Alki Beach

My mom came to town on Thursday morning.  Unfortunately, both Shawn and I had to work on Thursday and Friday, so we haven't been very exciting for my mom.  Having her here is definitely giving us lots of practice helping Satchel learn that he shouldn't jump on people! 

Our plan for today (Saturday) was to do some things in Seattle that Satchel could also do.  Unforunately, though, we couldn't leave in the morning since we had to take Satchel to the vet at 11:30.  (Poor guy has what I can only imagine is a rather unpleasant infection...I'll leave it at that.)  So while Shawn was at CrossFit, Mom and I chatted and played with Satchel.  At one point, he left us alone in the living room, and after a few minutes, I realized it was very quiet.  Too quiet.  This is what I found:

I'm pretty sure that Satchel was stuck under the futon.  He didn't come out when I sat next to him, and he didn't follow me when I left and called him.  I even got a treat and held it out, and he still didn't come (and I'm pretty sure I heard a whimper at one point).  Fortunately, we've taught Satchel the "ninja" command.  It's basically an "army crawl" on his belly when we say "Ninja!"  When I gave him the command, he ducked his head and crawled on out.  I think the issue before was that his collar was getting caught on the futon frame.

Anyways...after the brief vet visit, we headed out to West Seattle and Alki Beach.  We went to Spud for fish and chips (which is also where we ate on Valentine's Day this year), and we wandered along the beach for awhile.  This was definitely the nicest day we've ever been to Alki...normally it's been drizzly and/or cool when we've been there.  Today was sunny and in the upper 80s, so it was actually pretty crowded.  I only took a few pictures, but here you go!

And finally...for whatever reason, this sign on the road that runs next to Alki Beach always makes me laugh:

Summer Catch Up

Okay...I'm going to try to limit the details here, since I have no idea if anyone is actually going to read this.  :-)

In early June, Shawn and I went to Denver!  The main reason that we went was to watch a rugby tournament, so we spent most of Saturday and Sunday doing that.  There was a lot of good rugby, and there was the added bonus of getting to watch the matches with a bunch of good friends.  I still had to work while I was there, unfortunately, but that gave Shawn some time to hang out with Jarid in the mountains, and I did have the chance to meet up with a few good friends, too.  Our last day there, we spent a good chunk of time with Shawn's mom.  She volunteers at the Denver Botanic Gardens, so she took us there and basically gave us a private tour.

We found what I think may be our new "go to" hike not too far from here.  It's the Lake 22 Trail, and it's beautiful!  It actually reminds me a bit of Colorado once you get to the top, where there's a lake (hence the trail name).  There was even snow to play in on the 4th of July!  Satchel enjoyed the snow.

The downside of the summer happened in June.  I found out on June 15th that I was pregnant, but I confirmed the following week that it was another early miscarriage.  (The first was in January.)

But anyways...we had a fun party at our house in late June with a bunch of our friends, and we did another hike in July.  This hike was rainy and cool (of course), but it was still really pretty.

In late June, I learned that I had 5 vacation days that I had to use by July 31st, or I would lose them!  So we planned a couple things.  Shawn, Satchel, and I took a 4-day weekend and explored the Olympic Peninsula.  We spent the first two nights in a beachfront condo, and we did some "car camping" (in a campsite) the third night.  It was cool and foggy most of the time we were there, but we still had a great time!  Satchel was able to go off-leash on the beach, and he was ecstatic!  We're very fortunate that he doesn't seem to have any intention of running very far away from us.

For my other vacation days, I left Shawn at home.  :-)  I went to St. Louis to stay with my friend Jane...and all of the other Hydra members decided to come to St. Louis, too!  So I basically got 5 days to hang out with my best girlfriends from college.  It was awesome.  Since we were last together (for Shannon's wedding last summer), there have been two new additions...Rachel's Libby is on the left, and Shannon's Kateri is on the right.

Jane's daughter Theresa was my little buddy for the weekend.  I spent a large part of my time hanging out with her, carrying her on my hip, and flipping her upside down.

Unfortunately, Jane's youngest, Lucy, got sick over the weekend.  The last night all five of us girls were together, I didn't think to take a group picture, so the closest I got was four of us.  :-(  But we all had a great time, and I'm looking forward to our next reunion...probably in a couple years.

I think that's actually more or less gotten you all caught up!  Work was absolutely crazy for me for a couple months there, and Shawn was pretty busy, too.  But the summer session is winding down for me, and Shawn's big project was completed...so hopefully things will slow down for us now!

