Keeping Up

The holidays were a busy time and here it is already February. Where has the time gone???

David is quite busy studying and working. He will be done with his Bachelor's Degree by the end of this year. We are very excited for him to start in his new chosen career. The best part is that David is really enjoying the material now that he is learning things that pertain to his specialization. I love to see him excited about what he is learning.

I have a new opportunity to teach at our local gym. I will be teaching bellydance lessons again, as well as learning to teach yoga with one of the other instructors. I am very excited about the doors that are opening up there. They said if I got my nutritionist certification that they would hire me. In addition I am already scheduled to compete at the Bellydancer USA in Canyonville, OR. I will be competing in the "7 Veils" category. I'm excited to start competing again. Wish me luck!

It looks like this will be a fast-paced year of transitions. I'll try to keep up with blogging our progress.

Tacoma

Ian was excited to show Dave his dinosaurs. We spent most of the day with Marie and the kids. I'm having trouble uploading photos so I'll add more later.

We went to Wright park in Tacoma to the arboretum there. It was pretty but a lot smaller than we expected. More pictures soon.



There were some squirrels that got very brave and came around looking for food. Marie decided to give one a rice cracker. He proceeded to eat it really close by and when he was done with it he came around again so we recorded it. This time Dave gave it to him.

Olympia

We stayed at the Swantown Inn B&B overnight. It is a lovely old house. The owners are friendly and interesting people. Our room was cozy and welcoming.

The B&B is within walking distance of the Fish Tale Brew Pub where we had a delicious dinner. I had the Cod tacos and Dave had the Salmon Fish and Chips. We also shared a smoked salmon platter that came with dill cream cheese. It is surprisingly great food for a pub! Great beer too and we tried the pear cider. We walked to the pub from the B&B so we got a bit of a sense of what the city was like.

In the morning we went to the farmer's market where we found a bakery that makes spelt bread and cookies. We also tried the coffee of a local roasting company. We spent some time walking around the park by the capitol building before getting back in the car to head north.

Two Nathans are Engaged!

We have Nathans on both sides of the family. My brother and David's cousin. Both are engaged.

Nathan B will be marrying (another) Sarah in December, (and she will have my maiden-name initials! LOL) They will have a legal ceremony in Lake Havasu and a formal wedding at a later date.



Nathan S will be marrying Colleen in October. We will be attending their wedding in Grant's Pass.



So much joy! So many blessings!

Informal Family Reunion

Raynors, Sleadds, Steves and Jones'

Our Anniversary

2 wonderful years! We bought a house, moved twice, David has changed jobs once and started school. We are enjoying our time at home more than ever, especially with compatible work schedules. Life is good!

Wildlife Safari with Nana

David's grandmother is visiting from Anchorage and she loves elephants, something her and I have in common. We took her to Wildlife Safari today. They had an elephant demonstration around noon and we made sure she got to see it. It was a beautiful day to be outside in the sunshine.


Here are George, Tikki and Alice demonstrating some balance behaviors, and playing harmonica and drums... George (the big one on the right) was the one that brought me my ring when Dave proposed to me at Wildlife Safari.


Here is Alice the elephant painting a picture...She painted one for us on the day we got engaged at Wildlife Safari.