Snapshot: Week 7

Thoughts on this week's photo: Amidst the late afternoon bustle around the office I stole a few minutes to walk down to the market to enjoy the sunset. Crystal clear Fall skies this week have brought very chilly temperatures, but have also brought spectacular sunsets. I'll take sunny and cold over wet and warm any day.

Sunset at the Market

Celebrating Baby Alston!

We all got together this afternoon to shower Wendy with lots of love and attention to celebrate her baby girl that is due at the end of January.

I was honored to be a part of the shower hostessing committee and was in charge of the invitations. We came up with the idea to send everyone a onesie ahead of time and invite them to decorate it and bring it along to the shower. I was so impressed with all of the wonderful onesies everyone created and to see them all hanging created such a great party atmosphere! Everyone was so clever and crafty. It is exciting to know that baby girl Alston will be set with a wardrobe of 25+ one-of-a-kind outfits created with lots of love.

The invitation package

I wrote a little poem with the onesie decoration instructions

The onesie I created

The onesies that everyone else created; they were all so cute!

Wendy guessing who created each onesie


Maro Walsh helped kick off the party with a beautiful speech for Wendy followed by a really delicious brunch of quiche, salad and fruit.

Maro kicking off the party

The girls

Brunch - Margie set a beautiful table


Margie Danz was the third hostess and was so gracious to host the party at her beautiful home and share her cake decoration talents with the group. We happily enjoyed our chocolate cake while opening presents and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over all of the adorable gifts she got.

Margie's adorable cake

I have a feeling this will be Baby Alston's first of many pairs of Nikes

Adorable sweater from Brett's mum

Cute outfit from Wendy's parents

For my gift I created a custom Alphabet book

And my mom helped me make a quilt


We all had such a great time planning this shower for Wendy and we can't wait to meet her little girl in January. Congratulations again, Wendy!



The rest of the photos from today's shower can be found here. Enjoy!

Moorea

We were so excited to stop by and visit the new addition to the Reeder family, an 8 week old Goldendoodle, Moorea. She was named after the Tahitian island where Lisa and Jason honeymooned and she is simply adorable!

Congrats guys! Looking forward to lots more Moorea time soon.

Snapshot: Week 6

Thoughts on this week's photo: For some strange reason, I'm having a difficult time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. The shopping hasn't started and the decorations are still in storage. But, when I drove up the driveway this evening from a long day at work and saw our house lit up thanks to the lights Chris put up today I couldn't help but smile. Christmas is coming!

Photo of one of the bushes in front of our house adorned with lights.

Still Coming...

Chris was FINALLY able to see the nasty, mean raccoons that have been reeking havoc on our yard for the past 3 months in action last night. He let Maggie out before bed and she started barking and growling at the tree. When he checked outside he caught a glimpse of a big fat raccoons scouring up the tree and on to the roof.

His first instinct was to grab the camera (unfortunately, not a gun) and managed to snap a few photos. I was fast asleep in bed only to be woken up by Chris with camera in hand excited to finally show me proof of the raccoon terrors.

Thank you Maggie for finally stepping up and alerting us to the yard intruders. And thank you sweetie for capturing it on camera for me to see.

Next time, we'll have the gun ready.

Home Sweet Home!

We're home! Lots and lots of driving over the past 8 days, but we're SO happy we took the trip. The incredible scenery, the quality time as a family and so many wonderful memories. It was truly a trip of a lifetime and one that we'll always remember.

Although this road trip was 100% my idea and I did all of the planning, Chris did 100% of the driving; all 2,600 miles and 50 hours of it. I was free to gaze out the window and enjoy the sights while he was busy concentrating on keeping us upright on the windy, scary roads. Thanks again sweetie, you are the best.

You've heard about our journey through the daily blog updates, but we thought we'd have our last trip post be a recap of our trip by the numbers as well as a slide show of all of 250+ photos we took along the way. Enjoy!

Day 6: Thanksgiving in LA

We knew with the holiday most everything in LA would be closed so it was the perfect excuse to get out, enjoy the sun and get in a bit of exercise before the Thanksgiving feast. I found a cool hike online which takes you up to the Hollywood sign via the Hollyridge trail. The hike is about 40 minutes each way and although there is a fence that prevents you from getting too close to the actual sign, it was cool to get as close as possible and see the view of LA from the top.

