zipline - piholo ranch

We chose to enjoy an adventure (on Maui Jim) at Piholo Ranch Zipline. It was stunning, amazing and some of the most fun I've ever had! I conquered some of my paralizing fear of heights, started to feel more comfortable not being strapped in 100 ft up and climbing up a moving bridge... started...but once they strap your trolley on the line, it's the safest feeling ever! They take their roles extremely serious but we all still had a blast! safe was good!!

Keith and I both posing for the camera! What a fun sunny perfect day!

The gulch that we zipped across in Makaoa, leads right to the ocean, such a beautiful sight! the bazillion colors of green, the bring orange flowers in the trees, just spectacular!

You want me to climb up WHAT? 2 at a time so you don't rock it off... um...

the first and easiest tower...cause it had stairs. LOTS of stairs!! this is easy??

This is actually US zipping down the line at an insane rate. I'm in HIT THE BLOCKS form and Keith is still rockin a starfish... starfish is SLOW DOWN, you spread your arms and legs and push your chest forward. I'm in landing form so I don't hit anyone with my legs and so that my trolley doesn't come back and wack me in the face after I hit the brake ;)

all of our trolleys and gear waiting for us! KNOW YOUR NUMBER was what we were DRILLED on.

Vancouver/Whistler Part 2

The next leg of our journey (after a very big breakfast...) was to Granville Island. I don't know how I've gone this long in my life without going there. rediculous! It's like Pike Place on superdrive!

The poppies had JUST arrived (first of the season) when we arrived and I nearly lost my mind. These pics are just my phone pics, my camera pics are even better!

Granville has all the "market" feel of Pike with the addition of MUCH more prepared food, meats and salads, etc as well as hand crafted items. I could seriously spend a week going through the place but Keith hit his max at a little over an hour. it was a great trip!
also there... lily of the valley! gorgeous!

Next stop on our journey was to Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. it's a little smaller than Capilano, but free! and the hike on the other side of the bridge was fantastic! We hiked DOWN (and down) to a spot on the river that pooled up this beautiful color, blue, green, I don't know how to describe it other than the most beautiful deep rich color of aqua! we knew it was going to be a bear to get back up after climbing down the hill and the stairs but about half way through...

THIS started getting real old... climbing back up these stairs nearly did me in, but it was gorgeous and totally worth it, the weather was great and spending time with Keith was fun, he was in rare form...

and can I just say KUDOS to me... I hate heights, hate bridges over water and I walked tentitively at first over the suspension bridge but by the time we were leaving I was running across it, not thinking about my fear, just enjoying the beautiful place. YAY!

I highly suggest Lynn Canyon, the visitor center was amazing, the suspension bridge is stunning and the hikes around are great and fairly easy.

Vancouver - Part 1

We started our adventure to Vancouver with a trip to the Everett clinic to get Keith cleared for travel after his fun day with Kidney Stones, they gave us the all clear and off we went!

We took the scenic route up Chuckanut and it did not disappoint! The tide was super low so at the first view point we could look out and see the oysters at Taylor Shellfish, I've never seen that before. So great. We had a nice time chit chatting and heading up to the border.

We made it up and through the traffic and got to our hotel, interesting story, when using priceline make sure you're sure about which area of town you want your hotel in, ours was ok, not fantastic but we had fun anyway. We stayed at the Coast over by Stanley Park, the rooms were like little apartments with small kitchenettes and living rooms. Definitely doable. We only had one night so we took a recommendation from a friend for dinner and Keith was a trooper, we headed to Sha-Lin noodle house, I loved it, Keith wasn't thrilled. Lesson learned, when in a strange town, don't go for the most exotic thing you can find...

We finished the evening with a walk down to the safeway a couple blocks from our hotel to get Mikayla her special Canada request: Pickle potato chips and Ketchup potato chips. I rounded it out with tim tams (my fav) and ketchup. why ketchup? it's sweeter in canada and I love it. I stocked up and we're set for a while...


Friday morning I took Keith to a breakfast place I had researched... Paul's Omlettry. It was delish! Keith got a pancake breakfast and I got blackstone eggs benedict (bacon on the eggs benedict instead of ham) it was killer!
My favorite part of the breakfast? when you order coffee or tea, you are asked if you want milk or cream. HECK YES! CREAM! I'm moving.

Portland trip

This falls into the category of things I should have blogged but didn't...

In January we made the trip down to Portland to see my bro in law Mike with his Cavaliers

some exciting things that happened (besides the Cavs winning)...

1. it was my first time to see Shaq in person.

That is one big boy. I actually think I stared at him the entire game like he was a circus freak or something... I made the comment to Mom and Keith that now I think I know what David must have felt like when he saw Goliath. danggggg.

2. it was my first time in the Rose Garden and let me tell you, Portland loves their Trailblazers and it was a GOOD time, everyone was friendly and getting to the game on the max was AWESOME!

3. The MAX. public transportation done right. wow. pick up the train outside of the hotel, get dumped at the arena and then scoots you back to the hotel after. loved it

4. Our first trip to VooDoo Donuts. I don't think this place was around when I was in Portland more often and if it was the locals who took me around Portland should be shot (that was '94)

5. Breakfast at the hotel restaurant unlike any I've ever had before (the Original http://www.originaldinerant.com/index.php)

great eggs benedict, the place is like an upscale old diner but the most delicious food ever!

6. Our hotel! Courtyard Marriot city center. the place was gorgeous! great everything. we'll be back. LEED Gold and great artwork and the bedding was fantastic. loved every minute.

