Weekend in Washington & a little bit more...

I spent a very short day and a half in Washington last weekend for my sister Karla's bridal shower. However, I experienced a ton in those 30 hours. I went to a chocolate flower farm and a race car race. I got to hang out with my very cool brother-in-law-to-be AND to my surprise I got to see my brother James. James is currently serving in the US Navy and we haven't seen him in almost 3 years!

*Sorry there are so many pictures, but I have a terrible memory and if I don't have pictures and a blurb to remind me of what happened, a year from now it won't even exist in my memory....sad I know.


First things first. Johnny celebrated his 29th birthday on April 27th, and I forgot to post a tribute to him. Johnny and his dad own hardwood floor and wedding reception businesses. He can fix anything, and according to my sister Karla win the reality TV show, Survivor. He is a self- confessed adrenaline junky and races go-carts and midget race cars. He also has an artistic side and DJ's in clubs around Seattle & at home. We were late catching the ferry back to the mainland on Sunday, luckily Johnny is a real-life race car driver and put those skills to good use to make sure that my mom and I made it to the airport on time. AND most importantly he takes good care of my sister! I am relieved to have another awesome brother-in-law.

James & Emily at Karla & Johnny's house, waiting up to surprise me!

Morning walk, I wanted to run, but my mom and Karla don't like to run, so we took a VERY long walk through Karla's neighborhood.

Breakfast at IHop. James was a good sport, he let me take lots of pictures. Usually he refuses to be photographed.

James & his favorite sisters

James wants to get into music production when he is out of the Navy. He has already laid a couple of tracks that sound really good. This is Johnny's DJ equipment.

Karla's best friend Sara hosted a bridal shower for Karla at the Oasis Cafe. This was by far the fanciest and nicest bridal shower I have ever been to.

Yum!

Emily, Krissy (Karla's sister-in-law) & Janet (Emily's best friend) on the ferry to Whidby Island.

Mom & Emily out on the deck of the ferry.

Yup. It does exsist!

Classic Washington

Emily & Janet enjoying the antique shops in town.

Enjoying the view of Puget Sound from Whidby Island.

31 Things I love About Shawn

I am a little behind in posting for Shawn's 31st Birthday. He turned 31 last Friday, May 1st. In my opinion it wasn't as great as it could've been. I had to work late on his birthday and go back to work on Saturday morning to finish our Month End closing. And I was stressed out about my final papers for my class, but Shawn claims that he had a wonderful birthday and I am glad.

Shawn's birthday was a weekend long extravaganza. It started Friday morning when I surprised him by decorating the downstairs and serving Orange Rolls for breakfast courtesy of Philsbury. Friday night my parents, John & Adam came over and had Papa John's Pizza with us and we watched a classic, Pirates of the Caribbean. Saturday afternoon we had some friends over for cake and ice cream and Sunday we had the entire BullenNosekWarrenYoung family over for more cake and ice cream. I thought it would be funny to use trick candles for Shawn's cake...well 31 candles that don't burn out right away is not REALLY a good idea. The cake looked like it was on fire when all the candles were lit. The chocolate on the cake started to melt and the kitched started to fill with smoke. I guess Shawn is too old for that many trick candles.






I wanted to do something differentfor Shawn's birthday tribute and list 31 one things I love about him.
1. Shawn's smile.
2. Shawn has very shaped nice hands.
3. Shawn is one of those people that likes and actually laughs at commericals.
4. Shawn is a wonderful artist. And I love how creative he is, I offer his services all the time.
5. Shawn's wit, for those of you that know him really well, he is a pretty funny guy.
6. Shawn's patience. In 10 years, I have never seen Shawn lose his temper.
7. He is a clean boy, couldn't have lived with someone who wasn't!
8. Is an EXCELLENT dad.
9. He loves Star Wars, but he isn't a true geek. He has a good balance.
10. He makes the bed in the mornings when I go to work.
11. He knows how to iron his own clothes, but lets me do it, because he know I like it.
12. He is wonderful cook and doesn't need to follow a reciepe for it to turn out right.
13. He makes phone calls, that I don't want to make.
14. He likes to read.
15. He is comfortable talking to different groups of people, and he gets along with everyone.
16. He can play the guitar.
17. He loves cartoons.
18. He know something about computers.
19. He researches items suchs as computers, software or bluetooths, etc before buying them.
20. He actually reads the instructions.
21. He keeps trying really hard to surprise me, even though I ruin it 95% of the time.

22. He is an excellent photographer, even if sometimes he takes pictures of random things, like bugs up close.

23. He is creative and artistic, an excellent balance to my logical and practical side.
24. He is as bad at math as I am.
25. He has nice hand writing.
26. He kind of strurts when he walks.
27. He is really picky about our DVD's, they have to look new and unused all the time.
28. He knows how to camp, set up a tent and build a blazing fire.
29. He loves to travel as much as I do.
30. He loves electronic gadets.
31. He loves me unconditionally!

Happy Birthday to my favorite person in the WHOLE world!

Tribute: Kara & Tyler

Happy Anniversary to Kara and Tyler Willis. Yay 1 year!

Kara and Tyler met in jr high school while they were doing crosscountry skiing at Soldier Hollow. As far as we can tell, aside from a few hiccups here and there, these guys were pretty much made for each other.

Kara and Tyler both like to be outside in the mountains and skiing is one of their outdoor passions. They also love to travel. Tyler is an entrepreneur at heart and is very good at it. Kara is studying Elementary Ed and has about a year left.

They decided to honor me by being married on my birthday: May 1st.

Congratulations Kara and Tyler!

Phyllis Parkinson Jensen

If you didn't know my Grandma Jensen it's too bad! She was the most loving, positive, upbeat, optimistic, and faithful person I've ever known. You know the "sweet, little, old grandma" stereotype? My grandma invented that.

She passed away peacefully last week. I was able to attend the funeral and spend time with the family and with Grandpa. It was a really good weekend.

This picture perfectly captures Grandma and Grandpa's relationship:
58 years together!

Grandma and Grandpa would look at themselves in this mirror and laugh (Grandma always talked about how healthy it is to laugh). They regularly did their laughing exercises where they would just sit and laugh. This was very contagious :)

I took Grandpa on a little temple tour. We went to the Ochre Mountain and Draper temples. Grandma and Grandpa spent a lot of time working in various temples so these are really special places for them. Afterwards, we feasted at Cafe Rio!

We'll miss you Grandma but we'll see you again!