View of the sign at the start of the hike

View of LA behind me

This was looking over Burbank (we think)

At the top and the view of the sign. It is a lot larger than you realize

Another view of the sign, note the fence & warnings





It would be better if the sign was in focus, but you get the idea




Note: To all of you 90210 fans (I know there are at least 2 of you who read this blog) the actual sign looked nothing like it did on TV when Jasper and Annie were filming there and Adrianna drove up to get the drugs. What a let down! And to all of you Jeff Lewis fans, the start of the hike was right in his neighborhood near Valley Oak. I so wanted to drive by his place, but unfortunately we were running late. Sigh.

After our hike we showered up and headed out to Lancaster to spend Thanksgiving with Chris's extended family. While visiting family wasn't the original intent of our trip, it was so nice of them to invite us over once they found out we'd be in LA for the holiday. It was a full house of 20+ family members on Chris's mom's side of the family including great aunts, aunts, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, etc. Many of them were able to come out to our wedding in HI, but it was great to see them again. And what made the visit extra special was that I was able to finally meet his 92 year old Grandma, Leta. Since she doesn't fly it had been over 10 years since Chris had seen her and I had never met her before. And also in attendance was his newest 2nd cousin, Dallas, who was just born 10 days before.



We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are so very thankful to have our loving families and great friends in our lives. You guys give us lots to be thankful for.

XOXOXO,

Day 5: Santa Barbara to LA

It was a relaxing day for us in Southern California as our plan for the day just included the short drive between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. This gave us lots of opportunity to spend time in both cities enjoying the So Cal sun and exploring. It is amazing how warm 75 feels after months of the cold Seattle rain!

We woke up to an absolutely gorgeous day in Santa Barbara and spent the morning walking around the downtown and waterfront areas. We started our morning off with coffee and pastries and then strolled down State street which is lined with shops and restaurants. I loved the the Spanish Colonial architecture with the red tile roofs and stucco surfaces -- so cute!















After we checked out of our Santa Barbra hotel, we made the 'short' 80 mile drive toward Los Angeles. Along the way we dropped Miss Maggie off at the PetSmart pet hotel for a few days since our LA accommodations doesn't allow pets of her size. We then headed to Westwood and checked into the very swanky W Hotel.

After a brief rest, we took a drive through Beverly Hills and then stopped at Hollywood Blvd and walked around a bit. I was so excited to see the Hollywood star of my namesake, Natalie Wood!



We then ventured to West Hollywood area for a sushi dinner at Jinpachi. After dinner I was determined to have some Pinkberry for dessert so we stopped off at Rodeo Drive on our way back to our hotel. Pinkberry is awesome. Fresh, fat free, frozen yogurt and the best part is that you can pick as many toppings as you like for the same price! Yumm.



So I'll end the post with a "funny" Maggie story. We broke the pet policy rules at the Canary Hotel last night when we left her ALONE in the hotel room while we went to dinner. Thankfully, when we returned from dinner, nothing was destroyed, but we did find our little spoiled puppy lounging on the arm chair instead of on her dog bed. Furniture is forbidden in our house, but it is a rule we constantly struggle with since she typically breaks it when we're not around to dicipline her. So we walked in and she quickly jumps off the chair and runs over to her dog bed pretending like she didn't do anything wrong. We all go to bed and when we wake up in the morning, we glance over to her dog bed and she isn't there. We then notice her back on the arm chair lounging like she owns the place. She looked like such a princess we had to snap a few photos of her before we shooed her off and gave her a scolding. What a spoiled dog we have!

Day 4: San Francisco to Santa Barbara

Today was the day of the road trip I was looking forward to most and it did not disappoint. Our itinerary had us leaving San Francisco and heading down the California coast with stops in the well known, beach towns along the way. The weather was absolutely perfect all day, crystal clear skies with the temperatures getting into the high 60s, low 70s.

We opted for the PCH (Highway 1) again today which is slower, but we've determined worth the time. The PCH had us hugging the breath-taking California coast as we traveled south from San Francisco to Santa Barbara. I don't think any of the photos we took do the view justice, it is simply spectacular. We stopped often to enjoy the view and soak it all in.

We left San Francisco and headed south with our first stop of the day at Pigeon Point Lighthouse which is about 50 miles south on Highway 1. Maggie got in another swim and we enjoyed walking the beach and stretching our legs.











As we continued down Highway 1, we passed through Monterey and then found ourselves in Santa Cruz around lunch time. After driving along the Santa Cruz boardwalk, we found parking near the main downtown drag (Pacific Ave) and decided to walk around with Maggie and try and find a restaurant with outdoor seating or a deli and a picnic bench. A few blocks into our walk, we were approached by a nice city worker who informed us that dogs are not allowed on this street. Side streets are ok, but on this main street dogs are not allowed. We apologized, told her we were tourists and moved on. So Chris stood with Maggie on the corner of Pacific Ave (which I guess is technically a side street if only by a few feet) and I went to find us lunch. Stupid rules if you ask me. Unable to find a bench on the side streets to enjoy our meal, we sat on a curb, ate our pizza and got the hell out of dog hating Santa Cruz as fast as we could!



Our next stop of the day was the very dog friendly little town of Carmel-by-the-Sea. I had heard a lot about Carmel and was so excited to see it. The beach was beautiful (reminded us of Hawaii) and the view of Pebble Beach Golf Course was super cool. Maggie swam and played with the other dogs as we walked the beach. We then picked up fruit smoothies and explored the cute boutiques and galleries in town. I loved Carmel and we've already talked about going back to stay one day.















After leaving Carmel we continued down Highway 1 toward Big Sur. This famous stretch of the PCH was amazing with views of rugged canyons and steep sea cliffs along the Pacific Ocean. Roads were windy again, but no where near as bad as the stretch of PCH we drove yesterday in Northern California. Lots of turnoffs to stop along the way and we chose to stop often to enjoy the view.



















We stopped to enjoy another beautiful California sunset just passed Ragged Point near San Simeon, before heading back to 101 to complete today's journey to Santa Barbara.





We pulled into Santa Barbara at dinner time and found our way to our hotel, Canary Hotel which is super nice and right in the middle of the downtown area. They have a very steep pet surcharge, but we were happy to receive a dog amenities bag which included special doggie hygiene products including pet shampoo & breath freshener. Maggie was definitely in need of a fresh water bath after so much ocean swimming.



Editor's Note: We apologize about an error in our post yesterday as pointed out by our loyal reader, Lisa. Our first stop of the day yesterday was at "Trees of Mystery." We misprinted the place name as "Mystery of Trees." Whoops!

Day 3: Brookings to San Francisco

Whew! We're beat after a LONG day on the road. After leaving Brookings, OR we traveled down 101 through the Redwood Forrest and then opted to take the extra scenic Highway 1 down the California Coast. As the road twisted and turned and slowly meandered along the rugged cliffs we were so tempted at times to hit "maximize freeways" on our car navigation system and head back to 101, but we stayed the course and took our time slowly making our way down the coast.

Today's stops included The Mystery of Trees (per Lisa's request), The Avenue of the Giants in the Redwoods, and several beaches along the California Coast. Seclusion was a bit more difficult to find in CA, but we manged to find a few beaches all our own for Maggie to play and stretch her legs. We enjoyed the sunset outside of Mendocino and pulled into our hotel just a block away from Union Square in San Francisco, just in time for dinner.

Tomorrow we'll make our way down to Santa Barbara. Looking forward to checking out the little beach towns along the way.

Me, Paul Bunyan & the Mystery of Trees

Driving through the Redwoods & the Avenue of Giants

Me, the tree hugger

Really huge tree trunk

California Coast pit stop

Favorite beach of the day!















Sunset outside of Mendocino





In case you were wondering, here is what Maggie does during the drive

Day 2: Newport, OR to Brookings, OR

Despite our restless night of sleep, we got up on Day 2 ready and excited to hit the road once again. We'll see if this enthusiasm continues as the miles rack up...

Our total distance traveled today was just a bit over 200 miles, but we really took our time and made lots of impromptu stops along the way. We left Newport around 9 and pulled into Brookings shortly after 4 pm, just in time for the sunset. We took a ton of photos today, so if you like photo heavy posts, you're in for a real treat. Enjoy!

Yachats, OR which is about 25 miles outside of Newport, was our first stop of the day. Thanks to a recommendation from an old co-worker, we enjoyed a delicious meal at the historic Drift Inn followed by a short walk around town.

Yachats, like Newport, was a wee bit windy.

Seagulls in the bay


Once outside of Yachats, we stopped at a beach for Maggie to play on and for us to stretch our legs. While I do love life in the big city, there is something so cool about being somewhere secluded with no other people in sight...

Chris playing fetch with Maggie

I think this was when I proclaiming that we had the whole beach to ourselves!

The sun is coming out!

Chris and his dog walk the beach.

