Olympia

We stayed at the Swantown Inn B&B overnight. It is a lovely old house. The owners are friendly and interesting people. Our room was cozy and welcoming.

The B&B is within walking distance of the Fish Tale Brew Pub where we had a delicious dinner. I had the Cod tacos and Dave had the Salmon Fish and Chips. We also shared a smoked salmon platter that came with dill cream cheese. It is surprisingly great food for a pub! Great beer too and we tried the pear cider. We walked to the pub from the B&B so we got a bit of a sense of what the city was like.

In the morning we went to the farmer's market where we found a bakery that makes spelt bread and cookies. We also tried the coffee of a local roasting company. We spent some time walking around the park by the capitol building before getting back in the car to head north.

Two Nathans are Engaged!

We have Nathans on both sides of the family. My brother and David's cousin. Both are engaged.

Nathan B will be marrying (another) Sarah in December, (and she will have my maiden-name initials! LOL) They will have a legal ceremony in Lake Havasu and a formal wedding at a later date.



Nathan S will be marrying Colleen in October. We will be attending their wedding in Grant's Pass.



So much joy! So many blessings!

Informal Family Reunion

Raynors, Sleadds, Steves and Jones'

Our Anniversary

2 wonderful years! We bought a house, moved twice, David has changed jobs once and started school. We are enjoying our time at home more than ever, especially with compatible work schedules. Life is good!

Wildlife Safari with Nana

David's grandmother is visiting from Anchorage and she loves elephants, something her and I have in common. We took her to Wildlife Safari today. They had an elephant demonstration around noon and we made sure she got to see it. It was a beautiful day to be outside in the sunshine.


Here are George, Tikki and Alice demonstrating some balance behaviors, and playing harmonica and drums... George (the big one on the right) was the one that brought me my ring when Dave proposed to me at Wildlife Safari.


Here is Alice the elephant painting a picture...She painted one for us on the day we got engaged at Wildlife Safari.

Elena's Birthday

For my mom's birthday we took her to a local Italian restaurant that has live music on Thursday nights. The band played a variety of blues. The food was great, we ordered pizza and gelato. I didn't have the pizza, but my eggplant rolottini were delicious. Nathan and Sarah came with us. It was a lovely evening.


Sara and David


Mom


Nathan & Sarah

David's Birthday Rock Fest 2008

OK, so it's no big secret that we are quite geeky and that we have wonderfully geeky friends. For David's birthday I threw a Rock Band Party complete with Dueling Guitar Contest, trophy, prizes, and of course, costumes. Everyone got into character and we had a blast. Dave and Holly O. brought a projector and we had an 8 foot screen on our wall and Dave R. hooked up huge speakers.

For those that don't know about Rock Band, it is a video game for four players, two guitars, a drum set and a microphone. Points are accumulated for accuracy. The four-player mode is a cooperative effort. There is a tug-of war mode that allows two guitarists to compete. We usually play on the 4-player mode, switching off instruments and microphone. It is a great social game. 

Happy Birthday David!

Boy Band

Girl Band

Mosh Pit

First Place: Holly "Hotfingers" O.

Second Place: Nathan "Tap Out" B.

Third Place: David "Ramb 'a Lam" R.

Best Costumes: David O. and Holly O.