S'more, S'more!!!

We headed to The Gorge for Memorial Day Weekend and had a fabulous time camping and eating S'mores. It seems that this weekend is a great commencement to summer, hiking & camping season and we could hardly get enough!



We drove with hundreds of other people going out of town on Friday evening and set up our camping site for the weekend near Cle Elum, WA. Saturday morning we got up and drove another hour to Quincy, or George, or more commonly known as The Gorge, to enjoy a day of outdoor music and sunshine at the Sasquatch Festival.



There we found many people like ourselves -- animalistic-like people who are CRAZED about good music!




We rotated stages to listen to our top picks of the 30+ bands who were playing that day. The backdrop to this amphitheatre is quite breathtaking, it's almost like sitting in front of a gigantic landscape painting, and feeling like somehow you're IN it!



We saw some Nacho Libre-inspired, incredibly strange wrestling. They encouraged the audience to throw tortillas and chips at the wrestlers. There were tortillas flying all over the place! It was quite a (strange) sight!



AND of course Tysha got to see her Beastie Boys. Other bands we really enjoyed were Grizzly Bear, the Arcade Fire, Ozomatli & Citizen Cope. It's ALWAYS fun to dance with the hippies. Jacob's highlight was seeing the astonishing Icelandic musician, Bjork, and WOW did she know how to put on a show!



Sunday we had a mellow day and went sightseeing in Ellensburg. Not that there's a lot to see there, but Tysha lived there in Elementary School so it was fun to go visit places worthy of childhood memory-making. Monday, we started the day off right -- in a Canoe!



In the afternoon we drove up to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness for a hike. The forest service road was closed, and we guessed maybe it was because of mud or snow...but what we found was a picture of the power Mother Nature possesses. This past winter we had some serious rain and wind storms and part of the result is that this particular road was completely wiped out. We hiked through the new canyon to the other side where the road still existed and continued on for our hike.



Jacob found these cool-looking plants along the trail.



And Tysha couldn't help but find something pretty, too, poking out of the snow.



But the best part of hiking to Talapus Lake (according to Tysha) was finding the toilet that she discovered while backpacking in this area last summer.



If you're ever in the area and need a little potty break: this is the place!

Yeah for long weekends and great weather and rockin' bands! We are ready for S'more this summer! Bring it on!

Mother's Day in Oregon

Even though I am not a mother yet, Jacob knows that I am excited about becoming one someday. He also says I'm kinda a mom already since I've been nanny to, let's see, about 10 kids over the past 10 years. So he made me a special card with coupons inside to make me feel special, too, on mother's day.



We left early Friday morning and drove the six hours or so to Central Oregon, where my family lives and his just happened to be passing through - so we decided to all get together for a day or two and have fun!



Jacob's 15 (almost 16!!!) year-old sister, Cami, had just finished a wilderness experience not far removed from "Survivor". She is an amazing girl, who now knows how to do very cool things like "busting" a fire. I call it magic (not many can make a fire with their bare hands and only a few sticks and a rock!). She let us try. We tried and tried, but only Cami was the Master of the flame!



We also went to one of my favorite places for brunch in Bend, the Westside Bakery & Cafe. I love how quirky it is on the inside, with a little choo choo train that runs around the cafe and cool toy bi-planes hanging from the ceiling (not to mention a huge statue of Elvis near the doorway or the dinosaur head sticking out of the wall near the W.C.)



It was a rare and fun opportunity for us to be with all of our parents at the same time - besides getting married and at our reception last January.



We love our little sisters! (Shown are the youngest who we got to hang out with and go swimming with at Black Butte Ranch during our visit). Nothing like swimming in an outdoor pool where you can see horses roaming green pastures and snow-capped mountains in the Cascades in the distance!

Here's Emma...



And Jamie...(braces coming off this Thursday!!!)



And Cami...



Sunday after church Jacob fired up the grill and was sweet and wonderful and made dinner for my entire family for mother's day! I am the luckiest! (He makes dinner for me on a regular basis!)



And mom got to do what mom's should on mother's day...relax!




Even Grandpa and Grandma were there...



We stopped in Portland at the temple on our way back to Seattle and had a little picnic dinner. What a great weekend! Thanks to our moms and all the lovely ladies in our lives for being so inspiring and wonderful!

Welcome back, SAM!

This weekend was the grand reopening of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). Everyone was so excited about the reopening, SAM decided to open it's doors and keep them open - for free - for 36 hours straight! There was entertainment which included fire-dancers, bands, and djs, as well as other area artists who made special appearances. We went Saturday evening to check out the gala of events and join in on the fun...and it was fun!



We saw the hammering man all decked out in glow-in-the-dark sparklers...



...and enjoyed an installation called "Inopportune: Stage One," which are cars and sequenced multi-channel light tubes, by Cai Guo-Qiang. It felt festive to be surrounded by so many lights!



We were especially thrilled by the new Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Gallery, as well as several fine specimens of Pojagi (korean wrapping cloth) made of ramie gauze in the "Patchwork's Visual Chaos" assembly in the Fisher Family Textile Galleries. We had a great evening and even ran into a few of our friends, which is always a welcome and pleasant surprise. Welcome back, SAM!