ND Part II: The Farm

Visiting the farm is always a highlight of our ND trips.  Hard to believe we hadn't been there in 3 years!  For those of you who do not already know, this is the farm that my dad and his 8 siblings grew up on.  My uncle Dave and his wife Laurie still live on the property in a new home along with their son Andrew and his wife (more on that later) Heather in the original house.

Meeting Bear was definitely love at first sight.  How could you not love this boy?!

And the baby kitties were pretty darn cute as well :)

 

 

Andrew's wheels:

Day-old piggies!

I think these were a few days old.

 

And the big piggies

Meow!

 

I really should take more people pictures!  :)  I did enjoy visiting the fam as well, don't you worry :)

 

 

North Dakota Part I

After our overnight stop in MT, we headed to ND.  What a drive!  Thankfully, we stayed put for over a week so we had plenty of time to relax.  Kari and Bruce were so kind as to host us in their beautiful new home.  We enjoyed some good quality cousin bonding time.  I do miss the girls: Kari, Raylee and Megan the most (sorry Bruce, lol).  Here are some pics of our fun times with them:

If we were there a few weeks prior we would have seen the sunflower fields in full bloom.  This pic will have to do.

 

Here are some blooms!

 

Gotta love the N Dakota sunsets!  This is from Kari and Bruce's driveway:

We LOVED the backyard, and our bonfire night!  Raylee and I snuggling by the fire.

Meeting the kitties was also a highlight of the trip! 

 

Raylee was very enthusiastic about her kitties.  It was pretty adorable.  Thank goodness the kitties seem to love her just as much as she loves them.

Crazy crazy girl :)

 

PJ play time :)  Sweet Megan was very excited for this!

Many thanks to Kari and Bruce for their hospitality!  We miss you all.  xoxo

Vacation time: beautiful MT

Fisch, Tyler and I packed up the Prius and headed East -- to big sky country.  A long road trip just isn't the same without a life-sized stuff moose in the back seat.  Thank you to Fisch for the good entertainment and Tyler for the dedicated driving while Fisch and I slept, read, and DJ'd.

Tyler took the moose out 'huntin' in the morning :)

So pretty!

 

We enjoyed our visit with Rudi and the good company of the Fischers as always.

Our morning quad ride...

 

It wasn't supposed to end like this... :)  Thankfully, the towing was only temporary.

 

Thanks MT for the good fun!  Until next time...

 

 

Summer Orientation: SU and WWU

In all of my years at SU, I have never been involved in summer orientation programming.  With my not-so-new job (which I started last summer), this all changed.  I was fully immersed in SIS as we call it -- summer in seattle.  Kate, Tonja and I gave the same presentation 20 different times in 2 weeks, whawhoo!  Needless to say, there was one of these at the end of those two weeks:

And we thoroughly enjoyed our work retreat aboard the duck tour. 

 

So summer was both energizing and exhausting at work.

 

In addition to SU orientation, I had the pleasure of accompanying Isaac to orientation.  I tried to both blend in as a student and offer "parental" guidance.  :)  We really enjoyed Bellingham.  What a lovely town.  Here are a few photo highlights of the trip:

Boulevard Park

 

A stroll through campus.  My, we have grown!

 

I met some new friends:

And enjoyed the old-skool lecture halls.

 

Isaac, I miss you!  Glad you are having so much fine in school.  Hugs!

 

We've moved!

I can't believe how far behind on blogging I am.  I never thought I would be one to say that but I hope to little by little catch up in the next week or two.  Stay tuned.

The biggest news of all is that we have moved and ABSOLUTELY LOVE our new home.  It is beautiful, has room to grow, needs a little TLC and attention, and best of all, a lovely location in beautiful Issaquah.

As many of you know, home ownership is a lot of work.  The above picture is courtesy of Windermere.  I am sure the house will look this pristine all year round (haha).  As we have learned, the joys of living in a wooded neighborhood in the fall mean constant leaves, pine needles, etc.  Fun! 

