Mark and Tara's Wedding Movie!

We're a little behind these days -- moving has stalled everything. We will post about our new house and our big move within the next few days, but before that we want to share a video we made of Mark and Tara's fabulous wedding in Michigan. Mark grew up with Ryan (their parents are best friends), and he is always the life of the party. We had a blast! As luck would have it, we shared a flight out of Traverse City with Mark and Tara on the morning after the party!

To Mark and Tara: thanks for showing us a good time, and it was great to meet Tara and her family. We hope you enjoyed your tropical honeymoon! Say "hi" to Jake!

Vacation!!!

We just got back from a fabulous trip to the Midwest. We traveled to Wisconsin to visit Matt (my brother), Emily (my sister-in-law), Lucy and Amelia (my nieces), and Ted (the loyal family Shih-tzu). On the first night of our trip, we enjoyed dinner with another Nonemacher brother, Jake, and his wife, Jenna.

While we love seeing the adults, the visit is really all about playing with Lucy and Amelia. Here's a video of the good times we had with some clips from the past thrown in.

We also drove to Michigan to attend an absolutely beautiful wedding. We'll post pictures of that part of our vacation asap. Apologies for the lack of details, but we are in the middle of packing for our big move this week. We close on our house on Wednesday and move on Thursday and Friday. More to come!!

Doing Our Part For Economic Recovery

The last week has been absolutely insane. The week started with Ryan leaving town for the Mac Worldwide Developer's Conference on the same day that a great house came on the market. Let me back up for a second, a couple weeks ago, Ryan and I started looking at houses with our fabulous realtor, Nicole Barclay. Of course when Ryan has to leave town, the right house comes on the market. So I went to look at the place with two of our very close friends, Amy and Byron, who have a fabulous bungalow that they renovated from an old and outdated mess to a beautiful home. In other words, they know about houses and Ryan and I trust their opinion.

Before Ryan left, he saw a couple photos of the house and was distracted by a ladder-like structure in the kitchen. He didn't want to look at the house and made a VERY clear point that he wasn't going to buy a house with "a ladder in it". The rest of the house looked great, so I argued that we should at least look at the place. The kicker? Ryan was leaving for sunny California in a couple hours.

So he left and Amy, Byron, and I went to go look at the house. Of course it was awesome! The ladder was a little weird but not nearly as bad as we thought. The current owner is an artist and a wood worker, so the "ladder" is more like a permanent attic stair structure that leads to a great finished attic/second story. There are too many fabulous things about the house to mention: wonderful details that you don't get in newer construction, great garden space, a perfect mini-patio for a hammock, beautiful old trees, etc. However, the best part is that the house is about a block from the Packer bar that I like to go to during football season. We also think that we can see the Olympic mountains from our second story window, but it was cloudy and we couldn't confirm that fact.

Anyway, Ryan was gone and it was up to me to decide whether this was a house that we wanted to put an offer on. I went for it and we got the house! I've been losing sleep all week because Ryan hadn't seen the place and may end up hating it -- especially the "ladder". Ryan returned from Cali last night, and we just came back from Ryan's first tour of the place. THANK GOD HE LOVES IT!

What do you think?

It's a Craftsman house that was built in 1910.
The owners have really loved the home and taken good care of the place. I'm already scheming about what to do with the garden. Mature climbing roses and wisteria line the side of the house and the potential is tremendous!

10+ foot ceilings with curved detailing and a working (we think) wood burning fireplace had us at "hello".

A huge dining room ready for lots of company and visitors!

The office - notice the Mac computers.
This was a sign that the place was meant for us!

The kitchen could use some customizing for our taste, but the appliances are new and the size and layout are fabulous!

The "ladder" to the second floor

The beautiful backyard with old trees and an ancient lilac.
Soma will love it!

Mudroom perfect for wiping off muddy paws!

Master bedroom with bathroom and wicked high ceilings.

The finished second story, which is perfect for a guest room!
When we build a staircase, we may convert this into a master. Regardless, visitors are welcome and we have lots of room!!

