Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

The Lanes

kevin, tonya, cassie, and abbie

Moldy, Moldy, Moldy

We returned home from our Seattle trip to a mess!  One of the sinks in the master bathroom sprung a leak while we were gone.  The whole master bathroom and closet were flooded.  Part of the master bedroom and adjacent room were also flooded.  Our friends who were watching the house for us while we were away, spent an entire weekend cleaning up the water, removing carpet, and trying to dry everything out.  Thank goodness for them!

Since it had been sitting for a while, there was black mold on the cabinets, carpet, and baseboards.  We had to hire a professional clean-up crew to demolish the cabinets,  and walls, clean it, and dry it out. Once that was done, we had a mold inspection completed.

They also had to take all of our clothes, bedding, curtains, shoes, bags, etc. and have them cleaned.  You all know I have a lot of clothes so you can imagine the dry cleaning bill alone was thousands of dollars!

Since our bedroom and bathroom are torn up, we've been sleeping on the couch since our return home.  We're in the process of working with our insurance company and a general contractor to get it fixed.  We decided since everything is ripped up anyway, we're going to remodel and upgrade it as well as the guest bathroom.

Stay turned for the finished product (It's taking FOREVER)!

Our Seattle Adventure

We wanted to take advantage of the fact that we both work from home, which means we can pretty much live or work anywhere we want.  So we decided to rent a house in the Seattle area (Port Orchard) for 5 weeks.  We loved Seattle when we visited before, and we thought the weather would be a nice change of pace from the sun and heat of Phoenix.

Road trip

Since we were staying for such a long time, and we were taking the dogs with us, we decided to take a few days to drive there.  We took the FJ and rented a UHaul to tow our Harley and all of the other necessities.  We drove west to California and stayed near San Francisco the first night.  Then headed north to the Redwoods.  We stayed there two nights and then finished the road trip by driving up the Oregon coast.  We really loved Astoria, Oregon.  Ecola State Park was beautiful.  We made a trip to see the beach and neighborhood where The Goonies was filmed.  There were many bridges along the way too that were really cool to see.  I love exploring and seeing all the different and beautiful places.

Redwoods, California

Astoria,  Oregon

Oregon Coast

Settling In

We finally made it to our home away from home.  The house was fabulous, we loved sitting out on the back patio and watching the waterfall and animals.  There were lots of birds and squirrels.  We also saw a bunny and a little family of deer.  I especially liked sitting out on the patio before work, eating breakfast, and having my hot cup of herbal tea.

Home Away from Home

Exploring Port Orchard and Surrounding Areas

On the weekends we would explore the area, including Alki Beach, Port Orchard, Port Angeles, and Forks, WA.

Port Orchard Waterfront

  Port Angeles

Forks

Mom visits and Seeing the Seattle Sights

On our first weekend there, Mom Lane came out for a visit. We picked her up from the airport Friday afternoon and did a little bit of Seattle exploration.  Saturday, we took the ferry into Seattle and went to the space needle, had lunch on the waterfront, and did some souvenir shopping.  The next day we went to Pike Place Market. We had some world famous clam chowder at Pike Place Chowder. It took me some convincing to eat there, but it was delicious!  We bought some chocolate dipped Chukar cherries.  Mmmmmm.  We also went to the Ballard Locks and watched the boats and ships come in.  We spent time at the house too,  I'm really glad Mom visited, it was nice to spend quality time with her.

Taking the Ferry to Seattle

Seattle Waterfront

Space Needle, Seattle

Pike Place Market, Seattle

The line for Pike Place Chowder was out the door and around the corner!

Ballard Locks

Our Anniversary

Can you believe Kevin and I have been married for 13 years now?  I can't, but I'm happy that we're still together!  We always have fun.  Our anniversary was no exception. We went into Seattle for the day.  We shopped at a really cool Japanese bookstore and then went to go see Brandon Lee's gravesite.  We had dinner on the patio at The Pink Door, which is supposed to be a romantic restaurant, but there was a loud party on the patio, so it was more people watching and laughing than romantic.  Kevin bought me a bracelet from Tiffany's for my anniversary gift!  Since it was our anniversary they gave us complimentary champagne.  We took the Ferry back home and got some beautiful photos of the water.

Seattle Skyline/Ferry

Heading to Canada

We took one weekend to drive to Canada.  We stayed at The Burrard hotel in Vancouver, B.C. on Friday night.  It was kinda cool, a little retro 60s theme happening.  We were amused by all of their signs.  Saturday we ate breakfast at a crepe cafe, explored downtown (shopped at Tiffany & Co - what can I say - I'm spoiled!), and went to Stanley Park. 

