We’re all standing and breathing fresh air! Xanna left on an earlier flight to Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau…and then Anchorage. We actually made it home in Seattle before her!

In Sitka, we headed out toward the end of the road to a former pulp mill turned bear sanctuary. Each circular habitat is 2/3 of an acre, which is boggling to think that that much pulp swirled around in there at once. Most fun discovery: the bears knew sign language!

With bears who didn’t care:) We did!

We learned about taking care of birds at the Sitka Raptor Center!

We got a roast chicken, so we of course had to wish on the wishbone! Holmes won:)

On our last evening in Sitka, we headed to the beach to enjoy our bubble wands from the Fourth of July parade. (I tried to capture all the bubbles, but the view took hold!)

And all you can eat crab:)

Lainie and David came to visit! Only we weren’t completely over all of our illnesses (mainly me), so we shared Frank’s blueberry clafoutis and chatted at a distance:)

Riding day! We forgot pants, it was so hot. Miss. Patticakes was equal parts sass and gas and it was all great:)

Another pre-k playdate in the books and we’re enjoying meeting Holmes’ new fall classmates and families. Cheers to new friends!

Meryl went to art camp at the Seattle Asian Art Museum last week and had a blast! They had the whole museum to themselves and even put on a performance and art showcase on the last day. It was fun to tour the museum with her afterwards to see her favorite objects.

Lainie and Kyra came to visit! Yay for us, we fit into their busy Seattle social schedule…leading up to seeing Taylor Swift in concert! (Lucky them, and us, our illness mania is over!)

Birthday party fun! Holmes inspired two other friends to get Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles face painting and they then enjoyed themselves quite a bit:) Booyakasha!

We have a proliferation of the teeniest tiniest strawberries…go garden!