1 year.. 1 year?!?!

Wow, can it already be one year later?? One year where we stood on the stage in front of most of our dear family and friends and said "I do?" One year since flew out on our honeymoon around Europe? One year since we started our lives together. Ok enough with the cheese.. in all seriousness, this has been the best year of my life. I feel that we have grown so much closer together over the year. It is so exciting to think about all the future holds for us. Because we got married the day before my birthday, Ben had his work cut out for him, but he did great!


Our weekend of celebration started Sat. night with a dessert birthday party. Most of our closest friends came over to celebrate with their favorite dessert. Man it was sugar overload, but lots of fun! We played some games and had some good conversation. Saisha even made her first party appearance! We unfortunately didn't take many pictures, so you'll have to trust us that it was fun. You'll have to excuse the glasses.. my eyes have been bothering me b/c of allergies, so i've been having to wear them while I'm being treated.



Sunday was our actual anniversary and we celebrated by using lots of gift cards/gift money that had been given to us over the year. After church, we headed down to the Greek festival for some tasty gyros and fries. This is our 3rd year going, and the 1st year without Jessie & Mark - we missed you guys! I remember the first year we went it was pouring rain, we couldn't find a parking spot and Jessie was due in 2 weeks. We still went- all for those gyros!



We then went and got massages which were wonderful. After the massages we went on a.....


seaplane ride!!!! It was absolutely incredible- probably one of the best things we've ever done! We live in such an awesome city- it was so neat to see everything from up above! We saw so many awesome things like..


gasworks park..

the UW stadium...

the 520 bridge...

downtown...

west seattle...

Ballard locks...

greenlake...

the Space Needle..

I really recommend it to anyone living in the Seattle area.. it's definitely a little nerve racking taking off and landing from the water, but totally worth it.


We finished off our night by going out to dinner at Serious Pie- one of Tom Douglas' restaurants. It was really tasty and unique pizza.


After dinner, Ben surprised me with custom "wedding" cupcakes from Trophy. We chowed down at the Space Needle during sunset.. perfect. All in all, it was a fabulous day together! Ben got me tickets to see WICKED today and I can't wait!!!

a blast from the past!

We had the lovely opportunity to catch up with one of my old residents from the Sechrist 7th floor SOUTH SIDE a couple weeks ago. Meryl was at the end of her road trip up north and stayed with us for a few nights while she took in the Seattle sites. We spent one night showing her some of the fun sites around town! She is a wonderful writer, so if you want her take on the day, check her blog out at: http://merylsmeanderings.blogspot.com/2009/09/seattle-daze.html


We started out the evening with getting take out thai food from Jai Thai and going to eat at Golden Gardens.




After making a pit stop by the troll, we hit up the classic Seattle viewpoint at Kerry Park. It was a beautiful time of day!



We finished off the night some another Seattle-must do- a trip to Trophy cupcakes!It was a great little break from a regular work week!

A sense of normalcy

2 weekends ago was the first weekend in what felt like ages where we didn't have people in town or something major to do. We relished in being able to sleep in, take it easy, and enjoy each other's company. We had a fabulous day together!

We started the day with a trip to the local farmer's market in downtown Edmonds. We ate some delicious crepes and picked up some beautiful flowers for $5!

We then headed down to Greenlake to play some chip & putt at a cute little course.



It was a little rainy out so there was no one on the course so we didn't have to worry about flying balls coming in our direction this time.

After golfing, we went to get some tasty treats at Chocolati. We had a gift card for almost a year so we went all out and got some hot cocoa and some treats.


We finished off the evening by watching a movie and eating some popcorn!

Saisha Jane and a weekend of babysitting

What a special weekend it was! We were blessed with our first niece on Friday, September 4th at 4:24 pm. We spent the whole weekend taking care of James and going to and from the hospital visiting Mark, Jessie and baby Saisha. James did so great with the transition and we can't be more in love with the new little bundle!


Friday afternoon my dad and I took James to babies r us to get a present for Saisha, and of course, we had to get James something, so we got him a real "zuma" (that is what he calls guitars) so he didn't have to play his bat anymore.


Needless to say, the bat did not go unused- my dad became the newest member of James' band. This picture was after about 2 hours of zuma playing.


Saturday morning we took James to his little gym class. He had such a fun time swinging on the rings, walking on the balance beam and climbing the wall. It's amazing how much he can do!


Then we went to meet baby Saisha for the first time. I always forget how little newborns are!! She is absolutely precious!

Saturday afternoon we came back to the hospital for Saisha's 0 birthday party.. really it was an excellent excuse to eat a delicious dessert.. I made chocolate maltball cake. yum!


Sunday we came back to the hospital again in the morning and played a lot of zuma in the afternoon.

Monday morning we took James to starbucks (really we needed to get something to keep us awake!) He got a special treat when a firetruck was leaving and they turned on the lights for him.


It was a wonderful weekend. We can't wait to watch Saisha grow up and become her own person.