5 Things about Seattle that no one talks about 

My husband and I relocated to Seattle from Salt Lake City Utah last summer. My husband received a job offer and we moved within a space of about three weeks. Needless to say, it was quick. Once we realized we were moving, I tried to do some research on Seattle, what living here is like, etc. Of course I found many articles and blogs talking about the rain, the traffic, but now that we've been here for six plus months I feel like no one prepared me for what I'd really find. So before more time passes and I forget just how foreign these things were, I wanted to write these down.

Seattle housing is expensive and very hard to find
When looking at the cost of living calculator, Seattle seemed to be only marginally more expensive than Salt Lake- and the salary my husband was being offered seemed to be adjusted appropriately for the difference. As we were making plans to move, we decided we would just pack all our bags and drive up and stay in a hotel or with friends for a few days until we could find something. We, I, expected this to take a few days. At most. And be no problem.

My husband makes decent money. We both have great credit. We are also pretty frugal meaning we wouldn't even consider living in a place we didn't feel like we could afford; which is always less money than whatever equations are used by landlords to determine what we can afford. In Salt Lake, we could have walked up to almost any rental property and decided if we wanted it or not and it would be done. We probably even were in a strong enough position we could demand lower rents for such outstanding credit. That was not our experience here. I started going through ads and making phone calls. The number of "Sorry, it's already been rented" were unbelievable. Fully half, maybe even two thirds of the calls I made had that response. And these were ads that had only been up a few days. We went to look at one house for rent, and there was already a dozen people there filling out an application, racing to finish first so they would be considered first.

This isn't even taking in to account how expensive it is.  From our condo in Salt Lake to our apartment here, we are paying twice as much and getting half the square footage.

Bottom line- be prepared to pay- out the nose for housing.


The Seattle Freeze
This was another phenomenon that really took me by surprise. And to be fair, I had read about it before we moved here, but no one used the term "Seattle Freeze". In short, people here are so unbelievably nice. I mean, over the top nice. I had a man offer to buy my groceries the other day when he thought I had left my wallet at home. But, just because they are nice, does not mean they are friendly.

My son and I walk through the UW Arboretum pretty regularly. And I feel like people are actually warmer there than anywhere else. A few times I've had a women who was clearly out for a jog slow down and chat with me about raising kids and things to do in the area. And then there is this moment where they suddenly break off the conversation, put the earbuds back in and speed off. Its like this invisible force hanging over our heads that will require them to extend further friendship if they don't hightail it out of there and I mean now!

I was surprised at how isolated and alone I felt. I'm a pretty outgoing and friendly person. Which, ironically enough, actually makes it harder. Seriously. Apparently the biggest turn off for people is someone that is eager to be friends. I was also surprised by people who aren't even from Seattle who have adopted the Seattle Freeze attitude. I feel like the effort I made to make friends was more than I've ever had to make before. And I lived in Eastern Europe for two years.

Bottom line- Be prepared to get involved. The only way I've found to actually make friends has been involvement in various circles: play groups with the kids, church, co-workers, any groups that revolve around a hobby or special interest.

How few hours of daylight there are in the winter
Speaking of the "weather", everyone talks about the rain. Yes, it rains a lot. We moved from Salt Lake City. Almost anywhere we moved in the country gets more rain that there. So maybe it was just about managed expectation, the rain really hasn't bothered us. And to be honest, it really doesn't even rain that much. There's only been a couple days where it rained hard enough to stop us from going on a walk.

But what no one does talk about is how few hours of sun there are in the winter. In December the sun sets just after freaking four pm! FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON! The nights feel like they stretch on forever! I can't believe no one is talking about this! It's so depressing!

Having moved here in July, we didn't get the full Seattle in the summer experience. But the time we did have was very nice. And you have to keep in mind, for as long as it is dark in the winter, it is light in the summer. So I guess that is the compromise.

Bottom line- Most of all, I think just knowing about this is sufficient. But altering your schedule so you can get a walk in during the day and enjoy some sun when its out is absolutely necessary as much as possible.

Everyone is thin and beautiful
My husband and I are very very average American- meaning we are over weight. While we personally know we need to eat better and adopt a more active life style, it never seemed that we were much different from people around us. Until we moved here. Now granted, this is a sweeping generalization, but if you just sit and watch people passing you on the street you will find the proportion of people are not overweight and definitely more attractive.

