Fort Worden

Today we got up bright and early to head to Ft. Worden for what I refer to as "day camping". Some of our friends are up there for the weekend actually camping, but we just went up for the day and came home.

Ft. Worden has a very interesting history. Let me paste in a background for you:

Fort Worden, along with the heavy batteries of Fort Flagler and Fort Casey, once guarded nautical entrance to Puget Sound. These posts, established in the late 1890s, became the first line of a fortification system designed to prevent a hostile fleet from reaching such targets as the Bremerton Naval Yard and the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett. Construction began in 1897 and continued in one form or another until the fort was closed in 1953. The property was purchased as a state park in 1955. Fort Worden is named after Rear Admiral John L. Worden.

But that is not all that makes this place exciting to me. It was where one of the greatest movies of all time, An Officer and a Gentleman, was filmed. During my childhood, my mom was very much in love with the young Richard Gere. She loved this movie and watched it...oh, about 862 times. Which meant I also watched it and eventually learned to love it as well. I can literally recite the lines along with the characters (Way to go, Paula...*clapping*...way to go...)

Jenny I know you are laughing at this right now!

Here are some (ok, lots) of photos from our day:




Driving out towards Hood Canal with a gorgeous view of the Olympics.















Our new bike rack!














We hiked all the way up to all the old artillery bunkers are. Here are Bella and Michelle.















The long hike is worth the view at the top! You can see the Cascades in the distance.











Jamie- Great to see you following the rules!










Ackley Family













This pic shows just some of the old bunkers. It amazes me that people are still allowed to go inside of them. It is almost completely dark down inside with lots of rooms and hallways and scary nooks and crannies.













Exploring more...


















Bella and I came up for some daylight and a little self portrait while I gave her a piggyback ride.












A weird labrynth of trails we found in the ivy.















Most of the abandoned structures have signs like this that give you a little background:














We stumbled upon an entrance to a weird little tunnel, so we thought what the heck, let's head inside.












Inside the tunnel
















Looking through the tunnel from the other end.















Inside the bunkers there is graffiti everywhere. I had Jamie pose as the Lusty Lady.












I found a patch of beautiful light so I made Jamie pose for me once again. She was a great sport!















Once we came back down from our bunker adventure, we headed down to the beach. Now let me share a little secret...I have a full-blown fear of tsunamis. I have nightmares about them and everything. Whenever I am in a tsunami zone, I always mentally plan my escape. Here I am looking scared next to the sign.















Before we reached the beach, we found a pair of glasses, which was really odd, because we'd found a pair of aviators up at the bunkers earlier. So what do we do? Put them on for pictures. Here's Don looking oh-so-studious.












So of course I have to put them on too. I was laughing so hard in this pic I thought I would pee my pants! (Nice hair, girl)
















Me and little Rowan on the beach. He was whining for me to put him down, but I wouldn't do it until he hugged me first.
















Back at camp...





















We got tired of constantly chasing after Rowan so we went and got his car seat out of the car. You can see he's none too thrilled with this situation.















Look closely at these next two...We had our friend Becky snap a pic of us and we were like "Take two, in case one of us has our eyes closed!" So the first one came out like this:











And the second one came out like this:

Yesterday Was Purple Day

Getting Bella dressed each morning is always somewhat of a daily adventure. I never really know what I am in for. Sometimes she won't even notice what I am putting on her, other days she'll completely freak out if I don't let her wear her Tinkerbell costume to school or shorts out in the snow.

Yesterday morning I was going through her dresser drawers and our conversation proceeded like this:

Me: Bella, do you want the pink shirt or the purple shirt?
Bella: The purple one. Is today purple day?
Me: Purple day?
Bella: Yeah. Remember it was green day on Patrick's day, so is today purple day?

It then donned on me that she must think all colors have their day at some point, just like green has it's day on St. Patrick's Day. So I decided to enthusiastically go along with it.

Me: Oh my goodness!! I almost forgot, Bella! It IS Purple Day!!

So Bella went to daycare yesterday in head to toe purple. I wonder if she found it strange that she was the only one honoring Purple Day?

Snow in April

Mother Nature is suffering from a serious case of seasonal confusion. Someone needs to push her aside and take over the wheel. I know what you're thinking...Does she have nothing to talk about other than the weather?? OK, not when it's this weird. Just one week ago today we reached a record high. I thought it had gotten to 75 degrees, but it actually hit 82. Freakishly awesome. But today, I wake up to falling snow.

Oh! It gets better...

Tonight we're supposed to have thunder and lightening.

Sheesh.

My Great Weekend

I had a really great weekend!! Granted, it is Wednesday and I am just now getting around to blogging about it...Anyhoo, my BFF Kaylee was in town (I always get a little chuckle out of "BFF" -so juvenile, but I never claimed to be mature!) On Saturday I did a photo shoot and then later met up with her at Urraco for some iced coffee. It was a super nice day, I think it was 75 degrees or so. It was great! Mind you, Kaylee came from Phoenix, so for her it was old hat, but for the rest of us who suffered through snow until the end of March, it was wonderful.
On Sunday our friend Erin and I went out to Kaylee's parents' house and hung out most of the day, mainly catching up and being goofy!


Kaylee- Looking gorgeous as always!

















I had this guy take our pic and I told him it will autofocus, he was like "uhh...yeah......." like I was insulting his camera knowledge or something.


Erin, Kaylee, and myself looking very senior picture-esque


I am 31. When will I grow up?




