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!

Happy Father's Day, Dads & Grandpas!

First things first, we want to wish a Happy Father's Day to our Dads (Gene & Barry) and Grandpas (Jim & Jack), we love you! Hope you have a great day!

It's been a pretty busy weekend so far, but I guess that is par for the course lately.  Feels like summer hasn't even begun in Seattle yet, except for the busy schedule!  Yesterday morning I went with Sean & Claire to the NW Epilepsy Walk--Chelsea unfortunately had to work, but was with us in spirit!  We met Aunt Cathy & Uncle Sandy, Grandpa Jack, Miranda and Matt there.  Each year we walk around Greenlake in Seattle in support of the Epilepsy Foundation Northwest and in support of our lovely cousin Miranda! It was pretty nice weather, only rained a little, so all in all a nice morning to get out and get some exercise.

Afterwards Chels and I had hair appointments and then rushed to the grocery store to get ingredients for dinner we were making to have our friends Danny & Michael over.  We made delicious chicken and black bean enchiladas in a cheesy salsa sauce, and homemade margaritas. Yum! We had fun :)

This afternoon we're meeting up with Stephanie for lunch, and then going over to Grandpa's to make smoothies and take him out to dinner for Father's Day.  Should be a fun Sunday!  Stay tuned, we have an action-packed week ahead of us...

Congrats to Chelsea's cousin Jillian and her husband Scott who welcomed their twins, daughter Ellora and son Kellen, into the world yesterday, happy birthday little twins! We can't wait to meet you!

Lovely June In Seattle

Chelsea's birthday was last Sunday, so on Saturday we spent time with our friend Stacy.  Here's us at the park playing with her cute dog Aggie.  Since she's really good at catching her Frisbee, Aggie was definitely the star at the park that day!

Look at her go! 

We had dinner, cake and ice cream for Chels' birthday and watched a movie.  It was a fun night!  Poor Chels got a bee sting on the way back to Stacy's from the park, but other than that she had a pretty good birthday weekend! We spent Sunday (her actual birthday) hanging out with Grandpa for a little bit, chatting and watching the birds out on his deck.  It's so nice having him in Seattle!

We got to spend even more time with dogs last week, as Chels started pet-sitting.

                                                Here she is with the little pup, Chloe

She's pretty cute! It's nice when Chelsea pet-sits for dogs because we get to spend time with them without having to get one.  They are super fun and we'll probably get one someday, but right now I think we have our hands full enough just with one animal (I'm sure Kitten's plenty happy to rule the roost!).

Today we went to a Mariner's baseball game downtown with some friends.

It was a beautiful day!  They played the Dodgers, so Chels was giving her Dad text message updates since he grew up in LA and is a Dodgers fan.  Unfortunately, the Mariners didn't win, but we still had fun!

 Here's Caralee trying to eat some crazy nachos out of a batting helmet!

 Go Ichiro! We had pretty good seats.  It's so much more fun going to a game than watching it on TV.

 Pretty view downtown

We've started ripping up the grass in the backyard and have made major progress this weekend, thanks to the shovels we borrowed from Claire & Sean

 Here I am on top of the mound of overturned grass clumps.  I tried to challenge Chels to a game of King of the Mountain, she didn't think that was such a great idea...

 Relaxing on the new patio chairs.  I can't wait for all of our hard work to pay off and to have a nice, relaxing patio to enjoy this summer!

 Here are some big roots I dug up

Chels digging up more grass, the shovels definitely make quick work of this project.  We're about half-way done digging it up, now we just have to break down the grass clumps so we can put the grass in the yard waste.  Good times as new homeowners!

It's Green and Summery Outside!

Well the weather is getting nicer, yippee!  That means life is starting to spring out of the ground in the backyard.  We're planning to pull up the grass and make a patio with stepping stones, ground cover, and pretty Northwest climate-loving plants. 

Kitten has many window sills and perches in the new house that she can sit on and monitor the bird (or squirrel) situation outside.   

 

Here's a beautiful dahlia we just bought, isn't it lovely?

Aunt Cathy came over and did some gardening with Chelsea last week.  The above potted maple tree and planter is a birthday gift from her for Chelsea (the big 28 is this Sunday!). Chelsea picked out the surrounding plants and has been diligently checking them daily to note their progress.

We finally re-potted our evergreen trees, so now we have a nice little potted garden to see from our TV room window. 

Well, here's what a lot of rain and no lawn mower will get you--a meadow! Chels is working on pulling up the grass in this shot, meanwhile I was lounging on the chairs.  Someone has got to supervise,  ha ha! The backyard is Chels' domain and she's excited to create the perfect backyard oasis for us.  I can't wait!  Don't worry, I am helping with the labor :)

Kitten loves when we work outside.  She gets to explore and eat grass.  That is, until her privileges get revoked because she jumps on top of the fence.  It's taller than I am, what is she thinking?! 

Stay tuned for more pictures of our lovely plants and evolving backyard garden space.  We are so thrilled to finally have a yard! Now we just need more sunny days...

Happy 6th birthday to our sweet nephew Gavin today, hope you've had a great day buddy! We love you!

Being sick equals a wacky sleep schedule!

Well I would love to report that Chels and I have been enjoying this beautiful, long Memorial Day weekend doing something fun, but alas, I am sick!  So we have mostly been spending it around the house.  Boo-hiss, I hate being sick!  I've had this cold/stomach-flu thing for a week and I am ready for it to be gone.  I have been feeling better this weekend, thank goodness! I think the sunshine is helping. 

