Time sure does fly when you’re having fun! No wonder the last five years have been such a blur. 08.08.08 marks the date that Alex and I relocated to Seattle to start our life together. Now five years later it’s hard to believe how much our life has changed since then. We have so much to be thankful for, but today, I am feeling nostalgic and thankful for the memories we have of our first five years in Seattle.
The beautiful Seattle skyline has changed since we moved in 5 years ago.
Who knew that Washington was such a spectacular state?! We are so lucky to live here. We have had so much fun over the last five years exploring the glory that Washington has to offer. Thankfully we still have a lot left to see.
Hiking to the snow in July.Mount Rainier is so majestic.
We have gotten to know the emerald city quite well in the five years we’ve been here. We have a lot of favorite things about the city and a lot of not-so-favorite things about the city.
We lived next door to the Pike Place Market and it certainly has its perks; however, the allure sure fades after a while.Bottlehouse will always be a favorite on our list.Skiing at Crystal Mountain has truly changed our lives. I don’t want to imagine how boring our lives would be without skiing.
Friends are so important and Alex and I are so lucky to have made such good friends here in Seattle.
Sounders game.My bridal shower.Carrie and Sara.Ski buddies
Of course we have a lot of “firsts” with Seattle, which is why it will forever hold a special place in our hearts.
Our first house.Sold!Our first pets, Oliver and Henry.Our first dog Aspen.
We are still finding more and more to love about this great city. It has everything we could ever hope for and more. Seattle and Washington are pretty much perfect for us.
Wine country a mere 2 hours away.Ruby Beach in Olympic National Park.Hanging out in downtown.Skiing is our favorite!
Here’s to making new memories that will continue to keep us falling harder for our beautiful residence. Life just keeps getting better and better!
I traveled to Minnesota last week to help host my friend Sarah’s country-themed bachelorette party up at her cabin over the weekend. We had a great time celebrating the bride-to-be and can’t wait for the big day on 9.28.13.
Here are some photos from the party:
The welcome table was decorated with country accents and girlie cookies.Sarah’s future sister-in-law decorated these beautiful cookies.Adorable bunting with their wedding date.“Bride” tank top for Sarah to wear and a “Mrs. Letich” hanger – maybe for her dress?!Sarah and her 20 closest friends.The bridal party.Maht girls minus Cammy and Molly who were missing from the photo.
Sali!Kailey and her swan.The whole group of girls.Out for the evening at the townie bars! What a great time.
It was such a pleasure to be there with Sarah to celebrate her upcoming wedding!
Somehow our little pup is now four months old?! I’m not sure when that happened, but he is sure getting big and is acting {sometimes} like a mature young dog.
Our little man is getting so big!!
Some fun facts about 4 month-old Jackson:
The shower is still his favorite place to hang out and sleep.
Jackson is teething – most of his adult teeth are in now and his sharp puppy teeth have almost all fallen out.
Walking, laying in the grass, being outside, riding in the car and spending time with Alex and me are some of Jackson’s favorite activities. We’re hoping that playing fetch makes it to this list soon!
He can sit, stand, touch, high five, shake, come, and lay down on command. I’m expecting that “stay” and “get off the couch” will be added to his list of tricks soon.
By some miracle Jackson doesn’t sleep in his crate anymore. It’s been over a week since he’s been in his crate – most nights he is in the bathroom with a gate up over the door, but after our camping trip where he slept in the tent with us, we’re ready to put the crate away.
As of Monday, Jackson weighs 36 pounds.
He started wearing his “medium” collar last week and the “medium” harness the week before.
Jackson is officially a fully-vaccinated pup! He got his rabies and final booster on Monday.
His fur has changed completely since we got him – he is much less fluffy and now has a thicker, darker coat. His legs and tail are starting to feather, or as the vet tech says “his pants are coming in!”
He is such a great dog!
I can’t believe how much he has grown, changed and developed over the last ten weeks! He sure has changed our lives – definitely for the better. We are really excited to see what else he has in store for us.
Jackson at 7 weeks!10 weeks later…. Jackson at 17 weeks!
