Adios Boise, Hello Issaquah

After the most wonderful week in Hawaii (check out last post), Dellas and I came home and had 3 days to finish packing and cleaning before we made our way to the Great Northwest on Thursday the 12th. As we were hopping into vehicles to head out, I walked past the moving van and saw this view:

Oakley ridin' shotgun with Dad

 Absolutely hilarious. I show this pic to Del and said, "Honey, this is what you look like driving down the road, just fyi." haha I got a kick out of it. Less than an hour into the trip I received a text message with this pic:

Del said Oakley sat RIGHT next to him the entire way. Often laying his head down on his shoulder until they'd hit a bump or until Del would intentionally hit the brakes to wake up his passenger.

We made the 8.5 hr drive, well more like 9 for Dellas hehe, to Olympia and stayed at Mom and Dad Vance's place for a night. On Friday morning, we loaded back up and drove the remaining hr to Issaquah. By Sunday evening we were about 75% unpacked and set up but with me having an extra day off on Monday, I was able to put some finishing touches on the place.

Living Room, as seen from the door to the backyard

Living and Dining rooms (and a piece of the kitchen, far left) as seen from the stairs

Now, here's where my book starts...Dellas started work bright and early last Monday morning (the 16th) and I started Tuesday. Late Tuesday afternoon it started snowing and didn't stop much for about 24 hrs. We awoke Wednesday with about 4-6 inches (not a ton but Seattle isn't known for being prepared for snow) and the entire Western side of the state was closing down. I went to work but my bank closed at 3pm before things got worse and because all of our customers were headed home instead of the Bank haha. Thursday morning we woke up with still the same amount of snow, but anything that had semi-melted had turned to ice and we were better off skating to work than driving. When Dellas headed in at 6:30am he called and told me to call work and say I'd be late in hopes it'd clear up or just stay home cuz there was freezing rain and the roads were horrible. I debated back and forth, but before I could get ready for work we lost power at about 7:30am so my boss said to stay put. (They ended up closing at 3pm again anyway)
Oakley and I hung out by our fireplace most of the day (thank goodness the fireplace, stove and water heater are gas!) and listened to the trees crack and break or fall all around us. I ventured out to let him play with a neighbor dog and as my neighbor and I talked we watched a huge branch crack and fall down about 20yards from us. Before calling it quits outside I snapped a few pics.

Ice and snow weighed down all the plants

Looking down our street on Thursday, after a plow came thru

Why they call it an "ice storm" freezing rain coats EVERYTHING

Broken branch behind our back fence

It started warming up on Friday so, even though our power was still off, we trudged thru the massive amounts of slush and both went to work. After meeting for dinner after work, we came home to power!! For about 15 mins....haha. So right after starting some laundry and the dishwasher we were back in the dark until midnight.

SO! After a total of 39 hrs in the dark, we're back in business. We got our internet hooked up yesterday and ran lots of errands. Today we're watching the wind blow and just glad it waited until the ice melted off the trees.

Welcome to Seattle! I guess... ;-)

Aloha Hawaii!

As I've mentioned in previous postings, the Vance family took an amazing Hawaiian vacation January 1-8. We arrived at The Dolphin House on New Years day and were welcomed by this:

and more importantly, this:

Our first full day was a lot of the above picture, at least for myself, my sister Julie, and my nephews. We weren't needed for the Costco/rental car errands so we got to relax in the sun. We definitely got the better deal!

Tuesday was the most amazing day ever! My parents booked a charter boat for just the 10 of us to take us out and find some wild spinner dolphins to swim with! Only about a 1/2 hr into the trip we found our pod of dolphins and started following them.

Dolphins come into shore in the morning to sleep, so the hope is to follow them until they find a place to sleep then you can jump in and swim all you want with them. Our dolphins were on a mission though. We played leap-frog with them for a couple of hours; getting just ahead of them for us to jump in w/our snorkel gear and have them swim right through us on up the coast. Then back in the boat to get back in front of them. Since the dolphins didn't seem to want to settle down, our boat captains decided to take us over to Captain Cook, one of the more popular snorkeling areas. On our way we came upon a couple of humpback whales!

Caught the tail as it went back in

Captured the full body breach!

We saw 2 different sets of humpbacks on our way to Captain Cooks which was incredible. We finished up the boat trip with some easy, gorgeous snorkeling and headed in.

Very happy family after the dolphin excursion!

The next day, we woke up with the news that mom had taken a bad fall while hopping over the small retaining wall from our house to the beach. We found out after the trip that she has indeed broken her nose! (She has since had surgery 1 of 2 to repair the damage and is doing well) Poor mom stayed home all of Wednesday to recuperate as best she could. So while she and dad hung back, the rest of us took the cars up the coast in search of awesome beaches. We found one that had a small lagoon but then out a ways was lava rock that broke the waves. Had incredible surf that day!

 We ventured further up the coast to Mahaiula Beach, part of Kekaha Kai State Park which was where we spent most of the day.

My nephews built sand barriers to keep the waves from getting us

On Thursday we took a family trip even further up the coast to Hapuna Beach. It was a pretty windy day and the surf was intense so we didn't last the whole day. We attempted some boogie boarding just long enough for Del to really tweek his neck and me tweek my back. So back in the car we went for a short drive to get a glimpse of the other side of the island - a much wetter, greener side.

 

Hapuna Beach

 The rest of the trip was unplanned. We all did our own things for a couple of days, whether it be swimming, snorkeling, or shopping. Del, my bro-in-law Jake, my nephews and I went out for one last snorkeling trip on Saturday and my goal was to see a sea turtle. And that I did! Within the first 5 mins of the snorkel Jake yelled "turtle!" so we headed for him and saw the small sea turtle gliding along about 10 ft below us. My nephews dived down closer to it and Bret almost got to touch it! It was only about 24 or so inches across, but it was a sea turtle!
We saw a few gorgeous sunsets. Not every night though, so the few we saw we soaked right up.

Sunset from our lanai

Nephew, Bret helping the sun go down

 Towards the end of the trip we went to dinner as a family and got a little dressed up and took lots of pics. Here's just a couple.

Dad with his girls :)

I like him sometimes

Hang loose!

 On the very last morning as everyone was packing things up, Dellas was sitting on the lanai watching the ocean when he saw a coconut fall right of a palm. He went and grabbed it and we decided to try and break into it.

 He picked the best kitchen knife he could find and started hacking away.

Cut off the end

 Once he got the end cut off he dug inside a bit to get to the coconut milk and we all tried a bit. It was good!

Look at Bret's face (one with cup in hand) then look at next pic

 As Del was trying to cut the coconut in half he encountered a problem...the knife handle broke off! Haha he managed to finish the job and we tried a bit of the coconut jelly or the insides but it wasn't as tasty as the milk.

 All-in-all it was an amazing trip!! I have lots more pics on Facebook if you have access. Thank you Mom and Dad Vance for such a fabulous family trip!! We couldn't have asked for a better one!!