Hiking, Geocaching, and Amsterdam

Jeremy had a three day weekend, so we decided to take advantage of it and go explore the great city of Amsterdam! Aw, the joys of staying with someone who is living in Europe...

Our first flight together...first of many!

Our first flight together wasn't without its difficulties. Got to experience some of the joys of flying in Naples, Italy with an itialian company. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 6:50, so it was an early morning. They had us sitting on the plane for an hour when they come on the intercom and state they are having computer issues and unfortunately the flight was being cancelled and we needed to get off. That's pretty much all they told us. We had to get off the plane, take the bus back to the airport building, then figure out ourselves where to go to get on another flight. Well, this proved to be difficult and annoying with these Italians. It was as if this sort of thing never happens because it took FOREVER to get on a new flight, which ended up being not until three hours later than we were supposed to leave. So annoying. What we got for compensation? A coupon for breakfast, and in Italy, that means a pastry and coffee, so about three euros worth, woohoo. Once we finally got out on that flight, we made it to Amsterdam just fine.

Enjoying my Italian cappucino! One of my favorite things about Italy...

Once arrived in Amsterdam, we then had to battle and figure out the public transportation. This proved to be a little confusing sometimes as well. We discovered that you don't just take the train to where you need to go, but you take the train, then metro, then possibly tram and bus. And its not just one ticket that works for all these, no, you have to have a different ticket for the train, metro and tram, and then the bus. So we had a train ticket from the airport, then because we didn't get the metro ticket we were stuck in the metro station and couldn't get out. We got in with the train ticket, but couldn't get out unless we had the metro ticket. It was a very interesting process. By the time we feel like we understood the process we were leaving!

We made it to our hotel finally and then set out to explore some of Amsterdam. There was a geocache really close to the hotel that we found first. Jeremy found it without even using the gps! I think he's hooked...! Then we went into the museum district in Amsterdam. We were going to go the Heineken Brewery, but decided it was a little too expensive, and not worth it. So we just looked at it from the outside! We did go to the Van Gogh museum. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed. They didn't even have the classic Van Gogh painting there. Even if they want the original painting to be in Paris, you would think they would at least have a copy in the Van Gogh museum. It was five levels of painting, and only one level was Van Gogh's painting. The rest were artists' that he was inspired by or whom he inspired.

It was really nice walking through this area though. Saw a few cool buildings and ate at a nice dinner. I got tomato soup! It was delicious. And Jeremy got to taste their burgers and fries.

In front of Amsterdam Central Station

Indoor ski resorts are quite popular in Europe. I don't know how many there are, but I know they are throughout Europe. Jeremy had discovered that there was one near Amsterdam, so we went there so I could teach him how to snowboard. It was very interesting. They charge by the hour so you have to swipe in to start your time and pay more if you go over your time. There wasn't even a chairlift, just the poles that you grab onto and pull you up, which are difficult to do for someone that has never snowboarded before. It had two runs, but one run didn't really count cause it was just a really tiny little bunny slope for kids. The other run was longer, but still not too long and not too steep. Definately not the type of place you want to go to if your more advanced, can get boring really quick. Surprisingly there were quite a few people there that were pretty good. It was a good place to go to introduce Jeremy to snowboarding. Can't wait to take him in Colorado! Or if we got to go in Austria or Switzerland that would be awesome! But he did pretty good, giving he only got four hours to try. It will be good when we get to go on a bigger run and all day.

Geocaching in Amsterdam!


Heading to teach Jeremy to snowboard!

Walking the streets of Amsterdam. They had some pretty Christmas lights up. Not sure if it was for the season or if they are up year round. Notice the chess pieces in the background?

That night after snowboarding, there were some geocaches in the more central part of Amsterdam I wanted to find. This was awesome and so much fun because it led us to walk along streets that we probably would not have on our own. It was a great way to explore some of the streets of Amsterdam! And I really enjoyed it. I like Amsterdam. I you stay away from the red light district it is a really cool city. Bikes everywhere, lots of people out walking and biking. It was curious because we walked along many residential streets and we were able to look into many people's living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms, etc. They just had their windows wide open to where people could see in. It was cute to see families sitting down for dinner, people cleaning dishes in the kitchen, men reading their books. We felt like we were invading people's privacy, but they were the ones that had their curtains open. It was strange, but very cool to see inside people's homes. One we saw was an old lady on her death bed at home with her caretaker standing over her. Very weird, it was right on the corner of a somewhat busy intersection.