Our first camping trip of the summer has come and gone already! This past weekend Alex and I ventured down to Mount Hood, Oregon and met our friends Ali and Tyler and their seven month old baby Vivian, and of course their dog Glory. We had never been to Mount Hood before and had a fabulous time exploring.
Jackson is such a trooper in the car.
The trip started off with a very, very, very long drive. It was supposed to take us 4.5 hours to get there but we both got stuck in traffic and it ended up being a 7 hour trek down to our campsite.
View from the car on the way to the campground.
It was an absolutely gorgeous drive – we hauled off the highway once we found a back way and ended up meandering our way through some little towns that Alex had actually ridden his bike through a couple weeks prior. Once we got to Oregon we were in uncharted territory and were in awe of the views of Mount Hood from our drive. We didn’t end up arriving until after 9, but thankfully Ali and Tyler had gotten there with enough time to get themselves unpacked and get ready to make dinner for us when we arrived.
Our campsite was enormous!Tyler the lumberjack.
Little Jackson had never been camping before and we were a little nervous about how he would deal with sleeping in a tent and not in a crate or a confined space. He surpassed even our best expectations and handled it like a champ!
Jackson slept curled up with us all night long!
Since we didn’t arrive until after dark we hadn’t seen our campground or surroundings, not to mention the spectacular view of Mount Hood. Makes me wonder why our campground was called “Hoodview,”
The view of Mount Hood from the campground.
We hung out at the campsite most of the morning and then embarked on a little trek back up the road to Timberline Lodge. Timberline is a ski area on Mount Hood that is actually still currently open. It stays open about 10 out of the 12 months each year, depending on the snow.
Pacific Crest Trail
Once we arrived at Timberline we went for a 5 mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, which is a 2,600 mile long trail that spans from Mexico all the way to Canada.
Pit stop as we entered the Mt Hood Wilderness and left Timberline Ski Resort.Mt. HoodPhoto op at “The Lookout.”Tyler, Viv and Ali
The trail was fairly easy but it was extremely sandy, which was quite unexpected. The sand made it a little bit more challenging to walk in – it felt like we were walking along the beach for 5 miles. Also it was mostly in the sun with limited shade, so that made for one hot puppy.
Puppy ride!Hiking along in the sand.
We got some great views of Mount Hood’s peak and then Mount Jefferson in the horizon. It was a gorgeous day for a hike.
Views.
After our adventure we carted ourselves back to the campsite and made dinner and just hung out for the rest of the evening. Of course we made s’mores both nights.
Photo by the lake.
It’s hard to believe the trip went by so fast! Sunday morning we woke up and chatted for a bit while I made pancakes and bacon on the grill, then packed up and hit the road again.
Pancakes and bacon on the grill.
We decided to meet up in Hood River, which was about an hour or so up the road from our campsite, and have lunch together. What a darling town Hood River is! I will definitely be back. Hood River is situated right along the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon/Washington border and is famous for its kite surfing.
Gorgeous drive home on highway 84 in Oregon along the Columbia River.
After lunch we headed back for our cars and ended up spending the entire rest of the day on the road for another 7 hour drive back home. It sure was worth it for such a fun weekend, though!
It’s been really, really, really busy around here, hence it has taken me until Wednesday evening to post some notes from our weekend of “w’s” – wine, working and wilderness adventures. The last few weeks have made me unbelievably thankful that I’m able to work part-time so that I can manage our house, keep tabs on the pets and successfully plan our adventures all while Alex is working double-time at his job.
Jackson has been such a terror this week! Learning how to jump on the couch was only the beginning….
Even though Alex had to work part of Saturday we managed to have a pretty fantastic weekend! After Alex got back from work on Friday evening we headed up to the Bottlehouse and had a wonderful bottle of rose on the patio. We always have such a fun time up there.
Jack-o is getting so long! He weighs over 35 pounds now.
Saturday was pretty laid back – Alex went in to his office for a few hours and then Jackson and I joined him for a family barbecue that his company was sponsoring, perhaps to make up for the fact that their employees have been working so much lately. Afterwards we brought Jackson to University Village, a dog-friendly outdoor shopping center, and did a little shopping. We were shopping for shorts for Alex but I ended up finding some awesome stuff on super sale at Banana Republic, so I was the only one who purchased anything.
