fancy toes & demolition

It is hard to believe that Ben's birthday has come and gone and now it is time to start thinking about summertime plans!

Saturday I had training all day for work so Ben headed over to our friend Ryan & Jayna's across the water in Kingston to help with demolition of their house. It sounded like they got quite a bit done, while still having time to discover a dead mouse and many spiders along the way. I got done with training around 4 and then headed over on the ferry to meet up with the ladies who had spent the day relaxing in the sun while their husbands did some demo. We went and got pedicures and then headed to the amazing house that Ryan and Jayna are staying at for a couple more weeks while their house is being redone. This place was incredible! It had views of downtown Seattle, Mt. Rainier, Edmonds, and the ferry dock. It was awesome to watch the Victoria clipper and all the cruise ships go by. We cooked some pizza and did some relaxing in the hot tub before heading back late Saturday night.

Sunday was a wonderful day. We went to church and the morning and then spent the rest of the day with one of the best moms I know, my sissy. Mark made some amazing meals for Jess, and we just happened to be around to eat them too :) We spent the afternoon at this incredible park in Kirkland.. it was a castle with a ton of stuff to do for most ages. We played a little frisbee, saved James from getting pummeled by a swing, and did a little swinging as well. Sunday night we played some cards, made an amazing dinner, ate some delicious cake and watched the amazing race finale.



Happy Mother's Day to the wonderful moms in our lives!

California here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well we finally were able to get out of town and make it to California. We had an absolute blast spending time with Ben's family and friends. The added bonus was the amazing weather that we had! Saturday morning we spent some time at Ben's grandparents house getting smoked in a game of hand and foot. Saturday night, Ben's parents had some friends over + a few family members. It was a wonderful time to catch up with some of our wedding guests that we didn't get to talk to a lot at the wedding.

Sunday morning we headed out to beautiful San Diego and spent the afternoon sailing. It was an incredible day with lots of wind and beautiful sunshine.






Sunday night we went to our favorite pizza shop in little Italy in San Diego. Monday morning we went over to Ben's grandparents again for another round of cards.. once again I was destroyed...



Finally, I leave you with a video of my funny honey.

Ben

25 years ago, this amazing man was born:

I am so thankful that he is my husband and that I am able to share my life with such an amazing man. From his passion for adventure, to his dedication to serve, I love every ounce of who he is. It is incredible how our lives were so separate for so many years, and then we were brought together through the most random of circumstances. I can't imagine my life without him.. he truly is my partner, best friend, biggest supporter and encourager. Happy Birthday Ben!

birthdays, tulips and a luau

I am not really up for writing a lot, so I will explain last weekend mainly through pictures.

Friday was our friend Matt's 30th birthday surprise party. He had NO idea and it was hilarious to see his reaction when he came down the basement stairs to find around 40 people yelling "surprise!!!"
Saturday I had to attend a conference for work and Ben worked at special olympics for Ballard Rotary doing the softball throw. Saturday night we attended the Ballard rotary auction.. i'm kicking myself for not bringing a camera because the view from the golf course was absolutely amazing. We had a good time and walked away with a mariner's hat.

Sunday after church we went up to the tulips with Mark, Jess and James. I am so thankful to have family up here with us to share life with.

we are the pancake masters

Another busy weekend for the Crowl fam

After many weeks of preparation, it was time for the Queen Anne Little League pancake fundraiser that Ben was in charge of organizing. Saturday morning we woke up at 4 am so we could be ready to start cooking pancakes at 5 am down in Queen Anne. Ben had spent the night dreaming about pancakes, so he was ready to go! I on the other hand was not quite as functional at that time in the morning. Here is a sample of our conversation:

4:00 am
Ben: All righty! Will you smell these jeans? Do you know where my deodorant is? Would you get the zip ties? Can we get some donuts?
Me: Please don't talk to me for another 15 min.

We spent the morning from 5-8 with 3 other people cooking a total of 1,000 pancakes. I had no idea I had the secret talent of flipping pancakes. I was on a roll! We got everything done around 8 and then headed over to the actual breakfast. Many of our friends showed up to help and we had a great time serving the community. One of the highlights of our time was when our friend Dan was trying to convince every kid that they wanted water over orange juice. At one point, some kid who decided he didn't want any food, only oj, turned to dan and said "you know what, you're freaky!" I guess he wasn't as convincing as he thought.

