Happy Veteran's Day!

A big thank you to every one who is currently serving, has served or will serve our country in the future!  These men and women selflessly give of themselves so that those of us who do not want to serve or do not think that we can serve, don't have to.  I have a huge amount of respect for each and every one of them, as well as their families who give them up for days, weeks, months and even years at a time.

I was fortunate enough to spend my day with some of my favorite Navy boys ... J., G.S., N., W. and Mr. R.  But, unfortunately, I wasn't able to be with three other military men who are close to my heart ... my Pop-pop Ed, my late Pop-pop Roger, and one of my very good friends, Patman, who is currently serving in Afghanistan.  To all of you ... I hope you know how much I love and respect you!    

Happy Veteran's Day!

It's that time of year ...

Happy Tuesday friends!  I hope that you all had a good weekend ... I sure did!  My mom is visiting from the Midwest and we have been doing lots of fun things that I will blog about later!  She flies home tomorrow so watch for some new posts later this week.    

To keep you busy until then ... it's time to start thinking about Christmas cards!  I know it's only the beginning of November, but it's already November 9th and before you know it, Thanksgiving will be over and Christmas will be right around the corner!  

I love ALL things Christmas ... I'm just dying to put up my Christmas decorations.  But, at my house, Christmas decorations don't go up until the day after Thanksgiving.  You can be sure that on November 26th my house will be FULL of Christmas cheer.  

Until then, I've got Christmas cards to design and hours of internet surfing to do to find the *PERFECT* present for everyone on my list. Luckily, I've got some help with my Christmas cards ... Shutterfly is hosting an amazing giveaway ... 50 free holiday cards for bloggers.  So, if you are a blogger, check out this promotion!  And, if you're not, check out their site anyways, they have lots of great products!  

I'm trying to decide between these Christmas cards (opinions anyone???):

I love the simplicity of this card.

I love the Christmas tree and multiple photo option on this card.  J. and I did quite a lot over this past year and I'm not sure if I can sum the year up in just one picture. 

But I also love this card even though I'd only be able to use one photo.

How will I ever decide? I love this card too!

And there are many more options on their website ... go check them out here!

Or if Christmas cards aren't your thing ... consider purchasing some personalized gift tags for your Christmas gifts.  This tag is my favorite:

Shutterfly can even help with your gift giving ... they have wall calenders for a great price, canvas wall art, and fun photo books.  I've seen several sites doing canvas wall art this year and I think it's a great idea ... why not turn one of your favorite photos into a keepsake for your home?  I've also given photo books as gifts in the past and they make such a unique and personalized present.  It's thoughtful, personal to the recipient and shows that you put time and effort into their gift!

Purdue Reunion - Seattle Takeover

We spent Friday night in Anacortes after the big Halloween party, so Saturday morning we woke up, did a little damage control around G.S.'s house and then headed to Gere-A-Deli for lunch.  We'd been meaning to try Gere-A-Deli for awhile so it worked out perfectly ... AND it was a beautiful and clear morning so the girls got to see Mt. Baker.

After lunch, we headed south ... with a quick stop at the house to shower and change before heading into Seattle.  The boys wanted to go to REI (again, seriously?! more on that later), so we invited N.'s girlfriend to come into Seattle with us so she wouldn't be bored silly.  It was a great opportunity to get to know her better AND use our third row seating, I knew it would come in handy at some point!  Our first stop was Pike Place Market.

We wandered around the market ... watching the fish throwers, trying slices of fresh apples and admiring the beautiful flower arrangements.  

And then we headed over to the first Starbucks ...

Which was actually the least crowded that I have EVER seen it, so we got to go in and look around:

And then we ran into W. (who knew we were there) and went on a hunt for the infamous gum wall:

Elle, D., Face, Me, Easy A and Margeaux

And then W. contributed to the gum wall:

I hope he didn't actually touch it ... it's the second germiest tourist attraction in the world.  GROSS.

Looking down Post Alley:

After the gum wall, we headed towards Pioneer Square.  One of Face's friends from high school works at the oldest bar in Seattle, The Central Saloon, so we headed over to visit him and grab a drink.  

