Catching up

Hey! As usual, I haven't been blogging as much as I want to. I have lots of pictures to post soon, but first I thought I'd give a quick summary of what I've been up to. If you follow me on Instagram, you already know this stuff, but a couple of these photos will be new to you. If you don't follow me there, please do! Or just go visit that page and see some more photos of what I talk about here.

In May, I wanted to work on another timelapse video of lilies blooming, but they took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to open. I guess it wasn't warm enough. I do have some photos I might throw together into a video, but I haven't felt all that excited about them. That top image is one of them.

In non-me news, my younger sister got (re)married in mid-May! Here's a photo my older sister took. They seem very happy, and I am happy for them and my nieces!

Over Memorial weekend, I went up to the Seattle area to hang out with my friend Dan and his parents. Dan and I took a ferry to Vashon Island on one of the days and just explored the area a bit. It was gray and sometimes rainy, but I had a good time. It was very low-key and unplanned. This is the view under a dock we saw on one of our stops.

And I forget the name of this lighthouse and feel too lazy to look it up. :)

In addition to the Vashon trip, we hung out and played games, as usual. Oh and we saw beautiful blue robin eggs in a nest by the front door! (And they've since hatched, I was informed.) It was fun and relaxing!

More family news: On June 1st, my older sister's family arrived in their new home city--Houston, TX! My brother-in-law found a good job there and they are currently house hunting (though I think the search might be over as I type this). Big things are happening for my sisters, and I admit I'm feeling a little antsy for something big in my life as well. Spring and summer always get me eager for change. I am happy for R's family to have this new experience and live close to the water again, but it does complicate things to have my family spread out so much. I have a hard time visiting them as it is. But I hope that one day we might all live closer or form an arrangement that would give me the opportunity to see them all a lot more. We shall see. It's something for me to continue praying about.

Just last week, my niece K arrived for her "age 13 trip" to visit me. I had been looking forward to it for months, and I think it went very well. I can't believe it's over now! I have a lot to share about that in coming entries, but here are a couple of photos. Above is one from a portrait session we did in a nearby park.

Spoiler alert: we went to the coast on one of the days she was here. She seemed to like that the most. She loved looking around for various shells and sea life. (Note: those people in the photo are strangers.)

Immediately after my time off for K's visit, my department at work had a retreat for the first time (at least since I've been there). We went up to Suttle Lake. I had never been that far east in Oregon, so it was a fun experience and really beautiful scenery.

The whole team of us walked the trail around the lake. It was about 3.5 miles, which sounds reasonable, but felt pretty tiring by the end. Still, it was cool and we saw several interesting sights and forest creatures (I seriously spelled that "creachers" the first time.. ??).

Since then, I've been trying to relax and recharge. Even though I had time off, I felt like I needed a vacation afterwards. The weekend couldn't come soon enough. The weather has been gray and sometimes rainy, but I am thankful that we had great weather for all of K's visit and our work retreat. And now I have the excuse to just stay indoors and, as I am doing tonight, make chicken and dumplings.

So what's next? Well, I have lots of pictures to go through, I want to try and retry some photo experiments, I just accepted a freelance design project, Dan's visiting over the 4th, and my office is moving to another building in early August. Otherwise, I'm not quite sure what this summer holds. Maybe another trip to Seattle. Maybe something big. You never know! (And no, I'm not hinting at anything....just wishful thinking.)