I was getting very hungry and we wanted to try some local food so we finally found a little pub that looked to have some good Dutch food. It turned out to be an excellent meal with some local flavor and entertainment! Jeremy got this really good french onion soup and chicken with the best local sauce on top. I got split pea soup and goat cheese salad. So good! I have never seen such a big chunk of goat cheese! Seems like in the states they usually skimp you on the goat cheese cause its expensive, not here! I couldn't even finish all the goat cheese I was so stuffed! And for our entertainment we got to listen in on a "sing-a-long." They told us it was crowded because they were going to be having a sing-a-long. We thought they meant just some sort of karaokee or something, but no, it really was a sing-a-long. Many different ages of people got together in a circle with their songbooks and were singing with each other. It was very interesting!

Enjoying some classic Dutch fries

After dinner we walked around Amsterdam some more. I was kind of wanting to get some coffee and we had seen a few coffee shops so decided to stop in one. As soon as we walked in we experienced some classic "Amsterdam." Yeah, word of advice, "coffee shops" in Amsterdam are probably not selling coffee, but drugs. It was interesting. We knew right when we walked in due to the smell but couldn't believe we didn't realize it earlier. After that, we realized that there aren't too many actual coffee shops in Amsterdam. I guess people there don't really drink too much coffee.

Before calling it a night we decided to walk through the red light district. Outside of this district, Amsterdam is a wonderful city for anyone to visit and enjoy. It has a lot to offer, a lot of culture. But inside the red light district you finally see where Amsterdam's reputation comes from. A very different experience walking this area. I was glad I was Jeremy. It wasn't too terrible, just not somewhere I would want to spend too much time probably. I coudn't believe how many hostels and hotels were here. I stayed in a hostel in the red light district in Frankfurt one night by myself, I would never stay a night in the red light district here!

The next day we were flying out but decided to get up early and go into the Anne Frank House before we left. We had just enough time. I am really glad we did this. I didn't realize it was in Amsterdam, I thought it was in Germany. It was very interesting to walk through this house and realize we were standing where those 8 people hid out for so long. It was a humbling experience.

All in all I really like Amsterdam and definately suggest it for a place to visit. It was a nice weekend!

Now, some more Geocaching pics:

Geocaching- found a nice hike close to Jeremy's apartment

Discovered a nice trail on Ischia while geocaching

This past weekend one of Jeremy's co-workers and his wife hosted Thanksgiving dinner. She used to be a chef so she had a very nice menu planned. It was delicious!! Some different ways to cook the classic Thanksgiving dishes. There were lots of Jeremy's co-workers there as well so it was nice to be able to talk to them some. The morning before the dinner the Navy base was having a 5k race so we decided to do that before stuffing our bellies that night! It was a wonderful morning for a run and Jeremy's and my first race together. It was fun.

On Sunday we went with three of Jeremy's co-workers on this awesome all day hike up a peak that looks across at Mt. Vesuvius. It was a wonderful hike! A good workout and a beautiful day! It was coold to be able to look over at Vesuvius and we could see the trail that you hike up on Vesuvius to the top.

Jeremy at the top of our hike

The whole group doing a curious pose

Abruzzo and Pompei

I apologize in advance, having trouble over here posting pics on my blog. These few in the beginning are the most I was able to put on. You can check out facebook pics as I will try to get more on there. Sorry!

Hiking in Abruzzo National Park

Last weekend was Halloween weekend. Jeremy ended up getting a three day weekend, and it was supposed to be a very nice weekend, so last minute we decided to go camping in Abruzzo National Park. It was a very good decision! It was gorgeous there and had tons of fun. I was sad I didn't get to really enjoy the fall colors in Colorado the few days I was there before leaving for Italy since I wasn't feeling very well, but this camping trip in Abruzzo definately made up for it. The colors were amazing! The trees and mountains were awesome, we didn't feel like we were in Italy. It's only about a two and a half hour drive from Naples, so not far at all. There is a ski resort there as well. Not sure if I will still be here when they have enough snow though.

