Keeping Up With the Allens

A Year in Review…2015 Recap!

One of the absolute best parts of this blog is writing our year-end or seasonal recaps. I forget about a lot of the things we do during the year and it’s so fun to look back through our photos or posts from the year and refresh my memory. Overall, 2015 has been a really positive year, but really one that was more constant and had fewer “big” highlights than the last few years. Let’s start from the top!

Our 2015 kicked off with one of the most fun highlights of the whole year: our ski trip to Park City, Utah! We had so much fun exploring the food scene in Deer Valley and skiing Alta, Snowbird and Snowbasin. This was the only trip we took in 2015 that was just the two of us.

I ventured SO far out of my comfort zone later that month when I took a three-day backcountry ski clinic for women. It was terrifying, eye-opening, inspiring and confidence-boosting all at the same time.

One of the worst parts of 2015 was when our Henry cat went missing for 11 days. It is still heartbreaking to think about, but after spending that time in our neighbor’s garage, he has made a full recovery and continues to love on Jackson more and more.

I got a big promotion in the beginning of the year, so my work-life changed tremendously when I began working full-time in February.

Last winter’s “ski season” was completely pathetic. It was so disappointing. I skied 12 days last winter and I think Alex had 10 or 11. We typically average around 25-35 per ski season. It was an “El Nino” winter, which meant it was unusually warm and wet – too warm for snow. Our winter looked much different than usual… Thankfully we took a big trip to Mexico in mid-February so we could find something to do!

Our trip to Mexico included a week in Puerto Vallarta with my mom, while Alex was off in Guadalajara with some of his friends. He met me in PV and then we headed across Bandaras Bay to Yelapa to attend the wedding of our friends Nigel and Jolene at a remote accessible-by-boat-only destination in the jungle. After we returned home from Mexico we hired a private Spanish tutor to come to our house once a week and help us become more conversationally fluent in Spanish {one of both of our bucket list items!}. We plan to keep this up into 2016.

One of the silver linings of the ski season was another ski trip we had. This one was in Jackson Hole, where we met my dad. There wasn’t a whole lot of snow, but there was a ton of sun and really amazing food. We love Jackson!!

With the absence of a ski season in Washington, our March and April were super boring. The weather in Seattle was sensational, though {another silver lining}, so we spent a ton of time outside drinking wine and mourning the state of our backyard.

We celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary in the Yakima Valley by doing a big overnight wine tour of the region. It was a really nice little getaway!

May marked the start of summer with the weather and our travel/wedding season. Alex attended a bachelor party in Montreal in mid-May with a bunch of his high school friends. We also celebrated Alex’s 29th birthday with a surprise party! My birthday was celebrated with a Thai cooking class that we took together.

While Alex went home to Illinois to celebrate his dad’s retirement in May, my dad, brother and aunt came out to attend my cousin Jon’s wedding. It was nice to show them around Olympic National Park and spend time together.

We flew back to Illinois again in June to attend the wedding of Alex’s cousin Josh during a sweltering heat wave.

And then we flew back to Illinois again in July to attend the wedding of Alex’s friend Adam.

And then we flew to Minnesota to attend the wedding of Alex’s friend Sammy.

Somewhere in there we squeezed in a weekend in Lake Chelan so that Alex could participate in a major bike ride, including some very steep climbs. Lake Chelan is absolutely gorgeous and I can’t wait to go back again.

Nearby Lake Chelan is where we spent a separate weekend in late July – we went camping with the Millers and the Furtwanglers at Lake Wenatchee State Park. It was ungodly hot, so that made camping a little uncomfortable, but being right on the lake and having a canopy to cover part of our campsite provided a little solace.

The summer of 2015 was, I believe, the hottest on record for Seattle. Now I’m really not one to complain, but our 106 year-old house had zero insulation or shade, nor air conditioning, so having our interior temperature hold steady at 92 degrees got old pretty quickly. We got creative with the grill and made a lot of salads for lunch, but our wimpy Seattle blood isn’t used to the heat!

Some other highlights of the summer include finding out that our friends Mary and Ryan were going to have twin boys this fall…

Celebrating Alex’s big promotion!…

Getting several pre-cancerous moles removed…

Spending time with my college roommate Rachel…

Catching up with Alex’s family in Illinois….

And my family in Minnesota…

Oh, and my friends, too!

We took a really fun trip down to the Willamette Valley wine region in Oregon with my friend Sarah and her husband Mike. We sampled an enormous amount of wine and spent a day on the Oregon coast.