At first this was rather motivating. We had grand plans to eat well and exercise. Now we have a new plan. Try and drag everyone else to our level. Maybe pour pure butter into the water supply? That will pack on the pounds!

Bottom line- Now might be the time to hit that treadmill, before you relocate to Seattle.

Just how fanatical everyone is about sports
My husband and I are not sports people. We weren't raised in sport-centric homes. Our dads didn't orient their lives around watching the game. I don't know that either one of us has ever sat down and watched a single professional game of any sport that exists- this includes the super bowl. So when we moved up here, we were completely unprepared for the world that revolves around sports up here. Everyone watches the game. Everyone. Everyone follows the Seahawks.

Is now the time to admit that we didn't even know the Seahawks had won the super bowl the year before? I kept seeing flags with "12" on them everywhere and had no clue what it was about. I got that it had something to do with the Seahawks, I assumed "12" was the star player or something. But it was everywhere. I started to feel a little weird about it. I mean, great that the whole city can rally behind one guy, but what about the other poor players? Don't they deserve a little support? I finally had to look it up on Wikipedia to learn about the 12th man. I was a little embarrassed when I learned what this was.

Bottom line- If you are not a sports person and moving to Seattle. Take a little time doing some research on the professional teams here, their stadiums, their history, their current record, etc. Trust me, it will come up.

The conclusion
In general another aspect of this experience that I was not prepared for is just how different Seattle is culturally. I suppose I thought of Seattle as the same as Salt Lake- just in a different place with a lot more water. I could not have been more wrong. It was like moving to a different country. The language and the currency is the same. But thats just about it. Colin Woodard write a book that explains how the US is really more defined by 11 nations. You can get a good summary of it here. And I wish I would have read this book before moving. Anyone moving to a different part of the country should.

I'm super grateful that we have moved. It has opened our world in a way we never could have experienced if we had stayed in the same state. Not to mention, Washington IS a beautiful state. And I love having water around us every where we go. But next time we move, I'm going to take a little more time to prepare myself for the place we are moving to.

Yup, I'm serious this time

My husband introduced me to a program called "Radio Lab" some time ago. While this program deserves an entire entry dedicated to its existance, I am going to refrain at this time. But I would highly recommend checking it, it is facinating.

I recently listened to an episode entitled "Help". The part the most intriuged me was right at the beginning. You can listen to this section of the program at the following link. (Its about 20 minutes, the entire episode is about an hour.)

Help! On Radio Lab


The story is essentially about this really awesome woman, who had been a huge civil rights and gender equality activist, who had been a smoker for most of her life; a heavy, 2 packs a day, smoker. She had a close friend who also smoked, and they talked about quitting a lot and her friend successfully quits. But this woman can't. Years pass and she is still just smoking away. She talks about quitting, she goes a day without smoking but relapses, but can't really quit. One day her friend says, "you're still smoking?" And it really bothers this woman.

At this point the program talks about the science behind these sitations. In this instance, the woman had many incentives for not smoking, she knew it was bad for her health, stained her teeth, was really expensive, etc etc. But those are all "future" incentives to quit. When experiencing a craving for a cigarette, it was a "right NOW" incentive. So our brains are fighting this "right now" incentive with a "future" incentive so its easy to understand which one is going to win.

So what did this lady do? She made a pact with her friend that if she ever smoked a cigarette again she would donate $10,000 to the Ku Klux Klan. Yes. That's awful. You can't even imagine giving them anything. That's why this is so brilliant. Now all of the sudden she has an immediate "right now" incentive to NOT smoke. And she did. Quit cold turkey from that day, never had a cigarette again.

I listened to this, found it facinating, but didn't think about it much more after that. Well the last couple months... let's say... I have been talking about losing weight. I get a lot of responses like, "You're just fine the way you are" although come to think of it, I am getting those response less and less... hmmm. Anyways, the point is, I really am not "fine" at my current weight. Which is frankly embarrassing that I let myself get to this point.

And I have all these "future incentives" to lose weight. I have an entire wardrobe too small to wear and I can't afford to buy an entire new wardrobe, I can't be as physically active as I like to, it is literally killing me (all the studies showing how obesity affect overall health are pretty much conclusive at this point), and I really don't like the way I look. All that being said, I still can't help myself to that extra "afternoon snack" candy bar from the vending machine at work. I couldn't find the motivation to act. I even remembered this program, but couldn't really come up with something that seemed to fit.

