Take Me Out to the Ballgame

This past weekend we got to celebrate my Mother-in-law, Patti's, birthday.  Her choice?  A Mariner's game!

After coming down on Friday night for house hunting and dinner at Olive Garden, we caught the ferry early Saturday morning.  Our first stop was the Ye Ol' Curiosity Shop:

Little did we realize that it was "Ichiro Appreciation Weekend!"  We each got a free shirt and our tickets were right near the the first baseline foul pole...aka AREA 51!

We got there early enough to watch batting practice and guess what...

 TIM CAUGHT A BALL!

And then it was time for the game to start.  The man of the hour came on to the field...

And all of the Japanese tourists (did I forget to mention we were surrounded by tourists?!) started crying and taking pictures! 

We thought it was pretty funny!

 Later on, some more Japanese tourists joined our section, held up these signs (Kanji for Ichiro) and started chanting "Ic-hi-ro-san!" to get his attention.

 After the game was over (the Mariner's lost), we headed to the big glove for pictures.
Japan styles:

 Family style:

Since it was Patti's birthday, she got to choose our next destination and she wanted to get some fresh flowers at Pike Place Market.  We each got to get our own bouquet and boy, they sure are pretty! :-)

By the time we got back to the ferry, Timmy was pretty tired...

It seems to me that every time I take him on the ferry he falls asleep! 

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Holes

Does this look right to you???

LOOKS GOOD TO ME! 

Why's that, you ask??

Because it leads to this...

NEW WINDOWS!

Aren't they beautiful?!

A top-bottom comparison to our neighbor's...

make our windows look that much better!

The unfortunate side of new windows?  

As soon as the curtains and blinds go up, you can't see them anymore! 

So here's one last shot:

Lovely.

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S'More High-Flying Weekend Fun

The Wells' Guide to Enjoying a Summer Weekend

Step 1: Meet new people while watching a Canadian airshow...in America. 

Step 2: Relax inside...in the A.C.

Step 3: As the sun descends, go outside for a game of Toss 'n Cuss and get an elusive triple ringer!

Step 4: Observe the others from the comforts of a hammock.

Step 5: Set up campfire for some ol' fashioned S'more fun

Step 6: Dominate.

Step 7: Sleep in or play golf really early and then take a nap

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Bavarian Rapids

Tim and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary this weekend!  Woot!

To mark the occasion, we headed over the mountains to the Wenatchee River and their infamous white water rapids.  Tim and I have both become enamored with rafting and it seemed like a perfect way to celebrate the milestone.

Of course, even though we have three cameras, none of them are waterproof, so pictures from our trip down the river are limited...very limited.

 Tim putting sun lotion on in the parking lot...

 Our meeting place...

I did say they were limited...right?!  As for the trip, it was FANTASTIC! Our guide did a great job of entertaining us during the lulls in the river and at guiding us into (and out of) the best rapids.  We were "paired" with a group of six 20-somethings from the Tri-Cities, so we all had a great time goofing around and enjoying ourselves.  I believe everyone got tossed/pushed/fell into the river at one point on the trip.  We even managed to play Duck, Duck, Goose, a first for our river guide.  I was the only one who made it around the raft twice without falling in...go me! 

After our trip, the company provided dinner and then we headed to our hotel in Leavenworth...

The Enzian Inn

Our room was gorgeous and quintessentially Bavarian...

 

The next morning we woke up and enjoyed an Alphorn concert while munching on a continental breakfast (and, yes, we did forget the camera).  

After checking out, we spent the rest of the morning exploring downtown Leavenworth and its many boutiques...

Eventually it was time to head back to the car and back home, but on our way to the hotel parking lot, we realized that this is our room.

We had a turret and didn't even know!

And this is what makes Leavenworth amazing...the view...and this was from our parking lot!

We decided to head back over Highway 2 and managed to stop at this beautiful river-side beach.  

It was a fitting end to our drive when we passed our wedding venue on our way through Snohomish!

Finally, last year I put together a collage of pictures from our 1st year.  I had to do that again, because this year was WAY more insane and full of more adventures than we could have even imagined!

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Seattle by Torchlight

This week has been full of ferry rides for us!  Yesterday took the count up to 4 round-trip adventures to the East side of Puget Sound.

Of course, there had to be pictures...

 Isn't he cute?!

 The Space Needle and a ferry...can't get more Seattle than that!

It was WINDY!

What was our destination last night??

Tim had heard an advertisement on the radio that morning and spontaneously decided he wanted to go.  If you know Tim, you know it takes a lot for him to be spontaneous, I was so happy, there was no way I was going to say no!  (Also, this was our second Torchlight Parade experience, the first one was 5 years ago, when we marched with the Cougar Marching Band.)

As soon as we got off the ferry, we headed to the 4th Avenue parade route to find a place to sit.  We were still a few hours from the start of the parade, but already the streets were full:

 

However, we got a pretty sweet spot! 

Situated between Spring and Madison, just one block from the street that leads to the ferry and across the street from...

 The Seattle Public Library!

After getting some sandwiches and other goodies from the closest grocery store and playing card games, it was time for the parade to FINALLY start!

Of course, you can't start a parade without the Police Motorcycle drill team:

After that, Alaska airlines and their flight attendant drill team (who Tim saw practicing in Sea-Tac a few weeks ago) passed us.  AND THEN, my favorite, the Grand Marshal came by...

APOLO ANTON OHNO

We also saw Jackie and Bender from Kiss 106.1:

The SeaFair inflatable pirate:

Who had some difficulty going block-to-block:

We heard music from the Army band, the Navy band, and the Marine Corp band:

 Of course, it wouldn't be SeaFair with out the SeaFair Clowns...

 There was also a 125-foot Chinese Dragon:

 I love this picture!

And it REALLY wouldn't be SeaFair without the Pirates!  We could hear them from three or four blocks away...mostly because of their loud cannon!

Oh, and the kids went CrAzY for them! 

 The parade ended with a "parade" of the Hydroplanes.  This is the 2008 & 2009 national champion, Miss Madison:

 After that, we needed to head back to the ferry, with the rest of the Kitsap County spectators. It was a full ferry, but Tim did manage to get this sweet picture before we loaded onto the boat:

Overall, it was a great opportunity to enjoy the parade, only this time from a spectator point-of-view!

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