Seattle

Jeff, Morgan, and i recently returned from our trip to Seattle. Some of you may or may not remember that Jeff and i went to Seattle in January for another shot at an IVF procedure. It was to be our last but the procedure did not go well from the beginning and the end result was no pregnancy.
We decided to give it one more go which was the recent August trip. Jeff, Morgan, and i flew down to Seattle early August. We stayed with my brother, Gene, and his family. My mom stayed behind to take care of the house and more importantly the dogs, Jake (dad), Mackenzie (mom), and Jed and Blaze (the pups, okay they are 5+ but they will always be the pups). Oh, i must not forget she also took care of the cats, Chester and Matilda.
We took Morgan, my niece, Rachel, and nephew, Christopher to the Seattle Aquarium along the waterfront. The aquarium was a big hit for all us including half the child population of Seattle. We lunched at Ivar's a must when in the area and a quick visit to the Ye Old Curiosity shop. This old shop is located on Pier 54. It is a novelty shop/museum of rare and somewhat odd artifacts from shruken heads to gypsy fortunes to name chains and post cards. A great store to take the family and bum around in. I try to visit the shop whenever i am in the Seattle area along with a few others near and including Pike Place Market.

Beginnings of a Blogger

Wow. I finally did it. I finally got up the courage to start my own blog. Those of my friends and family that read this (assuming i tell anyone), i hope this will give you a snap shot into my life from the mundane to the really important events that i wish to share. Most importantly, you will be able to catch glimpses of Morgan (and Riley as i wrote this prior to her birth) as she grows and makes her own way in this crazy world of ours.

The summer has flown by which is pretty typical unless of course it is smokey or cold. It seemed summer started pretty early this year. When we celebrated Morgan's belated 2nd birthday (around May 1st), the snow had all melted and the day was warm and sunny. I remember Jeff starting the mosquito magnet early to keep the little buggers at bay for the celebration. Morgan enjoyed playing with her little friends: Logan, William, and few other youngsters too small to roam with the big kids. They ran all over the lawn pretending to mow the still brown lawn, pushing/pulling the wagon, or trying out the swings/slides. Grandma cooked a wonderful Filipino feast that was enjoyed by all. Morgan also received her first bike or trike rather. It is a red Schwinn roadster which turns out is too big for her. We later purchased a small red radio flyer trike for her to use until she grows into the big roadster.

The other guests were: Andrew, Patricia, their twin boys Elias and Joaquin, and Andrews sister (her name escapes me at the moment). We first met Andrew when we were looking for a dog sitter. I met Logan's parents, Johnny and Kelly, shortly after i started working for my previous employer Mike. I was Johnny's replacement. I know William's family, his parents, Ben and Kim, and his little sister, Julia, through work at the refinery. Ben and i work together in the lab. I also used to work with Mike and Sarah. Sarah was my trainer when i first started at FHR. They have a cute little one year old boy, Alex. Lastly, I met Bobbi and her adorable 1 year old son, Arthur, thru Sarah during a play date on Eielson AFB.

As some of you may know, we lost a couple dogs in the past year. We lost our dear Bones first and in January, my sweet Dante. I am still trying to get past his untimely departure. I loved both dogs but there was something special about Dante. I miss them both greatly.

With the dogs gone, we had a couple of unused kennels. We don't plan to have nearly as many dogs as we have had in the past so we decided to sell off a couple of the fence panels/gates and reclaim our yard back from those unruly animals. Jeff had always wanted a garden so we turned part of the area into a large 6' x 10' garden plot and the rest back to grass. We planted tomatoes, pickles, eggplant, dill, cilantro, beans, peas, lettuce, pumpkins, various peppers, carrots, and potatoes.

This is the first year we planted most of our garden outside rather than in our green house. The peas, lettuce, dill, and cilantro did very well. The beans, squash, eqqplant, and pickles did not produce much, if anything at all. We did get a few bell peppers, banana peppers, and jalapenos. We are just now harvesting the tomatoes which it turns out we did not loose in the first frost of the season back in mid-August. The carrots are a little scrawny but we have some. Yeah! Only time will tell, if we get any potatoes this year. Overall, i think it was a successful growing season for us.

Morgan discovered red raspberries this summer. We would go out daily so she could eat the berries right off the bushes in our back own backyard. We would even look for them on our monthly hike near Ester Dome. She wanted to eat more berries last week but the raspberry bushes are gone so we tried the low lying cranberries, instead. They grow in our yard and i have been eyeing them for sometime. What a shame, she did not like them. They were a bit sour. I will try to pick them later and do some more baking (maybe scones, yum).