I have Dahlias!

My Dahlias have just bloomed! I planted these little boogers back in April in a few large pots.. kind of as an experiment because I wanted to have pretty flowers around.. definitely didn't know how tall they would grow when we bought them on a whim at Costco! They grew like weeds as soon as it started warming up --like 3 feet-- I thought they would never bloom but now they are and it's so fun to come home to pretty bright yellow flowers everyday!!





I hope your day is brightened!

Best Anniversary Yet

Last night Garrett and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary at one of our favorite restaurants Anthony's Home Port. We love it because it's right on the Kirkland waterfront so there is always a great view! And the food is always delicious! See here is the amazing view from our table!


Well last night I noticed that they print a different menu every day with the date printed on the top. So after ordering, I asked our server if we could keep a copy of today's menu and explained that it was our 2nd wedding anniversary and I would love something with the date on it as a keepsake. She first looked at me like I was a nut job and then politely obliged! I guess people don't ask to keep their menus on a daily basis!

We went on to have a very romantic dinner together that was delicious! I had the best Ahi tuna I have ever eaten in my life and Garrett had Ling Cod stuffed with crab that was also yummy! Then for dessert I ordered a Burnt Cream--as they call it on their menu, personally, I think creme brulee sounds much more appetizing but that could be a new post all together-- and Garrett ordered their seasonal berry homemade cheesecake (it is prime berry season here in the Pacific Northwest). When they brought out our desserts our server put candles shaped like hearts in each of our desserts! Awww so sweet and a such a great way to end our evening! I just had to blog about it and share! Oh AND to top it all off our server gave us a sweet card and a gift certificate for an appetizer on our next visit! Can't wait to go back! Best anniversary yet!

Garrett with our YUMMY desserts with candles!

Creme Brulee = heaven for this gal

Menu with July 29, 2008 and sweet card with fishes kissing!

Fat & Happy Newlyweds (?are we still newlyweds?)

Happy 2nd Wedding Anniversary Garrett!

Garrett, I can't believe it's been 2 years since our beautiful wedding day! How do I begin to tell you how lucky I am to have you in my life? I'll start by saying what an honor it is for me to be your wife. You're my best friend in the good times and my rock in times of sorrow. You're the reason for sweet yesterdays and my promise for tomorrow. I never thought I could feel this loved until I became your wife. You made these past couple years the best ones in my life! Thank you for loving me!

Here is a quote that we had printed on our wedding programs:

Love
By Ray Croft

I love you, not only for what you are,
But for what I am when I am with you.

I love you, not only for what you have made of yourself,
But for what you are making of me.

Some pictures throughout the years:

Happiest day of my life!
July 29, 2006


Revisiting 'Our' Chapel almost a year later!
July 4, 2007

Celebrating our 1st Anniversary!
July 29, 2007



Revisiting 'Our' Chapel almost 2 years later!
May 2008

Beach house
July 26, 2008

Lyrics to one of our favorite songs:

Better Together

By Jack Johnson

There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart,
our dreams, and they are made out of real things
like a shoebox of photographs
with sepia-toned loving

Love is the answer
at least for most of the questions in my heart, like
Why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together.

Favorite memories from our wedding day:

• Seeing my handsome husband for the first time, which I will never ever forget!
  
• Having breakfast and getting dressed with my maids!
• Walking into the reception with Garrett and realizing (I had a real AHH moment) that these are all of the most important loved ones in our lives and they were all here for us!
• My hair :)
  
• After the ceremony (before walking into the reception) my Dad revealing that he spilled COFFEE on my wedding dress two days before our wedding but managed to remove the stain!
• The sunset
  
• Right when the preacher said 'you may now kiss your bride' there was a loud crash of thunder and lightning -- I took it as God was blessing our marriage!
• Singing 'Going to the Chapel and We're Gonna Get Married' in the bus, with my maids, on the way to the CHAPEL to get MARRIED!!!

These are just a few amazing memories from our fabulous wedding day! There are many many more that I could list but I won't bore you any longer!

