Birthday Hike!

 

One of my oldest friends Lauren & her girlfriend Ang came all the way from Ohio to visit this week. This lady has been my pen pal for 12 years, since freshman year of high school when she stayed with my family for a weekend. We exchanged addresses and that was that, now she knows more about me than almost anyone, she has supported me and encouraged me for 12 years. She has believed in me in a way I've felt from very few people and she has always been on my side. We don't email, rarely talk on the phone instead its pages of letters on fluorescent paper, stickers, random doodles and life that we mail back and forth to one another. I'm so grateful for this awesome woman and now she's here for the week! I haven't seen her for at least 6 years in person so it rocks!

 

 

Monday we took them on a nice 10 mile hike that included rain, pouring down rain, hail, sunny rain, bright sunshine, cloudy and then it did it all over again! They were awesome and rocked through it anyway- all while complaining about it less than me. :) I loved getting to show them something we love & on my birthday too.

 

It was a great hike, Goat Lake, for this time of the year with lots of changing scenery in the types of trees and the alpine lake with the snowy mountains was quite beautiful. It was also fun because there is an upper and lower trail so you can take the lower along the water one way and the higher route the other for views of the mountains.

 

 

 

 

And then I was 26

 

Welp, I now officially check a different age box. Last year I was struggling with becoming 25 but this year I don't think I mind. Joshua invited a bunch of our friends out to celebrate and he made me a delicious (albeit accidentally entirely baby pink colored) cake. Since it was memorial day weekend it was a bunch of friend groups mashed together which I always kind of love + some Ohio friends that are visiting.

It was lovely and I felt truly loved, one of my friends even made me the adorable banner and sign. So a big thanks to all who came out to celebrate- you're the greatest!

 

And now I'm officially mid-late twenties- yikes!

 

Sandy Bonfires

After the busy weekend we had last week, and riding our bikes to work 4 times last week we were ready for something chill. We planned on just watching movies all night but we've had such a beautiful week in Seattle that our friends decided a bonfire needed to happen.

So instead we got to go sit in a circle around a fire with our toes in the sand drinking beer out of red solo cups while they passed around the guitar. Sometimes life just gives you what you need and that night this was exactly the relaxing warm and fuzzy night we needed to transition into the weekend.

 

We even got to see phosphorescence for the first time in the waves as they broke on the sand.
(phosphorescence is a lit emitted from some type of bacteria or plant in the water when it is agitated by movement. It looked like glow in the dark quarters in the water, very faint but pretty neat)

 

Then we spent the rest of the weekend eating lots of food and walking to the little breweries in our new neighborhood and finishing up some cleaning. Alas I'm sad Monday is here- but my awesome friend will be here soon!!!

Mom and Sis Visit Pt. 2

Sunday was beautiful! It was such a pleasure to spend Mother's Day with my mom. I feel like she gave me the gift of coming to visit so we tried to pick a hike that she'd really enjoy. We went on a 10 mile hike to Otter Falls in Snoqualmie and had a truly great time.

It was a nice flat hike to avoid the snowline with streams flowing over the paths. Mom dipped her feet in the water accidentally a few times while crossing the rocks but mostly we enjoyed the challenge. The end of the hike had a big waterfall cascading over a huge huge rockface. We found a cozy spot along the brim of its little lake and had lunch.

The sun was out all day and we wandered over to Snoqualmie Falls which we had actually taken my mom and dad to before, but in the rain. So it was fun to see it in the sunshine and for Erika to get to see it.

We hit up a small ice cream/burger place in the little town, man it was popular, and had ice cream swirl cones and French fries- perfect.

Rounded the night out with some beers at a cute brewery Peddler and had some tacos and called it a night.

I think we wore our visitors out  but we truly had a great time squeaking in quality time with these two :) 

Part 1

Mom and Sis Visit Pt. 1

My madre and sister were in Seattle this past weekend! It was fabulous- they helped pick up some furniture for us since we just moved, grabbed dinner ingredients from pike place market which were both so helpful after a week like the one we just had.

But then we got to the fun stuff! Friday night we hit the town and had a great dinner and some drinks in Capitol Hill.

Saturday we grabbed some coffee & pastries and then went downtown to check out the Chihuly Glass Museum. My o my it was stunning. It was so well lit and set up and great to watch the art pieces go from indoor to interacting with the outdoors. We were all mesmerized to say the least! It was really fun for the 4 of us to go through it and see all our different perspectives and just chat about it all. We really lucked out with the weather and had sunshine to walk around in.

 

 

 

Then we grabbed some pizza, strolled the sculpture park and head home for a mini naptime. That night we went to grab some comfort food from Skillet for dinner with burgers with bacon jam and poutine fries. It think we put in a movie that night but only Joshua stuck it out to watch it :)

up next Part 2 Mother's Day!

A new Place

I've been absent from here for awhile, because I've been uninspired. I haven't cooked any food past rice and veggies in over a month, I haven't  crafted, or gone on many adventures. We've been feeling stuck and a little down to be honest.

But God answers prayers and he has definitely been brewing some things in our life lately. We've wanted a new apartment for awhile and we finally found one and it's in Ballard which is where we really wanted to go. So yay, we're really excited for it.

We loved our place in the U-district, but our friends have since moved away from there, it isn't really feeling like home anymore. We were feeling a little lost and unconnected there. But on Sunday we got to move it all out and into a new apartment that just feels like us and had us inspired and energized. As we were moving in a friend even passed us and said hi, which just made it feel even more right, even more like this place will be home.

Joshua and I are really looking forward to living closer to people and being able to have casual hang outs and impromptu coffee dates because we are closer to them, learning more how to open up our place and share it anytime, and walking to get our favorite pizza (also our favorite brunch place is a 1/4 mile away uh oh!) Moving all our stuff in was exhausting but also felt like a cleansing and like we were shaking off this rut and letting the blessings of life seep into us instead of pass by unnoticed.

So yeah, we're stoked for this new change in life and all that God has started to change in us and put on our hearts as we move through it.

P.S. always have to get move in Chinese take out!