Dale and Bruce Visit

Anna Writes:

My Dad, Dale, and Uncle Bruce came to visit for a long weekend. We had a great time hiking and exploring.
We camped for one night at Sequim, on the Olympic Pennisula. Riley and I got up early and walked down to the water for the sunrise over the mountains.





From there we drove up to Hurricane Ridge, in the Olympic National Park and did some hiking. It was SUNNY, so the pictures are not the greatest, but it was still a great day!
This picture shows the trail we hiked on cutting across the ridge:
Trying to decide which direction is North:
Relaxing at the visitor center:The next day we drove to Mt Rainier and hiked some more. Those pictures will have to come later, but this one can tide you over until our next post!

Dresser

Anna Writes:

One of the unique things about living in on-campus housing for five years of marriage is that we actually own very little furniture. So, moving into our FIRST off campus home this summer meant we were in sudden need of EVERYTHING to furnish a house. We did well making good buys at garage sales and are satisfied with our furnishings, knowing that we aren't staying in this home permanently and these furnishings are temporary also. One thing we needed was a dresser, and rather than spend money, we bought one for $20 and I got to try my first re-finishing project. It was a lot of fun. The dresser was laquered, so I stripped it three times and thought that I had gotten most of the color, but I borrowed a power sander and was delighted to find that the color underneath was much lighter. This is a post-stripper, post-sander picture.


My new "favorite" power tool:
The whole dresser post-sanding. Beautiful!

Here is a picture to show the color I stained it. With new handles, and clear finish I am so pleased with how it turned out! Unfortunately, I didn't take a finished picture, so you'll have to come visit to see the finished product. :)

The rest of the story...

Anna Writes:

Ok, here are the rest of the pictures we promised several weeks ago. First, Emily and I hiked Mt. Ellinor with Riley and the mountain goats had it out for us! They came within two feet of us, and were focused on Riley. I have since learned that mountain goats have very poor vision up close, which is probably why they came so close, but it was kinda scary at the time!
Riley was a trooper for the grueling hike (elevation gain of 1,500 feet in 1.6.miles!), but for the last quarter of the hike I put him in the backpack so that he didn't spook the goats. He was perfectly content with that and rode along in the pack like he does it everyday. He was curious about the goats, but also a little bit scared cause it was obvious they were focused on figuring out what he was. When we reached the top and sat for a bit, it took prodding to get him out of the pack.
This is the view of Mt. Olympus from Mt. Ellinor. It was a nice view, and while we could see Mt. Rainier in the distance it was hazy and not a great view of Rainer.