SUMMER!

It's summer! Yay summer! Summer in Seattle is downright magical. The mountains, the blue Sound, the greenery and blooms, it's all so gorgeous and fragrant. That picture above is the view from the hammock Shawn set up in the back yard. We've got these cherry trees that just begged for a hammock. I bet if you enlarge that photo you can see the cherries. They were pretty tasty. Gretel thought so, too. But uh, I think she may have overdone it. She ate cherries for about two days and then seemed to avoid them.

Summer does not begin in Seattle until July 5, so say the locals. This year, however, I don't think Seattle got the memo until today, the 6th. Yesterday was hit or miss with sprinkles and sun, but today - today is 80 degrees and clear blue skies. If that isn't hammock weather, I don't know what is.

I know I've been remiss. We Shraders have had a lot on our minds this spring, and I think now we can finally let go of some of it. That said, I know we have lots to catch up on, so let's get to it.

Lorelei finished the 3rd grade with a bang! She had a great year, and to celebrate, she had a sleepover with her friend Chloe. Chloe switched schools for 3rd grade, so she and Lorelei didn't get to see each other much. But here they are, relaxing in that fabulous hammock:

School ends here on June 19, or thereabout, every year. It's late by Ohio standards, but that's because they don't go back until after Labor Day. I have never questioned this, I just assume it's to take full advantage of July and August, the two best months in Seattle.

Also in June, we visited the Washington coast. The beaches are so pretty, even if it was chilly. This picture was at Ocean Shores, I believe. We sampled a few beaches that day.

So pretty. <sigh> I find it harder to tear myself away from the mighty Pacific every time I see it. That day there was thick fog coming in off the ocean in the earlier hours. It felt a bit like a Stephen King novel.

Gretel and Lorelei didn't care, though. Gretel's first trip to the ocean was, well, I'm not sure. I don't think Gretel likes such wild, uncontrolled situations. She definitely didn't like the fog. But she loved walking with Shawn on the trails and on the beach, especially when she didn't feel like she had to protect Lorelei and me from the waves.

In May, John was back for another conference in Seattle. Oh, wait, I never told you about the first one, did I? It was in March. John came for a conference through his work in March, and we got to show him a bit of Seattle. He liked it so much he came back for another conference in May, and we took a day and got out of town. We went across the Sound to the Olympic Peninsula and drove to Port Townsend, hitting a brewery or two on the way. It was a gorgeous day, one of the most perfect I've experienced.

We look forward to John bringing Meredith and the kids back to the Pacific NW!

Also in May was Mother's Day! Shawn had to study that day but Lorelei and I went with the Castanedas to Crystal Mountain. We rode the gondola and had a picnic lunch with one of the most amazing views I've ever seen, watching the skiers get their last few kicks.

These pictures were taken from inside the gondola:

And then we have some views from the top:

Of course Amy and I, being the moms, needed a self-portrait on the mountain!

We can't forget the children, right?

That's Maya with her daddy. And his awesome, awesome, AWESOME shirt.

Seriously, this place is an hour away and we didn't need coats at the top because the sun was so bright on the snow. Look at the view!

I think the idea to go to Crystal Mountain was literally borne out of Amy waking up that morning and saying, hey, we should go to Crystal  Mountain. It was a really nice day.

In April we celebrated someone's birthday, I can't quite remember, it seems like I should, what was it again? Oh right, it was Lorelei's birthday! We had a party at the roller skating rink. It was loads and loads of fun.

You cannot beat roller skating. Every single person there had a blast.

Lorelei's birthday marked the end of the Birthday Season in our house. Well, really, the 29th (Grandpa Bob's bday) marked the end of Birthday Season. We all had good birthdays, but to be truthful, we all had other things on our minds.

We marketed the house in Ohio at the end of March. It went into contract on May 3, and it finally closed on June 30. Selling a property from this distance was challenging to say the least. I could bore you with the details of the stress it added to our lives, but really, let's just leave it at that. Our realtor was the best in the business (Polly Hamilton, Columbus Realty Professionals - look her up if you have a need), and we had a pretty wonderful closing agent, too (Keith Hamilton, former coworker of mine and title agent). Not to mention all the people who helped us along the way, Janice, the Franklins, the neighbors, etc. Without everyone's constant help, this would have been an even more challenging experience. But now it's done, and I feel like the last stage of our moving experience to Seattle has been completed. In a strange way, I feel like we have finally arrived in Seattle.

So now, we begin looking forward. We have some renovations to our Seattle home we'd like to plan for, and we have a few other things to do that we've held off doing while marketing the Ohio house. This is the season where we start to make plans. We begin with vacation. In August we are planning to go on a road trip to the Redwoods of northern California, and then meander up the coast of Cali and Oregon. I'm so excited about it I can't stand it. We will stop at my beloved Pacific City, OR, where time stands still. I don't know if I will brave a surf lesson this year, but Lorelei and I will definitely have our boogie boards out in the Pacific. It can't get here fast enough.

