Our Life in the PNW :) A catch-all of the past few months!

We have been so busy adjusting to our new life out here that I haven't taken any time to blog about it. Today is the last day of the first week of the second half of the year, so I figured it was time that I updated it before even more of 2014 gets away from me. Why do I know that it's the last day of the first week of the second half of the year? Because Mitch and I made one of our new year's resolutions to run 500 miles this year and this is that day according to my tracking. I can't even believe how fast time has flown by!

March was really just us settling into our new house, doing some minor updates like paint and light fixtures, and exploring our new home town.

Highlights from March--

We found St. Patty's Day green beer at a local bar :)

I got us ready for some WA races!

Exploring our new "small town"!

 

Just for fun and to see the Tacoma Dome :)

Supporting our hometown during March Madness :)

We got a milk man :)

We discovered Legendary Donuts! OMG!

Yep, that's bacon on Mitch's donut.

April mainly consisted of us still setting up the house, more exploring of the area, and me job hunting. I decided that I wanted to go back to work part-time instead of full-time for a few important reasons. The most important of those reasons being that this is probably the least stressed I have been in my cognitive recollection of my time on this earth and I am going to use it to my advantage to figure out what I really want to do.  This is really the first time I have had the opportunity to do something for me and not make my schedule fit around someone else's, well at least not completely around someone else's.  Losing both of my parents is still more pain than I can functionally manage, but at least I know they are at peace now and I can move on with part of my life. Mitch used to get really stressed during pilot training in Mississippi when he would have really early show times for his flights and I refused to turn off my phone volume. I had been waiting for "the call" for years, and barely slept deep enough to be really rested for fear that I would miss any notification about something happening to my parents. If I did get deep enough into sleep to dream it would be about losing my parents or an awful Outback serving dream...if you've ever been a server, you know that dream! Recently I have actually been able to sleep through the night and feel rested, which is huge for me. I haven't had as many stress dreams and I feel like I am finally starting to come out of my depression. Because Mitch and I have the blessed ability for me to only work part-time, I decided to take advantage of that and set aside some time for me to do things that make me happy again and figure out what I really do want to do with my life.  I luckily found an awesome job at a local staffing agency and work in the office assisting with human resources. The job is flexible and I love the women I work with.  It feels like I am where I am meant to be for now.

Highlights from April--

Mitch and I went to our first Tacoma Rainiers baseball game! The stadium is about a mile from our house so we walked and had a great time :) It was a little chilly here in the NW at that time of year!

Mitch went to water survival training in Pensacola, FL for a week in early April.  The pups and I were definitely jealous of his trip to the Gulf! He spent some time relaxing on the beach after training, but at least it did start to warm up here and I got to take the pups on one of their first sunny WA runs. :)

 The spring abbreviated version of the WA State Fair was in April and they did a military free admission day!

Mitch making friends with a pig :)

Baby goat in a Seahawks jersey :)

On the 18th, the base hosted Lt Col Saylor, one of the four remaining Doolittle Raiders, to speak. Luckily I was able to attend with Mitch and hear him talk about his incredible experiences.

One of the good parts of it raining a lot is that we get a ton of beautiful rainbows! One day we were going out for a run and it cleared up not long after we started and we got to see the most beautiful double rainbow. :) My phone camera lens was a bit misty from the rain, but you can kind of see the second one if you look hard!

We spent our Easter Sunday with friends hiking and then hosted a dinner back at our place. Our hike was beautiful! I convinced Mitch to color some eggs with me and convinced the pups to help me with a special present for their auntie. :)

Such a trooper :)

 

Sleepy Easter boys :)

We had a great time celebrating my 25th birthday. We went to one of our favorite running spots and tried out a great new restaurant! :)

And finally, the dogs went on their first salt water swim! My friend Brittany and I took our dogs to Burfoot Park in Olympia and they had a great time. :)

Peanut, Eli, and Dex :)

Beautiful view of the Olympics!

May was a really busy month for us because Mitch went on two missions and started a third, I was working, and our kitchen renovation started! Fortunately Mitch was out of the country for most of the renovation...it made meals and reduced living areas much easier to manage. A separate post about the renovation will come later!

Highlights from May--

We discovered a local running group called Tacoma Runners. They run every Thursday starting from a random local bar and running about 3 miles, then everyone joins back at the bar for some beer and food after. If you have heard me mention beer runs recently, this is the kind of 'beer run' I am referring to! :) They also do a timed 5k every Saturday, but we haven't participated in any of those yet. I got some photos from the Tacoma Runners Facebook page to show what it is like! Except this beer and pizza picture...that was ours and it was amazing!

You can see us to the left, Mitch in gray!

 

Mitch went on his first mission in early May, just to California and DC and back! He had a good flight and even got to meet up with our friend Chris while in southern California. :)

The first day of our renovation I took the pups to explore the lake and park across the street from our neighborhood. It has since become a favorite swimming hole for them and I'm grateful we can walk and I don't have to put muddy pups in the car after! We also like that there are trails all around the lake for some trail running. :)

Some renovation pictures...my view during the renovation vs Mitch's view. ;)

 

I think Mitch got the better end of the deal ;)

Mitch did get home for a few days toward the end of May, but then got sent to Germany for a 4 week trip. We got to take a quick day trip to Portland to meet up with my cousin Stacy before he left, which was so much fun! We weren't able to make it to Stacy and Jason's June wedding, so it was awesome we could meet up with her before.

He got to explore some of Germany in his free time and visit with some of our friends over there. I was definitely jealous, but happy that his hard work is actually paying off for him!

While he was gone I went to my first Mariners game with our friends Brittany and Anthony. It was really fun and I learned about garlic fries haha

Beautiful view! You can even see the Space Needle to the right :)

Phew! That finally brings me to June. Not too eventful since Mitch was gone for the majority of it. But the renovation did wrap up at the end of June which was exciting. :)

Highlights from June--

There is an awesome path next to the water called the Ruston Waterwalk. If the weather is clear you can see Mt Rainier over the water and it's breathtaking. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but it is super beautiful to see in person.  The pups love the waterwalk and love playing in the water after. They also love that we usually get Gibson's Frozen Yougurt after, our favorite local froyo place. :)

When Mitch got back in town we went to another beach area that's down the road from us that we hadn't explored yet called Titlow Beach. There are some cute old waterfront restaurants, great running paths, tons of trails, and plenty of beach access. It's great!

It's hard to tell, but this is up the hill looking back out on the beach from the trail we were on.

 

We ended June by doing the MoveMMORE 5k in Seattle. MoveMMORE is a charity that benefits research for Multiple Myeloma, the cancer my mom had. We started doing MoveMMORE events in Columbus, OH and now it's out here! A couple started it for their daughter who lives in Seattle and she just recently started getting involved with it out here. This was only the seecond 5k they have done in Seattle! I can't believe how awesome it is that I can still participate with a charity that is so dear to me!

It was held at Magnuson Park on Lake Washington, so pretty.

Wrote a dedication to my mom in green, above the 'b' :)

Well that about sums up our last few months! If you made it this far, you probably will never read another blog post of mine again because of how ridiculously long they are when I wait forever in between posts. :) But stay tuned for our kitchen renovation pictures! I promise, they're worth it!