Jones Family Comes to Visit

There can't be a better place in the world than Anacortes and Bellingham in the summer, which is why we had visitors all summer. It was great! In July, Jer, Erika and Riley came to stay with us and Barb came to stay with Nate and Jessica and kids in Bellingham. It was the first time we have all been together in quite awhile and we took advantage of our time together seeing the sites in Western Washington. The whether was beautiful and they were able to escape from the hot Utah summer a bit.

Everyone who comes to visit gets a little taste of the San Juans with a visit to Friday Harbor. The kids loved the ferry ride over and we did lots of shopping and walking around in the village.

Jer, Riley, Jessica and Kloe on the ferry ride over. It was a typical morning, started out grey and cloudy, but turned into a beautiful day.

Kleigh, Barb, Erika, me, Jessica and Kloe in Friday Harbor.

Jessica, Erika, Kloe and Riley in downtown Bellingham.

This was on Mt Baker at a place called Nooksack Falls.

Kloe and Riley near Nooksack Falls. They had fun playing together.

This is what the top of Mt Baker looks like in July! There was a German family sledding up there. We were all wearing flip flops.

The Koupal family with Nooksack Falls in the background.

The Koupals Move to Bellingham

Jessica, Nate, Kleigh and Kloe FINALLY moved up here after we waited for four months for them to get here. They are stationed up in Bellingham, which is about 45 minutes away. Nate is in the Coast Guard; like us, they've been moving around for the past several years and we were all pretty surprised to end up in the same place at the same time.

They stayed with us for a little more than a week while looking for a house up in Bellingham. We loved having them with us and are so excited to have family in the area! We took them around and showed them some sites and celebrated the 4th of July in our yard.


Josh and Nate hanging out on our porch. This was after we went searching for some good sea shells wth the kids.


Josh and I overlooking Deception Pass





Josh, Nate, Kleigh, Kloe and Me at Deception Pass


The Koupals with the great view in the background

Is there anything better than 4-day weekends?

This past weekend was the 4th of July, which meant a LONG four-day weekend. We didn't have plans to go out of town, so we decided to have a Jones Family Fun Week. We had Wathen Family Fun Week when I was a kid--an activity-packed week (or long weekend) full of fun! What could be better?

We started out the weekend with a round of golf and a bike ride around Guemes Island. Guemes is part of the San Juan Islands and just a five-minute ferry ride from Anacortes. You can see it from one side of town and we've always wondered what was over there so we decided to check it out. We took our bikes over on the ferry and took off for a ride around the island. Unfortunately, we didn't bring our cameras, but there were some pretty amazing views. We rode along the edge of the island all the way around and caught some glimpses of other islands, Mt. Baker, and Anacortes. The island is very rural and they only have one General Store with one gas pump. After our ride, we sat in the store and had lunch and hopped back on the ferry to go back home.

Monday and Tuesday we made plans to go camping on Orcas Island with some friends the Davis's and the Cromwells. Orcas is one of the biggest islands and home of Mt. Constitution. We stayed Monday night and hiked up the mountain on Tuesday for some pretty incredible views.


We sat around Monday night playing poker and making tinfoil dinners. You can see our tootsie rolls and Crystal Light packs that we used for money.

No shortage of food here...

Tired dog. He played all night with the Cromwells boxer Tobia all night before passing out in the tent with us.

The top of Mt. Constitution. Apparently Josh doesn't think flying jets is dangerous enough.

You can see some of the views here. That's another island back there in the distance. Unfortunately there were a few clouds, so we couldn't see Seattle and Vancouver, which you can see on a clear day.

After hiking up to the top, we raced down the mountain in order to make the 1:15 fairy and then raced the 15 miles back to the ferry station. Luckily we made it. Otherwise we would have sat around waiting for three more hours.

We got to come home to Nate, Jessica, Kleigh and Kloe at our house! They are staying with us until they find somewhere to live in Bellingham. We sat out on our front lawn Tuesday night and watched the Anacortes fireworks, which was pretty incredible. Not to brag or anything, but we think we might have had the best view in town. While sitting around, one of us remarked how watching fireworks was one of those things you have to do, but not really something you talk about the next day. We were so wrong! We were so impressed with the show that we were eating our words the next day.

We also took them for a walk along the water on the trail we walk and run on. Kleigh and Kloe had some fun adding to our collection of random creatures and seashells that we keep on our front porch. The best ones are the shells that are still closed. Kleigh scored two of those and then watched as they slowly 'hatched,' resulting in the slow, tortuous death of the creature inside.

More pictures to come soon...