Photo Overload!

We love having company. Absolutely adore it, in fact. We love any (and every) excuse to go explore the Seattle area and to spoil friends and family. Since May, we had Amy (twice), Bryan, Faith, my Mom and Dad, Kimberly and little Carter come to visit us. It was so much fun to take them to see the sites and enjoy good company.  :)

Amy came to visit in May (none of us realized that my whole family would decide to come out and visit over the 4th of July, which meant she got to visit again). We did so many fun things. One of my favorites was our 7 hour boat ride. It felt pretty long and cold at the time, but we were able to see the San Juan Islands and many other places we couldn't see from a car. We also saw a Humpback Whale, a few porpoises (porpi?), some seals and sea lions. When Bryan visited, we did our best to do all of the things on the City Pass. We took my friend Faith to a few fun places. And did a whirlwind of fun things with my family for their short trip in July. 

Instead of boring you with all the details, I figured I'd just overload you with pictures. 

These are from our 7 hour boat ride. 

As we were passing this island, we saw this person sitting out on a rock.

 

This was the whale's head "breaching."

Sorry about the lines in these pictures. We were right next to the ropes holding things down (Lyle could give you a more accurate description of where we were on the boat). 

This is one of the whale's fins. He was waving at us. I love this picture because you can see how big the whale really was compared to those other boats. 

 We went to the aquarium a few times with a few different people. 

We took Carter (and my mom, dad, Kimberly and Amy) to the zoo!

Carter and Aunt Amy. 

Grandpa feeding Carter ice cream. 

It was so hard to get a picture of all three without someone moving. Carter was too excited to sit still. 

It is normally hard to get pictures of the giraffes at our zoo , but they were in a great position this time. I love the pictures I was able to get. 

Ok, I know you don't want just giraffe pictures....

Carter and mom (Kimberly).  

We took Bryan to the Flight Museum. It was HUGE and amazing!

(Did you notice the Ace of Spades on this plane? Of course it was one of Lyle's favorites.)

Lyle was like a kid at Christmas in the Space Exhibit. 

Bryan practicing landing a space shuttle.  

Lyle had to prove he could do it too.  

Like I said.... the place was HUGE!

We also went on a Harbor Tour, did the Space Needle and the Pacific Science Center with Bryan.

Butterflies at the Pacific Science Center.

   
 We absolutely loved having all of those wonderful people come visit us! I never imagined that we would have so many people who wanted to visit us (it must be the appeal of Seattle). Next month we get the opportunity to be the "visitors" when we go to Minnesota to meet the newest edition to the family (we are so excited, we are going to burst)! After that, Hotel Borders will be closed for a little while so Lyle and I can recuperate, but all of you are welcome to plan your trips for next years visits. ;)


We have been living in the Seattle area for a year now (ok, it will be a year in 3 days...ish) and have had so many adventures already. I can't wait to see what this next year brings!