Gorgeous day for hiking!

Jeremy snagged a pic of me taking a pic

We realized we were going camping on Halloween weekend, thought it could be spooky, it was just fun! Was definately a little chilly there since we were in the mountains, overlooked the fact that we were going from the coast to the mountains, but we were fine. It was good for hiking weather, not too hot. Just the drive up there was awesome. On the way we saw a hangglider in the air, then as we were driving up the mountain there was a guy about to launch off the side of the mountain on his hangglider, so we stopped and watch. It was cool, looks like fun, not sure if it is something I would do, I would be afraid of the landing part. We saw lots of cows just chillin everywhere on the side of the mountain. When I first saw the white spots I thought they were mountain goats to find out on closer look they were cows, just enjoying their day eating grass.
One of the towns in Abruzzo National Park is built right on top of the mountain when there's lots of perfectly good valley town building land down below. I thought it was very interesting it was built on the top of the mountain, very cool looking. Strategic purposes back in the day, guess it worked for them! Our first task was to figure out where we were going to go camping. This turned out to be a difficult task finding a decent looking place and not having to be in a tent right up next to a bunch of people in a cabin or RV. We finally found a place. I guess for Italian standards it was a nice place. It ended up being a good place because since it wasn't a busy weekend we were able to be in a spot with nobody else nearby, the owner was cool to talk to, and it was within walking distance of some hikes.

The first night we didn't really go do anything, so we just went to the bar with the owner and talked to him some, got some cappucinos and played cards. It was fun. Taught Jeremy some new card games! We attempted to build a fire, Jeremy doubted my fire building capabilities. And unfortunately I didn't prove to him I could make a fire because all the wood we found was pretty wet so it wasn't catching. We weren't able to make a good fire either night, very disappointing. Oh well, we still had fun!

Where is the stinkin geocache?

The first day we did a hike that was supposed to go to some cave I guess. Turned out to be a very small cave, at least the one we found. But it was a nice day, and gorgeous views and trees with the changing leaves. We enjoyed just being with each other. There were lots of other Italians out hiking. It was funny because were just in our tennis shoes taking a little hike and all these other people were some serious hikers. They had their trekking poles and everything! It wasn't that hard of a hike! It was like that on all the hikes we went on! These Italians are serious!That afternoon we drove to do a different hike to a waterfall. It was interesting. Most the hike was on a paved path and they had carriages that would take people back and forth. We thought about renting a bike but didn't have enough time before they had to be returned. Then at the top of the path was a short actual hike to two waterfalls. It was pretty. I learned that Italians don't really get to the side for you if you are behind them and wanting to pass you. You just have to seize your opportunity to sneak past them.

That evening we went to the big town in the park to walk around and get some very tasty Nutella crepes. I would totally buy some Nutella while I'm here but I know I would eat in a day or two so I am trying to resist! But it is so good! And the crepes were delicious. Another thing learned about the Italians: they don't really understand the concept of lines. The town was really cute. Its a little Italian ski town. Everybody was out enjoying the evening too, and it was their off season. I would love to go to this place in the summer and/or winter. I think it is a good place to visit all times of the year!

The next morning we packed up camp, and with no success in finding any geocaches yet we decided to spend the morning trying to find one before we headed back to Napoli. One we were able to park within two miles of the cache. It was next to a lake and we couldn't really find a trail that went to the lake, so we just took off and got about less than a mile in and decided we weren't going to get to it, there were too many mountains in the way and it would take forever. One of the problems with not having a European map downloaded on the GPS is it doesn't have roads or trails on it, making geocaching much more difficult. We decided to attempt to find one more geocache before heading out. We made it to where it was hidden, we know we were within 5 feet of it, but just couldn't find it. Looking at the hint more later it was apparently in a tree somewhere, but we didn't see it, so dissappointing. Luckily, the weekend with no success in geocaching didn't turn Jeremy off from it. He still seems excited about it, that's good! We look forward to going caching with Luke and Jackie.