For now, though, we will bask in the glory provided by these wonderful blossoms from the trees in the front yard. They cast a rosy glow in our living room for a few weeks in March.

And also, I'd like to share that Lorelei and I are counting down until Shawn is done with school. As of today, it's 41 weeks. Go Shawn!

Endless, Eternal February

Do you see that? You see what's different? Yes. L has finally started to show that yes, she has some of her mother's genes. Unfortunately it came in the form of being nearsighted and needing glasses in the third grade. But whatever. She picked the frames herself and she looks FABULOUS. I was sort of hoping the glasses might make her a little awkward because as it stands, she gets more beautiful every day. No such luck. She wears those glasses with style and grace.

I'm still holding out that she'll have an awkward stage. I mean, mine lasted 10-15 years. She's bound to have at least a short one, right? RIGHT??

In other news, it's been a month. It's been February. Which is my worst and most hated and longest month. Despite it being Shawn's birth-month, I just can't wait for February to end. It feels like an eternity. The last two weeks feel like 4 months. Everyone wants spring. Everyone wants warmer weather, and everyone in the Pacific Northwest wants more than 7 hours of daylight. (My apologies to the Midwesterners.... You win on the absolute worst and longest winter ever. Sweet Jesus I hope it warms up soon for you all.)

Winter in Seattle is strange. Not a lot (or any, sometimes) snow in the lowlands, but usually a lot in the mountains. Very mild temps considering how far north we actually are. I think my daffodils tell the story:

Here's late January:

Yay! Green sprouts! Modeled by the fabulous Lorelei. :) But yeah, that was JANUARY. Now here's February:

Uh, what? [insert expletive] How do the daffodils start blooming and it SNOWS??! Yeah, well, daffodils are pretty hearty. This was last week:

They are in full bloom now, but apparently we are supposed to get snow this weekend. I mean, honestly. No wonder everyone here is half-schizophrenic by the end of February. Who can keep up with this? I have a ton of flowers coming up in the various beds around the house but I can't get outside to do the weeding and the rest of the yard work because it either pours rain or now, snows. What.the.hell.

The upshot is that whoever lived here before LOVED flowers. There are so many cool gems sprouting right now! I will take some pictures soon. We probably won't keep all the beds (lots of work), but we'll keep some for sure.

Before I get too far away from it, snow really is kind of rare for Seattle, as we are so close to sea level. But when it does decide to fall in the lowlands, it is so pretty. Here is the front yard:

AND...here's the backyard, complete with crazy dog:

Gretel loves that damn snow. LOVES IT.

Seattle gets a little weird when it snows because this is not a town you want to navigate in a lot of snow and/or ice. The hills of Seattle give me panic attacks still on a regular basis in my stick-shift. Throw snow on top of that and well, we might as well all be driving drunk for all the good sobriety will do us. They are careful about treating the roads because everything on the roads washes into the Sound. So, um, no special chemical concoctions or a ton of salt, or it will affect the salmon population. So what do you think happens when you mix 4 inches of snow with hills at 75 degree angles, in a town that treats snow with gravel/cinders? Yes. Mayhem.

Thank the Lord for all-wheel drive and emergency brakes. Oh, and chains are legal.

Speaking of snow, Lorelei and I were supposed to snow camp on Mt. Rainier last weekend. It was a trip with a co-worker of mine who plans this trip every year. We planned to go, packed our packs, bought snow boots and rented gear....and then L wasn't quite feeling 100% (ear infection) and conditions on the mountain were a little rougher than we'd hoped. We had to cancel. I was bitterly disappointed. I vow to go next year if not before. Mt. Rainier is the biggest reality check we have out here - the single largest thing that reminds us where we are.

It will be better to go when Shawn can go also. He is very busy this semester with school, so it didn't work out on his end at all. BUT - there is a light at the end of the school tunnel....after this semester, 5 classes left. Whew.

Also in February we had Shawn's work party. The holidays are busy at AllRecipes.com, so the company party is in February. We took part in the casino theme of the party:

Here is the guy that was dealing our blackjack table. He was great, as he had to basically teach us the game. I mean, come on, there was also a vodka bar.

Earlier this month I went to Port Townsend for work, which is up on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Look it up on Google Maps - this is a really cool part of Washington. The Strait separates the US from Canada, and is the passageway inland from the almighty Pacific. Port Townsend is one of the small towns dotting the coastline along the Strait. We've been to Port Angeles, which is just next door, so I thought Port Townsend would look like Port Angeles.

