Happy Monday!

Happy Monday Friends!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a wonderful Easter! 

We spent our Easter weekend celebrating with the squadron, going to the cherry blossom festival at Kamiseya and exploring Tokyo for the first time ... we saw the Imperial Palace and the cherry blossoms in Ueno Park.  It was gorgeous!  I will do a full post later this week!  I wanted to add a few photos I took with my iPhone, but for some reason they aren't showing up as options to insert.  Silly Blogger.

In other news, our household goods (i.e. the rest of our clothes, furniture, kitchenware, etc.) will be arriving on Wednesday!  I am SO excited to get back my: 

• Dyson - these floors are impossible to keep clean.  
• Paper shredder (NERD ALERT!) - I have over a month's worth of documents to shred.
• Filing cabinet - I have over a month's worth of documents to file.
• MY BED - this loaner furniture double bed is SO uncomfortable, not to mention SMALL.  
• The rest of my wardrobe!  

I will be one happy girl come Wednesday! 

I will leave you with a funny story for your Monday ... I bought some croissants the other day at the Maruetsu and had them sitting up on the countertop.  I left to go run errands with my friend Mrs. K13 and we stopped back by the house so she could pick something up.  She ran in while I stayed in the car with her baby.  She came back downstairs to report that Miss Lucy had gotten the croissants down off the counter and was lounging on the couch eating croissants.

Oh, Miss Lucy, what a hard life she leads :) 

Lucy

Lucy had to have a minor procedure done yesterday and she is rocking her best sad face for us:

Watching her wear the cone around is absolutely hilarious.  She runs into everything and cries a lot while she is wearing it.  She is actually much better than Addy and doesn't bother her incisions much so I don't make her wear it too often :)

The Mother Visits the Pacific Northwest - Part III

I couldn't let my mom come out and visit without taking her hiking!  The weather was not the greatest while she was here, so we picked a day and crossed our fingers.  It was very dreary looking when we rolled out of bed on Monday morning, but we decided to take our chances and headed east on U.S. 2.  We had decided to hike Wallace Falls which is about 5.5 miles roundtrip and would be perfect since our days had just been drastically shortened due to daylight savings time.  

Small Falls ... the first waterfall that we came upon

Mossy trees

Addy, me, Lucy

Waterfall #2 ... Lower Falls

They are very creative with naming around here :)

My mother in front of Lower Falls with Middle Falls in the background

Middle Falls with snow covered trees above it!

Take #2 ... it was absolutely beautiful!

 Sun coming through the trees

and Take #2

Lucy and her backpack!

Addy!

Middle Falls

The top of Middle Falls

The sun was trying its very hardest to peek out

Beautiful

We finally made it to Upper Falls and to be quite honest with you, I thought Middle Falls was much more impressive

I really liked this trail ... every half mile they had a mile marker telling you how far you had gone, what the next half mile would be like (easy, medium or hard) and a trail map for you to look at.  It was great!

Lucy playing in the river

I got a few good pictures of the peaks around Wallace Falls on our way out ... they are ruined by the gigantic power lines running through, so please ignore those :)

We were SO lucky that the weather held out ... there were several times it looked very dark and ominous but we had a great time and the scenery was beautiful.  Wallace Falls was a great hike and very easy to get to!

Hiking Excelsior Mountain!

Last Tuesday, J. had the day off so we packed up the car and headed up towards Mt. Baker to hike Excelsior Mountain.  I was slightly nervous because I'd been sick the previous week with some kind of sinus/cough/cold thing and my cough hadn't gone away completely.  I also hadn't worked out in a week.  And, J.'s better than me at EVERYTHING and even if I had been 100% healthy I likely would have been slowing him down.

The morning started out very cloudy and gray, but it was supposed to clear up around noon.  We decided to trust the weather guy and headed up towards Bellingham with the dogs.  It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive to the trailhead and as soon as we turned off the highway in Bellingham the sun came out and the day turned gorgeous.

Starting out...

Hiking past a lake ... there were people camping on the far side of the lake.  It looked like a really cool campsite!

The view from one of the many spots I stopped to rest ...

Another view ...

J. and the dogs crossing a stream ...

Up some stairs ...

Mt. Baker from the backside of the mountain ...

And ... we finally turned the corner and headed up to the very top.

And once we turned up the final path, it was all uphill ... and not a little uphill, but MAJOR uphill.  The last part was very hard.  But I made it and the view from the top was worth it! 

Mt. Baker from the top:

Ads at the top ... enjoying the view:

And then we headed back down ...

Some more stairs ...

Addy and Lucy playing in the stream next to the trail ...

A little waterfall in the stream ...

Lucy ... I was behind her, Ads and J. for the whole hike so she would stop and wait for me every now and then.  As soon as she saw me, she would race off to meet back up with J. and Addy.  She did this every 5-10 minutes, it was adorable.

We finally made it to the end of the hike and headed home.  It was a great hike ... a challenging but doable trail and a gorgeous view coupled with a gorgeous day.  I definitely recommend this hike to anyone in the Seattle area ... as long as you're not sick!

National Dog Day!

Whew, three posts in one day!  It's a lot, but it's National Dog Day today (August 26th) and I couldn't let it go by unnoticed!  So, take a moment today to honor your furry little friends!  Here are a few pics of mine:

Addy on the weekend we brought her home:

Helping with the dishes:

Helping me pack:

Hiking:

Replenishing her electrolytes:

SO CUTE:

Meeting her cousin, Harley:

Driving across the country:

Sleeping with her sister:

Recovering from hip surgery:

And we can't forget about Baby Lucy:

Meeting her for the first time:

Lucy on Halloween (love her ear!):

I swore she wouldn't sleep in my bed:

Meeting Oscar:

Lucy's first Christmas:

Cheering on the Colts in the Super Bowl:

Making cookies with her momma:

Just eating a bone:

Helping us move:

Just driving across the country:

Reading about Washington's Top 10 Wineries:

Let's go wine tasting!

These dogs have captured my whole HEART.  They are so sweet, funny and full of personality.  My life would not be the same without them!