A weekend at the condo!

I swear it wasn't that long ago but looking back and looking at the calendar I'm sorry to say this trip happen over Memorial Day, weekend. Usually I don't get Monday off but this year I did so we decided to head up to the condo for the weekend and I'm glad we did!

Owen making sure the camera is in working order.

One thing that is really nice about the condo is that the kids LOVE it! It doesn't matter if they are just eating breakfast.......

...watching tv or.....

waving good-bye to a stray dog...no joke...a stray dog. No matter what they are always having fun. Getting back to the stray dog thing. I'm not exactly sure why Easton fell in love with this guy but here he is waving good-bye as we head in.

It wasn't only Easton either. We ran into this dog a couple of times when we were out on our walks and he seemed to know exactly who to go up to....NO...Not a chance we are getting another one!

I love the condo during Spring time. The water coming down the mountains is just amazing!

Owen and Addy walking hand and hand.

The ski resort at the pass just got done relocating their ski lift. They didn't move it a huge amount but of course when you see an empty ski lift you have to get your picture taken on it.

This look only spells TROUBLE!!

Of course with all the snow melting we had plenty of puddles for the kids to run through.

1...2....3..not it for doing laundry!!

Too much to eat!!

For my birthday, Kristi bought me tickets to my first pro-soccer game here in Seattle. The only thing is these weren't just your ordinary tickets these tickets held "special power", which I will explain in a little bit. Besides giving me these "special power" tickets she also told me that I should take Matt to the game instead of her...ya...I did a double take as well but I responded like I always respond when Kristi says something, "Yes Dear!!"

Before every game Sounders fans do a march from a local park to Qwest field. Since this was our first time Matt and I thought we would join in. We were a little late but believe me we got the full experience.

We really didn't know any of the chants but we held up our scarves proud and tried to blend in as much as we could.

It seemed like everyone was just having a great time.......then we found out just how CRAZY Sounder fans are! I'm not kidding when I say in a matter of seconds we were surround by smoke and every where you looked someone was holding up a flare, and chanting "WHITE CAPS MUST DIE" and the funny thing was we weren't even playing the White Caps. Matt and I looked at each other and you could tell we were thinking the same thing, "What the heck just happen and how the heck did we get right in the middle of it!"

Our seats were amazing. We were a little higher up but you could see the whole field plus our tickets had "special power" and we were under cover and I'm so thankful that we were because it was a down pouring rain for pretty much the whole entire game.

I have to admit the opening was pretty cool and in my opinion everyone was just a little bit more nuts because we were playing against the Portland, Timbers who is huge rival to us in the soccer world.

As for the "special powered" tickets!! Here was the deal with these tickets you would walk up to this designated area in front of a concession stand, show them your ticket, walk up to the counter and order whatever you wanted and it was all FREE. You could eat as many hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn, pretzels, or whatever you want and everything was FREE. There was no limit on how many times you could visit the concession stand and you could have as much pop as you want. NO BEER but everything else was fair game.
We ate so much I was actual surprised Matt could stand up and wave his scarf.

I would not recommend these tickets to anyone that is on a diet and if there is a tall-tail sign that you are getting your full amount of your ticket I think it would be when the ticket attendant looks at you and says, "Boy you guys are getting your money's worth tonight!" Now I just need Kristi to give me a "special powered" ticket that takes the weight off!

Annual Tradition!

It's all in the ROOTS!!!! No matter how long I live in Seattle I will always cheer for the Minnesota teams FIRST!!! Whoever the Twins, Vikings, Wild, or Timberwolves play I'm cheering for them, even if they do stink some years I'm still rooting them on and last night was no different!

For the past 3 or 4 years Kristi and I have been getting together with Matt and Lori and going to Hit it Here Cafe at a Mariners game so why not hit two birds with one stone and do it for a Twins games.

Matt, Lori, and Kristi started the night off at the Pyramid but they weren't alone. Our friend Brooke who used to work for the company that I work for now jumped shipped and works for the same company Kristi works for, I think she might be obsessed with us but anyway a perfect time for them to get together and have a few drinks.

I had to work a day shift so I joined in the fun a little later!!

I'm still not exactly sure how this happen but when we asked the attendant how we should get over to our seats he said, "Come this way!" which lead us into the club terrace section. I'm not kidding when I say it was a LITTLE crazy but TOTALLY awesome!! In fact it was so cool we had to set the camera up on a garbage can and take a picture!

Matt and Kristi with the Griffey's!!

The greatest thing about Hit It Here Cafe is you get an $18.00 food voucher! Eat up!!

The Girls.......

The Guys....

and IIIIIchiro!!!!!

Now if I had to pick a word that explained what happen next I would pick "bizarre"!! When we were leaving the stadium the people at the exit gates looked at us and said, "Would you like some Safeco Soil?" I guess they know, just like I do....It's all in the ROOTS!!!!

