cutest graham

I love this picture of graham. Although we won't find out the sex of the baby for a few more months I have a feeling it's going to be a boy. If so...hopefully it will be a little cutie like graham!

nothing like a sister

I'm so excited to head home to Oregon on Monday for Christmas! Found these cute pictures of my sister and I from Christmas's past. What great memories we have. Can't wait to make it out 27th Christmas together!

a lazy day

Yesterday and today I've been feeling under the weather so I decided to stay home from work today. I set myself up with tons of fluids, the tv remote, and my computer. It's amazing how hard it is for me to "do nothing" all day (hence all the updated posts). Geez. Anyway I was reminiscing about when I was sick as a kid and my mom would set us up on the couch with a tv tray and tons of goodies including a bell ...in case we needed her! What an amazing mom! We are headed home for Christmas in 1 week! I'm so excited to see my family!

Puzzle mania

I recently had the urge to do a puzzle...so thanks to a sale at Target picked up this holiday puzzle. Stubbs sat diligently by my side, ...on my lap, on the puzzle, and played with the pieces... throughout the whole thing!

muchie is 12 weeks!

We are so excited that during our 12-week ultrasound we got to see our little munchie and all looks well so far. We heard the heartbeat and also got to see a hand and fingers! It's amazing how much they move around. The nurse pointed out both arms and legs- so amazing. I love my sister's response to this picture--"It's looking more baby like and less alien!" Grow baby grow!

Snow Day

Well we saw our first snow in DC last week. It wasn't much, but it was beautiful. Nothing compared to the blizzard we were in last year in Colorado- but still fun. I had to take a pic of our townhouse as we left for work. Graham and I leave at the same time in the morning and carpool to my office in Arlington. My office is right across the street from a metro stop, so Graham hops on there and rides a few stops into the district to the National Geographic Building. So convenient! I love having a 15 minute commute. The snow reminded me of the few snow days we had growing up when my sis and I would get up for school, find out it was canceled, and head out to play in the freshly fallen snow. It was always the best when you were making the first footprints in the snow!

Thanksgiving 2007

We had a great time visiting the Huntsman clan in N. Carolina over the holiday! They always have the best food and such a warm and comfy house to stay! My sister-in-law made all the grown up food (all delicious dishes of course!) and I worked hard on the cranberry sauce and my grandma M.'s famous fruit salad with colored marshmallows. My mom always made this fruit salad for Thanksgiving and when we went to college she would make a double batch for the holidays so my sis and I had plenty to eat when we were home visiting!! We'd literally have a bowl for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Who doesn't love pudding, cool whip, fruit, and colored marshmallows? My niece Lily was right by my side to lend a hand and to serve as a taste tester. After every ingredient she would pick up the bag of colored marshmallows and say..."now?" I love kids!! We can't wait until next year to do it all over again.

A walk in the park

This weekend Graham took me up to a spot he had found while out looking for bike riding places. It was called Scott's Run, and was a nature reserve with a hiking area up to a waterfall. It was mainly flat, although at the end there were rocks to navigate over the spring. Leave it to me to slip and end up with a wet foot, shoe, and sock. Ugh. I'm such a clutz. All clumsiness aside it was the perfect weather, cool and crisp. The leaves were just starting to change. I'm already planning a trip back this weekend!

Happy Birthday Graham!

Happy 27th Birthday Graham! We celebrated graham's birthday- after full days of work- at the Melting Pot in Arlington.
Not quite as exciting as Paris (we are jealous Nic and Travis!) but, nonetheless one of our favorite restaurants. We had a great time and came home to ice cream cake with smiles and already full bellies.














With at new job at National Geographic and living in DC- what an exciting start to another year for graham, and both of us. Cheers to year 27!

just for laughs

I'm a blogger out of control! Thought these pics of graham and I in our Halloween costumes from last year would put a smile on your face.

my favorite pics

After attending graham's cousin's wedding a few weekends ago (sorry our camera batteries died so I don't have pics)- I was reminiscing about our wedding and how great it was to see everyone and celebrate together. I thought I'd publish some of my favorite pics from the day taken by our amazing friend/photographer Andrew.

elvis

I guess before you have kids you blog about your animals! I love this pic of elvis...just soaking up the great outdoors. Our neighbors call him the friendly neighborhood cat. Just the social butterfly!

