Inspired

One of my favorite things about Pinterest (other than the plethora of recipes) are the inspirational quotes and sweet sayings. I have a board full of them but I really wanted them in my house.

Ideally, I would frame them and make a whole wall of quotes, but since that takes a bit more time than I have to give, I decided to just print my favorites out and put them on a message board. Now I get to look at them whenever I want!



I am in love and feeling quite inspired!

Here they are up close in case you can't read them or just want to print them off for yourself. =)

The First Sunshine of Spring

Hold on to your flip flops - Washington almost hit 60 degrees this weekend, yippee!! After a few weeks of clouds, rain, snow flurries, hail, and teeny tiny bits of sunshine (sometimes all in the same day, mind you), I was super pumped about our weekend forecast of S-U-N! We decided to make our traditional Saturday date a date at the zoo!

We were immediately greeted by this friendly fellow...and I just thought he/she was so beautiful and vibrant in color that I took several (probably too many, sorry) pictures.








Gorgeous! A bird that pretty just has to be a girl, right? =)

For alot of the animals, it was snoozing time....

Like this cute white arctic fox...


...and this gigantic Oomingmak...


...and this very large tiger. Let's just leave him sleeping, shall we?


Some were just chilling...

I'm convinced that this guy thinks we are the ones on exhibit here.



And a few were quite playful and active.

This other arctic fox was really excited and running around everywhere.


And in all of our trips to the zoo, this is the FIRST time we have ever seen the reindeer out in plain sight. Guess it's their off season though, right?




Here's another beautiful tiger who is actually the mother of the giant tiger you saw earlier. We were told she's as small as Siberian Tigers come...but to me, 200 lbs is still ALOT of cat!


Have you ever seen a tiger make this face? The zookeeper told us that this is called a "stinky face" and that she's using her tongue to trap a smell.

My "stinky face" doesn't look anything like hers, but I sure was making it when we were hanging out by the elephants, ha!

For the seals, it was supper time! It was so much fun to watch - I think on our next trip to the zoo, we'll make sure we visit these guys again to watch them play and eat.






What a fun date we had! Looking forward to many more sunshine-y adventures with my love!

Dating...

This year is the year of intentional dating. Being just the two of us, we pretty much have freedom to go out whenever we want, planned or spontaneous...and we often do run out spur of the moment to catch a movie or grab a bite to eat. And as fun as it is, sometimes it doesn't exactly feel like a "date night." So we decided that 2012 would be the year of "dating on purpose." In other words, making plans for our date nights.

We even started keeping a date night journal, and love looking back and laughing over a particular night or remembering a new fun outing.

For example, Derek wrote on January 21st:
"Beauty & the Beast in 3D. Alissa cried. Too sweet."

And I wrote on February 10th:
"Delicious Thai food in a non-shady restaurant in Tacoma - favorite ever! Then a couple's massage down the street. Perfect day!"

It has been wonderful! We've even ventured out to Seattle for a couple of said dates...




We both love this girl! She is so funny - great night!

Then, just this past Monday we had tickets to see this show...


On our way, we stopped and had a delicious dinner at a new restaurant.


It was a fabulous night!


And then there are date nights that are just quiet nights at home...

...like heart-shaped pizza and flowers on Valentine's Day, (by candlelight of course), love it! My hubby is so sweet!


Looking forward to many more nights of intentionally dating this man! =)

Snowmageddon 2012 - What I forgot to show you...oops!

I was looking through my list of blog posts today when I noticed this little guy never got published and was just sitting as a "draft." I felt terrible that you never got to see the rest of our Snowmageddon back in January. I certainly don't want you to miss out, so here it is!

Our beautiful backyard


View from our balcony


Gorgeous frosted evergreens


Derek's truck won't be going anywhere today...


There are tennis courts under there somewhere, I promise.








Poor lady. Derek and I had just started our snow walk when we saw her. My husband has the BEST heart for serving people!


This is the normally busy road in front of our apartment.


Love this tree!


The walk home...


Woohoo for snow days!!


Then all the fun quickly vanished when all of the snow turned to ice overnight...



...beautiful to look at, not so pretty on the roads and not so wonderful when it causes power outages for days. Yikes! Thankfully, we only lost power for a few hours. Whew...

Finally, it all melted away enough and we were able to venture out for the one thing worth venturing out for...

GROCERIES!!

So now you know that we survived Snowmageddon/Icemageddon 2012 in Washington. We've had some CRAZY weather so far...rain, sunshine, snow, & hail all in the same day for the last couple of weeks. Hurry up spring, we're ready for you!