Our Chicago trip and Corbin's new best friend

We took a much anticipated trip to Chicago to visit a couple of our best friends and their new little boy. I've mentioned them before, Dan and Alexis, and I will probably mention them many times in the future.
We had been wanting to visit them out in Chicago for a while now, and Alexis and I were finally able to convince our men that it was a MUST now that we both have sons. I mean, they needed to meet their future best friend and travel buddy since we are adament that we will always travel together.
It's a good thing that the trip went well and the boys seemed to get along great (as well as a 10 month old and 3 month old can). Dan and Alexis were great tour guides and showed us all around the city. The trip definitely wasn't long enough and we will hopefully be making it back out there again soon.
Here are a couple pictures from our trip. I wasn't a very good tourist and really didn't end up taking many pictures at all.

Walla Walla Weekend

Brian and I headed over to Walla Walla for a little weekend trip recently. We wanted to take a trip over before the baby was born and his mom decided to throw us a little welcome home party/baby shower as well.

The weather was fantastic so we headed out on a drive through the wineries and stopped at one of our favorites for a little wine tasting (well minus me...I had a nice tastey cup of water). Brian even signed us up for the wine club so we have some delicious bottles just waiting for me after this little guy is born.

We spent some time with our good friends Gwen and Steve as well. We finally got to see their new house ... which is ADORABLE ... and we went to the dirt track to cheer Steve on while he raced BMX bikes. It was great to spend some time with them again, since we hadn't really seen them since the wedding.

On Saturday evening, everyone came over for the party and we had a great time catching up with old friends and I finally got to meet some people who are close with the Halls that I had yet to meet. We got some wonderful gifts as well, which is more than appreciated and definitely got us started on stocking up the nursery!

(If I get some pictures from Jan --- hint, hint --- I will post them here later)

On our drive back, we took the round-about way over White Pass and took in the scenery. We passed a few waterfalls and lakes and scouted out a couple campgrounds that I'm thinking we will have to go back and visit in the future.

All in all, it was a great weekend with the in-laws. Who knows when we will be able to make it back over next.

A weekend away...

Brian and I planned a weekend away to Ocean Shores to celebrate our anniversary. (well...Brian planned on surprising me with the trip, but we all know he gets too excited and can't keep secrets so I was included in the planning a few weeks ago.) We figured it would be a great trip, just the two of us, to celebrate a year of wedded bliss and the last getaway before our little man makes his grand debut!
We stayed at a friend's beach house that was right on the canal, which was a nice relaxing change from staying in a hotel.

Brian had never been to Ocean Shores before so we spent most of our time touring around town. We visited the local shops, took a few walks along the beach and just enjoyed the perfect weather. We even took the paddle boat out on the canal (but don't tell my mom!) and gambled away a few dollars at the local casino.

If you were to ask Brian what his favorite part was, I bet he would say driving on the beach. Every time we would drive somewhere, he would drive down to the beach and along the shore until we got to a point where we needed to turn then he would head back out to the main roads.

And of course we did our fair share of eating. We found this fantastic bed and breakfast where we had our "official" anniversary dinner, and it couldn't have been more delicious. Who wouldn't love a four-course meal with homemade clam chowder, steak and lobster overlooking the ocean? Brian did manage to keep one surprise and brought us cupcakes from Indulge for our anniversary cake ... and planned them to replicate the colors and flavors of our actual wedding cake.

All in all, we had a fantastic weekend. It was hard heading back to town, knowing we had to go back to work the next day. Soon enough we will be taking our little bundle of love on ocean trips as a family ... but it was great to have one last trip without worrying about nap times and poopy diapers.

Oh ... and can I tell you how many deer we saw just hanging around the town? I would say we counted at least 20 just wander through the neighborhoods and beaches.