Happy Anniversary Marc and Anna!

Happy Anniversary to my brother and sister in law, Marc and Anna. They have been married for 9 years and are still crazy about each other. They have three of the cutest little kids.....yes I am biased because I'm their Aunt, but seriously they are extremely cute. Brad and I are so happy to be related to such wonderful people and such wonderful role models in happy marriages! Next year will be 10 years! Since Marc and Anna went out of town for romantic dinner overnight trip, Uncle Brad and Aunt Nikki got a chance to have 3 kids overnight. So we had a slumber party. The kids and I did yoga, apparently they teach that in their P.E. class now. We colored, watched cartoons, had dinner, played, had popsicles, and finally went to bed.....or so we thought. Brad and I shared our bed with all three munchkins. Ezra rolled all over the place, Grace snored, and Audrey cuddled so hard that I thought she was going to smuther herself so I kept waking up. It was really funny. Brad and I decided at that moment that the bed is not made for 5. We love watching the kids, its so much fun!

How I Met Your Mother

Brad and I have become very addicted to the show How I Met Your Mother. Brad and I just received Season 4 and its pretty amazing and funny. If you have not seen the show yet, watch it, its hilarious. All of our friends have borrowed the DVDs from us and are addicted too! Maybe one day I'll write a story titled How I Met Your Father :)

Oyster Run Baby

Every year I work for my girlfriend Caroline at her bar Watertown for Oyster Run. Brad went to the Hawks game with his buddies...I call it a man date. If you have never heard of Oyster Run its an event where bikers come and ride to Anacortes and park all along the main street of Anacortes. There are always a ton of Oysters served any way imaginable, vendors, music. Its a pretty fun event. Every year I wear short shorts and leather chaps and get all dolled up, which I love to do. For the past 3 years I have bartended at Watertown for Oyster Run and I make pretty good tips. The best part of it all is working with my girls Caroline and Phelana. I don't get to see them very often so when I do its really a treat. This year was the first year m parents come to the run. My dad is a very proud owner of his new motorcycle, so it was only right that he come hang with the rest of the bikers. They had a great time. Here are a few pictures from the day!

Honeymoon

Brad and I went to Maui for our honeymoon to celebrate our marriage. We stayed at the Sugar Beach Resort for 9 glorious days. It was so relaxing.

Our flight was really nice. We had exit seats which Brad loves since he's so tall. I watched Night at the Museum on the plane while I was writing my wedding thank you cards. I just got the wedding photos for the thank you cards, so I am almost ready to send them off. When we arrived we upgraded our rental car to a convertible.....something new I learned about my husband. Brad hates getting in a convertible unless the top is down, so if we went anywhere we had to have the top down, even 5 minute trips. It was really funny.

Once we arrived the staff was super nice and got us all checked into our room, Room 222. It was really cute with a beautiful view of the water, it was just perfect. We decided it would be best to stock up on food in our condo to help save money....Hawaii is expensive. We spent $200 in groceries and we really didn't buy much, it was crazy! We ate most of our meals in. We did order this awesome pizza since I didn't feel like cooking. That night we went for our first of many sunset walks along the water on the beach. It was really warm and so romantic.

Brad and I drove about a half hour away from our condo to go to Dave Veach's secret snorkeling spot. It was truly amazing. We rented gear from our condo for $7 a day and saw so many beautiful fish. I told Brad that I saw most of the fish that were in the cartoon Finding Nemo. I had no idea the cartoon was so accurate. I saw Dory, Shark Bait ow ha ha, Nemo, and the school of fishies.We spent a day in Lahaina, about a 1/2 hour away from our condo to do some window shopping and have lunch. There were some really neat shops that we looked at, we picked up a few cute things for Laney, I bought a dress, and Brad bought a shirt, bandana, and belt buckle. It was too hot to eat lunch so we had icecream instead. A littl ebit later we went to Cheeseburgers in Paradise and had the mot yummy cheesburgers as we watched the sun set. It was so wonderful.

Brad and I took the road trip to the road to Hana, its a 50 mile long road with 627 turns. I did not survive. I threw up and felt awful....it was beautiful, but I'll never do it again.....no way! Locals were even pulling over telling Brad what pressure points to press to make me stop throwing up.....I pressed them and it made me get even more sick. It was pretty funny. Once the Road to Hana ends we arrived at the Seven pools area where we hiked to a waterfall, it was beautiful. It was soooooo hot so we only hiked a few miles and decided to head back to the car and go back to the condo and relax. We found this awesome BBQ joint that has amazing pork sandwiches and yummy cornbread.

We did so much more, but we can't tell you everyhting.....we'll leave a little honeymoon mystery. Happy Anniversary my love. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.

Aunt Nikki

Early in September Brad and I watched the kids so Marc and Anna could go to a show together. We had so much fun jumping on the couch, throwing the kids onto the bed and listening to them giggle, coloring, and watching cartoons. It is such a joy to be an Auntie. The kids even helped me make Brad's lunch....it was really adorable especially since they kept licking the spoon and putting more and more peanut butter and jelly on the bread. Audrey would follow me around the house like my little shadow and when I'd look behind me shed put her little hands together and have the cutest grin on her face. It was so adorable. Can't wait to watch the kids again.

