It finally happened! We went to a military ball... together! See, Dan has played at countless military balls, often playing for units that aren't his own. I couldn't be a plus one at a ball that I wasn't invited to. There was a moment in Korea where I thought I could go to a ball, but it fell through, so here we are at 18 years into his military career and finally the opportunity to be his plus one, AND he was performing too. Best of both worlds. That meant it was time to find a dress!
We had a REALLY fun night. We got all fancied up, talked the talk with the important peoples, waited forever for food, listened to long (and really WILD speeches/roasts), listened to Dan perform an awesome tribute to 250 years of Army, and then we danced! I'm not much of a dancer, but i did my best to relax into the situation and just have fun. I think we succeeded!
Before
After
with a pop of pink!
This girl came up to me and said she liked my dress, and then i realized, it was because she had the same dress! How crazy is that? Amazon, ftw!
April-June of any given year while I've been a teacher has been THE busiest season by far for me. All the groups I work for and perform with end up with their performances back to back to back and then you add the SPSCC musical on top of that. This is why I insisted on some rest time during spring break. I don't think I really came up for air until after Croatia, and maybe even after our trip to Glacier.
BUT there are still notable things that happen for the family during those months and while it may take a bit for me to blog about, they still gotta get documented :)
My friend Julie has a friend who has 4 schnauzers! She knew I was missing Carson so she arranged a visit. Aren't they adorable??
The boys and I got to play in the SPSCC orchestra together, even a bit of Mahler 2! I know this won't happen many more times in our lives, so pictures were a necessity :)
Cade had his first birthday away from home, so we put up the banner anyways and sent him a birthday package. He's 19?!
Dan plays at a lot of events around the PNW. He's played at the Mariner's games a few times now but this time I finally made it out! It was a really fun night, and they sounded great!
Drum circle set up in in my classroom!
Gym all set for our 3rd grade recorder concert
Dan and his performing group came to our school for the Month of the Military Child Assembly! It's our student's favorite assembly of the year!
Exploring some WA trails!
Dan and I have been trying our hands at pickleball, and we like it!
Julie and I at the OYC concert!
A little offstage Mahler action!
Gettin' out and trying a new trail at Millersylvania State Park
At Jorie's graduation party! She finished strong at YHS and SPSCC! Off to CSU Fort Collins
Our Father's Day gift to Dan was our awesome shirts! Mine says, your husband/my husband. He loved 'em. Then we got some Buddy's chicken and waffles and did an escape room. We did escape, but only because we were so close to getting out when the hour mark hit that the guy let us finish it.
Last day in my classroom! (funny that I'm typing this as i head back in a few days)
Alex is now 17!! We spent his day celebrating by hitting up a video game store, IKEA, topgolf and a fun restaurant that served up meat pies!
And because I had a feeling it would look awesome, and Alex agreed, he got a perm! He's been loving the curly hair lifestyle.
Not pictured are all the hours spent in rehearsal and performance with Lizzie, the SPSCC spring musical. It was, as always, a very fulfilling experience. I love going through the whole process of learning the musical with the actors and then seeing it through to performance.
The last day of school, alex's birthday and father's day were all pretty close to each other. And soon after all that we started rehearsals for our trip to Croatia! There was just one more special event that took place before we left for Croatia, and that you'll get to read about in my next blog post!
For Spring Break I didn't want to do a big trip that left me exhausted heading back into school, so instead I requested a day trip to Port Townsend and then the boys planned their own separate trip while I stayed home alone for a bit! :)
We've been to Port Townsend as a family before, but I wanted to go back and do the full Sea Glass beach trail to make it to the spot that has the best sea glass selection.
We turned it into a two day trip and stayed at a really fun (and inexpensive) historic hotel. Day one included exploring the hotel, spending time at Fort Warden, and having dinner at a cool Scottish pub!
I highly recommend spending time at Fort Warden- it's huge, lots to explore and we had fun seeing the sea otters!
and eagles!
You can walk around the old bunkers with spots for turret guns and prisons and creepy dark corridors
Here's my dish from Tommyknocker's, a skillet mac n' cheese. Alex got a cornish pasty and tried scotch eggs for the first time. It was all SOO good!
The hotel we stayed at is called The Palace Hotel. It's right on the main street of Port Townsend and it has uniquely decorated rooms, as in, each one is a little bit different. Some even have lofts and multiple levels. It was originally built in 1889 and still features some original decor and of course, modern updates. The one downside is NO elevators, so lots of windy stairs to get to your room :)
Little library nook off one of the set of stairs
Lobby
Yes, I played it
After a day of driving, touring Fort Warden and the town of Port Townsend we got some sleep and got ready to hit the beach the next day.
We timed our visit to Port Townsend so that would could take advantage of favorable tide times. Your start at the North Beach Trailhead, pass the 'end of the world' lookout point (not a way down to the beach!) and then keep going until you get to the bend. This walk in the video below isn't always accessible if you visit at high tide. Folks often get stuck out too far and can't get back safely. It's 2 miles out, two miles back... rocky beach all the way. Some times little pebbles under your feet, other times large boulders!
BUT when you plan it right, then you have a lovely, long walk on the beach and plentiful opportunities to find sea glass! The way the land comes to a point after that two miles is a great collection point for items that have turned into sea glass since it was a common dumping ground between 1905-1967.
Apparently when you come across this car axle you know you're getting close to 'the spot'
We spent A LOT of time digging through rocks to find our own personal hauls of sea glass. White is the most common, then brown, then green and then blue, especially cobalt blue is the hardest to find. You can sometimes even find worn down pottery as well.
If you make the visit to Port townsend you can find sea glass by just starting at the trail head and walking around that first beach area. However, the further you go, the more you'll find, and the bigger the pieces you'll find. I watched some videos and at times folks really finds some decent pieces. We took all of ours home, but thought we'd find some bigger pieces than we did. Still totally worth it :)
Here's what we found, sorted by person. We rinsed them all off and then coated them in coconut oil to keep them translucent and smooth, like when they're wet.
Then we sorted them by color into these cool bottles we found at an antique store in Port Townsend on our last trip there! The first multi-colored bottle are our favorites and the last bottle are just cool rocks and pottery we found.