At the end of work today, people were talking about tatoos. And I thought to myself, "yeah right. I would never get a tatoo". And then it hit me! I could make some kind of committment to get a tatoo if I don't live up to my obligations health and eating wise!

I've ultimately decided I do need to put a time limit on this. I don't really want it to be a forever thing. And I am giving myself leeway. So the final committment is this:

I Marie Mines Paulsen will not consume more than 2,000 calories in a single day for the next 365 days as of today, March 27 2012, or I will get a tatoo "2,000" (2,000 calories?) that covers my entire back.

I announced my decision to my husband who looked less than excited about this. "I'm not really hot on the idea of you getting a tatoo. Especially one that says '2,000'." "Perfect!" I responded, "You'll be very motivated to help me meet this commitment!"

So there it is. I started today consuming a grand total of 1600 calories which when you think about, it still plenty of nutrition given a sendetary life style. I really am still giving myself plenty of cushion. But I'm so excited about this.

2012, here we come!

Well, for anyone reading this, sorry I have been so sporadic in writing. It isn't intentional, but if you know me at all, you know just how ADD I can be.

2012 is looking great. After an incredible Christmas/New Year's Christian and I are settling back in to "normal" life. Its been difficult. We got the chance to go down to Saint George for Christmas, just the two of us. It was tons of fun and a very special first Christmas for us.

Yesterday, we went to the Salt Lake City Downtown Library, or in other words, my favorite building on the planet! I still remember my very first introduction to the library. A good friend of mine, Creighton, gave me a tour. He showed me the ins and outs, the architecture, the nooks, the design, everything, about the place and I fell in love. One of my favoritest things to do is to take people who have never been there and give them the same tour. It really is a remarkable building and we are lucky to have such a place in Salt Lake. I took some pictures which you can view here

Other than that, you can see some of our other adventures below!

Hope all is well and that 2012 is an amazing year for you!

Us as Zion's National Park over Christmas

Going to see a movie with mom and dad, ironically, NOT the Muppets.

My new haircut! :D

What can happen in one year?

So I just had a sudden realization, maybe any of you may relate to this. i had an event in my life that was tied to a very specific date. Last year, and four days ago to be exact, I flew to New York intending to continue on to Ireland for a vacation with a couple of friends. Alas, a volcano in Iceland erupted and canceled thousands of flights including ours. After coming home prematurely, I ended up going out on my first date with the man who is now my husband. (Yes, for anyone that missed it, I got married. :) See here for details.

Its just crazy to realize that a year ago, while I had met and even befriended Christian, we honestly hadn't really had any romantic goings on at that point, and now he is my husband.

I guess you never know what a year is going to bring.

Oh how time flies

I can't believe how quickly time goes by. Last night I was talking to Christian and my father and I just realized how much has happened in the last twelve months. First and foremost, I have successfully dated a boy for eight whole months! Which, for anyone that knows me, knows this is monumental! And not only have we been dating for eight months, but its a healthy, happy, good relationship with a good man. I am in uncharted territory! ;-) I could go on and on about how amazing he is, but I will save that for another time.

I also purchased a couple large ticket items this year. First, Bucephalus, my motorcycle. And also a new condo! I have been looking for a place to buy for a couple years now. This place came up and it just fit perfectly with everything I was looking for; space, location, price, etc. It all just came together. For now, Christian has moved in and is enjoying being there. We were able to celebrate Christmas there and really enjoyed it.


Christian and I, in front of the fireplace

"Santa" was very generous to both of us. :)


Christian got a new laptop from google! They are coming out with their own laptop that is supposed to be super easy and cheap and they sent him one for free to test out for them!



I was also blessed this year to be able to find a new job that I am really enjoying. I am working at an outdoor clothing company called "Kuhl" (pronounced "cool"). I am working in the customer service department. I was extremely grateful to have found a job that is still in the outdoor industry. Its something I enjoy being around.

As for the rest, I have enjoyed a year full of fun trips/vacations, hiking, camping, and other sorts of adventures. I went on lots of motorcycle rides including a ride up and around Yellowstone with my dad, a houseboat trip down to Lake Powell with my family, an annual camping trip with good friends, a ward campout, and many more.

I got the chance to go up to the Olympic Park in Park City and Luge! Given that probably my top favorite winter activity is sledding, that was pretty awesome, admittedly scary, but awesome.

