springtime on the farm

Springtime has sprung!

Baby chicks are growing...

Kittens are lazier than lazy :)

They enjoy being in the sunshine.

And the latest exciting addition to the Hauck household are Basil and Bitty, two and half year old brother goats!!!  They are so sweet.

This is Basil

And this is Bitty!

Basil again

Basil

I think I need to get more pics of Bitty next time :)  You get the picture though.  Aren't they adorable?!

Happy Anniversary Tyler!

Tyler and I celebrated our six year anniversary last month and it was such a fun month, I missed it on the blog. (sorry!) We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Barking Frog in Woodinville wine country. It was pretty darn incredible! The food and wine pairings were just what this celebration called for. We started out with yummy salad.

This salad was so packed full of flavor!

Pear, Swiss Chard & Kale Salad with dried cranberries, pine nuts, white balsamic garlic vinaigrette

Steelhead with fingerling potatoes, maitake mushrooms, caramelized onions, baby spinach, paquillo pepper relish

Wine pairings

Housemade sorbet and dessert wine

Tyler's maple cake:

Cheers, amidst all of the wine.  Love you, Tyler!!!
:)

Are you hungry yet? ;)

Tulips!

Happy Good Friday! I'm very grateful for the day off, and Tyler decided to take a vacation day so we could head north to Mount Vernon to see some tulips. Two years ago on Good Friday we had the same wonderful idea and it was gorgeous, albeit very windy and rainy: http://lauritalee.blogspot.com/2010/04/beautiful-tulips.html. This year, mother nature cooperated with some sunshine however it has not been warm enough for many tulips to bloom unfortunately. It was still beautiful and we enjoyed the day particularly with the daffodils in bloom. 

Lillian loved this sign!

As you can see, the tulip fields were still pretty green!

Happy spring!

NACADA Portland

The NACADA conference is one of my favorite professional development opportunities each year: National ACademic Advising Association.  This year was my fourth regional conference: first was Missoula, next was Seattle, then Calgary and now Portland.  Three best parts of this trip: reuniting with Miss Beth in downtown Portland for a lunch date, amazing gluten free beer at Deschutes Brewery and a delightful breakfast date with Abs! 

Beth and I:

Becca also loving the gluten free beer!

Most of the SU gang at Deschutes:

 Breakfast with Abby!

Love these signs!

In addition to some fun times, Tonja and I presented at the conference on the topic of advisors encouraging student self-advocacy skills such as using office hours, speaking up for themselves, networking, etc.  It felt great to have my first conference presentation under my belt with such a supportive audience.  Next NACADA stop is looking to be NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE!!