Spring!

Well, the first day of spring was on Wednesday and I tell you what, things aren't looking too springy around here... Don't get me wrong, we have had some truly beautiful sunny days! But they've come with wind and chilly temperatures. These past few days brought rain, wind, hail, snow, sun.... and all in a very short period of time. It's been a little crazy. I was even praying for a snowday today but we didn't get quite enough, or at least, not in the right places.

 

A couple of weeks ago Steven and I took advantage of a sunny weekend by hitting up some of our favorite Seattle spots. We visited the South Lake Union Park for the first time. It's a nice enough park but certainly won't become one of our regular stops. Though I do still really want to stop by some time for their floating farmers market. It was fun to be right on the water and it was a beautiful day for it too!! Thank God for a legit reason to wear sunglasses.

 

(Steven's new Cirque jacket! even though I know you can't really see it...)

 

As we drove past SPU I commented on how beautiful the campus looked in the sunshine and Steven pulled over so we could take a short walk around the loop. I just love it there. I want to take all of my stationary or a good book and just find a place on the grass to sit and relax. It's so quiet and pretty and has so many memories.

 



 

The music building is one of my personal favorites. I definitely took some of my better classes in there. Plus, the Loop has the coolest trees.

 

We took a short walk on top of Queen Anne (didn't last long because of the wind) and Steven surprised me with a stop in La Reve Bakery. What a treat! I had a fruit tart and Steven had a twice baked almond croissant. Thinking back, I'm surprised I didn't take a picture. The food they serve there is so beautiful! I want to try everything in the case at some time or another. While we were sitting there enjoying our pastries, Steven and I were fantasizing about living on Queen Anne and being able to walk to our favorite places and having La Reve be our little spot where we take our cribbage board and try a new treat everytime. When we were in Blue Highway I heard a mom drop her son off for a birthday party and she told him he would be walking home and she would see him later that afternoon. How fun would it be for our kids to be able to just walk to Blue Highway for the afternoon?! Sigh, I don't think we will ever find ourselves living back on QA but it certainly is a nice thought.

 



 

Kerry Park. I just can't resist. I have to take a picture every single time. In fact, I have to take multiple pictures every single time. Honestly though, I think this is one of the better ones. The clouds were fantastic that day.

 

We spent the rest of the day with Tim & Annika. We drove over to Ballard for a an extraordinarily decadent afternoon snack at Hot Cakes. Wow. They have some seriously fancy chocolate treats in there. We had one of the hot cakes (molten lava cakes served in an adorable little jar with ice cream, salted caramel sauce, and toffee nibs on the side) and also shared a milkshake that had peanut butter and whiskey in it. Tim and Annika tried one of the grilled sandwiches - chocolate between two slices of potato bread with caramel sauce to dip it in, wrapped in paper and tied up with string - adorable! It wasn't quite as amazingly delicious as I wanted it to be but it was quite tasty and a really fun, special little outing. Plus, the faucet in the bathroom completely redefined our future home that I've been designing in my head for the last couple of years. Hot Cakes is right next to the Matador so I think it would be fun to do happy hour at the Matador and dessert at Hot Cakes sometime (Chad & Whit - next time you're in town!) and when we do go, I want to try a chocolate chip cookie and the butter beer. They smoke their chocolate chips for multiple hours and I'm really curious to know what kind of an impact that has on the flavor.

 

I am SO looking forward to some warmer weather!! The good news is, everything is in bloom. I love it. It is definitely one of my most favorite times of the year -- even if I do prefer it when all of the trees are covered in leaves, I still love this time when you can see everything growing and the days are getting longer. It just makes me feel so hopeful. Hopfully it's having the same effect on you!

Anniversary 2.5

Between moving into a new house, fighting wildfires in Cle Elum, and starting a new teaching job, Steven and I never really got around to celebrating our second anniversary. What we really need is a three week vacation in Hawaii but we decided that an amazing Valentine's Day date would suffice for this year. We don't normally celebrate Valentine's Day but decided to go all out since we were counting it as a belated anniversary celebration.

We had an amazing dinner at Daniel's Broiler in downtown Bellevue and then went to the Cirque du Soleil show Amaluna. Daniel's Broiler in Bellevue is on the 21st floor and has a beautiful view. We weren't on the side of the restaurant overlooking Lake Washington but it was still fun to be next to the window looking out over Bellevue. And that just means we'll have to go back again for the view on the other side of the restaurant ;)

We loved the restaurant and it was so fun going to a super fancy restaurant with multiple giftcards in hand (one saved from our wedding and another we received from my mom over Christmas). We didn't even look at the prices, which is kind of a big deal for me. I'm totally one of those people who orders by price and it's really too bad because if you're going to go out you should probably just order what you want, even if it isn't the least expensive option :) Steven had sea bass marinated in sake and I had crab-stuffed prawns with grilled veggies. We shared a huge bowl of balsamic mushrooms, which were incredible, and finished the meal with a "small" coconut fudge sundae, which changed my life. I'm not even kidding. I want to start going to Daniel's on a weekly basis just to have the coconut sundae.

The show was phenomenal, as always. Cirque du Soleil never disappoints! It's incredible how they're always coming up with something new. Every time you go to a Cirque show you think you've seen it all and then the next time you go you see something else you had no idea the human body was capable of doing. It's unreal. We just love it. I'm so glad that this "our thing."

Since we had paid off the Cirque tickets many months in advance and dinner was covered by giftcards, we treated ourselves to some Cirque merchandise. We NEVER do things like that!!! But we're both suckers for nice jackets and we each found a Cirque jacket that we really liked. I was shocked when Steven said "well, let's just get them." What?! So special and fun. Mine is really unique and I love the colors. Steven's is black and just really sleek looking. Someone at Chipotle asked him if he was in the show!! Which fit into Steven's plan perfectly as he intended to wear it around and let people think that he is in fact an acrobat. I'm sure I'll post a picture of us in our new jackets sometime soon.

I'm already looking forward to celebrating our third anniversary together and what do you know, it's right around the corner -- just 5 short months away. We'll have to come up with something really fun. Maybe that transatlantic cruise we've been dying to go on...

 

14 minutes & 48 seconds.

Isn't my husband amazing?!? Steven finished 56 out of 1500 participants! He said he was a little bit disappointed with his time (thought he had done better) but I'm just straight-up impressed! Can't believed he improved by another 30 seconds on last year's time. Wow.

Stairclimb 2013.

Hello little blog! Long time no see. I'm trying to be a better steward of my time and have simply chosen not to make the blog a priority in recent weeks. I miss it a bit and definitely have a few things that I want to blog about in the near future -- we'll see if I get around to it :)

I believe Steven is on his way up to the top of the Columbia Tower right now. He's been a little anxious about the climb this year. Work has been busy and there hasn't been as much time for training as there was last year. I'm still counting on him to be a top finisher again this year. I know he's pushing himself really hard. He even created a playlist with carefully selected Muse, Queen, and Cake songs that have a specific number of beats per minute to help him on track :) I'm so proud of him!!

Any last minute donations? Feel free: http://llswa.org/goto/stevenlentz every little bit counts! I know Steven is so thankful for everyone's support.