Happy Anniversary Garrett! I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH!

Weekend Warriors

Garrett and I have been quite the weekend warriors lately. We are loving the freedom that comes with not having pets or babies yet and we have totally taken full advantage of this our first couple of years of marriage! So this weekend we were able to get Garrett's grandparents beach house on Hood Canal it is one of our favorite spots so we were ecstatic to get the opportunity to go! On Friday, we took the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island and boy was it a beautiful evening with some amazing views of Seattle! Did you know Washington State has the largest ferry system in the US and third largest in the world? Learn something new everyday don't ya! And on Saturday we read, relaxed in the sun, and of course played some boccie ball! Then we cooked a surf n turf meal of steak and crab with fresh corn on the cob and potatoes! It was a delicious treat to have crab! We had an awesome weekend and feel really blessed to be able to visit such a beautiful beach house!

Being silly.. waiting for the ferry!

Seattle Skyline

On the ferry!

Trying to be artsy photographer!

Yummm Crab!

Cutie husband :)

Awesome weekend at the beach house for these two!

Summer reading

Nothing says summer or beach book to me like a good 'chick lit' novel! I know I know how cliche but I just absolutely love 'chick lit' and I LOVE lauren weisberger... I think I have read every one of her books! She has this amazing ability to take you out of yourself for a while and escape into the lives of her characters.


I am currently reading her new novel Chasing Harry Winston and really enjoying it! It is a story of three friends living fabulous lives.. pretty, young, up-and-coming New Yorkers... who, approaching thirty, are not sure if they like what they see in themselves and make a pact to drastically change their lives within a year. I'm about half way through and so far so good & scandalous! ;) Happy summer reading!

Camping Fun

Almost every year since Garrett was little his parents and grandparents (on his Mom's side) head over the North Cascades scenic highway for a week of camping fun at Pearrygin Lake State Park in Winthrop, WA. This year Garrett and I were able to join them for a few days and we had a blast!

On Saturday morning we met the Kelly's and the Rinta's at the Twisp Market--this is one of my favorite things to do when are there!--we walked around, had a breakfast egg roll and an elephant ear (for those of you southerners out there it's pretty much a funnel cake!) yum , drank some lavender lemonade (weirdest combo ever), and bought some fresh apricots to snack on and green beans to cook for dinner! I just love love going to the market because my Mom used to always take us to the Farmers Market in downtown Birmingham when we were little! Its just so exciting with all the different smells, tastes and guaranteed freshness! Anyway, we headed to the state park and got everything unpacked and the trailer and tents set up with only a minor issue - a bee stung the top of my head OUCH! But I survived! Then we relaxed, ate dinner, told stories, played a card game called golf then went to bed!

Sunday Garrett, Gregg and Arnie went into town to play 18 holes of golf while the ladies and Mike slept in, ate breakfast and headed to the beach for some sunshine! We relaxed the day away, had a nice lunch on the beach and in the late afternoon played some boccie ball and ladderball (funnest game ever..hard to explain.. click the link!) then ate dinner!

We woke up the next morning enjoyed some of Mike's famous blueberry pancakes and more beach and family time then headed home. It was nice being able to spend so much quality time with Garrett's family.. usually we only visit for a couple hours then head home so we were glad to hang out for a few days! Here are a few pictures from our weekend of camping fun.. Enjoy!

Chef Garrett grillin the kielbasas!

Pearrygin Lake is one of the first places Garrett took me when we
first started dating and I automatically fell in love with it!

Garrett, Sandy, Me, Gregg, Phylis and Arnie enjoying lunch!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

A couple weeks ago Garrett and I went to a Mariner's game with some friends! I love watching baseball on a hot summer day!

Go M's!

Justin & Laura's Wedding

Last weekend we went to our friends Justin and Laura's wedding at Snoqualmie Ridge Golf Club, TPC and boy was it beautiful! Justin is another one of Garrett's fraturnity brothers from WSU and great friend. His wife Laura is hysterical and always a pleasure to be around! They were really creative in the planning process of their wedding and utilized family and friends as resources. Laura's sister made their wedding cake and it was so moist and yummy! All her cousin's did the music during the ceremony, his mom created the table decor, and their friends did the invitations. They are so lucky to have such talented friends and family!

