Cailin's Baby Shower

My darling friend Cailin had her baby shower this weekend and although I wasn't able to fly to Boston to be there I've been anticipating it for weeks. I shopped and shopped for the perfect gift and eventually settled on a few things... and I didn't follow the registry which I hope she doesn't hate me for! I made sure that everything was packaged up and on it's way across the country in time for her to open at the party. I'm so sad I couldn't be there but Cailin's gracious hostess, Diana, was kind enough to take pictures so I could at least pretend I was there...

 It's hard sometimes when you have good friends who live so far away, and it's difficult not to be a part of the day-to-day moments. But we do the best we can and with a little effort we are able to close the distance between us. And it looks like Cailin had an absolutely amazing party and got some fantastic gifts!

Reading my card...

And opening my gift...

Wow, she looks super excited... a success!

Sophie Giraffe, "the world's most famous baby teething toy"

Baby must be as stylish as Momma...

Snuggle blanket and receiving blankets... PURPLE, not pink!

I can't wait to meet Little Miss Charlie!

Mother's Day Weekend



Best Momma Ever.

I went down to Olympia this weekend to enjoy the gorgeous weather with my family for Mother's Day. I arrived late Friday night so we could wake up on Saturday morning for one of our favorite activities: sitting around drinking coffee in our pj's. My dad recently bought my mom a brand new bicycle, so we were very excited to go out Saturday morning for a bike ride on the Chehalis Western Trail. I had never ridden it before but it was absolutely gorgeous! The weather was amazing, sunny but not too warm that early in the morning, and the path wound through woods and fields along a creek and the train tracks. We rode for a little over two hours which was just about 20 miles. This was my first time taking my bike out this year and I forgot how much I love riding... it makes me feel like a kid again.

Part of the Chehalis Western Trail

I forgot how much I love my bike!

After our ride we went to a barbecue to celebrate my cousin Hannah's college graduation. It was awesome to see so many of my aunts, uncles and cousins all in one place and we spent the whole sunny afternoon enjoying yummy eats and cool drinks.

Marilyn, Sarah, Hannah, Nancy and Colleen

On Sunday morning I needed to do some prep work for the week. Our oven is currently broken so I stole the resources of my parent's kitchen to make some recipes I wanted to try: Pumpkin Protein Bars and Turkey Meatloaf Muffins. As a thank you I doubled both recipes and left the other half of the food in their fridge. Then that afternoon we went to my Aunt Diane's house to see my grandparents and cousins before I headed home. They have some really pretty parks near their house so we were able to take a walk and enjoy some more of this amazing spring weather.

Cousin time with Sarah, AJ, Shane and Kate

Another Mother's Day shot

Kate, Diane, Shane and Ninja in the foreground

AJ doing a little long boarding

Stewart had to work on Saturday so he wasn't able to come to Oly with me, but he did go snowboarding again at Crystal Mountain which was a blast as usual. Even though I missed spending the weekend with him I was very happy to spend time with my mom and family.

Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Seattle Seahawks Season Ticket Holders!

On my wish list...

It's been a long time coming... but you are now looking at the proud owners of Seattle Seahawks Season Tickets! GO HAWKS!

We attend a fair number of games every year and are unwavering supporters of our beloved Seahawks, but in years past there has always been a waiting list of quite a few years for season tickets (and they're also pretty pricey). However, the Hawks haven't really been on top of their game the last couple seasons, which has been depressing, but it also means that season tickets have become available. So we decided that this was the year to snag them.

And since we're now demonstrating our true loyalty as fans, I'm sure the team will perform accordingly. We're looking forward to an awesome season!!

Art of Dining

I was invited by my boss to attend the 20th Annual Art of Dining gala this week. The event was promoted as "an evening of culinary adventure and fine wine celebrating women and girls," benefiting the Women's Funding Alliance. According to their web site, the Women's Funding Alliance is the leading funder in Washington state that invests in and advocates for women and girls. By strategically supporting organizations that promote progressive change for women and girls, we have a dramatic impact on the overall health of our community. It sounded like a fabulous event for a very good cause to me, and all Art of Dining proceeds directly benefit WFA's critical work of creating social change for women and girls in the Puget Sound region.

Wine tasting before dinner...

