midwest

Our trip to the Midwest was everything that I anticipated it would be and more. It was an incredible blessing to be with family and experience so many fun things! I'm still waiting on some pictures from other family members, but I'll start detailing our trip with what I have.. here is a quick (quick in my mind) version of our trip!

On Sunday we went to a local park in Arlington Heights to meet up with almost every family member on my mom's side minus my cousin Kim and my grandpa. We had a great time playing boccie ball, badminton and catching up with relatives.



On Monday we drove to Madison, WI to visit with my 99 year old grandpa.. we sang karaoke for just over 2 hours with my grandpa and his girlfriend (the top lady in the place as my gpa would say). I could write an entire blog post about this experience, but I will keep it short and say that it was ... entertaining. I'll post a video of this event soon once my sister gets back from her trip.

After karaoke and dinner at the dining center, we went over to my grandpa's old lake house and I showed Ben where I would go every summer and where the famous water ski reunions took place. Afterwards, went over to my Aunt Char's beautiful house in the cou
ntry. They live in 7 acres with tons of woods. We had a fire Friday night and roasted smores. We spent the morning exploring the woods nearby.

We headed back to Arlington Heights Tuesday afternoon, but not before we ate at the long promised Culver's .. yumm the custard was so good!


On Wednesday, we said goodbye to Jessie, Mark & James who headed out on their cross country road trip. Austin, Kelsey, Ben, my mom, Aunt Jo & I headed out for a fun day downtown. We went on an architecture boat tour, spent some time at millennium park, at lunch at Giardono's (deep dish), took a free trolley to navy pier and ate dinner at portello's a place that serves Chicago style hot dogs.


Thursday was spent driving to my aunt Jeanne's lake house in Douglas, Michigan. What a fun time! We went to the beach Thursday afternoon where I proceeded to forget to put sun screen on my back.. Nevertheless, we had a fun time playing Frisbee and going for a long walk. Thursday night we went into Saugautauk, MI which is a small artsy town with lots of cute shops. We ate dinner on the water and of course stopped in for some delicious ice cream.



Friday we drove back to Arlington Heights, but stopped off at the Indiana dunes state park.. kind of creepy and extremely humid, so we didn't stay long.


On Saturday our group dwindled even more when Kelsey & Austin flew back home to AZ. Ben and I took the train into downtown Chicago and had an awesome day. It was totally clear, so we took the opportunity to go up to the 95th floor in the Hancock build ling and eat lunch. What a fun experience! We then toured the 4th Presbyterian church across the street and went inside the water tower. Then we took a bus up to Lincoln park and walked along the waterfront. Unfortunately, we could not put our feet in the water because of high bacteria levels. It was still beautiful out though! We walked back through Lincoln park and took a bus back to the train station.




Sunday was spent getting ready to leave.. the only notworthy moment was when Ben got dunkin donuts that he was asking for throughout the whole trip.

Victoria

We went to Victoria, Canada this past weekend to celebrate Ben's birthday. We had a wonderful time! It is too hard to narrow down pictures to post, so I am just going to post a slideshow of our adventures!

dad's visit

My dad came up to visit us on May 22nd and left yesterday morning. Man did he score some amazing weather! Pretty much every day he was here, it was completely sunny and anywhere from 65-75 degrees. We did a ton in a span of a week! Here is our photo highlight!

Saturday, May 23rd

Walking greenlake:


ferry to bainbridge island:

dinner at our favorite pub. me + spicy crab artichoke dip = happy
Sunday May 24th

We ventured out for a little semi camping experience. After our first botched attempt at camping last May when James was a baby, we opted for a little more luxury and booked a cabin at a campsite. It still did nto have a bathroom and we had to cook everything outside, but it offered a little more comfort for little James-o. He did really well! We spent the evening making smores, playing frisbee and bocce ball, eating my dad's green chili, and relaxing in Ben's make shift hammock.Monday, May 25th

Mark, Jess & James headed back home after a delicious pancake breakfast. Ben, my dad & I ventured up the Wallace Falls trailhead. What a beautiful hike! We made it to the middle falls which was absolutely gorgeous!


Tuesday, May 26th

My dad made ciopinno which he has been dying to make since we moved up here. Here is is purchasing the ingredients! The dish turned out fantastic!


Thursday, May 28th

I lucked out with my dad and Ben going to see terminator, while I relaxed at home and caught up on some rachel ray shows and did 6 loads of laundry. Ben arrived home slightly disappointed with the movie. What? no story line? hmm could have called that one.

Saturday, May 29th

We ventured up Chuckanut drive and first stopped off at a shellfish farm where Dad & Ben picked out some oysters to eat and I watched.


We then hiked to Fragrance Lake. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to eat greasy fish & chips right before, but I survived.. mainly spurred on by all the little kids walking passed me. Chuckanut drive is absolutely gorgeous! We also made our 2nd attempt at placing our cache.. we all remember what happened the first time around.. I think we're safe this time.. no railroad tracks!




Saturday night we made our first attempt at making homemade ice cream with our new kitchenaid ice cream maker attachment we got for free when we bought our kitchenaid. We made triple chocolate and it was delicious!!! We finished my dad's visit off with a few rounds of turbo yahtzee.

Great visit!

Sunny Days Sweeping the Clouds Away...

We are finally starting to see some incredibly beautiful days up here in Seattle. This past weekend was absolutely gorgeous, with temperatures pushing 75 degrees. This is the time of year we are so glad to call Seattle home!

This weekend we watched James and had a blast. Friday afternoon I took him for a walk down to the Edmonds Marina park where he was able to play in the sand, throw rocks, see some trains, and watch the ferry boats come in and out of the dock.. pretty much all of James' favorite things in one location.

Saturday was a huge whirlwind where I got a glimpse of what it is like to stay at home with a toddler. From about 7:30 on it was crazy! I somehow managed to get semi ready for the day, pack James a lunch, get him dressed and fed and out the door in the car by 9:30. I happened to get some free tickets from one of my coworkers to go to a show called Sesame Street Live in the Everett arena. I wasn't sure how James was going to do because it was 90 minutes long and I had a hard time picturing him sitting for that long.. well, this is what he looked like the whole time....
He was SO into the show! He clapped, pointed, laughed and danced a little to the music. I had 2 different moms tell me "he is so well behaved!" I was so proud of him. I even caught myself grooving a little to some of the songs.

After his nap, we headed down to Golden Gardens with my friend Adelle and her son Owen to catch some rays. It was amazing how crowded it was. This experience was a little stressful for me.. in trying to protect his skin, I dressed him in jeans and a long sleeve shirt.. it was like almost 80 out. So, I lathered him with sun screen, rolled up his jeans and took his shoes and shirt off. He did have a good time throwing sand into the water until he started rubbing his eyes with sand on his hands. He didn't seem to mind, but I had a mini melt down as I started to imagine him getting his cornea scratched. Anyway, here are some pics from our beach adventure...


Ben spent the weekend down at the water for the NOOD sailing race. Unfortunately, there was no wind on Saturday so he waited from 7:30-3:30 for some wind that never came. He did get some nice color though and had the opportunity to get to know some of the sailors. By Sunday at 11:30, they finally got some wind and headed out for a few hours of sailing. His boat came in 10th out of 15 boats.. not bad for a team that never sails together! In other sailing news, I have registered for a beginner sailing class in August. I'm really excited to learn some basic information so I can share in Ben's passion a little more.

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!