The summer came to a close with the Allens annual trip out to Seattle. We spent the long Labor Day weekend on San Juan Island with Alex’s parents.

In mid-September my mom came out to visit and watch me run my first half marathon!

Sometime in mid-summer we began the process of a major redecorating/renovation in our house. We revamped our bedroom, living room and dining room and completely remodeled our master bathroom. The process was much longer than we expected but our house has completely transformed and we are so proud and happy with how it turned out!

Our annual fall kick-off tends to be our trip to Leavenworth with three other couples: the Millers, Buffingtons and Hilliards. We had a great time this year, though it was a different trip, because all three of the other women were pregnant. Next year there will be five babies!

We took one final trip back to Illinois for the year for our final wedding of 2015: the wedding of my college roommate Julie.

One of the big highlights from the fall was finally “breaking ground” on our major bathroom renovation. It was a two-month process to gut the bathroom and put it back together. It was well worth the wait!

The biggest highlight of the fall {and probably the year} was finding out I was pregnant in early November! We are thrilled to be starting a family.

We spent Thanksgiving in Mexico with Alex’s family this year. It was a wonderful and relaxing week in Puerto Vallarta to celebrate Donna and Stan’s 35th anniversary.

Ski season went off with a bang this year and December proved to be a fantastic month for skiing!

As 2015 comes to a close and I reflect on all that’s happened, I am really focusing on the future. 2016 is going to be a huge year for Alex and me. We’re both turning 30 this year, and, of course, our life will dramatically change this summer with the birth of our first child. I am seeing the end of 2015 as the closing of our “young adult” chapter and 2016 as the beginning of our “building a family” chapter. I have no idea what this chapter will look like or how it will play out, but I have every expectation that it will be filled with life lessons, a lot of laughter and love and many, many challenges as we face parenthood and raise our family. With that, Happy New Year!

We’ve Got Big News!

Winter Break!

For the first year ever, Alex took off the two weeks surrounding Christmas and New Years and we stayed home with no plans or agenda. It was wonderful and so perfect.

One of the biggest highlights was sleeping in, popping some cinnamon rolls in the oven, lighting a fire and hanging out in the living room all day for most of the first week off. Our living room is an underused room in our house, but it’s probably our favorite because of our fireplace, and now our leather chairs. It was so nice to spend so much time in front of the fire these last two weeks.

Another major highlight was skiing. The whole west coast got a really big Christmas present in the form of a gigantic snowstorm. It snowed so much here that one of the ski resorts couldn’t keep up with it and couldn’t open {they got 96 inches of snow in 3 days!!}. We skied four days during the two-week break.

{After the snow storm the temps dropped and the sun came out! It made for a couple of chilly days with sensational views.}

{Jackson had the best day ever when he got to come with us to the mountains and play in the snow.}

{Yesterday we braved the chilly weather {12 degrees with -2 windchill} and embarked on our first backcountry ski tour together. The avalanche danger was very low and our trek was super mild. It was really fun to get out and explore and get some exercise together.} — {Yesterday we braved the chilly weather {12 degrees with -2 windchill, which is about as cold as it gets here} and embarked on our first backcountry ski tour together. The avalanche danger was very low and our trek was super mild. It was really fun to get out and explore and get some exercise together.}

{Skinning up through the trees on a very well-traveled trail...} — {Skinning up through the trees on a very well-traveled trail…}

{Didn't do too much skiing down, but we made a few turns.} — {Didn’t do too much skiing down, but we managed to find a spot to make a few turns.}

We spent some quality time with lots of our friends, too. Alex’s friend Brian was here visiting for a few days, so Alex got to catch up with him. We also spent a day skiing with Nigel, and another day skiing with Patrick. We spent a rainy morning at the dog park with Ali, Tyler and their two kiddos {and then warmed up with some hot chocolate and grilled cheese for lunch!}. Ryan and Mary brought their babies over to our house one day, and we met them up at Carrie and Patrick’s new house another day. It has been so nice to be able to spend this much time with friends, too!

Henry seemed to love having both of us home during the days – probably because he got to bug us both to let him outside all the time!

Jackson on the other hand was completely thrown off his kilter with Alex being home and our change of schedule. Towards the end of our break he seemed to be adjusting a little bit to the temporary normal, but I’m sure once we go back to work tomorrow he’ll be happy to have some consistency.

