Tomorrow We Leave

Jack, at 26 mo. was recently reassessed by his therapist as displaying 36 month skills in most categories!

Couldn't resist sharing this photo from the MN reunion, where Michael wandered to a neighboring riverboat event and joined the wedding festivities of an unknown party. A photo-trace of an otherwise anonymous, momentous event.

Maybe we'll run into her in Switzerland on her honeymoon?

We will be staying at La-Tour-de-Peilz for the first 2 weeks or so, waiting for the Lausanne apartment to be ready. La Tour is a charming little village on the lake with a nice view of the Dents du Midi (our replacement Rainier for a year, of which we've been bereft while in SoCal). I'll try to blog "normal" things, too, to remove the Christmas letter, highlight quality of these posts, but it's hard when you always seem to land in tourist-designated spots. We leave tomorrow, arriving in Geneva July 31st, in time for the August 1st celebrations - Swiss independence day.

Lac Leman

Across the way, originally uploaded by oobwoodman.

Well, we just heard that the apartment we've been foaming at the mouth over for months has come through! The view is somewhat like this, although certain windows also include the Swiss alps, as well. What you see are the French Alps just behind the town of Evian.

Disneyland

This is mostly blog-drill for me, but we did go to Disneyland in the spring. Not the park experience of my youth, the magic kingdom is now a full-blown, but urban resort - still, not a decent place to eat in the entire place.

Jack tries on "mickey hands."

Michael's personal highlight was a surprise visit by Mary Poppins, from whom he has learned dance. His nervous, pleased, aw-shucks posture is a delight to us, as well as Jack's more burly posture.

Tacoma

Freedom Fair 2007. The July 4th air show seemed a slight letdown compared to before, but Jack discovered corn on the cob. We spent a week in Tacoma, then went to our favorite spot on Whidbey Island.



This slip-n-slide from Laurie proved a great gift in Suzanne's beautiful backyard during Tacoma's "heatwave"- unbroken days of sunshine and high temps for our trip.


Michael & the Crawford clan at the Pt Defiance Zoo: Valencia, Lia, Cianna, Annie



Picking raspberries and eating them was a daily event at Aunt Suzanne's.

Whidbey Island

IMG_0291.JPG, originally uploaded by mikecarolyn.

We never tired of looking at the ferry to Pt Townsend, especially with this backdrop. A beautiful pebble and sand beach with the occasional resident bald eagle and nightly visits by an owl. Campfires of driftwood at night.

Lounging

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Sailboat

The "pirate ship"

It is true what they say about boys and sticks.

Captain Michael

Ahoy from the Catalina 440!

Patrick and Thomas joined us this year at Whidbey - relief from Tacoma heat for them; from solitude, for us. We took a sailboat cruise from Coupeville and enjoyed perfect weather with Mt Baker and the Olympics in full view.