Valentimes

No, it's not a typo. These are indeed the times of Valen. Who's Valen? Unimportant! In that respect, he shares a lot with St. Valentine. Not many know who he really was, what he did, or what that has to do with love, but boy do we celebrate it.

Of course, not everyone celebrates Valentine's Day. It's a holiday that puts a bright shining spotlight on your relationship. If you're not in one, then the spotlight hits the bare space where your relationship is not. Oddly enough, there are folks who don't want to be reminded that they don't have someone in their life to cuddle with them and tell them they smell funny. Ignorance is bliss, as it were. I was never one of those folks.

Even after my girlfriend broke up with me and married another man, I still celebrated V-Day and gave out mini Kit-Kat bars to friends. Even when I spent the evening watching a friend's kids so he could have a night with his wife, I didn't be-moan the situation. You see, when God was handing out hearts, he gave me a jumbo popcorn bucket of Hope instead. Then he made me obstinate and pig-headed. This allowed me to always enjoy the idea of love, even if I wasn't in love.

My first Valentine's Day with Becky was only the second time in my life I'd been able to celebrate it with someone. This year, marks our third together. While we're not made of money, we do know how to show ourselves a good time, so Becky's whipped up a grand cake for the occasion. We'll pop a bottle of cab-sav with our steaks and deftly avoid the mad rush that always descends upon restaurants on this day.

So, in a nutshell, your kernels of wisdom are: love means more than money, and don't glare at lovers just because you're not getting any.

Holy Wow!

I know! You should be shocked to see an update from us! We apologize for being MIA in the blog world. We will try better to update it a bit more frequently than we have in th past.

This past weekend we went bowling with some of my friends from high school. There were 12 of us there bowling. I think the best part of the night was the money! I won $2.75 and Nate won .25. They set the pins up with colored ones randomly (I thought it was random) placed among the ten pins. If you got a strike or left one of the colored ones you go money. Some people around us were winning $50.00. We would love some of that money! A great time was had by all. Nate and I might have to stick to bowling on the Wii. Who is buying us one?? The next outing is planned for the end of February for a night of watching hockey. I've never been to a game but I'm pretty excited!
On a side note, Nate and I celebrated 18 months of wedded bliss last night. We made ravioli that tasted great but presentation was much to be desired. Maybe you'll see pictures if we try it again.
We'll leave you with pictures from bowling.



Are those not the sexiest shoes you've ever seen? I love how mine look well used!!

We have snow!!!

That's right! We have snow! If you live in pretty much any part of Washington I'm assuming that you have snow! We aren't sure when it started but when we came out of August Rush (fantastic movie) there were a couple inches on the ground! Guess who didn't have a coat or gloves, scarf or hat!! Me, the girl who is always responsible! Hmm!! I had to claim ignorance!! As we drove into our apartment complex tonight we saw people out taking pictures and getting their picture taken. We laughed at first and then we had to remember that a lot of the folks taking pictures probably haven't seen snow in their home country.

We had a great last week Thanksgiving. We went to Nate's parents house in Deer Park. There were about 30 people there for dinner. I had to break the news to Nate's dad that we would not be adding 4 more children to the crowd like 2 of Nate's siblings have done. He seemed to be okay with that! No, there aren't any on the way either!

We even decided to brave the crowds on Black Friday and go hit up some of the sales. We weren't among the crazies out for the door buster sales though! We managed to snag some pretty good deals and some of them might even show up at your house!

We're off to go play in the snow! Enjoy the pictures.

Pumpkins

A few weekends ago Nate and I braved the rain and wind to find some pumpkins at a local farm. We decided to go early this year because we learned our lesson last year. We went the weekend before Halloween and the pickin's were pretty slim! Here are the fruits of our labor. We also got a few gourds and some sugar pumpkins. I've already roasted and pureed them and now they are awaiting their fate! Anybody have a good pumpkin recipe (besides pie, I'll leave that to my mom!)?

Enjoy the pictures!

Us!

The goofy one of the bunch!

Time off and The Seattle Aquarium

Nate had some time off at work that he had to use up before October or he would lose it so he took off 4 days a few weeks ago. I worked a half day on Tuesday (more on the work situation later) and then that afternoon we went to the Seattle Aquarium. Nate's bosses are members of the aquarium so they get 5 guest passes a year. They knew that Nate wanted to go so they gave two tickets to us! Sweet! We lounged around the next day and then on Thursday Nate went to Pullman to hang out with his buddy Pat aka King Sheep, for the weekend.
Here are some pictures from the Seattle Aquarium and surrounding areas.

We had lunch at Ivar's. I found it pretty ironic that we had fish and chips (yummy) for lunch and then went and looked at real live fish! Te he!!

Mr. Ivar feeding the seagulls. Good thing they aren't really this big!

Petting a sea star. Anytime we go to the beach, Nate makes fun of me for touching and poking all the creatures in the tide pools.

Jellyfish under an iridescent light.