My handsome man!

Then we had to head back to Naples, on the way we stopped to get something to eat and drink at this little joint where this Italian man brought us in and was very excited for us to be in there, handing us stuff to eat and drink. Telling us we wanted to buy this and that, pushing stuff in our hands saying yes, we wanted to get it. It was hilarious. We were so taken off guard we didn't know what was happening! We figured he must be desperate for some more sales or something.

When we got back, it was time to do laundry, play some volleyball, and the next day...celebrete Halloween...!

Now he is a little scary! At a Halloween party with one of the Navy bands performing. Fun night.

Cow on the side of the rode in Abruzzo National Park

Week before Halloween we carved a pumpkin. I was excited Jeremy wanted to carve one! It was fun.

The final look, it's two ghosts holding hands, Jeremy's idea


One of my jobs was scraping the inside, my favorite part. Unfortunately we didn't get to bake the pumpkin seeds, he has no oven :(

Our first Italian meal prepared together

The next day Jeremy left for his week long trip in Africa with his band :( Seemed like I just got here and he goes and leaves! Not cool. But he gets back tomorrow, that's good! I was lucky because my friend, Kristin, has been in Moscow the past few years and this past week she just happened to have her fall break so she and one of her friends came to Italy to visit!

So I showed her around Naples a bit, they came to base with me one night to my volleyball game. I took them to get some yummy Italian pizza. And one day we went to explore the historic town of Pompei, which ended up being nothing like what I expected. I always imagined the to really be a buried city from lava, but it has been dug out so much it doesn't even look like it was covered by lava. It just looks like a really old, abandoned city. And I always imagined there to be preserved bodies you could see. Not so much, we saw a couple, but nothing like I imagined. It was still cool though, much bigger than I expected it to be. Took forever and we still didn't walk through the whole city. It was fun to spend some time with Kristin and catch up. She's a good friend, I miss not getting to see her more often. Got to enjoy some good cappucino and gelato with her in Italy! Who knows where it will be next time we meet up!

Other than Kristin visiting I have just been exploring more of the area around Jeremy's place, getting cappucino. I discovered a really nice lake not far from here and found my first geocache in Europe! Very exciting, now it's Jeremy's turn to find it! He gets back tomorrow and I am very excited. He has a couple days off since he has been working the past week so hopefully we will do some more hiking and find some more geocaches!

Hope all my friends and family are doing great! Miss you all!

End of WA

Jeremy and I on hike, overlooking Pozzuoli and Naples

Hiking

My time in WA finished out really quickly. I was counting down the days until I was done because then I was off to Italy, but I didn't get to do as much in WA as I was hoping. There is just so much to do around there. I felt like I kept getting unlucky with the weather. Seemed as if all the gorgeous days were when I was working. I am not a WA native, its hard for me to go hiking when its raining outside. I still prefer those nice, sunny, CO like days! The main thing I didn't get a chance to get out and do again is mountain biking. I did get to hit up a few more nice hikes.

The first hike I did in the last few weeks in WA was a fairly simple hike to a lake. It was a little rainy that day, but the hike was nice. The lake looked pretty, but unfortunately it was pretty overcast at the lake so couldn't see it too well.

The second hike I got to do was amazing! Mailbox Peak is supposedly the hardest hike on the I-90 corridor so I was really wanting to do it before I left. I met this girl that lives in WA that likes to hike and we tried to do this hike a while ago, but I had to work the night we were going to go so I decided it wasn't the best idea for me to try to hike when I was working that night. Luckily, the last Saturday I was in WA was gorgeous and I didn't have to work!! We got a late start, but ended up being a perfect hike and day. She wasn't feeling the best and had done it before so she let me go on ahead and I summited by myself. This is about a 6mile hike round trip, not long, but STEEP. You climb 4000ft in 2.2 miles. That's quite a bit! It was tough, but totally worth it. Couldn't see as many volcano peaks from the top but could see a lot of the Cascade Mountains. It was a tough go up, but even tougher going down with how steep it was. I was sore for about four days afterwards. It was tough to move around at work!