Uh, no. Port Angeles is lovely in its own way, but it feels like a port town. Toledo folks, and maybe the Cinci folks, will get that, or anyone who has spent any amount of time in a port town. Port Townsend, on the other hand, felt like a picturesque storybook town that happened to be on the water. It was beautiful.

Here is the beach where I walked before my meeting:

Port Townsend also boasts a theatre (the stage kind):

And holy ravioli, check out this courthouse!

Now THAT makes me feel like a lawyer. It's just as amazing on the inside. Depending on where you are in the courthouse you can see the Strait or the Olympic mountains. I'm starting to question our choice to live in Seattle. Maybe we should keep our options open....

There is, however, something to be said for having to travel to Port Townsend for work. I love a day that starts and ends with a ferry ride. This is what I look at when on the ferry:

I'm so excited - I think I have to get on ferry Monday for a hearing, too.

So yes, that was February. March will bring us getting ready to market the house in Ohio and hoping for a good spring in both states.

You know how long February is? I didn't even post in here about the Seahawks parade. I'm going to have to do that - it was pretty cool. But this post is already long enough and I hate to be that blog that stays too long at the party.

Big shout out to Paul, Leah and William for helping us with the Ohio house this month. This post is dedicated to you. You guys are THE BEST.

Love to all -

Like the Ceiling Can't Hold Us!

Welcome to Super Bowl Weekend! You may have heard, the Seahawks are bound for the Meadowlands where they intend to prove to the world that they are the Champs! Here in the Emerald City, this is a VERY BIG DEAL.

I have not lived in an NFL town outside of my year in Pittsburgh, and they weren't in the Super Bowl that year, so I don't know if this is normal or not. But even the natives here tell me that this time, it feels different than it did the last time the Seahawks went. And the Seahawks have only gone to the Super Bowl twice. The first time was some odd years ago when they lost to my beloved Steelers on a bad call. A call, in fact, that was so bad, the referee who made it came out later and admitted it was a bad call. To say it remains a bitter loss is a gross understatement.

But you know, Seattleites do not hold onto bitterness and bad feelings. This town has a positive and upbeat energy, and people are generally happy and friendly. And they are absolutely thrilled that their team is in the Super Bowl. You can't go 5 feet without seeing the 12th Man flags everywhere. The skyscrapers downtown, peoples' homes, the gas station, even the Space Needle sports a 12th Man flag! The Boeing jet painted to honor the 12th Man flew a special flight pattern yesterday that was in the shape of a 12. The city is abuzz, on fire, and alight with Seahawks fandom.

I took that one from I-5 in my car coming back from Everett yesterday. Everett is about 30 miles north of Seattle. I was there for a hearing, and when I cam out of the courthouse, they had live music on the courthouse lawn to celebrate the Seahawks Super Bowl trip! Things like this are happening all over western Washington.





I haven't been able to take very many 12th Man pictures, so the two above are from the internet. This is just a small example of what is happening all around us here. It's hard to not catch the Seahawks fever! There is no other topic of conversation right now, and people who don't care about football or know anything about it find themselves saying things like, "Peyton is awesome, but no one beats Russell Wilson on the read-option."

AllRecipes.com has gotten in on the action, tagging Marshawn Lynch's love of Skittles, and has a recipe for a Seahawks cocktail, made with the blue and green Skittles. Yep.

Maybe this city is more excited than other places when they go to a championship game because Seattle is generally a beleaguered sports town. It's rated pretty low on the list of sports towns, and true fans are abused more than having something to celebrate. The Sonics leaving was a slap in the face Seattle has had a hard time getting over. UW has struggled to rebuild in the college realm, and the Mariners are, well, the Mariners. The Mariners are beloved because they are a team of pretty good guys, not because they win a lot. Anyway, having something to celebrate in the world of mainstream sports in Seattle is huge. (I left the Sounders out of this discussion - I think they are the anomaly - always pretty good.)

If you follow pop culture at all, you have heard of a rap artist named Macklemore. He's a Seattle guy. His songs have a positive message and when he sings about Seattle you can tell he is having a love affair with his town. In a way, Macklemore is the true embodiment of Seattle: he's a positive, upbeat guy with a crazy-cool talent, but at the end of the day, just considers himself a regular guy. My favorite story about Macklemore is that he cut a record at a local small studio in Seattle (or it might have been his basement, I can't remember), and then immediately ran over to KEXP (local radio station) and asked them to play it, which they did, on the spot. 2 years later, Macklemore walked away with a couple of Grammies for that album, and the title of this blog is a reference to Macklemore.

Below is a link to a song by Macklemore, in which he pays tribute to Dave Niehaus, who passed away in 2010. Dave Niehaus was the voice of the Mariners.  But this song is about more than Dave Niehaus, it's about Macklemore's great love for Seattle. What he's singing/rapping about in this song, that is what's happening now for the Seahawks. Now is their time, and this city is ready for a championship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvNQWQSwmow.