Vancouver

Saturday Night we stayed at the Hilton Whistler, which was very nice and very dog friendly.  We had a room on the first floor with a glass door that opened up to our own private gated courtyard.  We took the dogs with us to dinner at the grill on the patio.  They were really well behaved.  Sunday we slept in, had room service for breakfast, and then drove back to Port Orchard. 

I have to say that as much as I love to explore other places, I am always happy to be back home in the USA.  I love being an American and am proud to live in such a great Country.  Every time I pass back into the US, the phrase welcome home as I pass through the border check is music to my ears.

Whistler

Holy Harley

We went to The Oyster Run in .  We drove to Port Townsend and then took the ferry to Coupeville, then drove the rest of the way to Anacortes.  It was about a four hour trip, one way.  The roads were very foggy.  We had lunch, but mostly walked around, checking out the bikes.  The drive back was dark and cold!

Oyster Run

Parting Ways

I had to leave Seattle 5 days before Kevin.  I had to fly to California for work.  I was so sad to leave,  it was just such a fun adventure that I didn't want to end.  I listened to Yesterday by Kitten on the plane ride from Seattle to Long Beach  "I can't even see past yesterday, it's too young", those words were my mantra for the day - I just wanted to go back to yesterday!

Kevin and the dogs took the road trip back home, spending one night in Provo Utah.

Please check out our Seattle Flickr Album for all of our pictures from the trip.

New Mexico/Colorado

Another Holiday, another camping trip with family.  This time we spent time with Kevin's family.  The trip was broken up into three segments.

On our way to Albuquerque

First we spent time in Albuquerque, New Mexico with Kevin's parents.  We traveled out on a Saturday and stayed through Wednesday.  We worked remotely from their house.  We decided to do our own little tour of the Breaking Bad filming locations in town.  In addition we did the Lane family fourth of July tradition of having a BBQ and eating homemade ice cream.

Selfie at Walter White's House [Breaking Bad]

The Dog House [Breaking Bad]

Mom and Kevin

The next segment of the journey was a camping trip to Breckenridge, Colorado with Kevin's sister and her family.   We stayed at a campground right near Dillon Lake.  Colorado was beautiful, very green with lots of mountains.  We watched the Fourth of July parade with the kids, then we rode the gondola up the mountain.  Kevin and I stayed up there and went on the Alpine slide and had lunch at the Ski Hill Grill.  That night we watched fireworks over Dillon Lake.

Stopped at Sonic for Lunch. Traci and Kevin's Trucks and Trailers

Dillon Lake

Breckenridge Gondolas

Alpine Slide

Fireworks over Lake Dillon

The final segment of the trip was an overnight stay in Telluride, Colorado.  We stayed at the Matterhorn Campground, which is right outside Telluride.  After setting up camp, we went into town for some shopping and dinner.  It's monsoon season there, so we were hit with afternoon thunderstorms. We walked around in the rain, and ended up eating at a yummy restaurant called Brown Dog Pizza.  There's just something about a steaming hot slice of pizza when it's cold and rainy outside!

Main Street in Telluride

Brown Dog Pizza

The next morning we caught the gondola from the town of Mountain Village and rode it into Telluride.  We ate breakfast at Maggie's Bakery, and then headed back to Mountain Village.  I really love that little town, I would love to stay in one of the lodges there sometime, although I'm not sure we could afford it!  The town is filled with huge mansions, it's obviously a playground for the rich!

Telluride Gondola

Mansion in the Mountains

We hope you had a fabulous Independence Day!  You can see more pictures HERE.  Oh, and I remembered (mostly) to video on the trip, so you can catch the trip vlog below if you're interested.

Watch on YouTube

Duck Creek - May 23 - 26 2014 [Memorial Day]

We decided to kick off the summer with a camping trip to Duck Creek, Utah with my parents.  We spent most of the time fishing at the lake.  Well, I don't fish, so I read and took pictures.  Everyone else caught quite a few!  I've taken to calling my dad The Fish Whisperer because he can always catch fish even when no one at the lake is catching anything.  Everyone crowds around him and wants to know his secret.  He says he doesn't have one.  I'm not convinced.

We also went on a hike to a meadow and 'The Big Tree' as my family has dubbed it.

We had a 4x4 adventure on our way to the bat caves.  We got lost on some rough back roads that were really meant for ATVs.  Oops! We eventually made it to the caves.  I didn't go in ( I'm extremely claustrophobic), but everyone else did.  Mom and Kevin found a bat, sleeping in a corner of the cave.

What would camping be without a fire, some s'mores, and star gazing?  I love to look up at the night sky.  It's very peaceful to me.  Kevin actually stayed up until 2AM one night waiting for a meteor shower.  He got some good pictures, but he didn't see many meteors.

 

Getting away from my everyday life was very good for me.  I really relaxed and had time to reflect.  I thought about life on a grander scale, and that is always a good thing!

More pictures from our trip can be found HERE.