The Emerald City

Seattle was a blast! We were blessed with beautiful weather and safe travels. Spending the weekend shopping, eating and relaxing with Jenni was so amazing. We stayed with our friend Andy on Thursday night before checking into our hotel on Friday. He was nice enough to let us borrow his car the entire weekend! And he took us out for to the best sushi dinner. Thanks Andy!! We also were able to see Anna, an old friend of mine who now lives in Seattle. I am so bummed I forgot to get a picture with her, but we had a nice visit at a cute little Italian bistro where they made the most delicious crepes.

The highlight of our trip was Pike's market. It was so cool. It is like the farmers market but 10 times bigger, and a permanent structure throughout the year. They had everything from fresh seafood, fruits, veggies, and flowers to souveniers and gifts. I stopped at a lavendar stand to bring some fresh lavendar home for my Mom. Jenni bought some organic body products. We stayed at the Maxwell Hotel in downtown Seattle. The space needle was directly outside our window and was so pretty lit up at night (although the needle is deceiving small compared to pictures I've seen) It was still cool. If you visit Seattle make sure to stop at Beecher's cheese. Beecher's is a cute little shop where they make handmade cheese. It is so delicious. We stopped a few times there to buy cheese and then ran over to the market to get some fresh bread and grapes for a picnic lunch/snack. Shopping in Belltown is also fun and they have trendy unique little stores where you can find one of a kind items. The Endless Knot was my favorite, and I brought home a few cute summer essentials. Here are a few pictures to share.

Boston

We have been on so many incredible travels this year that it's hard to pick our favorites,
but this has to be at the top of the list. Boston is so amazing, as we knew it would be!!
It was also really very fun to share our memories with Bunny, Papa, Mama & Al.

You can't get much better than that.

The first day we walked the Freedom Trail-
a 2.5 mile red painted trail leading to 16 nationally significant historic sites.
That was really fun. We saw all of the sites of significance in the founding our country.
The first schoolhouse in the nation, the place where the Constitution was read for the first time to the public, the boston tea party site, the graveyard where prominent U.S. leaders are buried, Paul Revere's home, the Church that Paul Revere road to warn the people how the British were approaching (1 if by land, 2 if by sea), etc. It is an incredible city + so cool to experience the history that made our country what it is today. We are big history nerds so we really enjoyed that--and we got quite a workout walking all over the city of Boston! The next day we toured Fenway Park. This was probably a big highlight for both of us-another incredible landmark in the history of baseball & a really cool experience. We got to go inside the press box, the green monster & all over the ballpark. I know Jay loved this part too. We also visited Harvard...what a beautiful campus! we lucked out with really nice warm weather and it was the perfect time to be in Boston during the fall. Jay had his first experience on a subway and was really impressed.

It's so fun to experience things for the first time together and I'm glad neither of us had been there yet. We went to the markets for shopping, ate delicious fresh seafood (yes, even Jay had some!!) and had fun together. We stayed at the Back Bay Hotel....and would highly recommend it. It's a 5 star hotel right in the heart of Downtown. It was formerly the police station/headquarters that was rennovated into a hotel so the architexture and history was really cool. If you visit Boston-eat at the Atlantic Fish Company. So delicious! On our last day there we watched the filming of Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. I met Tom Cruise.

we are easily entertained.

I found a Twilight store.

steps of the Harvard library.

I'm proud of myself for already getting these up here-usually I put it off and they are either late or I never post them (Osceola, oops!!) I'm trying to get better at posting right away while the memories are fresh in our minds so we can share better with you. =)

Las Vegas

Here are a few pictures from Las Vegas. What a great trip!!

The Venetian awesome light show!
Beatles cover band
Paris. Can't wait to go to the real one next summer!!
hippie nation =)

too bad we couldn't get any pictures of Cirque Du Soleil ....what a great experience!

Summer's here!

We're back & feeling so refreshed! It was just what we needed, and a perfect start to our summer. Portland is an amazing city.

We'll just share a few of our favorite pictures for now. Later we'll write a review on our travel blog for those of you who may want to venture to Portland in the future. we spent hours in powell's bookstore. we ate fantastic food. we drove to the pacific ocean & ate seafood. we went to wineries & drank glass after glass of wine. we danced after midnight. we laughed about everthing & nothing at all. we acted like teenagers. we went to an outdoor baseball game. we sampled oregon beer at several breweries. I yelled at jay for driving like a crazy man in the city (probably every day). we ate voodoo doughnuts, yum! we saw bella's house. we ate dessert before dinner, more than once. we hiked in the pacific rainforest. we ran around in the rain & loved it. we saw the most romantic scenary we've ever experienced. we bought matching nerdy sweatshirts & coffee mugs. we dined at expensive restaurants. we talked each other's ears off. we did absolutely whatever we wanted for 6 days straight. we had a perfect west coast vacation.

Two Harbors

Here are a few pictures from our trip up North last weekend, we had a wonderful visit with Jay's Mom! I was able to take off a few hours early from work on Friday which was nice because we beat all the traffic on the drive up...and I got an early weekend :) The drive up and the shoreline was beautiful! It's so peaceful and relaxing up there...especially when it snowed on Saturday, the scenary was pristine. We stayed at Superior Shores, a 5 star resort right on Lake Superior.

Kansas City Halloween

Jenni, Meghan and I made the 7 hour trip down the Kansas City Missouri to visit Amy for Halloween. We had fun exploring around the city and spending time together. Amy is getting married in May so there is always a lot of wedding planning and talk going on, and it's fun to be a part of that. I also shot a second engagement session for them, because they wanted some photos at a park in Missouri where they currently live. It was a fun weekend!

el dorado royale

here are a few pictures of our honeymoon destination!