Shem's 27th Birthday Party

Shem didn't want a cake, so we did chocolate
fondue with tons of stuff to dip. All the nieces
and nephews love chocolate! This year should be
lucky for him and his twin sister Quinae since they
were born on 2/27/1981 and they turned 27 this
year.

Corom and Wendy's gift to Shem was a taste
test of as many brands of ginger beer that they
could find. 3/8/2008

Our First Christmas in Michigan and Ken's wedding in Portland, OR (2007)

Downtown D-town with Clint's family
and ours.

Ken and Nikki

Ken and Julia waiting for the people mover/
mugger mover as it has been called in the past.
Detroit has improved a lot in the past couple years
and it's actually fun to go downtown now.

Dinner the night before Ken and Nikki's big
day! We had some excellent seafood!

Ken at his reception.

My old roommie and friend Lisa came to visit
from her parents in Vancouver, WA!

After driving from Portland, OR to Detroit, Mi
and arriving Christmas morning everyone crashed!
Everyone except for Lehi, who was excited for christmas
He had to wait until 2pm to open gifts, but before that
Dad had to tell a story about as long as his arm span!
Lehi went crazy and even told Shem and I that he
didn't want his cool helicopters. Someone has to
be the youngest. :)

How I look in this picture is how I must have felt
after driving forever! Never will do that again!

Shem and I

Shem is a great cook and since
he is a Physics teacher his Mom
made him a lab coat to use as
an apron. Here he is making
Russion food, Palmeni (spelling?).

A Sunday walk on Mercer Island.

Hike in Bellingham, WA



On our honeymoon in Newport, OR

Alki Beach walk with Shem and Folk music festival with Amy

Alki Beach walk 5/17/2008 with Shem. It was
summer in May and Seattle went crazy with
the unseasonably warm weather!

This car had plasma screens and jamming
music while he cruised the strip to Alki
Beach. I wanted to go to Alki, but I had
no idea it would be like Southern Cali!
Not was I was expecting!

Space Needle at the music festival 5/24/2008

Like I said Seattle goes crazy when it's warm out
side and the sun is shinning! 5/24/2008

Adventures with Amy

Not the most flattering picture, but a cool view!
I pretty much got up, dressed, washed my face
and left the door at 6:45am on a Saturday morning for
hike.

Cute Amy before the scramble up the haystack
and the incident with the rock hitting the back of her head.

We were climbing down from the haystack on top
of Mt. Si and some guy yelled: "Rock!" I moved
to the side and Amy got hit with a pointy rock the
size of a tennis ball! I was brave and cleaned
her up well then we hiked the 4 miles down.
She got 3 stiches!

Dinner at our place on 5/11/2008

Since Amy has been here we have gone on some fun adventures like hiking Mt. Si twice (second time around was a lot more fun and 30 minutes faster than my first hike up the steep 4 miles up!) to cooking dinner together and just catching up. Shem is always so great when we get together especially when we take the time to catch up on all the gossip from home and crazy times we had in high school.

Trebuchets with Shem's AP/IB Physic's Classes

The last week of school was a fun one for Shem; while I was giving "the world's most impossible exam" and giving out "unfair A-'s", Shem was having fun watching his students fling objects ("and small inocent unexpectant rodents," says Shem) with their Trebuchets.

Summer has arrived!

(After the 5k race Amy and I walked to all of the tents set up in Qwest field to grab our goodies. It felt really good to be part of such a big fundraiser to help find a cure to breast cancer! I would definitely run this race again sometime!)

Well, our first week off has consisted of shopping, playing, running, shopping, going through camping gear, buying camping gear, and hanging out with friends and family! Shem has been such a trooper!! He normally will take a week off after school to get his life in order, but he has been keeping up with my got-to-get-things-done pace and going everywhere with me including shopping! (he hates shopping and will complain the whole time!) Tuesday he braved REI with Amy and I (we easily get distracted and he was patient with us) I found some chaco sandels for only $30!! And today after we picked 3 flats of strawberries we went shopping at the outlet mall in North Bend and Shem even bought himself some new shorts like I've been hoping he would! I'm happy now! :)

I've been running and following this training plan to get faster at a 5k and I hope to run one more in a couple of weeks to see how I've improved. I have a goal to get tone again and to loose a couple pounds, well, I mostly want to fit into my size 6/8 jeans again! I don't look fat or anything, but I just feel so out of shape and my wonderful hips have grown, so I need to knock off a couple inches. Married life has taken a small toll on my body. :)

We're almost done!

This Thursday marks the end of our first year of teaching (yeah! we survived) and the beginning of our first fun summer together (without planning a wedding :))! More pics and fun to come!