Missing Home

Phil and I are still in Bothell, Wa until further notice. There is talk of coming home in 2weeks and there is also talk of not coming home all summer. Its driving me crazy not being able to make plans. Doesn't Phil's company know I'm a PLANNER?! Seriously! :)

I of course miss Corvallis and I really miss Portland. I've grown to LOVE LOVE our studio, neigborhood and awesome neighbors. But I'm most surprised that I am missing Lebanon. My hometown, the town I swore never to move back to. Being in Bothell, which might be the same size or smaller than Lebanon, makes me appreciate small town life on a farm. My parents have a great place between Lebanon and Sweet Home. I'm so bipolar... one day I wanna be a city girl, the next I wanna move back to the farm.

Now that my brothers and I have all graduated my parents decided to replace us with dogs! I'm only slightly joking!

Seriously check it out! (Ok, now who in this photo doesnt belong? ha ha ha ha)

When Phil and I first started dating we bought our first english bulldog Jericho. My dad fell in love with him so the following year we as a family got him his own bulldog for his 50th birthday.
And now they have 6. They've sold most of their cows and are only raising enough for their own beef. They also built a really nice kennel on the farm and now spend most weekend at dog shows. I've learned a lot about dog shows and I'll tell you the movie Best of Show is pretty accurate. :)
In order to champion your dog you have to earn a certain number of points. To earn points you have to win a certain number of shows(its way more complicated than that but you get the general idea). Last weekend my parents championed one of their 2 males, Ace. I'm so proud of them! Isn't he cute? A face only his mother could love! :)
Side Note:

Last night Phil and I went to North Gate Mall to get my birthday dress. He is such a trooper. He sat at The Ram with his crossword puzzle book(it keeps his brain sharp) while I shopped. After finding THEE dress I joined Phil for dinner. I normally don't like chain restaurants but I was pleasantly surprised by The Ram's bloody mary and Hillybilly Burger: bacon, blue cheese and crunchy onions with sweet potato fries on the side(Nathan it wasnt as good as your burger but the crunchy onions might be a nice addition?). yuuuuuuuummmm! Can you believe this garnish?! The glass was rimmed with a salt mixture I couldn't quite put my finger on.... maybe chili powder? delicious!There is a Ram in Salem but I've never tried it....

1,188 things to do!

Phil and I hit our first weekend in Bothell, head on, ready to do LOTS of fun stuff.

Friday we explord downtown Kirkland(85th street on east side of Lake Washington) sooooooooo cute. Tons of restaurants and right on the lake. We got tired and went to bed early.

Saturday we sat at our laptop and looked at Seattle Weekly's website with all the things to do in the Puget Sound.....um.... we spent 3hrs(talking before breakfast, during and after) reading until we got overwhelmed and decided to stay in town. HA! There were literally 1,188 things to do on Saturday July 24th. Unbelievable.

Phil had a master plan to pack a wine and cheese picnic and head to Bothell Landing and chill by the river.
may favorite type of meal. lots of snackies!
There are a ton of paved paths here just like Corvallis. I run along the river a lot. The Sammish River trail is a 10mile trail from Bothell to Redmond. Maybe I'll work up the courage to run it. Don't quote me but I think its also apart of the Burke-Gilman trail something about an old rail road from Seattle to Snoqualmie Falls was paved into a path all along the river 47miles. So awesome.

After our restful picnic we went in search of the best pinball machine in town. During our journey Phil of course met all kinds of weird people but we were able to get to know more about the area. We ended up in Kenmore, which I'd say is the same as Philomath is to Corvallis, at a quaint little bar on the lake. I dominated Phil in pinball, YES!

Sunday was a good lazy day. We slept in, moved hotels then napped. We have to move hotels because we can only book one week at a time, its kind of annoying but we get to try out different places which I think is fun.

Sunday evening my Cousin Deanne organized a family dinner in Bothell at the Red Hook Brewery.
Evan(Deanne's boyfriend), Deanne, my uncle D.
The brewery is in a touristy area surround by wineries. One that may sound family is Chateau St. Michelle http://www.ste-michelle.com/
The brewery had a fun beer sampler. I liked that it gave you a placemat with a description for each beer.

My Uncle D is actually my dad's cousin but they basically grew up brothers. My Aunt Claudia is the youngest... I think 7yrs younger than my dad?

My cousins. Our birthdays are in August. Deanne on the left is one year older, I'm in the middle and then Nikki is one year younger than me. I'm excited to spend more time with these girls. Phil loves them!

The group.
my cute aunt and uncle. It would be so fun to own one of these and cruise around in the summers!