This octopus was amazing. He had free rein between two tanks connected by a narrow tube. He put on quite the show for us.

Is this seahorse a boy or a girl or both?? Hmmm?

I think these are salmon. They were swimming a tank right over our heads.

The underwater dome. This place was huge.

I love the expression of the kid in the reflection!

King of the Mountain! A Northern Fur Seal.

Another seal.

Some River Otters. These guys were so playful and put on a great show for us!!

We'll leave you with some flowers from Pike Place Market.

Go Cougs!

Well, this post is about a month late coming but better late than never, right? On September 8th we ventured over to Seattle with the other masses of people. Who would have thought that two Pac 10 teams playing on the same day in the same city, would cause such a traffic jam? Oops!! Slight oversight on our part! We ended up riding the ferry to Bainbridge Island 4 times that weekend. Once right before the game to park our car over there and then to walk on back to Seattle and then to walk on after the game to go get the car and go to our friend's Pete and Emily's house in Silverdale for an after party and then the next morning to go back to the Eastside (of the lake that is).
We had a lot of fun at the game. The Cougars of course did wonderful. Don't ask for the score because I have forgotten it! Sorry to all you diehard fans! I know they won and that is all that counts right? It was great to see a lot of Nate's college buddies that we don't get to see very often because they are spread all over the state. One of Nate's friends, Carissa, is a teacher down in Oregon so we had great fun talking teacher talk!! Scottie got us all great seats on the 35 yard line on the Cougar side of course. Thanks Scottie!
Enjoy the pictures!

Is that Superman or Nate?

Rainier off in the distance.

Ahh! Seattle from a distance. You can see the stadium too.

Us on the ferry to Seattle

Some action from the game. Look at all that crimson in the stands!

Da Band.

Hmm! Who is that?

There is the score! Click on the picture to enlarge it.

On our way to the ferry that night. Sunset over the San Juans.

Labor Day Weekend

We have returned rested and ready to go back to work. My friend Brooke invited Nate and I to spend the weekend with she and her boyfriend Kyle at her parent's cabin on Lopez Island in the San Juan Islands. Their house over looks a harbor on Lopez. We went over on Friday night with all the other masses of tourists and returned on Monday with the mass exodus from the island.

Saturday morning Brooke and I went to the Saturday Market that the artists and farmers on the island participate in. There were a lot of really nice things but nothing I couldn't live without. While Brooke and I looked around town the boys went kayaking. Unfortunately Nate didn't bring the camera. They saw two seals, one swam very close to the kayak and the other one was unfortunately dead on the shore. Brooke and I also took a turn through "the mall" aka "the dump" or "take it or leave it". Yet again, nothing that we couldn't live without. We ended our trip to town with a stop at Vita's Wine and Deli Shop. We each bought a bottle of wine and some yummy treats for lunch and a few dessert items. Upon returning home we found a note from the guys. They might need us to come and pick them up! Hmmm!! Sure enough we got a call to come get them. Apparently they had gone a bit too far and wanted a taxi back to the cabin! Silly guys! We lounged the rest of the afternoon and played a round of Cranium. Go Team Taylor! Brooke and Kyle prepared us a wonderful steak dinner. Yummy!! After dinner we played several rounds of Catch Phrase. Brooke and I are proud to announce that the girls won!!

Sunday was a bit lazy and low key. We went all over the island for the Studio Tour that the island artists were putting on for the weekend. We saw a lot of beautiful pieces of artwork. On our adventure we took a short hike down to Watmough Point (I think that is the name of it!). It was a little inlet of water. While we stood and admired the scenery and attempted to skip rocks with the other children a river otter decided to join us. He was swimming back and forth in the water. At one point he came up with something in his mouth and was eating it. A lot of people said it was a fish but we heard him crunching on it. At one point he got out of the water and hid among the rocks and drift wood. He was nestling down in some of the rocks. After a bit of time he got back in the water and then shocked us all and got out and went through and area thick with people and went back into some brush near a river and a marshy area. Nate was pretty excited to see the otter as it is one of his favorite animals. We spent the rest of Sunday reading books, napping and watching a movie. After dinner we made a campfire and roasted marshmallows.

Monday morning we tidied up the house and left to sit in the ferry line for 2 hours. We wanted to make sure we got on the ferry because it only takes 60 cars from Lopez Island on it's way back to Anacortes. Thankfully we made it on the ferry.

We'll leave you with some pictures from our weekend. Enjoy!

The view from the back porch of the cabin.

Us!

Look closely! There we are again!

Watmough Point. This is where we saw the river otter.

There's the river otter.

Click on the picture to enlarge it. The otter is by the log closest to the water.

Campfire time! Brooke and Kyle.

Nate being artistic. A few shots of things around the cabin.

Wild turkey's. We saw a few different groups of them around the island. One group had several babies (I don't know what baby turkey's are called. Anybody?). Kyle says he is going to see these guys on his plate in November.

You can look forward to pictures from the WSU game this coming weekend. Go Cougs!