The Great Outdoors

Vancouver, BC Canada
First off is Vancouver, BC trip. I didn't take too many pictures because we've been here before so most of the pictures are from my sister and her friend's camera. We (they) chose site seeing so that involved a lot of driving. I was the driver so this is what I have to say about it: 'Wow! Vancouver is huge!' Last time we were there it was cloudy and snowy. It was bright and sunny when we went and we could see everything, except we didn't see everything and ran out of time. The beach was full of people. I prefer less crowded beaches but the sights were stunningly beautiful. All of the northwest is so beautiful. It's only fair God made it so that it has a lot of clouds in the sky to hide some of its beauty, otherwise other places would feel intimidated.


Seattle Symphony
A friend of mine told us that the Seattle Symphony is performing at Pine Lake for free for the Issaquah/Sammamish community so we quickly gathered our stuff and headed out to the park after Dan got home from work and thoroughly enjoyed the music. The kids got free snacks, beach balls, and the best part was Reena winning a free photoshoot session, a $300 value. We were pretty excited when they called her name as the winner. It's just fun to win stuff even though her mom is a photographer and could do her portrait pictures just as well.

Ensign Ranch Ward Campout
Our ward had a campout at the church's campsite and we went with our friends. We all had a great time even though we hardly got any sleep. My friend Shellee asked me to reserve her a spot next to ours so I did, gladly even. I realized later that night that perhaps I should've reserved a spot a little further out. Her husband snored so loud and kept us up pretty much most of the night, adding on to the fact that we have a baby who kept waking up looking around and asking to go bye bye. We loved camping out with close friends though and the ward had several fun activities. We did a lot of singing by the fire and it was all very very fun. Brie was the youngest kid there and everyone knew it that night. :) She made sure everyone heard her.

Reena and Brie kicking back and enjoying the campsite, at least before 7:00.
These were the other activities we did the day after at the campsite. The funnest was probably the family canoeing. We had never taken our kids out canoeing before. Brie kept reaching over the canoe to touch the water. It was very scary for me watching her. We all made it out alive!
-Horseback riding
- Going down on the Giant Slip and Slide. This looked really fun but Reena went down once and was pretty much done with it. Thankfully she had a friend there to help her go down so we didn't have to get wet.
-Family Canoeing



I love this picture of Brie. Doesn't she look like a country girl?

7th Heaven Anniversary
We love the outdoors. Can you tell by our previous blogs? God's creations are way more beautiful than anything man could create. We've enjoyed living here so much. The people are very nice here and very active. We hope to be like them. Nice and active. So of course what did we decide to do for our anniversary? Kayaking. We gave thoughts to doing a dinner cruise out to the Peninsula, whale watching and site seeing on the San Juan Islands and considered other things, all of which would require a family member watching the kids otherwise babysitting cost would be too much. Unfortunately my sister went back to Philly so that made it easier to decide. My mom also has volunteered to come out later in the year so that's still on the list but kayaking is always our favorite so why not. We started out in Portage Bay, then Union Bay and finally out to Lake Washington. We saw a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier and we weaved through the world's longest floating bridge and all right here in Seattle, a half an hour from home. After our long excursion, we were so hungry. We quickly put our nicer clothes on and went to one of our favorite restaurants, which we are now making an anniversary tradition as well. The craziest thing was we got the EXACT same table and server as last year. So we ordered the EXACT same meal as we did last year - the campfire feast which included a 12 sample platter, 2 steaks main course, and a yummy dessert which we got extra just by mentioning that we are making BLACK ANGUS our anniversary tradition. We ate so much our stomachs hurt and we had to pack up our dessert which we had next day for FHE. It was all very wonderful. It's fun to have traditions.






House Plans Update
In terms of our house, it's going along well. We just recently got approval from the Highlands, the community we're building in. We also got the house plan and land appraised and it came out $200,000 more than it will cost to build. You might ask, "how is that possible in this economy?" and the answer is because of this economy. We were able to get the land for $40,000 less than its value and because we're doing it custom, we add things that have character and distinction and take out the unnecessary stuff. But it isn't as simple as that. It has been a very long process with lots of research, designing and redesigning.
Well Ciao, chao tam biet. Until next time. Thanks for reading our blog! We always enjoy your e-mail comments on our blog. Love, the Stevens.