We have been having some fun, thanks to my regimen of Dayquil, Sprite, and Saltines. We had been planning on hosting a girls night at our place Saturday night with some friends for a few weeks now and we did decide to get together, after I disinfected the house... We had snacks, played a board game, and just hung out and chatted.  It was nice to see them!

This morning we ventured out of the house again for an exhibit we've been wanting to see with the cousins, Claire & Sean.  The exhibit is at the UW's Burke Museum called "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats". It's a series of photographs based on a book by two artists who travelled around the world documenting people's weekly meals. They photograph all the food items in the families home, surrounded by the members of the family.  The grocery items are listed, and there is a cost comparison between the local currency and US dollars.  It is fascinating! Find out more here: Hungry Planet. A few things surprised me: in many of the photos, the Coca-Cola label was recognizable almost instantly, and in many places of the world (like Egypt, for example) where I wouldn't have thought soda would be a part of the weekly diet as it is for so many Americans. Secondly, I was struck by how many more fruits and vegetables other areas of the world consume per week, and how much more of their diet it makes up--it seems there is more emphasis here on "meat and potatoes", with veggies playing only a side role.  Very interesting!

Last weekend we spent Saturday afternoon with Grandpa watching one of his favorite movies "The Man Who Came to Dinner". It was hilarious!  There were so many witty one-liners in the movie that Chelsea said she remembers her Grandpa say but she never realized where they came from.  It was great, we had a good time.  Afterward, we spent the evening at our friends Nick & AnnMarie's new place for dinner.  They have a cute dog Gus that we love, and it's always nice to have good conversation and good food with good friends!  Chels and I also went to Steph & Dan's for dinner on Sunday night--it was a girls night because Dan had to go out-of-town for work, so we watched "Puss-in-Boots", which was pretty silly and cute. We've all been so busy lately, it was nice to hang out with family and catch up.

Other than that, we haven't been up to too much.  Just trying to get healthy, and stay that way. Here's to getting back on a normal sleep schedule!

Yay for May!

Spring has sprung!  Well, in our backyard at least.  We are still wanting to take out the grass and put in a little patio of stepping stones and ground cover--it the meantime, our grass has been growing!  Now we just need to figure out what we want to do in the backyard and get started.  Aunt Cathy & Claire lent us a few books on small space gardens, so we have some ideas in mind.  Stay tuned for the backyard bonanza makeover! 

Kitten and I taking a little afternoon snooze

Yesterday Chels and I took Grandpa to Macys to get a few kitchen appliances he's been wanting: we found a great 2-in-1 Cuisinart Blender & Food Processor, a hand mixer, and a panini grill.  Chels and I have a smoothies book, so we made a plan with Grandpa to go over to his place and test out the new blender by making smoothies.  Yum!  Afterward we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant Chels & I like.  It was a fun afternoon!  I always love to hear Grandpa's Navy days stories, there seemed to be some sort of adventure happening much of the time. 

Last week Chels was dog-sitting for a cute little French Bulldog named Cutter, whom we nicknamed "Le Pooh".  Here he is, he's so cute!

                   He loved sitting in front of the fire!

Unfortunately, Kitten was not as fond of Le Pooh as Chelsea and I.  She pretty much ignored him, staying upstairs and peering down at him from the top of the stairs.  I guess she doesn't want a puppy after all!

For the past couple of weeks, we have been helping one of our good friends pack and move--her and her partner, whom we love both of them very much, recently split up and it's very sad.  Chelsea was friends with both of them separately before they became a couple, and by the time I came into the picture they were together and became two of our very good friends.  We love them both and hope to support & be friends with both of them.  Chelsea and I are almost 30 (yikes!), so we're getting to that age where big life events are happening that we haven't seen before: friends getting divorced, friends getting diagnosed with cancer, friends' parents dying, etc.  WOW!  Life is really starting to happen--however, I don't want to sound like a downer because there is also plenty of really great things happening, too!  It's kind of cheesy, but it just makes you realize how fleeting and precious life's moments are.  We had fun last night at a goodbye party for one of Chelsea's old co-workers. It was at a karaoke bar, and unfortunately Chels and I did not get to sing our rendition of Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time"--Chels can do a Cher voice that sounds just like her, it's hilarious. We saw some old friends there and it was really nice to catch up! 

Today was a lower key day for me, I did a lot of cooking, laundry, and house stuff.  I made a new recipe tonight, here it is: Mexican Casserole .  It's from Cooking Light Magazine and was pretty good!  A couple of changes I made (and some I will make next time): I used ground turkey instead of protein crumbles; I also used a 9x13 glass casserole dish to bake in.  It was pretty good, but needs a few modifications--there wasn't enough filling to keep it all together, so it came out of the pan feeling more like nachos than a casserole.  Next time I will probably double the beans, and may even use half refried beans.  A little more cheese in the layers may help keep it together for a more casserole-like feel (you know how we Minnesotans love our casseroles!).  But all in all it was pretty tasty, I recommend giving it a try. 

We also got the paint supplies this weekend for our next room makeover: this time it's the half bathroom on the second floor.  It's a hideous deep burgundy color, way too dark for a small bathroom.  Thank goodness I married someone who loves bright colors just as much as I do--we chose a cool lime green that I think will be awesome! Hopefully it's not so bright that you need to wear your sunglasses in there :)  Stay tuned for pictures!