Worshington

View Larger Map

We are here in Bothell (27mins outside Seattle according to this map) until who knows how long. We are paying rent in Corvallis and in Portland and not living in either of those 2 places?! Ha ha ha. Phil's company is taking good care of us up here but its so so strange. Its very weird to live in a hotel. I have no chores....my only chore is to make my bed and the cleaning lady gets very confused when I tell her I don't need service so I stopped telling her no. We spent our first week at one hotel and I got super tired of eating out for every meal so we moved to a new hotel that has kitchenettes. Don't get me wrong I love eating out and trying new restaurants every night but my waistline cant handle it! We sorta found a rhythm. We work, I run during my lunch break, I lay by the pool until Phil gets home then we go out to dinner and I cancel out my run.

There have been a few good evenings spent with new friends and my family. My Dad is from Seattle so I have an Aunt, Uncle and some cousins up here.

Last Wednesday My Aunt Claudia and Uncle Mark drove over and we went out to a really cool Italian restaurant.

The owners take their staff to Italy every year...isn't that awesome?! Their wine list was overwhelming!

My beautiful Aunt... she never ages! I hope I inherit those good jeans!!
Thursday night we went to the City for a Mariners game, compliments of the company. I was surprised at how young the engineers are. I guess I had a vision in my head that Phil would be the young guy just like he was at Knife River.
He may not be the youngest but he is the new guy and I loved that they call him "intern Phil". ha! This is Bill. We like to call him Helvey because his sense of humor and personality is so much like Adam.


It was actually a really good game. Well sorta. We left at the top of the 9th inning because we thought the game was over but as we left the Mariners managed to tie the game and it went into the 13th inning. I'm not a sports person but I got super into the game on the way home. We turned on the radio to listen to the ending and I kept shooshing Phil. ha!
I like SPORTS!

Another Portland Saturday

We had a FULL awesome Saturday July 17th. Phil started the day having to work boo, but only a half day, yay!

Abby and Denny came up and we met up with Tiff and her sister Nicole and headed to the west side. We did some walking and some eatin'. I miss my neighbor!
Can you believe Denny??? Gotta Love him!

After a few hours walking around the west side we head back to our stomping grounds for a quick stop at St. Cupcake. Phil and Denny went to Belmont Inn to play pinball and us girls visited in our apartment. Tiff and Nicole had to leave for Tiff's Family Bday and Phil, Abby and Denny had to leave for a wedding reception in Mollala. It was a hard decision but I decided not to go.
Ryan and Holly, our awesome neighbors/landlords/friends were hosting a house show in their backyard and I was helping with the little babes. It was a blast! Ryan had some home brewed beer and wine and we sat underneath the beautiful blanket of hanging grapevines entwined in white lights. I need to take a better picture of it for you to see. It should be in a magazine!
Sunday:
Phil made me breakfast in bed, what a cute nugget. I had no idea that that would be our last day in our Portland home for a while.... Thursday the 15th we found out Phil would be working in Bothell, Wa for a week or two and now we found out we'll be here until.....well... "whenever something changes." Not sure what that means. We could be coming home next week or next month. I guess its an adventure.

Food and Friends

Phil and I are eating really well this summer. So much good food to try. I run regularly but I'm pretty sure I'm getting fatter.


Tuesday:
Phil has a few other OSU buddies working for the same company as him this summer. Kyle or as Phil calls him "hot Kyle" or "tall Kyle" is also in Portland for the summer working for a different division. We had him over for a shrimp fest. We like to sit at "our table" infront of the old Belmont Fire Station.

Shrimp and sausage simmered in a garlic butter white wine sauce with toasted bread to soak up the juice, apple bacon salad and yams.
Wednesday:

One of the best things about living in Portland is seeing Stefani a lot more. She only lives 10blocks away.

Tiff is well loved and had a huge birthday celebration. Wednesday before we took her out to Foster Burger, our treat. It was amaaaaaaaaaaaazing! I never order burgers and a rarely eat the whole thing. I LOVED IT!Rumor has it that they use lean beef for their burgers and then bacon fat to hold the sucker together. Genius.
I look like my grandma in this picture. :)
Friday:

for Tiff's Bday celebration we went to American Dream in Portland. Unfortunately it is NOT as good as Corvallis. Phil had to work the next morning so we missed the craaaaaaaazy party. She got the best gift ever.... the shake weight! ha ha ha ha

Every Second Counts...

I flew home Saturday July 10th refusing to accept that vacation was over. It's hilarious to me that when Phil flew home from Colorado all he wanted to do was relax at home, When I flew home from Oakland all I wanted to do was not go home. We are so different it cracks me up.


A few hours after I got home Phil granted me my wish to not end vacation and we went to McMenamin's Bagdad theater for dinner and a movie but first we stopped for drinks.We love people watching, especially on Hawthorne. It was my first dinner and a movie at Bagdad. Super fun and so smart.
Sunday we slept in then Phil made us a marvelous breakfast that we ate outside. What a good guy. Then we walked to and hiked up Mt. Tabor. I guess its similar to Bald Hill but the top is much bigger with a few different parks. The street you see is Hawthorne.... I think.


