{2/52}: "Adventure" to Banks Lake

This past weekend I had my first real Keane and Cody style adventure. Over the last 4 years I've been with Cody I've heard countless stories, some more than once, of the kinds of trips these two have taken and the things that happen on said trips....and I've always been thankful I wasn't there.

Cody wanted to go out to Banks Lake and scout out some campgrounds good for the boat and look for places that we could just camp on the shore without having to pay $35 a night.

Side note--since when is it almost as much to sleep on the ground as it is to get a room at a Motel 6?! Throw in the Discover Pass and the National Parks passes you need and you're looking at $100 to camp for a weekend, not to mention the gas to get there in a loaded truck hauling a boat. Ridiculous.

I digress...

The adventure: I first have a disclaimer. Despite what I am about to say and being in a car for about 10 hours, I enjoyed the trip--but I had to give Cody crap about it. I was told hiking and possibly snowshoeing would be involved, and neither happened : )

It's about a 3 hour drive to Banks Lake, so leaving around 6:30 was the plan. Leaving actually happened at 8:15. Then we were (a little bit too) excited to eat breakfast at the Snoqualmie Casino...only to find out they don't start the buffet until 10am. What the heck?! Already "running late", we found a little restaurant in North Bend that was actually pretty delicious.

Along the way we passed by a lake that was frozen over and this had to be investigated. The conversation went a little something like this:

Keane: Do you think that ice is pretty thick?
Cody: I don't know, would you like to attempt to traverse it?
Keane: Yeah lets do it, we might lower morale and die of cholera though.

Oh Oregon Trail, how you have touched our lives forever <3  hahaha

Testing it out...

I had to join in the fun too, though Cody didn't want me taking my camera out on the ice : P

Yes, they are running back : P

They really did want to try to get to the rock in the middle, but I told them I had the keys and I wasn't coming in after them ; )

A few hours later we finally come to the Shell Station/Big Wally's Tackle Shop, the spot where knowledge had been said to abound about where to fish and where to camp. Well, Big Wally had the day off so after Cody made Keane smell some fish bait that he claimed smelled like limes but really was more like something that died and had been locked in a tupperware container for days in the sun, we headed off to Steamboat Rock.

We "hiked" up some rocks to see the other side of the lake, found a couple of campgrounds that had signs saying "no overnight camping allowed" so we were confused as to why they were even called campgrounds. Instead of going back south to Moses Lake and Potholes, we headed back north and drove by the Grand Coulee dam. That was pretty cool, I had never been by there before, but for whatever reason I didn't take a picture of it. Oh yeah that's right, we didn't stop and I was hungry and sulking that I wasn't going to get to snowshoe...and pictures through car windows are crappy.

At the top of our "hike" to see the rest of Banks Lake

The plan was to stop at Lake Chelan and look around there for some camping, but in our hunger we missed the turn and didn't realize we missed the turn until we were practically in Wenatchee. Oh well, life goes on and there was food in Wenatchee : P

13 hours after we left we made it back to Tacoma...with a slight idea of where we want to camp this summer *lol*

This was a minor Cody and Keane experience--I'll let them have the broken down in Idaho and the "there's no cougars, but there's mountain lions in them there hills" trips to themselves : )

{1/52}: Wrap it up, start again...

"Last posted June 21, 2012" is what I see when I sign in today...

For real? I honestly didn't think it had been THAT long : P

My new goal: slow down, take more pictures, and a weekly blog post (hence the 1/52 in the title)....we'll see how that pans out ; )

Add to that list to actually decide how I want this thing to look. I have yet to be satisfied with it..

Life is just a goin goin goin...and I am really loving every minute! Now that we are down to less than 6 months till the wedding I'm finding myself getting more excited...not that I haven't been all along, but I am very much a planning and get it done kind of person (...not with homework, HA!) so it was driving me crazy more than anything having all these thoughts about what we wanted to do but not really being able to do anything about them. And then I do things like buy bridesmaids dresses and later decide to do something different and now have to try and sell the dresses ; ) OOOhhhh well! haha

I am SO thankful to be done with school for a few months!!! While having no homework, large books to thumb through or primary research articles to scour has been excellent, I have certainly managed to fill that void with working a ton and getting wedding projects started and vendors booked...

