puppy!

Remember our dog poll? This Guy is coming home in 8 days.

I am obsessed with his cuteness. Sean is disgusted with my obsession. We don't have a name yet, should we do another poll?

we went backpacking...finally

A couple weeks ago we dropped the dog at the dog spa and went backpacking with our friends S and P. Sean and I have been working opposite schedules, so its been tough to find mutual time to enjoy living in Washington as much as we'd like to, but we made it out to the North Cascades for three days for this trip, and it was awesome. I am a big fan of the S and P backpacking approach, which involves sleeping in, eating well and a pace that provides plenty of time to look around. I'm also a big fan of their culinary skills. They have a food dehydrator, which allows them to produce backcountry deliciousness such as Chili and Pasta with Meat Sauce for dinner. To those of you who have never been backpacking and faced the challenge of finding food that doesn't weigh very much OR perish easily but also doesn't taste like cardboard, Chili and Pasta with Meat Sauce may not sound all that impressive. But to Sean and I, who almost always just add those weird vaccuum packs of tuna to mac and cheese for dinner, the S+P meals were heaven. Anyway, here are some pics:

Emerging from the woods...


S trudging toward our campsite...


Eating Dinner Day 1...Sean is so excited he can't keep his eyes open...


The second day it rained non-stop, but the weather oh-so-conveniently broke for 30 minutes at mealtimes thanks to our deal with the rain gods. We basically stayed in our tents all day, slept, talked, and took turns being the one pestering out of boredom and the one half annoyed/half hysterical from the pestering. It might sound tortuous to spend nearly 20 hours in a tent, especially when all 20 hours are spent with your significant other, but having that much forced downtime together was actually super awesome. We couldn't believe how quickly the day passed.

We woke up on day three to this:


..and did this...


...saw this...


...on our way to eat lunch here.


After lunch we took advantage of the best outhouse EVER.


Then we walked back down to our campsite...




...ate dinner, and watched the light show.


On the last day we hiked back down through fields of wild blueberries, picking and eating them all the way. When we got to the cars we took off our boots and hightailed it to Cascadian Farms for some more fresh blueberries, this time in the form of organic ice cream, the best post-hike refreshment EVER.

We love the mountains. Thanks S+P!!!

summer review in pics!

We've been doing stuff. It's been awesome. So here's a lazy man's blog post to show you what we've been up to...

Climbing trees...


Enjoying the Skagit Valley bounty...


Riding Bikes...


Dogsitting...




Hiking to Ski...


Challenging Maya's Down-Stay...


Hiking in the Cascades...


...and generally being dorks. Here's to summer! Until next year!

faceballs

So, I'm starting labor day weekend by resting on the couch. My dad won't like this, but I took a pretty solid soccer ball to the face in the weekly La Conner community soccer match last night. A 180lb dude tried to send the ball down the field while I, unfortunately, was standing in the way. I've taken many a ball to the noggin in my time, which probably explains a few things, but this one was particularly memorable. The thing blasted me square in the face like it was shot out of a firehouse. If you're a guy, picture ten angry ex-girlfriends coordinating their smacks across your face in an attempt to ensure perfect distribution of angry ex-girlfriend force to every inch of your kisser. Now pretend they've all been working out with Blaze from American Gladiators for a year. Or maybe the crazy intense fitness trainer lady from Biggest Loser. You know how that would sting? That's sort of how it felt.

Anyway, I didn't black out or anything but I definitely saw stars for the first time in my life and felt pretty woozy and spacey afterward. Brain wasn't firing quite right either. I remember saying something like "Yep, I are got the accident prone," to one of my buddies. Yep, probably a mild concussion.

But not to worry Dad, I'm constructing sentences so I'm fine today. And in a weird way grateful for the fantastic excuse to veg out on a rainy Saturday.

Vegging means doing nothing but trying to figure out how I can get my friends to come ski with us this winter and occasionally playing with my dog. Sean has to work this weekend so we're delaying our Labor Day plans 'till after Monday, but we'll be spending 3 days backpacking in the North Cascades starting on Tuesday. If the weather cooperates it should be a gorgeous trip...stay tuned for pictures. We're going with a couple who prides themselves on cooking gourmet backcountry meals. They outright volunteered to do all the dinner cooking. I don't really know why. I just know that Sean and I, who are only responsible for bringing Jack Daniel's and chocolate, are darn lucky to have friends like this.

So Happy Labor Day Weekend! Here's hoping you don't get a soccer ball to your face!