Loonies & Penny Candies

One of my cousins got married in Canada so we packed ourselves up and made the road trip up to the town where my Mom grew up. I used to go there every summer and one of my favorite things to do was take loonies to the Redi-Mart and buy penny candies. So of course I had to take Jake there so he could experience buying candy for 1-25 cents each with a big gold coin ($1 coin in Canada) because let's face it--Canadian money is just prettier & they have yummy candy.

Jake & his loonies

Soaking it up.

The past two weeks Jake and I have been with my family. We went from Seattle (where my parents live) to Spokane (where we have a house for sale) to Canada back to Spokane and now back to Seattle. Whew. That's a lot of driving! This has been a common sight:

Jake lounging in the car

I just love, love, love summer time so I've just been soaking it up. I have grown up eating fresh veggies out of our garden each summer so I was pretty excited to see our garden in Spokane overflowing with deliciousness. If you could overdose on grape tomatoes I would be SO dead.



 In Spokane we spent a whole lotta time lounging by the pool. When we were "cooked" we played way too much ping pong and Rack-O, but hey that's what summer break is for right?

My mom brings us pina coladas by the pool.. they life I tell ya, the life.

Jake figured out a 'comfortable' way of laying on his  stomach. Made me laugh

My "happy place".

Milo, always willing to lay in the sun.



My sister's running shoes for playing lazer tag. Turns out Jake and I would make good assassins.



Jake golfing in Spokane. It was my first time playing real golf--I'm terrible,but I had fun!



Exploring

Last week my parents and Jake and I took a ferry from Seattle to the Olympic Peninsula to explore. We didn't know exactly what we would do there but it turned out to be a fun little adventure.



On the ferry.

 First we went to a cute little port town, Port Townsend. It's right on the ocean and has lots of cute little shops and.... lots of poop. Some of the sidewalks were white with bird poop. At first we were surprised when we saw how poopy some of the parked cars were. We wondered how long they had been parked to get so covered in poop. But when we returned to our car we realized it doesn't take long at all to get covered in poop in Port Townsend. Thank goodness for the cheerleader car wash on the way out of town..

White sidewalk and cars/ our car after an hour.

We walked around town, grabbed lunch at a cute little cafe, and went to a yummy cupcake shop for dessert.

Next we headed to the beach.

After that we headed to some lavender fields. Mmm smelled so good. We even bought some lavender cookies to eat and they were pretty good!

Then we drove up to the top of a mountain where we got an amazing view of the Olympic mountains.

We ended the day with dinner in Port Angeles at Bella Italia. If you are not cool enough to have read twilight--that is where Bella and Edward went on a date. Yes, I'm that nerdy. We called to make a reservation when we were like 5 minutes away. They said they could fit us in for a couple hours. We were so close that we decided to go anyway. My dad decided to try and get us in. He walked up to the host and said "Remington, for four." She got really confused and said "Uh, ok, right this way." haha good job Dad.

By the end of the day we had been gone for about 12 hours and enjoyed the pretty view of Seattle on the ferry ride home.

Have I mentioned how much I love Seattle?

Local Tourists

Local tourists: People pretending to be tourists in their own city. Often carrying a large camera and taking pictures of ordinary things.
(ok I made up that definition after Jake called us local tourists but I think it fits.)

The other day we went to the Ballard locks. Its where lake union meets the ocean. It's fun to watch the boats come in and out as they change the water levels and move them between the different bodies of water. I wish I could explain how it works but we skipped the visitors center and went straight for the action. There's something about Seattle that just makes me happy.

Later we got dinner at a yummy Asian restaurant and of course we couldn't resist picking up some gelato in pike place before heading home. I had the most delicious pear gelato.. so good.


The steel dinosaurs. Do you see them? Ok they are cranes, but I always think--dinosaur.

 We were a little surprised at the tiny the bathroom stalls in pike place market:

I know I tend to get a little mushy gushy over my love for Seattle, but can you blame me with a lovely view like this in your back yard? .. there are mountains everywhere I tell ya.

Ps. Stay tuned for a million pictures of our trip to the Olympic peninsula

One year down, a whole lot more to go!

We can hardly believe it, but it's been a year since we got married. It's been a great year full of fun, love, learning, and a whole lot of growing. It hasn't been all rainbows and sunshine, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I decided to get sentimental with my outfit.. I wore the same dress I wore in our engagement pictures and my "belt" is the crystal headband I wore in my hair on our wedding day. : )

Posing with the wedding picture is the start of something like this (picture within a picture at each aniversary):

 Jake loves "fancy food" (that's what I call it). So for our anniversary we decided to celebrate at a nice restaurant in Salt Lake called The Forage. We thought we would be able to order off a menu but turns out everyone gets the same 5 courses that they customize each day. I was a little relieved because I could put away my google translator and I didn't have to worry about pronouncing things I've never heard of. It was kind of an adventure for my picky self, but it was goood.

Although, "fancy food" may not be my first choice, I do LOVE trying all the interesting flavor combinations and I have to say the Forage had great sauces and flavor combos in all the dishes.

There is something you may not know about me, I am NOT a fish person. But it's really because I dont like the way it smells, I've only ever eaten tiny bites at a time. Since, I didnt get to order I got a couple fish dishes, and I'm proud to say I ate more fish than I've ever had before ....and... it was pretty good.

During dinner Jake surprised me with a gorgeous necklace and... I CRIED. hahaha...never took myself as the crying in a public restaurant type, but surprise--I am. He is the best.

Dessert was by far the best part. Oh my, that top picture is of homemade ice cream with a cherry caramel sauce that was TO DIE FOR. I wanted to go back into that kitchen and steal the rest of it and take it home with me. But I was pretending to be classy so I decided against it.

We had so much fun celebrating our one year eating food and talking about all the places we want to travel someday.

Not sure if I should even show my gift because I spent about $10 and it kinda doesn't compare to my husbands shocker, but oh well. I made a little photo album for our "first" anniversary with pictures of all our "firsts" {like location of our first kiss, first date, first valentines day, etc.}.

Happy anniversary Jake!