I know I've said this before...but I'll try to get back to posting more often.  :-)

At the Beach

This past Sunday, Shawn and I decided to take advantage of the fact that I was lectoring at the 8:00am Mass.  We actually brought Satchel to Church with us, and we left him in the car.  (We came back to find him sleeping on the front passenger seat...so he didn't seem to mind hanging out in the car by himself for a little over an hour.)

We headed to Golden Gardens Park in Ballard, which has a good stretch of beach area.  This was only Satchel's second trip to a beach, and he loved it!  He's starting to go out into the water a bit.  Once the weather gets warmer, we'll have to actually get into the water ourselves and see if he follows us.  (I'll let Shawn do that...since water in the Puget Sound stays right around 52 degrees year-round!)

Here are a few pictures:

After walking on the beach for about an hour, we went to the Little Coney restaurant that's right next to the park.  It's just a tiny little place, but it's pretty good...and they have yummy corn dogs.  :)  After lunch, we headed over to Cupcake Royale (my favorite) to get a few cupcakes to take home for the afternoon.

It was a great way to spend a Sunday morning! It was also really nice to know that by the time we got home after all of this, it was still only 1:00!  So we still had all afternoon and evening to do whatever we wanted or needed to do.  For me, this meant reading, and for Shawn, this unfortunately meant working.  But at least he got some fun in on Sunday, too!

Valentine's Day

We had a pretty darn good Valentine's Day this year!  We kept it very low-key, which was nice, actually.

We got up early enough to make it to the gym before going to church.  After church, we stopped by McDonald's for a V-day treat...chocolate dipped cones and french fries.  Yum!  Then we went home long enough to get Satchel before we headed out to West Seattle.

This is actually the same place we ended up last year on Valentine's Day...Alki Beach.  We were excited to see how Satchel would react to the sand and the water!  And all the people and all the other dogs we were sure to run into.  :-)  He wasn't super sure about it when we started walking, but once we got onto the sand, he was a happy puppy. 

We actually walked down the beach to get our late lunch first.  We went to a place called Spud, which my friend Annie introduced me to this summer, and I took my parents there, too.  The Alki location is the original store, which was opened in 1934.  They specialize in fish and chips, and it was really good!  We ate on picnic benches outside so that Satchel could also hang out with people and a couple other dogs.

After lunch, we walked back down the beach to the car.  Satchel got to play in the little waves a bit.  It was funny to watch him...he kept trying to eat the bubbles.  :-)  He got to meet lots of other dogs, and he was petted by lots of other people.  He enjoyed running around in the sand and digging through the rocks and driftwood for sticks and other fun things.  We actually would've spent more time hanging out on the beach, but it started raining (harder than normal for this area), so we all got pretty wet and cold.

After getting home, we all crashed in the living room and took a nap before dinner.  :-) 

Oh, and for my Valentine's Day gift...Shawn got new tires for my car today!  Yay!!!  :-)

(I was going to post pictures, but I seem to be having some issues with my xD card.  I'll try to get some posted from the weekend within the next couple days.)

First Days in Maui

I realized that I never got around to blogging about our Colorado vacation, and I want to make sure the same thing doesn't happen with the Maui trip! So I'm going to do my best to buckle down and write some posts. Part of my delay has been pictures....we currently have approximately 1,363 photos on the memory card. That's a lot of pictures to go through when I'm trying to pick which ones I should post on here!

So...let's begin. Shawn and I flew to Maui last Monday. We had a direct flight from Seattle to Maui, which was great! They even fed us lunch on the plane, which is practically unheard of these days. We stayed in a beachfront condo in Kihei, which is a town on the south side of Maui. See? Right there. The airport is in Kahului, on the north side, but it's really only about a 15 minute drive to Kihei from there.
Once we arrived in Kihei, we decided just to relax for the rest of the day. I don't even think we went swimming that day! We just got ourselves settled in and went out for dinner. Right across the street from our condo was a restaurant called Moose McGillicuddy's. I wouldn't exactly say that it was "traditional" Hawaiian fare, and yet they definitely had some things on the menu that you probably won't find around here. I'm embarrassed to say how many times we walked over there for food in the week we were in Maui...so let's just say that I even had the opportunity to try quite a few things from the menu (like Kalua pig, and chicken breaded in coconut and macadamia nut).

On Tuesday, we also just stayed around the condo. This was our first big beach time, and it was wonderful. Shawn figured out that there's pretty decent snorkeling right off the beach, so he spent quite a bit of time doing that (while I hung out in the sun, reading and relaxing).