So, really I guess there was never a chance for a void to actually exist ; )

BUT--guess what I did the other day? I can't remember what the subject was, but I came across something that I wanted to find out more information on and guess what I did? I looked up the primary research articles using PLU's database. Officially a little bit of a nerd for life? I think so : )

Graduation was fantastic, even more fantastic a week later when I was actually done with school, and here I sit with a degree hanging on my wall, working my butt off until I start studying for the next degree in August.

Christmas was wonderful, as usual. I got to spend a few weeks in OK hanging out with the family down there and had a relaxing time...though I did bring stuff with me to work on ; ) We had Christmas at my mom's when Avery came out here in January and that was just as fun seeing my step sister and her kids who live in Oregon.

 

Speaking of Oregon...

The most exciting news of late has been getting accepted to both Pacific University and University of Oklahoma pharmacy schools---heck yeah!!! : D  Talk about a tough decision though....be close to family in OK or 3 instead of 4 years in Portland? Can I have both? In the end I decided on Pacific--3 years is just too good, even if it does mean a little more intense studying on my part. In a couple weeks Cody and I will start checking out apartments near the school and slowly start to figure out a plan.

I've decided that I have an inability to just sit and be lazy for more than a couple hours. I don't know if that is just boring to me or if I really have that many things I would rather/want/need to be doing (nobody really WANTS to scrub floors and do laundry, right?). This conclusion has been further solidified by the plans that have been made in the mere 4 weeks before starting pharmacy school:

1. Get married on July 13
2. Go on a honeymoon for a week
3. Go to Tulsa for a second reception for a few days
4. Start school on August 6

Uh...somewhere in there packing and moving need to take place maybe? No big deal...right?

Wedding plans are moving right along! I think/hope we have all the major things booked and the rest of it exists as a reminder in paper or picture form. I have designed everything being printed or made for a sign myself, with the exception of some banners I recently purchased--I loved them too much and they were too good of a price for me to attempt to make them myself! We (me, my mom, and Pastor Kathy) are planning on making much of the decorations for the wedding ourselves and so far I am having fun doing it! Lots of "pinspiration" going on and searching the depths of Etsy, Michael's, Amazon, Ebay and antique stores for the perfect things to add to the day. I am hoping to post more about how we are making some of the stuff--with the amount of thought and effort going into them it should be shared don't ya think? : )

Back to designing wedding things I go... : )

.:Ashley:.

Summer Vacation = Work Work Work

Finals.
Photo shoots.
Packing.
Moving.
More photo shoots.
Unpacking...sorta.
Painting.
Gardening.
Working in between all.

For the short version of what I've been up to the last 6 weeks, that pretty much sums it up : )

I was really nervous for finals this semester...because I had a chance to get an A in one of my classes for the first time in 3 years! Being that "A" student in high school and through most of my community college days, it has been rough getting B's and C's ever since my second semester at PLU. I was starting to think there was something wrong with my brain, I just didn't understand why I wasn't capable of getting A's on tests, let alone classes anymore. Yes, the content was difficult in some (O. Chem), but I finally realized that I lived a much different life outside of the classroom than most students at PLU--a house to keep up, a fiance to keep sane with his school fiascos, bills to pay and therefore shifts to be picked up at work. We are nothing short of busy!

I've never been a fan of self help books, but one that I read dealing with success in college gave me something new to try, and overall I think it's worked. This semester had plenty of me working and drama with my senior project, but I managed to pull an A in Biochemistry II, a B in Wildlife Ecology, a B in Comparative Anatomy (thank you God! lol) and a B- in Capstone.....which should have been an A. I am so darn bitter about what took place in that class as far as my grades, but I didn't get a C like I thought was going to happen so I'm not going to complain at the moment. I'm pretty sure another stern WTF visit to the professor's office was being avoided with that final grade assignment : )