My last days at work went ok. Everyone I worked with was very nice and sad I was leaving. They were good to get to know. Didn't really get to hang out with anybody outside work unfortunately. It was an interesting contract. Seemed to go really fast in terms of not getting to hang with people or do as much as I wanted, but at the same time went really slow because I was just looking forward to heading to Italy so much. Everyone threw a huge potluck party for me my last night of working. It was really thoughtful! Then the morning after my last night a bunch of us went to breakfast. It was fun. I wish I could have gotten to know more of them better outside of work.

My last week was very busy and slightly stressful. I did the hike Saturday. Then worked Sun, Mon, and Tues night. Breakfast after work on Wednesday, then a short three hour nap, then up to pack up all my stuff, clean, and workout. It was busy and I was very tired. I didn't get a chance to start packing up anything early so had to get it all done in that afternoon, and run the errands I needed to. I thought since I only slept three hours that day I would sleep fine that night. The plan was to leave very early on Thursday so I could make it to Brea's house in Salt Lake City at a decent time. But no, I layed there wide awake the whole entire night. I should have just got up at 2am and started driving. I might have slept like 30min, but I dont think I fell asleep at all. So I was not looking forward to driving at all that day, but I needed to get home, couldn't really postpone the trip, plus everything was all packed up. So I had about a 13-14 hour drive ahead of me with no sleep. Luckily I have bluetooth in my car and a wonderful family and boyfriend that talked to me a lot of the way.

By the time I got to Brea's, I was exhausted, but I wanted to take advantage of the short time I had with her. I don't get to be with her near enough. I need to spend more than just a night or two with her so we can actually do something! She is such a great friend! So caring about me and interested in my life. I love her! I really can't wait to spend more time with her!

So the next day,Friday, I was driving back to CO. My lack of sleep hit me more on this drive. I was exhausted! I was so happy when I pulled into my parents driveway. So I had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at home with my parents to unpack, visit, and repack for Italy. I had to catch my flight early Tuesday morning. I don't know if it was stress, excitement, lack of sleep,or just plain being too busy but Friday night I woke up in the middle of the night with this severe heartburn like feeling. I couldn't relieve it with any types of antacids. It was awful. So it still kept me from sleeping. For someone that has never really had any problems with heartburn before this was very strange for me. It was like an all of a sudden severe outbreak of acid reflux. I am still suffering from it. It has been more than a week and ever since it has started I have been weak, feeling as if there is a lump in my throat and pressure in my chest, unable to eat anything, can't swallow. I haven't been able to sleep. It's a good weight loss plan! Haha, it hasn't been fun. I haven't been able to work out the past almost two weeks. I tried going to the Dr. the other day on the Navy base in Naples but since I am not active duty or a dependent they couldn't see me. They told me to try just going to a local pharmacy and telling them my symptoms. I told them I needed something strong. So I have been taking what they gave me for about three days now and I think it is actually helping. I have been having to take pain medicine everyday and stuff to help me sleep with little relief. Very unlike me. It has been so awful. The last day or two I have finally been able to sleep more and eat more. I am finally being better company to Jeremy! I felt bad because I haven't been feeling like doing anything! So I finally see some light at the end of the tunnel!

Anyway, I got into Naples Wedneday morning to be greeted by Jeremy! It was so good to see him! He didn't have to work the next of the day so we got to spend that day together, fun, even though I was exhausted and feeling horrible! I felt bad because he wasn't eating much since I wasn't able to eat much. He's so sweet. He signed me up to play with them in their league volleyball they have going on so we had a game that early evening. I didn't feel good, but it was nice to go and do something. I had fun. Then we went out for a nice, romantic dinner at his landlord's restraurant. It was beautiful, he hired some local musicians to come play for us! Got to have a little bit of the famous Naples mozzarella! So yummy. It was a wonderful night, to never forget! More to come on this evening later...

