Adventures Abroad

You would thing that summer would be conducive to daily blogging, but for us this has just not been the case. We have been having an excellent summer, just soaking up every minute of it and, although the blog crosses my mind often, I haven't really acted much on those thoughts. I have to admit, I haven't really been much of a picture taker this summer either - just living in the moment in front of the lens.
To catch you up ... after I left Stanford, the family headed up to Seattle to see all our good friends up there. It was wonderful to see everyone, we loved it. My dad and Katy came up for a Mariners game, which was great even though they lost. I was horrible about taking pictures in Seattle, so I have nothing to show you.
After Seattle we spent a few days at home. Pete and I took Praxis exams in the hopes of being able to renew our Oregon Teaching Licenses next year so we can get jobs and support ourselves when we move back to the States. They were much more difficult than expected, so we'll see how we did in a few weeks.
Currently, we are at Rockaway Beach on the Oregon Coast, soaking up the Pacific Ocean from this side of the pond. We love the beach and it is so good to be here.
Here are some of the few pictures I have taking this summer:

Andy and Ali's new house in Bend. Beautiful!

Lucy had fun playing with her cousin's toys. She especially loved this tunnel.

Lots of good food with the Muilenburgs!

Pete working on a s'more.

The brothers working on their BBQ s'more technique.

Here we are at the beach. Lucy is now pointing at anything she finds fascinating and we also think she may have said her first word: "clock." Strange, I know, but she points at clocks and says what sounds just like the word. She's also been saying "dog" and "duck," but not really at dogs and ducks, just in general.

Here's the view from our place here at the beach. It is a gorgeous view.

I hope everyone is having a great summer. I will try to be better about both picture taking and blogging, but, if I don't succeed this summer, we're back to HK in two weeks (sigh, sniff) where I know I can be a good blogger again. It's been a great summer, though.