Stealthy

On Thursday, Mollie (Eileen's Mom) called to ask if I wanted to ride over with her to Spokane to surprise Eileen. She was in town with Ben for Hoopfest, an annual 3 on 3 basketball tourney in downtown. Her inlaws in Spokane so the use the event as an annual excuse to visit. We took off Friday after work and arrived late evening. Mollie knocks on the door and Eileen opened it to find me! We were both so excited... who doesn't love an unexpected trip to see your best friend? It was a short weekend and we took off on Sunday afternoon. I wasn't too sad to say goodbye though because I'm San Fran bound in just two weeks to visit them!

Eileen showed me the giant Wagon in the park.
Pardon the horrible photo of me - but here we all are!
Chris is gone on his Annual Training for the Army... leaving me unattended for two weeks. Naturally I have found trouble for myself. I have a top secret project that will be reveled upon his homecoming - stay tuned...

Civil War!

This past weekend Kyle (my cousin Jenna's husband) was in Port Gamble for a civil war reenactment. Jenna, Chelsea, Lindsay (Kyle's brother's girlfriend), Aunt JoAnn and Uncle Scott all came up to spectate with me. I'm glad Jenna was there to explain to me what was going on! I have never watched a reenactment before and it was an interesting experience. They do the whole battle scenario - complete with playing dead. Port Gamble was the perfect location with all the old buildings. Kyle's group from Oregon represents the a group of Scottish soldiers from NY (right Jen?)

The battle in action:

Chris couldn't make it (he was playing soldier himself) so I asked Kyle to make him a "mean face"
He let me hold the gun - scary....
Husband & wife!
Scott treated us to a great dinner in Poulsbo - nothing beats family time :)

Idle Hands...

After work I drove down to visit my Grama to celebrate her home-coming from the hospital. She is doing great and was even feeling up for pizza and ice cream with Grampa, Aunt JoAnn and Chelsea.

Upon my arrival I realized what happens when you leave husbands unattended for an evening...

Tiered flowerbed! (I'm easily pleased!)Good work Chris! Lucky me for having such a good husband :)

All that's left is to edge the bed, plant some stuff on the tiers and kill the weeds underneath the porch - so close!

Lazy Weekends at Their Finest:

Nothing beats a relaxing weekend at home!

Friday was "date night" however our plan was foiled. Kingston has remodeled their old fire station into a movie theater. They apparently don't update the movie times on their website though and we arrived 20 minutes late for the movie! Quick change of plans - ice cream and a walk around Kingston watching the boats come and go - not such a bad evening!

Saturday morning was spent lazing (is that a word? I like it.) around before meeting up with Natalie and her boyfriend Omar in Edmonds for some beer brewing. At Gallaghers Where U Brew you come in, select your beer recipe and brew it up in the vats. It's really fun, and they clean the mess up for you! We'll return in (at least) two weeks to bottle up the brewski.

Presenting your friendly brewmasters:
Sunday was spent celebrating Kyanne's graduation. She has once again regained the throne (did she ever loose it?) as the smartest Book. We celebrated with a family dinner at an Irish Pub in Seattle. Chris and I took the ferry over from Bainbridge. Because most of you blog readers were there, I won't bore you with photos.

Three cousins - missing our fourth :(

Heading back home on the ferry boat with Bainbridge Island in the background. We rode outside on the way home and were treated with watching the Orca whales play! Only in Washington :)
Pulling up to home!
And as a side note - not too bad for rose growing rookies!

Way to be a trooper Grama and Happy Birthday JoAnn!!

How about a midweek post?

Recently I've had the "pleasure" of becoming part of the small ferry commuting crowd. My 12 minute commute suddenly became 65... but I have to say I have the best view during any commute. Here's a view from my car on the way home yesterday (shortly before I popped the seat back and took a 20 minute nap - how many of you do THAT on your commute?)


Daily commute brought to you by the Wa. State Ferry System!

The super hot weather cooled down to just hot weather. Chris and I finished fabricing/mulching around the cherry trees. We are both very pleased with our work considering it's our first landscaping adventure. Just the edging to go and we'll be through with that portion of the yard.
Yes... it is a strange shape, there is a funky root thing going on with those trees.
And... just because I can... the new Escape happy in it's driveway.

In true Washington fashion the rain showed up just in time for the weekend!
I left on Friday morning to head down to kick of Yasmin's wedding weekend! We spent the afternoon doing typical girly pre-wedding things and enjoyed a lovely dinner at Woody's in Tacoma. The wedding was wonderful and beautiful in every way. The ceremony was held at the Main Chapel on Fort Lewis (both parents are retired Army). That chapel is gorgeous, it didn't need any decorating! We danced the night away at the reception in downtown Tacoma. Unfortunately we got rained on, but I guess that was better then the way too warm weather we had last week...

Beautiful bridesmaid bouquets
Wedding in action
The happy couple
The other happy couple
And no wedding is complete without a little dancing (with my old roommate Sara)Besides the wedding the weekend was rather uneventful. Chris had drill on Sunday so I took advantage of the time to tackle the remaining wedding buildup in the guest room. Two months later we're cleaned out and open for guests again... 'bout time!

Chris has been working hard in the yard again. Phase II is underway!

Front bed all mulched - almost ready for the final step.

Cutting away the grass around the trees.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!
Love - Us

Shrubs, Date Night, and...

Last week Chris (I got the easy out because my back was still hurting) worked away in the yard. We went to the local nursery and picked out four beautiful rhododendrons and a hydrangea. Chris dug the holes and we managed to haul a yard of topsoil home in our struggling little truck!
Here is a sneak peak at the new shrubbery:Summer is coming around and Friday night was by far to nice to stay inside! Chris and I enjoyed a quiet date night in Edmonds. We hopped on the ferry boat and enjoyed a 20 minute sail to Edmonds where we walked to a restaurant called A Very Tacky Tiki Bar. Always good fun and perfect for a sunny day! We took a stroll around downtown Edmonds and settled in at a waterfront bar to watch the sun go down.

Here we are en-route to Edmonds, it's only about a 20 minute ferry ride and very relaxing.
Mount Rainier from the ferry (with Seattle in the distance), if you were to turn around, Mount Baker would be right in front of you... have I mentioned I love Kingston?

Good bye sun! Looking from Edmonds across the Puget Sound back to Kingston.
Sunday was quite the day for us... we woke up early and embarked on another ferry ride, heading to Lynnwood in search of... a new car!! After an unsatisfying visit with the dealer in Lynnwood we headed down to Renton. We wheeled and dealed and four hours later (they said it's never taken anybody so long) it was...

Out with the old:


In with the new!!


We are now proud owners of a 2009 Ford Escape! We've been on the "small SUV" hunt for a long time and after ruling out our last option (and researching TO DEATH) we were ready to buy. We spent all evening negotiating and we pretty much made out like bandits. We got way more car then we paid for... I'll give you the highlight tour: V6, 4WD, leather seats (bonus), tow package (also a bonus), sun roof, tinted windows and plenty of electronic gadgets to keep us busy. It's equipped with Microsoft Sync. Which is a voice activated phone and stereo system. We just plug in our mp3 player and say "Play artist Dave Matthews Band" and it automatically scrolls to the artist and plays away. It fits all our needs for a larger, better "foul weather" car. Perfect to load up for those summer road trips!!