Oh Seattle!!

My Seattle trip was awesome. I fell in love with the city the minute I stepped foot outside. Being with my bestest friend in the world was extremly fun. She is more then a friend, she is my sister and means the world to me. I forgot how much fun we have when we get together. I have not laughed that hard in a really long time. Her and her husband (Joey) made great hosts and tour guides. I saw everything there was to see in Seattle.

First Day

Freemont Troll

 

Gasworks Park 

Space Needle 

Second Day

 

Pikes Place 

   

First Starbucks 

 

Pikes Place

 

         Testing out all the great an not so great food. 

Left: A Pasta stand. We tried chocolate pasta.

Right. Whitney having a taste of a dried fruit log. As you can see from her face they were not that good. 

  

Outside of the park market 

  

Gum Wall

 

 Ivars: Whitney loved feeding the seagulls. They were practically eating out of her hand.          

 

Sitting on the pier. We sat on this bench and talked for hours.  One of the best parts of my trip.

Third Day

                                                

              Seattle Sounders Day 

 Joey making philli cheese steaks for all of us to enjoy. (Thanks Joey)

Me, Tanner, Whitney, Joey

We all went out to pikes place brewery for dinner. We all laughed so hard at the drama that Whitney started with out waitress. After dinner we all got gelato for dessert. Yummy. And then headed to the pier.

Dancing on the pier. It was so much fun with goofing off with friends. 

Cupcakes from cupcake Royal. 

Umm.. this is the second 1/2 dozen we bought while I was there. 

Forth Day

    

Dog Park. 

I have never seen so many dogs in one place. As you can see Whitney made a friend. 

                                  Eating cupcakes.. This happened a lot..                    

   

This was definitely a trip to remember. 

Thank you Whitney for all of the laughs, long talks, advice, and reminding me who I am. 

I absolutely adore and love you to death.  




P.S Not all adventures are told on this blog. It is best to keep somethings private. 

to Whitney

Dear Whitney,

I know that I promised that I would have a new post written about Seattle by today. However, every time I sit down to type out all of our adventure we had I get sad. I miss you. I miss all the talks that we had. I miss cupcakes and Stella. I miss just being able to hang out with you whenever I wanted. I miss the pier. I miss laughing. I miss dinner with friends. I miss the nice people. I miss seattle coffee. I miss your bed. I miss the dog park. I miss watching the Seattle Sounders :). I miss trader joes and all of the treats that we ate. And yes, I did not forget, I miss Joey as well..

See, now you understand why I have not written about my amazing trip to Seattle.

Love,

Katrina

Seattle, WA

 

 

 

 Can't post much.. having to much fun!

It’s been only a few days since Katrina left on her cross country visits to Boston, Utah, and Seattle, and I’m already missing her like crazy. Having someone out of your daily life powerfully evidences how intertwined your lives really are, and how emotionally invested you are in that person.

For example, Shento and I went on a walk this morning to our favorite place, the towpath along the Raritan river. When Katrina and I walk it together the miles pass with ease. Holding her hand and chatting along the way lightens my step and my heart. Today was different; I looked for birds in the tress and snakes along the river bank, but Katrina wasn’t there to point them out to. And despite my wishes to the contrary, Shento is a lousy conversationalist.

Admittedly, and somewhat shamefully, I often take for granted those things in my life that are the most meaningful. All too often, I think, we confuse what is meaningful, become disoriented in the seemingly pressing “needs” of our daily workday lives, and let the virtue of our intimate relationships with loved ones be overrun with selfish and shallow behavior. It’s sad that this happens when what is meaningful to you, and what you do about it, is totally under your control.

It’s easy for me to make excuses about why I don’t prioritize that which is most meaningful to me. My responsibilities to school and work all too easily embed themselves in my active consciousness, pushing out what I’d really like to be doing – that is, spending more time making our life in NJ more enjoyable until we can move back out west. Here's hoping that this summer will be an awesome time for Katrina and I to make some great memories.

Having Katrina gone for the week brings back to the fore that she is what makes my life meaningful. She is my excitement and enjoyment. And although I’ve always known this, it’s sometimes good to have these opportunities for reflection and reassessment of things.

 went for a walk around Arlington street in downtown Boston and enjoyed an evening with room service.