All in all, 2010 has been a pretty amazing year. I hope you had just as full and enjoyable year as well. Here is to 2011! Cheers!

Crash Landing!

My baby sister just received her driver's license just over a week ago. Last night she was trying to back the car out of the garage and stepped on the gas. Unfortunately for her, the car was in drive and not reverse. Opps! :)

And I shall call him, Bucephalus!

So as my last post indicated, I did not make it to Ireland. Alas, it was not meant to be. Instead, I got this!!!

My last bike was named Angelina, but this bike is not a girl bike, its a boy bike. I was having a hard time finding a name when my latest boy toy, (thank you Christian!) made an inspired suggestion, Bucephalus! Bucephalus was Alexander the Great's horse and one of the most famous actual horses of antiquity. A massive creature with a massive head, Bucephalus is described as having a black coat with a large white star on his brow. It seemed fitting.

Bucephalus is a Honda ST1300, no, for those of you who are wondering, that is too much bike for little ol' me. :) It is crazy what common peception is out there about what kind of bike a woman should and shouldn't ride. Yesterday, I actually had a man roll down his window and say, "I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, but you don't look like you belong on this bike." I think he meant it as a compliment, so I tried not to tell to go walk the bear. Instead, I replied, "It sounds like we need to change your expectation of who you think should ride this bike." But I have a feeling that is going to be a common tune I sing for the next little while.

So far I have had him for three whole days and put over 200 miles on him. Oh yeah! I forgot. So over the July 4th weekend, my father and I went on a 1,200 mile ride up through the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone to the Bear Tooth Pass on our motorcycles. I was still riding Angelina at the time, I didn't have Bucephalus yet. The ride was absolutely incredible. We didn't ride on freeways and such. We stuck to back routes through canyons and lake sides and the like. It was an absolutely gorgeous ride.


View Grand Tetons,Yellowstone, Bear Tooth Pass, 2010 in a larger map

Ireland Iceland? What's going on?

Well as some of you may be aware, I was supposed to be going to Ireland this week. I've been planning this trip for the last nine months with some close friends of mine, Ireland enthusiasts, you might call them. The plan was to leave Friday the 16th and return home the 26th.

On the 14th I got a call from one of these friends, Brent, telling me the errupting volcano in Iceland had interrupted airtraffic in all of Europe and that our flight might be canceled. You can imagine how closely we followed the news after this. Friday morning, the flight wasn't canceled so we decided to try. We boarded the plane in Salt Lake, made it all the way to JFK airport and waited for six hours to baord our plane. One hour before we were supposed to board, the flight was cancelled. Ouch.

It wasn't so bad, we spent the night in New York and came home the next day. We still haven't made up our minds as for if we are going to reschedule the trip or just request a refund. (Which I must say I thought was pretty generous of the airlines to offer us both.) I have to admit, while I'm not happy about it, it isn't this bitter pill of dissapointment like I thought it would be. My mom suggested that maybe I am just growing up and learning to cope with disaspointment. I paused when she said this and replied, "... Naw, that couldn't be it!" ;-)

Well Ireland, hopefully you and I will meet again soon!

Adversity

I came across this message today from Aimee Mullens and found it to be an amazing perspective on adversity. The crux of her message is this,

"Implicit in this phrase, of “over-coming adversity”, is the idea that success or happiness is about emerging on the other side of a challenging experience unscathed or unmarked by the experience. As if my successes in life have come about from an ability to side step or circumnavigate the presumed pitfalls of a life with prosthetics or what other people perceive as my disability. But in fact we are changed, we are marked, of course, by a challenge. Whether physically, emotionally, or both. I am going to suggest this is a good thing. Adversity isn’t an obstacle we need to get around in order to resume living our life, it is part of our life. I tend to think of it like my shadow. Sometimes I see a lot of it, sometimes there’s very little, but it is always with me. Certainly, I am not trying to diminish the impact, the weight of a person’s struggle. There is adversity and challenge in life. And it is all very real and relative to every single person. But the question isn’t whether or not you are going to meet adversity, but how you are going to meet it. So our responsibility is not simply shielding those we care for from adversity, but preparing them to meet it well."

Feel free to check it out here:
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/living/2010/03/08/ted.aimee.mullins.ted

A perfect day!

