Christmas traditions

Christmas traditions....Well, Chris and I have only been married for one almost two Christmases but in our short amount of time together we have started a few traditions I hope we continue for years to come.

Decorations, we have a tree (a fake one), our willow tree nativity scene, and our stockings. We bought our tree our first year of dating, well our only year of dating but it's still a pretty great tree decorated with a Mix of ornaments. Our nativity scene was a work in progress until this year. I got a few pieces each year for the past 3 years. And our stockings, they were made by my mother-in-law.

Things we do together, we visit the local festival of lights, make a gingerbread house, visit Santa and pick out ornaments. We drive through the lights tour and listen Christmas music. We buy a gingerbread house kit, I've never made gingerbread cookies before, and decorate the little house together. We visit Santa, well we did our first Christmas and took Bowzer the last two years. We also pick out an ornament from hallmark just after Christmas each year.

These are most of our traditions. The new tradition this year is going to be going to church on Christmas together. Something we both grew up doing but last year, one get together ran into another and didn't happen. It will happen this year because Jesus is the reason fornthe season.

Happy 1 year anniversary to my awesome husband Chris. We've been celebrating all weekend long. We went to St. Louis and did St. Louis on the cheap Saturday and expensive on Sunday. Saturday we went to Grant Farms and the zoo. We saw lots of animals, but no bears probably because the Packers were in town. We also sampled the newest brews out of Budweiser at the farms. Sunday was the Packers and Rams game. Another victory in the books for the Packers. The day consisted of good and bad fans (someone threw a quarter at me)and Packers player sightings. We were exhausted by the time we arrived home, a good trip but glad to be home.

vacation in a few short photos, a couple weeks late

So apparently my ipad won't let me upload photos to my blog for some reason. I also almost never get on my actual computer at home so now a couple weeks late I'm picking a few of my fave photos from my trip.

Vacation comes to an end

So as I write this Chris is driving us home from Bloomington, but I have one more day to write about. Yesterday we drove to Mount Rainier. It was a beautiful mountain with glaciers on it's peak. The drive up the mountain was beautiful, with curvy roads, tall green trees, waterfalls and flowing streams. We hiked a couple miles and the downhill was almost harder than going up after multiple days of hiking. We saw chipmunks and a marmot during the hike. Chris was super excited to the marmot, although he went on and on during our hikes about black bears. Thank goodness we didn't see any bears. After our hike we headed back in the direction of Seattle. We ate a very late lunch at Jack In The Box. Chris said I had to try it. Then off to Bellvue Square Mall for a new bag to fit the rest of our things into, we ran out f suitcase room. I am the new owner of a Vera Vera Bradley bag. Next we found a gift to bring home to Bowzer, our fur baby. We capped off our night with pizza and beer at the Dog and Pony Alehouse before heading to the airport. The airport was pretty dead in the middle of the night, I hope I don't have to spend the night in an airport again any time soon.

Now, we've made it through our flights safely with all of our luggage. Almost home and ready to see Bowzer!

Vacation Day 6

So our vacation is getting close to it's end, too soon but every good thing pretty much comes to an end, but I have yesterday to write about later I can write about today. So, I think I have figured out why Seattle is the coffee drinking capitol, because people prepare for the day they expect but the day starts at about 50 when you're expecting 70s. People need the coffee to keep warm and wake up until the day reaches tqhe expected temp. It also doesn't hurt that there's a Starbucks just about every other block. Needless to say I've had Starbucks at least 3 if not 4 times this trip.

Yesterday started with Starbucks on the way to Pike Place Market, I know our second time there but we flew threw it the first time. At the market Chris bought me beautiful fresh flowers that still look great today. We wandered through a few blocks and multiple levels of shops. We took lots of random pictures with statues and pictures throughout the market. I bought a beautiful fuchsia silk scarf and pretty much wore it the rest of the day. We visited the Gum Wall in Post Alley. It's an alley covered in ABC (already been chewed ) gum.

We later returned to the piers. On the piers we did more shopping, I got Seattle Grace Hospitl scrubs as well as a few other things. The big thing at the pier was the Seattle Great Wheel ferris wheel. Of course we rode the wheel. It had spectacular views of all of Seattle and the Puget Sound.

Our day ended at Seattle Center with the Space Needle. We had dinner in the Spacae Needle. What a view! The resturant spun 360 so we could see everything. I tried raw oysters in a half shell. I am not an adventurous eater So thats a big deal. Our dinner started around 5 and lasted until close to 8 so we were able to watch the entire sunset over the bay. Looking out over Seattle Center we could see fountains, spiders painted on top of the armory and unique EMP museum.

One more day left! I've had such an awesome time.

Vacation Days 4 and 5

This week is flying by way too fast but here is what the last 2 days included for us.

Day 4
Ferry rides-yes, I love Grey's Anatomy, and somehow watched the blowing up ferry episode the night before on netflix. We were ok and I had no worries. It was beautiful and relaxing to just sit back or walk around and enjoy the scenery.

