Look what I found...

I always have so much fun looking at the Christmas ornaments from over the years. Both of our parents have given us a bunch of ornaments from childhood, and I love opening the box each year and thinking back on all the memories they hold.

 

Luke tends to tell me the same story about each ornament year after year... it's the sentimental side in him :) I took a picture of one of my favorites. He tells me each year that he made the ornament, cut the metal out himself. I love the picture...and it dawned on me that he pretty much makes the exact same face today as he did then. You decide...



Regardless, I think it's still pretty darn cute.

 

(And yes Luke, this is what you get when you leave the blog in the hands of your wife...)

Holiday Cheer!

So, since we spent that last two holiday seasons in our tiny Chicago apartment with not much space to decorate - we decided to fill our new Seattle apartment with lots of holiday cheer, this year. We have a nice mantle over our fire place (which is electric, by the way... sigh). Of course, Luke has outfitted the entire apartment in white Christmas lights, but here's what I came up with!

I had the red vase already, so I moved it to the mantle for a pop of color. I picked up the Christmas tree at Crate & Barrel, and the little owl from Target (I think he's so cute!). I shopped around for a bundle of sticks to use in the vase, but they were all too expensive. So, while Luke and I were out cutting down our Christmas tree last week, I picked up some sticks (literally), and Luke kindly spray painted them silver for me. I LOVE them!

 

The "H" is a permanent piece up on our mantle, but I added the gold circular votive holder, which was leftover from our wedding centerpieces, and then I picked up the holiday snowflake votive holder from Crate & Barrel to complete the look.

 

I've since moved the tree to the left side to balance it out a bit more, and now it's just perfect.

 

And here are our stockings, which we've been using each year that we've been married. It's hard to believe this is our 5th Christmas as the Hills :)

Happy holidays, everyone! Hope you're filling your home with holiday cheer too!

Thankful

This is a bit of a belated Thanksgiving post, but here it is nonetheless! We weren't able to travel back to Minnesota for the Thanksgiving holiday, so our friends John and Elise invited us to her parents' house on Whidbey Island. We took the scenic route there and stopped at Deception Pass to hike around. It's a beautiful view...

For some reason, Luke always has to show his muscles...

As you can see, it was a little more challenging for me to get down than Luke. Good thing Elise was there to document the whole situation.

Victory!

So thankful for my amazing husband, my family, friends and all the many blessings in our life.

Something to make you smile...

I wrote about Nick, Sarah and Claire's visit to Seattle a few weeks ago. However, I failed to include these two amazing pictures. Hopefully these brighten your day :)

 

 

Claire decided to model Luke's old glasses. Yes, he actually wore these. We figured she was getting a bit dizzy with how strong his prescription is... This photo makes me laugh every time I see it.

 

This is a shot from our epic game of hide-and-go-seek. Luke pretended he didn't see her and laid down on top of the pillows. However, that was a bit too scary and after that, the game was over. But, I still think this picture is pretty great.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

The holiday season has arrived! This year we are excited to announce that we have graduated to a real Christmas tree. We've never been able to have a real one since we've been married - so we went for the real deal this year. Yes, we cut our own tree down off of a mountain.

In Washington, you can buy a permit to cut down a tree anywhere in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, so that's exactly what we did. I mentioned the idea of going to a nice tree farm to cut one down. I mean, namely it was the idea of sipping cocoa afterwards that made it so appealing. But Luke took it to the next level (as usual) and we found ourself driving an hour and a half out of the city to get our beloved Christmas tree on Friday afternoon in the pouring rain. 

We thought that the forest would be full of those lush, green Douglas Firs that come to mind when thinking of Christmas trees. But, we soon realized that we were not going to find that exactly. A lot of the trees are only full on one side, where the light hits. 

Meandering through the woods... 

Luke's tools... which, I may have left on the top of the mountain. We didn't realize until we were 20 minutes down the mountain that they were still up there. I promised to buy him new ones :)

Searching for our tree. 

After searching for well over an hour, we found our perfect tree. It may not be what we had thought we would find, but it is perfect to us! 

After we got it home, we realized it was a little too tall. 

A man and his tree. 

It may resemble more of a shrub, but we love it :) Merry Christmas, everyone!

Uncle Luke

Last weekend we got a visit from Luke's sister Sarah, her husband Nick and our niece, Claire. Claire just turned two and is one of the smartest, spunkiest, liveliest little gals I know.