{Hopefully giving Jackson a cheeseburger as a treat on our way home from skiing made up for him being off his schedule. And no, this is not a normal occurrence for Jackson!}

Our vacation was so relaxing and on the one hand I feel like we did absolutely nothing, but then when I look back at what we did do and realize that’s not quite the case. I am so thankful for this break and for the time we spent together. Who knows when the next time we’ll have two weeks off at home by ourselves will be!

Merry Christmas!

It’s our first Christmas at home. Ever. Just the two of us. And we are so enjoying each other’s company, the beautiful fire in our fireplace and simply being home together.

{Earlier in the week we prepped a bunch of cinnamon and orange rolls to enjoy throughout the holidays.}

{Alex was in charge of the cinnamon rolls and I was in charge of the orange ones.}

I’m fairly certain we’ve seen our extended family more this year than any other year since moving to Seattle, which we are both very thankful for. That made it easier for us to stay here this holiday season. We’ve also got a big year ahead of us and we are so grateful to have had the time together at home.

{This was our first Christmas with Henry cat! I think the best gift for him was getting to go outside today.} — {This was our first Christmas with Henry cat! I think the best gift for him was getting to go outside today. We’ve been spoiling him with treats, cuddles and catnip toys all day 🙂 }

{Jackson got a new toy and a special treat today, but his best gift was a very solid ball playing session at the park and getting to help us unwrap our Christmas gifts.}

We have both taken some time off work for the holidays and are enjoying the best Christmas present ever… seemingly bottomless snow in the mountains!

20151224_232038000_iOS — {I couldn’t get over the view of the snowy trees under the unexpected sunny sky. Yesterday at Crystal Mountain was by far the most beautiful ski day of the season.}

Merry Christmas. Love, the Allens 🙂

Bathroom Update 9.0

Just in the nick of time for our holiday party we had our bathroom countertop and sink installed. We were kind of sweating bullets over whether we would have a counter or not. In reality it’s not that big of a deal, but we are just so proud of our bathroom that we wanted our friends to be able to come over and see it in its finished {or mostly finished} state for our party.

{Checking out the countertop for the first time!}

Thankfully the counter place cooperated and was able to work with our timing and get the countertop installed on Friday afternoon – the day before our party! Alex spent a couple hours plumbing the sink that evening and then we had a counter and a sink for the first time in two months!!!

{Our master plumber ;) } — {Our master plumber 😉 }

{We are SO happy with how it turned out!!!}

{Close-up of the gorgeous counter and sink... and me in the mirror! Hi!} — {Close-up of the gorgeous counter and sink… and me in the mirror! Hi!}

{I also went to town on getting organizers for the drawers on my side. Our old vanity only had cabinets, so it has been an adjustment now having drawers too. I found these great bamboo organizers and am loving them!}

{First aid supplies and medicine is nicely organized now too... It's been so nice to have everything for the bathroom all in one room now. Novel concept!} — {First aid supplies and medicine is nicely organized now too… It’s been so nice to have everything for the bathroom all in one room now. Novel concept!}

Our bathroom project is so close to being done – we’re waiting to receive the ceiling light fixture and the art we ordered, and then we’ll be 100% done!

Second Annual Holiday Party

For the second year in a row we invited our friends to join us in celebrating the holidays at our home. Both Alex and I love to entertain and have people over, plus, we love the holidays, so it was the perfect excuse for a party! Our holiday party last year was so much fun that we had been looking forward to it all year long…

A LOT has changed with our friends in the last year – six of our friends were pregnant at the last party and there were some pregnancies {and births} that happened since then {four new babes in the last three weeks!!}, so needless to say, our crowd was a little bit smaller this year.

We had a big spread of food and drinks and had a wonderful time spending the evening with so many of our friends. It’s especially fun to pull in our friends from different groups and allow them to become acquainted with each other.

{A big thanks to Carrie for being the photographer!}

{The Maple Bourbon Smash drink was a huge hit again this year!}

{We had all sorts of food, from stuffed mushrooms, to ham sandwiches, to cheese and charcuterie to veggies and a variety of dips... and Carrie brought lots of her amazing cookies!} — {We had all sorts of food, from stuffed mushrooms, to ham sandwiches, to cheese and charcuterie to veggies and a variety of dips… and Carrie brought lots of her amazing cookies!}

Alex and I are both exhausted today and are looking forward to a low-key holiday “break” at home in Seattle this year. We hope it will be filled with skiing!

Ski Season is Here!

Alex and I packed up our car and headed for Crystal Mountain yesterday to take advantage of the ski season getting started! Last year our ski season was very short-lived in Washington – there was only one day where we woke up at our house and drove to the mountain and skied in Washington last year. Usually we have at least 12 if not many more of those days each ski season.