The festivities began with wine tasting and hors d'oeuvres followed by dinner featuring Seattle's top female chefs, wineries, entertainment and an auction. The chefs generously donated their food, time and talents for the benefit of women and girls. Each table was treated to a unique four-course dinner prepared and presented by the chefs and paired with of the region’s exquisite wines. For our personal chef we specifically pre-selected Lisa Dupar, who my company had worked with previously and found absolutely amazing. It was definitely the right choice!

Specialty Cocktail: Sicilian Prosecco Royal

Crisp Tomato Breadstick with black smoked bamboo salt butter

Hard Boiled Egg & Roe with brown butter and pink salt

Green & White Yakima Asparagus with fried egg dressing & shitake bacon

Oregon Pink Shrimp Cake on spring ramp kimchee, sugar snap peas & pink ginger

Caramelized Beef Tenderloin with herbal spinach gruyere broth

Creme Fraiche Cheesecake with blueberry snow

The food was absolutely amazing, and the hard boiled egg was absolutely hands down one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. During dinner local TV personality John Curley auctioned off delicious desserts donated by local chefs and bakeries, and afterward Governor Chris Gregoire shared her personal leadership story and received the WFA’s first-ever Game Changer Award due to "her work to appoint unprecedented numbers of women to leadership posts and her constant support of women pursuing elected office has been game changing for women and girls in Washington state."

Hanging out with some of my favorite co-workers for the evening was lots of fun, and I felt lucky to participate in such an inspirational event celebrating and supporting women and girls in our community.

Deconstructed Chicken Fajitas

When we're on a health kick (which is quite often), on Sunday evenings we usually pop between five and eight frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts in the crock pot with a healthy sauce... Our favorites lately have been Trader Joe's curry simmer sauce or Stubb's chicken marinade. After the chicken is fully cooked I remove it from the crock pot and cut it into bite sized pieces that I put in tupperwear over pre-cooked brown rice. These containers then become Stewart's lunches (and often dinners) for the week and I'll also eat them occasionally when I get sick of green salads.

But lately I've gotten really sick of this process and I think Stew has been a little bored with the meals, so this past Sunday I decided to try something different. In the crock pot I combined five frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts with two packages of McCormick's dry fajita seasoning mix and a half cup of water. After about 3.5 hours on high the chicken was fully cooked with a nice sauce in the bottom. In the meantime I sliced up a four bell peppers and an onion which I cooked separately on the stove. Then in tupperware I started with brown rice in the bottom topped with the chicken which I took out and cut up first, followed by some peppers and onions and finally I topped it with some of the leftover sauce. Voilà! Stew's lunches for the week... done.

For myself I made up some smaller containers without the rice and I had one for dinner on Tuesday night. For fresh toppings I added avocado, tomato, cilantro and a little bit of low fat Ranch dressing. It was delicious! So nice and easy to just pull out of the fridge and heat up, and such a nice change from what we've been eating lately.

Deconstructed Chicken Fajitas by Sarah

I'll definitely be making this recipe again and I think next time I may even try cooking the veggies in the crock pot itself. I was nervous this time that they would get too mushy, but I found a couple recipes online that say to do it this way. Overall I'd say this was a successful adventure in healthy cooking for me!

Spring Skiing

Stewart headed up to Crystal Mountain last Sunday for some spring skiing and snowboarding with Brett and Todd. I really wanted to go with him, but sadly I couldn't find a buddy. Let's just say my snowboarding skill level is lags slightly behind the boys, and although Stew encouraged me to go even though none of my girlfriends could make it, I politely declined. I've never been spring skiing before and I knew the weather was supposed to be gorgeous, but there is nothing I hate more than (a) snowboarding alone, and (b) making Stewart feel forced to hang out with me on the blue runs. Basically I end up having to choose between spending the day feeling lonely or guilty... and I'd rather pass on both.  

So I left the boys to their fun and it sounds like they had an awesome day! Stewart said we definitely need to get up again this month before they're closed for the season. So here's your chance girls, raise your hands if you want to spend a day on the slopes with me!

I did spend the day doing an obscene amount of highly productive errands, so I felt really good about that. Overall though, I'd say Stew probably had a better Sunday...

Seattle Sounders

My parents got Stewart tickets to Saturday's Seattle Sounders game for his birthday. It's been quite a while since the last time we went to a game so we were really looking forward to it. Unfortunately Stew was just getting off a 48 hour shift that morning so he was super exhausted, but didn't let that ruin his excitement about the game. The weather cooperated beautifully and our seats were awesome. It was a genius gift on my parents' part because Stew is a huge soccer fan and we just love going to sporting events in general.

