And the undefeated champion is...

Superfeet!!! For the first time since Abby and I have played on team Superfeet, a co-ed division 2 (used to be 3) team, we not only took first place in our division but we went undefeated. Let the record below show that this is truly what happened.

We had to celebrate this truly momentous occasion with a pizza party after our last game at Roundtable Pizza. It poured on us during the game, so it was nice to go get pizza afterwards and warm up. Thank you Superfeet for sponsoring the team and our party.

Left work early today

Guess what we did today? Yup, we left work early and drove to Seattle for a midday Mariner's game. We took Anne Marie and Peter with us. Even though the Mariners have the second worst record in the entire league... even though they got a new coach half way through the season... even though they've had a losing record for several years... even though they lost today, we still had fun at the game. It doesn't matter that they were winning at two different points in the game today, but still managed to lose the game. What matters is that we weren't at work and we were having fun. Go Mariners!

We're just peachy

Do you see all those peaches? Abby and I went a little crazy this weekend on our way back from Lind and we bought four boxes of peaches. We stopped at at least four different fruit stands near Ellensberg to scope out the prices, variety and selection. If you want to know which stand has the best price or peach, just give us a call. Gotta stock up for winter, ya know.

The plan is eat, can, freeze and jam them. Combine these with our strawberries, raspberries and soon to be picked blackberries, and you get a lot of fruit and berries.

Now we're waiting for the corn to come on strong so we can stock up on that too.

Visit to the Grandparents

This weekend Dustin and I decided to take a road trip east of the mountains to see my wonderful Grandma and Grandpa. They are 2 of my favorite people in the world and I'm so blessed to have such great grandparents. They live in a small town called Lind, which is where I lived for the first 4 years of my life. I have fond memories of being there and also getting to go visit my grandparents every summer for a few weeks as I grew up. I said my first word with my grandma, got to make my first big girl call to her when I went potty (hence I will never forget her phone number), got to stay up late and always have a bowl of cereal before bed, and have so many great memories there. I remember husking corn with my grandpa on the front porch and being so impressed with his great gardening skills. Even visiting this weekend, we were sent home with great vegetables from his garden! I love my grandparents and am so incredibly thankful for them.

Best Concert Ever!

So, I'm a little late for this blog post... Dustin has been telling me how I need to get going on posting.

Last week was the Northwest Washington fair in Lynden. On Wednesday night we went to the fair with our awesome friends the Swedbergs and got to see one of my favorite bands. Little Big Town was performing, and in excellent Terpening fashion, we opted for the free seats and saved some money. We actually got really good seats and the concert was amazing. Here's a little piece of their amazing talent.







Doesn't Dustin look so good in his hat? He doesn't enjoy concerts, but I think deep down he really wanted to go just so that he could wear his new cowboy hat. He fit in great at the concert!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Aug-tober? Mix a few dark clouds, rain, wind and cold together in the middle of the summer and what do you get? A lackluster summer, that's what. Seems like we just survived June-uary. I give a big boo to this fall-like weather we're having. It's August 20. I'm supposed to come home from work wanting to go for a swim at Lake Padden. I'm not supposed to want to come home, curl up on the couch with a blanket, cook some chicken noodle soup and watch a movie. I went for a run in the rain today after work. Blah.

Got myself a new hat

As many of you know, I just got back from Nashville, Tennessee. I was there for a work conference. It was my first time to Nashville. It's not called the country music capital for nothing. Country music was playing in the airport, hotels and bars. It was every where. They're proud of their reputation. And since I don't mind country music, I enjoyed my time there. The Country Music Hall of Fame was even right across the street from my hotel. I explored it the last day I was there.

I didn't have a lot of time to explore the city because I spent most of my time couped up in the hotel attending meetings and lectures. Every once in a while there was an hour break or more, which I used to run out and catch some hot, muggy air and to dash in and out of the leather shops. My hotel was conveniently a half-block from the main tourist attractions in downtown. I must have went through a half-dozen stores that sold cowboy hats and boots. I was looking for the perfect cowboy hat. I eventually found the right one. It's my first one ever. You wouldn't believe how expensive some of those hats and boots were. One pair of boots I picked up had a $2,200 price tag. Youch!

Aside from the some of the acclaimed speakers that spoke at the conference, the highlight of my trip came when we went to the Tennessee Titans football stadium for lunch. It was less than a mile away from the hotel. They took us into the locker room and we got to walk through the tunnel to the field. Vince Young's garb was hanging in his locker, which was cool to see. That's the first time I've ever been in a professional sports team's locker room.

There must have been a dozen bars within walking distance of the hotel, including the world famous bar Coyote Ugly. Every one of of them had country bands playing on a stage. On several different nights we went bar hopping to check out the bands. None of them were charging entrance fees. We had a good time.

(You will all be proud to know that the Washington State Department of Transportation communications team cleaned up on awards night. We brought home three separate awards for the work we've done in the last year. How cool is that?!)

(These are two of my colleagues that I went to the conference with. On the left is Lisa Murdock, communication manager for Olympic Region, and on the right is Lloyd Brown, communication director for the entire state.)