7. Our Waterfall trip - on our free day we walked around Portland in the morning and everyone bore with me while I scooted up to see if my pursemaker was open (not yet boo!) and then on a whim we decided it would be fun to head out to Multomah Falls. It'd been a long time between trips for me. The last trip would have been on the way from Portland to Walla Walla in '95? yowsa! It's a gorgeous drive along the Columbia river to the most beautiful waterfall I've seen in some time!

Keith and Dad and I walked up to the bridge and Keith continued on to head to the top of the falls, he almost made it before he realized he was fully out of communication from the rest of us and as he wasn't sure how long it'd take and how long we wanted to wait he came back down. We had a great bite to eat at the lodge and then hit the road for home.

8. the food... We had a big breakfast (the original) then a snack at Multnomah and then I forced my family to try German food (eh they say but I loved it) then we headed north to Spiffy's for the biggest, baddest, most awesome banana cream pie EVAH!!!

9. A trip to Cabella's... Mom and Dad hadn't been yet and I knew they'd freak! it was great! Dad could have made that his destination for the day and Keith and Mom and I had a blast! i heart you Cabella's.

We had a blast on the trip, it was so fun to see Mike and such fun with my parents! And Portland, you're pretty dang cool. I can't wait to get back!

Snoqualmie Falls

Snoqualmie Falls you never dissapoint. Even with the dad letting his little kid pee on the sidewalk we still had a good time!

Sunday on our way home from Yakima we road tripped! We stopped at the Cle Elum Bakery and had apple fritters and donuts and then to Salmon La Sac and then after a traffic jam on the pass, Snoqualmie Falls!

Keith and Mikayla jumping into the crowd to take a better look!

This was our fathers day as we'll be leaving the big man on his own this next weekend as we go camping without him. I think we did a pretty good job of spoiling him!

Salmon La Sac - new and improved?

Welcome to my 2nd favorite campground of all times. Salmon La Sac just outside of Roslyn, Wa.

I grew up going to SLS with my Mom's side of the family and have very fond memories of my Grandpa taking a leap off the bridge into the deep frigid river that runs through the front gates of camp.

We haven't been in a few years, some because of the campground being flooded and rebuilt, some because all of us kids are too busy getting married, having kids, etc. just busy! but the first reason (the flooding) was what I wanted to check out. We knew they had reopened but no one had been to check it out.
Here's my report.
1. There's NO water in camp. they have pit potties now (not that gross except nothing to even wash your hands with (purell needed!) you also have to bring in any water you may need. being 30 minutes from town this is a bit of a hassle. I'd like to have checked out Wish Poosh on the way to see if they have water?
2. the lake on the way to camp (that I don't even remember) is HUGE! it's covering trees and amazing. We'll have to check this out further. it looked like wish poosh was right there?
3. Camp - new pavement throughout but the sites look beat up. there's lots of rocks exposed and the sites look pretty uneven.
4. I did notice LOTS of new stone hearths? they look pretty cool!

And for all you Grahams, look close at these pics, I went to the old combined site and that's what we took shots of. hope you like em!

What a fantastic weekend!

First off I have to apologize because I was SO busy with everything that I did not take but two pictures all weekend. There were shutterbugs everywhere though so soon enough I'll post photographic evidence of my fantastic weekend!

Friday night started with a paper airplane contest here at the office. Which I won. yep. totally smoked the hoity toity architects ;) My plane was simple and fun and crushed the goal of throwing from the mezzanine of our office into our lobby.

Friday night I headed for home, collected the projects I needed to finish that evening and headed to my parents house to see Niki, Greg and Addie who had flown up from LA that afternoon. Finished the melon kabobs (thanks to the rest of the family because I had some crazy allergic reaction to the melon?) made a few more tissue balls and all of the other odds and ends got tied up too.

Saturday morning I went to my WW meeting, (lost .9 more!) and then to the grocery store to get the items for the punch, the party store to get the balloons and then Fred Meyer to get the sticky stuff to put up the sign and tissue balls.

I arrived back at the condo at just about 10am, got everyone up and showered and cute and then we collected all of the party stuff and headed down to the cabana to meet my parents and sister and the rest of the family and get the room ready for the party!

Food out, decor up, game ready and off we went into party mode!

I'll post more party info upon arrival of photos! My sister, cousin and uncle are all supposed to be getting photos to me so hopefully tomorrow. It was beautiful and my Mom had a great birthday!

Sunday we headed out to Belfair state park to camp with my Parents and sis and bro in law (and neice) and we had a great ferry ride/drive over, the campground is stunning, but it rained. and rained some more. It got so bad that yesterday we headed into town to bowl and hang out at the mall because there was nothing we could do at camp in the rain!

We came home last night, dropped off Mikayla just after 8 and came home and just passed out. What a fantastic weekend!

Why you don't leave your camera laying around in another camp site...

I'm telling you now. I'm keeping this clean unlike my girls did...

If you walk away from a campsite and leave your camera for your friends to mess with, they will. I got back to the site, picked up my camera and took a look and though, huh? must be the wrong camera. oh no. it's not...




dang you girls are evil.

packing up. lame.

Keith was scheduled to work at noon on Sunday so Sunday morning when we woke up we ate some quick breakfast and started breaking camp. Folding blankets, organizing clothes, putting the stuff in the jeep, taking down the tent, etc. When he left all I had to do was help my parents pack up (which they are VERY experienced doing so it's pretty dang easy)

After camp, I headed north to drop off Mikayla, then headed back past camp and to Country Burger, got Keith lunch, dropped it by work and headed home. I ran into the Thorsteinsens on the road 2 different times on the way home. hilarious.

I rested about an hour and then headed out to our co-ed game. I'm tired. ;)
Keith and Dad getting the tent BACK into the bag. not an easy job!

Mom packing up camp. boo hoo.
our last view of camp
the Schmidts and Gates leaving. lame too.