Ben was happy with the turn out especially since this was the first year. He even got interviewed for a local newspaper article. I'll post it as soon as it shows up. I'm so proud of my husby.

Saturday afternoon I went to a baby shower for my good friend Lindsey and her daughter Kaci Jean. I brought jalapeño popper spread and fruit salsa with cinnamon chips holy cow these were good. The food that everyone else brought was so delicious- I was thankful that I had only eaten a couple pancakes before! While at the shower, Ben went and played frisbee golf with some friends.

Here is Linds and her little one

Saturday night we fell asleep at 7:00 pm and woke up at 8:00. awesome. Sunday we went to church, cleaned our place, took a nap (as if 13 hours of sleep was not enough). I worked in the 5-9 year old room for the 5 pm service at church. My favorite quote of the night was when we were talking about serving others and the topic of complimenting others came up. This 5 year old said " I tell my mom she looks nice like a 1,000 times. She is really fancy sometimes" so cute!

clam digging, Easter, etc.

We can both add one things to our list of stuff that we have never done before...clamming!

We headed out on Friday evening with Dan, Jill, and Jill's friend Charity down towards our destination at Twin Harbors State Park. We stayed the night at one of Dan's friend's cabin and then woke up bright and early to finish the rest of our drive. Clamming was definitely an experience! It was raining, hailing and blowing very hard, so we were soaked pretty much immediately. This did not detract from the goal however... here is what we were after:

In order to catch these lovely creatures, you look for a small dimple in the sand and then push something called a clam "gun" into the sand and suction up the sand, hopefully catching the clam before it gets away!

All those piles are places where people have dug up looking for clams.

After catching around 40 clams, we headed home. The ladies went to the store while the guys cleaned the clams.We fried them up and were ready to eat our fresh catch of the day!
I was not so sure about the clams....But I was definitely sure about the dessert!

On Easter we went to church in the morning for an incredibly moving service. I then volunteered in the toddler room at church for the next service. Afterwards, Ben & I headed over to Adelle's for Easter brunch. We had a wonderful time catching up with friends and of course, holding the babies :) Here is Owen, 6 months

we're alive

Just wanted to do a quick post to let you know that we're alive!

A quick recap of the past few weekends:

3 weeks ago our friends Matt & Adelle stayed at our apartment while their carpet was ripped out and new carpet was installed. I think that Matt and Adelle realized how small our couches are after claiming they didn't need a blow up. We woke up the next morning to find not only Matt & Adelle, but also baby Owen sleeping on one couch.. I should have taken a picture..

2 weekends ago Ben's friend Dave came up from California for a visit. We went to Agua Verde for dinner on Friday night and then on Saturday, Ben took Dave to Snoqualmie Falls while I went to a training for Big Brothers Big Sisters (I don't know if I've mentioned that I am hoping to become a Big Sister volunteer). Saturday afternoon we introduced Dave to the best burger ever at Red Mill, and then went bowling at the garage in capital hill. We spent the evening over at a house that Courtney was house sitting at. We made some yummy tacos, played some games and participated in earth hour by turning out the lights and lighting some candles. Glad to know we saved the earth a little :)

This past weekend we were super excited to go visit Ben's parents and grandparents in California. Unfortunately we got sick on Friday and after making it all the way to the airport, we decided that we shouldn't spend 5 hours on a plane and in a car while feeling like we did. We spent the entire weekend on the couch watching endless hours of Rick Steves, discovery channel and rachel ray while staring outside at the 70 degree sunny weather. We are recovered now and hope to reschedule our trip to CA shortly.

I'll try to post some pictures soon of Dave's visit- we actually used the camera a lot!

This weekend we are going to go clam digging for the first time! I really don't know what to expect, but it should be fun! We are going to stay at a friends of a friend's cabin on Friday night and make it back on Saturday for some clam fry ups.. i'll report later on how I feel about eating clams. On Easter we will have a brunch with some friends, go to church and eat too many reeses and chocolate. I've been sharing how my family used to blow the yolk & egg white out of the egg before dying them at Easter time. Everyone looks at me weird when I tell them this.. am I from the only family who did this?