Emily's Bachelorette Party

 

The Saturday after we got into town, we celebrated the bride Emily's bachelorette party with a fun girl's day at Heidi's on the lake.

We had such a good time!  We took a celebratory cruise around the lake on the pontoon boat that Heidi decorated especially for the event.  Emily also got to wear a veil and sash that said "Bride" on it--we got many horns honked at us on our grand tour around the lake!

Ash and I swimming, after we jumped off the boat.  Just like the good old days growing up at the cabin, except for the dinosaur raft I'm using...

 

After our fun in the sun, we went to a nice dinner in St. Cloud to celebrate.

Me, Emily, Joni, and Heidi, AKA the "fearsome foursome" or the four musketeers. All through high school we were inseparable--I love these girls!

 

Here's the entire group of girlfriends there to celebrate Emily and her big day to come!  We love you!

Minnesota Vacation July 2012: Part One

Chelsea and I took a trip to Minnesota late July this year to attend friends' wedding, and to visit family and friends.  We had such a good time! Each time we visit, it seems like the trip ends too soon and the vacation wasn't long enough--this trip was no exception, it went by so quickly!  Here are some of the fun things we did:

The county fair was going on while we were in town, so the day after we arrived, we went with Mom, Ashley, and her girls, our sweet nieces Clarabelle and Delilah. We had a lot of fun!

Here's Claire and I on a ride, look at her wild hot-pink "crazy paint" hair!

 

 

Lila and her mommy

Me and Delilah, with Mom looking on in the background. What a tired little snuggler!

Claire, Ash, Lila, and I

 

 We went on rides, saw the farm animals, ate fair food (cheese curds, yum!), and just had fun!

 

Aunties C & C took the girls on the carousel

 

We got to spend every day with the girls (kudos to Ashley for packing them up and hauling the 5 of us around the great state of Minnesota for 2 weeks, you're awesome!). It was so fun seeing them learn and grow, and getting to spend quality time with them at these ages.  Claire turned three in May, and Delilah is 15 months old, which is a huge change since last year. Can't believe how much they've grown!

Claire and I on the spinning strawberry ride

 

Claire loves the fair!

 

Stay tuned for more fun-filled photos from our trip!  Next up is Emily's bachelorette party/girls day at the lake!

 

Where has the summer gone?

Wow, we have been quite busy this summer!  Between Chelsea's pet-sittings, weddings, family visiting Seattle and us visiting family in Minnesota, I can't believe it's mid-August already! 

On Wednesday night we celebrated our three year wedding anniversary.  Wow, can't believe it's been three years already!  Feels like a long time and short time all at once.  We went out for a nice dinner to celebrate. We're very happy, can't wait for the next 50, right Chels?

Barry and Cindy came to Seattle to visit over July 4th.  We had a nice time visiting with them--Chels' godparents, the Andersons and their family, were also in town for a wedding so we got to see them and have a picnic in Carkeek park near Steph & Dan's new place.  They got to see both our new home and Steph & Dan's, and we had beautiful, sunny Seattle weather for our picnic.

After the 4th, it was time to get to work.  Barry and Chelsea are landscaping and designing a fabulous new backyard for us.  The first step was for Chels and I to remove the grass--next comes Phase One, which is expanding the 8'x8' existing cement patio.  They picked out cement pavers in varied sizes and decided to expand the patio about 2 feet on the sides and almost 2.5' in front.  It was a lot of hard work, thank you very much Barry and Cindy! Here are some action shots:

Barry working hard to get the pavers level

Me assisting Barry on spacing the pavers

Here's Grandpa Jack supervising from the balcony

Checking out our work, think it looks pretty good!

How's it look from up there, Grandpa?

Here's a photo of the finished, newly extended patio!  We have added some soil around it--we lost some of our soil when we pulled up the grass, so we need to add some to maintain a nice, gentle slope and even yard before we add the stepping stones and plant the ground cover.

The new patio is so nice--now we can actually fit multiple chairs on it and have a place to spend the summer afternoons with friends.  It's awesome!

Here's another project we've been working on: we got these awesome rattan chairs for FREE on the sidewalk and I just knew we had to have them.  When I told Chels to "turn around, we have to have those chairs!", I think she thought I lost my mind.  But I could already envision how great they would look in our backyard with a fresh coat of fun, bright lime green paint!

Here's the first step and I already love it!

After spray painting the chairs and ordering the fabulous outdoor cushions I saw online, the expense is only around $30 per chair!  Can't beat that, and now we will have expanded our patio seating at a minimal cost.  I love free things!

Stay tuned for the finished photo--I still have to put the final touches on the chairs, and get the cushions. Yay!

The next plan for the backyard project, Phase Two, will commence when Barry and Cindy return to Seattle over Labor Day.  We have cousin Miranda's wedding (can't wait!) and will be spending time with family over Labor Day weekend.  Then the following week we will be working on the backyard--Chels and Barry will be building a bench that will be to the side of the patio, across from the big tree.  Should be pretty awesome! 

We have many more updates to add onto the blog--our trip to Minnesota the end of July, barbecues with friends and friends' weddings, among other things we've been up to.  Thanks for reading, and come back soon!