A Whale Of A Time

We 3 Russell's headed north this past weekend to pass the time at a lovely beach house in Tulare (near Marysville) with the 3 Barnes' - Shannon, Darrin and Hannah.

Shannon

Darrin

Hannah

We had a terrific time with our terrific friends. Aside from a major hiccup in the plan (we arrived Friday night only to discover the hide-a-key well hidden - so well that it was nowhere to be found), the weekend was perfect.

The kiddo's didn't care about the missing key. We enjoyed a few hours at the beach on Friday anyway. The weather was beautiful so we played and had a picnic between naps/travel to and from Seattle.

To make up for being locked out and having to make the trip 2x (once expecting the key to be there and once with the spare key safely in our possession) we saw whales all 3 days.

You can get a feel for how close the whale really is to shore in this picture.
The dark splotches (bottom right) are sand.

The house was only a few yards from the beach and the whales were only few more yards out in the sound. It was magical to hear them and see them so close to us.

Peyton spent much of the weekend in awe of his new friend. Hannah, at 15 months, seems so much older than Peyton. She was on the go doing her own thing most of the time, but would frequently stop by to check up on our little tyke. It won't be long before these two will be running around getting into mischief together. They both were exceptional travelers (and sleepers) this weekend.

Thank you, Hannah, for sharing so many new and exciting things with Peyton!

Steve making Mother's Day breakfast for us!

Sunday, was Mother's Day, of course. It doesn't quite seem right to be celebrated right along with all of the amazing mother's and grandmother's that I love and admire - this is their day - but I guess 9 hours of all natural labor and 3 hours of all natural pushing to deliver my darling Little Dude has earned me a place in the mother's club. My own mother is my role model and my best friend. I love you, Mom!

Here's yours truly celebrating her first Mother's Day.