Elle, W., G.S. and Margeaux

D. and N.

J. and I

The bathrooms were painted "graffiti-style," and I loved it.  So I took lots of pictures:

Purdue Girls at The Central Saloon:

Face, Elle, Margeaux, Easy A and Me

Face and her friend, Danny

A picture of the outside of The Central Saloon ... it was such a neat bar, I highly recommend it!  They had a stage for live music and as we were leaving a band was setting up.  They were dressed up as the Blue Man Group and one of them was Tobias Fueke in his never nude shorts from the Arrested Development episode when he tried to join the Blue Man Group ... most creative costume ever!

After our happy hour, we headed back towards the market and had dinner at The Pike Pub & Brewery.  It was a pretty good meal but for groups over 7 (which we were) we all had to be on one check and they could only take 6 credit cards ... I thought that was kind of odd and they didn't tell us ahead of time so it was pretty annoying.

All in all, I had a great visit with my Purdue girls.  Thanks for making the trip out here ladies ... can't wait to see you all again soon!

Purdue Reunion - Halloween

So, Facebook changed the way they do their photo albums and now you can't copy people's photos.  While I am sure this was some kind of security thing, it's super annoying when you want pictures from your friends!

Anyways, after our big day in Leavenworth, we spent our second day together lounging around, walking the dogs and waiting for J. to get back from work.  We headed north to Anacortes in the early evening and made a few stops along the way ... we had to drop the dogs off for their sleepover with Uncle W. and needed some last minute costume accessories.

All dressed up ... we were superheroes and BatBee!

Margeaux, Elle, Face, Me and Easy A

Take 2 ... I needed a picture without my bat mask:

The black and yellow crew:

Face and Margeaux ... or WonderWoman and SpiderWoman:

The Red and Blue Crew:

Anacortes friends:

Me, Mrs. R, Mr. R. and Mr. Cheese ... Mr. R. had the best costume.

Me and Mrs. R.:

Playing Flippy Cup ... Team SuperHereos:

Team Heart Fail (don't ask):

We were having so much fun, everyone joined in ... the new and improved Team Heart Fail:

G.S. and J. squaring off ... (they were Chilean miners):

Go, Team Heart Fail, Go!

Making our mark on the table:

An intense game ...

And my picture taking abruptly ended.  We had so much fun.  I wish we could dress up more often!

Purdue Reunion - Leavenworth

Some of my best girlfriends from Purdue came to visit last week -- we spent a long weekend catching up, telling old stories, and exploring the Pacific Northwest.  It was a blast.  We did so many things that I'm going to break up my blog posts into days.

They got in late Wednesday night, so by the time we got back to my house they were exhausted.  We chatted for a little bit, had some appetizers and then headed to bed.  

Thursday morning, we got up and got ready and hit the road to Leavenworth, WA.  Leavenworth is an adorably authentic German town, just 100 miles from Everett.  It was a beautiful drive.  We followed the Skykomish River from Everett to Leavenworth and by itself it was pretty, but add in the changing leaves on the tree and the snow on Stevens Pass and you have a picturesque drive.  Unfortunately, we didn't stop along the way to take any pictures.  

We made it to Leavenworth in the early afternoon and decided to make our way down Front Street.  We started at Ryan Patrick Winery's Tasting Room, where we met Toni.  She was awesome and completely made our day.  We tasted some wines and I found a new favorite Chardonnay ... and learned something along the way.  If Chardonnay is aged in a stainless steel barrel (or unoaked) it's a Naked Chardonnay!  Ryan Patrick has a fantastic Naked Chardonnay that I highly recommend.

They put the Naked Chardonnay label on my bag!

From there, we wandered next door to "Cured" to get some sausage and salami to go with our new wines.  They had a fantastic selection and I loved the name ... so creative.  

Looking down Front Street (the main street):

Just doing a little shopping:

 Tasting at Icicle Ridge Winery:

Me, Easy A, Face, Elle and Margeaux

 Lunch at Cafe Mozart ... Margeaux and her Optimator:

My gigantic bratwurst ... good thing I split it with Face.

 Winery #3:

 Tasting:

 Margeaux, Face, Elle and Easy A:

After the third winery, we stopped into The Cheesemonger's Shop to pick up some cheese for later:

 The foggy mountains in the background ... even in the rain, Leavenworth was beautiful!

Elle and Face:

 The Leavenworth Starbucks!

We had a great day in Leavenworth ... and we didn't even see everything!  They have lots of festivals year round, so definitely check it out if you are in the Seattle area.