Nice Farmer (Biker) Tan

Dale goes on these ridiculously long bike rides. I always beg him to wear sunscreen and protect his skin. I feel like a nagging mother. You can see he listens well.

Courtney and Mike's Engagement Session, Seattle

Originally we were going to drive to Leavenworth on Friday to shoot Courtney and Mike's engagement photos. I thought it was a perfect location. The live in Maryland but both lived in Germany at different points in their lives, so I thought it would be a great way to recognize that.

We scrapped that plan when we found out that Courtney and I had to be in Seattle by 7pm to pick up our marathon packets (in person) and we knew we wouldn't be able to fit a Shelton to Leavenworth to Seattle trip all in one day. So...since we had to be in Seattle anyway, we did the shoot there.

This was my first engagement shoot ever. I have a few weddings under my belt, but never an engagement session. I was actually pretty nervous. Good thing they are some of my best friends.

They ended up loving the pictures...I got up early this morning and worked like mad to get them edited and saved so they'd be ready for when they left tonight.



It's funny- as I showed them the ~60 final images on a slide show, we laughed at how many kissing ones there were. "I had you guys making out all day!"

I loved loved loved Courtney's orange jacket from jcrew. She left it at my house to keep for a while. "It's already too hot in Maryland for it" she said. "Just stick it in the mail when you're done with it." What a great friend!

This one is a little bit of a joke. We were in a furniture store.




We took some fun shots at (where else?) Pike Place Market.








This one is my favorite from the day:






So Courtney really wanted me to take a few shots in the original Starbucks on Pike. I was skeptical that any would turn out...it was SO crowded that people were smashed up against us, but these ended up being some of my favorites!










Here are a few from Kerry Park...it was bright and sunny and the lighting for that time of the day was pretty unideal, but these two look cute in any light.






















This next shot was taken in a courtyard of an apartment complex. I had fired off only one frame when a miserable old man yelled at us that it was not a public park. Good thing it turned out!






I love this one of Mike.

My Half Marathon

I'm pooped! It's been a busy weekend. One of my best friends, Courtney (like she needs an introduction, I have talked about Courts a million times on here) and her Fiance, Mike, flew out this weekend from Maryland. I picked them up early Friday and we headed to Seattle where we shot their engagement photos (next post).
After shooting for most of the day, we headed to Mike's sister liz's house in Ballard to spend the night. Liz and her husband, Nick, graciously put us up for the night. Then the next morning, bright and early (and I mean early) we got up and headed to Tukwila where Liz, Courtney and I ran the Rock & Roll Seattle half marathon.

Here are some pictures. These first ones are at the starting line.

There's Courtney on the left, then liz, then me. We were crammed into the back of Liz's Prius. It was about 5:45am. Brutal.


Waiting for our turn to go at the starting line.

Mike took this pic of Courts and I approaching the finish line. Not quite sure what my left hand is doing.


The race finished at Qwest Field. Here we are with our finisher's medals. No, Liz is not wearing a Superman cape...they give you these foil blankets after you cross the finish line. Courtney laughed at me when she saw this picture. She said I looked like I was trying to act cool. The truth is, I was in so much pain in this picture. No, not from blisters or tired legs, but from the horrible, throbbing, caffeine withdrawl headache I had. I hadn't drank any coffee before the run and boy did I suffer those last few miles. I really am addicted. Screw Gatorade...I needed my tall nonfat latte!

Courtney and Mike




We were walking up to Starbucks when we stopped for this picture so you can see how many runners participated. Forty thousand!

After finding the nearest Starbucks, we hit a yummy Thai restaurant for lunch, then we headed for Shelton. We decided to take the Seattle-Bremerton ferry back home. As soon we found a place to sit on the upper deck, I was out! And thank you, Courtney, for taking possibly one of the most unflattering pictures of me in existence. When I woke up they showed me the picture and wanted to know what I was dreaming about because of the placement of my hand (a friend without a dirty mind is no friend to me ;)


You wear these little ID tags in your shoelaces that have a little chip in them that tracks your time and placement in the race.

Here I am playing with Courtney's iPhone. Maybe someday I'll actually get on board and buy one.




A few pictures taken from the ferry...a cruise ship in port


Another ferry


Beautiful Mt. Rainier

Happy Father's Day!

For Father's Day this year I decided to have a photo shoot done with myself and the kids for Dale. My awesome friends, Amy and Forrest Cooper, took them for us. They made it so fun for the kids.

This morning I got up early and made breakfast...Crepes with lemon butter and whipped cream, sausage, and fresh fruit (and coffee- a given.) I have been so excited for Dale to see all the pictures that I almost gave them to him early!
He opened them up after we ate and of course loved them.

Amy and Forrest...Thanks for helping make this Father's Day a memorable one.

Also, to all my friends out there who are dads themselves...Happy Father's Day!

STP Update

So recently, Dale and I had a lengthy discussion and decided it will be best if I ride the STP over two days while Dale sticks with our original plan of one. I kind of have to swallow my pride with this one, because I really, really wanted to prove myself...but the truth is, simply, I am not ready. Don't get me wrong, I have been training, just not enough to feel confident riding 200+ miles in one day. I just haven't had the time to commit to the amount of cycling it would take to prepare.

With that said...I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Granted, I will have to be by myself and I won't have my riding buddy, but I'll be fine. I'll make new friends. I joked with Dale that I'll just have to find some cute young cyclists to talk shop with over Powerbars and bananas.

