fun-filled seattle weekend

sad news... those damn birds managed to eat our ripe strawberry... again! i think we're going to have to bring it inside if we ever want to actually eat the fruit.

our weekend started with a 4 mile run through woodland park and around green lake with beth baker's 10k club. saturday was warmer than expected and we certainly all felt it. after recovering from our run, we headed to mobile chowdown iv. mobile chowdown is a street food fest, offering the best mobile food seattle has to offer. this time around, there were also several vendors from portland and a beer garden. it was pretty darn hot, so we didn't stay as long as we originally intended. but, we did brave the line for marination mobile's kimchee fried rice (with fried egg on top) and aloha pork sliders. we also got scoops of meyer lemon and mint stracciatella from parfait. next time i'd like to try the sliders from maximus minimus.

on sunday it cooled off to a perfect 79 degrees. we headed to the international district for the annual summer fest. the international district hosts all things asian (including the huge uwajimaya market and the best darn asian food (from dim sum to veitnamese to traditional japanese to filipino to sushi to whatever your heart's content) this continent has to offer. the summer fest is a celebration of asian culture. we made it just in time to watch a kung fu demonstration, followed by the lion dance and a whole lot more kung fu. we had lunch at the best vietnamese restaurant in the country, green leaf, and then got lopez island creamery ice cream. every time i visit the id, i wonder why we don't go more often. it truly is always a good adventure involving excellent food.

speaking of excellent food, we ended sunday with a homemade fruit crostata. we used raspberries from our own garden and apricots, plums and peaches from our produce box. i still do not love fruit desserts, especially those involving a crust, but it was good to use up some fruit!

we've had a major cool down today, only in the 60s. i am relieved. i love seattle's cooler, cloudy days and i'm not looking forward to the next heat wave. besides, who wants to run when it's so hot and muggy?

finally, sammy is not feeling well once again. some of you have been privy to his chronicle of stomach and eating issues. well, they seem to have returned. he's stopped eating and started throwing up again- in the bed no less. he is constantly uncomfortable and you can hear his stomach growling in the next room. i don't know what to do to convince him to eat, but we'll keep trying!

his legend lives on

several days ago bear, my brother in law's dog, passed away. he was a very special dog with a wise soul. he is very beloved and there will forever be a place in our hearts that shines with his light. many of you met bear and commented on his gentle spirit. he truly was one of a kind.

bear was adopted from wolfwood refuge, a nonprofit rescue organization for wolves and wolf dogs. my brother in law has adopted 3 wolf dogs from wolfwood. bear was the first. from what i've heard, wolfwood is an incredible place, where they are very careful to maintain the rules of the wild. they don't adopt these dogs out to anyone, and they take special care to make sure a new owner understands the contract they enter into when taking such a dog home. not everyone can handle the responsibility of caring for a wolf dog. but if you are interested in supporting the cause and honoring bear's memory, please donate to wolfwood today. if you had the opportunity to meet bear, let them know! i have no doubts they remember him well.

hot? in seattle?

that's right, it's extraordinarily hot here. i had no idea how horribly humidity could affect my capacity to handle warm temps until tuesday rolled around. the temps weren't even high yet, but i could definitely tell a huge difference in comparison to the dry heat in colorado. my heart goes out to all the east coasters suffering 3 digit temps with 85% + humidity. in my book, that equals death. since tuesday, the temps have inched higher. yesterday we hit upper 90s. inside my house, it was in the 90s as well, as proven by my thermostat. temps in the 90s are unusual for this area, so NO ONE has air conditioning in their homes. it just doesn't exist up here. so, it's pretty much impossible to function during these mini heat waves. thankfully, temps are falling a solid 10 degrees tomorrow and after the weekend we should hang right around mid 70s for the next week. perfect.

