Happy Birthday, Washington

Hello everyone!
We have had a glorious time these last couple of weeks. Two weekends ago, Sam, David and I packed up all of our paperwork, taxes and files and went to Orcas Island for our "Executive Retreat". Though our weekend was filled with going through massive piles of paper and old bills, we were able to enjoy ourselves. Samantha was ecstatic to have both Mom and Dad around full time. She loved watching the woodburning stove.
Here she is showing off her two teeth. Look closely!

This last weekend we went to the beach to visit David's mom and dad. His sister and family also went. Grandma was so pleased to have her most recent grandkids around for a long weekend! Sammy's cousin is amazing: sitting up, crawling and pulling himself up into a standing position. It has only been a couple of weeks since we had "cousin day", but he has certainly learned a bunch of new things in those few days!

I think the highlight of the weekend for Sammy was taking a bath with her cousin and aunt. Of course she relished the paparazzi as we all cooed and laughed at their splashing.

I have had an exciting development in my professional life. A couple of years ago the company that I had been working at for 5 years was acquired by a much bigger company. I hung with this new, bigger company for two years and watched as many of my old colleagues left to "pursue other challenges" (how's that for jargon, S?). Two of those colleagues started their own consulting firm. So, last week, I left the larger company to go work with my ex-coworkers! (Which makes them my coworkers once again, I guess.) I am very excited to be working with them again. I jumped right in and started taking calls on my first day - so much for the honeymoon period. :-)

David and I have felt a sense of rejuvenation since our retreat. We have re-established our budget and set aside a couple of hours a week to take care of items on our ever-so-long to-do list. You know, all those things that are not imperative, but contribute to the feeling of guilt or doom or burden or whatever you want to call it. All in all, even though the house is in shambles due to our long weekend, we're feeling pretty good.

Here are a couple of shots. The family one was taken via timer while we were waiting for the ferry. The other was taken from a lookout on (I want to say, but I'm not entirely sure of the name...) Mt. Constitution.