The projections for this ski season aren’t great, but the last thing I heard was it’s supposed to be a good early season so we wanted to take advantage of the snow while it lasts…

Jackson loves the snow, so knowing it would be a short day for us, we decided to bring him along to partake in the fun, too!

When we arrived at the mountain it was snowing like crazy and it was really windy. Unfortunately the wind was so strong they had the upper mountain closed, so the operations were very limited – just the beginner areas were open.

I think the beginner areas are the most dangerous spots on the mountain so I avoid them at all costs. We took a few runs before getting hungry and calling it a day with lunch up in the Bullwheel Restaurant. We had a short day skiing but it was so, so, so nice to get out in the snow and play in the mountains!

It turned out that Crystal received 17″ of snow from Saturday morning to Sunday morning and ended up opening almost the entire mountain this morning, so I guess we picked the wrong day! Oh well – I’m pretty content hanging out by the fire at home today! 🙂

This Week’s Happenings

It has been a busy week back since we returned from our trip to Mexico! Our pets were very happy to have us back home – they’ve both been extra cuddly and sweet this week. We’ve got to be getting closer to the moment of walking into our bedroom and finding Henry snuggled up with Jackson on the bed. I swear it’s going to happen!

{These two have been pallin' around all week. It's super sweet!} — {These two have been pallin’ around all week. It’s super sweet!}

{Who knew Henry would be the one to love the new bathroom floor the most!?}

While we were in Mexico we received the very surprising news that our very good friends Mary and Ryan had their twin boys! They arrived six weeks early, which isn’t too uncommon for twins, of course, but we hadn’t quite mentally prepared for them to come so soon.

{This was really the first time Mary and Ryan got to look at their boys side-by-side and compare how similar their features are.}

Both boys, Oliver and August, are doing fantastic and they even got to go home today, after only a week in the hospital. They weighed 4 pounds 8 ounces and 4 pounds 2 ounces {I think!}, respectively, when they were born. We got the pleasure of meeting the boys on Wednesday evening and we had the bigger pleasure of seeing them be reunited for the first time since their birth! We are so excited for our friends and can’t wait to watch these two boys grow up.

{I believe Oliver is on the left and August is on the right.} — {The sweet peanuts! August is on the left and Oliver is on the right.}

I’ve been feeling rather festive this week so I pulled out the holiday decorations and got our house looking a little more Christmasy. We’ve still got to get a few things for the outside and hang some lights, but we’re pretty close. Now if someone would hand me a plate Christmas cookies, we’d be all good! {Or maybe I’ll just go make some…}

{Henry was being a helper as I decorated.}

{One of my favorites - my friend Carrie made the wreath for me last Christmas!} — {One of my favorites – my friend Carrie made the wreath for me last Christmas!}

{Our Christmas card wall is looking pretty pathetic... here's some motivation to send your holiday cards, friends! And yes, ours will be in the mail very shortly!} — {Our Christmas card wall is looking pretty pathetic… here’s some motivation to send your holiday cards, friends! And yes, ours will be in the mail very shortly!}

The weather in Seattle has been pretty dismal this week, but, our silver lining during the dreary winter days is that when it rains here it snows in the mountains! We’re planning on trekking up to Crystal Mountain this weekend to take advantage of the snow and get a few runs in. I think we’ll bring Jackson with us so he can run around in the snow too!

Our Mexican Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we did something a little different… We went to Mexico! Thanksgiving is a holiday we typically spend with Alex’s family because his sister and her husband are usually in Italy for Christmas {her husband is from Italy}. This year we picked Mexico because Alex’s parents wanted to take a trip with us to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary, which was in October. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico turned out to be the perfect spot!

Alex and I headed south a few days before everyone else so we could get a mini vacation just the two of us down there since last time we were in PV we didn’t have any time to ourselves. It turned out that the flying gods were not on our sides, though, because we ended up getting stuck in San Diego, where we had a layover.

There are far worse places to be than San Diego, so we made the most of it and did a little exploring around the city. We had a fantastic dinner at Queenstown Public House. It was SO good. We loved walking through the Little Italy neighborhood and seeing all of the holiday decorations.

24 hours after we were supposed to land in Puerto Vallarta, we finally made it! The weather was gorgeous that day and we made it through the immigration line in literally 1 minute, which was a stark contrast to the last time I went through immigration there!