One of my very favorite BFFs, Melissa, just bought a house in Centralia (the half-way/overnight spot). We're going to have a sleepover! Yes! No more getting 45 minutes of sleep in a sweltering, stuffy little tent on the hard ground with no pillow directly under a streetlight (not that I am traumatized from last year, no, not at all). The plan is I'll roll into town in the afternoon, drop off my bike, pick up my bag, then give Mel a call and she'll come pick me up. Then off to her house for a shower, some RR...and she did promise me a beer and pasta party followed by a two hour massage (remember Mel?). I seriously am so excited about having a bed and a full night's sleep, I won't even know what to do with myself.

It is going to be so fun. Besides, honesty, who really wants to ride their bike for 200 miles strait?

One of the Worst Days Ever

I wasn't going to blog about this, originally. I like to keep my blog lighthearted and fun and I just don't feel that everything under the sun is appropriate to post. But then I decided that my blog is somewhat of a journal and journaling your life sometimes means including the sad stuff too.

I just talked to my sister on the phone and asked her if she cared if I blogged about what happend yesterday. She said that she was kind of surprised that I hadn't already done so.

About a week ago, I cleaned my sister's teeth. When Dr. Bowers did the exam, he decided that there was a spot in her mouth that needed to be evaluated by the oral surgeon and possibly biopsied (to rule out oral cancer). I looked my sister right in the eye and said "Don't even tell mom. She'll only freak out." To say my mom worries is an understatement, and sometimes it's just better to leave her in the dark. Sorry mom. You know we have your best interest at heart when we do things like this.

Since yesterday was my day off, my sister and I met up early in the morning and I drove her over to the oral surgeon's office in Olympia. After an eval, the OS decided a biopsy was necessary because the location (side of tongue) is a high-risk area, but told Jenny not to loose any sleep over it because he really didn't think it was a cancerous lesion. A biopsy they did, under general anesthesia.

So I drove my sister home. She was pretty groggy from the anesthesia and pain meds. As we pull up to her garage...She was like "Oh my God...is that Fireball?"

Here's where the story gets really awful. If you are an animal lover, you may not even want to read this. Seriously.

We were both completely horrified to discover that my sister's cat had gotten trapped by the garage door. As we got out of my car, we hear her meow and I said "Oh shit, she's still alive." I knew this was not a good thing because we had been gone about 5 hours at that point and the cat was clearly suffering.

You know how automatic garage doors have that safety sensor that will stop the door if anything is in the path of the door as it closes? Sorry to have to be so graphic, but Fireball was stuck at the top, with the door closed all the way...with her head and arms inside the garage and back and legs hanging on the outside. We could tell she was paralized. The only way we could think of that she got into that position was that she was asleep on the door while it was open, then when it closed it pulled her down in and trapped her.

What made it even worse was that the garage door was jammed so we couldn't simply open it up to free up the cat, and we couldn't get into the house to manually crank open the door. My sister called her husband who was working far away and wasn't able come in any reasonable time frame. Then she called her co-worker, Mike, and her nephew, Troy, who happened to be in the area.

Long story short, after about another hour Troy wedged a long 2x4 into the tiny space in the door frame and pushed it just enough for the cat to fall out (we did try to catch her with a bin but missed...it really just kept getting worse.) I told my sister that I would take the cat into the vet and suggested that she stay back and rest (remember, she just had tongue surgery). She agreed, and Mike offered to go with me.

Mike: Do you want me to go with you so you don't have to do this by yourself?

Me: No, I'll be fine.

Mike: Are you sure?

Me: Yes.

Mike: Are you sure?

Me: Yes.

Mike: Are you sure?

Me: Yes.

Mike: I'll follow you.

Me: Ok.

Now don't think I am cruel for doing this...but I had taken a picture of Fireball trapped because I knew I would have to tell the story to the vet and honestly, I just didn't feel like explaining it. I just showed the picture (don't worry, I am not posting it on here.) The vet examined her and confirmed what was obvious: crushed lungs...snapped spinal cord...suffering...etc.

While the doctor did what she had to do I scratched Fireball behind her ear and said a silent prayer for her until it was all over.

In the parking lot my cell rang and I saw it was Jenny. I handed my phone to Mike and asked him if he'd please tell her. Then with that came the tears. I have known Mike for years, but I was embarrased for crying so I made a joke and said "Man! Can you believe that dumb cat?!...You'd think she was mine the way I am a big snotball like this." He gave me a big hug and said he was so sorry and he knows how hard it is to go through.

We loose our loved ones, our friends, our pets. Such are the experiences of life, right?

Today these flowers arrived at my house:

How to Make Sunflower Cupcakes

For Bella's birthday party tonight I made her these sunflower cupcakes. They're actually not that hard to do and turn out so cute.


I used yellow cake and yellow cupcake papers. Try to fill the batter no more than half full into the cups when baking, so the cupcakes don't come out with much of a domed top. This makes for easier decorating.



Use a piping bag filled with yellow frosting and fitted with a "leaf" tip, pipe the flower pedals around the edge of the top of the cupcake.



It may seem like a lot of work, but once you get the hang of piping, you can whip out one cupcake in about a minute.



Fill in the center with chocolate icing.



Sprinkle mini chocolate chips onto the chocolate part.



Voila!