the tourist who fell

A few weekends ago graham's friend Robbie was visiting from Colorado. We decided to go do some sightseeing despite the 90 degree plus weather. We had a great time and it was nice to have an excuse to go see some of the memorials that we hadn't seen up close and personal. On our way down from the Lincoln memorial (think huge marble steps) you could see a tourist suddenly slip and fall down around 3-4 stairs. Graham said he could hear it and it sounded painful. Oh...that tourist was me! How embarrassing and painful. I had to sit on a bench for a few moments to compose myself after 2 huge bumps emerged on my arms. ouch! If anyone wants to come visit, I'll be siting that one out in the future.

our cockroach killer

Since living on the east coast we've been introduced to sharing a few moments in our home with bugs...uck...and the worst--a few cockroaches! Luckily our cat stubbs has a keen eye and ear for them and bats them around until they are dead-then feasting on selective parts. I've seen 2 that he's demolished so far. Let's hope he keeps up the good work! Doesn't look like much of a killer does he?

the basil plant

The first weekend after moving to DC we went to the local farmer's market together and I was really excited to buy a small basil plant- in hopes of having fresh herbs for cooking. When we arrived home I planted it in one of the planter boxes that was hanging out uninhabited in our backyard. A day later it wasn't looking good and the following day I noticed the planter box had fallen over and was laying face down on the ground. Yelling to graham that I had no luck at growing plants and cursing my lack of green thumbness...he trotted over saying that he would nurse it back to health and bragging that his mom and dad met at a nursery so he had it in his blood. Well I scoffed then....but he was right!! Check out the basil!

Slacker blogger

Wow... I've been neglecting our blog spot lately. After a scolding from my sister-in-law, I'm back! Found these questions on a comment from Nicki (the expert, most creative and consistent blogger) and thought I'd answer them... finally.

1-If you had an extra 3 hours a day what would you spend it on?
I would spend the first extra hour sleeping in and snuggling with graham! Second, I would spend an hour reading books on play therapy and drinking a cup of tea and shortbread. Third, I would add an extra hour at the end of the night to hang out and do fun things... go out to dinner, eat ice cream, watch an extra hour of bad reality tv, talk on the phone to my family, yoga, ...relax!

2-What's the one thing that's changed you the most with getting hitched (don't say nothing's changed, that's a load)?
Hmmm.....good question! I would say I think about what kind of family I want to have more and I'm also more relaxed and trusting. Also I worry more about my hubby (big shocker).

3-If you were given $10,000 and had to spend it on travel, where would you go?
I'd love to backpack around Europe with graham. I wouldn't need a travel guidebook because I'm sure he would be able to tell me about everything including dates and important people, and how the buildings were made...etc. I'd also love to go to Hawaii, Alaska, and Latin America.

4-What's your favorite restaurant? What's your favorite meal?
My favorite restaurant is Bepe and Gianni's in Eugene, Oregon. It is an Italian restaurant. Yum-O as Rachel Ray would say! I love the garlic/cheese/bread appetizer there and any pasta dish with cheesecake and a coffee for dessert. My mouth is watering.

5-What will your life be like in 10 years?
I hope to have kids and be a therapist in private practice working with kids, couples, and families-living in Portland closer to my parents and sister. I hope that graham and I will be as happy as we are now and still have fun and laugh together. I would love to be more confident, have great friends in a book club, and be able to live in the moment. I would also love to work with therapy students doing clinical supervision.

Okay ...there it is!

Summer bike riding

We went on a bike ride tonight to a park by the airport very close to our place. It was so nice outside and there is a great bike path through the trees from our house for miles. You can see so many monuments from the park and the plans land right over your head! It was amazing! Aside from swallowing a few bugs on the way home it was a blast.

DC.....woot woot

So this is a post from Graham. You'll find that my posts are far superior to Michelle's posts. I don't use any big words, complicated pictures, graphs or pie charts like Shell. Just a bunch of mispelled wurds, improper puntuati'on and googled pictures. (I was going to put in a google image of "Graham and Michelle" but Michelle thought it would be inappropriate if I put up the random 50 year old geezers named "Graham and Michelle" I found. She thought it would taint the blog) Anyway, back to the best blog ever. So we made it to DC and moved into our house. I've included some pics.



We're just renting right now but hopefully we'll buy in a year.

Can you believe the front yard to back yard ratio????sheeezzz. So, I'll cut this short cause I gotta go to bed. DC is great. Our new jobs are working out and we just got a little joe BBQ grill last night and the chilli dogs were cooking tonight. Alright, that was officially the worst blog post evarrrr. Later.

