red huckle, thimble and black cap

those are the names of the berries ian and i picked last night off the side of the road.  this place is so full of bounty.

livin' by the beach

soooo, dont hate me, but this my view when i wash dishes now:

behold the glorious puget sound.

never thought i'd ever get the chance to live so close to the ocean, but thanks to God's sweet love and ians awesome mom and stepdad, these photos are the view from our deck.  unbelievable.  i love this state so much already. we'll be here with ians family until he gets a job.

as soon as we hit oregon ian and i were like, "what the HECK have we been doing in california for so long?!"  the trees, the green, the lack of absentminded drivers... coming into WA was even more beautiful.  i feel at home already.

we had some drama on the way up here, though.  we were somewhere on the I-5 near Gustine, went over a bump and all of a sudden the trailer popped off the ball, hit the asphalt and started melting off part of the tongue going 60 miles an hour.  i was the last in line and it looked like i was driving over bits of flare.  

i thought, "that's funny, why did someone set off a fl... uh oh..."  and that's when we pulled over.

we surveyed the damage, prayed, stepdad got on the phone with AAA and ian took off for the next town to get a new trailer ball.  we were on the road with a better ball in an hour and a half, cruisin' as if nothing ever happened.  God is so good... seriously, people could have gotten killed... i dont even want to think about it.  apparently the nut on the bottom that was holding the ball on had just worked itself off... sheesh.

so we were going along fine and dandy, getting up past sacramento a few hours later and while we were going over a long bridge i noticed i was suddenly driving over broken glass and the camper shell top on the truck was up.  we had to wait to pull over because the bridge had no shoulder, and once we stopped and looked at the truck we realized the tailgate had fallen down as well.  something from the inside of the camper shell had fallen and hit the top and tailgate open.  we still dont know exactly what it was we lost on the highway... i think a small box of ball jars fell... a few other things.

but it's all behind us now, including any movers remorse.  ian and i are so stoked to be here, we cant even see straight.  there are baby bald eagles chirping for food in a nearby tree and the weather is as mild as can be.  a ferry just sailed by.  it's wake will soon hit our close-by beach.  we found berries on our run yesterday.  need i say more?

fun with fam

i got these great pictures from my granny last night as we had a good bye dinner:

rob and i in hawaii.  i think we were 5 and 7 in this shot.

everyone needs an awkward 90's dinner shot.  i'm pretty sure rob is 4 and i'm 6- both of rosy cheeked, eh? :)  my folks on are the left of me.

my beautiful, classy granny (dad's  mom)... love that lady and love this photo.

my 'supermodel aunts,' as i call them (dad's sisters).  these women are amazing- j is the sweetest lady ever, and yv is probably the most talented artist i will ever have the pleasure of personally knowing.  check out her art here.