Both of us enjoyed our evening together, though we were exhausted from our second travel day, and then we patiently awaited the arrival of Alex’s parents the next day.

It was so nice to be back in Puerto Vallarta again – it had only been about 9 months since we were there, but Alex didn’t spend more than 24 hours in PV so he had fun exploring and checking things out.

{One of the first nights we took a cab into Old Town and walked along the beach and had a fantastic dinner right on the sand at La Palapa. It was a top favorite for us all!}

{Most of our days were spent by the pool or walking the beach. We all had great rooms at the Casa Magna Marriott, which I would HIGHLY recommend, and I loved watching the sun rise from my bed!} — {Most of our days were spent by the pool or walking the beach. We all had great rooms at the Casa Magna Marriott, which I would HIGHLY recommend, and I loved watching the sunrise from my bed!}

{The weather was great for most of the trip, though we did have two very rainy days and a couple other overcast days. It surely didn't ruin the fun, though! We made the best of the weather and found other things to entertain us.} — {The weather was great for most of the trip, though we did have two very rainy days and a couple other overcast days. It surely didn’t ruin the fun, though! We made the best of the weather and found other things to entertain us.}

{Alina and I planned a special celebration on Wednesday night for Donna and Stan to commemorate their anniversary. We started out with a photo shoot!}

{The photos led us down to the beach...} — {The photos led us down to the beach…}

{I didn't get a good photo, but we had a special table on the beach and had a delicious 3-course dinner. It was so intimate and personal and I had fun listening to Donna and Stan telling stories of memories of their 35 years of marriage.} — {I didn’t get a good photo, but we had a special table on the beach and had a delicious 3-course dinner. It was so intimate and personal and I had fun listening to Donna and Stan telling stories of memories of their 35 years of marriage.}

{The weather turned on us on Thanksgiving day, but we were grateful that the hotel was preparing special Thanksgiving dinners for the Americans! Donna and Stan's balcony was enormous and had a table big enough for all of us, so we pulled the table under the overhang and had our turkey dinner outside in the rain.} — {The weather turned on us on Thanksgiving day, but we were grateful that the hotel was preparing special Thanksgiving dinners for the Americans! Donna and Stan’s balcony was enormous and had a table big enough for all of us, so we pulled the table under the overhang and had our turkey dinner outside in the rain.}

{The hotel prepared a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, veggies, cranberry and rolls for us. We were quite surprised how great it tasted!}

{The turkey was so tender and juicy we were able to carve it with a butter knife!}

{We had one more rainy day on our trip, which we spent in Old Town and the Romantic Zone.}

{My personal favorite restaurant of the whole trip was Casa Tradicional. I absolutely LOVED the carnitas - the presentation was incredible but the flavor was out of this world!} — {My personal favorite restaurant of the whole trip was Casa Tradicional. I absolutely LOVED the carnitas – the presentation was incredible but the flavor was out of this world!}

{On our last night in PV we had a final celebratory dinner at Cafe de Artistes. The ambiance of the restaurant was so neat - we were outside in a jungle-like setting. The menu was a Mexican-French fusion. We had a really great last night!} — {On our last night in PV we had a final celebratory dinner at Cafe de Artistes. The ambiance of the restaurant was so neat – we were outside in a jungle-like setting. The menu was a Mexican-French fusion. We had a really great last night!}

{The guys enjoyed smoking cigars out on the little point in front of the hotel.}

{Eventually the weather cleared and the sun came back out!}

{Alex and I had such a wonderful trip! It was so nice to get to spend so many days with Alex's family. We are so very fortunate that we're able to take trips and meet somewhere so we can have that uninterrupted time together!} — {Alex and I had such a wonderful trip! It was so nice to get to spend so many days with Alex’s family. We are so very fortunate that we’re able to take trips and meet somewhere so we can have that uninterrupted time together!}

Bathroom Update 8.0

Phase two of the bathroom is officially complete! We’ve got lighting, we’ve got a mirror, we’ve got a vanity and a toilet paper holder, we’ve got heated floors, and we’ve got outlet covers…. Things are coming together and it looks amazing!

20151120_014420101_iOS — {Our main goal with the reno was to make the bathroom look more like our 1909 house… I can’t get over how much I love these light fixtures and how they feel so old, but so new!}

{For several reasons we are ending up ordering a custom made counter top, so it'll still be a couple weeks before it's officially completed.} — {For several reasons we are ending up ordering a custom made counter top, so it’ll still be a couple weeks before it’s officially completed.}