Goals

Since Tilly arrived almost a month ago, I've been thinking, "when we can walk all the way to the speed sign four houses down with no problem, that will be the day" and today was that day! I won't say she walked much farther than that before getting distracted by the sights and smells and stopping and pulling and all the rest, but we made it ALL THAT WAY with no treat bribes and no puppy temper tantrums. We have come a long way from taking 10 minutes to get up the driveway. It's good to remember that things that become normal are actually great accomplishments. 

After many walks around the lake guessing which house might be Nancy and Butches and imagining them in each one, the truth has finally been relieved and it's not the houses I guessed. It is beautiful! There is already a garden bed, it's on the corner of the lake closest to our house, and it is right at the intersection of the higher loop and the road around the lake so when we go for our longer walks, we still end up at Nancy's. It looks like there are currently people there, so I decided to only snoop from a distance at 7:30am.

Tim and I unanimously agreed to vacate the house for the day while the painters were around. We were starting to feel a little cooped up in our one room, and would rather have access to food and bathrooms not behind multiple layers of painty plastic. I headed north with Tilly in the escort, and after a brief debate, Tim took the ferry south.

 Before we split up for the day, Tim equipped each of our cars with a little reminder on the dash. 

I stopped by a out-of-season campground to let Tilly run about, then continued north to Bellingham.

Tim headed to Seattle where our friends JJ and Jessie have just moved. They went for a long hike and out to dinner, and then Tim and I both ended up home about the same time.

This is my favorite intersection on the way towards I-5 following Highway 20 north from the Island. There are so many great place-names in the world! Aside from of course our very own Honeymoon Bay Road, Tim's favorite nearby street is "Sleeper Road" between Oak Harbor and the Deception Pass bridge - a long straight stretch with very little traffic.

My reason for heading to Bellingham other than to get out of the house, was to visit with some Juneau friends who've also recently moved down! Of course, I didn't get any pictures of my sister-in-law's sister, Kacey, or her husband Kaleb, but I took plenty of pictures of the little ones. They are about the same size and have similar habits of biting, peeing on the floor (naw, they're better than that!), putting everything they find in their mouths, crying when they don't get their way... At least mine I can put in her box when she's naughty or when I need some time without her. They have laws against that for human babies, though they aren't barred from the grocery store so they don't need to be left in the car.

There is an excellent park right next to their house with one of the coolest playgrounds I've ever seen; so many things that spin and slide and tip, things for climbing and balancing. Tilly was super and climbed up a little "climbing wall" and up the stairs, then rode the long slide all the way down. I got her to do it about three times, as well as climbing and balancing on everything else we could. She is fearless and brilliant.

Coming back over the Deception Pass bridge at sunset was stunning. We had to get out and walk around a little.

Back at the house,the ceiling in the dining room looks great.  

In the rest of the house, not a lot of progress has been made. The walls are still two-toned from the texturing and all ready for paint. Either painting takes longer than I thought, or some places still need to dry from the texturing. By the time we got home the crew was long gone so we'll have to wait until tomorrow to get the full story. At least they're painting and hopefully we will be spreading out soon!