Thursday and Friday last week after arriving in Naples we didn't do a whole lot. I was hurting so bad. He had something planned for us Saturday night so Thursday we went dress shopping for me. I found this really cute Italian, black dress! Turns out, it was the Navy Ball we were going to Saturday night. I had my hair and makeup professionally done on Saturday and got all dressed up for the night! It was fun! The makeup turned out a little too much, didn't really recognize myself! And even though I was still hurting, the dinner was SOOO good. The area that we were in for the ball is supposed to be where the best Mozzarella ever is made, and I think that's true. It is SOOO good. And I also had some amazing tasting parmasan eggplant. Real Italian parmesan eggplant isn't like anything we are normally used to. Not all bready and fried. It was so good! And then we got to do some fun dancing afterwards.

Yesterday, I was finally starting to feel better, and it was a gorgeous day so we decided to go on a little hike. Thought we were going to do an easy hike, ended up being pretty steep. But if felt so nice to get out and enjoy the weather! It was an awesome view of the Napoli valley at the top of the hike. A good sunset viewpoint we discovered that we will have to do some other time closer to the sunset. This area we hiked is this little Navy recreational oasis they set up, not open to public. Its pretty cool. Have lots of stuff you can rent, yurts you can rent, lots of baseball fields, tennis courts, volleyball, pool, etc. It's pretty cool.

It has been so good to be with Jeremy again! He is so wonderful and we have lots of fun together! I look forward to all that we get to do together while I'm here! I will be checking email and facebook so if anyone needs to get a hold of me thats the best way.

Family Visit!

This month I got to have a visit by Luke and Jackie and my mom and dad! Not at the same time either. So that means some fun times and some fun activities to be had!

Luke and Jackie visited first. They spent a few days in Seattle with Jackie's aunt while I was working and then drove up to Everett. Of course, with Luke, I finally discovered a good frisbee golf disc course in Everett. And we did a little geocaching at the same time! It was fun! The first full day they were here we went to hike Wallace Falls. Not too long of a hike, but not too easy either. It was a gorgeous hike, and the falls are beautiful! We found a few geocaches on the way.

Middle Falls

Lower Falls

Geocaching!

Luke brought all his stuff for kite boarding hoping we would be able to catch some good wind. He just got a new foil kite he hasn't been able to use on the water yet, but of course, the week they were here it was cloudy and rainy with very little wind. The week before was gorgeous and would have been perfect, it was just our luck. So the day we planned to go kiteboarding we went to Deception Pass instead. This pass has a cool bridge the you have to cross to get from the coastline onto Whidbey Island. It's a pretty cool bridge, named such because some guy was deceived at some time thinking he could make it through between the cliffs in his boat and turned out to be rougher waters than he expected. Or something like that! We explored some of Deception Park, found some geocaches, then played frisbee golf on Whidbey Island. It was an interesting frisbee golf course. Right next to football fields and soccer fields where little peewee practices were going on. Luke threw his disc out over their heads on the basket and turned out to be an awesome shot for him! The signage for the course was probably the best we have seen at a frisbee golf course. I have decided I am definately going to go play frisbee golf this next trip in Europe!! Germany has a lot of courses, would be fun.

Driving over Deception Bridge

Beach, see Deception Bridge in the background?

Checkin out the view

This trip on Whidbey Island consisted of driving north onto the island over Deception Pass and driving the whole length south on the island ending with the ferry ride back over to Mukilteo and Everett. Turned out to be a much longer day than we expected! We got to the ferry and bought our ticket and thought the guy told us we had 45 min until the next ferry left, so we went to get something to eat. Turned out it left 15 min earlier than expected and we missed it by 10 min! The next one wasn't leaving for another 45 min. So this time we didnt leave and just sat in the car and entertained ourselves. Both Luke's and my phones were dead so we had to revert back to the old days of how we used to entertain ourselves. My stomach ended up hurting from laughing so much! It was a good time!

The next day we had to go pick up Tiffany at the airport in Seattle so we took advantage of going down that direction and went to do this hike to a viewpoint of Snoqualamie Falls. Turned out to be a very easy "hike" with a not so good view of the falls. It was a good time, because like most times with Luke, we still have fun. But we wanted to see the falls better. So we drove to get something to eat (Italian, made me miss Jeremy and Italy and look forward to going back) and then stopped by a better viewpoint of the falls! This time, the view was awesome. The inner photographer came out in me too and I went to some lengths to get some good shots of Luke and Jackie with the falls in the background.