We are settling in slowly but surely.  The guest room is up and running and we have welcomed Abby and Mike and Becca so far.  Who's next?!  :)

I will plan to share before/after pictures along the way.  We haven't had the opportunity to hang many pictures yet, but there are two rooms which have undergone huge transformations.

Living room before (courtesy of Windermere)

Living room after!  I never thought I would be one to advocate for "crisp linen" walls but I absolutely love it.

 

Master bedroom before (courtesy of windermere)

Master bedroom after.  LOVE IT!  Furniture is to come, but I had to show you the progress.  What a difference paint makes.  Many many thanks to Tyler's father for his hard work to allow us to get this far so quickly.

 

That's all for now, folks.  Thank you for reading and thank you for your patience.

Colchuck Lake

We ventured out on day two of camping for an ambitious and challenging hike: Colchuck Lake.  I'm proud of all of us for conquering the hike, but on a hot day with no shower at the end, I must admit that if I knew it was going to be that hard, I probably wouldn't have chosen this one.  So glad we did though.  Here are some of the reasons why:

Well worth the climb!

I love camping!

The title of this post may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I thought it would catch Emily and Todd's attention :)

Tyler and I did enjoy our summer camping trip with Emily and Todd.  The scenery was amazing, location perfect, escape from the city just what we needed, etc etc.  We aren't quite ambitious enough to try it again this year, but are looking forward to another camping weekend next year.  The campsite was Rock Island Campground on Icicle Creek Road outside of Leavenworth, one of my favorite cities.  Here are a few pics of around the campground, amazing!  Our site was very private and right next to the roaring river.

 

 

 

 

Becca and Levi for allowing us to borrow their tent :)

 

And thanks to Emily and Todd for bringing the hammock!

 

 

Tyler saved the day after my failure to charge the air mattress pump all the way.  Glad he had the opportunity to geek out!

 

 

We had some amazing food!  Here are the chefs hard at work.

 

 

One example of yummy breakfast:

 

And one of the best food experiences EVER: chocolate cake cooked over the campfire in an orange:

 

 

We went on an amazing hike...more on that later...in the meantime, here's my post-hike treat :)  Who needs ice cream when you can have potato chips?!

 

 

Yay for camping!  Up next, hike pics.  Thank you to Emily and Todd for encouraging us to get out and enjoy the great outdoors in a new way! 

The three "p's": patience, prayers and packing

Hi everyone, from a very lame blogger.  Wow, time flies...doesn't it?!  I'm sorry for the delay.  My gentle loving mother asked if I had forgotten my password (lol).  Nope, life is just a little chaotic right now. 

Thankfully summer has been lovely, although I always crave more time for hiking.  I will need to tell you all about our amazing camping adventure with our fearless outdoor leaders Emily and Todd, my lovely birthday (yay for 31), and well...the big news...we're moving!  The condo sold in two days! 

So, here is what the three "p's" have entailed:
Patience.  You may know that I am not the most patient individual on this Earth, thankfully Tyler has been blessed with this virtue.  The home buying and selling process is overwhelmingly complex, as I have learned.  And, most houses that you like will also be liked by many other people who are apparently very wealthy and can outbid you, even if the home has only been on the market for 2 days.  Thankfully, though, with some "wonderful" tests of my patience over the weekend, our offer was accepted on a great house in a cute neighborhood of Issaquah.

Next comes Prayers!  This is where you will hopefully help.  We need your prayers for a smooth home inspection process this week and for all of the details to fall in line nicely with the sale of the condo.  If all goes well, we will be in the new home at the end of September and only "homeless" for a week!  I can hardly wait (oh, I already forgot I have to be patient)!

Last but not least, packing.  Tyler and I got a good dose of packing in this weekend but it seems as though we have only made a small dent.  I really had no idea we (or really I should say "I") had so much stuff.  Perhaps I need to be reminded of the importance of a fourth "P": purging! 

Well folks, that's all for now.  Thank you for everyone who has supported, prayed, and assisted in this endeavor.  Love and hugs, L

p.s. On friday, we are off to N. Dakota for vacation, more reason to fall behind on blogging, sorry!