S'mores

Matthew and I LOVE s'mores!! We love them so much that we like eating them year-round, but mother nature doesn't always easily allow for a campfire. But, not to fear, early in our marriage, Matthew and I found a way to toast our mallows and eat s'mores too! Just stick them in a toaster oven or broil them in the oven.

Unfortunately, sometimes we over-toast the mallows, but that happens in a fire too. I still think they're tasty!!

Memories

So this past week I was going through some boxes of memories and trinkets and I came across a journal jar that I was given as a young woman. One read, "Have I ever written a story, poem, or song I would like to add to my journal?" It just so happened that as I was going through the same box I found a poem that I wrote when I was in middle or high school about my brother and my thoughts, feelings and memories of the time surrounding his death.

Dark silence

broken by the torment

of an aching heart.

The cry

of a mother losing

her son,

a child she just held.

A father's strength and love

seem to fail

as he loses

a piece of himself.

Confusion

enters in, while

all peace is gone.

Swirling lights

get lost and then

found

by a small soul

desperate for help.

A sweet song

enters in, to comfort

the children

left behind.

Sorrow

fills the air

and I start to cry

as I find

the brother I love

is gone.

As we weep

over the loss,

we are reminded

by a child

that the spirit is with us.

Always.

Valentine Traditions

As per usual, Matthew and I got a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Johns for Valentines Day, but this year I feel like Matthew was making up for canceling V-day last year. Instead of just flowers or a cheesy love note, Matthew got me flowers, a cheesy love note, chocolates and a fancy sparkling drink to celebrate the day!

Matthew made this card one night while volunteering at the Crisis Clinic!

We love kissing!

Even without all of that stuff, I know that Matthew loves me. I am one lucky girl. He is always putting me first and even when I am pushing him away because he is being a silly goon, he looks at me like I'm the only person in the world. I love how he makes me feel. Happy V-day, I love you Matthew!

Leaplist

So our good friends Jack and Steph Quincy are due to have a little one join them in the next week or so, so we wanted to have one more great adventure before their lives changed forever.

Have you ever heard of a leaplist? It is a list of things you want to do before a life altering event like getting married or having children. A few nights ago I was talking with Steph about things around Seattle that she has wanted to do but hasn't. One of those things was to ride a ferry and coincidently that was also on mine and Matthew's list of things to do, so we thought it would be fun to give Steph and Jack the mission to find a good time to take a ferry yesterday.

It was a gorgeous, perfect day to be outside. After parking the car on the ferry we went up to enjoy the view on deck. For the majority of the ride over to Bremerton, WA we stood outside and took pictures of each other, the great view of the city and mountains and the birds.

All hands on deck!

The view:

The puppeteer:

This man was taking pictures of the view with his seemingly homemade puppet!

No one else seemed to notice how many of the birds were hovering right over our heads ready to shower us with their poop. But I kept a close eye on those birds and evaded them with all the effort of my soul! (Okay maybe I'm being slightly over dramatic, but birds pooping on me is one of my greatest fears, next to spiders and the dark).

The Birds:

Once in Bremerton we decided to go to the Bonsai Garden. It wasn't what we expected, but we enjoyed the beautiful nature that surrounded us and the store associated with the garden had a lot of really cool books and trinkets to explore.

The Bonsai Garden:

On our way to look for some grub we saw what seemed to be a Naval shipyard and I snapped a few pictures as we were driving by. If we had had more time and knew that there was a museum we would have stopped (next time).

We ate dinner at a place called Noah's Ark Restaurant and had classic American food and milkshakes, then headed back to the ferry. It was much colder on the deck since the sun had gone down, so we spent most of our time inside the ferry sitting in a booth talking, but we spent a few minutes outside trying to capture the beautiful lights of downtown Seattle at night. None of them turned out that great, but I got a couple that you can at least tell what skyline it is.

The Naval Shipyard:

Seattle at night: