Fam visits Washington Part 2

Ok, so yes I am still posting about when my family was here...in MAY! I have just been soooo busy lately along with trying to soak up some summer before it leaves us. (I can't believe it's almost August! *gasp!*) But, you will be happy to know things have started to settle down, so I will soon share with you all the projects I've been working on & pictures from my trip back home.

But first let's rewind back to May... before my brother & sister made the trip, we all talked about visiting Forks.



Yes. We are all huge Twilight fans. Well, except for Carl I guess. But even Joe....(he's going to kill me)...is always putting one of the Twilight series in to watch. I will also mention that it is Joe that owns all the movies, not me! (he's really going to kill me) When it comes to movies, Joe is funny... he can watch a movie over & over again, and if the movie was filmed or takes place in the Northwest, he automatically loves it. Twilight falls into both of those categories.

I on the other hand, think the movies are ok...the books are soooo much better! And they are really why I fell in love with Twilight. Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited to watch Breaking Dawn when it comes out, but it makes me want to read the books over even more.

So we all joked about visiting Forks, but we would always come to the conclusion that it's pretty far from Spokane. Even when we decided to drive around Olympic National Park, we still thought it would be out of our way. That is until we saw a sign....

I really was just kidding guys! ...I was just excited to be stretching my legs :) wink wink.  FORKS, WASHINGTON HERE WE COME!

1963 Chevy ~ Bella's truck in the movies.

1953 Chevy ~ Bella's truck in the books.

Forks Outfitters ~ Where Bella worked.
(lol, I feel so silly posting this picture)

Bella's House ~ Looks nothing like it in the movie!!

The Hospital Dr. Cullen worked at. ~ Notice the reserved parking spot for Dr. Cullen! lol

Forks High School (under construction)

Forks City Hall / Police Department ~ where Charlie worked

And the Grand Finale... The Cullen House! ha!

It ended up being a really interesting "Twilight Tour". I don't want to say I was disappointed, because I didn't really have any expectations, but everything we saw (besides LaPush Beach) reminded me nothing of the movie.

One thing is for sure, in the small town of Forks, Washington, Twilight is EVERYWHERE! ...store fronts, restaurants, hotels...everything tries to lure you in with some kind of clever Twilight saga.

So once we left Forks, we decided to cross the treaty line (hehee) and head to LaPush, part of the Quileute Indian Reservation.

La Push Beach

Joe collecting me ocean water, to add to my mason jar travel collection.

The sun finally decided to come out! :)

See

Tab

Jump

 

After hanging out at the beach for awhile, we grabbed some lunch at a restaurant right near the water. Wish they would've had seating outside, but instead we got a seat alongside the window. While we ate we spotted a bald eagle not too far from where we were sitting! (The closest I've gotten to a wild bald eagle!)

 

After we left La Push, we headed for our final destination: Port Angeles, where we ate dinner at La Bella Italia, the same restaurant Bella & Edward ate at. The plan for the next morning was to catch a ferry back to Seattle and make our way back to Spokane....

30 before Thirty

{make it to the coast} √

The {northwest} coast that is... I've been to the Atlantic Ocean many times, but never the Pacific. I've always wanted to see the big boulders in the ocean that jut out. The rugged cliffs...and instead of palm trees, pine trees...I think petrified wood instead of seashells. Rain jackets instead of bikinis. And there's just something about having been coast to coast. When I put it on my list I thought my first visit would be the Oregon Coast, because we're always talking about making a trip there, but it ended up being good ol' Washington. And how precious to have the opportunity to take my brother & sister there! ...their 1st time as well.