Today was my birthday. In the past I have tried to keep quiet and be on modest about it, but this year I really felt like celebrating. The plan was to make the two and half hour drive up to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho with a small group of friends, but when people started canceling, I started to wonder what the day was going to be like. The morning started out with a phone from the last friend who said he couldn't make it. I have to confess, I was a bit bummed; and not at all excited about starting out this day.

Now maybe this is lesson about life, I suppose it isn't much of a stretch, but all I had to do was get out of bed and face the day. I walked out to my front room, where my roommates had decorated and gotten me flowers and birthday breakfast donuts (this was on top of the cookies baked yesterday). What a beautiful way to be greeted in the morning! I told them that the Lava Hot Springs were off and my one roommate, Lynette, could sense I was bummed. So she announced that we were going to go for a walk. She is so great, we start walking down the street and she starts picking up litter and throwing it in the garbage. What a great example. As we neared the end of our walk, I got a phone call from my dear friends, Sorina and Marian, in Romania. I was so excited to talk to them. They were such good friends and took such great care of me while I was there. It was wonderful to hear the voices.

Once we ended the call, my sister came by and picked me up to go for hour long massages at the UCMT (Utah College of Massage Therapy). It is always nice to spend time with my sister and it has been especially wonderful lately as I haven't seen very much of her lately but I got to see her yesterday, today, and will see her tomorrow. Plus, we got massages. :)
I got home from that and jumped in the shower. By the time I got out my good friend, Rob, came and took me out to lunch. We went to Red lobster, I had the shrimp and lobster linguine and it was delicious!

I got back home and jumped online, trying to figure out what I was going to do tonight and found an event at a high class hotel in Salt Lake City. "An evening of Jazz and Music", which turned out to be a five course meals of chocolate deserts. For anyone that knows me, they will know these are two of my great loves. I could not have designed a more perfect evening. I ended going with my dear friend, Melissa and a group of other including her brother and sister, Sterling and Cicely. It was so awesome to just sit in the beautiful lobby of this high class hotel and taste those chocolate delicacies. Everyone seemed to really just enjoy themselves and the conversation we had with each other. Another bonus of the evening was receiving a phone call from my brother who is currently in Korea with the Airforce.

All in all it was an absolutely perfect day. I think any time I start to feel down and like maybe I don't have very many good friends, I just have to remember days like today and remember how lucky and blessed I am to have a great deal of wonderful people who love me. How lucky am I? Thank you all for such a fantastically perfect day!

The wierdos I live with

I love my new roommates,,, even if they are a little wierd.

And their wierd boyfriends..

Seriously, I live with beautiful and awesome girls!

My New Diggs

So it has been a couple weeks since I've written anything about me, but its past time. The big announcement,,, drum roll please,,, I moved into a new apartment. I've been living with my sister for the last six months, which has been great. I've really enjoyed being there, it has provided lots of opportunities to spend time with my sister and nephews and new brother in law. However, they moved into a new home, congratulations them, and decided not to take along the extra baggage. ;)

I happened across an apartment complex that I am extremely excited to live in. First and foremost, I realized just recently I have been living in a "temporary status" for the past four or five years. I haven't been living anywhere where I've really settled in and made it my home. Even when I was in Romania, I knew I wasn't going to be there forever and so even though I lived there for two years, it still felt like I was living out of a suitcase. The first thing major benefit I've really enjoyed is hosting people.

Last week I had a couple of co-workers over and we made a cake together.

I also live closer to friends, such as Marcie and Dave

I've also made new friends, and I'm having lots of fun meeting tons of new people. Sam, one such new friends, and I went for a drive up Millcreek Canyon and oh the spendors we enjoyed.

However, the thing I am most excited about in my new place is my awesome new roommates. They are absolutely darling girls and we are already a tight knit group. I'm incredibly grateful I found such awesome friends I get to live with.

Shana, and her boyfriend Dave,
And I have yet to get a picture of Lynette, but this pretty much encapsulates all that is Lynette:

Look familiar?

One of the many delicious treats I used to enjoy in Romania was "cozonac"; poundcake. This is extremely popular around Easter. Today I happened to open my webbrowser to MSN what what should I see on today's recipe's but... this!
YEAH!!! This stuff is fantastic! You can find the recipe here:

http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/nutella-swirl-pound-cake-recipe

Obama awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

I'll say it; I'm a fan of Obama. I think he is a great man with great aspirations. I truly believe that he could have a tremendously positive affect on the world, not just the US, but the world. I think his beginnings as a community planner in the inner city of Chicago is a great place to be coming from when you are trying to make decisions that affect everyone. I read his biography. I earnestly believe he is a good and honorable man. That being said, I have to admit, learning that Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace this morning was a bit of a surprise. He's been in office less than a year.

