Seattle Pics

So I got really behind on updating about my AWESOME trip to Seattle. :) If you want great details see my sister's blog here. For my pictures, sit back and watch all 488 of them (not sure how to minimize the photos in the slideshow...will work on that)!


Day 1: We arrived and hung out at the house and ate some awesome grilled Salmon that Jeremy made. That is saying alot from me because I do not like seafood, especially Salmon. This was also the day that we played ball with the boys out in the backyard. So much fun! The blurry picture had to be added because it was when Jonas and I hit the ball right at Brandy while she was taking a picture. Very funny!
Day 2: We got up and went to Bremerton and took the ferry over to Seattle. It was a lot of fun to see the skyline from there (this is why we opted out of the Space Needle's view) and fun for Josh to ride his first ferry! :) What a big boy! Then we we loaded up (the boys carried the boys) and walked around the Elliot Bay area and then headed towards Pike's Market. We watched the fish throwing and yelling and clapping and everything and thought it was great! I am not sure why, but I thought it was captivating. After the fish market, we cruised down and got some GORGEOUS fresh flower arrangement and then the best thing in the world, dried strawberries. If you have not had them, you are truly missing out. I am obsessed! We even went back and got more later (see Day 6)! After walking around for quite some time, Ronan so kindly informed us that he was ready to be taken out of his carrier (Josh was not opposed either). I took the liberty of comforting my adorable nephew and he promptly fell asleep! We then drove down to the Space Needle where we boarded the "Ride the Ducks" Seattle tour. It was awesome! No kidding! It was really interesting and our driver was really fun. Jonas was ready for nap time so he was very calm the whole trip (and played with our ears in true tired Jonas nature). Ronan was pumped! He loved it and told everyone on the trip how much fun he was having! After the tour we grabbed some yummy grub at a nice seaside restaurant and then gave ourselves a self-guided tour of some private docks to catch a glimpse of the Wizard. The Wizard, for all of you who don't watch The Deadliest Catch, is a kick-butt crab fishing boat that is featured on the show. We looked for others, but were unsucessful (that was definitely a high light of the entire trip...loads of fun breaking the law!).

Day 3: We got up today and took our precious time getting ready. We then went up to Ft. Lewis to see Jeremy at work. We got to use the simulator training to practice shooting military guns (AWESOME!!!!) and I fell in love with a gun nicknamed "The Pig". It was this huge gun that rattled my brain when I shot it. Super neat! We even got to all shoot together to fend off some bad guys. I was terrible at shooting anything that moved. :) I guess its safe to say that I will not be out hunting soon! We then got to practice flying helicopters! I got a little sick sitting in the back while Josh and Brandy flew, but I survived and ended up having the most fun flight out of all of them (I got to crash us into the air traffic tower)! We then grabbed some lunch at their local pub and did a little grocery shopping. We were so tired that we voted to eat out that night instead of cook. We ended up meeting up with Jeremy's cousins at their pizza place in town. They were super nice people and I'm glad Jeremy and Brandy and the boys have family so close!

Day 4: Today was a LONG day full of HARD work! Okay, so I probably worked the least out of all four of us adults, but man I am out of shape! We drove up to Mt. Rainier today and spent the whole day hiking from Paradise Lodge up to over 6100 feet. Josh carried 27 pound Ronan on his back and Jeremy carried 37 pound Jonas on his back and Brandy carried all of their food, water, and diapers. I carried Josh and I's food and water... :) I'm a dud! It was beautiful up there. I think I took about 200 pictures of just scenery. I also took a few pics of Brandy's see through shorts after sliding in the snow with Jonas. HIL-A-RI-OUS! I nearly fell off the seat I was sitting on laughing so hard. Great memory! We got back and ate up some yummy shish-kabobs while resting our tired little feet!

Day 5: Josh and I got up early this morning and drove 2 hours up to Pt. Townsend where we caught a whale watching tour. The trip was fun...sort of. I was nervous about the size of the vessel so I decided to try out some dramamine. I have never taken it before and will never take it again! I am not sure why, but it made me feel very drunk. My head was flopping around and my speech was slurred. Josh found it absolutely entertaining, which was good since we rode on the boat for 1 1/2 hours before we saw any whales. We did however, see some whales. It was freezing cold when the boat was moving, but only sort of chilly when it was stopped. Apparently its the law to stay at least 100 yards away from the whales and if they come towards the boat, we have to get out of the way. So that sort of sucks. So all of our pictures are way zoomed in and we are bundled up! We got home pretty late and ran to the grocery store and grabbed some Dungeness crabs to bring home and steam. I am not a seafood fan, as previously stated, but dunked in butter, this crab was delicious! I was shocked! That night we had a new adventure in the backyard! We got the pool out and slid up the slide to the pool and watched little Jonas go up and down and up and down! It was so cute! See the video at Brandy's blog!

Day 6: Today we got up early and drove into Seattle. Josh and I jumped out at Mary's house! Mary is a very dear friend of ours that moved from KC to Seattle last September to pursue her career as a traveling physical therapist. Mary took us on a walking tour of downtown Seattle and took us back to Pike's Market where we reloaded on dried strawberries! We then met up with Jeremy and Brandy and the boys back at REI. REI is an awesome outdoor sporting goods store. It's not team sports, but more like kayaking, climbing, running, biking, camping type things. It was very cool. Amazingly enough, Josh became a member while we were there. Who is surprised? That night we met up with Mary's main squeeze and hit up a Mariners game. It was a beautiful field and we had great seats! It was a great ending to our trip!