Kaylee, presenting me with a sailboat. Thank you! I have always wanted a sailboat!



Everyone deserves a Kaylee!

Recipe Revision

Ok, my post about the cabbage salad is NOW correct. I had left out an important step.

Cabbage Chicken Salad

I think from time to time I will share a few of my favorite recipes (which is a short list, according to Dale).

This salad is really good, so go ahead and give it a try and tell me what you think.

In a colander, crumble 2 packages chicken flavor Top Ramen noodles and pour boiling water over the top (3-4 cups) then add it to a serving bowl with the following:

2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded
5 cups chopped cabbage*
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 cup sliced almonds
5 sliced green onions

In a smaller bowl, whisk together:
2 Tbsp vinegar
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
seasoning packets from Ramen noodles

*I just use the bagged chopped cabbage that you buy for cole slaw. It works great, and I don't even measure it. Besides, the little purple cabbage pieces and carrot shreds give the salad some color.

Add dressing and mix to coat. Chill for 3-4 hours- this part is important for the flavors to develop. Otherwise it just tastes bland.


Here's a pic of the finished product. Please don't be distracted by my late 1980s mauve counter tops.

Dr. McDreamy Rides the STP?

Much to my delight I discovered Dr. McDreamy on the cover of Dale's and my Bicycling magazine. I had no idea he was one of us. Perhaps he will join us on the STP? He does work at Seattle Grace Hospital, after all, and surely the starting line is just a quick jaunt up the street for him.

I can't wait...as I see him approach in the little mirror on my helmet, I will accidentally crash into the ditch. And he will stop and help me...he has to. He's a doctor.

Lily

This morning my cousin Ashley brought over her new baby, Lily, for a photo shoot. It was my gift to them. Lily is such a beautiful, sweet baby, and looks exactly like Ashley did when she was born (it makes me feel really old that I clearly remember that!)

Here are a few of my favorites!

Set Your Tivos

Ok everybody, you have got to watch Diane Sawyer's special tonight on abc. This one's called The Last Lecture. I have seen this guy on Oprah before. I know you will find him as amazing and inspiring as I did.

I Have 3, I Need 5 More

Dale and I bought our house over 5 years ago and when we first moved in, we decided one of the first projects we'd tackle would be the upstairs bathroom. Since I have a very hard working, creative, and motivated husband, he drew up a design (with my input here and there) and the project was underway in no time. I know some women have to beg their husbands to do things around the house, and some husbands will start projects and never finish them, but mine is just the opposite to the extreme. One Friday night during the remodel I got up in the middle of the night and found him working away. "Are you gonna come to bed? It's 5:30 in the morning."

When you walk into the bathroom, to the immediate right is a series of shelves which had been a small linen closet with a laundry chute at the bottom. When we remodeled, we decided to not have doors but instead just open shelves, which sounded like a good idea at the time. I pictured pretty folded towels and plants and other things to make it beautiful.

Then we had kids.

Since that is the bathroom closest to their bedroom, it has officially become their bathroom. The open shelves of pretty towels and decor slowly evolved into a hodge-podge of bright cartoon towels, baby wipes, bath toys, Tinkerbell bath soap for Bella, Thomas the Train bath soap for Rowan, etc. Through time I have grown to hate how cluttered and obnoxious it looks.

So a few weeks ago I was wandering around Target in West Olympia when I spotted these baskets that I knew would be just perfect for the bathroom. They were exactly what I needed to make the shelves look organized and concise. But they only had 2. No biggie, I thought. I bought them, and then headed across town to the Lacey Target to (so I thought) get the rest. When I got there, they only had one. So I bought it. Then I thought...no biggie, I'll just go to Target online and get the rest. So I did, and I could not find them on the website. Once again, I thought, no biggie, I'll just order them through the store.

A few days after that, I went back to Target with the tag from one of the baskets to have the customer service lady order 5 more baskets for me, and I told her how I hadn't been able to find enough of them in the stores and couldn't find them at all online. So she scanned the tag and was like "Oh, no wonder you couldn't find them! Looks like they've been discontinued."

Great. Now my shelves look slightly better, but I still feel back at square one!


I need a wider angle lens for these shots!

Where I Work, We Work Hard

Here are a few pictures from yesterday at work. We were just goofing off in the breakroom during lunch.

Here is Melissa's Zoolander face:


Haley


















Oops! A blurry shot. At least the important part -the coffee cup- is in focus.


Erika:






Angelina, is that you?



This is me thinking about going back to work:

Happy Birthday!

My dad would have been turning 55 today. Happy Birthday, dad!

Did Courtney Get A Spot?

Nope.

Nike Women's Marathon

So a while back my marathon running friend, Courtney, convinced me to register for the Nike Women's Marathon. Her point was, basically, that if I will be conditioned enough to ride my bike 204 miles over two days, then I would certainly be capable to run 13.1 miles (given I'd do the half). She had a good point, so I registered, reluctantly. The way it works is that so many people want to participate, they do a lottery type drawing to see who gets a spot...Well I had gone from being reluctant about it to actually really excited and hoping for a spot in the race.

Did I get a spot?

30,000 women registered, 20,000 were drawn at random, the odds were in my favor. Today the emails were sent out with the results...

...I did not get a spot. I am seriously bummed out! All afternoon I was moping around the office. This sucks. I really wanted to participate. Darn.

Did Courtney get a spot? I haven't heard from her yet. I could call her, but it's midnight in Maryland.