Our 1st Anniversary Dinner

Our first wedding anniversary is May 20th, but because graham was leaving to drive out to DC on the 12th we went out early to celebrate. My wonderful sister made us reservations and she and Chris bought us a gift certificate to one of our favorite restaurants...the Melting Pot. Thanks Mel and Chris! Here are a few pictures from our wonderful night.

Fort Collins Mini Marathon

Here are some photos from the day of the mini marathon in fort collins. It went great and I finished with a time of 2:39.


Before the race. I had to get up at 4:30am to board the buses that took the runners to the starting point up the Poudre canyon. I had a hard time sleeping, but I think the excitement kept me from feeling tired. We got up to the start and had about 1 hour to wait. It was pretty cold, but not raining....so I was happy. I was wearing my Oregon fleece and met a woman who had flown in from Corvallis for the race.







Here I am around mile 13. I knew graham was going to be somewhere close to the end so I was excited to see him and it gave me a boost to the end. At certain points in the race someone had written out jokes and taped them on cones like the orange ones in the picture...which was kinda fun. It was always nice to come to an aid station (about every 2 miles or so) because there would be people cheering for us and water/sports drink. There's nothing like people cheering for you to give you a boost for the next few miles!







Here I am just after crossing the finish. As we crossed the finish line an announcer would say each person's name and where they were from...it was kinda cool to hear your name over the speakers. Volunteers cut off the shoe clip that was keeping our times right as we crossed the line then there was cookies, fruit, and water set out for all the runners. It was a great feeling to finish and I felt proud and strong. Thanks for everyone who was so encouraging throughout my training and sending me good wishes this day...it helped!

13 miles

Today was the perfect day for a run. Mid 60s and no wind. yeah! I ran up to Spradley lake and around the town a bit- a route graham and I had checked out on our bikes Saturday night- a total of 13 miles! I felt great at the start of the run and got out my green apple flavored energy gel around mile 7 to refuel. I've tried a few other flavors of these gels (strawberry banana and raspberry) and almost gagged =0 so I was pleasantly surprised that green apple was the best yet! Around mile 11 I was considering calling graham on my cell phone for a bit of encouragement (or maybe to come pick me up in the car =o) but decided I had made it that far and what was 2 more miles anyway? I slowed it down a bit and trucked on. When I saw the finish line to my run I was excited, proud, and very tired! 2 hours and 16 minutes - not super fast but at least I finished! 3 weeks to go until the race and I'm feeling excited. From here on I'll taper down on miles for the big day and 15 miles. They say you should be able to do the last few miles on adrenaline. Let's hope so! Thanks for reading about my running adventures!

mexico

We had a fabulous time on our vacation to the Riviera Maya, Mexico. Minus one spill on the coral while snorkeling for shell, one annoying heat rash for graham, and a 2 hour ordeal digging out our rented jeep in the sand with a Mexican family
(oops they forgot to tell us they took the 4 wheel drive out), it was perfect. We enjoyed good food and drinks, a luxurious hotel room, and my favorite- great walks on the beach.

1 fuel belt and 10 miles later...

This morning I set out on my longest adventure yet. Graham and I headed to the Runners Roost to try to locate a fuel belt for me to take on the run. Luckily my dad has a good friend at work who runs marathons and gave me a tip for the type to get....and lucky again the store had one in stock and in my size. I also picked up a gel pack and was on my way. It was fairly quiet out on the run today, maybe passed by 5 people the whole 1 hour 45 minutes I was out. It was very peaceful and overall nice weather but a bit windy. My new strategy to drink a little something (either water or sports drink) each mile and choke down the gel around mile 7 worked great and I made it the whole 10 miles and felt good! Yeah! I saw some great birds on the way- all black with white wings...very cool. Thought my mom would like them since she is the black and white cat lover. =) 5 weeks until the mini-marathon in fort collins. I'm getting pretty excited. Today out on the run I even thought about someday training for a full marathon..... but we'll see!

spring snow

This morning we woke up to march snow that fell overnight and throughout the day today. I snapped a few pictures on my way to work. Our trip to Mexico (in 1 week and counting) couldn't come at a better time!

moab, utah

Here are a few more pics from our camping trip last weekend to Moab, Utah. It was about 80 degrees this day and was beautiful! We had a great campsite and had smores on the fire after dark! my idea of course! yumm!!