Stilly River

Last week, Ben and Kelsey and a few of their friends took my dad's giant raft and floated down the Stilly River. I picked them up at the bottom to take them to Ben's car and heard all about how fun floating the river was. They had a cooler, a radio, food and a lot of fun. I was determined to get out on the Stilly myself!

On Friday, I called Beth and asked her if she had any interest in getting on a small boat and floating down a river. "Um, yes." was her reply. We were set. All we needed was treats, drinks, and dad's raft. (all very easy to obtain).

SO... our nice relaxing float down the river did not turn out exactly like Ben's... I am sure of it.

We got to the park at the top, blew up the raft and headed to the entrance like everyone else. The hill to the water was quite steep and we almost lost a few of us before our toes even hit the water. After getting in, it was shallow water and we had to move the raft to a much deeper area before we could start our "float." This is where things took a turn for the worst!!

We started walking on the rocks, without river shoes. We soon realized this was going to take forever, so we put our flip flops on and hoped our toes were stronger than the river current. Not true. After about 3 steps we saw Beth's pink flip flop floating down the river without us. Floating toward a giant pile of trees and moving very quickly. Luckily there was a man hanging out on the side of the river at this point. He jumped in, got the flip flop and saved the day.

Unfortunately, this was not the only bump in our river fun. We got through the shallow water and came to a very quick moving current. Some people were going up and around by the rocks, but not us. We ventured right through the current. Greg had the raft, Steve had Beth and my hands and we ventured through it.

Here we are right before we entered the deep current. The water was up to my thighs. We started walking through it, without much trouble at first. Then... the current caught Beth's legs and swept her down the river. I was still holding her hand, but soon realized that I was going to pull her under if I didn't let her go. The problem was that if I let her go, she would too be headed in fast moving water, right toward the same pile of logs and trees that her flip flop had floated to. I had no choice, I couldn't hold her. We let her go and she gracefully floated down the river. She came to the logs, floated right by and started swimming in the water that immediately slowed down after the logs. I was laughing so hard I was crying because she looked so peaceful.

Greg, on the other hand, was not so peaceful. He saw Beth floating down the river and had a small heart attack. He somehow had the idea that Beth couldn't swim. He threw down the raft, and started running towards Beth and the rocks, and the logs. Running bay watch style! After hurting his feet on the rocks and running until he could see that Beth was ok he sat in the river and composed himself. His feet were cut up pretty badly and his heart beat was slowly returning to normal.

All this BEFORE the floating even began!

To make a long story short, the river was really fun after we were able to get in, paddle, swim, float, eat and drink. It took us four hours to get down, but it was a lot of fun! I would have more pictures from the trip, but in my laughing/nervousness to make sure Beth was ok, I dropped my camera in the bottom of the boat... which had filled up with water before we even started down the river.

Happy Birthday Steve.

I know, it is a little late. His birthday was on the 27th. He turned 30! Here is the breakdown of how he rolled over into a 30 -year old...

For his birthday, we got up early and went to the Pancake Haus. (You seriously cannot beat this breakfast place in Edmonds. Old-school pancakes and eggs...!) Steve got the "Lucky 7 plus Two" which in non-Pancake Haus terms means french toast, bacon, sausage, coffee, and two eggs! So much food, but he is a growing boy! I, of course, got the french toast. There is just something so comforting about cinnamon!

After breakfast with Sean and Court, we headed for our "errand." I told him we had to go and get stuff for the cake and something else. We jumped in the car and headed to Gregg's Cycle... He has been asking me for a bike for about 6 holidays now and I decided that I should encourage him to keep his old body moving! We got to the bike store and in true Steve fashion, he said, "are you sure? I could probably find a decent one for pretty cheap on Craig's list." Me: "You are not getting a bike on Craig's List for your 30th birthday!" (and besides, I didn't have any other ideas.)

After he picked out the bike (and I demanded that he also get a helmet as part of the present) we went and ate at Jersey Mike's (yummy subs) and then had ice cream at TCBY. We figured that he would need lots of energy if he was going to become an avid biker. Me, well, I didn't really have an excuse. :)

After we had stuffed ourselves with breakfast and lunch, we headed home to make the cake and to meet up at Courtney's dad's for a delicious, home-made, loaded with love, food for the soul type of meal. IT WAS DELICIOUS!!! (as to be expected from her parents!) We ate salad and beets fresh from her garden in Portland, corn on the cob, fruit, warm bread, salmon for the meat eaters, and of course brownies for dessert. I left feeling like a better person.

Dinner was done and the photo hunt began. We went to the Tacki Tiki, but to our complete dismay (so we thought at the time) the machine was broken. This took us to the local dive bar where an old school Blues-ey band was playing and the photo hunt was a quarter cheaper! Girls ended up beating the boys by a land slide... especially since there were 6 of them and 4 of us.

After a good game of photo hunt, we, you guessed it, headed back to our house to finish the night off with some nice guitar hero and some cake. I was exhausted as 3:00 am rolled around, but Steve celebrated in style and seemed to have a good day.