Since we've been out here, we've been able to see them every couple of months since they live about three hours away in Oregon. And let's just say, the first couple of times, Claire wasn't so sure about Uncle Luke. But she has warmed up to him over time - especially since he shared his drawer of toys with her last time she was here. FYI - Luke's drawer of toys includes things like airsoft guns, flashlights, bungee cords and a little plastic horse that neighs when you press it (a stocking stuffer he gave me a few years ago that continues to make its way across the country with us...)

I babysat Claire on Sunday afternoon while Nick and Sarah went to the Vikings/Seahawks game. When she woke up from her nap, Luke was gone at work and she kept asking where he was. So I took this video of her saying goodbye to him :)

She went to the window to look for him outside, I'm pretty sure. So sweet. Thanks for visiting Rossis, we can't wait to see you again soon!

Balance

We could all use a little more balance in our lives, right? Well, if you answered yes, you should read my article :)

The funny thing about this was that I interviewed Dr. Verna (who the article is about) at 7:30 a.m. I had just woken up and was sitting there - a little groggy - with my coffee, starting my day off with a phone interview. Well, if you read the article, you'll find that she's a motivational speaker. After talking to her for about an hour, I decided that I would like to start every day out by talking to a motivational speaker. She was great - very honest and inspiring. So, I hope that you enjoy the article as much as I enjoyed talking to her!

Keeping the Balance

(page 22)

And the Friends Keep Comin'...

Luke and I are so lucky. Not only do we have an amazing community of friends out here in Seattle already - but they just seem to keep coming!

One of my very best friends, Amanda, and her husband Travis recently moved out to Seattle for a new adventure. I've known Amanda since high school and feel blessed that we have gotten to share so many different experiences and seasons of life together since then. 

Here's a snapshot of the day we spent with them a couple of weekends ago (yes, Amanda, I sniped this from your blog!). We did one of our favorite hikes - Lake 22. It was pretty foggy at the top, but as we sat and ate lunch, the fog started to clear around us and all of a sudden the beautiful mountain lake emerged in front of us. It was awesome.

We are so glad to have such great friends here. We are lucky, indeed.

Fun with the Parents

I've been meaning to post about my parents' visit for a while now - since they were here at the end of September! We had a great time hanging out and doing Seattle stuff.

We made sure that they got to soak up some of the major Seattle attractions:

1. THEO Chocolate. We took a tour of this local eco-friendly chocolate factory - and enjoyed lots of samples along the way.
2. Dick's burgers. This local drive-up burger place is a staple in Seattle. Though I cannot attest to the burgers, everyone who tries them has good things to say!
3. Kerry Park. This is probably the most famous view of Seattle. You can see the sound, the city, the Space Needle and on a clear day, Mt. Ranier in the background.
4. Parson's Garden. I took my parents to the garden where Luke proposed to me. Love that place :)
5. The Ballard Locks. This is where the boats transfer between the fresh water of Lake Union and the salt water of the Puget Sound. It's pretty amazing to see them transfer some gigantic boats between the two water levels. 

And of course, we made it to Pike's Place Market. It was a sunny, beautiful afternoon and we had a great time seeing the sights and gawking at the beautiful flowers there. Even though I've been there a dozen times or more - it never gets old.

So glad my parents were able to come visit and see our life here!

Welcome, Fall...

Fall has arrived here in the Northwest. We have soaked up every last bit of sunshine that we could and are now trying to fully embrace the next few months of drizzle. Last weekend we spent our Sunday hiking and then made a stop at the pumpkin patch.

Here are some pictures from our climb up Mt. Pilchuck. It was absolutely perfect weather and completely clear once we got to the top.

Are we there yet?

View from the top

After our hike, we went to Bob's Pumpkin Patch in Snohomish for a snack and more fall fun! We did the corn maze - finishing in a mere 45 minutes, with the help of a map. And we picked out a pumpkin to bring home.

Hope you are enjoying the Fall weather too!

More business!

Here's my latest piece for the October issue of Minnesota Business Magazine - enjoy!

(flip to page 21 to find my article)

To the Salish Lodge we go!

For a little late anniversary getaway, Luke and I went to the Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie to celebrate. It's a beautiful resort and spa that I've been wanting to go to ever since we moved back. It's just far enough outside the city that you feel like you're away, but still only a 30-minute drive or so. We spent the afternoon exploring Snoqualmie falls and walking into town. And then we had the most amazing dinner at the restaurant at the lodge. It was delicious!

Exploring the falls!

Luke found some old trains on our walk. And in true Luke fashion, he climbed over the fence and into the train cars... However, as many of you know, he does have some experience in the area of climbing on trains he's not supposed to. (And riding them, for that matter.)

