4th of July weekend!

We had a pretty good 4th of July weekend. On Friday (the 4th) our ward held a 4th of July breakfast at the church. Then they had a parade where children in the ward could ride their bikes through the church parking lot. Then we went home and watched a movie. Then that afternoon we drove to Seattle and we walked along the water. We ate at a restaurant called “The Crab Pot” which was located on a pier. It was the best crab I have ever had. Before they brought out the food they gave us bibs and they laid clean white paper over our tablecloth. Then they brought our food out in a large metal bowl. They dumped our meal from out of the bowl onto the table! They didn’t give us plates, we only got a small wooden board (to crack the crab shells on) a small wooden mallet and a tiny fork to help get crab meat out of the crab shells. The crab was seasoned really nicely. Then we drove to a park to watch the fireworks. We sat on a steep hill, but when the fireworks started everyone stood up and we weren’t able to see them really well. Luckily we brought our camera with a tripod and we lifted the camera connected to the tripod in the air. It was a very interesting way to watch fireworks.

On July 5th we went whale watching. We drove about 1 and 1/2 hours to a ferry and then took a ferry ride which lasted an hour to a place called Friday Harbor. When we went to go pay for our whale watching tickets they informed us that no one had seen any whales so far today. But since we had already traveled so far we still decided to go on the trip. The boat had about 30 people on it. We went out on the water for 4 hours and we didn’t see any whales. It was so sad. :( We did see 3 bald eagles, seals, rams, and porpoises (similar to dolphins). I will send you a postcard of the islands that we traveled through. The water that we traveled on is water that is shared by the U.S.A and Canada. It was kind of cool because it was cloudy in the U.S.A. and then when we crossed the water boarder into Canada it was sunny. Overall the trip was kind of a let down because we paid so much money to see whales and we didn’t see any. Also the trip took up our entire day and we were exhausted when we got home.

Today in church we taught our primary class about gratitude. We read the story of the 10 lepers and how only one returned to thank Christ for healing him. Our class is so good. It is really fun to teach them. We did an object lesson where we had a container full of water and then an empty cup. Every time they named one of their blessings they were able to take a spoonful of water and pour it into the cup. We did this until the cup was overflowing. Heavenly Father loves us and gives us so many blessings that we should be overflowing with love towards him and show our gratitude through prayer and through our actions. I am grateful for the gospel in my life, my testimony, the Book of Mormon, latter-day prophets, my eternal marriage to Peter, my family, this country, my health, and my desire to learn.