The Van Fam - JJ, Alisa & Nyla

Early pictures of the House

2009-08-16T09:29:00.008-06:00

So, these are just a few pictures of our house interior. This first one is walking in from the front door looking into the living room.

This is the view of our kitchen from our living room. We wanted black appliances to go with our dark Alder cabinets. We love having a big kitchen. None of our apartments had a kitchen even close to this nice, and we really love having the island. It is so nice for preparing food.

This makes me LAUGH

2009-06-03T12:11:00.004-06:00

I just saw this on a friend's blog and it made me LAUGH OUT LOUD. I'm thinking if you read this, you know at least one blogging friend who is just like this. I hope it's not me :-)

I really love reading your blogs and love when I know someone is reading mine!
Thanks everyone for sharing bits of your life with me!

House Almost Done (Super long post, but mostly pictures. Sorry)

2009-05-28T20:10:00.017-06:00

So, it has been a long time since we last updated so I figured I needed to post some pictures of the house. It is almost done and now just has some of the finishing touches before it is done. Here is the progression of the exterior of the house.

The lot after they first staked it.

The hole they dug for the foundation.

The footings with the forms for the rest of the foundation.

The foundation with backfill.

The first floor goes up. They delivered the walls already put together in sections, so they go up fast.

The second floor also was put up that day.

House with a roof!

Shingles, windows and doors.

Now it has the brick and the first layer of the stucco facade. (I skipped the picture with the weather wrapping, I hope nobody minds.)

Exterior with the color. I think I need to take another exterior picture because now it has most of the soffets and the garage door as well as the exterior lights. (The garage door is still white so I am guessing that they will be painting that soon.)

Ok, now just a couple of interior pictures. The kitchen is my favorite part.

Nyla is working on crawling and can now do it at the house now that they have laid the carpet.

Look at those cheeks!

2009-05-15T22:36:00.004-06:00

This is 9-month old Nyla. She has this crazy, fuzzy-chicken-head hair that stands up like this no matter what I do. She can wave and clap and just got her first doll. She likes to hold the doll up by the throat and talk to her, then Nyla brings her down and sticks her fingeres in the doll's eye. It's a tender relationship :-)

The house is moving along really well. We are still on target for the end of June. Today they added the color to the front stucco.

Look who can stand up...

2009-04-20T17:32:00.002-06:00

but only with help!

House Update

2009-04-12T21:23:00.016-06:00

The house is coming along pretty quickly now. This is a very good thing because we just moved into Alisa's mom's basement. Nothing against Pat, but we just would much rather be living in our own space, but we are really greatful to have her as a resource, plus, this gives Nyla a little more one on one time with Gramma.

So, this picture was taken after the hole for the foundation was dug.

This is after the footings had been poured and the frames were set up for the foundation.
Here the foundation has been poured and they are laying the plumbing before they pour the floor. (Our house will not have a basement because of the water table, so the plumbing has to be buried in the ground before they pour the floor)
The next time we came back they had already poured the floor and were framing the main floor. The first floor was framed in one day.
The next day they finished framing the second floor and now we are only waiting on the roof and the stairs for the framing to be complete.
This if looking from the back of the house to the front. You can see the small entry room as well as the archway to the main room. Through the framed in walls you can see out the garage. The diagonal 2x4 is where the stairs will be(of course the lack of stairs didn't keep me from climbing up and looking around the second floor.)
This is the view looking east out of our bathroom window. It will be nice to see sunrises on lazy weekend mornings.

And the last house picture for now is looking down the upstairs hall towards the master bedroom. It is so exciting!

As for living at Gramma's house, I think Nyla is enjoying it almost as much as Gramma's dog Molly.

The house begins

2009-03-18T23:29:00.005-06:00

Many of you know that JJ and I have contracted to build a house in NSL. After weeks of thinking, more weeks of designing, a scary day of signing and then more weeks of waiting for a permit, we are finally ready to dig.

This is what our lot looks like today. I can't believe how a few stakes and some spray paint can make me so happy.

More pictures to come as the house grows, target completion date is July and then we are gladly taking visitors. :-)

Nyla Updates - 6 months old!

2009-01-31T23:11:00.011-07:00

Just a few updates about 6-month old Nyla. She weighs just under 14 lbs and is 25.5 inches long. That makes her 15th percentile for weight and 40th for height. And clearly, long and lean and not my genetics - thank you Van family! Here are a few more 6-month old descriptions.

