Monday, July 29, 2013

Luke Goes to Disneyland

Many of you may not know this, but Luke has been adamantly opposed to visiting Disneyland (ahem, the happiest place on earth!) ever since I've known him. He thinks it's for kids. Now, it is for kids - but it's also JUST as fun for adults. And anyone who knows Luke knows that he is really just a big kid at heart, anyways. 

Our friends John and Elise (a.k.a. the Ingrams) are major Disney lovers. I mean, they go every year and stay in the park from open until close and ride every ride as many times as possible. That's how much they love Disneyland. So, since they knew I had been trying to convince Luke to go for quite some time, John created a little bet over a bowling match. What was Luke's penalty for losing? You guessed it, a trip to Disneyland! Lucky for me, the Disney magic was in my favor that night and Luke lost by a measly couple of points. Which meant a trip to Disneyland for all of us! It was technically in honor of my birthday, I guess; but, I really just wanted Luke to experience the happiest place on earth.

We took a three-day trip to Disneyland and California Adventure the weekend after my birthday, and it turned out to be everything I had hoped for! And it was especially fun to see the look on Luke's face as he figured out what we were all talking about :)



Minnie is my favorite!


Ready for some rides!


Luke and me in Cars Land!


Cars Land! You feel like you are a part of the movie it's so realistic.

We also got to see my best friend Miyong and her fiance, Adam. They live in Los Angeles and drove down to hang out with us for a night. One of the compromises of this trip was that Luke got to see a baseball game at the Anaheim Angels field. Miyong and Adam joined us and we had a great time. There were even fireworks after the game - a nice surprise for me, being a fireworks affacionado and all.


Miyong and I at the game... which we mostly talked the whole way through :)

The next morning we were up bright and early for another day at the parks! (Elise runs a tight ship and you are required to be out the door and at the park shuttle by 7:40 - or else!)


Magic Kingdom and coffee in the morning - what could be better?


Elise and me on the Dumbo ride!


Someone's got some muscles...


Watch out, everyone! Cait's at the wheel!

Elise, Pluto, and me!


Strike a pose (or scream) for Space Mountain!


John and I sat this one out. That's Elise and Luke in the second row of seats. Have fun, guys!

Later that day, we got wind that Johnny Depp was going to be at California Adventure park for the movie premiere of The Lone Ranger. If you aren't aware, Johnny Depp is my all-time favorite actor. So, this was a HUGE deal for me! Elise agreed to go check out the premiere with me and I am SO glad she did. Thanks to her magical negotiating skills, she was able to get us IN to the red carpet area, where we sat on bleachers with our feet ON the red carpet. Yes, I am telling you the truth - and here's the photo to prove it.


Yep, this really happened!


Cannot even believe this is happening!


We met Gilles Marini!

After about 2.5 hours of waiting and one much-needed trip to the bathroom, we started hearing screams from across the park. We knew it had to be him! The security people told us to stay seated and he would likely come over and sign autographs - apparently he would much rather talk to his fans than the press. All of a sudden, the security people formed a line along the carpet between the press and us, and there came Johnny! Elise looked at me and said, "I'll get his autograph for you, and you just... say something to him!" It all happened so fast, but when he crouched down next to us, Elise got his autograph on the back of my iPhone case as planned and I couldn't think of what to say. But somehow in my haze of star-struckedness, I blurted out, "Oh my gosh, Johnny - I love you!" You will not believe this next part. He had heard my seriously lame attempt at professing my love and looked down at me, put his hand on my shoulder, looked into my eyes, and said, "Thank you so much." Yes, that really happened!


He's real!



And that's how happy I was. It's not obvious or anything, is it? All that to say, he was really nice to everyone and took so much time to greet his fans - a class act in my book. And that was my epic encounter with Johnny Depp - short and sweet, at the happiest place on earth.


Oh yeah, here's my phone case with his signature before my oily hands wiped it off over the next few days. Boo! At least I have evidence!

On the last day at Disney, Luke was set on trying one of their famous turkey legs. (Well, famous according to John.) He saved up his appetite and was ready to tackle this momentus task. Behold... the turkey leg!


Luke is not one to leave anything behind on his plate (or mine, for that matter). So it was no surprise that he cleaned his turkey leg to the bone.


I think he enjoyed it?

And thus ends our epic trip to Disneyland. Fun was had by all - so much that we all fell asleep on the cab ride to the airport. 

And, it turns out Luke really does like Disneyland after all. Imagine that?



Welcome to 28.

On June 16th of this year I celebrated two things. First, it was my 28th birthday. Second, our new nephew A.J. (short for Andrew James) was born. Now I have a lifelong birthday buddy!