You pass a few reservoirs during the hike. At the top there is a statue of this dude. I forgot who it is.
After our hike we showered and napped. Very smart. We walked over to Hoda's and order the sampler plate that I have been wanting Phil to try since Ruby, Tiff and I tried my first night up here.
So much food. and so so delicious.


This night would be a very important memorable night that would shape the rest of our summer evenings.... this was the night that Phil and I rediscovered PINBALL!!!! We went to Side St. for drinks and finally found something that I can actually compete against Phil in. Its kinda embarrassing to admit but we almost go out every night after dinner for a drink and some pinball. We keep track of our scores and try to beat each other! ha ha ha I love it!

Family Waycation and Strep Throat

Fourth of July Weekend Phil and I flew down to Pleasanton for a family vacation with Phil's mom's side of the family. Before the weekend events we spent Friday night at Brandon & Kayla's along with Pete & Jenn.

It was an extra special time for us to see the babes. We hadn't seen Bem in weeks such a change from seeing her multiple times a week. We missed our little friends. Friday Kayla made an amaaaaaaaazing Vietnamese feast. So yum. I hate myself for not taking pics! Poor Bwandon got the nasty throat sickness so he did his best to hangout. Poor Randy.
Saturday morning I got to wake up to 3 special humans. Mo, Ellyse, Emma and I had a cuddle session on the couch. Man I love those kids! Emma is getting soooooooooooo old. Its so crazy to have her sit still for french braids!

silly ladies


BemDoodle looks so much like her mama
The little Mo-Nugget is the easiest going guy. It cracks me up when Jenn holds Mo and tries to talk to me and Mo is just staring at me smiling. He sits and smiles, eats and sleeps. WAY different than bossy baby Emma.
Phil's Aunt and Uncle hosted 21ish people not including their family of 5 for the weekend. AMAZING and super relaxing. They have a huge beautiful house and large property with lots to do. We spent most of the time hanging out in the front yard watching the kids and men play. They borrowed 2 camp trailers to help host. B&K joined us each afternoon for the day's activities.


Hello! B.O.B. commercial. Saturday after an awesome biscuit and gravy breakfast we packed up for an afternoon at the County Fair. I forgot to take pictures of the adults :)
oh hey tiny nugget man.
Back at the house there was this thingy....whats it called again? Phil of course had to play with it. I had no idea digging a hole then filling it up again was sooooooooo fun.
Our accommodations. After staying in this for a few days I decided I really really need one. It was the kind of trailer where the living room pops out for more space.
Anna, Phil's hot cousin from Bend and Crystal, Jenn and I.
Hangin out in the front yard.
Phil's super fun Aunt Tracy, our amazing hostess.
Grandma and her little grandaughters. So Cute.
Mr. Clay. Anna's son.
Noah, Anna's husband and Mr. Seth.
Uncle Rick, (Nancy's brother) hand crafted this awesome smoker!
Lovin the goggles! Uncle Rick is very tall, I'm too short for this Man-Smoker.
Elli and Elly. Sweet little babes are 26days apart.
oh Mo-Mo, there you are, sitting and smiling as usual.
After a hard day at the driving range the guys needed to come home and cool off in the kiddy pool.
oops, babe... you fell through your chair!?
All the sun and fun gets tiring.
more hanging in the front yard. So perfect.
It was fun watching the guys play volleyball...very competitive!
hey Randal!

Nice one Phil!
after hours of cooking it was time to shred and devour the meat. sooooooooo GOOD
Casey, Phil's cousin.
Bemmers looooooves the camera. I hung out with her as much as possible. I love family vacation.
Mr. Clay was a few days shy of his 1st birthday. Anna made an amazing rich chocolate cake. Yum I wish I had a slice right now.

Monday the guys played golf in the morning and it was time for people to start leavin. Pete and Jenn started the trek home and Phil flew out that evening. I on the other hand stayed the week to spend more time with B&K and see Sara.

Tuesday morning I was planning on going to B&K's but then poor Kayla got the yuck in her throat so I stuck around Pleasanton. Corey, Phil's cousin, was nice enough to hangout and drive me to Santa Cruz. Anna, Noah and their boys went too.

First you dig a hole:

then you bury someone:Then you torment them :)
Kainoa is the oldest, then Ryan then baby Clay.
Corey found a little sand grab, Ryan was equally scared and amused.


Cute baby Clay ate lots of sand.

The weather was more like the Oregon Coast than the California Beach. But it was still a ton of fun.

I failed to bring out my camera for the rest of the trip. Tuesday I stayed in Pleasanton an extra day, headed over to B&K's Wednesday evening. Friday I was suppose to go to Oakland to hang with my friend Sara but guess what she too got SICK?! Oh my. So I stayed with B&K until Saturday. My trip kept changing but it was totally great to just relax and play it by ear...not really my personality but I loved it.