Seattle!

Madelyn and I just got back from Seattle from an amazing 4 day vacation! Madelyn's sister and husband were there for a summer internship so we thought we should get up there while we had free stay!

It was so great to get out of the 100+ degree heat and into the 70-80 degree "heat wave" Seattle was experiencing. Everyone there was complaining about the heat... and we just laughed. We were loving it! We've had 40 days over 100+ degree days this year... awful.

We really had a great time in Seattle and it was just what we needed... even though we didn't get to spend as much time with Lacy, Brandon and Elly as we had planned. We took it easy... for the first time ever we went on vacation with no itinerary. We just woke up every morning thinking "What do you want to do today"? And although it's hard to have that type of mentality on every vacation, Seattle was the perfect place to just go with the flow! Here are the pictures!

Lacy and Brandon's apartment was like 3 blocks from the famous Pikes Place market. It was definitely pretty "Seattle" to pass the market everyday.... it was just too bad that we couldn't buy and of the flowers or fresh food.

Elly, who I think Madelyn was looking forward to seeing more than anything on the trip, scored a large ball of dough from the pizza place we ate at! I told her to squeeze it as hard as she could and snapped this picture. Elly was a ton of fun... especially considering, as we found out later, she was super sick the whole time!

While in Seattle I thought it was appropriate to go see a concert since the city has such a great music scene. Madelyn and I got to see one of our favorite singer/songwriters, Laura Viers. The show was amazing. Before the show we went and watched the sunset on the water!

This is Madelyn after eating what we were told were famous donuts. They were amazing.

We were too cheap to pay to get to the top of the Space Needle... but we took plenty of pictures at the bottom!

This is Madelyn with Michael Jackson's jacket and glove he wore when he debuted the moonwalk on TV. Super cool, even after hearing the constant 24 hour MJ news cycle!

The EMP was awesome... music, Sci-Fi and a Jim Henson exhibit! A perfect place for me. I grew up as a huge Muppet fan I was super excited to see all the Muppets and Jim Henson illustrations.

Although pictures weren't allowed you just can't pass up an opportunity to get a picture with Kermit the Frog.

A wall made of Muppet fur... that gives me some design ideas for the house!

I loved the Ninja Turtles when I was a kid, so getting a picture with Donatello was something the little kid in me couldn't pass up.

Another attempt at getting the entire space needle and Madelyn in the same picture. That thing is huge and we're too non-confrontational to ask someone to take our picture. Almost every picture we took on the trip was self taken with my long arm... something we're getting pretty good at!

On the monorail!

Elly looking out the window of her Seattle house.

One of the coolest things we did in Seattle was take the ferry to Bainbridge Island. You could see Mt. Rainer really clearly, and the ferry ride gave you such amazing views of the city. I couldn't believe I was wearing a sweatshirt in the middle of July! In Texas I can hardly wear anything! Of course, we took a ton of pictures... unfortunately it was extremely windy.

This was the view from Lacy and Brandon's place... sucks, huh?

Although they didn't get to spend as much time with eachother as they would have liked, Lacy and Madelyn had a good time. I didn't get as many pictures as I should have.

This one was taken in what Elly called the "gard", which is short for garden.

I made sure to take a picture of Madelyn and Lacy... approximately 10 minutes before leaving for the airport after eating the best clam chowder I've ever had.

This is the picture form the airplane of Mt. Rainer!

It was just a really great trip! Thank Lacy and Brandon!

House Changes

We've been busy at our house lately with a ton of projects... we've been trying to explain these changes over the phone with our family, but it's a whole lot easier to post pictures!

Madelyn was never a fan of the red theme in our living room... it was a color scheme that was leftover from my first apartment. I went out and bought red stuff using my best bachelor design skills, it worked well, but Madelyn was never a big fan...

Well... red is out. We're going with yellow! It certainly brightens up the room... new TV stand (and little decoratey things to go in the cubes), new rug, new pillows, new chair, and a new ottoman.

A new yellow/green chair was the inspiration for our new room.

We also found a new rug and light fixture for our office... it really makes the room look more grown-up. I'm super happy because I finally got rid of my most hated thing about our house... the snake spot light!

Here is the old office with the snake spotlight front and center!

Here's our fancy new rug...

No more snake light!

Our dining room has gone through some changes. When we first moved in we had a cheap light in the dining room, it wasn't ugly, but it wasn't pretty. Last summer we switched it for a ceiling fan... which was functional, but not pretty. Well, we finally got some design into our dining room!

This is the only picture I could find of the old ceiling fan!

Here is the new chandelier! It looks great.... and it comes with an awesome story (we had to be creative to make it work - ask us about it next time you come over!).

We also bought a new headboard for our bedroom. We moved the art piece that was above our bed into the living room....

New headboard! No more bed on wheels!

The coolest (and most creative) thing we did was fix the mirror in the bathroom. We had this awesome wall to wall mirror that we didn't really want to get rid of... but it wasn't exactly stylish either. Plus, the edges were all chipped. So, we went to Home Depot, bought some crown molding, painted it black... and BAM! New mirror!

It makes it look custom!

We also painted our gust room from yellow to yellow! I know it's crazy, but the previous yellow just was not the right color, so we picked a nicer/softer yellow and repainted. How could we say "no" to a color called "Peaceful Calm"! We also got rid of the 1980's ceiling fan and replaced it from the one in the dining room (see above). Recycling!

Next post should be coming pretty fast... our trip to Seattle!

2 for the 4th of July

Madelyn and I enjoyed this past weekend. It reminded of us when we first moved here... and it was just the two of us. After many failed attempts to get our friends together (they all had 4th plans) it just ended up being us two, which seems weird, but it's been a while since it's just been the two of us. It was nice.

We kicked off the 4th weekend with a trip to Fredricksburg Texas, which is a small town about 2 hours away. It was a long, but really pretty drive out there.... we got to see a lot of the Texas hill country and drive right past President Lyndon B. Johnson's ranch... which is still in operation today. It's now a national park. Fredricksburg was a lot cooler then I expected, it was at least 5 blocks of really neat stores... it was like a larger and hipper Gardner Village (for those of you in SLC). I actually really enjoyed it. Unfortunately it was way too expensive, but we had a great time walking in and out all of the old stores with creaking wood floors.

This is Madelyn in front of some old building. The whole town was filled with cool old buildings, but we were so busy looking around we forgot to take pictures!

We remembered we weren't taking pictures right before we left and we snapped one more!

Saturday we headed down to the big fireworks celebration downtown and a BBQ at our friend Heidi's. We've lived here almost 3 years and have never been to the fireworks show downtown and no matter the heat or the crowds I was determined to go! We've heard horror stories of crowds, and parking, etc. So we packed a survival backpack, loaded our bikes in the car, got an escape route down for after the show and ventured downtown. So, you can imagine our amazement when we parked right in front of Heidi's downtown condo building, and got a fantastic viewing spot right on the bridge an hour before the show, and got home in no traffic! Unfortunately the heat was something we couldn't fix.

Heidi and Madelyn at her BBQ in the courtyard.

Waiting for the Fireworks show to start... we got a spot right on the bridge overlooking the lake. Seeing the fireworks reflection in the water was beautiful.

A lot of the locals brought their own canoes and kayaks... not a bad way to watch the show.

Waiting for the fireworks to start on the bridge...

The weekend was topped off by the news that our puppies we were fostering were adopted on their first day! Of all the dogs we've fostered we've only had one who wasn't adopted their first day.... we're the best fostering unit in town!

I don't think either dog knew what was going on... but we certainly enjoyed making the little puppy ride Sugar.