It never ceases to amaze me how wild and crazy the Sounders fans are! In the south stands the crowd stands, screams, jumps, whoops and hollers for the entire 90 minutes. The energy really is overwhelming and I couldn't help but get caught up in it. The only thing I dislike about soccer is that they score so infrequently, but when they do... wow... does the crowd go wild! The Sounders beat the Philadelphia Union 1-0 and we left feeling awesome about Seattle sports (a rare emotion).

Fans going nuts in the south stands.

Although we wanted to celebrate Cinco de Mayo Stew was simply too beat and we headed home. But after feeling the energy during the game we were reminded of how much fun it is to be a sports fan, and are seriously considering getting season tickets... sport TBD.

Gorgeous Cinco de Mayo at CenturyLink Field.

Damn Yankees

As part of our subscriber package to The 5th Avenue Theater we got tickets to Damn Yankees several months ago. Of course we couldn't have known at the time that May Day would turn downtown Seattle into utter chaos just a few hours before the show was scheduled to start.

Peaceful protests rapidly turned into violence and vandalism yesterday morning and the drama continued well into the afternoon. Looking down from my office on the 27th floor, at one point I saw a mob of protesters attack a car in an intersection, jumping on it and hitting it! Seriously?! I found the whole situation to be utterly annoying, but I called the theater and was informed that the show would go on as scheduled, so Stew and I decided we would not let the actions of some crazy hooligans affect our evening. He met me at work and we walked up to Rock Bottom, our favorite pre-show place to grab a bite. We could still see crowds of people milling about near Westlake just a few blocks down, but it was beginning to rain and lots of people seemed to have abandoned the city earlier that afternoon, because Rock Bottom (usually jam packed) was relatively quiet and we got a table in the bar right away.

Damn Yankees wasn't what I thought it would be at all. The show is a musical comedy about baseball and one man's desperate attempt to help his team win the pennant. Basically, an older gentleman named Joe, who is obsessed with baseball, sells his soul to the devil in order to become a young man and legendary baseball player. He tries to help his previously unsuccessful team, the Washington Senators, beat the New York Yankees, all the while being watched by the devil and seduced by the bewitching Lola. But in the end Joe can't forget his wife he left behind, and at the last moment he uses an escape clause to break free from the devil and return to his ordinary life.

I found the whole show to be very disjointed and strange. I also thought it was supposed to be pretty funny, but I don't think I laughed out loud once although the guy behind us thought almost everything was hilarious (he may have been drunk). A couple of the musical numbers with all of the baseball players were kind of entertaining, but overall I didn't feel any connection to the story or the characters and frankly didn't care one bit what Joe decided to do. I generally felt bored and found myself day dreaming several times during the show. I would definitely put Damn Yankees at the very bottom of our list of musicals so far, but surprisingly Stewart actually liked it quite a bit more than others we've seen.

In any case I always enjoy a night out with my husband, so that part was fun. And by the time the show got out the streets of Seattle were completely deserted by the riffraff from earlier in the day. I am still shocked and embarrassed that these people decided to tear up our beautiful city! Maybe they should have tried some cultural experiences instead, like the theater...

Stew's Birthday Pub Crawl

Stewart's favorite activity is day drinking, so we decided to celebrate his 31st birthday with another epic Ballard Pub Crawl! In honor of Stewart and his ever-present backwards hat, guests were encouraged to wear their own favorite hats... backward, of course.

We started out with breakfast and beverages at The Hi-Life, and since the weather actually turned out to be halfway decent we were able to sit outside in a cool sidewalk patio area. After everyone had gotten their fill of yummy food and delicious drinks we headed out to some of our favorite Ballard bars. First stop: King's Hardware, one of our favorites because it has a cool patio area out back, but mostly because of the skee ball inside. Brett arranged a super fun tournament in which I almost made it to the final four.

 

From King's we walked down the street a block or two to the Ballard Loft, which had an upstairs area that was perfect for our large group and also had shuffle board. So many people were able to come out and celebrate with us, and although Stew wasn't able to stay out as late as he planned (thanks for your generosity with the shots, guys), and even though we only "crawled" to three different locations, overall it was a super successful day of fun and friends.

A very happy birthday to my wonderful husband!!