1 - She rolls. Both ways and now seems to prefer to sleep on her belly. This causes me a fair amount of anxiety and I often will roll her back over to her back once she has fallen asleep. She is still waking up every 3 hours in the night to eat. We really did break her when we went on vacation at 3 months. Here she is napping with a stuffed animal from her Papa Ernie. And, as referenced, above, I do not let her sleep long with anything like this. After the photo, I moved the bear.

2 - She sits. All by herself. She usually only has about 3 or 4 minutes before she's down but she can get out of that too and usually ends up on her belly.

3 - She reads. Ok, not really but she loves books and I love books and every time she looks at them it makes me happy. Even if she is just figuring out how to get them into her mouth. I can't wait to teach her to read. I hope she loves it as much as I did. Unfortunately, reading has been ruined for me as of late because any reading I do "ought" to be schoolwork or churchwork. I just cannot justify reading anything for pleasure until my dissertation is finished.

4 - She's happy. She did not start out a happy baby, not at all. But she has become one and it is such a joy. Nyla laughs easily and grins even more easily, which makes playing with her very rewarding. Here she is in the laundry. Daddy thinks he is sooo funny about this one.

5 - She loves her daddy. When JJ comes home, Nyla smiles the biggest, brightest smiles she has and will fuss if JJ leaves to take off his coat or wash his hands. And JJ loves her just as much. Watching them together is one of my favorite things. I've even been stopped at the grocery store by a woman who wanted to tell me how great it was to see a dad really enjoy being with his little girl (I was at the end of the frozen food aisle while JJ was dancing for laughs at the other end).

Back to school

2009-01-14T22:10:00.002-07:00

Today was my first day back at school, and we had mixed results. This is my first class on campus since Nyla was born (who happened to make her debut on a class day in July - I had to cancel class). JJ's mom was kind enough to watch Nyla, who unfortunately spent most of the time crying and showed no interest in being bottle fed, at least she took a short nap. I have mixed feelings about going back to work. I love teaching. It was good to be back. I am lucky enough to work almost entirely at home. I love my job, well both jobs. Now, I just have to learn how to manage them. As is, I do most of my work after Nyla goes to sleep. Any advice on getting work done at home?

I believe in adoption.

2009-01-06T16:59:00.003-07:00

This is my first post that is not intended to update any readers about me or JJ or Nyla. Instead, I feel really moved today and I wanted to share my feelings, and since this is my blog... I get to do whatever I want. :-)

I just want to say that I believe in adoption. I believe it is God's way of balancing out so many things that seem unfair. In unmarried relationships, I believe adoption should always be a part of the decision-making conversation and I believe abortion should not (with rare and extreme exceptions). For all of my friends and for all others who want a child and cannot have one biologically, I want this for you, and it makes me cry to think about it. I am so sorry for your heartache.

I find so much joy in Nyla. I cannot imagine a better path to be on. I wish that for anyone who wants it. I believe wanting to be a parent is the most important parenting skill you can ever have.

A good friend of mine is going through the adoption process and it is long and difficult. I saw this video on her blog months and ago and for some reason, I watched it again today and it made me cry. You know the cry where you get a little weepy, hold it back, feel more weepy, fight it, and then just give up and cry. That's what I did.

1st Christmas and another first

2008-12-27T10:05:00.010-07:00

I had lots of people ask us what we were getting Nyla for Christmas, and maybe Alisa and I are just bad parents, but we weren't planning on getting her anything. She is only 5 months old, and there is no way she will remember it. We also just buy her whatever she needs, so we figured we would hold off and then make sure we have some good stuff for next year. She did get a few presents from grandparents and cousins though.

She seemed much more interested in the paper. Her aunt Kris helped her open presents at my parents house while I took pictures.

Her Papa Ernie gave her a really cute stuffed dog that she has really been enjoying. Her Gramma Pat gave her a Peapod which is like a tiny tent for babies and Gramma Jill gave her a high chair. Mostly though, we asked for feeding supplies, like spoons and bibs.

It started a few weeks ago. I was holding her in my right arm and eating pizza with my left hand. Midway through that slice, she dove for it with her mouth wide open. She would watch us both as we ate and would sometimes move her mouth in a chewing motion. Then, on Christmas Eve at Alisa's mom's house, she kept grabbing my water bottle and trying to pull it to her mouth. She also tried that with a cookie I was eating. On Christmas day it was crackers and crab dip that she went after, as well as my can of soda. We did let her try drinking out of my water bottle, but did not share any of the other stuff.

