Hot August Nights

Another month has gone by this year...so crazy!

August was a full month, with some good, bad and bittersweet. Here's a little recap:

I got my hair dyed...and put some purple in it! Josh has been wanting me to do that for awhile now, and it's something I really wanted to do a few years back...so I went for it! It was only really bright for about two weeks and is pretty much gone at this point, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted!

Right after I got it done. I'm not usually one to post a lot of selfies, but I was trying to get a good picture of the color. 

At the beginning of the month, our friends found out they are having a boy! We are so excited for them, even though we were initially on Team Pink.

Team Pink was wrong!

We went to a fundraiser for our local police department's tactical team with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. As it was their first one, the night didn't quite go as planned, but we had a good time.

 Doing a little dancing...with a very grainy picture

The next day, I went to a winery event with my friend L.B. and her parents. It was a lot of fun. We also went out to lunch and hit up a couple other wineries after that. It was such a good day and I was so thankful to be able to spend it with them. That evening, we went and watched our friends's band play a little show at a coffee shop. They always do such a good job and we love being able to support them.

The following weekend, Josh's parents were in town for his dad's birthday. We did a little family get together on his actual birthday. The next day, we went to a baseball game as a family to celebrate his birthday. Our team won, which was pretty exciting, and they had fireworks after the game! It was such a good fireworks show, and I'm so glad we stayed. For being a sold out game and with how hard it was to get down on the field to watch the fireworks, it definitely ended up being worth it.

 Yep. That's how we roll

A few days later, my mom and I went to visit my grandma. We had a really nice time chatting and catching up on life and what's been going on lately. Later that day, my friend S.W. and I got to unlock pumpkin spice lattes a day early! Even though it was really hot outside, we thoroughly enjoyed our drinks.

Later that week, we celebrated K.W.'s birthday during our Bible study. It was a fun night of pizza, funfetti cake, and talking about following Jesus.

That weekend, we went to our friends's house warming party for their new place. We had a lot of fun hanging out and chatting with our friends, and "warming" their beautiful home.

The next day marked the end of an era. Our beloved Sunday evening service ended. It was a very bittersweet night and it was pretty hard to sit through, knowing it was coming to an end. I am so incredibly thankful for what it was, what was accomplished through it, and the people I know because of it...but I am definitely bummed that it's over. It's going to be a big adjustment transitioning to going back to church on Sunday mornings, after attending and being a part of the evening service for six years. I am hopeful God is going to use this time to do some amazing things, but I am definitely still very sad that the evening service is over, and that it all happened so suddenly.

Some other highlights for August:

My book club girls and I finished that series I mentioned in my last post (Delirium. We were not overly impressed), and also read Paper Towns by John Green and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. I really enjoyed Paper Towns for the most part, but We Were Liars just made me angry. I also re-read Mockingjay during a break in our reading since the first part of the movie comes out later this year. I had forgotten how much I like that book, and how emotional it makes me.

I have been pinning all sorts of ideas for decorating for fall (I am really excited for a craft night coming up so I can get some of those ideas nailed down), as well as ideas for Halloween costumes. I've decided I need to be a bit more crafty this year and I really want to decorate my home (at least a little bit) for more than just Christmas each year.

We also saw Guardians of the Galaxy...twice! We first went with our friends and we were pleasantly surprised with how much we enjoyed it. The following weekend, we went with my family. I really liked it both times...even though our second time got interrupted by a fire alarm and we had to leave the theater for about half an hour while they sorted everything out!

We also babysat our niece all day on a Sunday while her parents went to a football game. We had such a good day with her. She always makes life a lot more fun.

We took the little cheeseball out for ice cream for being such a good girl

I also had some fun coffee dates, a wine night, hang outs, and game nights with good friends this month. Overall, it was a really good month.

Good Ol' July

The month of July started with us returning from our fun trip to Seattle and Portland!

The following day, our first nephew was born! We are so excited to have a new little person to love in our family and we can't wait to meet him!

New nephew!

The 4th of July was really fun. I started the day off at a shower of love for a friend who was getting married. She didn't want gifts or games, so we had a fun brunch and prayed over her. It was a wonderful time with some very dear-to-my-heart women.

 Me and Megh at our friend's shower

Later that evening, we met up with my sister and her husband, and some of our friends to watch the fireworks. We have this favorite spot that we always watch them, away from where most people watch them. It was a lot of fun. I've always loved fireworks, so the 4th of July is one of my favorite days.

The gang waiting for the fireworks

The next day, we celebrated my friend L.B.'s daughter's birthday. She was born on the 4th of July four years ago. It's so crazy to think that much time has passed already!

