six years

Posted on August 28, 2009 7 Comments

This past weekend J and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. I can’t believe we have already been married for six years, but I am so thankful and so blessed to be married to my best friend. What a gift! To celebrate our anniversary we always go away for the weekend to some fun and interesting place. This year was no exception, in fact, I think it was our best spot yet! For a couple of years now we had been hearing about an organic farm in Moscow, ID that was also a B&B. Then, in the July issue of Sunset Magazine they had a whole article on this beautiful farm and, being in Idaho, we knew this was where we wanted to go for our anniversary. The place is called MaryJanes Farm and, surprisingly, it is run by MaryJane. This woman is like the organic, more earthy version of Martha Stewart and after last weekend she has definitely become one of my role models. The B&B is quite unique because your “room” is actually an incredible wall tent out in the woods on her farm. But this isn’t your ordinary camping trip. No, no, this is high class glamping, (glamor + camping = glamping) complete with gourmet breakfasts. Our tent was absolutely gorgeous, we had our own outdoor kitchen, fire pit, and private hammock on the lake. And to top it all off, we had our own outdoor claw-foot bathtub that you could heat up with propane burners and then take a bath under the stars. The whole experience was magical, and I just had to share some photos from out time there. If any of you reading this live in Idaho or the Seattle area I highly recommend checking this place out, it is amazing!

While on the farm guests can pick any of the fresh fruit and veggies to enjoy during their stay. We had lots of amazing strawberries and raspberries... This is a view from the vegetable patch.

Breakfast from our first morning. Course #1: Creamy polenta porridge with fresh strawberries picked that morning from their organic farm.

Course #2: Tomato and feta caprese with an organic balsamic vinegar reduction & Fresh cantalope and oranges with whipped cream infused with canatlope puree.

Course #3 (I know, this is getting ridiculous, right?) Farm fresh organic eggs, sausage, home fries, and homemade mini biscuts with sausage gravy.

Our bed inside the tent. There was also a great wood stove, table for writing, and an antique chest filled with quilts and games.

The picnic table outside our tent. The tent, table, and bathtub were all on a wooden platform to keep everything clean and dry. Not to mention it looks really cool!

In the background is our lovely tub. You'd fill it up with water from a hose attached to the sink, turn on the propane burners below, and in about 1.5 hours you have a wonderful bath ready to go. MaryJane even provided amazing organic lavender bubble bath!

Our private hammock. We'd lay out here every night and watch shooting stars. Amazing.

Aside from the loveliness of our retreat spot, J and I also take our anniversary weekend as a time to reflect on the previous year and chart a course for the year to come. We even fill out little journal packets reflecting on our year and setting goals for the next 12 months. (Can you tell we’re both a bit of the A-type, goal oriented personality sorts? If you find yourself in this category too and would like a copy of our little question packets just let me know, I’d be happy to send you a copy.) But, my favorite part of this reflecting time is the top 10 photo album we put together of our favorite memories from the year. They’re just little 12-15 page photo albums that we fill giving each event a picture or memento and then on the opposite page we write a little summary of the memory. We’ve been doing this since our engagement and we now have seven wonderful little books that are filled with highlights from our years together. This has been such a fun activity for us that I thought I’d share the idea with you all in case any of you would like to start your own yearly top 10 books. I’m big on memorializing and celebrating milestones, so if any of you have other fun ideas I’d love to hear them! Anyway, below is a photo of our books. It’s so fun to look back on all we’ve done together… we’ve managed to pack a lot into these last six years together!

See the little stains on the inside cover? I may, or may not have gotten a little zealous with the port one night...

Happy Anniversary, J. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.

day trip

Posted on March 25, 2009 8 Comments

It’s official! J and I will be packing up and leaving our beloved Vancouver to start our next chapter of living abroad in the UK! J is just about finished with his master’s from Regent, and all last fall was busy applying to PhD programs. Well, we’ve heard back from all the schools and J was accepted into two great programs at Oxford and the University of Edinburgh. We have now entered the next phase of this long waiting game to learn whether or not we’ll be getting any funding, which would help make our decision clearer, but either way we know for sure we will be moving to the UK sometime this summer! We are both really excited, but I’m also feeling a bit sad as I have absolutely loved living in Vancouver and will really miss it. So, in order to make sure we’ve squeezed every last drop out of our time here I’ve come up with a list of places to visit before we go. This past weekend I was able to check my first trip off the list – an adorable little town about 45 minutes from Vancouver called Steveston. It used to be home to the main cannery for all of BC, and now has lots of fun little shops, great walking trails and a beautiful view. (Little trivia learned from the trip: The cannery was called the Phoenix and it repeatedly burned to the ground and had to be rebuilt… ironic, eh? Maybe they should have thought about a name change…)

The following are some photos from our lovely day trip – hope you enjoy them. Also, anyone from the Vancouver area have any suggestions to add to our list of places to see before we go? Any ideas would be most welcome!

we’re on our way!

Posted on January 18, 2009 7 Comments

I can’t believe it! The day has finally come and we are really sitting in Vancouver’s airport waiting to catch a red-eye to Washington DC. That’s right, this week J and I have the privilege of joining several million of our fellow Americans to watch President Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America from the National Mall in Washington DC! It is a day that has been far too long in coming, but sure to be one of the proudest days of my life. Even now the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr are echoing in my ears. There is still much more work to be done, but this Tuesday will be one huge step forward in realizing the dream of justice and equality for all members of our society. Join me in celebrating by watching the clip below of Dr. King sharing his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk&hl=en&fs=1]

Stay tuned for lots more pictures of the week’s events including, the swearing in of President Obama, the inaugural parade and the inagural ball J and I are attending! I still can’t believe we’re headed to DC and get to be a part of such an amazing day in America’s history. Incredible!