I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to stay in a beachfront condo! If you ever have the chance, you need to do it. It was nice to have beach access by just taking an elevator downstairs and walking around the pool area. It was also really great to be able to just hang out on our balcony and have perfect views of the ocean and the sunsets, and to hear the waves crashing anytime of day (or night!).

Here are some pictures from those first two days!

1st Wedding Weekend, Part Two

My brother's wedding was on Saturday. Shawn and I ended up sleeping in rather late, so there really wasn't anyone around by the time we got moving. We decided to go back to the beach for an hour or two by ourselves, but when we got there, it was so crowded that we couldn't find a place to park. After driving around for awhile, we finally gave up and went back to the hotel. Shawn worked out in the hotel's super air conditioned fitness center while I hung out at the hotel pool. I had a good system going...get in the pool for a few minutes, get out and lay on the lounge chair until I got dry and hot, then get back in the pool for a few minutes. I also got some reading done.

When I went back up to our room to start getting ready for the wedding, I found my brother panicking in our (mine and Shawn's) room. I'm not 100% sure why, but he was getting dressed for the wedding in there, and there was a problem with his tie. It's a very long story, but the end result was having Shawn drive to a Men's Wearhouse in Wilmington and borrowing another white tie from a display shelf for my brother to wear. I was pretty impressed that MW just trusted that Shawn would return it the next day...they didn't take his credit card info or ID or anything.

We got to the beach (where the ceremony was taking place) around 5:25. The wedding should've started at 6:00. Have I mentioned yet what the temperature was like? Saturday was, of course, the hottest day of the week. The high temperature was supposed to be 98, and I'm positive it went at least that high! It was also very humid. Of course, being on the beach, there was no shade. Fortunately, I had thought to suggest that my dad bring an umbrella to make his own shade (which he did, since he does not do well in the heat), and Leslie's dad thought to bring a cooler full of ice cold water bottles. We did some photos before the ceremony, which ended up being delayed as we waited for a set of Leslie's grandparents to arrive.

By the time the wedding started at 6:30, the sun had actually gone behind some high clouds, and a nice little breeze had picked up. It was actually almost comfortable by then!

Shawn was given the job of videographer, so the few pictures he took of the ceremony were really from the viewpoint of the officiant (who happened to be Leslie's sister). I was given the job of "flower girl wrangler," so while waiting for the ceremony to start, my job was to occupy my niece and do my best to keep her white dress more or less clean. I gave up on keeping her hair looking nice. I was very pleasantly surprised that my niece waited fairly patiently for her turn to walk down the aisle, and once she started, she did a good job. Of course, once she saw her daddy at the front of the aisle, she took off running towards him and stopped throwing flower petals. Once she got down to the front, she threw her last handful of petals at the feet of the officiant, and then proceeded to spike the basket onto the sand. I wish Shawn had gotten a picture of that. :)

The ceremony itself was beautiful. You couldn't have painted a prettier backdrop than the sand dunes with the tall grasses and the ocean just behind them. During the sand ceremony, 3 pelicans flew over the water in front of us...which Leslie's dad pointed out was kind of significant since there were now 3 of them becoming a family.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the ceremony (and getting ready for it). Our camera battery died pretty much as we got to the reception, so we don't have any pictures from there. But it was pretty, too. :)

1st Wedding Weekend, Part One

Our trip to Raleigh was fairly uneventful...which is good! The only slight hitch was when we arrived at the car rental counter and were told we didn't have a reservation. We didn't have the confirmation number (note to self...get the conf. # for the next rental), but they were able to rent us a car. And they threw in a free GPS for the weekend, which was nice.

On Thursday, we hung out with my brother, his fiance, my niece, and some of their friends. Thursday night was Leslie's bachelorette party, which I attended. Despite a few awkward moments (of the "this is my brother you're all talking about" variety), I had a really good time with the girls. Shawn spent that evening hanging out with my brother, a groomsman of his, and my niece. It was wild and crazy, I'm sure. :)

On Friday, we followed Brent and Leslie to the beach! We actually went straight there without even checking in to the hotel. Have I mentioned my slight fear of the ocean? Yeah...I get super nervous in natural bodies of water when the water is murky enough that I can't see my feet. If I don't know what may be swimming around me, I tend to freak out. So that being said...I was very proud of myself for actually getting in the ocean! Shawn and I swam around a little bit, and we took on some waves for awhile. After jumping in the waves (and getting knocked over a few times), we found my niece playing in the sand. She took one look at me and said, "What happened to your hair? It's crazy!" :)

Friday night was the rehearsal at the beach and the rehearsal dinner. It was a pretty typical rehearsal, except for the fact that my job was to get the flower girl (my niece) down the aisle at the rehearsal and she did NOT want to do it! There was quite the meltdown that evening. I think it was mainly because it was HOT outside (upper 90s and humid) and she was surrounded by a bunch of people she really didn't know. Things were definitely looking up at the rehearsal dinner, though, when Uncle Shawn gave her one of those glow sticks (the kind you shake and then "crack" to make them start glowing a really bright green light).
I'm not sure why we didn't take more pictures on Friday...those two were the best two from the rehearsal dinner. Shawn got better ones at the actually wedding...I'll make a separate post tomorrow about the rest of our weekend and post a few wedding pictures.

