Lovely Ladies!

I got all kinds of girl time in the past week! First up, my sister, Kimberly, came up Wesneday night to work in Seattle after a few meetings that day in Portland. She got to stay through Saturday morning which was awesome! Friday night we actually got to go to the Seattle Sounders game. It was a great game and we won! I love that Seattle is so into soccer, it's such a great atmosphere!

After I dropped Kimberly off at the airport Saturday morning, I got ready for my next girly adventure, the Zach Brown Band concert with a few crosfitt ladies! It was out at The Gorge, which is a natural amphitheater along the Columbia river around the middle of the state. We got out there early afternoon on Saturday and started it off right with some wine tasting at the winery that I'm a member of, Cave B.

After we got our little campsite organized, we headed over to the concert and claimed a spot with our blankets. The concert was awesome! It's such feel good music, and I definitely did a few knee slappin' dances to it. I love country music!!

 The venue was absolutely stunning and I had such a great night camping it with my ladies!

Smith Smith Smash Part 2!!

It happened...Evelyn and Nathan got married!! We flew out bright and early Friday morning for the big weekend and met up with some friends in Atlanta who picked us up so we could join them to Lake Martin in Alabama where the wedding would be. Evelyn amazingly found us an awesome rental house on the lake that we filled with 11 of us. There were also several other houses being rented on the lake for other wedding guests and the house the wedding was at was also on the lake. Since everything we'd be doing all weekend would be located on the lake, we decided to rent a pontoon boat that all 11 of us could fit on and transport ourselves between venues. After picking up the boat we got everyone from the house and hopped over to the first event of the weekend, the welcome party!

Driving the boat home in the dark was a bit of a challenge, but we made it and it was so much fun! Saturday started out with a brunch at another house on the lake, so we boated on over there!

Saturday night was wedding night, so as the wedding party was getting all primped up and taking pictures, the rest of us took the extra hours to get in some lake time and took the boat out. We docked at a little island and a few of the guys did some cliff jumping while we all floated around in the sun.

When it was wedding time, we all boated on over for that too! It's definitely the first time I've ever shown up to a wedding in a boat. That was pretty awesome. We got there a little early so Liz and I could help out by taking polaroids of all the guests as they arrived. That's what they were doing instead of a guestbook, then each guest could write a little note with their photo, it was so cute!

Then came the wedding. Of course it was amazing, and I'm so excited for Evelyn and Nathan for tying the knot, they are so amazing together! And then came the partying! I must admit, I slacked a little on the picture taking, so I'll be excited to see the pics the professional photographers took. I definitely had a blast cutting a rug on the dance floor though! The bride and groom left the ceremony on their boat...so cute, then we met up with them again at the 'party house' where we continued the partying late into the night.

Sunday we got moving in time to clean up the house, pack up, and hit the road/lake. Ryan and I took the boat back to the marina and Liz and Andrew met us there to take us back to Atlanta. Our flight was a little later, but we wanted to get back to Atlanta with a couple extra hours to meet up with Ryan's parents for a little bit. We did lunch and wandered around a nearby cemetery which had a ton of history in it, including a huge section dedicated to soldiers of the confederacy. It was really a pretty place, and it was nice that we got to spend a few hours with them before our flight.

Such a great weekend, and only two more days till our next bit of fun when Kimberly comes up to visit!!

Parental Visit

So the parents came into town! Mom and Dad drove up from SF after visiting all my siblings there. I convinced them to stop at Crater Lake on the way, which is something I've been wanting to do for a loooong time! Someday... The dropped off their rental car at the airport where we picked them up last Wednesday night and brought them home to a night of grilling at the house! Unfortunately I had to work on Thursday...and it rained most of the day, so mom and dad hung out at the house most of the day waiting for us to get home. I did, however, take Friday off of work, so that's when the real fun began! Ryan still had to work, so mom, dad, Ben, and I spent the morning wandering through discovery park and enjoying the sunshine.

We met up with Ryan for a delicious Mexican lunch where mom and I stuck around and rented kayaks for a few hours. Yes, the Mexican restaurant rents kayaks...that is awesome. It was such a perfect day for being on the water, and it was great exercise too paddling around the lake for a few hours!

We headed home after kayaking and waited for Ryan to get back from work. The evening was spent walking around the neighborhood, getting some good views, seeing a house Ryan designed, and some delicious pizza and wine. I love being able to walk everywhere on a nice summer night!

Saturday was game day! Being home for the Auburn game was a bit of a priority, so we just went out for a little brunch and a walk around greenlake to get some fresh air before heading home to catch the afternoon game. We won.

Unfortunately mom and dad had to head home early Sunday morning. We spent the rest of the weekend doing a little yard work, relaxing, and watching a lot of 'Homeland'. Have you seen it? We're hooked at the moment. It's a lot easier for me to get into a show when I can watch several episodes in a row...which we did...several times...