Chris found a bottle onshore which was sealed, but no message inside.

We're having fun!

She's having fun too. A happy, wet dog.

Chris had fun skipping rocks. Maggie had fun trying to fetch them.


Our next stop was just a short distance down 101 at the Heceta Head lighthouse. The sun came out just in time for the short hike up from the beach to the light house.


View during our hike

The lighthouse ahead.

The lookout from the lighthouse

The lighthouse! Unfortunately the tours to the top weren't happening today.

The view of the lighthouse back up from the road

Gossett family photo


About 20 miles outside of Brookings we stumbled upon another secluded beach that looked cool so we decided to check it out and enjoy some afternoon sunshine. The trek down to the beach was a bit tricky (ask me about my muddy fall), but it was totally worth it once we got down to shore.


First time I've used my sunglasses in weeks!

Maggie enjoys her second swim for the day

While Maggie swims, we play with our shadows


We pulled into Brookings shortly after 4 and had just enough time to unload the car before walking out of our room to the beach to catch the sunset. It was the perfect end to a really fun, but also relaxing day.

Chris and Maggie with our hotel in the background

I love sunsets and these two.




If you still haven't had enough photos, you can check out the rest of them here.

Gusty Newport

It was a night of restless sleep for us in Newport. With gusts of wind up to 65 mph shaking the windows and the sound of angry waves rolling all night long, we laid in bed and felt like we were in the middle of a hurricane.

Add to that Maggie's utter confusion from being in a hotel room for the first time. So many smells to check out. We're convinced after close to 6 straight hours of sniffing, she's got the entire history of this room memorized. Oh, and since we've 'trained' her to sit patiently by a door when she wants to go out she was totally confused by this room which has 4 doors (1 sliding glass door, 2 adjoining room doors plus the front door). She played a round robin game trying each door to see if that was the magic one that would get her out of this joint.

Well, we're up and ready to hit the road for our trek down to Brookings today. Got some good recommendations of places to stop along the way so we're looking forward to it.

The view from our room this morning. I see a wee bit of blue sky.

Day 1: Seattle, WA to Newport, OR

We left Seattle shortly after 9 am and traveled to Olympia, over to Aberdeen and then made our way onto Highway 101. We hit Seaside, OR right around lunch time and decided to make that our first stop.

Following lunch we were happy to see a break in the rain and decided to take a short 3 mile hike to Cape Falcon, which is just outside of Cannon Beach. The trail was deserted as was the beach, so Maggie was allowed to run free, off-leash and had the time of her life. She was such a good dog running ahead until she was just out of our sight and then she'd turn and wait for us to catch up or run back to find us. It was so fun to watch her trot on the trail, sprint around the beach and dive for rocks in the creek. We concluded that this was by far her best day post-surgery; she probably thought she'd died and gone to doggy heaven.

The rain started up again just as we were returning to the car so the timing was perfect for us to hit the road again and continue our journey down the Oregon Coast. We pulled in to Newport shortly before 6 and stopped for an early dinner at Rouge Ale House.

Day 1 of our trip was a good one and we're looking forward to less rain, and more sunshine as we continue our journey South.

All packed up and ready to go!

First stop of the day: Seaside, OR

Chris and Maggie go for a jog at Seaside

Haystack Rock @ Cannon Beach

Free! Free, at last! Maggie enjoys the beach.

Chris and Maggie hang out at our private beach



Maggie enjoys the creek. The water must have been chilly, but she could have cared less.

We threw a rock. She was determined to fetch it for us....



Baby beer for me.

Big beer for Chris.

Road Trip Plans

Our bags are packed. Our 'out of office' messages are on. We're ready to hit the road tomorrow morning for our drive down the California coast. 8 days. 2,454 miles. 38 hours.

Since we'll have Maggie in tow, we've found and booked a pet-friendly hotel for each night of our trip, but no clear plan of where or how often we'll stop each day. It will truly be a once-in-a-lifetime journey, and we're looking forward to the ride and the opportunity to take our time, enjoy each other's company and see the sights of the Pacific Coast Highway.

Here is a summary of our trip plans. We'll do our best to blog along the way, and rest assured we'll be taking lots, and lots of photos.

Snapshot: Week 5

Thoughts on this week's photo: I spent a good part of last weekend at the sewing machine working on a few homemade holiday gifts. I find crafting, sewing, creating so relaxing and fun. To start with a few yards of fabric and spools of thread and end up with something completely usable and utterly unique is very fulfilling. I really wish I had more time enjoy my hobby.

