Dr Seuss meets Willy Wonka

I am writing today's post from the desk of our new home here. We are mostly all moved in! Today, after getting our licenses (my second attempt...almost needed a third), Wes and I went on an adventure through the parks of Seattle. We are pet sitting a puppy of some new friends that we made here. He is 1/2 poodle, 1/2 schnauzer. We are deciding if a dog is something we are interested in...thinking probably not for awhile :)

The pictures show:

4,5 - Loki being carried after we walked too far for him in the hot sun. He is a very sweet puppy...not spunks opinion.

2,3 - Spunk doing some of her favorite activities these days.

1 - A really huge, dangerous plant we encountered on our walk.

The first bunch --The COOLEST flowers I've ever seen! I think that if Dr. Seuss and Willy Wonka met, they would create this flower and it would be edible. I love the colors and think that I will make big prints to put up around the house.

Hope you're all having a wonderful day!
Hopefully I'll leave room for Wes to post on here and you can hear from him :)

Blueberries!

They're super cheap around here. If you have recipe ideas, send them our way!

Meet the Freemont Troll

I couldn't resist :)

More from today's hike

Falling is Deadly

Today was really fun. We met up with a group from Microsoft and drove about an hour north-east to the bottom of the Cascade Mountains. We hiked 8.6 miles up 2,000 feet on a beautiful, tiring trail to a waterfall and lake. During the hike we were warm enough to want to jump into the lake, but when we reached it, there was snow still melting!

Tonight, there is another concert in the park across the road which we were debating about whether to visit because we are sleepy...but I got a message from Robin and she was totally out of the blue recommending the band to us! We are probably headed that way now :)

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Photos: Lake Serene -- does it look serene?

This one's for Bruce

SuperSpiderCat

The cat gets more adventuresome when Leslie brings out the vacuum.....




(Leslie came up with the name SuperSpiderCat)

"but everybody's doin' it..."

Wes came up with the title. A few things we've noticed...

also:

-bicycles

(helmets)

-organic food

-seafood!

Rainy Day

Today was our first all day gloomy, in and out, rainy, chilly day. It was ok. We kept ourselves busy and it was pretty refreshing since it's been so sunny and warm.

This morning we scoped out Mars Hill Church where we think we're going to get involved. We're happy to have found a church that doesn't teach religion, but the bible and how to follow Jesus. We are really excited to have met some fun people already. No replacement for our friends back home :)

We went to IKEA this afternoon and probably could have spent twice as much time in there but it closed on us - it was worth it for 50 cent hotdogs!

Free piano!

This afternoon we're off to pick up a free piano that we found posted on Craigslist. I checked it out earlier this week and it is beautiful! I'm super excited to teach myself to play.

Currently we are hunting around different shelters in the area for a dog. There is so much to do outdoors here that we think a dog would compliment our lifestyle pretty well. If you have any doggy experience to share with us, please do.

Other interesting going's on's ...we've met a fun group of friends around our age at Mars Hill church. Last night a couple took us to Costco (like Sam's Club) for 1.50 hotdogs and then for a tour around Seattle. It was a lot of fun. I got to stick my hand up the FreemontTroll's nose (picture will be up later :) )

That's all for now! I hope you enjoy the "week in review" photos :)

A Walk in the Park

Wes started his first day of work today! He would never say that he felt nervous, just really REALLY excited. I'm so happy for him. He is doing what he loves.

I drove Wes to work (2.5 mile walk, 5.7 mile drive) and when I picked him up a 5pm, it took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to get him home! A bit frustrating...I may have gotten a little lost and traffic didn't help. We are walking tomorrow. I'm going to run home after.

Across the street from our temp housing is Marymoor Park. Yesterday we took walk through it and heard a band playing. There were tons of cars parked in the grass so we asked the sheriff who was playing and it turned out to be Duran Duran. So we explored the parks trails listening to Hungry Like the Wolf.

Tonight, Wes got a burrito and we ate in the park (see picture) it is beautiful here!

*the car is our rental, the only option given to us

We love all of our family and friends, come visit us or keep in touch :)

First impressions

Leslie and I are getting settled into our new town. I said town because Redmond is pretty small (which is nice). Leslie and I have spent our first few days here apartment hunting, visiting downtown Seattle, and driving around learning the area.

In the few days we've been here, there are a few things that stick out to me/I keep noticing and I figured I'd share some of those.

--Evergreens are everywhere. People here refer to a group of trees as a "green belt" and there are green belts all around.

--There is a misconception that there is a Starbucks on every corner around here, and that is not true. There are 2 Starbucks on every corner... well maybe that is impossible, but I can count 7 different times where I stood in one spot and viewed 2 different Starbucks. That's not even mentioning the other coffee spots also in view.

--There are no painted lines on the roads here. There are just a bunch of little bumps on the ground that form the lines. The yellow bumps are very big and you know right away whenever you may be drifting into oncoming traffic (not that I've done that :)) and the white bumps are smaller but it still makes a lot of noise when you change lanes and your tires go over them.

--The streets are not laid out on a grid here. I assume this has to do with the mountains that pop up here and there. This has made learning the streets around here interesting, but the good news is that Leslie and I are starting to get pretty familiar with Redmond and that only took a couple days (of course we were driving around ALL day, but still).

I know that list wasn't particularly deep, but these are the small things that I noticed so far.

In case you were wondering, it hasn't rained at all yet. Every day here has been amazing, sunny in the mid to high 80s with no humidity. People around here say it isn't always like this, but we sure are enjoying it while it's here :)

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore

We've made it to the evergreen state- Seattle is nicknamed the emerald city. It is beautiful and we are loving it so far.

These are Judy Garlands actual slippers from the Wizard of Oz.

-Leslie