Reunited

After puppy sitting Jake last weekend, Max was a little sad to see him go earlier this week. Luckily, they were reunited last night as Auntie and Peter take on the role of puppy sitters! We are off to the lovely wedding of Court and Chris in Leavenworth.

Happy Wedding weekend! Enjoy!

Missing

Tonight for whatever reason, I am missing my sweet home town of Walla Walla.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the life and home that Nicholas and I have made for ourselves in the city, but my roots are from a small town. I grew up in that small town, went to college in another sweet small town...and at times a pang hits my heart, and I miss.

I'm already looking forward to a weekend there in October! (yes, with the craziness of our schedules we can't really get back there until October. eeks. One of these days hopefully things will slow down...)

There are so many pictures that we have from over the years on that tree in Pioneer Park. One of my favorites is a picture of all my cousins, lined up from oldest to youngest on that tree branch, with my grandparents and all my aunts and uncles from my dad's side.
So many people take pictures there now, that they've had to put that post up to hold the old oak tree's branch up.

I hope that tree holds up so that one day we can take pictures of our kids on it...

Love you Walla Walla, thank you for all the memories, see you soon.

*all images via Google Images

Number 2

It's easy to remember what the important things in life are while celebrating a sweet little 2 year old's birthday...listening to her squeels of laughter as she chases after a balloon.
Thank you Miss Adelaide.

Dinosaur Egg

Ever had one??

I'll admit, I'm not normally a fan of the hybrid fruits that are concocted out there. But Nicholas introduced me last week to the Pluot, or Dinosaur Egg, as they are so affectionately referred to, and I must say... I can't get enough! I have had one in my lunch every day this week.

Apparently they have engineered and taken the best qualities of the plum and the apricot and...voila! The pluot is born.

All I know is, it is delicious. Get you hands on one today before they become extinct. At least for the season.
*bad joke I realize. I'm guilty of lame humor sometimes.

Happy Birthday to my love!

Nicholas:

Happy, happy, happy 30th birthday! I hope that today, and every day really, but especially today...you know how very much you are loved by so many people. You are unique, and original, and special. You are loyal, caring, and brilliant. You are the funniest person I've ever met, and I am so lucky that I get to share that laughter with you each and every day. You are an amazing cook, a hard worker, and you enjoy celebrations. You have an incredible heart and you aren't afraid to show your emotions. You know my quirks and love me because of them. You are a wealth of knowledge. You support me, compliment me, and make me feel beautiful. You get me.

Because of these things, and millions more, THANK YOU! My days with you have been the happiest times of my life, and I can't wait to see what this next decade brings for us.

I love you.


And also a huge thank you to all our friends and family who came out to celebrate Nick's birthday on Saturday! Such a fun night!

Bachelorette Weekend in Victoria

Saturday morning bright and early, 9 girls boarded the Victoria Clipper (which I was under the impression was a plane for some odd reason?) and headed up to Canada to celebrate Miss Courty's upcoming nuptials.



You know I couldn't resist a picture of the beautiful giant..


Nor could I resist a picture of a street named Courtney, love it!


I was especially excited because I have never been to Victoria but have heard such lovely things about it. What a charming, fun, flower-filled town...we had such fun walking around all the shops, sipping on delicious concoctions, enjoying the wonderful dinner Laura prepared for us all, and getting Court all "bachelorette'd up" for a night out!

And as much as she wasn't quite sure about all the glittery paraphernalia...


She was just about the cutest little bridey ever!

"Take a look, it's in a book..."

Just like Reading Rainbow taught us when we were children, it is amazing the things you learn when reading!

Take for example last night, Nicholas started reading a new book "The Widow Cliquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It" (he really loves biographies and historical novels). As we were laying reading, he pointed out a fact that neither of were aware of...even though Veuve champagne, with it's iconic yellow/orange label is an absolute FAVORITE of both of ours.

