Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. The only bummer was that we did so much driving over a 4-day period that it made it hard to relax and enjoy any extended period of time with family.

On December 23rd, we packed up Lucy, Sally, and all of our gifts in our Prius and we headed to Portland. It was the first time Grandpa and Grandma Dog met their new granddog, Sally. We celebrated Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve. The day was full of presents, food, and great company. We were spoiled rotten. It was more fun to watch my family open the presents we got for them and it was so fun to watch Alexis open presents and celebrate her first Christmas. Early on Christmas, we left Lucy and Sally in the wonderful care of my parents and we got in the car and drove from Portland to Spokane. We arrive around 3 pm and headed to Clark's grandma's house to celebrate Christmas with his family. His parents, grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins were there. After dinner and presents, we were exhausted and went to bed. And as luck would have it, Clark gave me his nasty head cold he had the week before. Ugh. The next day, we met Clark's parents for breakfast and then headed back, well...sort of. We drove to Bellevue for my best friend Kirsten's engagment party, then back to Tacoma. The driving was over yet. I had the week off between Christmas and New Year's and on Monday morning, I got in the car and drove to Portland to pick up the doggies. After 4 days, we logged in over 1000 miles. We will never do that again. It is hard not living in the same city as our parents and immediate family and while we want to spend the holidays with our loved ones, it really sucks to spend so much time in the car. We will have to rotate which family we see for specific holidays and at some point, we will want to start having our own family traditions at our house, so maybe it is time for our families to come to us!!!

I love wrapping gifts and loved making each one pretty with ribbons.
My favorites are my red and silver snowflake paper with matching ribbon and snowflake adornment. Almost too pretty to open!

I also loved wrapping with a jingle bell.

Vanessa and Alexis in matching footie pajamas

Our gift to Bryan - a retro Minnesota Twins Kirby Puckett jersey

Alexis loves Lucy

Bryan, Vanessa, and Alexis (in her cute, new monkey hat)

Our niece, Alexis, surrounded by all of her gifts for her FIRST Christmas!!

New Addition to the Peanut Gallery - Meet Sally

Clark and I have only been married a few months, but we expanded our family. No, I am not pregnant...but we adopted another puppy! Lucy has been such a great dog that we couldn't resist getting another one. We have talked about it many times, but never found the right puppy or somehow talked ourselves out of it. However, we came across this cute little yellow lab mix and we just knew she was part of our family.

Meet Sally (named afte Sally Brown from the Peanuts comic strip), our 8-week-old yellow lab mix. We think she is mixed with Pitt Bull Terrier, German Shepard, and Sharpei. She is a shelter dog, so who knows. But whatever she is, she is darn cute.

We brought her home on the Friday before Christmas - Merry Christmas to us! Lucy wasn't sure what to make of her...she wagged her tail with excitement, but after the first day, she seemed annoyed that Sally was still here. Sally is snuggly and very loving, but man, she has a lot of energy! We are reminded how much work puppies are with the housetraining, crating, and constant attention they need. Getting Sally also made us appreciate Lucy that much more...Lucy is such an independent, mellow dog. Sally is a puppy that needs to be taken out every few hours to potty when we are home and can only sleep 4-5 hours at night before whining and needing to go outside. Needless to say, Clark and I are very tired in this first week of parenthood.

Apple Cup

This year, we decided to make the trek to Pullman, WA for the Apple Cup. I had never been to a WSU home football game and was excited to see the game and hang out with friends, but not really excited for the cold weather. Clark informed me that the "Cougar Cruiser" would be leaving at 4 AM on Saturday so we could arrive by mid-morning, with plenty of time to tailgate before the big game. I am SOOO not a morning person, but since I didn't have to drive, it was fine by me. I packed a pillow and a blanket and slept most of the 6-hour drive. We arrived with time to buy some new Cougar attire at The Bookie and Clark showed me around the campus. I have to admit, it is pretty nice.

We met up with friends who traveled over in an RV. We tailgated in the RV parking lot and the drinking began. Despite the cold temps and snow on the ground, it was a beautifullly sunny day, so it was great weather to be outside.

The game itself, was hard to watch. The Cougars held in there, but ultimately came up short and lost to the Huskies. It was harder for me to see Clark so disappointed. At least we got to sit next to our friends, Mike and Heidi, during the game and were spoiled by sitting in the Presidential box. All you can drink and food. And it was covered, so were shielded from the chilly weather.

We ended up staying the night at a cheap hotel in Moscow, ID that night. Clark wanted to drive home after the game, but since we had pre-paid for the hotel room, we stayed and got a good night's rest before making the drive home early in the morning. Well, here's to hoping for a Cougar win next year in Seattle! GO COUGS!

Jeff, his girlfriend, Todd and two of his friends, Clark, me before the game just outside Martin Stadium

Forest and Jenny (who is a Husky, but we love her anyway)

Me and Clark at the game

One of the highlights of the game was sitting next to 0ur friends, Mike and Heidi Plaster

Mike and Heidi enjoying the food in the Presidential Box

"The Grabber" - ice cream made at the WSU creamer sandwiched between two oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies

Yardwork...it never ends

Home ownership can be fun...you get to decorate and furnish your home in whatever way you want. No paint color, design, or furniture is off limits. However, home ownership also comes with some downsides...projects always seem to take longer and more expensive than expected. To me yardwork is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I hate doing it, but I sure love the end result, so I am really left with no other options but to just suck it up and do it.

