House Hunting

I wish that the title of this post was true for me, but we still have a few years before we can start thinking about that! As most of you know from my sisters blog, my parents are moving to Washington! I am so excited. They will only be 5 hours away. Adam and I went over and met them last weekend for a little house hunting. They were successful!

Their offer was accepted and so this will be their new house! It is in Covington, WA. It is a cute house that I think will suit them well!

My mom and I's favorite part of the house is the kitchen. It isn't that big, but the counter tops are great and the window in front of the sink is awesome!

Here is a view of the living room from the kitchen.

Part of the back yard. It has two sheds. This is only one of them. Hopefully they will fit all of my dad's stuff.

Here is more of the back yard. My dad should be able to find space for a garden. It was really pretty and is in a nice wooded area.

This is from the front room looking into the dining room.

Larry was the agent they were working with. He was a good sport. He showed them over 20 houses in two and a half days. Go Larry!

After they found the house and made a decision, we decided to go to the beach. Some people in my parents ward told them about Redondo Beach. We went and checked it out. It only took about 15 minutes to get there.

When we walked up we saw a bunch of people looking at something. We went to see what it was, and we were surprised to see a gray whale. He would come up and spout every few minutes. My mom knew she was home when she saw this!

It was beautiful there. We got there just as the sun was setting.

It got a little chilly so Dad was keeping Mom warm. Aren't they the cutest things you've ever seen?

The next day we got up and went to Seattle to check out the sights. We are at Pike's Place here. They had the tulips out and it looked incredible.

We got sandwiches at the 3 Girls Bakery (I think that is what is was called). My buddy, Ken, introduced me to it when I came out for here for a wedding. Adam said it was the best Reuben he's ever had!

Dad really was having fun, I think!

Next, we went to the Space Needle and walked around.

The folks were pooped from all the house hunting so we sat and rested a while.

We were resting by this fountain having fun watching everyone try to keep dry while touching the dome. Adam said he'd try if I did...so we went!

Luckily for me, it shut off right before we got there. It was just tricking people though...because it came alive once it lured everyone in. We stayed dry though. It was good entertainment.

I'm glad we got to see my parents. I sure do like them. I can't wait to be closer. We're just trying to get Alona back out West now. Hopefully it won't be too long!

The St. Joe

Last Saturday, the last day of Spring Break, we headed North for some fishing on the St. Joe River. We invited the Ritchies and hit the road.

It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to our first spot. I actually don't have a picture of it, but we didn't have any luck there. The river was still partially frozen over. We headed back down the road to some spots we'd seen along the way.

We passed this bridge and had to stop for some pictures.

The bridge was pretty cool and I think it lead to some hiking trails. I want to go back and check things out sometime. This is near a turn off to go to the Hiawatha trail...which we are going to bike this summer.

Here is a shot of the Ritchies. They are also our Survivor buddies.

Sarah was the first to catch a fish. They were pretty good sized. All of the ones we caught were about 14 inches. Brandon and Sarah had better luck than us because the fish weren't really that interested in flies yet. They had some worms with them and were snagging fish left and right.

It really was amazing. The water was so clear that you could see the fish. We saw up to 6 fish in one spot. Adam was in Heaven. Here he is fishin' away and eating a fruit by the foot! We finally gave in and borrowed some worms and caught our fair share ...of fish and ticks. Thats right... all of us, but Adam found a tick on us. We'll be more prepared next time. And I'm sure there will be a lot of next times!

Hell's Canyon

It's SPRING BREAK!! We had a hard time deciding what to do for spring break and in the end, we just stayed put. Our friends, Katie and Tyler, were going to hike and camp in Hell's Canyon and invited us to tag along. We loved it!

We got there Monday afternoon and did a little hiking. It is a beautiful canyon.

Here is a view from our hike.

Katie and Tyler have a 4 month old baby. Lincoln was a trooper. The camping wasn't the best for him, but he was awesome on the hikes.

What would a hike be without trying to roll boulders off the mountain?

Not much fun, according to the boys!

Adam likes to take pictures...and it warms my heart!

Here is our camp site. We had a nice view of the mighty snake river. We got up Tuesday morning for our big hike.

Most of the canyon looks pretty deserty, but we would often come upon these "zen garden" looking places. It was so pretty.

Nice!

There were also parts of the trip that made me feel like we were on the Serengeti Plains.

Another little patch of green.

Here is a cute family shot of the Rice's. Tyler loved that I kept taking pictures of them!

We took a little lunch break about half way through our hike. I didn't realize how tired I was until we would stop.

We finally finished... 12 miles later. We thought that soaking our feet in the river would be so refreshing, but it was so cold. Adam told me to leave my feet in for one minute and they'd go numb...which was pretty true. It was COLD!

Adam decided to cast a few lines while we were there. He had a few bites and even one on the line, but it got away. Too bad. But not to worry...we're going fishing tomorrow.

Here is me and my buddy, Lincoln.

We had a great trip, but I'm still sore! It made me really excited for summer. The weather was so nice. Only a few more months!