Jordan and Kristen Beach Blowout!

I wish I could still be sitting on the beach, but instead it's back to the grind. Last week was completely amazing though! Friday night we took the red eye out to Raleigh, NC with a layover in Detroit. We ended up running into Katie and Matt at the airport going to NC as well, and also happened to be on the same plane as Leigha and Nino on their way back to Michigan, so we started off the week right away with lots of friends! We didn't have any problems getting over there and were even a little early to meet up with Lauren and Lance in Raleigh and pick up our rental car. Unfortunately none of us had really gotten sleep on our red eye flights, so poor Ryan got the be the driver for 3 hours while the rest of us dozed in and out on the was to Emerald Isle. We broke it up with a much anticipated lunch break at Zaxby's (one of our favorite southern food stops). It's always on our list of places to go when we're back in the south. We made it to Emerald Isle just in time to shower up and get ready for the nights festivities...rehersal dinner!! The girls all headed to the hall a couple hours early to set it up and get all the food ready. Then the party started! And kept going and going and going.

Sunday was wedding day! Yay little brother! We checked out of our one resort and all went out of a big group breakfast where we also ran into Uncle Bill and Mary, so we had a rather large table of family including the day's groom! By that time we were able to check into our beach house for the week, so we did that and broke off to the beach and such. Finally it was time to get ready for the big festivites!! We headed over to the beach for the wedding a few minutes early to claim our spots and get ready to get some sweet pics and video of the days event. Everything went perfectly and the bright blue sky and sandy beach was an amazing background for the event. Dad did a great job officiating the ceremony as well and Jordan's friends helped out with the music for the ceremony. Everything was awesome!

After the ceremony we gathered back up on the deck of the beach house for a reception, dancing, and an impromptu pool party in the wee hours of the morning. It was so much fun hanging out with the family and extended family and the Freels family! I vote that Jordan and Kristen get married every year so we have an excuse to do it again! After the party at the Freels' beach house we went around the corner to our beach house to test out the gloriousness that is the hot tub. Some how people also thought it would be a great idea to fire up the grill for some brats...what everyone needs at 2am...surely. Eventually we all made it to our beds for the night, and the poor Dougherty family had to get up bright and early to start their long drive back to Michigan. I'm so glad they came down for the fun though!!

Monday night we got to do more celebrating for Jordan's birthday, and we spent the rest of the week mostly soaking up some sun on the beach, eating ridiculous amounts of food and consuming a countless amount of wine bottles. It was so much fun spending time with all my siblings that I am sooooo tempted to join them all in San Francisco now! Perhaps it will stay on my radar for the future :) I'm super jealous that they all ended up in the same area, but at least it's the same time zone and a quick flight for me to join...hint hint...visits will be happening soon.

One of the days we were in NC, we took a drive over to Beaufort, which is a historic little town known for it's role in the legacy of Blackbeard (the pirate). We walked around town for a while before renting some kayaks to boat over to a small island off the coast inhabited by wild horses. We hiked into the island to a little wetland area where they were all hanging out and god pretty close to them to snap a few pics and observe for a while. It's really cool to see them in the wild like that!

Saturday morning we got all packed up and ready for our trek back to Seattle. Our flights started off pretty awesome with a free upgrade to first class!!! This is the first time we've been able to use an upgrade since the let Ryan sit up there with me too! We took full advantage of the free food and drinks and I was pleasantly surprised by a delicious couscous dish they served! I'm going to have to give it a try to make it myself. Our second flight we almost got upgraded again, but they wouldn't let Ryan come with me on my upgrade so I had to decline. Luckily we had spacious exit row seats and a good movie on the iPad to watch. Several hours later we were back in Seattle and came home to my favorite little furry friends and a relaxing rest of the weekend!

A Seattle Tan!

Yes, that's right, I officially have a tan from being in Seattle! It was such a perfect weekend! Hopfeully this means that the amazing Seattle summer is finally upon us. Well worth the wait. Friday we had an 'All Officers' Meeting' which was a tour or Fort Worden in Port Townsend, WA. It's big claim to fame is that it is where An Officer and A Gentleman was filmed. Now I really want to go back and watch the movie to see what all I can recognize. We had perfectly blue skies for our treck around the Fort and since it's on a peninsula, when we got to the top of the old batteries, we had great clear views across the sound and could even see the other fort over at Whidbey Island. After our tour we had a little picnic on the beach and enjoyed some fresh sea air...soooo delicious!