As soon as finals were over we started packing up the house to move in with Cody's mom.....not my first choice of a move--let's be honest, it wasn't my second, either--but, we need to save money for a wedding and not having to put most of our stuff in storage to afford a place to live do it is a plus. The house needs a lot of work, which Cody is thrilled about doing. I know that it will eventually look better, I just don't like that it's not going to be a quick process. I decided to channel my annoyances into making our room and office those places that I would enjoy spending time in and feel like it was our space. It's hard to feel like this is "my" house too. After lots of paint on my hands and face, new dressers, curtains and hooking up the TV, our room looks pretty good! No, the floor isn't done yet, which is one of my annoyances but there's nothing we can do about it at the moment, but it was nice to not have to care if I got paint on it or not : ) Up until this weekend we were living out of storage totes and suitcases, and after a few days laundry baskets were thrown into the mix! haha It was not a pleasant experience, but I am so thankful for Cody through it all. He very well knows that I didn't really want to be moving in here, and I know that he's tried to make it as easy as possible for me. Most importantly, he let me be mad and kinda freak out a little some days ; ) We spent the whole week and a half he had off of school getting things done around here, and we have an 80% completed room (bathroom completely nonfunctional right now--no shower, toilet, OR sinks lol), a finished office, and a garden to boot ; )

Before pictures...sortof. I kept forgetting my camera, so this was the best I could do with a phone : P

The "in progress" stages...

Most of the room was painted light gray--looks kinda blue here

Cody pausing hanging up the blinds to admire his no wires showing project : )

After a long day of painting and many other projects..

The almost finished product:

I have lots more planned for decoration in our room. I am on the prowl for a simple armchair and I have schematics in my head for a NYC collage of picture frames and keepsakes, plus some accent curtains and pillows. It's going to look awesome : )

The rest of the house is still in disarray...things piled in the living room and dining room till they find a place/floors get done, and our couch is currently residing in the garage. The OCD in me tries to stay out of those rooms as much as possible for now : P

Because we were changing up the colors of our bedroom furniture and I love our IKEA night stands, I decided to attempt to paint them. Hindsight is 20/20, and I got so frustrated I'm pretty sure I should have just found some black ones! lol It wasn't THAT bad, but it just didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped, and in my eyes they are not done yet. But, I needed to walk away from that project and call it good for now : P  I found a blog that talked about the specific kind of primer to use and everything for painting IKEA stuff. Maybe it's just because it's black paint, but these things just did not want to hold the color. Cody said rolling the paint would be better, which I agreed with at first, but after 3 coats of black I'm getting spray paint for when I come back to touching it up. The best part is one of them held the paint and primer better than the other! I don't get it.

I've done a couple photo shoots since school has been out and I'm looking forward to the couple more I am scheduled to do this month--they've been a lot of fun and I've enjoyed the escape with my camera!

And last but definitely not least, Cody and I had our engagement pictures taken by Tasha Owen Photography last week and I cannot wait to get them back!!! We had the "usual" pictures done, of course, but we topped it off with a mini shoot in PLU's chemistry lab....they are going to be unique and absolutely awesome, Tasha and her husband Tom were SO much fun to work with, I'm already so pleased with them knowing the quality of work that they produce!

Well, that's my summer so far in a nutshell....throw in working almost full time and it's been a busy one : )  I am working on getting myself into an exercise routine while I have the "time" to do so. Hopefully the nice weather will be staying a little more permanently soon, but I have no excuse with this beautiful trail in practically in my back yard now!




Just for fun--I have enjoyed watching this little guy grow into such a fun and thoughtful person. I can't believe I met him when he was about 1 1/2 years old, and now he's about to be a big bad kindergartner this fall! He came over to stay the night with Grandma the other night and we had a little fun with the camera--if he sees it, pictures must be taken : )  He marched into our room after using the bathroom and says "Hey Ashley, I really like the way you decorated the bathroom, it looks nice!" Hahaha  Oh, Joey...I love this kid : )

Joey: "Okay lets close our eyes for this picture!"
Me: "Alright let's do it--ready?"
*Click*
Joey: "Oops I opened my eyes just a little.."
: )

Road trip, field trip, and everything in between!

