Fun with the Girls

Let me just start by saying that I had an amazing weekend with my friends. I hated to see them leave!! There is something to be said for the friendships that you establish in college... we saw each other through a lot of changes, highs/lows, etc. I feel blessed to have such wonderful friends in my life. Even though I don't talk to them every week, and it had actually been years since I saw them last -- we can always pick up right where we left off :)

The girls flew in Friday -- we hung out Friday night, reminisced about old times, and then got a good night of sleep. We spent Saturday morning downtown/at the market doing some touristy things. Here we are in front of the original Starbucks. Notice the trampy mermaid -- no wonder they changed their logo, huh? :)

Saturday afternoon we took a ferry out of Seattle and made the drive to Port Angeles. We were able to pick up our race registration stuff and then drive up to Hurricane Ridge. The views were amazing -- as usual. Then we checked into our hotel, ate a huge dinner, took hot showers/stretched and went to bed. Bri and I had to get up and take a shuttle in the morning to get to the start of our race. We were both running the half-marathon. Dee was running the 10K (she just had a baby 4 months ago) -- and then she was going to wait for us at the finish line.

To Be Continued...

Worth the Wait...

This is an African Violet that I have in my kitchen. I received it last year as a gift from my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. It was blooming when she gave it to me. I am horrible with house-plants... and I didn't have necessarily high hopes for this one either. The blooms went away within a few weeks... but I kept it alive... and it bloomed again this Mother's Day. Definitely worth the wait! I took quite the break from posting...not sure if this post will be worth the wait... but I will provide updates none the less :) Obviously life has been busy this past month -- as I am sure everyone's life is.

Here is the only other picture that has been taken recently... Noah and his cousin Lola playing together this past weekend: (you can also see the top of Evelyn's head in the corner)
Moving forward... I have an exciting weekend coming up!! College girlfriends Dee and Bri will be flying in on Friday evening for the weekend. We are all going to do a race together on Sunday morning. Bri and I will be in the North Olympic Discovery Half-Marathon (nodm.com), and Dee will be running the 10K.

With all that has been going on, I completely fell off the training plan... and I am going into this with my longest run being 10.5 miles... but I figure if I can do 10.5, what is another 2.6 miles? I might be singing a different tune come Sunday though :) I received some words of wisdom from a fellow blogger the other day... "Just remember your mind is tough and it will carry you through - so control your thoughts and don't let your mind convince your body that it is too hard! Because it is not!" Wish me luck :)

Lost At Sea!!

Let me just start by saying that cruising is SO MUCH FUN! I had never been on a cruise... and didn't know what to expect... but it is so easy, relaxing, fun, pampering, etc. I will definitely do it again sometime -- hopefully sometime soon!!!

Liz and I had a blast! The weather was amazing, service & food was outstanding, we met some fun new friends, and basically did whatever/whenever for 5 full days :) Here we are in Key West with our ship in the background:

Shopping in Key West -- I bought some colorful fun stuff for one of my bathrooms:Enjoying some time at the Schooner Bar -- a piano bar that we had WAY too much fun at!!Here we are enjoying dinner together in the dining room:Here we are getting ready to leave... the picture says it all...

Bases are Loaded... and I'm Ready to Go!!

I've been busy lately trying to get a bunch of stuff done before I leave to go on my vacation. I am SO amazingly excited -- it is some much-needed, long overdue downtime/girltime/catch up with Liz-time!!

This past weekend the kids went to a birthday party at Safeco Field (where the Seattle Mariners play) -- it was a great party. Almost more fun for the adults though!! The tour was amazing... here are a few pics... Travis and kids on the field: (notice the "Happy Birthday Dylan" sign in the background)

Kids in the dug-out:

In the interview/press room -- with the kids all seated behind the desk, ready to be grilled:Visitor's team locker room -- notice Noah climbing on the couch -- he was all over the place! Obviously he didn't know where he was... but he will someday :)I do have to tell one gross story though... so we were able to check out the entire visitor's locker room (bathrooms and all). The bathrooms were stocked with things like shaving cream, deodorant, etc... kinda like you see at some restaurants (not the mini hotel size stuff, but normal usage size). We walked back into the communal shower area... and along with the shampoo bottles is a bar of soap at every shower head... and I'm talking a HALF-USED bar of soap!! So these gross guys just walk up and use some grungy soap bar, not knowing or caring where it has been... I mean, I am not a germa-phobe or anything -- but that is downright disgusting!!

Let's move on to a more girly topic.... hair flowers :) Evelyn is finally starting to wear the flower clips that I made for her. She has been wearing them to church on Sundays. She also had been wearing her "movie star" sunglasses so she can look like her mommy :)

All for now -- I'll be back after my cruise!!

My Birthday Boys

Noah's birthday was Friday, and Travis's was Sunday, so I decided to have a small group of friends over on Friday night for dinner & cupcakes. Noah ate a lot at dinner so he really wasn't interested in eating his cupcake. He obviously doesn't get that from me -- I am pretty sure I can't pass up cupcakes -- ever! Well, maybe chocolate ones... but definitely not white cake or the cute funfetti ones!
Here are a couple pics: Our Easter pics & the rest of the birthday ones are here if anyone is interested.

Happy Easter!

Pic before church:

"Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!" Luke 24:5-6

Coloring Easter Eggs

Unfortunately Grammie flew back to Michigan this morning -- I wish it had been a longer visit. Evelyn and Noah were asking about her when they woke up, and they were sad to hear that she was gone :(
Here are a few pictures from our egg coloring yesterday:I am hoping to post a family Easter picture tomorrow :)