Is it really the end of October already??

Wow what a weekend it was for Nick and I!

Yesterday Nick left the house at 6 am to go riding with his buddy Ryan on their quads. They got a good 6 hour ride in before having to head back home. I had to work yesterday and when I got home Nick and I headed out to an Oktoberfest party at Nick's co-workers house. We stayed there for a couple of hours and then headed up North to the Tulalip Casino to celibrate our friends 30th birthday. We had a good time but both didn't like the smoke! I asked Nick if he thought that people could still smoke in the casino since it's on the reservation and he didn't think so. We were wrong! There were people smoking everywhere. Our clothes stunk when we left and Nick's contacts were foggy from all of the smoke.

On Sunday - I headed out around noon to pick up some balloons for Lesley's "older lady" bridal shower. It was really fun and nice to see some of her family.

After the shower I headed back home to pick up Nick for Amelia's 2nd birthday party. Below are some pictures from it.

It's been a very busy weekend and I'm really looking forward to next weekend!! It's our 1st anniversary! Can you believe it.. it's been a year already. We are going up on Saturday to Whidbey Island for 2 nights. We're staying at The Inn at Langley, where Nick and I have stayed before. He took me there for a weekend and had everything planned out including a picnic and a massage! I'm REALLY looking forward to the time together.

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY AMELIA JAYMZ HUDSON!!!

She's saying "CHEESE" in this picture. Can't you tell?

Her bother Joey got to pick out the cake. haha! It's Halloween themed. She really didn't mind.

So when Nick and I last saw my parents they hooked us up with an air purifier (I've been bugging my mom for a long time to give me one!) and this is a picture of the cats right after I plugged it in and turned it on. Cats are so funny and VERY curious!! Just about everything I do they are right there behind me to check it out. Even though it makes loud snapping sounds every once in awhile.. the cats are not scared of it. =)

This is good.

When Nick and I got home tonight we turned on the 2nd Transformers movie (Revenge of the Fallen) turned up the subwoofer and this is a picture of Chester getting into it! I think it was because of how loud it was and the stars moving across the screen. Funny, huh?

Almost forgot!

Did you really think I would post an update without some sort of really cute picture of one of our cats?!?! Here's a flashback. This is Chester when he was about 6 months old. To this day he still loves to be inside baskets, bags, cupboards.. and so much more!

The colors of fall time..

Hi.

Nick was sick all last week and missed 3 days of work. He had some sort of stomach bug and was even in bed 2 days straight. He's back to normal now thank goodness! It's not fun when he's sick. He's sceduled to go down to San Francisco next Tuesday for a night so I'm glad he's feeling better.

Work has been interesting for me. My assistant manager has been transfered to another branch in our area and her last day is the end of this month. I still don't have a replacement hired but there's been about 9 applicants. I'll be sure and keep you posted.

It's been cooler latley and I broke out my heating blanket for our bed! Chester just loves it. He sleeps at my feet every night. I usually have it turned on to 6 out of 10.

Here are some of the Halloween cards that I made a couple of "stamp camps" ago. The one on the right says "trick or tweet". Super cute!

The card on the left I colored in the moon, windows and tombstones. The card on the right is one of my favorites. I just love the colors. I used a sponge for all of the colors. The moon was a circle cutout. Cool, huh? I've had a lot of fun with stamping. I've mailed some other Halloween cards out to some family members. I also made my dad's b-day card that I gave to him tonight. I would show you what it looks like but I made one just like it for my sister Niki. Guess you'll have to wait and see it in January.

At every stamp camp Sue and I exchange with 3 other woman cards that we have made ahead of time. This is my exhange card for the upcoming camp. I'm not sure if you can tell but the part with the moon "pops out" a little. I had a good time making them!

This is from our front yard and that's not all the leaves that are going to fall.

It's been really stormy here the last day or two.

The wind has been blowing and it's been raining a ton!!

This tree is more of a yellow color now.

You can see a little bit of green in the bottom left of the picture.

One of my favorites. This is right outside of our front door.

I love looking at the colors every morning while I am leaving for work.

I wish these colors would stick around longer. They all seem to fall so fast.

Boys vs. Girls

Nick went up to Anchorage AK. for a weekend. He left on Thursday night and came back on Monday night. His buddy from college lives up there with his wife and daughter. Here are a few of the shots that Nick got while he was there.

Believe it or not.. this moose is one of many that live in Mike's backyard. Nick took this shot from the sliding glass door on the lower level. Pretty cool, huh? We'll call this moose Gus.

This is Mike.

The boys took a boat out on the upper Kenai River.

Fall colors!! This shot is SO beautiful. Nick and I were up there during November (a year before we got married). By that time all of these colors were gone and there was lots of snow on the ground.

I spy a bald eagle.

Nick took this shot while waiting for Mike to fill up his truck at a gas station. Just a reminder of all the beauty around us that we often times don't take a moment to take it all in.

Lesley's getting married on November 14th!!

She was a good sport about wearing this crown when we were wine tasting!

So.. 13 of us girls got together for a fun-filled day in Sunvale .. JK.. Sunnyside, WA. It's about 3 hours away from Seattle. I can't remember the name of the hotel that we stayed in but if you need a nice place to stay I would recommend it. ;-)

This is the "party bus" that we took around town. We had rented it for 6 hours and used it for every minute!

I took this shot at the first winery that we went to. The people there were not that nice. Maybe it had something to do with 13 of us walking in without an appointment? Funny, I don't remember the name of this place.

Lesley and Lisa. Kelly is in the background.

Starting at the top: Lisa, Anna, Sheri, Kelly, Nicole, Julia, Lesley, Lorrie, Neli, Sheena, Devry and Melissa.

Neli and Kelly.

Funny story. Lisa and Julia ordered these things called "wine wipes" as a little party favor for all of us girls. Julia thought it would be funny to tell us that they were orange flavored. They really do work but I think it's because they taste more like baking soda. =)

I still have mine if you would like to try one out.

All of us girls at the end of our bus ride. We all had a great time!

There's a funny story about this picture. On our way back to the hotel Sheena asked the driver to take us to Wal-Mart. We each had a limit of $5 to spend and we needed to buy something for Lesley on her wedding night or what we thought she would need. We all had some really good laughs from Wal-Mart including Melissa almost getting beat up for asking a guy to help her to get a tinker bell pinata down. His wife almost beat Melissa up because he didn't work there!

Lesley ended up with chocolates, a pregnancy test and so much more!! She got to pick her favorite and I was second runner up with the bubble bath, beer and skittles. Anna took the prize with Lesley's favorite.. green olives and some scope to freshen her breath up.

Chester watched after Gizmo while Nick and I were both gone. He really missed us. =)