On to the inspection!

Three Years of Fun and Counting

Soma, our Lab/Hound/Shepherd mix, turned 3 today! We bought him a special cake for dogs (made with carob icing instead of chocolate) and put together a video tribute to our loyal canine companion. Enjoy!

The very delicious (looking) doggie birthday cake.
The bakery calls this treat "Muddy Paws".

Special Note: The movie's opening title lists Soma's 3rd birth date as "June 2, 2006", instead of 2008. After almost an hour of changing the date and reloading the movie to YouTube without success, I gave up and decided to post this disclaimer. Ugh...

I Knew Having All These Brothers Would Come In Handy...

Congratulations to my little brother, John, and his wonderful girlfriend, Ellie, on their recently announced engagement! As a kid I thought having so many brothers was such a pain. As an adult, I now know that having brothers means having cool new people, like Ellie, added to our family.

For folks that haven't met my brother or his soon-to-be wife, John coaches basketball and works with kids. Ellie is a very talented designer who specializes in commercial design and also works on residential projects. The met while attending Univ. of Wisconsin at Stout, where John played basketball and studied psychology while Ellie was on the volleyball team and studied interior design. After school, they moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, for a while before relocating to my hometown of Kalispell, Montana.

Lots of love to the happy couple! Cheers!

Mother's Day Weekend

We had three special guests for Mother's Day weekend this year: my mom, Micki; my grandmother, Dorothy; and my aunt and namesake, Darcy. We had a great time showing them around the city including a visit to a brothel-themed pizza house, Madame K's, a Victorian tea house, Queen Mary Tea, and a pottery shop at Pike Place Market. The best part of the weekend was the fact that three generations of women (and Ryan) were sharing experiences and creating new memories. Here's a peak at some fun moments from the weekend:

Ryan sharing his computer knowledge with Grandma Dot

The highlight of the trip was a Mother's Day breakfast at Queen Mary Tea House.

Walking out of Queen Mary Tea House with loads of loot

Sisterly love between Darcy and Micki

The tea house had lots of fun decorations including fairies, tea cups, and a teddy bear that sat at our table.

Thanks to our visitors for riding on the train for 14 hours to visit us in the Emerald City. We had a great time and look forward to your next visit!

A Job With Benefits

One of the perks of working for a river conservation group is that I get to explore rivers in western Washington. On Saturday, I was invited by the Middle Green River Coalition to participate in a cleanup event for the Green River. The Green River is dam controlled and supplies drinking water to the city of Tacoma. The river is close to Seattle (about 45 minutes southeast) and is an amazing place. A gorge with sandstone walls and, when enough water is released from the dam upstream, class II - III rapids make the river a playground for whitewater boaters.

I was lucky enough to tour the gorge with a great group of folks: Lisa Parsons (head of the MGRC), Casey Garland (a.k.a. Dr. Whitewater and owner of Downstream River Runners), and many more. After a long and stressful week, I wasn't sure if floating on the Green during a cool and drizzly day would be enjoyable. The second I got on the river, all my stress lifted and my mind cleared instantly. I had the best time and loved every minute of it!

Casey even let me take the oars and taught me some of the basics to rowing a raft. Years ago, I was a paddle raft guide on some great whitewater rivers in California. Something about the river makes me feel at home and getting in a raft again was a great feeling!

Here are some pictures from my own camera and some from Casey's. Thanks to the folks that allowed me to share in such a fun and important event!

I've never seen so many warning signs next to a river.

Unfortunately, the Green River is the scene of a number of drownings and fatal accidents. Most of the deaths on the river are from people drinking too much, not wearing life jackets, and making poor decisions.

Heading into a rapid and hoping for some action!

Taking a minute to enjoy a beautiful view.
You can probably see the hiking trail that goes behind the waterfall. The Green is fed by a number of waterfalls and springs, one of which was warm from a decades-old underground mine fire.

Another boat full of happy river rats.
I love the dog with a life jacket sitting in the raft.
Someday, I hope Soma will join me on the river!