as always, it's important that i mention food. these days we have more raspberries than we even know what to do with! we're averaging about 3/4 pint a day now, which is far too many day after day. so, i'm freezing them for smoothies and raspberry ice cream. i see lots of raspberry ice cream in our future! we have put our strawberry plant under a metal chair for protection from the birds and we're just about ready to pick our first one! just one single strawberry, but we have very high hopes for the little guy. we just increased our produce box delivery to every week. i'm sure you're all sick of hearing about it, but i'm just loving it. we got a ton of fruit this week- apricots, plums, peaches, cherries and blueberries. i'm making a crostata in a few days. i'm not a lover of fruit deserts, but i'll give it a shot. i can only handle so much fruit and cream, so i've got to start branching out if i want to continue enjoying the bounties of summer.

somehow, i've taken to running once again. somewhere, deep in my soul i've always felt like a runner. but my body thinks it is on the verge of death any time i move my legs faster than a 20 minute mile pace. as such, i've never kept up with running. i burn out too easily. but for now, i'm really loving it. loving it more than i ever have before. this is all very much due to beth baker with running evolution. beth is a hilarious running coach that hosts groups for non-runners, turning them into runners. i've now got a "running groupie" membership (this is a real thing folks) that includes a happy hour run and a trail run, among other perks. i'm also in the 5k club AND the 10k club. 10k club starts tomorrow with a 4 mile run, so let's hope i can keep up! i'm half tempted to turn this into a running blog, but my attempt this morning was a dismal failure due to the heat, so i'll spare you the gory details. except for this one: blood blisters. yep, the most i've run so far is 3.5 miles and i have blood blisters! yuck. good thing i loaded up on blister prevention socks at the nike employee store!

frankie loves to sing!

when we got home from portland we got this little report from frankie's dog day care. cracks me up since i'm always telling everyone she loves to sing. you just have to hear it for yourself, but i can absolutely guarantee it will make you laugh. :)

4th of july weekend in oregon

it has been a long several days without internet, but i'm back to update you about our trip! it all started with the seattle train station. what a let down! somehow i got it in my head (no thanks to all of you!) that riding the train would be romantic or glamorous. um, no. not at all. no security lines was great, and the leg room was also a plus. the views were pretty decent (especially on the way back!), but the food was horrendous. next time, i'm packing a cooler! anyways, we arrived at the portland station (which is about 1000x more beautiful than the seattle station) and were greeted by uncle keith. we drove through portland to west linn, a suburb of the city. keith's  house is right on the willamette river, so we dumped our stuff and hurried down the hill to take in the scenery at the shore.

the next morning, the action really began! we had a nice run into the lake oswego farmers market. we got lots of goodies for the family bbq and had breakfast at just about every stand. that afternoon, cousin timm took us to where he works- the nike campus (fondly nicknamed "disney land" by the family). that place is spectacular! the gym is like nothing i've ever seen. it truly was a treat to get a tour of the place. he also took us to the nike employee store- the highest grossing store in the WORLD. we certainly dropped a pretty penny in the place, but well worth it at 50% off everything. i have enough running gear to last me years!

the excitement continued with the holiday. the 4th is always a holmes circus. that family has pyromania running in their blood and they spend hundreds (and up into the thousands) for fireworks each year. it takes hours to get through all those boxes! many of the neighbors also put on their own shows, so it's nice to just plop a lawn chair on the shore and watch all the commotion. there was also quite a bit of eating involved. and lots of nervous laughter over the little kids exhibiting early signs extreme pyromania.

anyways, it was all absolutely exhausting, but we managed to pull ourselves together for a trip to multnomah falls the following morning. just beautiful. there are a lot of options for hiking and camping, but we weren't really dressed for hiking, so we did a short 2-mile trek and called it a day. next time, we will definitely have to come prepared for a full day's worth of hiking. after our wonderful wilderness adventure, we went into the city for lunch and then back to the train station for our ride home. today i am just beat, but i need to pull myself together and get ready for work tonight!

finally, it's important to mention that today was anthony's first day at his new job with the architecture firm callison. we'll keep you posted!