My, oh my, Seattle. I'm in.

Let the Merry Bells Keep Ringing!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had the merriest of Christmases and all other holidays occurring since my last post.

I think to say that we survived the holidays is a bit dramatic. But I was starting to feel like I'd been through something wild by mid-December. Things were just fine up through Thanksgiving. We had a lovely holiday at the Castanedas, with loads of good food, good company and fun. And then after Thanksgiving....well, everything ramped up a notch or two. Have you ever noticed that it feels like this when Thanksgiving is later, rather than earlier?

Everything started off innocuously enough. Lorelei was working hard in school, and has discovered that she likes to make sushi at home (minus the raw fish; she's more of a California roll type of kid).

Lorelei also attended a birthday party that was at a roller-rink. I was ready to just drop her off and come back and get her, and the next thing I knew....

Yep, I rollerskated for the first time in, oh, what, 30 years? It was a blast! It's just like riding a bike! I'm pleased to report that I only fell down once. Lorelei had a great time too. We might need to make this a family outing sometime.....

And then, everything went to hell in a hand basket.

Perhaps the biggest contributor to my crazed, deer-in-the-headlights experience in the first two weeks of December was my job. I don't like to get too specific about my job for obvious reasons, but for the love of all that is holy, I think I was being punished or hazed in December. I had back-to-back hearings, including one that took me to eastern Washington for an exhausting day of travel and oral argument. I returned to a deposition in which I was accused by another attorney of testifying (instead of my client), committing bad faith, and lying. I believe that day I almost quit. I've never been accused of such conduct before, most likely because I DON'T DO IT. Chalk it up to a bad day at the office. Well, it was Friday the 13th, I guess.

Getting back to that trip to eastern Washington, that was pretty neat. One of the most stressful days I've had, but it was a great experience. The day started with an early morning flight from Seattle to Spokane. I love flying over the mountains, and the view was stunning:

Those are the Cascades that we flew over. The plane was a commuter. I love those small planes, but props always make me feel like I'm getting ready to fly the Memphis Belle on her last mission to Bremen.

Once landed in Spokane, I picked up the rental car and headed up to Colville, WA. Colville is a sleepy little mountain town in the foothills. It was a gorgeous drive up there.

They just had a dusting of snow in Colville, but it was about 5 degrees. Barring the scenery, it reminded me of the Midwest winters. I didn't get to enjoy the scenery too much, though, because the sun set at 3:56 pm on that day in Colville. Yep, gets dark a little early there. But the town was all decked out for the holidays with lots of lights and decorations. The downtown boasts a general store with a complete line of huckleberry foods; jams, pancake mixes, etc., and also a specialty jerky and sausage store. And yes, they have special classes on how to make jerky and sausage on the weekend. They also know how to make a decent cup of coffee, for which I was very grateful, as I had to drive back to Spokane to make the last flight out to Seattle that evening.

We'll go back to eastern Washington and spend some time there. It's gorgeous country, and we'll make certain to spend some time with cousins Jim ad Trish in Spokane!

My December travels also took me to Port Orchard in Kitsap County for a hearing. This is a little closer to home, just across the western Sound. I took the ferry back home that day and it was a lovely view.

It is pretty over there.

Somewhere around mid-December, things started to level off a bit and the season started to feel fun. We managed to get ourselves in the Christmas spirit.

Lorelei also had a belt test in Tae Kwon Do. She has advanced to high green. She has also started sparring classes. She can now officially kick our butts.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve with our friends coming over for games, gifts and snacks, and then a Christmas day that involved not getting out of our pajamas all day.

I guess Ivan (the cat) had a good Christmas, too. He made a new friend, it seems.

I took off the days between Christmas and New Year's, which was desperately needed. One of the days we all trekked over to Ballard, one of the neighborhood's in Seattle. For those of you who have been here, Ballard is where the Locks are, as well as the Nordic Museum. It's one of my favorite parts of town. The pictures below are of the fog burning off as we drove on the viaduct through downtown. The fog is like a living, breathing animal here.

While in Ballard, we shopped around and I discovered what is now my second favorite place in Seattle: a local kitchen store. They had my two favorite lines of kitchenware next to each other on the shelf!

I loved that place! I need to go back with a purse full of money. I could have easily spent Lorelei's first year of college in there. We also went to a board game store that is attached to a pub, so you can actually play the games and get a meal/coffee/drink. Very, very fun. The rest of our break has been just being lazy and quiet. We have enjoyed it immensely.

As much fun as we've had in the latter part of December, I admit I'm not sorry to see the end of 2013. It's been a tough year in many aspects. We see big changes ahead in 2014, but with a little luck and love, they should all be good changes! 

Love and a blessed New Year to all!