Auction Dinner: Take 2

Auction Dinner....good food!

Once again, Brandon amazed with wonderfully yummy food. The dinner went smoothly and was definitely enjoyed by all.
The menu:

Bone Marrow & Parsley Salad
Caprese Salad
Gnocchi
Short Ribs with Celery Duo
Chocolate Tart
Farmer's Market Peach Tart

Yummy :)

Thanks to R for his awesome help in the kitchen that day!

Four Years...

Four years ago I married my best friend.

Its been wonderful!

 Anniversary surprise :)

Kayaking :)

We kayaked on Friday afternoon/evening....awesome!

Check another one of the list! You see, we have the list of things we have to do in Seattle before we move, get old, forget or whatever. The list is long and ever changing. I love being able to check one off because we normally add another :)

Our summer weather is fading quickly...Friday, Saturday and Sunday were awesome...cold and cloudy came on Monday. I am still hoping for an Indian summer....

Labor Day Weekend!

Wahoo! Love long weekends :) Brandon and I definitely made the most of it...the weekend was full of friends, sun, food, fun, oh! did I mention sun! Yes, the sun has been out and heat has joined it. Looks like Seattle is finally getting some summer weather...woot woot! We have had awesome temps...in the high 70's/low 80's and it should continue into this weekend :)

So back to Labor day....we had a wonderfully relaxing Friday evening. We ate some yummy food (fresh figs...one of my summer favs!) and watched a movie, Love and Other Drugs. It was different but good.

Saturday was a mix of events...running errands, watching Michigan football (Go Blue), napping, waiting for the game to come back on, and we had the C's over for dinner. Brandon, of course, wowed us with a meal of fresh tomato salad, farmers market green beans and garlic confit pork tenderloin. Yum!

On Sunday, we went to church and then headed out to Golden Gardens! We met up with some folks from BINW and enjoyed the sun, the sunset and a bonfire! I got to make the fire....hooray!

pictures from the beach: sunset, friends, dirty feet, brandon and me!

Monday was again a beautiful day! We went over to the K's for a labor day cookout. Lots of fun with friends. J asked us to bring an appetizer...so Brandon made his first steak tartar...super tasty but not for the faint of heart!

My Picture is gone!

I had a picture collage for the camp trip but its gone! Where did it go?

JHYG Camp Trip

So much FUN!
We camped,
ate marshmallows (lots!),
hiked ice caves,
went in an old mine,
played in the river,
ate paella (made by Brandon),
built big fires,
fellowship,
read God's word,
laughed,
ate some more (ten kids can really eat!),
slept on the ground, and
just had
FUN :)

Random Summer Fun

are you ready for this???

Who knew mushrooms could be so cool?

and tasted...well...good but interesting....
simple summer dinner :) farmer's market tomatoes w/ basil, olive oil and balsamic....yummy!
the blue angels came to Seattle for Seafair...we watched from the porch!
Love summer!

Ashley comes to visit!!

Oh and Garrett, too :)

So last Thursday, Ashley and Garrett came to Seattle!!! Whoopee! It was great fun. We walked downtown, went to Portland (for a wonderful festival), ate, laughed, visited the Ballard locks...all in a weekend! It was great to see them and spend more than a couple of hours with them. So blessed to have wonderful friends :)

Auction Dinner

In Good Company
Anna sta notte
Bone Marrow with Parsley Salad
Moules a la Basquaise
Pork Tenderloin with Parsnip Puree
Chocolate Tart
Chafoutis
Biscotti and Coffee

1, 2, 3 Crazy Weekends in July

Whew! It has been a crazy few weeks!

Weekend one: The 4th of July! Hooray and happy birthday America!! The Eastlake neighborhood (where we live) knows how to celebrate...really celebrate. The Seattle fireworks are pretty much set off in our backyard ( or in our case back porch). The weather was perfect with blue skies and warm temps. We had a lot of people over for good food, games and of course the show! Lots of fun until we were awoken at 3:30am for fireworks, round 2. Not cool since we had to be at work in the morning! Before the firework festivities!

Weekend two: Warm Beach. Warm Beach is a campgrounds/retreat center just north of Seattle. The Washington state (and Canada) CRC church gather there for one long weekend in July every year (and have been doing so for a LONG time). Brandon and I were asked to run the junior high program. After, much planning and a bit of worrying, we were there and hanging out with 30 to 50 kids through out the day! It was awesome...lessons, candy and a lot of games. The kids were great, activities going on everywhere, food, friends from church, camp fires, s'mores...what more could you ask for in a weekend?

Oh, yeah...check those shirts out! We were BRIGHT! (Thanks to Ray and Carissa for their AWESOME help!)

Weekend three: Auction dinner at Koster's. All I can say is Brandon amazed me, the Kosters, the guests. wow....More pictures of the feast to come... I promise :)