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!

12 Dates -May

I must say, I'm really behind on posting!  There is so much I want to share with you, but this month has been so jammed packed with events that I just haven't had an opportunity to sit down and catch up until now. So, before the month is over I thought it would be appropriate to start with our "May date".

For our anniversary in March I made Joe a book of "12 DATES". Before I explain exactly what it is, let me tell you the reason behind it. We both have pretty busy schedules. Joe more so than me. He is crazy and between his two jobs, has been known to work 100 hours a week. On a regular basis he probably works 80 hours a week. Plus he is taking a class, so the time he does have off, you'll find him studying or doing homework. Or just relaxing, which he definitely deserves! And with my schedule of working mornings at Starbucks (sometimes having to get up at 4am), I get tired pretty early (9pm). Just about the time Joe is getting home from work. So needless to say, we don't go out and do much. Which quite honestly is ok with me, it saves us money, but a girl needs some quality time with her man every now and then. So that is why I decided to create a book of "12 DATES".

I wrote down 12 fun (mostly inexpensive) things we can do together. Some things we have never done before and some things we have. I made sure they were very specific and then put them in 12 different envelopes. The instructions are very simple: we have the whole month to go on the date. To simplify things, I included a checklist to each date, and every date we must bring a camera. (To document these monthly dates of course)

The month of May:

This month, for our date I thought it would be fun to go to Manito Park. I've been to Manito, but usually in late summer/early fall. This time I wanted to go when I could visit the Lilac Garden (since Spokane is known as The Lilac City). And since the Lilac Parade is always in May, I thought it would be an appropriate month to go. 

But, with the late start of spring this year, the Lilac Gardens hadn't even started blooming yet!

And unfortunately the little hut we were going to grab ice cream at, was closed for the season until May (???).

 

So no Lilacs, and no ice cream, but we still had lots of fun together!