Welcome our newest member... Jackson Owen

Proud Poppa

Jackson Owen was born on March 4, 2011 at 10:29am.  He was 7 lb 8 oz and 19 inches long. We have been enjoying getting know this little guy, hard to believe he is almost four weeks old already.

Better late than never....

I have finally organized and compiled our hundreds of photos from our trip to Vietnam and Cambodia from 2007. Part of that whole new years resolution thing :) I created one of those cool photo books to remember the trip, and found out you can share them with others. Please use the link, if you are interested in checking them out.

http://www2.snapfish.com/projectshareewelcome/l=7223561009/p=199251264474636866/g=35366444/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPBKlink/

Madison trys out snowshoeing

Last weekend we took Madison our for her first snowshoe adventure. We decided to go closer to Seattle, in case she didn't enjoy the activity and pulled her mule routine. We planned to hike the Lower Gold Creek Basin in Snoqualmie, which turned out to be a great one for dogs. Madison was all geared up - softshell and booties. She had used the booties before, but they still took a little getting used to. We decided to go closer to Seattle, in case she didn't enjoy the activity and pulled her mule routine. It seems as though she was happy to be going with on the trip, but wasn't quite sure about the gear and snow - at first. She quickly adjusted and it seemed as though Ben and I couldn't hike fast enough for her. Ben especially liked bringing her along since she was so full of energy and that helped him make it up all the steep hills :) Despite dragging dead weight, she was still ready to play. At the end of the day, she used up most of her puppy energy and enjoyed a nap on the drive home.

Waterfalls and Mountains

We spent the weekend visiting mountains and waterfalls... all within an hour drive of home. We visited the Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie, which was a really nice place to stay. I highly recommend it when you are ready to treat yourself. We also broke out our snowshoes for the first time in a few years (!!!) and had a great time hiking in the woods. I think we will take Madison with us the next time we go snowshoeing and let her test out all her doggie gear.
Salish Lodge overlooking Snoqualmie Falls



Snowshoeing at Snoqualmie

6 months since the last post...

Pretty pathetic how current we are keeping this blog. A lot has happened in the last six months, but rather than recap right now... I will update on what is happening today. Ben and Mike (Ben's dad) have been busy this holiday season at our house. Mike graciously offered to help work on the house during his visit, and we thought since the most fun thing to do is DEMO... we would start a demo project just for him.

Seriously though, we have been planning on this project for awhile. Two days later and one full dumpster, we have the following to show for it. For those of you who have stayed in our guest room in the basement, it may look a little different than last time you were here.

View of the bedroom from the previous hallway....

And the new view from the laundry to the backdoor....

Stayed tuned for the "after" photos.... but knowing us, it may be awhile.

Playa del Carmen

We took a much needed break from the patio project to head to Mexico to celebrate the wedding of a friend of Ben's from Colorado. Travis and Stephanie were married on June 5 in a beautiful setting. We had a great time seeing alot of people we haven't seen in awhile (or ever, in my case) and enjoying the sites.

We spent most of the time relaxing and hanging out at the beach with friends, but took a day trip to the Tulum Ruins of the Mayan People, which was really neat.

A Very Large Puzzle

Continuing on from our backyard project from last summer... the flagstone patio. Yes, we decided to upgrade from the beautiful concrete patio we poured last year (See post August 2008). Happy to report that we didn't have any cracks in the concrete despite the cold winter.


We picked out 3 tons of Pennsylvania blue flagstone from Marenokos Rock Center in Issaquah and had it delivered to our house... unfortunately they had to put it in the parking strip, which just added to the distance we had to move it, including up our driveway. We are getting a little smarter with experience, and we decided to employ a dolly.



Following step-by-step instructions someone posted on the web (thank you internet), we started the process of dry fitting the stones. I guess it would have helped our moral if we had noticed that the patio described in the instructions was for a 10x10 patio compared to the 300 sq ft patio we were creating. Needless to say, it took a lot longer than we anticipated.


After a whole of moving and cutting, we had a dry fit for the patio.... 89 stones. All we had to do was remove and mortar them (of course, keeping a slope to the drain). That also took awhile and alot of patience. In the end, we are loving the new look...though we are only still part of the way there, and have a ways to go.