Impromptu Trip to Mount Rainier

Last weekend, my dear husband Matty decided to surprise me with a camping trip to Rainier! At first I was overwhelmed and didn't want to go. But he did all the work! And it was a blast. I am so glad we went.
We woke up super early on Saturday to watch the sunrise. Matt took some pretty neat panoramas with his camera phone!
After the sunrise we headed back to camp for some yummy (and very caloric) breakfast. I guess we decided that fires and food are the two best things about camping!


Our hike was epic! It was thirteen miles, and pretty brutal! Somehow I am better at the 5 mile round trip hike that is straight up like a stair master (Mailbox) and not so good at the 13 mile "easier" hike. But it was so, so beautiful. It couldn't have been a more perfect day!
Thanks for looking at these photos. I will be back later this week with some fall photos. I am really getting into this season (as you may have noticed from my last post.)

:)

Fall is here!

I am getting pretty excited about Fall. Monday through Wednesday in Seattle were both beautiful days. They were crisp and clear with lots of sunshine and a little bit of chill. (Today it rained so I am excluding this day from my discussion. )

The leaves are starting to turn colors...just a little, not too much.

In the last two days I have had three lattes, and all of them were delicious!

I have started thinking about putting away my summer clothes and getting out the sweaters.

Tonight after work I went walking with Lindsay, and it got dark SO FAST!

There are gourds and pumpkins for sale at Trader Joe's.

All of these things are reminding me that Fall is officially here! And I love this season...even though it ushers in the cold and nasty weather. I usually don't hate it until January or so and I might as well be positive while I can.

This fall I am excited for:
Watching football with friends
Renae's 25th birthday
Cousin Bethany's wedding
Hopefully the fall retreat
Thanksgiving!!!
Running the Seattle half marathon
Drinking many, many more lattes.
Taking lots of photos!
Have a wonderful first week of Fall!

Mailbox Peak Hike + Lazy Sunday

My Saturday was absolutely amazing. My husband and Peter and Hannah and I hiked Mailbox Peak! Its definitely a challenge, but so worth the hard work. I just love a really hard work out. And what's better than a 2.5 mile long stairmaster?

Here are a couple photos...
We saw some beautiful unexpected sunlight peeking through the trees!
After our hike, Matty and I ate dinner at our favorite Mexican food restaurant, Taqueria El Sabor, in Shoreline. Its authentic and amazing!

I love this picture of Matty drinking horchata and watching tv.
My favorite! Four tacos with lots of pico de gallo and a little lime juice.
After dinner we went over to a friends house, chatted it up, and watched a cool episode of Top Gear. While we were looking for their condo we got absolutely soaked! It rained so hard that I got to put the little raincoat of my camera bag...one of my favorite things to do. :)

Well at least this wont get too long...Sunday was pretty low key! I did a little bit of artsy photography (which failed), made some Tikka Masala for dinner, and watched a marathon of Castle season one. I have one photo to share from my roof. I wanted to capture the beautiful sky on Sunday.
And that is all for now. Whew!

A long post...

So here is the last couple of weeks...

1) I have started to be a little more responsible when I comes to cooking! In the past couple weeks I have cooked seven times and all have been SIT DOWN meals. Anyone that knows me well also knows that this is MONUMENTAL for me!

I have made: Fajitas (both chicken and steak)
Grilled chicken Caesar salad
Crab stuffed flounder (courtesy of TJ's) + some sort of fancy chopped salad
Spaghetti
Steak & grilled peppers (w/ Cayenne pepper which floated all about the house)
So obviously none of these things are amazing but I am still very proud. (Thus the blog bragging.)

2) I am now training for my half marathon coming up in November. I ran twenty miles last week! This week is a little less, although I did run seven miles on Wednesday, which is the longest run since last May.

3) I take tons and tons of pictures. Someone even asked me last weekend if I am a photographer because I always have my camera on me! The truth is I have had a camera with me for the last couple of years but now that I have a DSLR it is a little more obvious! And truth be told, I am not a photographer. Not at all. :(

4) I do have a few photos of my awesome weekend with Joy. My little sister came to visit me! It was a very eventful weekend, full of friends and family and kittens. So here are some photos...

Here is Joy and Rachel on Queen Anne:
This photo encapsulates just about everything that I love about the world...
I like this picture of my cute sister...
I fell in love with Baby Oscar this weekend...
And Hobbs looks pretty calm in this photo, but believe me, he was the life of our party on Saturday night!If you are reading this, I hope you got to the end! I hope to post again soon...it appears that I will have a pretty eventful weekend ahead!

A few more weekend photos...

It was a pretty rainy weekend.

We did a lot of sitting around the house...mostly at Bob & Annie's. We borrowed their BBQ to make salmon on Sunday and also went to their house on Monday. Its always fun to be lazy with entertaining people.

On Sunday I shot my first gun!
Hannah and her little bro at the gun range:
BBQ salmon (before cooking). Afterwards it looked all broken apart...but it was delicious!
The boys (especially my husband) drank so much diet soda that I had to make a mountain out of it and take a picture!

And we are back! (Vacation + wedding photos)

I just have a few photos from our vacation that I wanted to post!
Matty flying his new kite:
Me eating ice cream with sprinkles...I did this both days of our vacation!
Our anniversary mirror shot...yeah not that great!
Yes, this is a photo of my banana yellow spare tire! On our way home this morning we had to stop in Astoria to buy a new tire. My old one had a big hole.
We made it home about an hour late for Ben's wedding. At least we made it to the reception. Fortunately the people at Toyota and Les Schwab were super nice and we can't really complain too much. We had a wonderful time at the wedding, and in fact, here are a couple of photos!
The Bride and Groom!

Pretty flowers! I loved the flowers and colors of this wedding.
And here are a bunch of us silly guests...
And some crazy boys!!!At least I got to slow dance with my man!
So that is all I will post tonight as it is nearly 1 pm and I've already posted lots of pictures. Have a good rest of the weekend!

From Cannon Beach...

I am so excited to be writing this from an adorable coffee shop in Cannon Beach! Its called Bella Espresso...it has great coffee, atmosphere, and high speed internet!

Our time here on the Coast has been pretty relaxing so far. Yesterday was our anniversary! Instead of dressing up for a fancy dinner we went out to lunch at a little pizza place, one that we went to and loved last year.

We went to Manzanita and took photos and ran in the waves. (Okay the very shallow ones.)

We drove very fast on the 101 with all the windows open and got very messy hair.

Last night we cooked steaks and salad for dinner.

We went on a long walk on the beach...in the dark...under the stars.

Matt built a big fire and we warmed our feet by the fire.

We flew a kite together (mostly Matt.)
I laid on the beach and even got a tiny tan on my midsection! Wow!

We drove into Seaside and opened a bank account just so we would have cash for our trip. (This is because we don't have any visa cards...thank you robber.)

Matty bought some $5 flip flops at Rite Aid.

We took a sneak mirror photo in the woman's restroom at the campground. Every year on our anniversary we take a photo in the mirror of us getting ready for our date/dinner. So this year was obviously a little different! But we had to stick to tradition.

I've decided to leave out all the details that happened BEFORE our trip. It was a very stressful week and I almost went a little crazy. But we are moving forward from here! Those days are forgotten.
There should be more photos soon!