Bike Trips

We love to bike. If you talk to my husband you will know that. He bikes to work, he likes to bike to the grocery store, bars - even ones that are only a few blocks away. He loves biking more than I do. We both do like bike adventures. Over the summer we had quite a few. I don't have pictures for all of them unfortunately.

At the start of the summer Stephen made a purchase he was SO excited about. Baskets to attach to our bikes that will hold the dogs! Hahaha. They are HILARIOUS. We first took them for a test drive in the Goodyear parking lot next to our building.

Yuri was not very into it, but was a good sport. In the below picture I think he's looking at Stephen like "really dad? you thought I would like this?" Haha

 

Chewie LOVED it. He was living it up in that basket. The wind in his hair, the possibility of being taken everywhere with us. He was very happy about Stephen's purchase.

We took them another day on a longer bike ride, about 5 miles total. We biked to Norm's Eatery and Alehouse in Fremont, a dog bar. On the bike there we made it one block before one of the dog's tried to get out of the basket, surprisingly it was Chewie too! I should also note for you all that the dogs aren't just sitting willingly in these baskets. They are securely fastened in. All they can get out is about 1/3 of their little bodies. We got Chewie situated again and we on our way. We got a lot of looks, honks and laughs. I was laughing right along with everyone. We were quite the site I am sure. Yuri spent most of the trip crying and looking around. Him and I had to bike in the back so he could see Steve, Chewie and me whenever he wanted to. When I was in the front with him he cried the most and would stretch his neck out trying to see around me to his dad and brother. They might not have been as pumped about the bike baskets as we were, but they sure loved getting to go to the bar with us!

 

Another Saturday we biked downtown and took the water taxi over to West Seattle. We left the dogs at home for this trip.

Here I am waiting with my bike to get on the water taxi on the Seattle side of the water.

 

Stephen posing for me in front of our great city. :) West Seattle has a nice board walk area that leads to a beach. On a nice day in West Seattle you might think you are in Southern California, not Washington.

When we were biking along the boardwalk we saw a crowd of people looking out at something on the water. It was a bald eagle chilling on the beach! We were really close to it. It was a pretty amazing site to see.

 

Us taking a stroll on the beach after having a seafood lunch at a local spot.

There was a lot of happenings that day at the beach, there was some sort of SeaFair Pirate event happening and a pole volt championship occurring.

 

Not pictured is that we got new bikes! I was in the market for a road bike and when I was shopping around Steve decided he wanted one too. He found a great bike before I did and made a purchase that has changed his life. He bikes more than ever. We have taken these new bikes on many test runs and then one bike bike trip, totaling 45 miles round trip!

 

We biked from our condo building to Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville, WA. The trip was primarily along a combination of fitness paths that will take you around Lake Washington.

 

 

We met a few different friends along the way, near where they lived or parked. In total 6 of us road out to the brewery(one of those 6 is 2, so she really just chilled in the back while her dad pulled her). We arrived around 11:30am, just in time to beat the rush. Had lunch, a few beers, checked out what they call a tour and then biked home. Biking home was a lot slower after beer and food, but it still was a great time. It was the first long ride I had on my bike and I was happy to say that I was very glad with my purchase.

 

Steve and I are both hoping to do at least one big bike race next year. There are quite a few to choose from, MS 150, STP (Seattle to Portland, RSVP (Seattle to Vancouver). 



Trying to be Back!

I know I said I was going to be better about posting and then I didn't post anything. I tried to be back in July and was planning on keeping you up to date with all our summer activities. Then summer happened and summer here is just too busy to blog. :) But fall is rolling in and fall is generally short, so winter is just around the corner. Meaning more movie nights, less hiking and adventuring. Hopefully I can get some posts up letting you know about all our great summer happenings....backpack camping, meeting new family members, desert wedding/camping, my sister visiting, some awesome hikes. Stay tuned...

Happy 4th of July!

This fourth of July was a great day to be in Seattle. The sun was shinning and it wasn't more than 70 degrees out.  We knew we had to spend the day outside and we wanted the dogs to be able to also. We loaded up the car, hit up Trader Joe's for some picnic items and went to Greenlake. First we decided to get out on the water. We rented a row boat and took the dogs on it with us. It was a good chance for them to try out their new life vests!

Yuri was right at home on the boat. He is such a maniac I thought a few times he was going to jump out.



Chewie was really unsure about the whole thing at first. He is not a fan of his life vest either. He stood in this same spot for about 5 mins and was very mad when i tried to scoot him over to make room for my legs.

Eventually he warmed up to the idea of being in a boat. I think he decided to like it once he got the wind in his face. He loves when the wind blows all his face hair back.

He even moved from the front to the back of the boat after a while and took to looking out at the water.

Steve rowed the whole time, so we stoped in the middle of the lake to just relax for a while.

After we were done with boating we took the dogs over to an area of the lake that had steps into the water to see if they would swim. No surprises at all. Yuri got his little legs going and swam around. He looked hilarious. And Chewie freaked out and immediately tried to get out of the water. We dried them off then went to another park for our picnic. It was a great day off.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Steve and I (Chewie & Yuri too!)

2011 was a pretty big year for us, who knows what 2012 will have in store. We do know a few things: we are going on a 18 day trip to Ecuador in April, we will be getting back into shape, we will be experiencing more of what this wonderful city has to offer. We hope: to have more visitors so we can show off this place we love so much, to get to spend some short trips to see friends and family members and to not have to go to any funerals this year.

While 2011 had a few sad moments, we lost too many loved ones this year, it had a ton of awesome moments. Steve and I were so busy this summer that I stopped documenting everything we were doing on this blog. So here is a short recap of a few things we did this year...

We made a huge life decision and Steve took a job that moved us to Seattle, WA.

We rented our house in Olathe, KS sold over half our possessions and made a huge move accross the country.

The move allowed us both to take amazing road trips(separately) with our best friends.

I quit my job and then found one quicker than I was expecting.

We visited West Virginia for Rebecca and Randy's wedding. We had a great time getting to spend time with family members we don't see very often. It also was Steve's first time in WV so we did some hiking and saw the bridge and gorge.I got to go and visit with some of my girlfriends in Omaha, NE for Molly & Ben's wedding reception. It was a good time, as it always is with my friends.

Yuri went swimming and loved it. Chewie hated it so there are no pics of him.
We did a good number of hikes. This one is from a 4 mile hike to a mountain lake. Steve got in and said it was so cold he felt his heart stop! It was so beautiful. Too bad I broke one of my toes hiking the 4 miles back to our car.

We took up some water sports. There is so much water here it is hard not to do something on the water each weekend. We did stand up paddle boarding in the sound and once in a lake.

We kayaked a lot also. This is us kayaking through the arboretum, which is really cool with all the lilly pads and secret passages. You even go under highways to get to it.

We had visitors this summer too. Steve's parents and Jessica came out to visit, as did Ellen and my mom and dad.

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary with dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in town.

We got to experience the Cardinals World Series Game 6 win from downtown St. Louis, with two of our best friends.

Goodbye 2011 we had a great time!