We had an interesting summer this year, as we found ourselves choosing to dive into a season of transition. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Michael quit his job at the Work Training Center here in Chico and set out in June to explore new options. When he took that job, we promised each other that it would not be a long-term solution for a number of reasons, namely that the wage was low and the work was excruciatingly boring. But life gets comfortable, and soon two years had gone by. Multiple job applications and rejections later (the unemployment rate in Chico hovers around 13% and close to 25% in surrounding areas), we decided to "just do it" and try something new. So National Park Ranger Academy became the theme of the summer, and although it was challenging, we are still contemplating the viability of such work for our family. It would require Michael to be away from us for days, weeks, or months at a time. It's dangerous work, too, and we're not really excited about that. So we are thinking about that kind of work as an option and looking at other, more local and less dangerous options as well. More on that later.
But after having been apart for the summer, we decided we needed some fun in our lives before we got down to business, so we went up to Anacortes for a week to get some cooler weather and refreshment...
I pushed us all to play tourist and get out on a ferry boat. We had amazing weather, and I got to capture this amazing image of Mount Baker hovering in a blanket of fog above Orcas Island.
Perhaps Evie should have been more impressed by the beauty. What a scowl. The best part about this ferry trip were the wild orca whales we saw from the ferry. Wow, what a show. The captain slowed waaay down so we could watch them swim, play, and jump in the water.
She did like the birds on the piling, though. She was pretty excited to watch them strut around and fight with each other.
Evie learned to walk this summer, toward the middle of July. Here she is practicing and enjoying herself immensely.
We took a day trip up to Mount Lassen on our 7th anniversary. There was so much snow! Our trip there last summer looked so much different just because there was virtually no snow at all. It was a wild and wet winter for Northern California, but the reservoirs are full for the first time in many years.
Here we are, posing in our nerdy hats in front of Broke-off Mountain!
Seven years of marriage--pretty cool!