I think Henry wants to go for a bike ride 🙂
Since it had been a whole day since we had been to the Bottlehouse we decided to run up there and grab a couple of bottles of rose to take back and drink on our patio. It was a wonderful way to spend the evening.
So much to be thankful for.
We found a very family-friendly hike just off of I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass at Denny Creek to take Jackson to on Sunday. This was his first “mountain hike” – we wanted to see what his limit was and wanted to give him more of a real picture of hiking since we have a big camping trip coming up.
Hiking at Denny Creek
Jackson did really well! The hike was an easy 4 miles with little elevation gain. He was so happy and got an unbelievable amount of attention from other hikers who passed by.
Taking a pit stop for a snack.
The mid-point of the hike was a rocky part of Denny Creek, so we let Jackson take a little dip in the water. Needless to say, he was filthy by the time we got back to the car.
Hiking.
Once we got home and got Jackson hosed off he was plum tuckered and passed out in the shower, so we got ready to meet Ali, Tyler and baby Vivian at Chateau Ste. Michelle’s member appreciation concert that they graciously invited us to attend with them again this year. The band was an Abba cover band, so they played a great variety of old Abba tunes – it was really fun!
Ali and Viv at our spot at Chateau Ste Michelle.
We have been to a few concerts at the winery before and have built up quite a spread – we’ve got the wine glass stakes to hold the glasses in the ground, and thanks to Alex’s cousin Jenny’s generous wedding gift, we have an awesome picnic basket set. We failed to find a low table before the concert, but now know that we need to look on Amazon. There’s always next year, I guess!
Our amazing spread! LOVED the food 🙂The Furtwanglers!Enjoying the music.
This week has been off to a surprisingly busy start – I am frantically putting the finishing touches on planning Sarah’s bachelorette party next weekend, trying to get organized for this weekend, coordinating our amazing new dog walker and both Alex and I have a busy work week. Maybe by this time next year things will calm down???
Cuddles!…..quickly turned into biting of the arm…. story of the week!Hard to stay mad at this face for too long 😉
It’s official – Alex is done with his big 200 mile bike ride to Portland! He finished STP (Seattle to Portland) on Sunday afternoon after 11 hours and some minutes of biking time. He left our house early Saturday morning and rode with his friend Nigel down to Castle Rock, Washington, where they camped overnight before embarking on the second day. Now that he has recovered and is still on his “bikers high” he is plotting to do “RSVP” which is Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party – it’s a 180 mile ride in mid-August. We’ll see what he decides…
Alex finished the 202 mile bike ride from Seattle to Portland!
We are hoping to get some of the official race photos of Alex – I have seen a few and there are some great shots. Stay tuned…
Ready to leave the house at 5:30 a.m. to start the ride…Finished day one!
While Alex was riding his bike to Portland I was taking care of our injured puppy. Jackson ended up hurting his knee somehow and began limping quite noticeably on Friday afternoon. Alex and I agreed that if he woke up on Saturday and wasn’t walking normally that I would take him into our regular vet’s office. As it turned out, Jackson woke up still limping and was acting extremely lethargic.
Taking it easy sprawled out on the kitchen floor.
I was able to get Jackson an appointment at our vet at 10 and the vet was able to quickly determine the problem. Poor little guy had torn/pulled a muscle in his knee. The vet confirmed there were no broken bones by doing an x-ray, then prescribed Jackson some anti-inflammatory meds and requested that I ice his knee. Once we got home and Jackson took his meds I had him continue to rest while I went for a run, then came back to find that my puppy had returned to his normal happy, energetic self.
Jungle dog!
Sunday morning I woke up and hung out with Jackson before meeting my high school friend and Seattle neighbor, Sasha, for brunch before heading down to Portland. As always, it was great to catch up and re-connect with Sasha.
Hanging out at a park in Portland with little Jack man.