The flip side of this I believe is that it is an indication of just how well thought of he is internationally. I was not in the United States for most of Obama's campaign and therefore didn't get to see how things were unfolding. However, being overseas did give me the opportunity to see how receptive the rest of the world is to him. As a result, right from the beginning I thought Obama would be good for the US in repairing relationships with other countries. I think the fact that he has been nominated is a great indication that the rest of the world is open to what the US can achieve.

Way to go Mr. President. We're behind you!

Camping!

So this last weekend I got to go camping! I went with my "married" friends and a very handsome, attractive, charming person with beautiful blue eyes and winning smile.

Everyone, this is Parker! Troy and Katie's son, he is six months and absolutely adorable!

Of course because Nicole & Brent and Troy & Katie were all together, there was a game of bang. Brent and Katie really got in to it. Autumn is my favorite season and it looks like this year is going to be an incredible year for the leaves so I'm looking foward to that. I have a goal of going all all the major canyons on the Wasatch Front this fall. I'm way jazzed about that. A perfect example of why fall is better. There is nothing like hanging out in a hammock, in the mountains, with someone you love. But something about the autumn, the warmth of the light, the crisp air, the delicious food, just makes all that even better.

We didn't get Dave in the picture, he left way early in the morning to get to work. But the rest of the crew, from left to right; Troy, Katie, Me, Nicole, Parker, Brent, and Seth. Too much fun! Thanks for a good time guys!

Setting up House

My sister is trying to move into a new house within the next week. (Everyone cross their fingers for her, we aren't sure if everything is going to work out yet.) So last Saturday we tried to get everything ready for her to move it. Its amazing how many little details go into these things. The great part was her two boys got to help with the action.

Rusty helped clean

Wyatt was quite the handy man, putting the closet door knobs on

And my dad over-saw all of us. (Read: came behind us and fixed all the mistakes, like putting the lock on backwards on the door.)

A swingin' time

So last Friday I went Swing dancing with a couple friends and man was it fun. I really enjoy dancing, but I'm really terrible at it. So finding someone that can move me around was quite enjoyable.

This is my super svelt friend Andrea

I tried to get a picture of her and Ryan dancing, but there were moving so fast it was literally just a blur
Here we have Emily and Tyler, who are getting married this weekend. Congratulations to the happy couple!

And finally me, in my all time favorite dance move, the dip!

Flat Tire and Goodness of Humanity

I have a theory. A girl does not need to know how to change a tire. (Just for the record, I know how to change a flat tire. I do. It just takes me three hours to do it. ) But she really doesn't. All she needs to do in the event of a flat tire is stand out next to the flat tire and look helpless and within three minutes, so burly man will be along to help. Really, three minutes.

I went to leave for work this morning and didn't even make it more than five feet out of my driveway before I had some kind soul there offering to help me. I didn't have to do anything, he changed the whole thing. It really does restore your faith in humanity, knowing that when you really are in a bind and someone knows how to help you, they are right there waiting to do so.

Good Friends

Last night was so much fun. I went out with some friends to Salt Lake. Nicole has been a friend of mine since forever when she went and left me for a man! (The nerve! ;) Her husband, Brent, is now working at the church office building so we went up to see what he does. Dave, a friend of Nicole's and mine came along as well. We eat at the Garden Resturant in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake. Check out the view behind us!
Afterwards we stopped by Troy and Katie's to play "Bang", the stupidest game known to man. Brent and Katie had a bitter duel to the death that lasted a half hour!

But all in all we had lots of fun. And we're such a good looking group!

Finishing up Labor Day weekend

So just to finish up the Labor weekend, Sunday after church I went up to my parents cabin. This was sort of a sad as my parents are getting ready to sell it at the end of this month. I think they both are sad to see it go, but my dad is looking forward to building a new one just down the way. Either way, it was the first time in a long time since our family has had some quality time together so it was nice to bet here together. We just stayed over night, but still had plenty of time to goof around,

Get in some serious backgammon competitions,

Enjoy eating lots of vegtables from Mom's and Aunt Lisa's garden,

And just hang out

What a weekend! :)