Clark had a long weekend of work and with the sunshine and temperatures in the high 60s and low 70s, I decided to tackle the yard. It took FOREVER to weed the front flower beds, but now they are "clean" and ready to plant some more bulbs. Yes, if you didn't know it, I am obsessed with buying Costco bulbs. So I have some bulbs to plant soon that will bloom this summer and fall, including lillies, calla lillies, begonias, peonies, and dahlias. When I get those in the ground and they bloom, I will be sure to post, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, my spring blooming bulbs are beautiful. My daffodils bloomed first and then my tulips. Both of those are gone, but now my azeleas, rhododendrens, irises, and peonies are starting to bloom.

Once I get all the flowers planted, we will have blooms in every season - spring, summer, and fall...well, I guess every season except winter. That is okay, I think I will survive...unless Costco starts selling something and then I am doomed.

I have two matching red pots on my front porch where I planted some red impatiens

pink rhodies blooming
pink peonies in bloom (and they smell soooo good!)

purple and yellow irises

purple and pink azeleas

Birthday Weekend Getaway

Me and Clark at Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park

So for my big 30th birthday, Clark surprised me with a trip to Olympic National Park. He knows how much I love the outdoors, wildlife, and how I am obsessed with seeing every National Park (thanks to dad who instilled this in me!)

My mom graciously offered to dogsit Lucy while we went out of town, so away we went and we were "kid" free!!! Tacoma is only about two and a half hours from Port Angeles, the main entry point to the Park. Early on Saturday morning we first headed to Hurricane Ridge and took a nice scenic drive and got up so high that there was still snow on the ground and many people skiing, snowboarding, and snowshoeing. Not for us, but it was an excellent view. We saw some Roosevelt Elk along the drive and they let us get so close to them...it was so neat!

Then we drove to Lake Crescent Lodge, where we were staying for a few nights. We were able to check in and decided to rent a kayak and go out on the lake since it was such a sunny day. We were told to wear our lifevests and the temperature of the lake was only 50 degrees and it would only take 10 minutes for hypothermia to set in...great, thanks for that mental note, especially since it was both of our first times in a kayak. Lucky for us, we didn't tip over, but it was such a great view of the lake. It took us awhile to get the paddling figured out...after a few times of turning around in a circle, we were able to time it just right and I really enjoyed shouting orders at Clark!! (ha, ha, ha!) After that, Clark needed a nap and I decided to sit by the lake and read my book...I think I also dozed off for a bit, but at least it was in the sunshine!

Then we took a short 3 mile hike to a waterfall and then had dinner in the Lodge dining room. They had an excellent fresh fish and chips. Trying to make the most of the daylight and sunshine, we got in the car and drove out to the Coast to catch the sunset...we went to La Push, just a little north of Forks (ever read any of the Twilight series?). It was gorgeous. I was smart and thought to pack a bottle of wine, so we enjoyed the sunset at this beautiful setting with a bottle of wine. Cheers to me turning old!

On Sunday, we enjoyed a large brunch feast at the Lodge and then headed off to do some more exploring on the other side of the Park. We went on two small hikes in the Hoh Rainforest. It was a long drive, but well worth it. The largest trees grow here because of the unique conditions (did you know this area gets over 140 inches of rainfall per year? WOW that is a lot considering Seattle - known as the rainy city - only gets an average of 36 inches!) All of this rain makes for very large and very old trees...some found in this rainforest are older than our nation! It was pretty remarkable to see.

After the rainforest, we drove to Sol Duc Hot Springs...we were excited to soak in the hot mineral bath until we got there and saw that many others had the same idea. Needless to say, I wasn't excited about getting in my bathing suit with so many people nearby, like a communal hot tub...ewwww, gross. Maybe next time. So instead we took a hike to view another spectacular waterfall. It was great, and again, saw some Roosevelt Elk on the hike.

We returned to Lake Crescent Lodge and explored around some more, took another hike, and enjoyed a bottle of wine at sunset on the dock.

Early on Monday morning we headed home...what a great birthday weekend.

I am determined to get my picture next to each National Park entrance sign

As soon as we got in the park, we spotted our first elk

First stop - Hurricane Ridge, so far up that there was still snow on the ground

Mt. Olympus in the background

Clark and Andi at Hurricane Ridge

Many trees throughout the park have fallen over due to all the storms, leaving the roots exposed

One of the many waterfalls we saw on our hikes in Olympic National Park

Andi enjoying a glass of wine at the Coast in La Push, WA

Us at sunset

Smooches to me turning 30!

Cheers to a wonderful birthday!

Very tall and old tree in the rainforest

One of the largest spruce trees in the US

Notice the elevation change between Hurricane Ridge and Hoh Rainforest

Moss covers nearly every tree, root, stump, everything in the rainforest, includingn this phone booth in the Hoh Rainforest

What is important to notice in this picture is the formation of the trees...notice how they are all in a straight line? Well that is because a fall tree served as the "nurse" tree and seedlings grew on the trunk of the fallen tree in a uniform line...over time once the fallen tree decays and ties, the roots of the other trees grows around it, hence making those hollowed out roots...pretty cool

Me between two fallen trees in the rainforest

On a hike in the rainforest

After two days of hiking and exploring the Park, we enjoyed a bottle of wine from the sundeck at Lake Crescent Lodge

Another elk on a hike just minutes from the Lake Crescent Lodge

This tree survived a forest fire (you can tell because it is all black inside), but it is still alive and green at the top...very old and very cool

How I spent a few hours on Saturday afternoon...in these chairs, reading my book with a spectacular view and sunshine...cannot complain about that

Clark in the kayak for the first time

My view from the kayak

Us in the kayak and we did NOT fall in!

Yes, I am one of "those" annoying people who insists on taking a picture next to every freaking sign

the view of the lodge from the dock

Andi at Lake Crescent Lodge...as if the birthday weekend getaway wasn't enough, Clark got me a beautiful heart diamond necklace (that I am wearing) and also let me pick out a souvenier for this trip (I picked out this teal blue fleece vest that I am wearing in this picture)