Yassas (hello in Greek)!!!!

We had a great time in Greece for our anniversary. The weather was sunny and in the high 70s and low 80s. It was great to walk around Athens and see so much history. We would just walk around and randomly find some ruins.

Here are some pictures of our time in Athens.


On top of the Parthanon with Athens in the background:

In front of the Acropolis:

At Mars Hill East-East-Eastside, where Paul preached Christianity:

Santorini was one of the most beatiful places we have ever been to. Our hotel was high on a cliff looking out into the Aegean Sea. The views were spectacular. A church in the town of Oia:

This is red beach in Santorini, it's red from the volcano rocks:The city of Oia, as seen from the Ammoundi rock that we swam to below it:
This is Oia again as we arrived into town on our two hour hike from our hotel:

The view from the pool at our hotel:

The town of Fira, about a 40 minute hike from our hotel.

The last island we visted was Paros, which was nice and quiet with lots of nice beaches. Here are some pictures.

This is from the town we stayed in, Parikía, it's the capital of Paros, with a harbour with lots of boats:We got a tad bit of sun:The town of Naousa, on the opposite end of the island of where we stayed. It is a small fishing village:

This is a view from the beach that we spend a lot of time at in Paros. It is the Santa Maria beach. During the busy season it is known as the party beach. While we were there during the low season, it was nice and quiet. No sign of the Nina or the Pinta:It was a wonderful vacation but we are glad to be back with our family, friends and our dog.

He's just as sad as we are that we have to go back to work.

Summer Update

We've been a bit behind posting the goings-on of the summer.

Here are some pictures of the fun.

Bailey- The newest member of the family. YEP- we got a dog. I know, I can't believe it either....

Monday, September 3rd we picked up our puppy- a Bichone, Shih Tzu, Maltese mix who was born July 1st. The boys wrestling.

Saturday July 28th we went to Children's Day at the Mariner's game. Paul, Paige & Jared rode the train with us down from Everett to Safeco Field to watch the game.

Jared watching the sights from his seat on the train.
Paige & I "watching" the game.
July 20th - Redmond High School Class of 1997 10-year reunion. Reed & I before the party.
The Girls- Me, Erin, Brecken, Kelly, Erin & Melissa.

Reed, Erin & Brecken having a good time.

2nd Annual camping trip to Valley Camp. Paul & Jared hiking in the woods.

Paige & Gavin playing together in the "river".

I'm Free... Free Fallin'

For my birthday Reed suprised me with the chance to go skydiving. After two reschedules, I finally got to jump on Saturday June 30th. Some of the pictures are a bit blurry, as it was hard to track the descent. The scariest part was the brief moment when you look out of the plane to the sky and clouds below- then whoosh you're out. The air passes so quickly during the freefall that it can be hard to breath and the rush from spinning around is thrilling. I got to "steer" the rest of the way down, so we did some turns. My instructor was great and we had a perfect landing. Whoo-hoo! Now, what's next?!.....

Glass Blowing

On Friday Deedee, Brecken and I went to Wildfire Glass Studio in Bothell for a drop-in session. The photo above shows us in the shop and also a few of our final pieces. First we decided on a project and picked out our favorite glass colors. While in the studio we had to wear protective eye wear (notice the chemistry lab glasses in the photos below). Somehow the sunglasses that the artist wore counted as safety gear...

It was amazing to see the flames leaping from the vat of molten glass, it felt a little bit like "fire & brimstone". When turning the rod and melting the glass in the oven, the heat from the fire was so hot it felt like my arm hair was going to start burning- luckily it didn't. Blowing the glass was fun, and it was cool to see the bubble grow into an ornament as you blew into it. We had a great time participating in the glass blowing process, we'll definitely go back and do it again.

California or Bust

Here are some pictures from our trip to California. Friday night we spent the day with Kelly shopping and exploring the Burbank area. We saw her play The Boarding House- in which she gave a great performance. We went out with a few cast members after the show to a local restaurant












Saturday we joined the masses in line outside of Disneyland at 6:30 am (Reed's in the brown hooded sweatshirt). Getting there so early we were able to walk right onto the rides before the crowds had time to get in line after staking their places along the red carpet. We saw way too many adults dressed like pirates!

California Adventure was fun. After a near-death experience on Mullholand Madness, Reed declined to go on any other "wild" rides with me. Note the "barf shield" in the photo.