Some Sights Coming and Going

So how is all this stuff going to fit in my car???  It was more fun than Twister. Don't even mention needing to jump the car to get on the ferry!
I just love the idea of sailing.  I know it is much more work than it appears, but I think I could learn to suffer onboard this vessel.

Pics of the kids in the Festival

Greg and Joe just hanging...
Greg  on Trombone
Kallie playing the flute as part of the Classics Plus 
Stephen on electric guitar

Blaine Jazz Festival

When Joe goes off to Jazz camp he gets one of the best weeks of music instruction that you could imagine.  He is surrounded by like minded students from all over the state and out of state who are thinking of nothing but Jazz.  Joe's instructor Jim McFalls has such great experience, playing 17 years in the Army Jazz Band, now teaching at both Peabody Cons. of Music and Towson University. Greg Hopkins directed Jazz Band I and he put on a thrilling concert with the students.  So from morning to night they play or go to performances and listen.  The culmination being open air concerts in downtown Blaine on G and H streets. Each musician is included in a Jazz Band and an ensemble that performs for about a half hour.  Now multiply that by the amount of kids who went from Orcas ( Greg G., Kallie & Steven)and you can see we had a lot of performances to bounce back and forth between. Steven even sang a lovely rendition of Fly Me to the Moon. Enough said, next year you should try to be there. Blaine is a sweet little town right on the water, at the Canadian border and this festival is a best kept secret that needs the whistle blown on it.

Coming Home

Sometimes when we go to the mainland it is a hectic day of running errands, appointments and dissapointment with things not going as smoothly or quickly as we had hoped.  We have to schedule our lives around a ferry schedule and limited time to accomplish much.
But then we get loaded onto the ferry and see sights like these and we are very grateful to be living in such a lovely area of the country.  Glad for the interruptions in our busy lives, forced to slow down and enjoy the long ferry ride.  

Thank you Lord for such beautiful interruptions

Feel Like Dancin

This little girl had us all smiling. As we waited for the parade to begin, and the band was serenading us, she was living out exactly how everyone was feeling.  Yippeee!

I Love a Parade

The Community Band in all it's Glory played at the fireworks display and at the parade on Saturday. They do such a wonderful job of making the day special.
This was taken at our new outdoor band shelter in the park on the 4th.  The men's choir from church were singing a few wonderful patriotic songs.
This is one of the new pumper trucks that can extract water from a pond in two minutes and then put out the fire. In fact on the evening of the 4th just before fireworks it did just that. Unfortunately, the house was lost but the fire did not spread.  Thank You Brave Firefighters!
This is one of my favorite pictures. These fine people are from the Park Service on San Juan Island and they give interpretive talks and reenactments of battles and how things were way back when.  They are awesome.
Gotta get a close up of Joe and Greg!

Happy Fourth of July!

Oh Man, It's My Favorite Time of Year

So Rick is getting friendly with the crab before you know what happens...
and this strong boy wants to take the car for a spin as his last wish.
Angie lines up Death Row
Ha Ha. Look at these babies in their bath. Man oh man does that smell good.