Saturday I got my hair did for the last time by the same girl I've been going to for the last 2.5 years! She's moving down to San Jose, so if any of my Bay Area family members needs a great hair stylist, I've got your girl! I might even have to wait till I go visit down there again for my next haircut...I am dreading having to find a new girl...booo. After wandering around downtown for a few hours enjoying the sunshine and shopping, we headed of to a house warming party for one of the houses that Ryan's firm just completed. It was a perfect day to hang out on their beautiful roof deck with great views of the water and mountains while sipping on a few beverages! Later that night we decided to use a Groupon voucher that was about to expire to go see the new Pirates of the Carribean movie in 3D! 3D movies are so much fun...it gets me even more excited to see the next Harry Potter movie in 3D!

Sunday morning Ryan went off to ride bikes down mountains again, so I got to enjoy several hours of gloreous sunshine sitting on our roofdeck! I just started reading 'The Help' so I got a good ways into it while soaking up the rays. I saw a preview for the movie last weekend and decided I should probably get on reading it before the movie comes out. So far it's a great easy read, and perfect for laying out. At the end of my several hours I had definitely built up a good tan thanks to the beautiful Seattle summer! I can't wait for more weekends like this one!

A British Weekend

Redhook Sampler

This memorial day weekend we hung out with some Brits. Our friend Aimee who is living in Seattle for the next few months had her brother in town for the weekend, so we took him around to a few local sites. Saturday we went out to the Redhook Brewery in Woodinville (near a bunch of the wineries) where we did a little beer tasting. We started out with some lunch with a sampler platter of beer for each of us. Then proceeded to the brewery tour (only $1) where we got a little sample cup that kept being refilled throughout the tour. The tour was pretty simple, but the highlight was definitely the beer tasting. Delish. You'll also notice that I am taking a few more pics these days. The reason being that I finally upgraded to the fabulous new iPhone. My old one was getting so slow that when I did try to take pics with it, it took so long to load that the photo op would be gone by the time I was ready. The same was true of anything else I tried to do with it...soooo slow. Finally I gave up being frustrated with the lack of speed and decided to get a new phone. Lucky for me the new white iPhone just came out, so I was able to snag one of those bad boys! Hopefully this will help me take lots and lots of pics now since my phone is always on me, and it happens to take fabulous photos!

Me, Ryan, and Aimee

Top Pot

Sunday we decided to take a day trip over to the Olympic Peninsula to go check out the beaches. We started off with some bfast at Top Pot...always a favorite to take visitors to. Then we missed the ferry that we were hoping to get on so we had to wait another hour for the next one. Finally several hours later after a little detour through Forks, WA we made it out to Rialto Beach. Unfortunately it wasn't as sunshiney out as we were hoping, but at least it wasn't downpouring, so we were able to hike up the beach a couple miles and see the sites. We had ben with us, and he enjoyed running around like crazy until he scared a little yorkie dog and we had to put him on the leash. At the end of the hike was the highlight. The 'hole in the wall'. Essentially just a giant land bridge, but it was really pretty, and we climbed all over the rocks around it.

Aimee, Chad, Ryan, and Ben

Hole in the Wall

After our little hike we headed back towards Seattle with a little stop in Port Angeles for some dinner on the water. We finally made it home around 1am and poor little Tara was sitting there like a good little girl waiting for us. Actually she probably hardly even noticed that we were gone :)

It was awesome to have the day off on Monday. We actually got to sleep in and it was amazing! We ran a few errands and caught up on some housework most of the day. I also got to meet up with Sarah for a little girls date to see Bridesmaids. I didn't really know much about the movie going into it, but i must say I was pleasantly surprised. It was hilarious! It was also fun to see it with my childhood friend since it was all about a childhood friendship...yay middle school friends!