I am glad that Steve is 30. Maybe now he will start acting like a grown-up. :)

No seriously, I am glad that Steve was born. I am glad he is in my life. I am glad that he liked his bike and I am glad that he is just as competitive as I am when it comes to photo hunt.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE-O!

Lists.

I love lists. They are so handy and so multi-functunal. I love lists of things to do. Lists of things I love. Lists of funny things that remind me of my amazing trip to Ireland. Lists of reasons why I love Steve or why I shouldn't kill him on any particular day. Lists of things to buy. Lists of things that I want. Lists of things to pack on vacation. Lists of deadlines. Lists of people to invite to a party. Lists of food to make for a family get together. Lists of things to buy Steve for his birthday. Lists of yoga poses for class. Lists of food consumed in a day. Lists of projects. So many possibilities.

AND... I have just made a list of lists. How exciting. The options are endless!

Quilt

I have been wanting to make a quilt for some time now. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I wanted to see if I could do it. I wanted to put patterns together and see what they looked like. I wanted to take the time to make something from scratch. AND...

I did!! I made a really cute quilt for jen's baby. When Alysa was born, I made her a blanket by crochet. I decided this little girl would get a blanket as well, but that I would test my skills at the quilt. I was very excited that it actually came together just as I envisioned.

Okay, so things have gotten better...

I haven't posted since the bad day, but things have gotten better.
1 - I got my ceramic-ish squirrel back from Owen with a cute little hole in the front and a glued together tail. I love the squirrel even more now that Owen tried to take care of it in his own 3 year old way.
2 - I went to Canada with my friend Jannine. We ate lunch at an adorable little restuarant, shopped, sat by the pool (we had sunshine in the Pacific NW!), we ate yummy dinner, chatted, danced the night away and caught up. (We didn't care that there were 6 other girls there for a bachelorette party... they weren't that much fun anyway).
3 - I bought an adorable little dress at Macy's. When I saw it, I thought it would be perfect for the summer festivals, and I was right!
4 - I saw Grease the musical with Jen.
5 - I made vegetables in a ZipLock Steam bag and LOVED them. I have eaten them multiple times this month and even prepared a lunch of vegetables in a bag for Steve's lunch yesterday. How domestic!
6 - I am almost done with the sewing creation I am making for Jen's baby. The hardest part is left and I keep procrastinating!
7 - I have eaten two full bags (pretty decent sized bags) of sour gummy worms. YUMMY!
8 - I found my missing sandals.
9 - Steve and I agreed on the plans for the expansion of the house (that will probably never happen because the tree outside grows Roses and not money...)
and
10 - It is 7:00 pm and I am ready to leave work.

Things are definitely looking up!

Today was a bad day.

Today, first thing in the morning, say about 8:30 am, I got into a fight with a client. He was a jerk, he thinks I am a jerk, we yelled, it didn't end well. I was grumpy from that moment on. I yelled at Ben. I hated my day. Another client told me her case shouldn't be dismissed (even though she wasn't doing what she was supposed to be doing) simply for the reason that she had been a little under the weather. No sympathy. A little cold is not a good answer for a judge. I still hated my day and even hated the crazy woman that called and told me all about her son and how the credit card companies won't stop giving him credit cards. After 14 minutes and 37 seconds (I timed it) she finally explained the purpose of her call was because she needed to know exactly how to sue the credit card company for giving credit to her irresponsible son. I did not take that case. I ate my yummy salad for lunch and for some reason it did not taste as good as it usually does. Maybe because I didn't savor it like I usually do, but just ate in a rush knowing the emails were piling up. And they were REALLY piling up. I yelled at Ben again. I had to leave work early to take Steve to the airport and I secretly cursed Steve all the way home as I thought of how much work I had to do. Today started off as a bad day and I let the badness fester.

Tomorrow, I am going for a walk with my friend, outside....To get some fresh air and to start over. I am going for a walk outside and maybe to the fabric store. All the orderly patterns. Rows and Rows of neatly folded fabric. Tomorrow is going to be a good day. Tomorrow the bad day will be gone and a better one will take its place.

Our trip was so much fun!

We had a blast on our trip. Here is the recap:

Arrive in the Bahamas. Travel to hotel in large bus with a driver pointing out all the spots that Anna Nicole Smith owned, visited, and where she was buried. Arrive to hotel, check in, get put on third floor where loads of construction is going on... hmmm. Continuing on... head to the beach. Feel the warm, perfect water. HOORAY! Wake up very early the next day to hammering, drilling and loads of construction workers. This is not going to work. Call the front desk, ask for a room change, NOPE. hmmm.... Continuing on... head to the breakfast buffet. FRENCH TOAST. Hooray! Meet up with Steve's friends. More beach. More food. A beautiful wedding. Wake up the next day to similar circumstances with the construction. Get mad. Go to front desk, demand a room change. Get moved to the 15th floor with a spectacular view of the ocean! Hooray!. More food. More beach. A waterpark with human moving conveyor belts. Water Taxis with "Vote Obama" signs. More food. Cards. A Mr. Riu contest and some amazing dancing by the boys in our group. Beach. Wind. Water. Relaxing. Two books later, and a long flight from Atlanta back. It was a wonderful time with wonderful people.