The End of Summer :(

So it's been almost a month since I have last posted something on this blog. I was really on a roll there for a little bit. But then....we had to pack, clean our apartment to spotless perfection, drive 13 hours back to Utah, play with my family and get ready for school!! Actually, I have already completed (hopefully somewhat successfully) my first 3 days of being a junior high teach. woohoo!! I'm definitely not on top of my game and I am flying by the seat of my pants, but it has been a good experience so far. My family also hung out with us for a week

Who Turned Up the Heat??

This week Seattle has had record highs as far as the weather goes. We've been seeing temperatures in the upper 90s continually. Yeah baby!! You might think, that's not so bad, we get that all the time down south. But here's the clincher: Seattle-lites don't believe in air conditioning! No one has air conditioning here, including us! Going to air-conditioned work for me is such a relief. Plus I've got a walk in freezer and lots of ice cream! hahah!!
So what have Jason and I done about that? Lots of fun water activities! This last week had a lot of firsts for me. We went kayaking around Lake Union and U of W last Thursday, which was the first time ever for me. I am pleased to say that I got the hang of it fairly quickly and never tipped.
On Monday, Jason's mentor invited us to go boating with him and his friend. Again, a first for me. I have never gone boating before! Plus, we got to try our hand at water skiing. Unfortunately for me, I found out that water skiing is not my forte. After three tries I finally got up and even then it looked more like a squat. And then I elegantly ended that run by tripping, sprawling over the water and losing both my skis. :) Oh, the good times. Skiing is a nerve-wracking, painful event. Jason faired alot better than me, but like me, he didn't want to go for a second round. We were content to sit in the boat or play frisbee in the water. I was very proud of myself because I kind of got over my fear of lakes and went swimming in Lake Sammamish. Woohoo!
This is how I spent the majority of the time skiing--sitting in the water trying to get my skiis on.




So that's what we've been doing to handle the hot weather. It doesn't look like it's really going to cool down before we leave either. Yikes!

Our Crazy Super Fun Weekend with Mom (in- law)!

This past week, Diane, my mother-in-law came into town for some business and was able to spend a few days with us. She came in Wednesday evening and left Saturday night, giving us lots of time to party. We had a blast!

Friday I took the day off from work and she and I hit the town! We went shopping in downtown and explored the famous Pike Place Market. I think the most incredible part was the produce they sold there. I also walked through this walkway/waterfall thingie and got soaked!

This is us eating our really yummy peaches! They were so juicy and ripe and tasty! Yum yum!







This apparently is the hotspot in downtown Seattle. You haven't
visited Seattle until you have done some good healthy shopping
at Pike Place Market. :) It was alot of fun going through all the small shops and kiosks with handmade local goods. Plus, we ate lunch at a little French bakery and had Marion Berry tarts.





Diane is trying to point out how you can see Mt. Rainier from the market. Can you see it? Look closely...




That night we made some of our good 'ol home made pizza, went to Gasworks Park and played glow in
the dark frisbee then went over to Dick's for ice cream. I think we
tuckered Diane right out! She crashed on our couch as soon as we got home!

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Saturday was more dramatic.

We drove up to the San Juan islands with the intention of crossing on the ferry and exploring one of the islands. But because we got there around noon, we missed the last morning ferry and we would have had to wait two hours to catch the next one. The lady in the ticket booth was really rude to us and made it pretty clear that we were stupid for starting our trip to the islands so late in the day. Jason and I were both really annoyed with the lady's attitude and it might have ruined our day but Diane came to the rescue! She suggested we go to this other island called Whidbey island and check out Deception Pass. Jason and I were too busy trying to gather up the pieces of our broken pride to think straight, but Diane wasn't!

This is the view from the bridge that goes over deception pass. We learned on our super fun jetboat tour that it is called deception pass because Captain Vancouver thought it was an inlet to a river! Hah! It turns out that it is an extremely deep and cold channel with fast moving currents that goes in and around Whidbey island.
Did I mention that we saw a harbor seal and her pup?!?! Yeah, it was the coolest part for me. I LOVE seeing wildlife. :)
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Sadly, the fun times had to end, and we drove Diane to the airport that evening. But on the way I learned all sorts of cool nifty facts and heard fun stories about the Casebolt/ Overson Families. Gosh, I could have listened for 10 more hours, it was so interesting. (I'm not being sarcastic either! I'm serious!)