Here she is anxiously awaiting the rice cereal Alisa was preparing while she sits in her new booster seat (from Gramma Jill) and wearing one of her new bibs (from Aunt Bre, more to come from Aunt Sonja).

We used the video camera for her first bite, which was a little awkward because she tried to grab the spoon, but once she realized we were giving her real food, the second spoonful was a lot easier.

She started looking at me after every bite to make sure I was watching. It was really cute.

It was really fun. She was really excited and she learned very quickly to open her mouth for the spoon AND she slept much longer between feedings last night. Hooray! What a great baby!

Reading to Nyla

2008-12-18T11:22:00.004-07:00

Nyla has just learned how to hold a book, turning the pages is another task entirely!

JJ's Baby Tricks

2008-12-09T22:00:00.007-07:00

JJ has been waiting a long time to be able to play with Nyla, you know really play with her. He knows she's not ready for tossing in the air and wrestling but he was very excited when he figured out this new trick. If you can't tell, JJ is balancing Nyla with one hand. Nyla seems to have fun with it too. I can only tolerate for a few minutes before I remind JJ that if he ever dropped her, I truly would never forgive him. :o)

Nyla's latest trick is shown below. One day we just found her getting her toes all the way to her mouth! She's 4 and a half months now and more fun than ever. This is the time of my life.

When do you stop being able to bend like that?

Alisa - The Best Wife Ever!

2008-11-22T10:02:00.011-07:00

So I was planning on posting this for Alisa's birthday, but I didn't so I am now about 3 weeks late.

There are so many great things about Alisa that I want to share. As I think about all the things that she has done for me, it really starts shortly after we started dating. When we started dating, I was between jobs. She got me in touch with her brother-in-law who was working at a bank in downtown SLC. I was able to get that job and worked there until we moved to Seattle.

She always wants to help people to be happy and successful. I had a brother out of work recently and Alisa kept asking if we knew of any opennings or if we could get him in touch with anyone. She is very concerned about other people and really worries about them and the things that they are going through.

Another thing Alisa did when we were first dating was to help me find a major that I could graduate quickly, map out my school schedule for those two years, AND she bought me my books for that semester which was like $400 bucks.

When we first got married, she was making more money than I was and that continued up until this spring when I got the job at GE that I currently have. Not only was she basically supporting me as I finished school, last year in Seattle, I was unemployed for almost the whole year. The job market was very competitive there and while I had lots of interviews and no matter how close I was, there always ended up being someone with more education or more work experience. During that time, Alisa worked very hard to keep my spirits up (It is really hard to be rejected that many times). In addition to the constant encouragement, she was supporting us finacially from the three different jobs she was working. (Running the research project BYU was conducting, teaching online courses and on in person course for the U of U, and working as a contract researcher for Utah Foster Care Foundation.)

Alisa has been a great teammate as well. She has talked decisions through with me and helped me to look at different sides of the situation as we were trying to decide what to do for a job for me. She has always been very defensive of me and hates when she thinks people see me as less than she does. There have been times when she has wanted to march up to someone and yell at them because she feels that they were looking down on me.

Most of all though, Alisa is a great friend. I just love spending time with her. I have so much fun just sitting around with her and watching TV or just talking. She has actually put a lot of effort into learning sports trivia and the rules of basketball and football so that she can impress me with her analysis. She is really just so great. She puts a lot of effort into knowing things about sports and she really is not interested in sports except for the purpose of impressing me. It is really thoughtful of her. You should ask her sometime to analyze the BCS situation with Utah, or the chances the Jazz have of winning a playoff series against the Lakers.

Alisa is also a really great mom. It seems to me that there are very few things, if any, that she cannot do exceptionally well. She is very attentive to Nyla and loves spending her days at home with her. Some moms have a hard time making the transition, but Alisa really hasn't. She calls me at work and tells me all about bath time, or vomit that she had to clean off herself, but she is always so happy about being a mom. Even after Nyla has been crying for an hour straight, Alisa will be holding her and tell her just how much she loves her. It is really amazing, because at those times, that is usually the last thing I am thinking about. She has so much patience for Nyla just being a baby. It is really great to see.

I love Alisa SOOO much. I am so blessed that she chose me and still wants to be with me. She is so committed to our family that I never have to wonder about anything. She is really great, and I love her.

This is the token picture of Nyla. She really likes to suck on her fingers.

More Travelling

2008-11-14T18:46:00.019-07:00

Our trip started out on Halloween in NYC, but then on Saturday we did whatever Alisa wanted to do which included shopping for earings and going to dinner in Little Italy.

On Monday, we went to Times Square for some pizza and garlic twists (Mmmm). We also wanted to get pictures of Nyla in New York so that when she is 14 and complains about never having left Utah, we can always show her these pictures (although they probably won't make her any happier).

On Tuesday, Nov 4, we flew from New York to Arkansas (just for information, JFK Int'l is an awful airport. It is crowded and maze-like. La Guardia on the otherhand was great. I would recommend going through there if you have the choice.) For all you out there that are worried, we voted before we left because we knew we would be gone on the 4th.

Nyla was a little fussy on the plane, so to calm her down, she and I got to do one of her very favorite things. We watched football highlights on ESPN. I don't know why, but she really loves football. She was fussy until she noticed the TV with the sports highlights, then she calmed right down.

After a bit she got tired so we put her in her car seat. Because it was Election Day, the flights were pretty empty, so they let us take the car seat on. It was really great. It really made it easy for her to sleep.

In Arkansas, Alisa was presenting some of her research at a conference in Little Rock. While there we got to see just about everything there is to see in Little Rock.

We walked around downtown and walked across one of the many bridges.

We also went to the Clinton Presidential Library (museum). Regardless of what you think of him, this was really cool to see. It went over all the
stuff that happened during his presidency.

They had a replica of the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room.

My favorite exhibit was a timeline of Clinton's presidency. It was a really interesting walk down memory lane from a Presidential perspective (they let us use a wheel chair to carry Nyla's car seat.)

From Little Rock, we drove up to Bentonville, AR, to visit my sister Kim and her family. They just loved Nyla. It was so fun to watch them with her. My niece, Delaney, and nephew, Logan, just wanted to hold her and play with her all the time. We were also fortunate that our trip coincided with Logan's 7th birthday AND the losing of his first tooth.

All in all it was a great trip. We really loved that we were able to visit my sister Kim and Shane and their kids in Arkansas. That was the first time we were able to make it out there together, and my first time in 6 years, so it was great.

I know this post was long. I hope you all enjoyed it... if anyone reads this blog besides us.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T11:26:00.001-06:00

For Halloween this year Alisa wanted to visit her sister in New York. Since it also happens to be Alisa's 30th birthday, we decided that we should do it. The issue is that we genereally have a few go to costumes, but they just wouldn't work in NYC. There is a huge parade and people just hit the streets in their costumes, plus, her sister and her husband always have something great that they dress up as. More about that later.

So as we were brainstorming we came up with a Star Wars family theme. We found a Yoda costume online that we ordered for Nyla. 5 days after it was supposed to arrive, we got an email saying it was on backorder and that we should receive it around Nov. 12th. So, we had to make the costume. Alisa spend two days tailoring it and getting everything just right. She also worked on her Princess Leia costume (A white dress from the DI with a slight alteration and a home made belt. She bought a wig for $5 at ShopKo and she and her sister made the buns.) I made my Jedi costume with a little help from Alisa. She cut out part of the shirt and found the pattern on the internet.

The week before we left for NY, we were at a family party at my parents' house and the best costumes there were my sister's homemade Wizard of Oz family costumes (all except the lion). The cowardly Lion was being exceptionally cowardly in this picture. I think there were real tears.

OK, back to New York. So we thought we had great costumes, and really we did, but the real show stealing costumes were once again Alisa's sister's and brother-in-law's. They went as their own Mii's. (Wii characters you make to look like yourself) They were like Disneyland characters in that TONS of people wanted pictures with them. As the night went on and we got around the city and to the parade, I'm pretty sure that some people had heard about them because people were saying, "Oh, there are the Mii's. Let's get a picture." They were also a huge hit with the Asian crowd.

So we had been expecting everyone to have great costumes, but that really wasn't the case. Great costumes were pretty few and far between. The best one we saw was a vulture. His beak would even move as he talked. He got a picture with us and then he wanted one with BreAnna and Bryan too.

The night was awesome. Since Alisa's birthday is Halloween, she kind of felt like everytime someone said "Happy Halloween," they were really saying "Happy Birthday!" She had a great time. But, as with all great things, frequently they end in a total meltdown with lots of tears. Nyla was exhasted, hungry, and tired of all the noise.

Happy Halloween!

More Nyla Pics

2008-10-15T22:42:00.000-06:00

So, the vast majority of people that visit our blog really just want to see Nyla pictures, so lets give the people what they want...

Nyla is getting to be SOOO smiley. I come home from work and just make faces at her for as long as she will smile at them. This was taken one morning about a week ago with my new birthday camera. I had to hold it off to the side and try to aim it while I made faces to get her to smile.

This is what it looks like when Nyla looks at the camera. She doesn't know what to think about it.

So the other night we hung out with my sister Erin, her husband Mark and their son Evan. He is 4 months older than Nyla. You can see that he is a lot more interested in Nyla than she is in him. Evan likes to put things in his mouth. Just before this picture he had grabbed Nyla's hand and was trying to shove it in his mouth. It was a lot of fun and he is just such a happy, mello kid. It is really easy to make him laugh.

This is Nyla looking at Mom and just being happy and relaxed. This is how she is the vast majority of the time now. When she was a newborn she was pretty fussy, but now she has really turned a corner and is a totally different baby. It is so much fun to have her around. We just love her so much.

This is Nyla's sad face.

Happy Birthday JJ!

2008-10-02T20:45:00.001-06:00

We just finished celebrating JJ's birthday mardi gras. The celebration lasted all week, but I couldn't let it all pass without posting something here. We started the birthday celebrating on Sunday night with a family birthday party. The photo shows JJ's candle-blowing helpers. Notice JJ is actually not blowing out the candles at all!

Next we had TWO dinners out on Tuesday (Olive Garden) and Wednesday (Cheesecake Factory on the actual birthday). Nyla joined us for both dinners and was not as excited about being out as JJ and I were, but we managed. Friday we had a dinner party with friends and JJ's big presie came on Saturday. He FINALLY got the Canon camera he has been dreaming about since before we met.

All celebrations aside, I want to take just a minute to say happy birthday and thank you to my most favorite person in the world. I feel so lucky to be with him. He lets me be whatever I want and loves me just the same. He listens to me and makes changes to make me happy while still remaning true to himself. He is the best teammate I ever had and I am still brought to tears when I think about the life ahead of us.

This year, my most favorite part about JJ is how he treats Nyla. He has mad "daddy skills." :-) JJ takes his turn holding a crying Nyla, is solely responsible for removing the surprisingly heavy bag of diapers from the diaper bin, and wipes up spit up with his bare hands... his BARE HANDS.

And Nyla loves her daddy just as much. She just stares at him and he has a magical way of calming her. I find myself hiding my surprise and delight when he refuses my offers to take Nyla when she is too fussy or when I wake up on Saturday at least an hour later than I expected because JJ got up and took Nyla in the front room so the pre-wake-up-grunting-phase wouldn't wake me. In fact last Saturday, as I began dozing putting Nyla down for a nap, JJ told me to sleep and when I woke up 2 hours later, he had cleaned the bathroom and shampooed the front room carpet. AND he goes to work everyday so I can stay with Nyla, which is my dream come true and JJ makes it possible. I said this at my wedding but it is still true 3 years later,

"I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. This life with JJ is the life that I imagined. The path ahead of us is beautiful and I am so glad that I get to be on that path with JJ."

TWO MONTHS ALREADY!!!

2008-09-21T22:30:00.000-06:00

Can you believe that Nyla has been around for two whole months? It is kind of hard for me to, but at the same time, she really is growing up. She is a lot more like an infant, instead of being a newborn. Her face is rounding out and she is now smiling frequently. She is getting to be very expressive, both when smiling, but especially when she is sad. These pictures were taken today to show off her new leggings with the onsie that her aunt Chantelle gave her.

A bit of a side note, the stripped leggings she is wearing are called Baby Legs. We bought them yesterday and Alisa thinks they are SO cute that she had to put them on Nyla right away.

Trudi Thomas Memorial 5K

2008-09-16T14:07:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday JJ, Nyla, my mom and I completed a Memorial 5K race for my friend Trudi Thomas. Trudi was hit by a car while running in 2007. She was my roommate during grad school in 2004. The race raises money for a scholarship in Trudi's name at the University of Utah.

We walked the entire race and while we were not dead last, we were close! I am out of the 6-week post partum period and while I am cleared to run, I am in no condition to do so. Next year we'll run.

Here we are at Nyla's first race. Notice JJ shaved his goatee! Yeah!

Nyla's Blessing Day

2008-09-08T21:23:00.000-06:00

We blessed Nyla at church on August 31st. I wasn't too sure about the dress we were planning on having her wear. It was all knit and just looked kind of old fashioned, but once we put it on her, it looked really great.

Later I learned a little more about the history of this dress. Alisa's grandmother Deering made this dress for her older sister Chantelle when she was blessed. Alisa and both her sister's were blessed in this dress. Then both of Chantelle's daughters were also blessed in this dress. Nyla makes the sixth girl, and third great-granddaughter to be blessed in this dress.

Nyla did such a great job. She slept the whole time. Frequently babies will get a little fussy when 7 or 8 men gather around and all hold them as they are blessed. Nyla was completely out and didn't even notice.

The only bad thing about this dress was it was very easy for Nyla to get her fingers tangled up in it, what with all the ribbons and the knit pattern. It was a really great day, and for some reason it just makes things seem more official now that she has been named and blessed. We are just so happy to have her with us.

Nyla Abigail Van Langeveld

2008-08-18T20:34:00.000-06:00

So, we haven't added to this blog in a little while, but now we feel that we have some news to post that people will actually be interested in. We had a baby!

Other changes since our last post:
1) I got a job at GE Capital.
2) Alisa finished working for the Flourishing Families project.
3) We left Seattle in March 2008 and moved back to Utah. We now live in an apartment in North Salt Lake.

Now back to the biggest change:

Her name is Nyla Abigail and she was born on July 22nd at 7:09 PM. She was 7 lbs 10 oz and 20 inches long.

This photo was taken when she was about 20 hours old. She makes great eye contact and has since the first day. We have had a really great time with her, although there have been some struggles too. We aren't sure what color her eyes will turn out to be - probably brown, but sometimes they still look very blue.

When Nyla was two weeks old, a friend of ours took some baby photos. I've posted some here and you can see others at sarahstilesphotography.blogspot.com.

A funny thing...

2007-06-12T18:42:00.000-06:00

So today Alisa and I took a walk downtown along the water front. There is a sculpture park that has some weird sculptures there. One is of a giant rolling typewriter eraser. Pretty weird. This one is called "Eagle." Well....I don't see it, but maybe others do.

This is the path we walked along. There is a bike path just to the left. It is pretty nice. Well, as we came to the end of the path there was a fishing pier. And... well just look for yourself.

I mean, who really though that was a good idea?

Alki Beach (By JJ)

2007-06-10T22:52:00.000-06:00

Friday Alisa and I drove downtown and took a water taxi across the bay to Akli Point over in West Seattle. Alisa read about it in our Seattle travel book. We ate some mexican food at a bar called the Coyote Grill, and then we walked along the beach. We were very surprised to the atmosphere a lot like that of a beach in So. Cal. There was a volleyball league with probably 8 games going on. There were BBQ'ers and those that just wanted to have a fire on the beach. The road goes right along the beach and the there are shops and restaurants all along the other side of the street, so everything is right there along the water. As night came, we walked the 2 miles back to the taxi pier. As we came around the point you could see downtown from accross the bay, and as the sky got darker, the city got brighter. The best part was when we were riding the water taxi back, we sat on the bow of the boat and just looked at the city reflecting in the bay. Our city may be a little crazy and unorganized, but it sure is a beautiful place to live. Unfortunately we have lost our camera, so all the pictures we are posting Alisa found online. We also saw a Raccoon crawling around on the rocks by the beach. I swear, it is like the nature channel everytime we go out somewhere.

The Place We Live (By JJ)

2007-06-03T22:46:00.000-06:00

The Pacific Northwest is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and we actually LIVE here! It is really cool. In February we took a trip out to the Olympic coastline which is just a few hours away.

The Pacific coastline is so rugged. This is the type of beach that Alisa and I just love. Neither of us really like to swim in the ocean (too scary), so we enjoy a beach and coastline that is pretty to look at, not swim in.
This place really just rocks. Riding the bus to work I look out over the lake at the city and I just can't imagine any place that could be prettier to live. It is just great. I'll update later with more pictures soon.