Engagement Party

We are having an engagement party on September 23rd. These will be going in the mail shortly. Yay!!!

Sara Bareilles Concert

Nik surprised me with tickets to the Sara Bareilles concert this week. We haven't really seen any concerts together (except Alison Krause which we don't count because we couldn't see her). He knew I had a big week ahead and he wanted to start my week off right. The concert was at the Arlene Schnizter Theater. A very popular place for shows in town.

She has an amazing voice

Both Joshua Radin (the opener) and Sara played wonderfully. She was very creative with the show too. At one point she brought up an audience member and had him play the piano while she sang. Then she invited a few other people on stage to sing. For another song they left the stage and went up on the balcony and sang with no microphones. It was impressive.

Joshua Radin

Sara up in the balcony with her band rocking out

Nik bought great seats and we enjoyed every minute of it. 

Thanks Nik for the great time. I love you!

Seattle Weekend

Me, Nik, Sara and Danny at Pike's Place

I have been in Portland for almost a year and a half and I have not been to Seattle yet. I lived in Seattle for 8 months right out of high school and since I left in 2000, I have not been back. So finally taking the trip to the Emerald City was long over due. Our friends (Danny and Sara) invited us up for the weekend of some city time and spending some time on the Pudget Sound at Danny's family cabin. We went to Pike's Place, ran around Greenlake, crabbed, dug for clams and I remeniced about the old times when I lived in the city. 

Sara and I getting ready for our ferry trip

View from the Bainbridge Ferry of Seattle

After we arrived at Bainbridge Island we drove about 45 minutes North to the tip of a peninsula near Point No Point. Danny's family has had a cabin there for most of his life and he has many great memories of doing all the fun things he and his dad showed us how to do. The view from the cabin faced the Olympic Mountains. When we could see them they were pretty spectacular, but most of the time they were stuck in the clouds. 

Crabbing in the dingy

3 Dungeness Crabs

Nik, Wanda and I enjoying our crab

digging for clams

starfish and sand dollars were plentiful

There were thousands of live sand dollars all over the beach during low tide. We walked around exploring the small tide pools. Crabs, sand dollars, starfish, clams, oysters were just a few. 

Nik's outfit for the weekend

 It wasn't exactly warm and the weather was crummy, but we didn't really notice. We enjoyed ourselves anyway. We had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed spending time with good friends. Danny's parents took good care of us at the cabin. They made all the meals and kept us busy the entire time. They were so sweet and made us feel so welcome. 

Mt. Adams Climb (written by Nik)

I know it may seem odd to be skiing during the month of July in the Northern Hemisphere, but I thought I would share some photos with all of you from the climb and ski of Mount Adams, Washington that I did this past Saturday with my neighbor Dillon and his friends. He was able to take some great photos of the climb up to the top, and decent on our skis of the south chutes.

Erin and I climbed part of Mount Saint Helen's about a month ago, and since then, I have been itching to go to Mount Adams because Dillon kept talking about how great and hard it was.

We started at the trail head at 4:30a.m./3,500 feet and I reached the south summit at 12:30p.m./11,500 feet. It was an extremely hard climb and once I hit about 10,000 feet the elevation started to ware me out. (I don't have those high desert Lungs like I did as a kid) None the less, we made it to the top of the chutes on the south summit and the skiing was amazing. It was very cold and windy, but it was pure and perfect spring corn, and we enjoyed every turn.

Climbing nearly 8,000 feet in a day was a pretty awesome feat, and I can say that it was certainly one of the most challenging things I have every done, especially with a 35 pound bag on my back that had all my water, food, boots and skis!

Near 5,000 feet at sunrise. Looking at the top you can see the sun hitting the eastern side.

Already getting a good workout, we still had 6,500 feet to go.

A great view of Mount Hood to the South.

Spring Corn at its finest. Softening up as we moved along.

A great view of Mount St. Helens to the west as we reached the lunch table at about 6,000 feet.

We've got out work cut out for us!

Getting up there and still climbing.

5 steps up, one minute of hard breathing as we approach 11,000 feet.

I finally made it to the top in 8 hours. 11,500 feet. Long day at work and I was out of breath!

My neighbor Dillon and I at the South (False) Summit at 11,500 feet. Notice Mt. Hood in between us. We are about 250 feet above the peak of Hood.

Finally the Decent. (Yes that is me:) That is what they call "Earning your turns!" Notice Mount St. Helens in the backdrop.

One more just for the heck of it!

Portland Timbers

Our friends the Griffin's invited us to one of the Timbers games in Portland a few nights ago. The Timbers are a soccer team that went pro this year. The stadium they play in used to house the Portland Beavers (baseball), but on the condition that the Timbers went pro they wanted the stadium to themselves. Nik was heart broken, because now there is no Portland AAA baseball, but the town is crazy over the Timbers. All of a sudden Portland is this huge soccer town. Personally, I do get it. I have never really liked soccer, but because we were invited and we hadn't seen our friend's in quite some time, we couldn't turn them down. And, one of their best players actually lives in our building (Cooper), so I had to see what this guy was made of.

The updated soccer stadium actually looked really nice and I had a great time catching up with Jessamyn, Dan and their 13 month old son, Ewan. We had one of the best seats in the house, in a sky box just off the corner of the field.

An American 4th

Nik, Wanda and I took the trip out to Sun Valley this past weekend for the 4th of July. Sarah and Zach kept us nice and busy from the moment we got there on Thursday to the time we left on Tuesday. We hiked, ran, waterskied, went to the rodeo, saw Alison Krause in concert, watched the 4th of July parade, ate hotdogs, had potato sack races, watched the fireworks and best of all got to spend time with our new little nephew the Dax Man. Dax is so precious and sweet. He is already laughing and smiling.

Sarah working on Dax's neck muscles

Spending quality time

Our hike up Proctor

Allison Krause Concert. The boys were so nice to bring us dinner. 

Riding bikes around town was a good way to get around

Sarah waterskiing on Pettit Lake

Me getting in some turns.

Nik enjoying the sun on the beautiful mountain lake

Hailey Rodeo. 

4th of July Parade.  Zach and Dax enjoying the shade and the parade.

Nik hanging with the girls (Wanda and Lucy)

Nik attempting to slack line. We all had a go and it was so hard to balance.

Potato sack races. Only in Idaho!!

The beautiful family we already miss so much!!!

Thanks for everything Latham's. We had so much fun and look forward to the next time we see each other. You guys really know how to host a couple of guests.