Oh Washington!

It was one year ago that we moved to Ferndale, Washington. Zak actually moved to Washington the 1st of March, while I stayed in Idaho Falls with Hallee and Blyss(who was just 4 weeks old at the time). I honestly don't know how I did it by myself for 3 1/2 weeks with a brand new baby, Hallee, packing up all our stuff, staying emotionally stable, and knowing that I was moving away from all my family- and may never live close to them again. I did it though- Zak flew in on a Thursday afternoon, we drove straight to the title company signed papers on selling our house, went and picked up the Uhaul, went to our house loaded up everything into the truck, we stayed the night at my parents', got up the next morning and headed on our way, that morning was one of the toughest days of my life- saying goodbye to my family. We were so lucky to have Zak's Grandma and Grandpa Jordan driving the Uhual truck, so Zak could drive our car and I could take care of the kids. We split the trip into 2 days- since it is a 14 hour drive. When we got to our apartment in Ferndale, I just started crying- because it was a small 2 bedroom apartment, and it seemed so lonely. But once we got everything unpacked and things sat up, it was a cute, homey apartment. Zak's grandparents stayed the week, they helped with the kids while we unpacked, and we are so grateful they were there to help us. They stayed in a resort at Birch Bay- so we went and visited them there, Birch Bay is right on the ocean- so Hallee went and played in the sand with a shovel and a bucket. We only lived in Washington 5 months and made some great friends and got to see alot of sites.
About 3 weeks after we moved there Zak's parents came to see us, we went and visited the San Jaun Islands- we took a a ferry to get there- the ferry ride was fun- while there we went to a whale museum. On our way back home we stopped and saw the tulip fields- they were amazing- all you could see was a field that was solid red or yellow. We also visited Larabee State Park, which was such a pretty drive, all these pretty trees and other plants.

Once the weather warmed up we went to Whidby Island and Deception Pass, this is where it is an island on an island, all around us it was so green, and we took Hallee to the Beach to play.

We also went to British Columbia, Canada, we went to the Aquarium there and that is most defiantly the coolest place I've been to, it was fun to see all the aquatic stuff.

Zak's work had an annual meeting in Vancouver, WA, so we went to, we went to the Portland, Oregon zoo- which was huge and saw lots of cool things there, but I hit rush hour traffic on the way back to our hotel- where I just had to drive 15 miles, it took me over an hour to drive, with Blyss screaming the entire time- so that wasn't so fun. We also had a ferry ride one night and we ate dinner on the boat, and saw some of the sites.
We also visited Lynden which is a Dutch community, we went for their Dutch days- they were wearing wooden shoes and everything.We also visited Blaine- which right next to the ocean, and walked along the beach a little bit and collected sea shells.
Were we were living they grow strawberries and raspberries, so we got to see how they harvest these berries. And the strawberries were tasty!
I am glad for the opportunity that we had to live in Washington- we had a great time, got to see some pretty country- it is so beatiful over there, it opened our eyes to new things and helped us grow stronger in many ways.