a little bit of peace

many changes since the last post. my new attitude toward the situation made the time with rod and vonnie and other family special and memorable. we said goodbye to grandpa on january 3, and commemorated his life on january 7. grandma moved down to california on january 9. and now we've had a week of a "new normal." the week was tiring and busy--we forgot what normal felt like. once or twice i thought we haven't seen grandpa and grandma in awhile--we really should stop by. and then i'd remember that that time has passed now. it's sad. but also a relief that what we'd been waiting for for several weeks happened. we're grateful for the time spent with grandpa and grandma.

grandpa & grandma at our wedding. special.

philip and i needed some together time after the last few months. the thing about living far from family is that every time we travel, it's to visit family. and we've had a year (6 months!) FULL of family. it's awesome. but a definite downside is that we don't often take time for just the two of us. we've gone away once since our honeymoon, and it's been close to a year since then. so this weekend, we planned to go away. 

well, we intended to stay overnight somewhere, and then decided to take the money we'd spend on accommodations and spend it on something else. we decided to take the ferry to friday harbor--we took the ferry that stopped at all the other major san juan islands (lopez, shaw, & orcas) so that the ride would be longer and we could see other ports. we didn't really want to stay in friday harbor for 3 1/2 hours, so we turned right back around and headed back to anacortes. on the ferry, we read, took pictures, and just relaxed. we left a cloudy mainland for a sunny friday harbor, and found sunshine when we returned to the mainland. after relaxing at home, we ate out at the big fat fish co. in fairhaven. never been there before, but it was yummy! 

a few pictures from our trip:

 stormy weather

 so peaceful (except that i was reading about war...)

 silly birds at the orcas island port

 clouds breaking

 sunny friday harbor

 sadly, we have very few pictures together. we're not really poser types, i guess.

mmmmm.

also, i've been reading books like a fiend. i've finished 5 since january 1 (four of them have been finished in the last 72 hours--this tells you how great i am at starting books...)