Catching Up

The summer was beautiful and filled with great festivals in town. They offer a lot of great activities for kids at the parks in the area. We took advantage of every one as Spencer works on Saturdays.

Maren's birthday was a quiet one but still fun.

We had a little garden party for her in the backyard.

Downtown Gig Harbor has a lot of charm so I thought I would take a few pictures of this cute girl.

They have a chalk art festival in the summer as well. Maren and Eva made a couple of friends and colored on the same square.

Maren made a few friends from church and we had a little birthday party at the park.

We had a visit from family. One of the many fun acivities included the Children's Museum in Tacoma.

We also stayed at a beach house in the Key Peninsula together. It was a beautiful and peaceful location. The renters had the boat, intertubes to float on, buckets to play with and so much more. It was quite the classic family reunion kind of place. I would definitely come here again!

We took a trip out to the Washington State Fair with tickets Spencer got from work. The kids had a great time.

Right before Maren started Preschool, we took her in to get a hair trim. She loved feeling pampered and special.

In the Fall, Gig Harbor has yet another festival to celebrate the salmon returning to the area. This festival was a lot of fun. One of the highlights was painting a real salmon with fabric paint and pressing it on a canvas bag. Maren got her face painted yet again. 

Some photographers came around and asked her if she would hold the fish for a picture. She agreed and they said she could possibly next year's poster child. We will have to see.

They also had this giant inflated fish that an artist had painted in the traditional Native American style. The kids wouldn't come out when I said it was time to go.

This is the beautiful place we live. We couldn't have had a nicer Fall.

Maren on her first day of school.

Guess what? Another festival! It was the scarecrow festival celebrating Fall.

We took the chance to hop on a ferry and go to Canada! It was just a 45 minute boat ride to cross the border to go see Victoria, BC. We had friends give us a night's stay at the Marriott which made it that much more fun. It was a great location as well, walking distance from the harbor.

You are greeted by this beautiful hotel as you arrive.

We were told about a beautiful park that has peacocks everywehere.

And a park with a petting zoo.

It was beautiful day.

There were huge totem poles all over.

We even witnessed a drug deal down Fan Tan Alley (The famous narrow alley). How exciting!