Museum of Flight, Curling and Payton!

I'm a little behind in my blogging (big surprise).

So we'll start with two weekends ago - Chris' day at the Museum of Flight (I had to follow through on my promise).

As a follow up to Chris' 10 year military celebration I promised a trip to the Museum of Flight. Just the anticipation had Chris bouncing off the walls for a week. I'm not a plane person, but I had a great time. They've recently added a WWI & WWII section I would highly recommend.

Chris with all the planes. I could hardly get him to stand still long enough for a photo :)

Chris makes a good fighter pilot...

But I'm not too bad myself.

Chris is landing a space shuttle.

Perhaps I see a new career path in my future?

We had a good time learning about the Helldiver, the plane Chris' grandfather flew in while he was serving.

After we followed up with lunch at the Wings Cafe (so we could watch the planes come and go from Boeing field) and a little visit to Air Force One and a Concord plane. A very good day for all!

The remainder of that beautiful weekend was spent outside. Nothing too exciting but a little quality time with the flower beds...

Our cherry trees are blooming and are stunning as usual!

Fast forward to mid-week.

I got the delight of hanging out with Chelsea for a day. She came up to Poulsbo and we walked around in the (strangely) beautiful weather and enjoyed a great Southwestern lunch. And a stop at the bakery of course. I just won't say if that was before or after lunch...

Here's a few from our lunch spot, I almost felt like I was on vacation!

And for this most recent weekend....

Over the Winter Olympics Kyanne, Ryan, Chris and I caught "curling fever". Don't ask why, I don't think we even know. The Seattle Granite Club has monthly open houses and we decided to give it a try. Our curling date had been on the calendar for a while, so by the time Saturday came around we were super excited.

A view of the ice from above.

Chris trying for the first time with the balance trainer.

Kyanne's first time with the stone.

Which resulted in this:

Don't let my professional stance fool you :)

Ryan making his bid for the 2014 Olympic Team.

The ice - it had a real unique texture. Wasn't as slippery as I thought.

Kyanne and Ryan made a good sweeping team. No butt sweeping here, right Kyanne?

Do I look like I know what I'm doing? I don't.

The couple that curls together, stays together.

Here it is folks. A sneak peak at your future gold medal winners.

And now for the best part - Chris and I got to meet our new cousin-once-removed. I think that's what she is to us - regardless, she's family!

Here we are with Payton Marie Hall

Proud new parents!

Jenna looks terrific a month after birth!

Chris looks pretty comfy with a baby in his arms.

Kyle's ready to defend his little girl (thanks to Grampa)

A terrific two weekends! Now just a tough week then it's off to Whidbey Island to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary! Where has the time gone?!

A Cake-Worthy Event

And just what is a cake worthy event around the Walker household??

10 Years of service in the (Maine/Washington) Army National Guard! It probably feels pretty good to be halfway to retirement at 27.

My cake skills were a little rusty - so I kept the thing simple... It's a carrot cake with pecan coconut filling and butter cream frosting - yum!

And in the gift bag... a certificate to the Museum of Flight - he's been dying to go since he moved out here.

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave" Elmer Davis

Thanks for everything Chris! I love my Soldier!

Sigh of Relief...

One of the biggies on our "to-do" list was tile the kitchen backsplash.... Easier said then done. Much easier.

Friday night was planning night. We schemed, plotted and planned this thing to death. Once you start tiling, there is no going back. We purchased the remaining supplies (tile was already in the garage) and headed home to start the next morning.

Before Photos -

 Saturday was absolutely sunny and beautiful so we avoided the elephant in the kitchen and went for a hike with our friends and their puppy. It was good to get some energy out of Bear before starting the project anyways.

We took the "easy" way out for the backsplash tiling. There is this new stuff you can buy, instead of using mortar you put tacky paper up on the wall to hold the tile in place. (Approaching the point of no return) Much more expensive, much, much, MUCH smaller mess. Worth it for the sanity. Once we got the tacky paper up we cut and placed the tiles. (At the point of no return) It was hard to work under the cabinets, keep straight tile lines and NOT hit our heads. Note to self - backsplashes are way harder then showers.