Official Mariners Video

I finally got the video of my first pitch from the Seattle Mariners Video Production group along with the photos from the official team photographer. While the quality of the video is much improved, the quality of my pitch is still the same as I remember it.

Thanks again to everyone for your support!

Nice Color, Eh

It's been a rough week so, Lisa took charge and decided what I needed was a bit of relaxation. She promptly took care of all of the details for an afternoon at the spa for us. What a sweet friend!

Although I had picked out a hot pink color for my toes, the manicurist warned me that the color I selected was not dark enough to cover up my completely dead, and completely black toenail. My toenail has been dead since September and with no signs of improvement, it definitely needed to be covered up. On the spot to pick a new color, I selected the same color as Lisa, her tried and true favorite of "Nice Color, eh." Yes, that is the actual name of the polish.

So we left the spa as relaxed, feet twins.



Thanks again, Lisa. The spa was wonderful, the company even better. Add to that the retail therapy I engaged before I left the mall and all in all it was a great day!

Snapshot: Week 4

Thoughts on this week's photo: We're hitting the road for a much needed vacation! We'll spend the week of Thanksgiving driving down the California coast enjoying the twists, turns and sights of the Pacific Coast highway. More to come on our trip, but for now, join us in some California dreamin...

Build Your Own Burger

We met up with the Reeders and Morans last night at The Counter in Ballard, which just opened about a month ago. Described as the 21st Century burger joint, each customer is allowed to build their own burger and with tons of burger types, sizes, toppings and sauces, there are over 312,120 different burger combinations.

Check out the unique burgers our group ordered below. And promise you won't laugh when you get to mine. What can I say? I am a simple girl!

Snapshot: Week 3

Thoughts on this week's photo: St. Edwards Park is geographically just 5 miles from our house, yet when we go there, we feel miles away from everyday life. The hiking trails, beautiful foliage, refreshing air and views of the lake makes it one of our favorite weekend getaways. This photo was taken on this Sunday's trip to the park. Fall is in the air and the leaves were a sight to be seen.

Halloween 2009

We headed over to the Bishops tonight for their 2nd annual Halloween Party. They added some new decorations this year including spider webs, graves stones, inflatable pumpkins and scary music which was pretty exciting. We were joined by the Alstons, with Oli as Jengo Fett, and the Elliotts, with Corbin the lion and had a great time.

Admittedly, we were pretty lame this year and decided not to dress up. Even Maggie's costume (as a raccoon) fell through. When we did our test patch of black face paint and black hairspray on her paw, it didn't look like it was going to be removable so we decided to be responsible doggy parents and abort the party plan. We thought it might be a bit strange if Maggie walked around for the next couple of months with raccoon eyes. So, the Gossett family went as ourselves to the party...which honestly, isn't a bad family to be!

Corbin looking adorable as a lion!

Elliott family photo - Kirsten, Corbin and Mike

Alston family photo - a puppy, Darth Vador, Jengo Fett and Super Dog

Black was the color of the night. And Nate obviously needs to brush his teeth.

While we were away, we left some candy for the neighbors

My dad as Elvis

Elvis is alive and he's making an apperance today as President of Windward Community Credit Union. Looking sharp dad!

Happy day before Halloween!

Snapshot: Week 2

Thoughts on this week's photo: I made a promise to Miss Maggie back in September that she could join me at the office once a week and I am happy to say I've lived up to my promise thus far. Here's a photo taken of Maggie today at the office. Work or home, floor or bed, she doens't discrimate. She'll nap just about anywhere. It's a rough life being a dog.

Raccoon Update #

So good news, bad news. Which do you want first? I'll start with the bad.

Bad news: The raccoons returned last night.

Good news: The only part of the yard they destroyed was the small area where we didn't pin down the chicken wire so we could make a pathway for Mags since she refused to walk/potty on the wire.

Seems like the chicken wire is successfully working as deterrent for both the raccoons and Maggie. Fingers crossed the it continues to work and doesn't kill our grass in the process.

Plan C

You guys are probably as tired of hearing about our raccoon saga as we are with dealing with it. Although they stayed away from most of last week, they were back over the weekend with a vengeance. So it was time to move on to Plan C -- chicken wire. 800 sq feet laid over the entire yard. We'll see how this week unfolds...wish us luck!



P.S. If this plan fails, Maggie told us she has an idea for a Plan D. We'll keep you posted.