Being Thankful

... we are thankful for so many things ... for each other, our eternal marriage and our family.....  Really I could go on and on, but something we forgot to post about was our summer.  We are so grateful for our summer!  Especially, with the unloved  stress of school right now!  We had so much fun in August driving in our sweet little green golf (we miss you!) out to Washington to visit grandma and grandpa Howe and the Ditto family!  Sara posted an awesome summary of pictures, see here!  But here are some other pictures for your delight and to remind us of how much fun we had.

Reading stories with the little ones.  Jared does great voices!

Learning to walk with the girls and our photographer Birch.

Hiking out of Boulder cave.  There was a lot of slipping - good thing we had enough adults to hold little hands.

Everyone together at the hike.  I love having babies in a pack!  I am looking forward to hiking with out own to someday.

 And making friends.

Then we were off to our grandparents for some beautiful Discovery Bay weather,  and a peaceful time together.  After a couple of days, Jared and I headed off into the Olympic National Forest just a stones throw from there house, to go backpacking.  What was planned to be three days, ended up taking us a day and a half.  Guess we underestimated our strength :)  But we had a blast.

Love those birds!

View from the bay.  Gorgeous.

Startin' strong, Feelin' good.

Sorry, turn your heads or your screens.  The trails were so lush and green the whole times.

We crossed a lot of water from streams to waterfalls.  Couldn't have asked for better weather.

View from 9000 + feet from starting at sea level.

Walking up!  I got out of the tent and Jared snapped this.  We camped at this beautiful spot that was full of curious bunnies, squirrels, birds, and a bunch of other little critters.  It was freezing when the sun went down though.

So yeah, we got to this ridge and the hair started doing the punk rocker with all the wind.  Jared thought it was hilarious.  Nice.

On the way down from the ridge.  It got a bit bare.

Dirty feet enjoying the ride home (a little earlier than expected ... surprise grandma and grandpa)!

Ah, miss summer time.  Love the warmth, though the snow is a bit exciting.  I still think it shouldn't come till after Thanksgiving though.  Snow belongs with Christmas, and I don't like rushing over Thanksgiving.  Miss you all, and wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!