break it up into two posts.  For Memorial Day weekend my parents flew out and my brother and family drove out from Idaho and my Dad's cousin, Claudia, flew up from Portland.  We had a great weekend of hanging out on the dock and spent a lovely day on the water aboard Ghost.  My brother took some wonderful pictures, so check them out via the link above and I'll post a couple favorites here:

My brother, Kerry, and his wife, Amanda:

Heading out for a day sail:

Amanda with Zak & Ellie and their cousins, Jeff and Josh:

Mom and Claudia visiting while underway:

Dad and I down below while underway:

Josh at the helm:

Jeff while underway:

Really, there are so many great pictures, you just have to check them all out.  My dad's cousins, Steve and family came over when we returned from the sail and we enjoyed a very nice dock party with everyone.  It was a quick trip, but it was so great having everyone around.  Hope they will come to visit again soon.  (hint, hint)

The next weekend was our 11th wedding anniversary.  My boss had given us tickets to a Sounders game and we left the kids with Scott's parents.  We met up with our friend's CB & Tawn for some drinks and then headed to the game.  This was our first soccer game and I have to say, it was a little confusing.  We just didn't know everything that was happening, but it was still fun.

That about does it for May. 

Ahhhh........the start of summer finally hit Seattle.  After one of the worst winters that I have experienced in the city, we were all anxious to have some nice weather.  We had had a couple dock parties in April, but the 1st day of May was one of the best to date.  We decided to jump in the dinghies and do a dinghy float outside the marina.  Just sit and watch the sun go down.  It was so relaxing and wonderful:

The night was extremely calm and perfect for just sitting on the water.  And people wonder why we live the way we do.  The next night Scott and I had a date.  It was the 1st time in quite a while that we dressed up and went out.  It was the kids' school auction and we met up with some other parents and enjoyed a great night out:

We ended up spending WAY too much money, but it was for a good cause and we had so much fun! 

We sailed over to Port Madison for Mother's Day weekend this year.  It was a great sail over and a nice weekend:

Zak and Ellie spent most of Saturday practicing their rowing around the harbor with the dinghy and kayak:

On Sunday, we took the dinghy over to Faye Bainbridge State Park.  It has a great beach and we found tons of beach glass.  It was great.  A perfect Mother's Day.  Somebody else left a message for their Mom or loved one:

Later that month, the kids and I went to the Sytten de Mai Parade (17th of May), a Norwegian Independance Day.  Our neighborhood of Ballard has a very strong Norwegian influence and we could definitely see the Norwegian pride and spirit at the parade:

Zak's girlfriend, Miriam was in the Parade, as well:

Guess What?  We had babies this month.......ok, butterflies.  We decided to try to hatch some butterflies and they actually hatched:

But, unfortunately they didn't last too long.  It was a sad thing.  They kept getting their wings into the orange slices and sugar water they told us to put in the Butterlfy Bungalow and they all ended up passing on.  Poor things.  The kids were really bummed, but Ellie has since turned the Butterlfy bungalow into a ladybug bungalow.  They seem much happier in the small space than the butterlfies did. 

I'm going to stop this here and cover the rest of May in another blog post.  My family came to visit and there is just too much excitement and fun to ramble on about in this post.

Thank you so much!!!

Ok, so I've started this entry about 2-3 times and have forgotten to save it before the computer crashes, so I'm hoping this time will be "IT".

The first part of April, we were still in Boise for Spring Break.  We had a great visit with my family and a nice drive back home to Seattle.  We celebrated Scott's birthday this month, but he was out of town working, so not much happened.

We did, however, end up getting of the dock....FINALLY!  We headed over to Poulsbo for Easter weekend and all had a wonderful time:

The kids were able to join in an Easter Egg Hunt in the park right by the marina:

Easter in Poulsbo is always fun.  The next weekend we headed to Whidbey Island for some exploring and a Latitudes and Attitudes gathering in Cornet Bay.  It was another great weekend doing what we love (exploring, beachcombing, and partying):

There's quite a bit more that happened during the month, but since I'm so far behind, this is the shortened version.  May will be much more in depth.  Hope everyone is doing well.  I'll sign off with this picture of a boat pulling in one evening after a stiff breeze came up:

Hate to be them.