Day 7: I don't want to talk about it. I hate leaving from vacation. It really makes me mad! However, we did get to pick up our girls from Camp Bow Wow. You may be asking what that is (that is, if you are still reading my really long blog)... well visit www.campbowwow.com/olathe. It is an awesome kennel/day camp for dogs. We can actually check on them during the day online through a video camera. It was very cool!

Okay Kendell...what do you think? :)

Seattle!

On Wednesday, July 22nd, Josh and I headed out to Seattle to see my sister's family. She and her husband have moved all over the US due to the Military and this is the first time that we have gotten to come see where they are living!

We have been looking forward to this trip for a long time and were very anxious to see our nephews and of course Seattle. This is our first couple of views of Seattle! :)

After getting picked up at the airport, we headed back to their house. We had a blast playing with Jonas and Ronan! Jeremy was still at work when we arrived so we got a chance to goof around with the kids while we started getting things ready for dinner. By the way, Jeremy makes a mean Salmon...this coming from a non-fish eater!

After Ronan got done eating, Brandy washed him off the old fashion way - in the sink! He was so happy to be in his mommy's arms that he could have cared less that he was getting a mini-bath!

And last but not least, me with my adorable little nephews before we get them ready for bed. They are so cute and happy! I can't wait to spend more time with them this week!

Posts to follow: ferry ride, Seattle, Duck Tour, day on the post shooting and flying simulator, Mount Rainier hiking, whale watching, day with Mary, Mariners game....ahh, I love vacation!

Miss Sophia Lorne

So our good friends Kelly and Andy had a baby...beautfiul Sophia! She was born July 2nd and is officially 18 days old when she got to meet her new Auntie Em! I snatched her up as soon as I walked in and sidetracked Kelly with dinner! :)

I am smooth!

I am convinced she was smiling at me!

Musical furniture...

So we finally decided to make the big decision and rearrange our house.
The problems: never EVER use our desk/desktop computer, people hate sleeping on the futon, we hate the living room furniture, we have an extra bed...

The solution: move it all around

The result: chaos that doesn't match anything! But...we love it. So far!

First Thing's First...the Keeley's

So first thing's first... Jana and Matt made the big move! We thought we might be pushing the limit that they would want to see us because we saw them every day for the first 4 days that they lived in Olathe! :) We are "those" neighbors... Anyway, they were very welcoming of our annoying overbearing-ness (not a word, I know)!

This was the first night -> Jana could not stand "Dirty Dawn's" fan anymore, so they pulled out some awesome stunts to get the job done! (please note the matching shirts...hmm)

We decided to do a proper welcoming and brought dinner to the Keeley's. We actually ended up bringing the table, chairs, plates, silverware, napkins, food and drink. It was great! First meal in their house!

Home Decorations

Yep, it's a Kohl's catalogue. Enough said!

Family Weekend

Josh is a wakeboarding stud! We were able to get Josh to jump wake to wake easily and he got awesome air! I will try to get some better pictures soon!

I am not a stud. However, I make awesome faceswhen I go over the wake. Try and not get blinded by the WHITE legs! :)

And the best part of the weekend...?

My nephews were all there! Brandy and Jeremy brought Jonas and Ronan all the way from Seattle to Kansas and we were lucky enough to get to spend some time with them!

After the lake, we went back to KC before they had to fly out! We figured out how to tame the little monsters! :)

Okay, so we didn't trap them in there. For some crazy reason, they LOVE the dog kennels! Even when we tried to get Jonas out, he pulled the front closed and got back in!

Every woman loves...

A MAN THAT WILL DANCE...

In public!
THAT WILL CUDDLE WITH HIS NEPHEW...
Even when his head falls into his armpit!

This weekend was 4th of July and we had a blast! The weather was so-so and because of the wind, we didn't get to do much boat time. We did get to play games with my family and spend time with our beautiful nephew, Ledger. We even took an afternoon to take a boat ride to a beach where we played football and lazed around! It was great!

So mad...

Oh man, I am so mad! Fired up! My company has just blocked every single good website out there! However, I am still allowed to get on to blogger.com and I am still able to get onto gmail.com. Both good things. But MSN games...no. Facebook...no. Gossip...no. Music...no. Again, I am so mad. I need non-work things to do during lunch or I will lose my mind. DANG IT!

Family Time

We are so excited that my oldest sister, Brandy and her family Jeremy, Jonas, and Ronan will be in town this weekend! They are going to be in town for Jeremy's brother's wedding so we won't get to spend too much time with them but we're pumped they are going to be here anyway! And even better is that we'll get to see them again next weekend AND in 2 weeks with our big vacay to Seattle just to see them (and Mary)!

And I just had to post this picture because it is one of my favorites. This is Josh holding Jonas last Christmas. He had just woken up and was waiting for Papa to make breakfast and he just jumped up into Josh's lap and cuddled until the food was ready! It was so sweet!

Josh would tickle him and he would have this little giggle but not move from his chest. So adorable!

We are so sad that we don't get to really know our nephews but then we feel extra happy when we get those visits! Especially when they love on us! :)