The river that goes into the falls

The falls! In the spring they are even bigger, supposedly. That's the Salish Lodge in the corner.

The next morning, we woke up and went to breakfast. I had been anticipating this breakfast for quite some time, as it's supposed to be amazing. We both went for it and ordered the four-course country breakfast. Look at this menu and you'll see what a task we had undertaken:

Unfortunately, we came nowhere NEAR finishing all of this. We slowed down significantly around course #3. But it was all so delicious - I doubt we will ever have a better breakfast!

This is Luke's full face as he takes on course #4. 

It was a great 24-hour getaway and I am just so thankful for my wonderful husband!

We love visitors!

Last week we had Luke's parents in town for a visit. To celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary, they road-tripped out to the West Coast, all the way from Wells, Minnesota. Luke's sister, brother-in-law and our niece, Claire, also made it to Seattle for some family time. It was great to all be together and we couldn't have asked for better weather to enjoy while they were here.

The first night they were here we went to Ivar's Salmon House for dinner on Lake Union. It was a beautiful night, so we sat on the deck overlooking Lake Union. Then we went to watch the sunset at Golden Gardens!

 Steve and Lisa enjoying the view!

Gotta love those mountains.

On Friday night, we went to the Bell Street Diner for dinner downtown on the pier. This is actually the restaurant that Luke and I went to the night that we got engaged (before he proposed). Again, another beautiful night sky - so we couldn't resist the photo opp!

That's Luke's game face. I have no game face to speak of...

And somehow, this is the only picture I have of Claire from the weekend. We are sorely lacking in the area of kid toys at our house - so Luke shared with her. However, the air soft guns weren't quite age appropriate. But she did take a liking to this container of ear plugs he gave her!

Thanks for visiting everyone - we were so glad that you came!!

Love from the Homeland

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been awhile since my last post. But, we've been busy traveling to Minnesota and then hosting Luke's family here in Seattle. But things are finally back to normal, so I have a chance to sit down and post :)

We had a great time at home as we always do. It was so fun to see people and enjoy those hot summer days that we've been missing so much here in the Pacific Northwest. We hadn't been home since we passed through on our road trip out to Seattle in January, so it was a much needed visit.

We actually flew out to Minnesota on our FOURTH (yes, that's right) wedding anniversary! We had a romantic meal at the airport, so that was nice. And my mom even got us cupcakes from the bakery where we got our wedding cake for dessert that night.

We were also able to make a trip to Noerenberg Gardens where we got married. For those of you who were at the wedding, it was just as hot the day we visited and I started having flashbacks of Luke sweating while we were standing there during the ceremony. I remember thinking: "Is he crying or are those beads of sweat dripping down his face?"

Four years!!

Other than that, we got to see lots of friends and family, which was so good. Luke got to go fishing and we even made it to a friend's wedding. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty perfect trip :)

Until next time, Minnesota!

Down to Business

Here's my September feature article for Minnesota Business Magazine. Loved writing this one - enjoy! (FYI - it's on pg. 30 in the digital edition)

The Business of Education

Twins (don't) Win...

The Twins are here!!

We went Friday night and had a glorious time with our favorite team in town. We bought left field bleacher seats, but per usual, Luke insisted that we move down and sit in seats that are NOT our own. Now, I'm all for better viewing, but it makes my stomach turn at the thought of getting caught by A.) the rightful people that actually bought tickets for the seats or maybe worse B.) the people in turquoise polo shirts that guard the sections like hawks, just looking to swoop in on seat stealers like us. After one failed attempt to walk down the aisle without the section guard looking in which I froze and wouldn't move (and then got a scolding from Luke), we took another stab at it. However, the lady guarding the section saw us from ACROSS about 10 rows and walked all the way over to our seats to check our (incorrect) tickets.

This is how the conversation went (mind you, I had my head down the whole time):

Lady: Can I see your tickets?
Luke: (Rummaging in his pockets) Sure, where's my ticket? I know it's here somewhere. (And he is definitely trying to charm her the entire time). Oh, here it is! Row 187 right?
Lady: No. Nice try. It's up THERE (points to highest row in the stadium).

Busted. Then we began our shameful walk back up the stairs. My fears had been realized.

As we walked out of the section, some random guy had been watching the whole scenario play out. He grabbed our attention when we got up to the top of the stairs and told us to try two sections over, where the guy wasn't checking tickets. "Why do you think it's so full?" he said.

And so we did. And we didn't get checked. And here was our view. Phew!