Look at how sad they are to part. haha, those silly Mcgoobersons!

The Company Picnic

So it's that time of year when big companies like to give their employees some extra joy and throw a company picnic/barbecue/ whatever. Yesterday Jason and I drove about 25 minutes towards the Cascades to a beautiful farm in North Bend called Mountain Meadows Farm. (haha, if anyone knows anything about Mormon history, the name Mountain meadows does not denote a happy place) But this place was beautiful with rolling acres and a big mountain called Mount Si as the backdrop.
There was alot of cool things for us to do,and we spent the whole afternoon out in the sun having fun. Some of the stuff we did was:

Stuff our faces,

ride bikes,


race on oversized tricycles,

and play gigantor basketball!!

We also played some horseshoes, splash basketball and I did some rock climbing. We had a lot of fun :) It turned out to be quite the company picnic/ outing/excursion/thingie.

Proud to Be an American

This 4th of July was quite different from the one last year. Don't get me wrong, there were still fireworks and all that good stuff, but last year I would never have imagined that I would be in Seattle this year, watching the fireworks on the roof of our apartment complex surrounded by complete strangers, half of who were drunk. Haha, it was actually kind of funny listening to some people try to talk. Either way, Jason and I got a sweet view of the firework show that they do every year right over Lake Union, which is right in front of downtown. I'll tell you what, folks, I am glad to be an American! I don't care what people say about our country or our leaders, we have one heck of a sweet deal and we better not take it for granted! I've been doing an online course of 20th Century Russian history and boy oh boy, if you ever think we have a screwed up political system try understanding some of the crazy stuff that went down during the Soviet Union! Whew! I thought about that as I watched the fireworks this year and I'll say it once again, I'm proud to be an American!

Snoqualmie Falls

To get the 4th of July weekend kicked off right, Jason and I decided to go the great outdoors and get a respite from the city of Seattle. I'm not gonna lie, I have lived by mountains and "nature" but the northwest has a beauty that is incomparable with anything else. It is so green! Tall beautiful pine trees cover the foothills to the Cascade Mountains, and even the highway is lined with tall beautiful trees! I loved every second of driving along it...
So anyways, we went to this park called Snoqualmie Falls. First, I just have to say what a cool name that is: sno-qual-mie. That rocks. Anywho, so we got to the park and from the top you get a pretty good view of the beautiful falls, but you have the option of hiking down to it's base. When I say hike, it was more like a casual stroll, half through nature and half through very man-made fences and enclosures. But it was scenic all the same. At the end of the hike you walk along this boardwalk that is lined with big warning signs that tell you not to leave the boardwalk due to flashfloods. But of course no one listens to big warning signs. When we got to the end, we, along with half the tourists, climbed down and walked along the rocky riverbed to get a closer view of the falls. It was definitely worth breaking the rules :)

Here are some more pretty pictures of the falls, I couldn't pick just one!



Here are some more pictures of us!

Alki Beach...How Romantic!

Friday night Jason took me on a romantic date to the exotic beaches of Seattle. Haha, after growing up in Florida and living 20 minutes away from real beaches, any man-made beach is going to make you laugh. Nevertheless, we enjoyed walking up and down the walkway that hugged the coast and boasted a fabulous view of the city skyline. This was the first time Jason had touched the Pacific ocean and man! that water was COLD! As the setting sun sank into Puget sound, we strolled by all the bicyclists, rollerbladers and beach bums also enjoying their Friday evening. We met some people speaking Russian so I was even able to use my extremely limited Russian skills I picked up while in Moldova. (When I say limited I mean it, it consists of "please" and "thank you") I am pretty sure too that I saw a seal! I kept seeing a head bob up and down. It was either a seal or a mermaid, one can't be too sure....

The Pacific Ocean! (kind of) That water was chiiillllly!