Triathlon

Just this past weekend, Doug competed in his first ever Triathlon down in Langley on Whidbey Island. I was slightly nervous for him since he didn't get to train as much as he wanted while he was deployed..but he did really great and finished the 1/2 mile swim, 19.5 mile bike ride, and 3.8 mile run in just over 2 hours. I have to say, I've never witnessed a Triathlon race before, just marathons etc, but this seriously had to be the most competitive race I have ever seen! Anyway, here are some pics from the big day..

Yay so proud of my hubby!

The East Coast With Old Friends

A couple of weeks ago I was able to catch up with my old roommies from Texas A&M- Jen, Erin, and Tess. We try to get together every year to hang out, reminisce and of course have fun! So far, I've made it to all but one of the reunions since we graduated 5 years ago...(YIKES! 5 years- I'm getting old!) This year we met up in Baltimore where Tess is living and working. Anyway, I'll keep this blog short and sweet I just wanted to brag about my awesome friends and the great time we have together.

Gig'Em Aggies!!

Sun, Shopping, and San Francisco!

My friend Rachel and I, being fed up with the Washington rain, decided to head to San Francisco for a girl's weekend! Needless to say, we did what pretty much all girls do during girl weekends..so in an effort to keep my blogs short and to the point I will sum up the whole weekend for you in 4 pictures and 3 words.......No really I will...watch me....
We enjoyed:

FOOD!

FUN!

.....AND SHOPPING!

Disclaimer: Ok, so I know the picture above is not a picture of Rachel and I shopping, because well, I didn't get any shots of that...However, on our way back from the airport we saw these guys dressed up as Star Wars characters and Rachel managed to capture them on film as we were driving by...It was so weird that I felt I had to include it in our San Francisco weekend blog...=)

The End!

A Weekend Away

This past week was Doug's birthday, and so to celebrate we set off for Orcas Island which is part of the San Juan Islands here in the Pacific Northwest. In case you aren't familiar with the San Juan Islands I'll give you a little geography lesson before I go into more details about our trip.(And I promise I am not trying to sound like a know it all..I found out most of this stuff very recently!)

Anyway, Orcas Island is part of the San Juan Islands (as I stated earlier) and is actually the largest island in the over 300 Islands that make up this group. The second largest is San Juan Island. The Washington state ferries only visit 4 of the islands - Shaw, San Juan, Orcas, and Lopez. The other islands are either privately owned or are protected as wildlife refuges by the government so of course the ferries can't really dock at any of these. However, you can visit most of the islands if you rent a boat and set sail!
Each island is very unique in both geography and wildlife and so it's really neat to explore as many as possible. Doug and I have been only to San Juan Island, so we were totally pumped to be headed to Orcas for the weekend!
Anyway, on to the trip:

After a 30 minute ferry ride (which was absolutely beautiful!) We checked into our B&B- The Inn on Orcas Island. I highly recommend it for any of you going to Orcas for a visit. The rooms were so cute, the food amazing, and you have access to the Inn's canoe and bikes to explore the area with. Here's a pic of the Inn:


Then, Doug and I set off to explore all that Orcas had to offer:


First, we went to Moran state park where we got to hike around this goregous lake...





Then we headed to the top of Mt. Constitution which is the highest point on the island at over 2000 feet. Here are some views from the top..




Then we got to kayak in the Puget Sound where there was a ton of sea life!



A group of seals sunning themselves on some rocks..we were literally like 10 feet away..so cool!



We found these starfish just hanging out..I never knew there were purple starfish! Go figure..


Anyway, that's just a few of the awesome things we got to do. I would post all of the pics but frankly, I am kind of blogged out now- plus, I don't want to bore you..=) So all in all, it was a good birthday for Doug (If I do say so myself!) And not to sound like the tourist department for Orcas Island, but seriously- you should go!

Update....

Things have been so crazy the last few months that I have not really had the chance to update our blog!

Anyway, I am back after an extended absence and am ready to enter the blogging world again...

This past weekend my friend Rachel and I had the opportunity to run a half marathon here on the island. It was the first one for both of us and we did decently well since considering we didn't really train as we should have...(oops!)

Here are some pics from the main event:

Rachel and I near the finish of the race...My legs were so tired I couldn't feel them anymore!

We were so excited we did it! Plus, we got these awesome medals that I plan on wearing every day for the rest of my life...(medals go with everything right?)

Rachel, Me, Tree, Anne and I all pose for a pic after the race....Tree also ran the race and cheered us on as did Anne...who was a great support on the last hill!

My biggest fan....Couldn't have done it without him!

Overall, it was a great but challenging race..(there were a ton of hills!) I had a blast though and am going to start training for my next half in July! (AAAH!)

A Belated Bavarian Christmas

So since Doug and I did not get to spend Christmas together again this year..(it's a long story so we won't go there) We decided to drive to Leavenworth, WA for a little belated Bavarian Christmas! For those of you that have never heard of Leavenworth, (which included me up until about a year ago) it is a small town in the middle of the Cascade Mountain range. About 40 years back, the residents decided to build the town around a German theme since that area of Washington apparently looks a lot like Germany-and what they ended up with is a small piece of Bavarian paradise!

The town is especially famous for it's amazing Christmas lights and decorations, and luckily, Doug and I were able to visit before they took everything down.

Here's a view of the town and the lights from our hotel bedroom. Unfortunately, the photo does not do the view justice. It is much more awesome in person...

A few more shots of Leavenworth during the day. It really did look like we were in Germany with the European style buildings and the mountains in the background....



Doug and I got to see a lot of cool stuff including the Nutcracker Museum and Shop. Apparently Leavenworth has the largest collection of Nutcrackers in the world. Who would have thought?

Leavenworth also has AMAZING food and Doug and I probably sampled most of it...seriously, I dont think we had a bad meal the whole weekend! It was also my first time to ever try authentic German food and it was so yummy!

One night we went to Pavz, which is a French restaurant which specializes in crepes. We decided to try a couple without realizing how big they were...Needless to say,we both ate a ton that night...

Me and my crepe....

Doug was in shock about how big the crepes were.....

Apparently, people in Leavenworth not only like to serve food, they also like to decorate with it..Case in point, we found this tree outside a German bakery decorated with real soft pretzels...It was actually kind of gross but I wanted to try one anyway.

We also got to go skiing at Steven's Pass which is only about 30 miles away from Leavenworth.. The day of skiing was definitely needed after consuming that much food for two days! Here's a really cruddy shot of us on the mountain....

Anyway, all in all it was a wonderful vacation and it was great to finally get to celebrate Christmas with my husband!

Merry Belated Bavarian Christmas Ya'll!!