I already want to go back...

visit a state I've never been to

run a 1/2 marathon in under 2 hours

cut hair (short or straight across bangs) 3/4/11
get Joe to organize his mail
take a cooking class

open up an etsy shop

get married ;)

refinish our dining room table

camp out in Yellowstone for a week

go fishing for a day

go skiing or snowboarding
make it to the coast 5/26/11

find the perfect pair of black boots

purchase a digital SLR 2/26/11

read a book

run a marathon

learn how to swim tread water

get Joe to try cream cheese

host a girls night

make a scrapbook for myself

learn how to sew... and sew something

take an exercise class with a friend

learn how to knit

s k y d i v e

put together a book of inspiration

make the perfect pot of chili

volunteer

create a piece of jewelry
find the perfect letter E
throw myself a kickin' 30th birthday party

Fam visits Washington Part 1

Yes, there are going to be multiple posts :) ...only because I have so many pictures I want to include, I've decided to break it up a bit. First, I guess I should mention, who in my family came to visit... my youngest brother Corey and my sister Felicia & her fiance, Carl made the trip here last month. We had such a great time! Unfortunately, their stay was super short. They flew into Seattle on a Thursday evening and flew out of Spokane Monday evening. So they were really here for only 4 days. And when you haven't seen your fam in 5 months, four days goes by fast. Not to mention, a lot of the days were spent driving because I thought it would be a great idea to take them to Olympic National Park (since they flew into Seattle) ...see the coast, explore Seattle, and eventually make our way back to Spokane. I wanted to not only show them Spokane, but show them the Northwest. In four days.
So to start off, I will share pictures of our drive through Olympic National Park. Sadly, we really only drove through the park and got out of the car a couple of times...once to see a Large cedar tree and a handful of times to walk down to the beach. I don't think we realized how close we were to the Rain Forrest part of the park, which is what I really wanted to see. But, it's ok :)

Here is my Sister & Brother

Like I said, we spent a lot of time driving.

We ended up driving through a rainbow :) and I'm not sure if you can tell by the picture, but if you look in the upper left corner, it was a double rainbow.

This is what most of our drive looked liked, as we drove around the outskirts of Olympic National Park. Lush greenery & on-and-off rain.

 

Large Cedar Tree

And what's that poking through the trees?!

??? The coast!

??? The West coast!

??? Could it be the Pacific Ocean!

...that brings me to my next post :)

30th Birthday Fiesta

I (with lots of help from Tara, Kelli & Lill) decided to throw a surprise 30th Birthday party for Joe & his twin Jeff. I'm pretty good at keeping secrets, but unfortunately Joe and Jeff work at the same place. AND the day I wanted to throw the party happened to be the ONE day they both work together. So, when they both found out that they were both asked to get the day off, they knew something was up. Joe would say, "so, what time is the surprise birthday party at my parents?"...he is such a stinker!! The day of the party he said to me, "so, why does Tara (his twin's fiance) have chicken in the crockpot?" It just makes me laugh. He may have known we were having a birthday shindig, but he didn't know the details...  :)

I of course, love themes, and thought what better "theme", than a Mexican Fiesta! We could do a taco bar, chips & salsa, Mexican beer, pin the tail on the donkey, sombreros, and a Mexican Fiesta must: mustaches!  {the staches never seem to get old!}

The front of their Birthday invite I sent out :)

~The Birthday Boys!~

Jeff, their cousin Jim, & Joe

Joe & his older brother, Derek

~Las Senoritas!~

Baby Reegan

Joe & his Mom 

a game of cornhole...

 

Jim, Elissa, & Uncle James

 

When your 30, old man glasses are a must! hehee :)

HaPpy BiRtHdAy JoE!

Bridal Shower Invites

I don't think I have mentioned yet, but my sister is getting married this July!!! I'm so happy for her and I'm so excited to be going home in a month!

A couple of weeks ago my mom & sister-in-law threw Felicia a surprise bridal shower. I was sad because I knew I wasn't going to be able to go. It would be too expensive and too hard to get the time off work for both the shower AND the wedding a month and a half later. So, knowing I wasn't going to be able to make it home for the shower, I wanted to do something special for my sister. I would have loved to help out with decorations/planning, but when your 2000 miles away, it's a little hard to help plan a party, especially one that you can't make it to. So, I decided to design & create her some really special invites:

I even learned how to use a sewing machine!