That evening, we had a little summer bash with some good friends. We played games and ate lots of yummy food.

The next week, I had a fun lunch with a friend. It was good to catch up, as she and I hadn't really been able to hang out in awhile. We also celebrated Josh's grandparents's birthdays that evening. It was a fun time with family.

We were supposed to go the wedding of the friend whose shower I went to, but my back was really hurting me, and I knew I couldn't handle the drive to get there. I was really bummed, but I know it was the better plan for us not to go.

My oldest friend had my second nephew that week! My sister and I were able to go meet him a few days after he was born. He is adorable! And it's always fun seeing my goddaughter, as she is his older sister.

My second nephew

I had another wine get together with some friends later that week. It's always a good time with those ladies.

The following week, I had a fun evening out with my friend L.B. We always have the best conversations when we are together.

That weekend, two of our friends that we went to Oregon/Washington with moved into their first home! We had a great day helping them move (well, Josh helped as I was working that morning) and then we spent some time with friends hanging out, trying to stay cool. We went to a fun restaurant/brewery that we had never been before that evening and went back to our friends's new home and played some games.

The next day, I went wine tasting to celebrate one of my friends's birthdays. We went to all the same wineries we went to in January and added one more. It was a really fun day, even though it was incredibly hot outside.

 We didn't plan the black and white thing. It just happened!

Other things that happened in July:

My sister-in-law and I watched the Bachelorette together on Monday nights. It's always a fun evening together.

My little cowgirl at a family dinner 

Snuggled up with Uncle Josh 

Someone wanted to paint Auntie's nails

I sang for worship at church.

Our friends that moved away last year told us they were moving back, as the husband got a new job here!

My little book club finished Harry Potter and read The Giver. And then we started on a new series, that I am almost finished with.

Overall, July was a good month, even though it was a very hot one.

Rain, Green Grass, and Starbucks, Oh My!

This past month, we went on an epic road trip with some of our friends.

Anyone that has known me for awhile knows that Seattle has been my top place to visit for quite some time now. I have always been intrigued by it and the allure of lots of rainy days has always made it a must in my book.

So when a couple of our friends invited us to go on a road trip that would involve stops in Oregon and Washington, I knew this was finally my chance to make my dream come true.

We started off the first night of our trip camping near some awesome sand dunes in Oregon. We had a lot of fun exploring the dunes and taking lots of pictures and videos. It was so incredibly beautiful. We got to enjoy our dinner and s'mores around the campfire before it started to rain. And it rained all.night.long. Thankfully, our tent kept us dry and the sound of the rain actually made it quite easy to fall asleep and stay asleep.

On our way!

 The dunes

 My friend K.M. and I

 The boys being crazy

The next day, we drove up to Seattle. As this was my first time in both Oregon and Washington, I was pretty excited passing over the state lines. We were able to clean up and head out for a night on the town. We ate at this really awesome restaurant called Local 360 (I highly recommend it if you're in the area). My mom had told Josh that we needed to try the king salmon when we were in Seattle, and lucky for me, it was one of the specials of the day at the restaurant. And let me tell you, it was amazing! After our amazing dinner, we went up the Space Needle! I was super excited to do this, even though it's a pretty tourist-y thing to do. The views from the top were incredible. After that, we walked to a place called the Pie Bar, which is just what it sounds like. We lucked out and were able to get seats inside, which was hard as they were super busy (and the place is really small to begin with). We each ordered a different kind of pie and a beverage to go with it. We left there incredibly full and very happy. Every pie I got to try even a small taste of was delicious. And you can order it to go!

 Local 360

 View from the bottom

 And from the top

 Desserted Island pie with strawberry champagne

The next morning, we got ready and headed back into the city. We started our day trying to find the original Starbucks. We got the address wrong at first and ended up at a different Starbucks, but soon figured out it couldn't have been that location. So we walked down to the Public Market and finally found it! It was well worth the 30 minute long line just to get in the store. It was a very tiny location with no seating inside or outside, but they had some fun finds that you could only purchase there, and they treated everyone that walked into the store so well. I'm so glad we were willing to wait for experience that.

 First Starbucks!

 I had to get a mug to commemorate our visit

We continued to walk through the Market and stopped to watch the famous fish guys do their thing. As it was a Saturday, the Market was really busy but we were able to walk through the whole thing and check out all the cool stuff there. We wanted to eat a cheaper lunch, so some of us bought food from street vendors and others of us had chowders from Pike Place Chowder (which was incredible). We continued our day after that by walking around the city some more and ended up taking a ferry over to Bainbridge Island. As it went from pouring before we got on the ferry to being extremely warm when we got off the ferry, we didn't stay on the island too long. We walked down to the waterfront and hopped on the next ferry to take us back. After that, we walked to a bakery I had looked up before our trip that was supposed to have incredible cupcakes and macarons...and it did not disappoint. We then headed back to our hotel, as we had done a lot of walking that day, and ordered pizza for dinner. We ate our goodies from Yellow Leaf for dessert and went to bed semi-early, as we had more driving to do.