Awesome view!

Luke, Jackie, and Benjamin (can't see him as well yet!)

That weekend we went back down to Seattle to spend the last night with Jackie's aunt. We walked around Pike's Place Market, did a cruise in the bay, and attempted to get Luke's kite in the air with little success :( The geocaching.com headquarters are in Seattle and they have the jackpot geocache in their headquarters. It contains a lot of trackables so we were really excited to go visit this place! The cache is a big treasure chest. I got a trackable that wants to return to Hannover, Germany! So I am going to at last bring it to Italy!

Luke and Jackie digging through the jackpot cache!

It was an awesome time and I always look forward to the next time I get to be with them. Jackie is due in March, maybe I will have to take my next contract close to them so I can be close when the baby arrives!!

Seattle skyline

After a chunk of working it was time for the parents to visit! I was really looking forward to this. It has been hard lately because my parents have been under a lot of stress with problems going on with my brother Nick. Come to mention it, any prayers sent in the way of Nick and my parents would be greatly appreciated. He is not doing very good, and it has been really hard not being able to be there for my mom to show her how much I love her and to comfort her. She is such an amazing mother and unfortunately she has been doubting how great of a mother she is lately. And it was just her birthday and she didn't have the greatest birthday. So it felt wonderful to be able to hug her and tell her how much I love her!

The day the arrived, I had worked the night before and planned to get up at noon to get ready and pick them up. Their flight was to get in at 3:30. Something happened with my phone alarm and I ended up not waking up until 3!! I saw the time, shot straight up in bed, got ready in five minutes and left to pick them up. My luck, there was a huge accident and I ended up being about an hour and a half late picking them up. I felt so bad! Luckily we were able to make it to Pike's Place Market before everything was closed and managed to still buy plenty of fruits and veggies! Then we went to eat at a nice seafood place in Seattle.

The next day we headed out to Lake Chelan! I think my mom and I decided that a trip to there should be an annual thing, at least semiannual. We love it out there. Probably just because it means something significant to us, like the fact we were named after that lake! Plus, there are some great things to do around there! Hiking, biking, water activities, wine tasting! This time my dad got to come too. Been a while since he has been there. Tiffany joined us for the weekend as well. The first day my dad and I played a little tennis, then we went to do some blueberry picking. We ended up getting blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries! Hard to find the blueberries at first, but then we found the jackpot and my dad actually ended up picking the most! Then we ate there and it was the best lunch! I got chicken fajitas with a side salad that was the best salad I have ever had! The rest of the day we soaked up the sun next to beautiful lake Chelan! Oh, and my mom decided to go down a slide and nearly killed herself! She went faster than expected and did a somersault at the bottom, it was hilarious! Reminded me of the time all five of us were in a park close to our cabin in CO and we all just went and goofed off in the park, having a great time!

Lake Chelan. The other name for Chelan is "Tsillan" meaning deep water. Lake Chelan is the third deepest lake in the nation. 9th deepest in the world or close to that.

Enjoying the Farmer's Market

Picking blueberries!

Mom's about to meet her doom on the slide!

The next day dad and I went mountain biking near the ski resort, very small ski resort. Pretty sure they didn't even have a chairlift! It was some pretty cool trails. Very good for the beginner mountain biker but not too easy. They were fun, not too challenging, but we still had a good time. A few good views of Lake Chelan.

Yurt on the trail. These are cross country trails in the winter so you can stop in here and warm up!

The rest of the day we did some wine tasting, found some geocaching, and walked around Chelan! Good day! Unfortunately, we had to head back to Everett the next day. Mom booked our place at Lake Chelan pretty late notice so we didn't get to stay too many nights there. But that's ok, it was a great trip and a great time with the family! I also got the opportunity to beat my dad in racquetball! Unfortunately only one game, he beat me in two games :( It's a good challenge to play him though, mainly because he is an obstacle that I have to maneuver around!! I love you mom and dad! You are amazing parents and I love you so much!

Found a geocache!

Sunset over the lake!

Enjoying the view!