Crab Cakes!

We had an absolutely wonderful Memorial Day weekend! On Friday night, we just stayed at home, and then we left first thing on Saturday morning. Due to a slightly later start than we originally intended and then to some heavier traffic (probably others getting out of the city for the weekend), we didn't get to Seaside until about 1:30 or 2:00 on Saturday. We actually did a quick explore of Seaside, and then we drove another 8 miles or so south to Cannon Beach. After getting a quick snack, we checked in at the hotel and took a nap before heading out for dinner.

I'm going to hold off on the actual beach info until I have pics to put up...and the camera is currently in the car (which Shawn just took to rugby practice). However, I can tell you about our favorite meal of the weekend. :)

If you ever find yourself on the northern coast of Oregon, go to Cannon Beach, and stop at Cranky Sue's. Shawn and I stopped here on Saturday afternoon, thinking it was just a snack-type of place...the kind of place where we could just walk in, order something at a counter, and walk out. We were wrong, and that's okay. :) The sign outside the restaurant talked about their "famous crab cakes," so we decided to split an appetizer of "crab bites." When they came out, they were literally teeny tiny little bite-sized crab cakes, and they were really good! After scarfing those down, we asked the waitress to bring us a "real" crab cake (which we learned also came with french fries). It was to die for! It was obvious that the crab was very fresh, and there wasn't much in the way of filler in the cake...basically it was just seasoned crab meat with a very light breading that was fried.

This crab cake (and the fries...which we think were homemade, too) was good enough that Shawn and I decided to go back to Cranky Sue's for lunch on Monday before we headed back home. On Monday, we each got our own crab cake and fries instead of splitting it. :) Shawn also got clam chowder on Monday, which was also incredibly fresh and good. I don't even like clam chowder, but this was something I would gladly eat.

It's definitely worth a visit! Oh, and like I said, we didn't take any pictures at the restaurant, but here are a couple pics I found online.

Headed to the Coast!

Shawn and I decided to take advantage of the 3-day weekend, and early Saturday morning, we're heading for the Oregon coast! Shawn has briefly visited it once before (mainly just driving by, I think), but I've never been. We're going to stay in the town of Seaside, and we'll probably explore a couple other coastal towns and parks while we're down there.

I'm really excited for this trip! We've realized that, other than our honeymoon, this is the first multi-day trip Shawn and I will have taken together that doesn't involve friends or family! Hopefully, it's going to be a fun, relaxing, beautiful weekend. We'll take lots of pictures, and I'll be sure to post when we get back!

Contradictions

It occurred to me tonight that I am, apparently, a contradictory person. I don't mean that I like to argue with people (well, okay...sometimes I do); what I mean is that my personality seems to be a study in contradictions. A lot of my personality traits, habits, likes and dislikes seem to contradict each other. Here are a few examples.

• I love watching sports, but I am one of the least athletically talented people you will ever meet. I can often watch a game and tell you what the athletes are doing wrong; however, I could never in a million years do what they do.


• I really enjoy being awake early in the morning, especially if I know that I'm going to get to spend some time outside. However, I absolutely hate getting up early.


• I love being able to cross things off of a to-do list. But I'm a huge procrastinator. For example, earlier today I was thinking of all the school-related things I have to get done within the next week. However, it's currently 10:45pm, and I have yet to do a single school-related thing since I left school this afternoon.


• I like to travel. I especially like getting on a plane and going somewhere. However, I get motion sick really easily and have to drug myself up to be able to fly anywhere.


• I enjoy relaxing on a beach; however, until we went to Jamaica on our honeymoon, I was afraid to get in the ocean.


• I got my first issue of "Good Housekeeping" in the mail this afternoon. I was intrigued by an article that touted a 3-week "body makeover." I read the article (which includes a regimen of fat-burning, muscle-toning exercises) because I really would like to get myself into better shape. Did I mention that I read this article while sitting on my couch (watching baseball) and eating Double-Stuf Cool Mint Creme Oreos?