 These guys are hilarious

 On the ferry

The macarons we bought at Yellow Leaf

The next morning, we packed up and headed for Oregon. Before arriving in Portland, we stopped at the Multnomah Falls. It was so beautiful there. We were able to get some great pictures of the falls and enjoyed our little pit stop there. We then headed into Portland and grabbed some lunch from some of the food trucks downtown. It was incredible how different it felt to go from Seattle to Portland. After lunch, we headed to Distillery Row and bought passports to go tasting at the different distilleries. The passport allowed for each person to taste at six different distilleries, and you didn't have to visit each of them in the same day. As six would have been a lot to do, we decided to only try four. We had a lot of fun and it was really nice that the ones we choose to go to were all within walking distance of each other. After that, we headed to our hotel to check in and get freshened up before dinner. We went to Deschutes for dinner and it was amazing. After dinner, we walked around downtown Portland a bit. We tried to go to a fun ice cream place for dessert, but the line was super long.

Our whole group in front of the falls

On the bridge

One of the cocktails they made us at one of the distilleries

The next day, we headed back to downtown Portland and walked along the waterfront while one of our friends that went with us (who is a professional photographer) did a quick photo session with a couple he knew. After that, we headed to Voodoo Donut and each ordered two amazing donuts. We then walked around downtown for awhile and headed into Powell's Books. It was a little overwhelming, as it has multiple stories and tons and tons of books, but it was definitely my kind of place. After doing some more walking around, we decided to head to Por Que No for lunch. I wish I could say that I enjoyed it, but I didn't. I think part of it was because I wasn't feeling the best at that point (I think the heat and all the walking was really getting to me), but I also think I'm a little spoiled where I live to have some really good Mexican food. And to me, this was more mediocre. Since I wasn't feeling the best and everyone else was tired of walking, we headed back to the hotel to take naps and rest a little. It was much needed and I felt so much better after. Later that evening, we headed over to Salt and Straw and got ice cream (this is the place we tried to go the first night). They had some crazy flavors (like Pear and Blue Cheese) but even the weird sounding ones that I tried were good. I ended up getting a scoop of Birthday Cake and Blackberries, and Strawberry with Cilantro Lime Cheesecake. So good! After that, we headed back to the hotel and ended up getting some dinner a little while later (nothing exciting for dinner). 

 We had to wait in a little bit of a line to get into Voodoo

And the next day we headed home!

Overall, I can definitely say that Seattle is my kind of place. Portland was fun to visit, but it wasn't really my most favorite place. There definitely seemed to be some other interesting places to eat that we didn't get to try, but I felt like we got to see most of the popular sights there.

I am so glad we were able to take this trip and experience these fun places with good friends. And now I can check Seattle off my Bucket List!

Hello June

It seems my blogging these days mostly consists of monthly updates as to what I've been up to.

While there are times that I miss sharing more personal thoughts on a regular basis, I do really enjoy being able to have a tangible place to save memories of fun times.

Since I last left off (not including our friend's wedding), we celebrated the birth of my oldest friend's baby (who is due to arrive any day now!). It was a really special time of being able to bless her and to celebrate new life.

 Me and the glowing momma

And with my sister

We spent Father's Day with my family and had a great lunch together. It's always so good to spend quality time with everyone all together.

Later that week, a couple of friends and I went for a girls day out. Sometimes you just need some quality girl time and I'm so glad that we did it. It was a really good day with serious conversations, good food, and a lot of laughs. We walked around a city, went wine tasting, and enjoyed two meals together. It was a really fun day.

Also mixed in the month of June were Bachelorette nights with my sister-in-law, our marrieds group, a couple of friend hang outs, a concert that our friends's band was a part of, lots of Harry Potter reading with my book club friends (and lots of discussion about it), and a really fun trip that deserves its own post.

We are friends with all of the guys in the band. They played some newer songs they've been working on that were awesome!

All in all, June was a good month. We had a little more down time than we've had in previous months, so that was pretty exciting. I've been really enjoying the fact that I've had more time to read (and have had friends that I'm reading with that are helping me to kick my butt into gear when it comes to reading). It's also just been nice to have more time to spend with Josh and to have more down time. I'm a girl that needs quite a bit of alone time to function well (introvert, anyone?), so that's always good for my soul.