5 more weeks of the semester left.....yipee!!! However that also means that the opportunities to boost my grades are becoming smaller and smaller, which always makes me nervous. I'm doing fantastic in biochem and wildlife ecology, but comparative anatomy? Not so much. I don't appreciate the teaching style or expectations very much, but I'm kinda stuck with it now : )  I never like being the average, but with the volume of terms/structures/concepts we've had to memorize for a single exam, I'm actually kinda thankful to be hovering around that 75% mark--half of the class above me, half below me. I guess that the best part is not only does he curve every test, but the overall grades as well. Now I just have to hope that the same people haven't been getting the high grades every time! ; )

It's been a very long time since I've written anything on here--I feel lazy for not keeping up with it, but, it's not like I don't have other things occupying my time : )  I do believe that I left off with my weekend excursion up to Boundary Bay in British Columbia at the end of February. For my wildlife ecology class (which I am enjoying MUCH more than expected!) we were assigned to write a term research paper on our choice of animal from a list Pacific Northwest species she had for us. I chose the snowy owl--no, not because of Harry Potter, I swear!--but because I think they are really really pretty birds and I had never seen one (besides at Northwest Trek) and thought it would be cool to learn more about them. Part of our assignment includes making a poster of our research to "present" (i.e. stand next to it and answer questions) during PLU's Academic Festival at the end of the semester. I thought to myself, I wonder how close to us snowy owls can be found? The mountains, maybe? If I was going to have to make a poster with pictures I sure wanted the pictures to be my own if possible : )  So, I sought out to find where I might be able to go see these owls in their natural environment. I stumbled across a blog of a man named Marc Hoffman (Songbirdphoto.com) who had recently seen and taken photos of snowy owls in British Columbia, so I emailed him to ask if he could possibly give me directions to where he was at. Thankfully he did and the following weekend I headed out to Boundary Bay/Surrey B.C. with  my best friend to see some owls!

Of course the whole experience was cool (I'm pretty sure Mel enjoyed it too lol), I was excited taking my first trip to Canada--but hands down the best/funniest part of the trip was crossing the border. I have the enhanced drivers license so I didn't need anything else, but Melanie didn't have that or a passport. We kept getting conflicting information about the required documents to cross the border from the Canadian side and from the U.S. side (we found out later the passport law had been in effect since 2009, whoops : P) so we were armed with her birth certificate, SS card, license, and who knows what else! I got super nervous when we got to the border thinking they weren't going to let her across, so much so that when the border guard asked "Where is home?" all I could think of to say was Washington, and even that took me a few seconds *lol*  Then when he asked what we were doing in Canada I told him we were headed to Boundary Bay to see the snowy owls. "....seriously?" was his response and I kinda laughed, said I was doing a research paper on them for school and decided to see them in person. "Well that's cool I guess.....but you're seriously like 25 years younger than anyone else coming across to go look at them!"  Coming back into the U.S. the border patrol asked what we did in Canada, told him the same story, and no joke, got the same response from him! So birders are all old huh? : )

Anyway, we got a good laugh out of it, no mention of Melanie not having a passport, and off to Surrey we went....after I had to give up my very large can of pepper spray--thanks, Canada, for sending two girls on without a weapon! ; ) We dropped some stuff at the hotel and then headed right out to Boundary Bay. We totally lucked out with the weather. Aside from it being SUPER windy on Saturday, the temperature was pretty tolerable and it didn't rain--can't complain about that on the coast in February. There were actually lots of people out on the trial looking at and taking pictures of the owls. I don't know what I was really expecting the area to look like, but I was definitely expecting trees/woods of some sort. We were just off the shores of the ocean, in a very flat and open area with lots of washed up logs and wetlands between the trail and the edge of the water. I hadn't done much research on the owl up to this point, but it turns out they are ground nesters and prefer vast, open expanses like these. It was beautiful. I love the coast as it is, but there was just something about the area that was really neat. And the owls--most were literally 25 feet away from the trail perched on the logs!!! So. Awesome.

