Graduation and After

Here is the second part of our graduation weekend in Bellingham. The graduation ceremony was all that we could have hoped for. Despite having to read over 600 names in my ceremony, they were able to finish exactly on time in only 90 minutes! We all sweat through the ceremony and then had a bit of time to cool off before we had a great dinner celebration at the Hearthfire Steakhouse on the water. We spent several hours at the restaurant talking, laughing, and enjoying being together as a big family. I'm pretty sure that Dad got about 10 times as many pictures on his camera as I did so be looking for more pictures from him soon.



On Sunday after everyone left town, Heather and I spent a little time together just trying to relax and then we decided to take a drive and try out the new GPS! Heather found a county park that looked pretty interesting in Ferndale, just a few miles north of Bellingham. We excitedly got in the car and hopped on the I-5. We were barely half-way down the entrance ramp when we noticed traffic was at a standstill and backed up for quite a ways. It didn't take long to figure out that there was a pretty intense situation up ahead and we probably wouldn't be moving for a while. After only 5-10 minutes of waiting, people started to turn around and go back up the entrance ramp to the surface streets!! Heather and I couldn't help but just stare at people with our jaws on the floor in disbelief! She captured the whole thing with our camera. Yes. Those are several rows of cars on the same side of the road, going in different directions. Brilliant right? Not so much...



The first thing we found at this park was a fragrance garden. It was full of all kinds of varieties of sage, mint, thyme, rosemary, and other aromatic flowers and trees. It was such a unique garden and was very interesting to explore!



Later, we look some really neat trails through a large wetland area. It was full of all sorts of wildlife and plantlife that we don't usually see. We weren't able to get a good picture, but as we were pulling into the park, a bald eagle was circling overhead! They are such majestic birds. Feel free to click on the pictures to make them much larger.

Here is a Blue Heron



While standing on a bridge taking pictures of the Heron, we noticed this little guy silently swimming down the stream at a pretty good pace! At first we thought he was a small beaver but he turned out to be a muskrat. Too cute!

New Dog & Graduation

Preface: There is much more to come from this great weekend! Tonight we had a bbq at our apartment. Woah, talk about a full house! We managed to entertain 12 people (including Addi) in our not so huge apartment. We bbq'd and ate outside at the picnic table. We were fortunate enough to have beautiful weather today and the best company in the world!



Oh wait, what's that horse doing next to Emily? He's no horse, but he is our new dog! Correction, our new HUGE dog!! Draco was brought to us from Walla Walla today and we are so excited to finally meet him! I must admit, it was a GIGANTIC surprise to see him for the first time. We knew was a bit over weight, but when we met him, we saw that he is COLOSSAL! His new nickname is "the sausage". We offer for proof, the next photo. Please, try not to laugh too hard, he is very sensitive about his weight. As we're posting this I am singing "Fat dog with little leeeggggggssss....."



That picture definitely reminds us of the more famous shot of a pig from the same angle. We are looking forward to giving him the exercise and diet that he needs to be a healthy, long-living pet for us. He's going to be a TITANIC chore and will require much patients and care, but we love him already and can't wait to spend time with him! And here are a few pictures that are more flattering of his ROBUST physique.

All that's new

Well, It's been quite a while since our last post. I'm sure we'll have a lot more to write about when we start our cross-country move. But for now, just a few things to report.

We have an apartment waiting for us in Nashville. It's a newly remodeled townhouse in a suburb called Bellevue. It feels really great to have a place to stay waiting for us when we get there! We've pretty much picked our moving date also. Heather's last day of work will be Friday, July 24th. We will probably get a moving truck on Monday the 27th, pack everything that morning, and head for Walla Walla!

I am graduating from Western this next weekend! I have one final tomorrow (Monday) morning and I'll be finished! It feels like Mom and Dad dropped me off in my dorm just a year or so ago. Time is starting to fly! Yikes! We are planning on having a big crew up to Bellingham for the festivities. It'll be more people in our little apartment than there ever should be, but it will be a great time! Aside from the reunion, it will be one of the last times we'll get to see everyone before we move.

Oh, we almost forgot to add...we got a dog today! Mom, Dad, we know. Our friends Seth and Emily called us a few days ago. They have a friend who is an older lady with three dogs. Apparently her allergies are kicking up to the maximum and she needed to get rid of her dogs ASAP. Long story short, we ended up with a 4 year-old purebred Welsh Corgi, for FREE!!! Seth and Emily are going to take care of him until we can come pick him up. We decided to give him a new name (his old name was scrappy). His name is Draco (pronounced Dray-Co). I have a few pictures of him on my cell phone but I couldn't get them onto my computer for this post. I'm sure most of you will see him soon!

So that's mostly what we know for now. We're looking forward to seeing most of you this next weekend here in Bellingham! Until next time...

Love, Tim & Heather