Tacky Paper -

Tile -

Sunday morning was grout time! Both of us kind of got cold feet and a little nervous. Luckily one of the guys in Chris' unit is a professional contractor. We considered it our "phone a friend" option. There was a little tension because at this point we were well beyond the point of no return. No matter what happened, for better or worse, we were going to have a tiled backsplash....

Chris grouted, I sponged and hand cleaned each little glass tile (in retrospect - do not use sanded grout on glass tile - duh). We worked HARD for about 3 1/2 hours, once you start there is no stopping. I didn't get too many photos of this process because it is messy!

Grouting -

Once we finished we stepped back and - SIGH OF RELIEF - it looks amazing!!
(It was hard to get good pictures - the lighting is the best in the kitchen)

A few details remain (caulking, new window sill and water proofing) but... close enough to enjoy the fruits of our labor :) This was by far the hardest project we've done yet. But we took the leap and it looks great. It wiped us both out for the rest of the evening and dinner was served out of the pizza box on the coffee table.

Alright - check this off our home improvement list! Next up... master bath.

Birthday Recap

This post won't be nearly as exciting as Jenna's but here it is...

On Saturday I celebrated my birthday with the family. It started with a DELICIOUS lunch made by the Mother. She knows how much I love Aussie pies (discovered on our honeymoon) so she whipped some up for my birthday lunch. I don't know the entire process, but it looked hard and the results were amazing.

mmm... pies in the oven

Bear dog and Mom curled up for a nap (don't know why it didn't rotate)

After lunch we trooped up to Grama and Grampas to enjoy cake and ice cream (the cake really should've been for Payton - it was her birthday after all).

 Then off to the hockey game! We had great seats (thanks G&G) for an exciting game that went into overtime - THEN a shootout. Unfortunately, the outcome wasn't in our favor. I think all enjoyed themselves anyways.

Chris took the day off on Tuesday to celebrate my real birthday. We kept it relatively low key with a trip to Bellingham (my favorite place). On our way up we got off the freeway in Mount Vernon and took the long way to Bellingham up Chuckanut Drive. If you're ever looking for a road trip I vote this the best highway in Washington. It cuts through farm land to hugs the water and the Chuckanut Mountains (hills?). On the way we noticed a sign for the Chuckanut Alpaca Farm gift shop. Why not stop? When we pulled in they appeared closed, but wife came out of her house and met us at the car. She opened up the shop for us real quick but apologized she had to run into town for an appointment. She said her husband was out in the fields if we wanted to go out and say hi. We went out into the field and met Walt. He talked to us about his 58 alpacas. Told us stories of hand raising one (feeding her exactly every 3 hours for six months),driving across the country to win blue ribbons, how the economy has hit farmers hard and how he got into alpaca farming. This man had some incredible stories. He came to the US from Austria as a profession skier. Taught skiing all over the country and participated in many world cups. He was an alternate for the Olympics (not this year - he's since retired) too! He said one day on a plane ride from Colorado he saw alpacas in a magazine and decided to start a farm. This man had never even owned a dog - talk about starting from the ground up! There's a lot to be learned from people if you take the time to talk.

Our next stop was Larrabee State Park. One of my favorites when I was living up there. A lot of studying was done out on the sunny rocks. The tide was out so we spent some time poking through the tidepools. I had a mission to pet a starfish - didn't find one though. I guess I'll have to save that for next time I go diving.

 
I got caught looking in the tide pools

We went up to Fairhaven and walked through the shops before having a tasty lunch at Boundary Bay Brewery (another Bellingham favorite) No trip to Bellingham is complete without a stop at Mallards for some homemade ice cream! We leisurely made our way down to the ferry and returned home for dinner. What a great 26th birthday!