Here are some photos from their fun wedding!

Breathtaking view of Mt Si at the ceremony

The beautiful bride and her mama!

Bridesmaids Bouquet were so gorgeous.. the maids wore chocolate dresses so the color of the hydrangeas really popped!

Garrett and I after the ceremony!

Brian and Sara after the ceremony!


Close up of us!

Shane and Steph being cute!

A Tale of Two Tomato Plants

Once upon a time there lived a very sweet mother in law who put together two pots full of tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, and chives as a gift for her daughter in law. The daughter in law was extremely grateful and placed them side by side on her back porch and took very special care of them, watering and feeding them as needed. A few weeks passed and the daughter in law realized that one of the tomato plants was flourishing while the other tomato plant looked like it had seen better days. She had no idea what she had been doing wrong since the plants were the exact same, soil, sunlight, watering, everything!

Awesome tomato plant...

Not so awesome tomato plant... Why?!

At least my petunias are doing good! :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

The Fourth

We had a nice and relaxing fourth of July at Garrett's grandparents Beach house. Mike and Sandy decided to go last minute and invited us to come along.. of course we said yes! We never pass up an opportunity to go to the beach house it's one of our favorite places to visit! It was a fun day filled with a few games of boccie ball, fireworks and even some crafts!

Relaxing on the deck!

I found these cute patriotic do-it-yourself drink stirrers on a blog that I read.. all you had to do was print, cut, and attach to a skewer! Somehow I convinced Garrett to help me!

The final product.. they turned out so cute!

Melis and I drinking mojitos with our patriotic homemade stirrers!

Sandy loving on little miss Abbie!

The beach was jam packed with campfires and families shooting off fireworks!
(Sandy and I about had a panic attack at first.. but we were rest assured when we realized that we had nurse Melissa and firefighter Stephen in our presence!)

Mike watching the fireworks and enjoying a cigar!

Garrett and I hanging out by the fire!

IRONMAN 70.3 continued...

On race day, Garrett started his morning very early, around 4:30AM, so that he could be on time and ready for his 6:35AM start time. He said his nerves have never been so bad before a race! Garrett has run several marathons, half-marathons and a sprint triathlon but this was his first Ironman 70.3 triathlon so he didn't quite know what to expect. But he was very prepared and ready to take on the challenge!

Here are some pictures of Garrett's race and post race

And they're off.. they look like a school of fish!

Garrett's transition area.. this is where he changed his shoes and equipment between each event

Garrett's bike all ready to go (the yellow one)

Getting his helmet on

Leaving the transition area for the 56 mile bike

Driving by on his bike!

Coming in to the transition area to get ready for the run

Giving me a smile :)

Starting the 13.1 mile run.. a bit wobbly after the long bike ride


Trying to get a high five

FINISH LINE 70.3 MILES LATER!!

So proud of my Ironman :)

Garrett and Mike after the race! Mike is Garrett's fraturnity brother and friend

Garrett and I with Mike and Jodi

Celebrating after Garrett finished the race!

Heading home after a long day... I love this one!

While Garrett was on his bike Mike, Sandy and I had a few hours to explore... here we are at the finish line

And me pretending to be an Ironman!

I cannot express how extremely proud and elated I am of Garrett's accomplishment! He worked very hard and put so much effort into this race. He persevered during the race with an ankle that was only about 60 to 65% healthy (we will see when he gets it checked out by a doctor later this week) but was bound and determined to cross that finish line and he did!

I am proud to call him my husband and friend!

Thanks to all of you who have supported and encouraged him throughout his training!

Edited to Add: After the race Garrett was looking at his shoes and realized that the person who sold him his shoes had left an orthodic insole in one of the shoes. Therefore the whole time he was training for this event one shoe had an orthodic insole and one did not. Needless to say, we think this was the root cause of his ankle injury.