Brand New!

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome a brand new American citizen! Here she is holding the proof.


And with that, we have completed our adoption. I guess you're technically not required to apply for citizenship for your adopted baby, but it was always our intention and we're finally done. The new hair style is compliments of her preschool teacher, Metti.

And just for fun, here she is at the beginning of our journey together three years ago. This was taken within an hour of meeting her:

Cabin Trip Part 2

(Look carefully at Yogi's hand.)
Ok, this is the craziest thing that's happened to us on the trail! When we first started down the path at Campbell River Valley Regional Park we noticed that the Chickadees and Nuthatches were acting very strange: hovering right in front of us, buzzing around us - just not the way typical birds act. And then later down the trail we ran into some people with sunflower seeds on their hands and the birds were landing briefly, grabbing a seed, and then flying off. The people kindly offered our kids some seeds and much to their delight, the birds immediately began perching on their hands. Sometimes they would land and stare for a long time. Other times they would pick through all the seeds looking for just the right one before taking off again. It really was a major thrill for all of us!

On the Trail

Well, hello again. My last post was from the spring and now we're done with summer. Not the weather; that finally just arrived! The last 8 days have been over 80 and today it's close to 90 which is more like late July / August weather. But enough about that. Chris prepared all sorts of pretty pictures from our last trip of the summer so I'm here to share those along with a few words of explanation.

It was a fantastic summer - a trip to Hawaii, a family session at summer camp in Eastern Washington, relatives visiting, and nice times with those that live here, and finally we spent a week up at the cabin. It was a week of rambles through the woods, on the beaches, and in some new parks we discovered just across the border in B.C. A week of rest hours and campfires, and happy hours with chips and salsa on the deck.

This first batch of photos are from the trail. Above you see us at Crescent Beach in B.C. Here's a bit from their community page that captures the feel of the village nicely:
A sense of peace permeates the shady back lanes, and a walk along the ocean front path passes history in the form of rustic log houses, beach front cottages and heritage homes nested in mature trees.

We spent our time on Blackie's Spit, a nature preserve and home to a large variety of interesting birds. Chris caught this Goldfinch mid-air!
The next few photos were taken at Serpentine Fen Bird Sanctuary. We saw more blackberries than birds, but we did get to watch a Great Blue Heron catch and gulp down several fish.





This next one was taken on the "Listening Bridge" at Campbell River Valley Regional Park (more about what we saw there in the next post!).We walked through old growth forest (though this picture doesn't show the big trees) at the Stimpson Family Nature Preserve. The trail was so quiet in there with the thick forest duff.


Here we are at Aldergrove Lake Park.

And finally Beck, Chris, and I high stepped it through the tall grass to check out the heronry.Unlike last spring, it was very quiet so we thought the whole place was empty. But suddenly we heard some loud grunting, squawking, brawling noises and looked up to see a heron coming in for a landing - apparently with some food for her hungry family. They must have nested later than most.