Category Archives: places

Ten Years!

We celebrated a milestone last month! Ten years as husband and wife! It’s hard to believe we’ve been married that long, but I think it’s even harder to believe we’re old enough to be married that long! Jeez, I still feel like I just graduated from college!

We spent three glorious days child free (thank you Nana and Grandpa) in Bellingham, our college town, and the place where we started out as a married couple. We gazed at the ocean, ate delicious food, visited with good friends, and toured as many of our old stomping grounds as we could. We also visited the farmer’s market, window shopped in antique stores, took a guided tour of the oldest brick building in Washington, jogged around Lake Padden, and bought basil for our garden. It flew by, and we had a terrific time. It was so nice to get some time together, just the two of us!

Us on campus
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The Ridge. Jonathan’s Omega on the left, my Delta on the right. See the window on the top story of the building on the left? That’s where we met on our first night in the dorms, before classes even started, at Andre’s margarita party. I was sitting on a couch with  my girlfriends when Jonathan walked in with his roommate, and that’s how it all began!
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Jonathan outside his dorm
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On the bench between our dorms. We spent a lot of time here Freshman year.
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Outside my dorm
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The building was unlocked and I got inside my old room!
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This is where we went for Tuesday night parties at Chestnut and High
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My old digs on Garden St.
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Jonathan’s place on Otis St.
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Another one of my old digs
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One of our college watering holes, The Up & Up
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Another watering hole. I worked here for a while. Back then it was “Christo’s Club.”
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My place on High St.
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Our first place as husband and wife, also on High St.
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Our first house
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The first house we looked at when we were looking to buy our first home. You can only sort of tell from the picture, but it’s lime green! And pretty ghetto inside. I cried and told Jonathan I’d rather just keep renting. We will forever remember this house. 🙂
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My gift from Jonathan, wrapped in tin foil (tin is the ten year anniversary gift).
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I gave Jonathan a “date night” shirt for our anniversary. Turns out, it was too flaming/busy for him. We found this Buddha statue at a garden store, and it became the replacement gift.
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At Boundary Bay Brewery
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The house on Ellis St. Where Death Cab for Cutie wrote their hit music
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The oldest brick building in Washington State.
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We went on a double date at The Oyster Bar with our friends, Ray and Betty. These lovebirds celebrated 64 years a few days before our anniversary!
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Us at our anniversary lodging
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What better way to end a trip than visiting my bestie, Caroline, and her beautiful newborn, Ethan, in the hospital?!
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The day we celebrated:
Wedding

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Excelsior Camping Trip

In August, Jonathan and the boys (well, two of them anyway) went camping with a few (about fifty) friends from Bellingham. My boys love the outdoors, and they had a terrific time, no surprise there! Meanwhile Silas and I enjoyed the relative peace at home. I even had time to begin a massive kitchen cabinet project. Pictures to come once it’s complete.

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Here’s Silas trying to sneak away with them. I don’t know why Jonathan didn’t want to take him too. 😉
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Jonathan’s coworker, Tonya, and her family
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Jonathan’s coworker, Andy, and his family
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Jonathan and our tired/hot/thirsty boys
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Canoeing at Silver Lake
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On the way home, Jonathan swung by WWU with the boys. He took them to red square.
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Texas

Another fun trip to Texas in the books. There are a ton of pictures, so I’ll keep this short and just say we had a blast as usual!

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Avery made a ton of progress in the pool on this visit. Nicole taught him to dive to the bottom of the deep end. They spent a lot of time over there fetching dive sticks!

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Volleyball!
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When Jonathan gets in the pool, he has his work cut out for him! The kids love being blasted off his shoulders into the pool.
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Kieron got more comfortable jumping and swimming to encouraging arms
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Love this grin!
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The kid table
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Silas loved being dunked!
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At In-N-Out Burger
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No, he would not eat a burger. :/
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Cute sleeping baby photo
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At the park
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Me and my mama
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Right before we left for the airport, each of the kids got a ride in Papa’s convertible. This was a big hit!
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Nicole flew home with us. Here’s the kids studying the emergency manuals.
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And here they are by the time we landed. They were all very good, but Silas never did fall asleep. Glad that flight is behind us!
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Boys Camping Trip

In June, Jonathan and the boys went camping on what has become an annual father/kid excursion with a few of his buddies from work. This year they camped at Shaw Island, in the San Juans. They had a fabulous time! I’ll let the pictures tell the story:

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On the ferry
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Beth grinding coffee
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Kieron found a caterpillar
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Costco chocolate chip cookies, nom nom nom
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Water fight!
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We Moved!

I didn’t want to say anything until it was all said and done, but we moved (YAY)! We had an offer pending on a short sale in the neighborhood since January, and it finally all paid off when we moved in at the end of May. Our new home is just a block away from where we rented for the past two years. Same great neighborhood, same fabulous neighbors, same school and bus route – and no goodbyes!

It’s been a busy few weeks – packing and unpacking, patching holes and hanging stuff, mowing, weeding, pressure washing, etc. We’re pretty settled at this point, and are enjoying the new digs.

Casa de la King
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Avery’s moving advent calendar
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Playing in the back yard
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Strawberries! (Or as the boys call them, stwabewries)
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A water bottle sure makes a great toy
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Nana and Grandpa came to help out (can’t say Si helped much)
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Playdate with Hayden
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Salmonberries
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Our favorite thing about the new house: the woods in the back yard
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As the boys say, “our house leads to the wild!”
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