Hiding away...

I've been hiding away... in Kentucky... for the last time... because John got a job in southern California!! I am beyond excited. He's moving next month to start a DREAM job and I'm just out here bumming around until school starts next week.

Anyway, we spent last weekend in Virginia to see all my cousins and to visit my grandma who just had her second knee replacement surgery. We stayed at my cousin's apartment at the University of Virginia, and my cousins from Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth drove over to hang out. John wore his tank tops and pastel shorts which he got crap from all my cousins for because he fit in with the frat bros. His tank top with a pocket on the chest was apparently a 'frocket' and there were a lot of young gentlemens type clothing stores. The UVA students also use 1st years, 2nd years, 3rd years, 4th years instead of freshmen, sophomores, etc; and they call school campus instead of grounds. Apparently UVA has a reputation for being snooty because Thomas Jefferson used to live there, or as my older cousin put it, they all "have sticks up their *****".

We went to the farmers market in Charlottesville and I stepped toe-deep in a muddy puddle so I was really uncomfortable, but the food made up for it. We also went to a progressive.... I'd never heard of one before, but it's where you go from certain apartments to the next and get a different drink and at the end everyone is just plastered and at one place. The police came because of FOUR noise complaints. UVA has a weird little subculture. The best part of the trip was playing Bananagrams for hours. Seriously, I love Bananagrams. John and I have been playing words with friends so I was seriously kicking butt, but I realized how much John doesn't like it... because he is just getting his butt kicked all day long.

John learned what the term NoVa meant (north Virginia) which is where actual civilization is, so he started designating everywhere we went in terms of geographical location. SoVa (south VA), WoVa (west VA)... The trip was so fun. Seeing John at my uncle's house was so weird in a good way. I visited at house at least once every other summer growing up, so it's just an environment that is so ingrained in my childhood. I'm not used to seeing John there, but it was nice. I can't think of better adjectives to describe how I felt except weird and nice, but it is a mixture of both those feelings.

Anyway, here are some fun pictures from the weekend.

This is what happened when we told John to go outside and play...

We went to this really cool brewery that we had to drive 30 minutes into the mountains for. It was beautiful and they had games that we sucked at. Nam and John challenged these 2 blondes and got their butts kicked.

We visited my grandparents at my aunt and uncle's. My grandma seemed like she was doing really well for only a couple weeks post-surgery. My grandpa was really caring and got her ice for her leg. The only thing he needed her to do was to fold the laundry... because he literally did not know how. I don't think he's ever folder a shirt in his life!! My grandma, on the other hand, folds neater than a machine. I kid you not. 

But really, they are the cutest little grandparents ever. I know everyone says that about their grandparents, but no, mine are the cutest. My grandma has been sleeping on a hospital bed (which is a single) that is currently in the study, so my grandpa sleeps on a cot next to her instead of upstairs in their room. Seventy plus years, and still not a single night apart. Besides when my grandma was hospitalized for the surgery.

My grandpa waving bye. That is how you judge a good host- they see you out.

Also, I've joined a new family. And Chase says he wants to be a Seahawk.

A Very GoPro Wedding

OoooOooOoooOOOooooo... Fish eye

For John's birthday, I bought him a GoPro for all his adventure-documenting needs. We felt like how our parents must feel when they're learning how to use facebook or install a printer onto their computer, because it was so frustrating getting the little thing to work. My patience wore thin much quicker than John's so he ended up figuring it out so he wore it on his chest for the wedding!

Since Kim didn't have a videographer, it was great because John was able to record speeches and thank yous and the ceremony. Also, lots of funny conversations, and people pointing at John's chest. GoPro rules. Other than being slightly dizzying from all the shaking, the video quality is excellent (make sure to watch it in HD!), and the sound is clear. John left the GoPro with me so I will have to figure out how to use this thing myself so I can record my own adventures! Before the ceremony, John set the camera to snap a picture every 30 seconds so there are so pretty cool candid ones. The rest of the day was caught on video, and with my amateur video editing skills, we made a little wedding video! Enjoy! And congratulations to Kim and Andy!

My stout little dad

This is Howard, the photographer. I feel like he needs to be recognized, because he worked so hard and is nice, and wasn't even in 1 wedding photo.

This photo wasn't taken on the GoPro, but this is what John looked like with the chest strap on! So Ironman-esk.

And lastly, the little wedding video pieced together by me! I'm pretty proud of myself. Eventually, I'll make a video with sound from the day because there are some pretty funny conversations out there.

Virginians in Washington

Wedding Crashers

My sister got married the other weekend so I have been so busy hosting family and scurrying around to get things done, but it is all finally winding down. The wedding was beautiful (pictures to come later), and we all boozed and danced, and got through the day, even having fun while doing it! It was so nice to have family here and to have people around all the time to get together and eat. Why don't we just all move to one corner of the United States? And why not that one corner be the Pacific Northwest, because it's the best corner? Sigh... Honestly, I don't think I even had to do any convincing, the city did it for me! But anyway, now they're all gone and I miss the company. It's bittersweet really- on the one hand, I am so excited to get back to my summer nothing, but I'm also really sad all my family is gone! I think when we were younger, we didn't really appreciate each other enough, but now the age difference doesn't feel as significant and we can just all get along!

We piled up to 8 people at my apartment so we had people sleep essentially everywhere except the closets, but it was so fun! We ate and drank and played a lot of Taboo and Heads Up!. One night at dinner with all the parents, we actually got some of the parents to play and it was a hoot. We teamed together to act out a really good centipede, with everyone holding onto the waist of the person in front of them. I basically forgot all responsibilities for a week, until alas, they slowly started leaving and we were so tired from having fun that the remaining pulled out all our laptops and had nightly computer lab hour so we could actually get some work done.

