In 7,(6,5,4,)3...

Happy Days 62 and 63
I WILL reach 100 here. (I am not a quitter!) I think this is about when I stopped tagging pics on Instagram with #100happydays, but the hashtag or lack thereof doesn't really matter. Like I said when I began, it was the meditation on gratitude that made the project so appealing to me. And that sentiment is stronger than ever now, almost a year (!) later, reminiscing on the days just before and the weeks after I became a mommy as I finish up the project.

I believe the first pic was exactly a week before Ida arrived and the second two just a couple of days. It was the height of beautiful weather in Seattle, so it would have been criminal not to get out and enjoy even though by this time the stroll down the street and back left me huffing and puffing and ready for a bowl of ice cream.

Spring, Take One

Where to begin? February, March and most of April have flown by during which we: got our house ready to go on the market, lost our beloved doggy, spent two weeks desperately searching for a house in Toledo, sold our house, went on vacation, packed up all of our belongings, flew across the country (with a seven month old and an agoraphobic kitty), finally closed the deal on our new home, and our now renovating it before we will at last get to move in a week and a half from now. That's about it. 

But it's all good. A little on the stressful side, but really good. Little Ida is doing awesome. The house that we bought is well, pretty crazy. But more on that later.

We left Seattle two weeks ago and have been staying in a hotel while we work on the new place. These were some photos I took in our yard and around the neighborhood in our last few weeks in the PNW. Spring was in full swing there when we left and when we arrived in Ohio, it had barely begun. As of today, the weather still isn't on board (snow flurries!?), though things are starting to get greener and bloom.

Hoping that the most hectic part of this transition is almost over and more posts will follow shortly!

Mount Rainier

Happy Day 59

Our second National Park excursion during my Dad's visit was down to Mount Rainier.

Pictures can barely convey just how big this mountain is. All 14,000 feet and some change. It is still an incredible site to behold to this midwestern girl.

We drove in the southwest entrance and our first stop was Longmire to take in some classic NPS architecture. 

We then continued upward, stopping to take in the sights as we went.

Lots was easily accessible from the road, so again, as with our trip to Olympic National Park, not too much hiking was required of rotund moi.

Note the humans there in the middle for a sense of scale!

As the afternoon went on the top of the mountain became more and more shrouded in clouds, but still beautiful. 

We made it up to the Paradise Area then called it a day and turned around and headed back down.

Well I'm glad for the chances we had this past summer to get out and enjoy Washington's natural beauty. We thought we would have at least one more to go here before Greg got reassigned to a new role within his company, and we were already starting to make plans for this summer's PNW exploration. But just within the last couple of weeks we've learned that we'll be moving on much sooner. Within a couple of months we'll be back in Ohio, this time in Toledo where Greg's company is headquartered (we had our fingers crossed we'd be able to go back to Columbus but no such luck this time). So it's going to be a crazy spring and early summer. Though I will miss the beautiful surroundings, with baby it will be nice to not be quite so far from family and friends and we are also looking forward to being able to afford a bigger home to spread out in. We are definitely cramped in our little two bedroom bungalow. So here we go, let the next adventure begin! 

Port Angeles and Hurricane Ridge

Happy Day 57

While my Dad was visiting in late July/early August we did some National Park exploring. First, we drove out on the Olympic Peninsula to Port Angeles and then up to Hurricane Ridge within Olympic National Park. 

There's a nice waterfront walk in Port Angeles, so we strolled along there for a bit.

You can just make out Mount Baker above the horizon off the end of the pier.

We had lunch at Next Door Gastropub. Quite tasty sandwiches. Location-appropriate wall art.

The mountains rising up to the south of town, that's where we were headed next.

On our way up.

And only fifteen or twenty minutes and one very wind-y road after leaving town, incredible views every which way you look. Very accessible for those who aren't able to hike to get to scenery, like 8 month prego me at the time. We were there on a Sunday and it was busy, but not so crowded as to be annoying. There's a nice visitor center too, with facilities and a gift shop and a little café. 

We did decide that the Peninsula would be better as an overnight than a day trip from Seattle. It was a pretty long day driving over and back again both, and we ran into a lot of traffic coming back on Sunday evening, all converging at the same three or four bottlenecks. But still, it was worth it to get to take this in!

Farm Fresh

 We managed an outing to a Christmas tree farm to cut our own tree this year.

To Carnation Tree Farm to be exact, about 45 minutes west of Seattle. The farm is on the National Register and includes this lovely old Victorian as well as a beautiful barn, that I didn't get a great shot of but is there off in the distance below. It now houses the gift shop. 

Family portrait with our selection there behind us.

It's been quite a few years since I've been to a farm to get a tree. For some reason I was remembering the cutting process as far more labor intensive than it really is. Turns out it took all of about a minute and a half.

And off we went. And it managed to stay tied down the whole way home despite our being novices at securing a tree to our roof. A successful adventure indeed.

Back to Vashon

Happy Days 54 & 55
We took both our friends and Greg's family, who were our next summer visitors, over to Vashon Island. Both times we returned to Point Robinson Lighthouse. 

Like I mentioned before I really, really love Vashon. Occasionally for kicks I go looking at real estate online wherever I happen to be curious about at the time. So after being on the island with our friends I checked out what was on the market there. I came up with a four bedroom 1914 farmhouse on just over two acres, the asking price of which was the same as we paid for our little two bedroom on a postage stamp in West Seattle. (Above photo isn't of that house, these are the keeper's quarters at Point Robinson. Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures while we were viewing the place.) The listing made no bones about it being a project, but as it sounded like just the kind of thing I desperately want to take on some day, I made an appointment with the agent and we went and saw it. 

Not that we could have taken anything like it on two months before becoming parents, even if our bank account came anywhere close to allowing it, which it does not. But it was fun to practice walking through a house with an eye towards restoration. It was truly everything I could have hoped for, enough original detail remaining to make it totally worth saving (down to the original, gorgeous wood burning stove in the kitchen), yet enough of a hard case as to be uninhabitable as is (one of everything needed in the new systems department). And a beautiful setting to boot. No view (mountain or water), but surrounded by meadow and woods and complete with a pond. It will definitely go down in the "ones that had to be let get away" category. Though I don't think it actually sold, just got taken off the market for winter. If nothing else, it gave me something to obsess about until baby came along. 

Both days that we went visibility was excellent. The view of Mount Rainier from Point Robinson is pretty spectacular.

Mount Baby and Mount Rainier. 

When we were there with Greg's parents, there was a little tiny car show going on downtown. I wish I'd taken more pictures of all the different models. I kept picturing anthropomorphized animals driving them out for a picnic. :)