On another note, tomorrow is Tara's 13th birthday!!! Look how pretty she is! I love that I've gotten to take care of her for the past few years, she's such a special little girl ;) Happy Birthday Tara!

Seattle's Best

The weekend after GA was slightly exhausting for both of us. Several weeks ago I had finally started getting back into a running program and was doing pretty well at increasing my milage again so I was up to about 8 miles pretty easily so I figured I'd sign up for a 15k (Seattle's Best 15k)...no biggie. Then I got crazy busy and we started traveling and such so all that went down the drain. I was, however, still signed up for my run. I also failed to notice when I signed up that this run started at 7am. So Saturday morning I was up bright and early to do a nice little 15k run in the rain. At this point I just wanted to finish which I did with no great speed. If nothing else, maybe this will help me get back on track for training.

That same morning, Ryan got up bright and early with me, dropped me off for my race and continued on to ride mountain bikes down a mountain with some friends. Although this wasn't taken on that day, here's a video of the trail that they did.

Needless to say we were both pretty pooped by the end of the morning. We had a few minutes of rest before heading off to a photography workshop which was interesting but ended up being slightly useless towards the end, so we left a little early and headed home to relax for the night.

How did I not take Pictures?!?

 

Wow, I have been severely lacking in the picture taking department! I could have sworn I had taken a photo of our fabulous pinata pre-decapitation, however, it turns out I did not. It looked pretty similar to this little guy though, super cute! I also made lots of fun little treats...including some delicious strawberry rhubarb empanadas! Again, I love a good excuse to bake with rhubarb!

We had a good time this weekend with lots of fun friends celebrating Ryan's birthday and punching the little penguin (since we didn't have a stick) and drinking margaritas!

For Ryan's actual birthday we headed out down to GA to celebrate with his family, enjoy a little sunshine, and visit family and friends in GA. Again, I have been terrible at taking pictures lately, but we did have a fun time playing yard games while cooking out lots of delicious foods!

It has also been incredibly beautiful in Seattle this week. I love the smell of the ocean on a warm day. I'm not sure I could handle not living on the water ever again! It's amazing!

Licensed to Ride!

This weekend we took our tests to get a motorcycle endorsement on our licenses. In order to drive a motorcycle in the navy you have to complete a certified safety course, at the end of which you receive your endorsement, so that's what we did this weekend. It was two long days of classroom time and time spent on the motorcycles learning basic techniques. The first day was BEAUTIFUL out, so it was awesome spending a few hours riding motorcycles in 65 degrees and sunny weather! The second day it was supposed to rain all day, so we felt pretty grateful when it held off most of the day. Unfortunately it started right in the middle of our riding test. Luckily we are both pretty awesome and passed with flying colors (Ryan got 100%!). It was a pretty exhausting weekend of long days of riding, so we didn't have time to do much else all weekend. Saturday night we did make it out to one of Ryan's co-workers' b-day parties at a bar up in Capital Hill, which was a good time. 

Sunday we had left the dogs at home all day and were pleasantly surprised to come home to nothing destroyed and no messes! After a little rest, we started making a piñata for our piñata party in a few weeks! I forgot how messy this process can be! Can't wait to see the final results :)

 

Puppy Play Time

This weekend, although it wasn't terribly sunshiney, it also didn't really rain, so that was a pretty big deal! On Saturday we took the kids (puppies) to the park to get rid of Ben's energy and give Tara a little exercise. The place we went has a huge open space that Ben just went crazy in. He loves to just sprint circles around everyone. At the end of the park, there's also a little spot where you can get into Lake Washington. Tara dipped herself in a little bit, but I think it might have been a little too cold for a full on swim. Ben got a little further in this time too, but he's still pretty timid about water. Hopefully we can fix that this summer!

On another note, I am officially obsessed with my new Nike Free shoes. I was a little nervous about running longer distances in them thinking that they wouldn't be enough support for my feet. I started out with a 6 mile run in then and they are awesome! They're so light weight and flexible. Hopefully they'll help me get back into shape this summer. I have such crazy work hours getting up before 5am most days that I find myself completely exhausted all the time. It makes it pretty difficult to be motivated to get into a running program. Hopefully I'm starting to get back on track though! And the shoes are super cute ;)