Spirit Week Continues...

Day Two... "Retro Day"



Day Three... "Pajama/Comfy Clothes Day"

Jordan wore sweats, but didn't want to be in the picture.

Day Four... "Green Day"
no, not the band (Kelly's cousin's the lead singer!)
Green as in Environmental, etc. - but that means wear the color green apparently.
Jordan is shocked his sister put her arm around him, and I'm not sure either one of them is excited to be wearing the same t-shirt as the sibling - but what can you do?

Spirit Week Begins

"Black & White" day...

I grabbed a quick shot of Jordan & Marina as they were dashing off to meet the bus. Ryker shared his shredded swim team t-shirts. Jordan got the black one, Marina got the white one. If they participate in any other days this week, I'll try to post photos of those as well. Have a great week!

p.s. Ryker had a GREAT time at Homecoming!

Homecoming Night!

Ryker & Alison

The happy couple.... whew.. getting that boutonniere pinned on was a fun challenge for her!

LOTS and lots of posing for photos - couples.. guys, girls, group, on and on!

By this point, they were begging for the 'photo show' to be over... I think their cheeks were tired (remember your wedding day?)I'd tell you all the names of people, but I don't even know them all - it is mostly Alison's group, who Ryker knows pretty well, but the guys aren't his "gang" of guy friends. In fact - all the girls are sleeping over at one girl's house, and the boys were invited to one guy's house, but Ryker and one other guy are not doing that - the other 4 guys are pretty good pals.
After an "almost snafu" of the limousine service.. the owner of the company ended up delegating himself as the driver, and showed up with a great stretch Suburban Limo.

Got a quick "parent/son" shot...

Marina & I went over to the H.S. after the photo event for Ryker's group, so we might catch glimpses of more homecoming dresses, as many groups start the night with the formal photos at the school, then do dinner and return later for the dance. We ran into her good friend Natalie and family - and the girls ended up getting to have a quick 'sit' inside the HUMMER limo that Natalie's brother's group was taking. It had dual-rear wheels and could hold the huge group of 26 kids - it was quite a site, and really amazing inside!

Next Painting

Still working on this one... I'm focusing on typography for the time being... I love the designs you can get when combining letters and numbers. This painting will be donated to the "W2O" chapter some friends of mine started a couple years ago, which offers women the opportunity to combine socializing with philanthropic opportunity to help various charities. www.womentogetherstronger.com This month all proceeds go to Northwest Hope & Healing, focused on breast cancer.

Check back soon, and I'll have posted the finished piece!

Oktoberfest-David's Birthday

Okay, this is actually David's dad & his wife Miriam. Apparently they recently hosted their own version of Oktoberfest. I wish we'd borrowed those outfits!

Oct. 11th is David's birthday, and we celebrated in Autumn style with an adult Oktoberfest party along with 4 other couples we know from Jordan's soccer world. The 10th was our friend Kevin's b-day, so he & his wife co-hosted the event. The cake was baked and enjoyed on Sunday night - with just our family - great way to end a busy, yet fun weekend!
Thank goodness we have the buffet counter in the dining room, as we couldn't get the party moved from the island in the kitchen Sat. night. 10 of us hovered around that all evening - only a few of us took our plates to the family room to sit in comfort while eating. The Foley's brought the German food - brats, potatoes, schpaetzl, and I did Harvest Chicken Salad, appetizers and Spiced Pumpkin mini cakes with orange glaze - yum!
We all overdosed on the chocolate frosting/butter cake that David requested. Good times!

"Black-Out" Oct. 10th

Ryker & Marina both went to the EHS football game vs. Skyline - it's a major rivalry. Sadly for our school, Skyline is an amazing team this year and whomped the Wolves. How do you like Ryker's black-out fashion design?

Girls' Weekend Sept. 12th to 14th

My dear friend Allison and her family purchased a cottage house in a newly created seaside town on the Pacific coast of WA, called "Seabrook". It's a charming village of interesting architecture, parks, community gathering spots with fire places, bicycles all around for everyone's use, a wonderful wine cafe, walking trails down to the beach... I could go on and on.
We went on Friday the 12th in the afternoon - took about 3+ hours to get there, and we relaxed for the next 48 hours! We even went on a short evening bike ride - both nights! This is Susan, Kari and I posing with our 'community bikes' which we parked so others could use them next.
Saturday morning we decided to take an hour drive further up the coast (this is Olympic Peninsula land) to see some of Allison's favorite beaches and go rock collecting. Here's Kari, Susan and I standing in front of the corner of Allison's garden -that's her white cottage behind us.The rocks on "Ruby Beach" were amazing! We brought bags of them home to fill in hurricane jars, etc. - they make awesome, simple decor. Plus... we were hunting for flat, dark gray ones that the Glovers are using as a sort of 'ground cover' between the cottage and the carriage house on their property, where the hot tub and outdoor shower are.

Here's Susan, Kari & our "hostess" - Allison - the NW coastline is sprinkled with lots of jutting rock formations -just amazing!

Here's a shot of the 'great room' inside the cottage. Look! There's the painting I did for Allison. She really seemed to love it, and I was so glad I designed it using the colors she had described to me - it worked really well with the interior decor.
Allison & Susan posing for Kari, as we headed for a morning beach walk.
Coffee on the front covered porch - sweet!
It was hard to leave on Sunday... the day was clear and warm, and the beach was amazing! I think this makes a pretty cool abstract design - it's tide lines in the sand.

Can't wait to go back - hope to have a group of families all go and rent other cottages so we can all enjoy Seabrook again!