sand and sun - and some good family time

Adrienne and I made the spring pilgrimage to SoCal last week to see the 'rents and the rest of the family.  As it usually is, the weekend was awesome - we had a great visit with our energetic nephew and his rockin' folks, the grand'rents whose conversation and company are pure gold, and many other close friends from the Land of the Sun.  It was so great to see everyone and spend time some quality time with Mar and Jer - always a treat.  And we got to see some new additions too - Ryan and Aura's little guy, and Juliette and Michael's little gal!

Below are a few images from the all-too-short weekend...

 

That beautiful Carlsbad coastline - AJ and I got some good beach time in, and saw many many dolphins, sea lions, and pelicans.

 Erin and Derin coloring Easter eggs!

My new favorite kid in the whole wide world

 AJ showing off her new plaid Scottish skirt and tam - thanks, g-ma!

The sharpest looking couple in Carlsbad - my I-can't-put-into-words-how-awesome-my-grandparents-are grandparents.

The standard 4318 scene - backyard Easter celebration with margaritas in hand.

Num-Num and D-dizzle

Low tide, Carlsbad - anemone

beachcombers

My moms and me

AJ in her natural habitat - a wine bar

Coming home - Mt Rainier above the clouds

Our beautiful city

Sun setting over Puget Sound and the Olympics

fun in the florida sun

Surprise, Adrienne and I got a dog!

Just kidding--this is our new good friend, Buck.  He lives in St. Pete on Tampa Bay with our other good friends, Becca and Mike.  And Becca and Mike have three bouncing-baby-boys that, even though they don't talk yet, are also our good friends.  Little Potter can do a mad fist bump that will win anyone over.

AJ was invited to participate in a workshop in Sarasota, FL--and since that is near Tampa Bay, I decided to tag along.  Becca is AJ's old swim team and college friend, so they go way back; Mike is newer to the scene.  The cool thing about these two is even though I have only met them once or twice, they feel like old friends to me too.  We all immediately fall into a comfortable routine of hanging out. 

Adding to the fun of hanging out was that sunny and warm Florida climate--clearly, the 90 year olds at the beach with their shirts off playing bocce ball had this figured out.  Sunday actually saw a high of about 82--so that fostered a day of sitting on the porch, bike riding through town, a long walk in the neighborhood, and a first-ever try at stand-up paddleboarding.  This was all punctuated by cool ocean breezes, lollygagging manatees and dolphins, and the sounds of birds happily chirp-chirp-chirping.

I am now home--arrived in rainy Seattle wearing sandy flip flops.  Adrienne flies in tonight.  Even though the sun is absent and chilliness prevails, its always great to be home.

Mike and Becca's awesome 100 year old house, Potter warmin up his walking legs

Jack and Mase, ready to roll

 And we're off...

A taste of Seattle in Tampa - Chihuly glass

Dolphins!

This is what I think of when Florida comes to mind - its awesome

Old friends

 Pool dudes

At the beach

Getting a primer on paddleboarding

Potter - a budding ocean scientist, I can tell...

 Loungin...

 Mike trying tofu for the first time ever

J and A enjoying tanktops and shorts

the return of the sun

Look at that blue sky behind the Centenarian!  SO blue!  And its been here ALL DAY!  In fact, it came streaming through our bedroom skylights this morning, a blissful greeting of 10 trillion photons.  Magical!

I had to snap a few photos of all of this, which I share with you below.  On this otherwise chilly day, it almost seemed like summer!

A friendly backyard robin, gob-gob-gobblin worms

My favorite fuzzball, testing the anti-albedo effect

Salmonberry buds!

Snowberries!

 Ahhh!  So bright - don't look straight into the sun!

scenes from late winter

February is often peppered with some great days to be outside, signs of hope for warmer days to come.  Even though we're in the dead of winter, its now light enough to actually go for a run after work.  As of this weekend, some flowers in the garden were in full bloom and the lawn shockingly needed mowing.  And Adrienne did her first earnest garden planting session - so the veggie season for 2013 has officially begun.

Its these little signs that make the seemingly endless grey tolerable this time of year.  The clouds returned Sunday, so we took advantage of the snow falling in the mountains and spent the day on the slopes.

It was a truly lovely weekend.

 I didn't say it was warm necessarily - but it was sunny!

The first salmonberry flowers - one of our favs.

Stevens Pass - got 2 feet of new pow pow overnight

AJ stylin

Cascade Valleys

Snow Mav

AJ showing perfect form

AJ showing less than perfect form... (notice tongue)

Not-so-stylin Mav

deep powdah