This was a rare treat and I was so excited that I got to see them. The snowy owls experience what are called irruption migrations that happen when there is a large increase in their population (usually due to an increase in lemming populations in the tundra) and so there are more owls migrating south as a result. In North America their summer habitat is in the tundra of northern Canada where they breed and lay their eggs, and their winter habitat is usually in Central southern Canada, north central and north east of U.S. In irruption years (which happen it seems every 6-8 years, but isn't a regular pattern) they expand their migration range further south and closer to our coasts. Some years snowy owls have even been spotted in Texas!

The only damper on the trip was seeing the lenses the other photographers out there had that I REALLY wanted. I was very close to asking one of them if I could just look through their lens, just to get a taste of the giant telephoto that is definitely on my want list! Through the research I've done I think I'm becoming an owl person : )  Their behaviors are fascinating to me. I've even been in contact with the person in charge of the Massachusetts Audubon Society who has personally been doing research on the migration habits of snowy owls that he finds selecting their winter habitat at, of all places, Boston's Logan International Airport. He has found a way to affix GPS devices to the owls in a way that does not interfere with their normal behaviors and has been tracking the flight patterns from year to year from their summer habitat to their winter habitat. If you're really interested in the rest of the story just let me know : )

Other than that I have just been chugging away at school, work, and trying to get at my camera when I can, though the weather hasn't been the best. I have done a couple of photo shoots--one of an adorable little girl who was about 3 weeks old at the time, and then had some fun with my nephews Joey and Van one night watching them while mom was at volleyball. We did some Easter pictures and Van's 6 month pictures. I've also got a couple of photo shoots lined up the last 2 weekends of this month that I am excited about!

Hands down my favorite pic from NW Trek!

This past weekend was a pretty packed--and finally gorgeous!--weekend. Saturday I spent the first half of the day with my wildlife ecology class at Northwest Trek. It was the first time that I had been there were the majority of the animals weren't moving or hiding : P  We all had a good time even though we had an assignment to complete while we were there...but I did mine on the snowy owls they have there so I didn't mind too much : ) Then right after I headed to Keana's house for Joey's 5th birthday party--complete with delicious cake and everything Lego-themed, she did a fantastic job decorating. Joey didn't really pay attention to what he was opening for presents...it was an open, look for a second, toss it aside and open the next one lol  Later on when I asked him what we had gotten him he said "he forgot"--silly kiddo, I helped him build the firetruck legos we got him anyway ; )

This was after cake, chips, earlier jello, some frosting covered marshmallows, and hot dogs... ; )

Cody and I finished off the weekend at my parents house for some BBQ hot dogs and grilled pinapple (YUM) while the weather was still nice....and this morning its back to the typical spring rain. It was nice while it lasted, hopefully we will get sun before July!

Until I have more pictures to share, hope you've enjoyed those in this post! : )

Wedding Plans and a Sunny Afternoon

My oh my, where does the time go? It's already been 2 months since Cody and I got engaged! As far away as it seems, I have a feeling next summer will be here before we know it..........good thing the whole wedding is practically planned already!! Okay well not the WHOLE thing : )

Cody thought I was slightly crazy for having all of the things I do thought out and more or less taken care of with so much time before the wedding--I'd like to call it being smart! The way we've got everything rolling (and by we I mean my mom, best friend, and wonderful Pastor Kathy...Cody said 'Whatever you want!' hehe) it's going to be so much easier on the wallets of everyone involved. We still have a budget--that's getting stretched, I'll admit--but none the less it's still there and money will be spent as wisely as possible. That being said......there are a few things I want to splurge on : ) After all, this will only happen once!

What's Done:

• Venue picked (can't book till July)
• Date picked (finally)
• Photographer booked (Sooooo darn excited to work with Tasha Owen Photography!)
• Colors chosen
• Wedding party chosen 
• Invitations designed
• Reply cards and Thank You cards designed and printed
• Bridesmaid's jewelry purchased (LOVE Etsy!!!)
• All decorations for table centerpieces
• Favor bags and tags ordered
• Wedding dress purchased (I did this 2 weeks after the proposal--felt silly, but I love it! Thanks Mom!)

