Has it really been a week??

Hey all!!  It's me, Alicia again!  It has sure been a crazy busy week here!  Loving it though!!   We have had some awesome experiences this week so I am excited to share!!

We have had the family from Texas here all week and that has been so much fun.  They are really cool people.  They left here on Saturday morning which was sad, but it was great to get to know them as much as we were able to.  They couldn't leave on Friday as planned because of the weather and they couldn't even fly out on Saturday due to fog, so they were taken in on the boat by Luke!!  For the extra day that they were here we ended up just hanging out, watching movies and playing games.  It was fun.  It was also great to get some much needed rain :)

We had a great time with this family and they seemed to love their time here.  Some things we ended up doing together include: Whale watching at sunset, bonfire at Russian Island, a party here, and we ate every meal together.

The coolest thing by far was watching the whales at sunset.  Jordan, Caitlin and I set out in the boat one night to see if we could find some whales, but they were really far away.  We ended up deciding just to watch the sunset from the roof of the boat.  As we were sitting up there, we saw the other boat coming our way!  Luke and the mom and dad of the family that were here were coming out to watch the whales at sunset!  They wanted some good pictures, so they decided to come out and the kids stayed in.  So Luke told us we could come with them!  So we dropped the anchor and hopped on the other boat and took off!!  We went a little ways and we found some whales!  It was an amazing sight!!  They made some really interesting noises and we could see them/feel them blowing water.  It was really beautiful to see them at sunset.  It was so serene and peaceful.

 

At one point, Kathy, Caitlin and I were standing at the front of the boat taking pictures and the boys were all inside staying warm.  We were just chatting and playing with our cameras when all of the sudden a huge 'ole whale was coming right for us!!  We thought we were going to go under FOR SURE.  So Kathy screamed and grabbed Caitlin and I and we were screaming at this point too holding on for dear life!!  We thought we were going to be bumped by the whale and overturned or something!!!  But nothing happened. :)  The boys were inside laughing their heads off at us.  Kathy said that if she was going over she was going to take us with her!  Haha.  It was really funny..so that was my first close encounter with a whale!!  It was an amazing experience as a whole and I am so excited to experience more amazing things like that!

Another cool thing this week:  We went to Russian Island during the day to prepare the bonfire and there was an eagle right on the beach!  It was wounded so it couldn't fly away so I got really close to it!  I'll tell you what, those birds are so beautiful!!  No wonder the bald eagle is our national bird :)

Aside from those things, there wasn't too much else!  We have just been working in the kitchen and garden still with doing random little jobs on the side.  We are kept really busy and are enjoying our time here together.  This week we have a family of 4 coming in tomorrow and then we have another group coming in on Wednesday.  I can't remember the group size right off the top of my head...but it will be fun!!  I am excited to have more guests :)

Well, I sure love you guys and miss everyone!!  I hope all is well and encourage comments/questions/stories/packages/letters..whatever!! Tell me what is going on in civilization! :)  Much love!!!!

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The signs read: "We aren't starving...Keep it coming!!" :)  Love you!!