Did you know...Veuve means Widow?

It all makes sense now!! The book is a biography of a visionary young widow who essentially built a champagne empire...the champagne is called Veuve. Brilliant.

I especially loved this paragraph from the prologue:

"No wine in the world brings to mind so many immediate associations as champagne. The pop of a cork and the bright sparkle of bubbles mean celebration and glamour and, more often than not, the distinct possibility of romance. It is the wine of weddings and New Year's kisses. It is beautiful and delicate, and above all, it is a wine associated with women."

Maybe I especially loved it because Nick read it out loud to me, knowing that would be a paragraph I would adore...

Learning

This is from a few months back at my first photography workshop. Found this pic on Erik's website and was startled when I saw myself, ha! Kinda fun. I love the process of learning something new, taking in as much as possible, being inspired by others...I hope it continues.

Not since 1891...

has Seattle been this hot.

Talk about some serious record breaking people! Wow. I am happy to say I survived the hottest day in Seattle in 118 years.

How, you might ask, does one survive the hottest day in 118 years???

Well, when you don't have air condition, you get out of your house as quickly as possible! I did this by going to see "500 Days of Summer" with Miss Jamie Suzanne. Such a cute, quirky, and sweet little movie...oh, and not to mention it was air conditioned and we had ice cream. Perfect way to beat the heat!

Now it's off to the basement in an attempt to find cool air...

Celebrations

This weekend was all about celebrations:
*Celebrating having Friday off!
*Celebrating AJ's surprise birthday BBQ at our house
*Celebrating Crystal being in town
*Celebrating our youngest friend Michelle turning 29
*Celebrating the Seattle sun with a day on the Kocher's boat

What a happy weekend! Hope everyone is off to the start of a great week...

Attention Single Friends:

When you get married, can one of you PLEASE do this at your wedding? Oh, and can I please be a bridesmaid? I promise, I would rock it down just like these peeps.

Brothers

Last night we had such a lovely backyard family BBQ, cute Papa was even in town! It is no question what the entertainment of the evening was...watching these two little half brothers play and chase each other the ENTIRE night! Auntie and Peter just got little Jake a week ago and he is Max's half brother.




I'm pretty sure they knew they were related.

Relaxing weekend...

This past weekend was exactly what I was needing! After being out of town or just plain busy for the past many weekends, having nothing to do was perfection.

*I spent a lot of time here...


*Bought these new cuties for the backyard at Anthro at a steal of a deal!...


*Did some BBQing
*Watched a little "Friday Night Lights"
*Attended this wedding reception with THE best vegan thai food ever! (unfortunately we left before the belly dancers started...)


*Hung out with this little guy...


*And experienced the Dog Park for the first time! Overall Max loved it, except for the part when the large hound dog wouldn't leave him alone and attacked him in the water, just after Max had the courage to finally get in. Needless to say, that was the end of the water that day. Here's me saving him from the mean dog (and it's owner...she's the one in the right...grrr.)

Total Eclipse {Literally}

Probably one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time!! My favorite part is at about 4:33...watch it, funny stuff.

True Story

Two couples meet in married housing at college...
These two couples become the best of friends...
The wifes both get pregnant at the same time...
Deliver their babies on the same day...
These two babies grow up together sharing birthday parties and family celebrations...
And grow up to fall in love with each other, and got married this Saturday.

This is Ty and Katie's story.
Pretty incredible huh?! I can hardly imagine any two people who were supposed to be together more! Their wedding this weekend was quite the event...500 people! By far, the largest wedding I've ever been to.
My favorite part was that the slideshows, first dances, and slow dances were all made up of sweet country songs. Teresa, Laura and I were in heaven!

Their first dance was to the sweet Kenny Chesney song, "Me and You"...and the words were just perfection:
"Ordinary?...no
I really don't think so, not a love this true
Common destiny...we were meant to be
Me and You"


What a 500 person wedding looks like