Kristina's Birthday

Happy Birthday Kristina!  As usual, Kristina had a great birthday.  It started on the 25th with one of her co-workers making her these awesome tennis ball cupcakes. Julie did a great job!  They were chocolate with salted caramel frosting and then the "green" was coconut!  They were quite yummy and very tasty!

On the day of her actual birthday, she had to work, but two of her co-workers took her to a great lunch at Tipsy Cow in Redmond.  It is one of her favorites and they had a great lunch.

She left her work a bit early that day (she had worked the previous weekend, so she was more than done).  When Jared arrived home, he had brought her gifts, flowers, and a cake he had ordered from one of the local bakeries.  It was yummy and tasted as good as it looked.

Her birthday dinner was celebrated on Sunday.  Jared made reservations for The Whale Wins.  A Seattle restaurant that Kristina had been wanting to try, but he didn't know this.  So, it was an awesome surprise for her when we arrived at the restaurant.  It was a nice dinner and lots of fun, but then Jared and Kristina always have fun just hanging out and relaxing!

Happy Birthday Kristina!

Lake Valhalla

Jared and Indy wanted to take advantage of a nice day by finding a new mountain lake.  So after some research, they settled on Lake Valhalla near Stevens Pass.

After turning off of Highway 2, they drove on a gravel road  for a little ways to the trailhead.  The road was a little rougher than expected, but that was due to a road crew putting down new gravel.

There were already a few cars in the parking lot, but they hoped to not see too many people on the way.

The trail started out traversing up switchbacks almost right away.  Indy recharged by finding a cool place.

This is a wilderness area, so there were some extremely old and large trees along the trail... always amazing.

The switchbacks ended pretty quickly, and before long we were on a ridge following near the Pacific Rim Trail.

It didn't seem like anytime at all and we were looking down on Lake Valhalla!

There were a couple of people at the lake, but they managed to find their our own beach to have some lunch and for Indy to take a dip.

They hiked around the lake to see if there were any other beaches or better fishing opportunities.  The trail was decent for a ways, but quickly faded away and it required some bush wacking to get to the other end of the lake.

Although pretty, there wasn't a fish in sight, so Jared never did break out his fly rod.  Maybe next time!

Another Bear Sighting

So, Kristina is outside about around 1:00pm and she is feeding the squirrels (i.e., filling up their peanut box) and filling up the Stellar Jay bird feeder with peanuts as well when all of a sudden she hears all of this noise coming from the thicket that is between our neighbors' yards. Kristina was at the back of the yard near her hammock when she heard all of this commotion. Anyway, whatever that was coming through sounded BIG, so she begins making my way towards the house when finally she sees something black -- and out popped the bear. He looked at her, and she looked at him -- and they both didn't want anything to do with each other. He headed for the thicket at the back of the yard and Kristina headed for the house. Meanwhile as soon as he starting making commotion but hadn't popped out, Indy was barking. As soon as he popped out of the brush, she went bananas! She IS a guard dog!

He quickly disappeared in the thicket, but Indy continued barking her head off. Kristina gave it a minute and so and then went to put the bird feeder back and clean up her stuff. Indy went bonkers again and didn't stop until Kristina made my way towards the house again. Indy sat out on the deck for a good 15 minutes waiting for the bear to re-appear. He never did.

Kristina isn't sure where the bear ended up. He might still be hunkered down in the thicket. The trail was very busy today since it was a nice day and a Saturday, so Kristina would have expected to hear someone scream or something if he had crossed the trail.

Anyway...another crazy day!

Happy 5 Years at Monolith

June 1st is Jared's 5th anniversary at Monolith!  We can't believe that we have lived here 5 years now -- WOW!  Time does fly!  Jared is doing great at Monolith and is still happy he made the move.  We are both happy we made the move to Western Washington because we couldn't be happier.

To celebrate, Kristina took Jared out for a very nice dinner on Sunday (05/31).  Kristina made reservations at Tilth based on the recommendations of a co-worker, and we both had a fantastic time. This isn't a restaurant for everyone, but if you are looking for a unique place that prepares super fresh ingredients in very dynamic and out of the box ways...this is your place.  They have a tasting menu, but we decided to create our own because they had a small plate option as well.  So we ordered 6 small plates and two desserts and several drinks and had a marvelous evening.  We would highly recommend it the restaurant to anyone!

Happy 5th Jared!

May Rain

For the first time, since we moved here FIVE years ago, we didn't hit our average rain total for the month.  We only capture 1.53" of rain here in Woodinville which is way below normal.  They keep telling us it is going to be a dry summer and apparently this is the first step.  Jared actually thought he would have to get the sprinklers out to water the lawn because it is starting to get brown in spots! We'll see what lies ahead for us...at least we are enjoying some sunny weather!