Eastern WA Camping Weekend

This past weekend Brad and I drove to Eastern Washington to spend the weekend camping at the Sun Lakes state park. It was our first time using our new tent that we received as a wedding gift. Thanks Bill and Belinda! We met up with our family Jen and Brian, Marc and Anna and the kiddos Grace, Ezra, and Audrey and our friends Josh and Mishal with their kids Reed, Jack , and Lauren, Danny and Lexi with their son X, and Lexi's parents Bob and Cindy. Our drive to Eastern was.....interesting. We hit Marysville and Josh and Mishal had a flat tire on their RV so we played with the kids at the rest stop for an hours or two and waited for Les Schwab to showed up. They finally showed up, but no tire. So we drove a few exits down to another Les Schwab and hung out in the parking lot as it got fixed and ate lunch. This is the cutest picture I've ever taken of my niece Audrey. Isn't she the cutest!

Grace being goofyLunch at Les SchwabKiddos showing off their musclesWe finally got on the road again and saw Jen and Brian with another flat tire on their boat. At this point flat tires were amusing. So, we pulled over and helped out.

We finally made it to our camping site. We set everything up and had dinner with everyone and visited. Since it was hot over there we had to have Jenn's Birthday celebration on Friday when we got there so that the cake wouldn't melt. The plan was to decorate the campsite with streamers and birthday stuff that I bought but because of the flat tire fiasco we arrived at the same time as they did. It was a bummer, but I think she was surprised anyways and had a great birthday. The next morning I woke up with a ton of energy and a big smile on my face so I decided to go for a jog and exercise down by the water. The view was perfect.....I had my iPod music turned up and I was jammin out. It was awesome. We spent most of our day hanging out by the lake on the beach getting tan and relaxing. It was so much fun to go on the boat, play with the kids on the inflatable island, and jet ski. It was my first time going and it was super fun. I went wake boarding but it didn't go so well...I did a face plant and even a few days later I'm still sore and in pain. Oh well, it was really fun. Can't live life without trying at least.

On Sunday night we went to the Grand Coulee Dam and watched the laser show off the side of the dam. It was pretty cool. I've never seen it before and I had no idea how big the dam really was, its huge! Here is a picture of Brad and I with Gracie and Josh too. He He!

We left Monday morning since I had a few things to do at work that day. Brad and I stopped at this amazing fruit stand and bought the yummiest looking nectarines, apples, and pears. It was so nice to get away for the weekend. Now we're back to reality. Good thing we are going on our honeymoon really soon! (I'll post more pictures once I get photos from Brad's camera. These are the photos I took with my big Nikon.)

Hawks vs. Broncos

On August 22, Brad and I went the the Hawks and Broncos game with our friends Tara and Genevieve. Our good friend Josh gave us his tickets since he had awesome Suite tickets. Tara and Gen are both Broncos fans and we have been trying to get to a game together for about two years now. Before the game we headed to Dick's to get a burger and then to the Pyramid alehouse for a pregame beer. It was their first time going to a pro game. It was fun to banter back and forth with them since the Broncos suck :) We also met our friends Daniel and Katie at the game. Half way through the game Josh came to our seats and brought us to the cool people seats in his suite.......it was sweet :) Great view, free chocolate mints. What a life.

Score 27-13....Seahawks Baby!

Bangs

Yep I got bangs and dyed my hair to my natural color. I wanted my hair to be healthy and I wanted somehting different. I liked them for about a weekend, then they grew out to be too long. Now I can't do much with them and they are a pain to style. Lesson learned.

Shaunavan Greenhouse!

The last week of August my Uncle Ron, Aunt Jake, and my cousins Jasmin and Chance visited. They did a road trip all the way from Shaunovon, Saskatchewan. My Aunt and Uncle own a greenhouse and were in town visiting because of a gift show in Seattle. It was so nice to See my Uncle Ron again since I just saw him a month ago in Newfoundland. He makes me laugh. I haven't seen my Aunt Jake and my cousins since Mitchy's wedding so it was nice to visit with them. It was also the first time for them to meet Brad. Hopefully next summer Brad and I hope to make the drive to Saskatchewan and visit them at their home and see the Shauuuuuunavon Greenhouse that we heard so much about. It sounds wonderful.

On their road trip here they visited places like the Bushart Gardens, Banff, Alberta to ride on the Gondola, Hells Gate at the Frashier Canyon in B.C. and Forks, WA to see where the movie Twilight was filmed since my cousin Jasmin is a big fan of the movie. One night Brad and I had the kids over for a sleepover. Chance and Brad played video games while Jazmin and I watched 17 again and Twilight. Afterwards we went to get pedicures. Jazmin had never had one before. It was my obligation as a woman to show her the path of pampering yourself :) The last night they visited Jasmin, Chance and I went to get ice cream.....on the way I decided to teach Jasmin how to park in a vacant parking lot since she has her learners permit. She did a great job driving! It was so cool to help teach her. I miss them already.

Satre Family Reunion

Two family reunions in one month...phew. This time we traveled to Olympia for Debbie's family reunion....my mother in law. We had such a wonderful time catching up with everyone. I got to see a lot of them at our wedding but I was so busy that night I felt like I barely was able to talk to everyone. We had a picnic in the park, watched the boys play ball, and enjoyed each others company. I went to the family reunion last year as Brad's girlfriend and meeting the entire family was super intimidating, this year I fit right in :) Here are a few pictures: The boys and their football pose
Cheering the boys on as they play football
Can you tell that I fit in?