Wandering around the island of San Juan. The town was cute and quaint.

Whale watching in the Salish Sea. We saw porpoises, minke whales and hump back whales. Surprisingly we didn't see any orcas, aka killer whales although that's what the area is known for.

Day 5

Hiking! This was my choice activity of the week. We hiked over 5 miles to Wallace Falls. It was the hardest hike I've done but not the longest. The views were amazing and the weather perfect.

Farmers market in Issaquah. I gobbled a pint of blackberries in just a few minutes as well as cookie dough cheesecake shooter.

Bellevue Square Mall, just a normal mall with a few more stores than we have in central Il. I bought my first pair of Toms.


Now we're caught back up to today!!!

Day 2 and 3 of vacation have come and gone but not without being busy and full. We're quickly working our way through our long list of things we want to do in Seattle. Day two we ventured out of the city to Issaquah and Snoqualmie. Issaquah is Chris's childhood home so we visited his old neighborhood and school. In his neighborhood " the heights" we took pictures of his old house and hiked the woods behind the house. The hike was beautiful and included a lake with lots of ducks. In Issaquah we ate lunch at the brewery and Chris had some local salmon. We also went to the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery where I learned more than I ever will probably need to know about the life cycle of the salmon. In Snoqualmie we wandered around the quaint historic town and visited the falls. The Snoqualmie Falls were beautiful and help supply clean energy to the Northwest. We ended the day back in Seattle with a visit to the Fremont Bridge Troll. The troll was a unique piece of art outside the norms of the city.

Day 3 started early and ended with a horrible call from the refs. In the heart of the original downtown Seattle, we took a fun, interesting and informative tour, The Seattle Underground Tour. The city use to be on different levels so some storefronts were below what is now street level. Also the city tried to start as a good "dry" city but after some failed attempts, rebuilds lead to saloons and "seamstresses". After the tour we ventured down to Pikes Place Public Market. It was a beautiful market full of flowers, fresh produce, vendors and most famous for the throwing of the fish. It was such an array of sights and smells. Lastly, we went to the Seahawks vs Packers game. In case you didn't know, we're HUGE Packers fans. We were on the edge of our seats all night long and we're thoroughly disappointed by the last few seconds of the game. My streak ended. Hopefully, day 4 will be so amazing day 3 will be a vague memory.

Vacation!!!!!

Hello North West! We're on vacation in Seattle and just after 1 day we've had lots of adventures. Today started with too much traffic and construction and also a little shouting at the gps. We saw the Space Needle and many other sites. We met Sylvia and Sylvester at the Ye Little Curiousity Shop and Museum. Sylvia and Sylvester were mummies preserved naturally by dehydration so they still had hair and finger nails, ewww but interesting. The "museum" also had animals with multiple heads. After the needle, shops and lots of walking, we ended the night with a Mariners baseball game. This game was one of the quickest games I've ever been to lasting only 2.5 hours and 8.5 innings. The Mariners were victorious over the Rangers and my winning streak continues. Every game I've gone to with Chris his team has won. I hope the streak continues Monday night with a Packer win.

Shopping as a reward

So in the past few weeks I feel like I have done too much shopping, clothes, shoes, beauty products and craft stuff. I'm going to not shop for awhile. I'm going to use shopping as a reward/motivation. I have sorta fallen out of my exercise routine/habits. My new goal is to go to the gym twice a week for three weeks in a row before I let myself go shopping again.(I know it's a small goal, but I have to start somewhere) I already have a gym membership so I should try to make use of something I already paid. I'll also try to keep in mind exercise is good for me. So next time I'm lacking motivation at the gym I'll tell myself I have to keep going if I want to be able to shop. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be telling myself the new jeans I want are just a work out away from my next shopping trip.

Bowzer the Bulldog

Bowzer chillin' out.

I thought I would write about Bowzer, my fury baby. He has been in our life for a little over a year and is such a good dog, except when he occasionally chews things like my shoes. I think he will likely make a lot of appearances in my blog. Most days when I'm not sleeping for work (I work 7p-7a three times a week) I chill out with Bowzer. He is a pretty cool dog. He loves chewing on bones, playing with his basketball and fetch. Yes, I said basketball, he pushes the basketball around the backyard and so far it's the first ball he hasn't destroyed. Bowzer is one cool bulldog.

He's just too cool. This picture is courtesy of our niece Kaitlyn.

About Me

I'm a twenty something year old. I'm recently married to the love of my life, Chris. We have the best bully ever, Bowzer the Bulldog. This is my first adventure in blogging after reading a lot of others' blogs. This blog will probably be very random because conversations in my life are really random. A few more things about me...... I'm a registered nurse. I grew up on a farm. I have too many pairs of shoes, according to my mom. I love the University of Illinois. I have growing love for all things sports, thanks to my husband. Like I said random.