That list seems short when I write it out, but there are so many other things floating around in my head...and lets be honest, pinned on Pinterest...they just don't have a finality to them or it's too early to do anything about them : )

The things I thought would be the hardest for me to decide on actually turned out the easiest. It was a complete fluke that I even have a dress already. One day there just happened to be a few hours where my Mom and best friend were both free so we decided to make a last minute appointment at The Wedding Bell in Tacoma. It was fun! 8 or 9 dresses later I wasn't really thrilled about anything I had tried on and wasn't really looking forward to going to tons of different shops. Even though I didn't want to spend a fortune on a dress, David's Bridal was really the last place I wanted to get one. The consultant at the shop was sooo nice and never made me feel like I was wasting her time because I hadn't chosen anything yet. After all those dresses she said "Okay, I'm going to go pick out a couple of dresses that incorporate what you have liked about the others, and I'm not going to look at the price tag. That way you will know how much what you like is going to cost." Okay, fair enough. No joke, she did some magic trick because the next dress I tried on was literally a combination of every single thing that I said I had liked--and the best part was it was one of the least expensive dresses of all of them!!! DONE. Wrap it up....or send it off to be made, you know what I mean lol 

The other thing I thought would be difficult was picking a photographer. I can't tell you how many times I got asked how I was going to take pictures at my own wedding the first few weeks after we were engaged : P  I had narrowed it down to 3 choices before I asked my photographer friend Heather what she thought about my choices. She told me about a photographer that I hadn't really considered, mostly because I assumed I couldn't afford her. I was willing to spend more on photography for obvious reasons, but we still had a limit. After Heather raved about how awesomely wonderful it was to work with Tasha Owen and her husband, I decided to send her an email to see about her prices and set up a time to meet with her and go over what all is included in her services. As soon as I spent 5 minutes in the same room with her I was sold! She is one of those people that you can help but smile and laugh when you're talking to them, just an absolute joy and someone who has been a pro in the photography industry for several years--both show in their work! Not sure when we will schedule our engagement session with them but I know it is going to be fantastic : )

Needless to say I've been a busy bee as usual in the last few weeks with all this wedding planning business. Before school started back up a week ago I managed to get my scrapbook for 2010 done along with a project and a few recipes tried done from my Pinterest to-do list, . This one was super simple and I actually already had the frame and everything that went inside it. It's a nice alternative to the calendar that used to hang in it's spot next to my desk--plus its good for any week/year I want it to be.

The recipe I tried recently was a really simple one whose purpose was to satisfy my hot sauce + ranch craving. The original recipe can be found here--I adapted it to suit my attempts to eat better, and as good as a grilled cheese-style buffalo chicken sandwich sounded, I decided to make it into a wrap. I also substituted the mayo for fat free Greek yogurt--this stuff is awesome! I couldn't even tell the difference!

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

• 4 large chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (approx. 2 lbs)
• 5 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 cup nonfat Greek style yogurt
• 1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Buffalo sauce (or sauce of preference)
• Blue cheese crumbles (to taste)
• Spinach leaves
• Burrito size tortilla

I baked my chicken in the oven for about 35 min at 350 degrees, then used two forks to shred it. If you have an easier/quicker way, please do share! : ) Combine the yogurt, celery, hot sauce, and chicken in a large bowl. The amount of hot sauce I used had a good kick to it, but I like spicy things--definitely add less to start if you aren't a hot mouth like me *lol*

I warmed up some tortillas in the microwave, added a couple scoops of the chicken mixture along with a few blue cheese crumbles and some spinach leaves--yummy!!!


I am SO looking forward to warmer weather! Winter needs to be done now. A couple weeks ago we had a 60 degree weekend and it was fabulous, but such a tease. I took the Sunday afternoon to get some exercise in at Chamber's Bay and then a few hours of reading the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy, the Mockingjay, out on the Central Meadow. It was wonderful.

Chambers Bay--the site of our wedding next summer : )

My ring looked pretty in the sun, had to take a close-up of it ; )