Jackson came with me down to Portland – we reserved a room in a dog-friendly hotel and he was a hotel champ! The hotel was very accommodating and even had a sign at the front desk welcoming Jackson, and they gave us a little packet that included treats, extra bags and listed a local dog park.
Cuddle time 🙂
Portland is very dog friendly, so luckily it wasn’t an issue that we were asked to not leave Jackson in our hotel room unattended. There were a few restaurants close to our hotel that offered patio seating for dogs. We were so impressed with how well behaved Jackson was – it ended up being much easier than we had expected.
Jackson is getting comfortable swimming.
In other news, Jackson is 16 weeks old and he is a puppy preschool graduate! Last week he passed his graduation test at puppy class and will advance to puppy kindergarten, which starts next week.
Puppy preschool graduate.
Jackson learned a fun new trick last week. He knows “high five” and every time we tell him “high five” we still get a kick out of it. It sure is fun doing training with him.
High five!
I got a bunch of new running gear last week and have been testing it out ever since. I went to a store called Road Runner to get fitted for the best pair of running shoes for me and my feet. They recorded me running on a treadmill and measured my instep, as well as fit me for a custom insole, then had me try on a few pairs of shoes to see which one I liked the best. It was an amazing experience, other than the pretentious salesperson, and I am so happy with my new running shoes and all of my gear. I had a fantastic run today with Ali – we ran/walked 7 miles and I am hopeful that I can keep it up.
It’s been 7 weeks since we’ve brought Jackson home and since then he has turned into an almost 30 pound, well-adjusted, easy going little puppy man. He was such a baby for the first bit of time, and he still is a little bit of a baby, but he really has become very confident and pretty darn well behaved if I do say so…
Jackson at 7.5 weeksJackson at 14.5 weeks
In other notes, Jackson has his “graduation day” from puppy preschool on Wednesday, then he starts puppy kindergarten in two weeks. He kind of sucked at puppy class because it was so exciting and distracting, but at home where it matters he is really rocking at being an obedient dog. Hallelujah for him finally beginning to lose his puppy teeth because now when he bites us it doesn’t hurt so darn much!
So handsome and grown up!
Jackson continues to impress us by how smart he is. He learns new things so fast and it’s really fun for us to watch him grasp something new. He is starting to fall in love with playing fetch – Alex introduced it to him early last week and he is really getting the hang of it.
He loves to play fetch!
Over the weekend we took Jackson to Seward Park, a very large park near our house that is on the shores of Lake Washington, and he got his first exposure to swimming. Safe to say, he is a water dog!
Easing his way into the water…Jackson is swimming!
We are really looking forward to exploring the Pacific Northwest with our little adventure dog this summer!
The perfect weather combined with amazing friends resulted in a fabulously fun fourth of July weekend for Alex and me. We spent most of the weekend with the Millers and “the Buffs” (Carrie and Patrick) and an evening with Sara and Carsten, as well as some other friends and acquaintances.
Sporting some sort-of patriotic shirts
I didn’t take any photos on the fourth for some reason, but we spent the afternoon and evening at Mary and Ryan’s house. They were gracious enough to invite Jackson to come hang out and break in their backyard and house, as they are getting a puppy in a few weeks. We grilled brats and had quite a few sides, salads and desserts to choose from. It was great to meet a few new people and spend time with the Millers and the Buffs.
Love these guys!
Alex and I were rather surprised when Oliver woke us up at 8:30 on Friday morning because usually our alarm clock named Jackson goes off at about 5:30. I guess he was too tired from running around at Mary and Ryan’s the day before. We both had planned to spend the morning doing our respective athletic activities, Alex had a 50 mile bike ride and I had a 6 mile run, so we were a bit frazzled to not have the whole morning that we expected. It worked out fine, though, and we still got our activities in.
Such a great weekend with these girls!
Carrie invited us to spend the evening on her parents new boat on Friday night. We joyfully agreed and had a fantastic time. Their new boat is beautiful and the 12 of us had plenty of space to sit and chat and move around. We grilled chicken and brats and had some potato salad and a few other sides, but I have to say the highlight was dessert. Mary and Sara tag teamed dessert and Mary made a peach/blueberry crumble and Sara made homemade caramel ice cream. It was to die for!
The ferry in the sunset
We did a little cruse around Elliott Bay in the Puget Sound and had a wonderful time enjoying the sunset and the views of the city. It was such a fun evening!
Seattle skyline
Saturday started with me dropping Jackson off at Fetch for the day so Alex and I could take a bike ride with the Millers and the Buffs to Woodinville. Patrick ended up hurting his foot on the boat the night before, so he and Carrie met us at Red Hook. We met the Millers at Matthews Beach and then rode 13 miles on the Burke Gilman and Sammamish River Trails until we reached Red Hook Brewery.
Hanging out at Patterson Cellars.
Red Hook has an awesome patio and by some miracle there was a 6-top table that opened up right after we arrived so we didn’t have to wait for a table at all. It was glorious to sit outside and soak up some sun. From there, we walked up the road and did some wine tasting at Patterson Cellars, J Bookwalter and then Alexandria Nicole, which is where Carrie and Patrick are having their upcoming wedding catered from. J Bookwalter continues to impress me – I think Alex and I will make another trip there during the week and have dinner and wine out on their patio – they allow dogs, so we’ll have to bring Jackson next time!
Love J Bookwalter.
By the time we got back to our bikes to make the trek home we realized that my back tire had literally exploded! Ugh! I was very disappointed to not get to ride my bike home, but was thankful that we had a ride home, though of course not that Patrick had hurt his foot. I’ll get some new tires and take my wheels in for a tune up and hopefully after Alex’s big 200-mile ride next weekend he’ll calm down on the biking and we’ll get to take some low-key rides together.
Tire explosion!
The rest of the weekend has been uneventful compared to our fun times with friends. Today we’ll just stay home and get some stuff done around the house and in the yard. We might venture down to Seward Park this afternoon with Jackson, though. Maybe we’ll even bring a picnic?
Last night we took an impromptu trip up to Snoqualmie Falls to have a picnic and do some exploring. Our house was just getting a little unbearable with the lack of airflow and the high temperatures so I decided it would be a nice break to hit the road and head up to higher elevation. We ended up falling in love with the city of Snoqualmie and decided to drive around some of the neighborhoods to become more familiar with the town. It was a great stray from the ordinary date night!
Picnic at Snoqualmie Falls ParkThis was an impromptu picnic and I didn’t want to cook anything so we just had some mini sandwiches and pasta salad from the day before, and of course wine!Jackson was so well behaved. He sat or laid next to us the entire time we were eating.Snoqualmie Falls – the waterfall was a lot more powerful than most of the photos depict it looking. I guess with the high temperatures and the mountain snow melting it was a very full river.Jackson had a great time!We loved our surroundings. It’s so nice to get out of the city once in a while and be in the mountains.Happy pup!
We are under an “excessive heat advisory” here in Seattle. What that means is that it’s over 80 degrees and the city freaks out because no one has air conditioning. I make fun of it a lot, but in reality, it really doesn’t get above 80 degrees here very often so people just aren’t used to the “extreme heat.” I am loving it, except for the fact that we too do not have air conditioning, so our house is presently 87 degrees and I’m sweating profusely.
Here are some fun pictures from the past week.
Embracing Independence Day at our house this year.Thanks to my mother in-law for keeping our holiday decor accessories well-stocked.Henry cat on the hunt for something.Oliver yawningOliverOliver close upMariners vs CubsSafeco FieldWatching the gameMariners vs Cubs gameMiller time! We had such a fun day with Mary and Ryan – we went garage sale-ing, drank a lot of wine, grilled out and just enjoyed the gorgeous day.We celebrated Emma’s first birthday, my friend Sara’s Collie dog. Emma got her own special birthday cake!I made dog treats for all of the dogs who came over to celebrate Emma’s special day.Emma’s birthday party guests.Jackson escaping the heat in the shower.Our 3 month old pup weighs 25 pounds now!Made the mistake of setting the pillows on the ground while making the bed…We are spending a LOT of time outside! Jackson loves to run around in the backyard.I took a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island today for work. Here’s a shot of the city from the ferry deck.
