Amber in Seattle!

Deez and I are very excited Am's in town

enjoying the stoop!

Trek to Lake Dorothy!

Lunch time.






we made it!








Awww ;)







we needed some fire wood, so we brought part of the forest home..
Am, Ben and the boys



Bite of Seattle





visit to the Oltman household
Deez and Ween





Golden Gardens







Am and her boyfriend Ben came out to visit 7/15 through 7/19 and they pretty much got the WA 101 class. There visit was jam-packed with adventures, great food, lots of exercise, site seeing, and did I mention great food?


The day they flew in they were met by my mom and spent the afternoon hanging out around Pikes Place Market downtown...I managed to weasel my way out of work early to meet them at the house post market wondering. Some quick introductions and a house tour and then they were pretty settled in for a couple days.


The first full day (7/16) was spent walking around Fremont, introducing Am and Ben to Royal Grinders (Heaven), going for a run around Green Lake and an REI visit all before Shan finished up work for the day. It was a nice relaxing start to the busy days to come.


The second day was a doozy of a day.. up n at em at 7am getting ready for our trek up north to Lake Dorothy. Right around mile post 45.8 on hwy 2 towards eastern WA you take a right on a tiny road which leads you over some train tracks (we nearly got caught in the middle of the tracks while a train was coming) then you venture onto a dirt road where you can only go 20mph for 9 miles till you hit the trail head. A couple wrong turns, riverbed rides, lovely lady I would like to name Fran at the post-office-on-wheels and 3 hours later...we hit the trail head ready for action! Somehow in the last year I managed to forget just how many steps and steep climbs there was to get to the lake. Anyways, it was toasty and a beautiful day to hike...pictures to come..

The third day of our 4 day adventure was spent bumming around the Bite of Seattle and then some downtown shopping afterwards. Post stuffing our faces and spending some money we hung out at the house before peeling our butts off the couch to head out to Am's favorite dance spot on Capital Hill for a couple hours. Needless to say, we hit a wall early, came back to the house and crashed.

Am's final day in Seattle started off with a bang at the Oltman's household in Edmonds for a brunch feast. My mom even made homemade very berry sorbet and a side of chocolate fudge. After the family gathering, we headed back to the house with intentions to go trek around Discovery Park in Magnolia. That didn't end up panning out, and instead we watched a lame scary movie before getting some din at Royal Grinders (again) and hanging out at Golden Gardens for a bit before heading to the airport. 9pm we hugged and waved goodbye and Am and Ben were Boston bound again. A quick yet eventful mini vacation to Seattle .. . CHECK!

Lake Tapps with Shan's family, a small slice of paradise.

Jerryn

The gang at the Sumner Tulip Parade

Javaan

Mason and Shan's pa Tom

Gabriella

Shan's ma Roxy and Julius

Julian

Whidbey Island Feb 09

Double Bluff Beach - Whidbey Island, WA.

We tagged the eroding sandy hill side :)

Our "private" beach we hiked down to at our second location of the day, South Whidby State Park. The trail head sign said closed due to some of the trail being washed away on the hill side...but all we saw was an untouched beach down through the brush. So we went for it.

Notice only two sets of footsteps? Such a beautiful spot.

I'm a leiser athlete and I'm OK with that.

For so long it was ingrained in my head, run faster, be stronger, go harder, strive to be the example of a top athlete to everyone else in attempts to motivate others... This was my life for so long between the ages of 12 and 26.

I can believe I made it to a point in my life where I'm ok with not feeling like I have to work out for others but instead I can work out the way I want to. I don't feel guilty if I don't run sprints or run an extra couple miles to make sure I'm doing everything I can to better myself as an athlete. If I don't feel like running and I don't go, it's fine and the only person I'm letting down is really myself.

Anyways, as I Shan and I go to the Sounder's games and watch those men battle it out, a small part of me misses those soccer days of playing hard, digging deep, depending on your teammates and playing for the W. Those days are long gone for me and I never thought I would get to a point where I would be ok with that. Being done, putting my boots up. But I am, and it feels wonderful.

This week my Ambo comes in to down with her boyfriend Ben and I'm soooo excited to have a four day weekend with them here. There's some fun stuff on the to-do list including (but not limited to) going to Aki to play around on the beach and watch a movie on the lawn, Pikes Place Market for Ben to see, hiking up to Lake Dorothy, bumming around in Discovery Park, family time and I'm sure so much more. I just hope the weather holds out and the rain stays far far away.

I recently uploaded a ton of pictures from my camera, yes, way past due. I've decided to start using this "blogging" space for a way to have family keep up to date with what Shan and I have been up to. :)

ummm..a year later?

Wow, it's been a year since the last post...as you can imagine a lot has transpired over the last 300 and some odd days. One major thing would be stumbling into the love of my life and the greatest feeling ever felt. Sappy I know, but honest to God, 107% true. I'm happier than ever and enjoying life to the fullest possible.

In the last year...I've stopped playing rugby after a great run for 3.5 years. As hard as it was to make the decision, it was needed. I'm still within the Seattle Fire process and feel fortunate to be apart of the select few to be moving forward. After budget cuts and hire delays, the process will pick up again in about 9 months. But in the mean time they have selected me as 1 of 20 to participate in their EMT class for free! That's close to $1000 dollars I'm saving :) While on the subject of cash and since the market is perfect for 1st time home buyers...Shan and I will be doing our best to capitalize on buying a home within the next year. Now we just have to figure out where we'd like to live :P I adopted a mini wiener dog last summer named Frankie and as much of a handful he is, he's the perfect companion for Deez. Recently started up Crossfit after pondering this for well over a year now (mainly b/c of the cost). Let me just tell you..it's exactly what I was l looking for and I'm excited to see some results!

Well that's the recap in a nutshell. I'm sure there's other things that have happened, obviously, but all in all a great year!