Anyway, here is a haphazard collection of photos from the past 2 weeks! We did so much more than this, but no joke, I was having so much fun, I forgot to take pictures!

Enjoying Essential Baking Company sandwiches the morning after the wedding. Oh, didn't you know? It's tradition for the bride to sit outside on the cement and eat a sandwich on the ground the morning after her wedding.

Ballin' out at Din Tai Fung. When we asked for straws, the waitress said, "Curly or straight?". Ummm, is that a rhetorical question?

Out in Belltown at 2 am on a Monday night. WHO ARE WE.

John invited his friends to go paddleboarding with us and together we made a giant Asian paddleboard gang.

Siblings sharing a tiny slice of coconut cake.

Mid-summer crisis

The sunset, a metaphor for closing stages of my summer.

I should have realized summer was flying right past me when I started getting a bunch of emails from school regarding registration and paperwork we have to turn in for clinical placements last week. But no, it was 30 minutes ago when I went to the blog of a blogger on the East Coast, and her latest post was posted AUGUST 1ST, 2014. WHAT! It's August?! I haven't enjoyed even half of all the summer fun I planned on enjoying this season! Yes, I've done a whole lot, but I haven't nearly been to the lake as many times as I'd hoped I would have been by this time. And I certainly haven't binge watched enough Netflix, nor have I been downtown to walk around and play tourist. Arrrg, I have not been referring to my list.

I have been doing some things though. Don't get me wrong- I have been having a LOT of fun. I'm just not sure how a whole month flew by! Here are some snippets of the last month.

This is Kathie in a douche tank. She can totally pull it off! We had biked to Magnuson park that day and it was cloudy so we didn't think to bring swim suits, which I totally regretted because we got sweaty and sticky.

I went out on a lake float for the FIRST time this summer with my sister and one of her friends. I bought that amazing turtle float and we laughed ourselves silly because seriously, what is better than an adult woman riding a turtle out to sea? Possibly an adult woman riding out to sea on this.

I've been prepping a lot for the wedding, like cleaning the house for family to come, but also practicing our getting-beautiful skills. This is fabulous Bi, with her beautifying servants. Now to get that maid of honor speech down...

Linda turned 28..........?

Of everyone I see, I probably hang out the most with this girl. She is bossy, but we make it work. I don't think I actually do much- just literally watch her while she does her own thing.

Alison and I went to the pier to catch up and get some fried foods. The navy ship from San Diego happened to be there so there were men in white navy uniforms everywhere. One of them offered to take our picture for us in front of the ship when he saw us taking some pretty pathetic selfies. This picture was supposed to be the 'funny' one, but it turned out so good and natural!

This picture is such a good one, but I wish I was in there with her! We didn't want to ask a stranger to take a panorama for us though- I don't think society is ready for that.

Goodbye July 2014! You were a real treat. Can't wait to play with August!

Kim's Bridal Saturday Extravaganza!

Over the weekend, we celebrated my sister's bridal shower and bachelorette party, all in one super long fun day! We had the bridal shower at my parents' house where my other sisters and I did all the cooking from scratch (!) for 14 guests. The room was filled with fresh flowers from Pike place in glass pasta jars which only cost $15. We played Kim Trivia, a game where we drew our favorite memory of Kim and she had to guess it, and pin the mustache on the groom, which was totally fun because everyone designed their own mustache out of card stock making Andy's face very hairily festive. For the bachelorette party, we took a sexy dancing class which included sexy walking, sexy crawling (my personal favorite), sexy sliding down a wall, and sexy spinning down a pole. I think we were all scared as hell at the beginning of it, but by the end, we were laughing ourselves silly. It was such a fun way to bond- by being so uncomfortable that you just have to laugh at yourself. Afterwards, we headed out to dinner downtown and hit Belltown afterwards. We progressively loss people throughout the night, because I think it takes a ton of work celebrating for 12 hours!! I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow that night. It was a total blast that required a ton of planning, but I think everyone had a good time, and that's what's important.

The day after the shower, I went back to my parents' to clean up, and I realized the wedding is in a month! It feels crazy that it snuck up while we were busy doing other things. In the time since Kim got engaged and now, I graduated from college, got into nursing school and finished a whole year of it! I'm so excited for all my family to be in town. I hope the weather is just beautiful so everyone is envious and decides to move here.

Here are some pictures of the shower. They made me realize just how gorgeous my parents' house is.

Cheers to Kimbo! I'm so happy and excited for you!

U-Pick Cherries

One of the best summer fruits are rainier cherries and the best part about living in this area is that they grow right in your back yard! Honestly, I think I have tried a bing cherry maybe 5 times in my life, and I could definitely live without. But rainier cherries? They remind me of childhood and they are just so darn delicious. So yesterday, my parents, my sister and I made our way out to Wenatchee to pick some rainier cherries. It was a pretty long drive there and back for maybe 45 minutes of actual cherry picking, and I probably won't do this again until I have children and feel obligated to give them summertime adventures, but it was a good experience. With the cost of gas and the time spent sitting in the car, I think the cherries may not have been as cheap as the $2.50/lb price tag seemed, but I think my parents consider time spent with their children priceless, so they didn't care. Anyway, here are fun pictures from the day.

Kim, making friends with the friendly farm dog that greeted everyone on the way in. Mom was terrified.

Does my dad remind you of Dwight at Schrute farms or have I been watching too much the Office?

My mom, Kim and I all ended up wearing the same thing: pink top, tan hat.

Here is a picture of my parents pretending to be farm vendors selling to Kim, a farmer's market goer. And wowza, check out all those cherries!