whidbey weekend

I spent the weekend of July 19-21 at the Whidbey house 

with my whole family. My brother and Kara flew up from SF 

and we celebrated my brother's birthday. 

On Saturday evening we took a picnic down to the beach 

and made a fire. We cooked beans in the can and make s'mores for dessert. 

It was such a beautiful evening with a waxing gibbous moon. 

On Sunday we took the boat out and did some crabbing. 

We anchored and enjoyed cocktails and snacks. 

We kept five huge Dungeness crabs for dinner. 

That night for dinner we had fresh crab and a blackberry pie for dessert. 

I made the pie with berries my mom and I picked earlier in the week. 

I also made blackberry gin fizzes from Smitten's recipe. Yum! 

It was so nice to have a weekend with the fam in such a relaxing place. 
This summer is turning out to be full of excellent weekends. 

w h i d b e y

Last Sunday Joe and I spent the day on Whidbey Island. 

We went up to visit my parents who were staying for the weekend. 

It was Joe's first time on the island, crazy! 

Here are some photos from the day: 

We took the ferry over, had quiche (made by my dad) for lunch 

(as my mom says, "real men make quiche"!) 

went on a walk with Spencer on the Ebey preserve, 

fell asleep on the couch (it's just so relaxing up there!) 

and had a delicious dinner of crabcakes and mac and cheese. 

On the way home we drove around and managed to hit 

Deception Pass right at sunset. It was so gorgeous! 

Pretty perfect day. 

a Puget Sound farewell

Yesterday we laid my grandma Hadley's ashes to rest in Puget Sound. 

We set out on an early ferry from Edmonds to Kingston 

and left a trail of white roses behind us. 

I got to see my cousins and one of my 

aunts whom I had not seen in years. 

It was a gorgeous day and a perfect way to say goodbye. 

This is a photo of my grandma with Spencer from Christmas in 2010. 

family nights

My brother is moving to San Francisco this week.
I have a small family and we have always lived close together.
I am excited for him (totally going to visit)
but it will be so weird not to have him living a couple miles away.
Thursday last week he and Kara had Joe and I and my parents
over for pizza and game night.
We played "Telestrations", which is my new favorite game.

This is my brother's drawing representing "brother in law".

See the two brothers with the law around them? I laughed so hard.



This one was by my dad. This represented "brother in law" or "best man".



This was my favorite - my brother's illustration of "Thanksgiving".

I was laughing so hard the entire game.

It was so fun to spend a night with my family!

Then on Friday night we all went out for Polish food.
Check out that plate of pieroski!

Family nights are fun :)