 Enjoy

The after college experience

I am currently sitting on an Amtrak train headed to Boston, MA. I am attending some work meeting tomorrow in our Boston office. I have never been to Boston but I have heard that it is a beautiful city. I will be there for less then 24 hours so my time is limited. Maybe tonight I will walk around down town and see what the city has to offer, on second thought, I might just go strait to my hotel, order room service and watch lame TV shows. I will let you know what I decide. The past couple weeks have been long and somewhat trying. I am looking forward to a quite hotel room tonight (no! Bear and I are not having any problems).  Work has been hard and difficult. The days become battles to stay happy. Currently I am doing the work of three people with no reward. Hardly ever even a thank you.  It is weighing on me and I am learning how to deal with it. They never tell you that you may not find your dream job after college. Or that after college you may not even know what your dream job is. I thought I knew and I feel like I kind of still do, but how do I go about actually doing it. I think that someone should brief you on experiences that people have after college. It would be called “the real job market for the college graduate”.  No sugarcoating it. Oh well, I will get over it. In the end I will look back on all this work madness and be thankful for the experiences, whether they be good or bad they all teach you something.

I never thought about this in college nor when I was younger and would dream up how my life would unravel itself.  But it has been on my mind lately. Here in the east coast life seems to be revolved around your job. That is how you define yourself, how you plan your week, and what makes you feel accomplished. In Utah I have found that it is completely different. What defines you is your family and your faith. You plan your time according to your family’s needs and wants.  Both Bear and I look at people that have become workaholics and feel sorry for them. They seem to miss out on what life is all about. But anyways, back to what has been on my mind lately. What is it in my life that really makes me happy? Of course my husband and all that he does for me. But I wanted to try to dig deeper. If I had to wake up every day for the rest of my life what would make me happy? I have thought about it a lot and have come to an answer. Being a Mom. I cannot wait to have children and go through life with them. I feel extremely blessed to have a husband that loves me for me and understands or at least tries his hardest to understand what it feels like to have a strong desire to have a family. For some, it is hard to say that you could do something for the rest of your life when you have never done it. Your right, I have never been a Mom, but something inside of me aches for it. Children bring a smile to my face so I can just imagine what my own will do for me someday. Not saying that I think everyday will be great, there will be bumps in the road but I know that those bumps will be worth it.

Sometimes while Bear and I lie in bed we make up scenarios of what we want our life to be like. We dream up the house and what it will look like, how many kids we will have and where we will live. We talk about kid’s names and if they will have brown or green eyes. For that moment in time everything seems like it will work itself out. But for now, I will go to my meeting in Boston, entertain my boss with some detailed spreadsheet or colorful brochure and live the life of wife/marketing assistant.

P.S I do get to go see my Parents on Wednesday and my Best friend on Thursday. Life is not all bad 

enjoy today

Today is a good day. I have already crossed off a lot on my to-do list and it is only noon. Yeah to me! The spring weather only lasted for a couple days and now we are experiencing summer temperatures. Yesterday it hit 97’.  I love the weather being hot. It is so nice to be able to come home from work and go for a bike ride and be able to enjoy the outdoors. We have started bbq-ing on our grill, and my favorite eating dinner outside. The tennis nets are up in our neighborhood and Bear is eagerly trying to find time to go play. Shento loves basking in the sun in our back-yard.  We are having friends come over tomorrow for a bbq. I am making deviled eggs and yummy sea salt brownies (will post the recipe later tonight). Bbq-ing was something that my family did on a regular basis. No matter if it was summer or in the middle of winter in a snowstorm, my Dad was always outside bbqing away. Once summer hit, we would hang out on the deck, listen to music, and talk the night away. Those are some fun memories. 

No matter where you are, or the weather is like, enjoy your day!!

Happy Spring Day

  

  

 

Easter day we packed a lunch and headed to Rutgers Gardens, a couple miles away from our home.  The beauty that is found in this time of year on the east coast is breath taking. The flowers are all blooming with bright colors and the spring weather is in the air. We spent a relaxing and peaceful day sitting under the magnolia tree watching Shento chase birds, squirrels and anything that might of moved. 

What a great day!    . 

Happy Easter