I HATE Blue Poly!!

It's hard to imagine how such a small....tiny....little....I mean minute red triangle located on a water meter can turn something so pint size into something so large. I'll admit at first I had no idea what this petite.....three sided thing really did but it didn't take me long to figure out that it might be minuscule in size but can cause an enormous headache. For those who don't know this "yield sign shaped" thing measures the water flowing into the house. The only catch is when all the water is shut off in the house and this wienie pyramid continues to turn ....MY FRIENDS YOU HAVE A WATER MAIN LEAK SOMEWHERE FROM YOUR METER TO YOUR HOUSE!! and guess what, in the state of Washington it's not your water providers problem it's ALL yours! Here is a picture of our lovely meter that by the end of this I wish I could of taken out of the ground and threw it across the road.

I'll admit I might be a little naive on this one but I wasn't aware that when you call that toll free number before you dig they will mark all your utilities except your water. The water provider is only responsible to paint from the street to your meter....THANKS GUYS....I think Easton and Owen could of showed me where that was! Leaving me with only one solution.....start digging!!

No joke it took me about 2 whole days to dig it out and that's with my friend, Michael helping on Friday night, and Kristi helping me when she could. I couldn't believe how hard our ground was it was filled with rocks, clay, and everything else you could imagine!

Cable ANYONE!

This is house to street.

This is street to house.

I think the thing that gave me the biggest problem was nothing I did, it was what mother nature did! Every time I start to make progress it would start to rain and my ditch would completely fill up with water and I have to say it rained a lot! Every day before I could start doing anything I would have to drain the ditch with this small utility pump I got from Harbor Freight. It wasn't the biggest pump but I have to say it was the best purchase I ever made and to my surprise it wasn't that expensive!!

Here's the ditch on a rainy day!

Now by code when they did the plumbing for our house they were supposed to have copper under all concrete meaning it should of been copper from my main water shut off in the house, which is in the middle of my garage all the way to where my water main comes out under the drive way. To my surprise when we got to the drive way, there was no copper it was still blue poly and when I got a shovel length under the drive way I wasn't really surprised any more just mad!

You can see the stupid blue water line going under the driveway in this shot!

Now I tried to do everything by myself but with the rain and things out of my control I got to a point were everything I tried nothing was working so feeling a little ashamed and overwhelmed I called Brooke to see if her husband, David (Who owns Puget Sound Plumbing) could swing by and take a look! I don't know if Brooke pulled some strings or if David just happen to be in the neighborhood but he was there in no time at all!

Of course it took him all of three minutes to locate the leak, which was where the copper and the blue poly met under the driveway!

I think my favorite line I heard David say was, "We got it! You go do what you need to do and we will get it done for ya!" so I went and mowed lawn.

Him and another guy worked on it for about 2 1/2 - 3 hours and by God it was complete!

Now I'm not kidding when I say around 5 neighbors stopped by during this process and told me they had just replaced theirs not to long ago! In fact yesterday some guy knocked on my door and asked me some questions about it because his puny triangular thing was spinning as well....GOOD LUCK MY NEIGHBOR...I WISH YOU THE BEST!!

I already planted some grass seed but I still have to put mulch down on the north. It might take a little while to get back to looking normal but this is a start.

Thanks again Puget Sound Plumping for your assistance!

A Trip With Grandma Linda!

Washington might not be known as the land of 10,000 lakes, like Minnesota but I do for a fact know that we do have access to 1 big lake...aka...the ocean!
Early last month Kristi and I decided we wanted to do something special for my mom during her visit but we where kind of at a loss and then it hit us, lets go to Westport. It was kind of a last minute idea so we knew right off the bat my mom was going to be a little upset with us because we didn't give her any time to apply wax to her surf board and send it out here, but we decided she would just have get over it and go with out and I'm sure glad we did!
The weather wasn't the greatest during the 4 days we were there but we made the best out of it and with Kristi's Aunt and Uncle letting us use their amazing condo we really couldn't go wrong! (BIG THANKS TO THEM!!)
Here is my mom and I freezing to death on the first day!! J/K The first day and the last day were the best days we had. Isn't that how it always works!


"Hello, Ladies!! My name is Owen.....

....and I like long strolls on the beach!"

"Here's looking at you!"
"He's crazy if he thinks I'm going out that far....OWEN!!! YOUR CRAZY!!"

It rained I would say 70 percent of the time we were there but we weren't going to let that stop us from walking the beach every day!

We all had just an amazing time and are planning to do it all over again in August for Addy's birthday! Thanks again Gary and Kathy for opening their condo to us and also a big thank you to mom for making the trip out to see us. We hope you had fun!! I already CAN'T WAIT for our trip in August!!