I had a fabulous birthday weekend. We spent Friday night grilling on Alki beach with our friends Amanda and Travis. We watched the sunset, enjoyed good conversation, and even got to make some delicious s'mores. 



Sunset from Alki Beach.

On Saturday, we had a party at our friends John and Elise's house (since our one-bedroom apartment doesn't accommodate many more than four). Luke did an amazing job planning every detail of the party, and we enjoyed a great afternoon and evening of lawn games, food, and fun!


It was a beautiful afternoon for lawn games and barbecuing! 


Luke and John and Elise's Bernese Mountain Dog puppy, Ellie. (I am Ellie's best friend, but Luke comes in as a close second.) She's getting a little too big to hold these days...


Elise and I post-party. One thing's for sure, there's no one better at hosting than Elise and John. 
Thank you, Ingrams!



Luke went to the party store to get some balloons to decorate. When he came out, he was carrying a party hat that said, "birthday boy." Clearly, I am not a boy. He said the store was having a going-out-of-business sale and the only birthday hats they had left said, "birthday boy." So, being the creative man that he is, he turned it into a "birthday woman" hat for me. However, everyone else still got a kick out of calling me the "birthday boy" all night. 


Time for some cake!

On Sunday--my actual birthday--the celebrating continued! Luke took me to the Original Pancake House for breakfast (it's my favorite!). We watched some baseball in the afternoon, and had dinner at a great little pizza place in Fremont. I couldn't ask for a more thoughtful and loving husband to help make my birthday feel so special. Another great thing was that my birthday fell on Father's Day this year! I was actually born on Father's Day (the best present my dad ever got!), and it's rare that my birthday falls on the same day. 

And now, I get to share my birthday with my adorable nephew, A.J. Here's a picture of him from the hospital before they brought him home.


Welcome to the world, birthday buddy. June 16th is a fabulous day to be born!

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Summer Trip #1: Boise, Idaho

We kicked off a summer of traveling in early June with a trip to Boise, Idaho, to celebrate our friend Katie and Chris getting married. I went to college with Chris and Katie's older sister, Bethany. Luke ended up living with Chris at one point too, so they have become dear friends of ours. 

We traveled to Boise, Idaho, where it was H.O.T. We enjoyed sunshine and lots of time with good friends. That's one of the best things about all of our friends getting married, it brings people from across the country and becomes a sort of mini reunion. Chris and Katie got married at a beautiful vineyard overlooking a valley and it was  absolutely perfect. Our friend Taylor DJ'd the party and we danced the night away as the sun set over the landscape. 






View from the wedding venue.


The dance party lives on!

And then we had to go back to Seattle. But lucky for us, we got this amazing view of the mountains on our way...




Goodbye, Idaho! Until next time!


June Articles

Here are some of my June articles for the magazines if you're looking for some reading material!


I even got to write about the Minnesota Twins for this one! (pages 10, 28, and 33)




Thanks for reading!

Heather Lake Hike

With weekends free there is lots of time to go hiking now! We got out in early June to Heather Lake. This hike is really rewarding with the beautiful lake at the top. There was lots of snow once we started nearing the lake, but it was definitely worth it!


Beautiful view! 


Luke standing on a log.


We made it!




On the way back down. Just can't get enough of this Pacific Northwest hiking!

How to Enjoy a Three-Day Weekend

We're back! Somehow I took an unintentional two-month hiatus from blogging. So prepare yourselves for a slew of catch-up posts. We've been a little - or a lot - busy the past couple months, mostly thoroughly taking advantage of our weekends together. So, I'll kick it off with a post I started at the end of May, but never finished :) Here we go!

Well, I know it sounds crazy, but last weekend Luke and I enjoyed our FIRST long weekend together at home together And actually, it was our first weekend at home together in general... ever! Since Luke has always worked retail hours, we've had different work schedules ever since we met. So, I've gotten used to spending most Saturdays and about half of my Sundays on my own. Well, not anymore! Since Luke has joined the world of 9 to 5'ers, we have got what seems like an infinite amount of time together. So, we took advantage of this past Memorial Day weekend and made sure to enjoy our time together!

We love taking the ferry over to Bainbridge Island and going to this great little Mexican restaurant there. This time we took our friends Justin and Selena. Luke first met both of them while working at Nordstrom in Minnesota. And now, they live out here in Seattle like us!


Ferry ride! Luke is very excited as you can see :) 


What a beautiful city we live in...


The four of us! (And Luke failing to smile again.)


Cheers to Mexican food!

Later that weekend we got out and enjoyed the mountains. It was a little rainy, but we still had fun. We hiked Wallace Falls, which we've never done before.




We made it to the top!