Crabbing at Bowman Bay - Deception Pass

Saturday we spend the day up at Bowman Bay near Deception Pass crabbing with friends.

Ever since we moved to Washington, crabbing has always been one of Steve's favorite things to do here in the beautiful Northwest. Steve's birthday is today and all he wanted for his birthday was to go crabbing. So he got an early birthday present from me! We rented a small fishing boat to take up there with us.

We took 6 of our fold up kayaks and enjoyed kayaking around the bay. Here is a picture of Mackenzie and I out for a ride.

Check out this cute picture of the Williams kids each holding a crab.

When they pulled up one of the crab pots they found this cute little sea star.

The Jorgensen Family.

 

I love this picture of Steve and Britta.

 

One of the pots they pulled up had this ugly bull head fish in it.

 Steve and Paul cleaning the crab.

 

Isn't this picture cute? Elle is petting the crab! So precious!

We caught lots of crab but only got to keep 6 dungeness and 2 red rock. We cooked them up on the beach and had bacon fried rice and lots of yummy salads and desserts to go with the crab.

Check out all these crab eaters!

More crab eaters!

 

Inge had such a fun day playing in the water and in the sand that she fell asleep just after dinner while still holding her dinner plate. So cute!

For dessert we had homemade brownies to celebrate Steve's Birthday! 

We had such a fun day spending time with great friends, amazing weather, gorgeous views and yummy food.

Happy 27th Wedding Anniversary!

Last week Steve and I celebrated our 27th Wedding Anniversary!

Steve made reservations for dinner at Daniels Broiler in Seattle. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and the beautiful view of Chandlers Cove from our table. There were sea planes landing on the water and taking off from the water right in front of us.

 

Check out the dessert that they gave us for our Anniversary celebration. Yum!

It's been an absolutely amazing 27 years being married to Steve. He is a lot of fun to be married too. I feel so blessed and I look forward to many more years of partying with this fun and crazy man. Happy Anniversary Steve!

"Mom...I think I might need stitches"...

Last Friday Brooklyn went to an EFY (Especially For Youth) reunion party down near Renton. She met some really nice kids this summer at her EFY session and has had fun keeping in touch with them throughout the summer. One of the girls in her company decided to have a reunion party.

Around 10:30 that evening Steve and I headed down to pick up Brooklyn from the party.  About 10 minutes after we left I got a call from Brooklyn.  She said..."Mom...I think I might need stitches". She then explained that they were sitting on the floor playing a game when someone from behind her started tickling her and so she moved fast to get away and smacked her nose on the corner of a TV cabinet. She said that she was bleeding pretty bad and that she had a big cut on her nose. The girl who was hosting the party went and got her dad and he cleaned Brooklyn up and put a butterfly bandage on her nose to stop the bleeding until we got there. Steve took one look at her and knew that she needed stitches. So off to the ER we went. We passed several hospitals on our drive home but felt the best about stopping in Bellevue at Overlake Hospital. We arrived around midnight. They got us in pretty quickly into a room where we waited for the ER doctor to come in and take a look at Brooklyn.

The ER doctor took a quick look at the cut and quickly decided that he didn't want to stitch Brooklyn up and called for a plastic surgeon to come in and do it. Check out that injury! Ouch!

Three hours later Brooklyn had 10 stitches on her nose. The doctor who came in to do them was excellent. We were so glad that we chose Overlake Hospital to have Brooklyn stitched up!

Smith Family Reunion - McCall, Idaho

We just returned from a fun filled week in beautiful McCall, Idaho for the Smith Family Reunion.

 Everyone was there except my nieces husband Trent who was helping out with Trek in his Stake.

Here we are playing a funny game that my brother Alan taught us. He would blind fold us and place an object on the ground. With our feet we had to try and figure out what that object was. It got really brutal with feet and legs flying all around.

 Two days while we were there we rented jet skis. It was so fun to zip around the lake on them.

 Brooklyn and Steve on the jet ski.

 We also rented a paddle board. All the kids had fun taking a turn on it. Mackenzie really enjoyed it.

 Each family was in charge of cooking one breakfast and one dinner. All the meals were yummy.

 The original Smith Family!

 One evening after dinner we went to a little pond to fish and to do some archery. Mackenzie was loving being able to use her long bow that she received from Grandpa LeBaron.

 Brooklyn caught a fish!

 And so did I! Family joke...."Steve...get the camera"!! I'm sure those words that I screamed out will be a part of the Smith Family jokes forever!

 After fishing we went to "My Father's Place" for milkshakes and fries! Yum!

 Playing cards.

 We spent most every day at the lake. Here is Brooklyn getting ready to go out jet skiing.

 Some of the cousins on the big rock.

 One of our favorite breakfasts was made by Grandpa and Grandma Smith. Yummy sourdough pancakes.

One day we went to see the fish hatchery in McCall. Here is a picture of all the cousins except Mike. He wasn't there that day.

 Tubing!

 Steve and I even went tubing!

 

 Brooklyn went surfing for the first time and got up her first try. She was so excited. 

While we were camping the summer Olympics were on. Here are some of the cousins inside our trailer watching the swimming events.

The morning we were in charge of breakfast we made homemade scones. Here is Steve making the dough.

The scones were a hit. Everyone loved them.

Steve taking a turn on the paddle board.

 Mackenzie and Brooklyn on the paddle board.

We took individual family pictures and a big group picture one night. Here is our family picture.

One night we made hand cranked homemade raspberry ice cream. Here is Kathryn and Erika taking there turn at the crank. It was so yummy.

 

I have been blessed with amazing parents. Thank you mom and dad for all you have done for our family. We had such a fun week together and we look forward to our next reunion together.