Livin' the life...

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Location: Maple Valley, Washington

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

View our photos...


Doug and Carol

Yes I know - it's really BIG NEWS.... but it was more fun to write the other way :) Check our pictures on Doug's flickr site by clicking on the above photo - they have more descriptions and whatnot... So enjoy these... And more to come...

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

A little news...

So now the news you've been waiting for... I finally became an e-bay member. :) Oh - that's not what you were expecting me to say? Well some of you are just checking out my webpage to look for pictures, but others of you may not know the actual real news... Doug bought a new kite! Well he did. And he had a wonderful time flying it a week ago at Ocean Shores. Although he told me his favorite part of flying the kite was watching his fiance fall over while trying to fly it! :) Yep, that's right - that kite knocked me right over a few times by the big pull it had. Oh, was that not the most exciting part? Okay, yes, it's true, Doug proposed to me and I gladly accepted. It was a perfect weekend. Doug and I were in Ocean Shores for Generational Hope's (Doug's church's) family camp a week and a half ago. He talked me into skipping out on the services on Friday night to go have dinner. So we went to the Waves restaurant at the Best Western and split a delicious meal of clam chowder, steak, and crab legs. We finished at the perfect time to make it down to the beach by sunsest. Doug built a fire and we sat by it and enjoyed the beautiful and romantic sunset on out own little stretch of beach. Then we were just sitting there talking about how fun our relationship has been and how greatful we are that God brought us together. I said something about not having any questions about us being together, which gave Doug the perfect opportunity to say "Well I have a question for you..." At that point my heart jumped because i realized what he was going to do. He then pulled a ring out of his pocket and asked me to be his wife. Doug tells me I said 'really? Is this for real?' Yes - It is for real - my dreams are coming true! I get to marry my best friend whom i love with all my heart. Doug and I match so well in so many ways and I see God's fingerprints all over our lives. Just in the many little ways that we compliment each other, fit together so well, and have fun together no matter what we're doing. I'm so excited to know that I get to spend a lifetime with Doug. This is what I've dreamed of for my life - to fall in love and marry an amazing man of God with whom I can raise a family... and this is the beginning of that chapter of our lives. We had a fun time telling friends and family about our engagement - both those who were there at family camp and those across the country and across the world. We'll keep you updated on wedding plans as they come along... Right now we're still leaning towards a winter wedding - December or February most likely, but haven't set a definate date yet. Things have been so busy! Many of you who i've talked to but haven't seen have wanted to see a picture of the beautiful ring Doug bought for me. I've put some pictures on flickr - you can get to them by clicking on the picture on this blog - and I will be adding a few more soon. My parents are visiting from Virginia this week - so we're having lots of fun and keeping plenty busy. We went up to Victoria last weekend and took lots of pictures. We made sure to get a picture of my ring in front of some flowers at the Butchart Gardens... I'll post some of those when i can get to it! So until then...

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Wonders never cease!!!

Who would have thought that you CAN actually have a sunny July 4th in the Seattle area?!?!?!?! :) Well this year proved that anything is possible as we enjoyed a beautiful summer day with sunshine and 80 degree weather on July 4th this year. It was the perfect day for the activities I had planned. I was able to go to a friend's house for a BBQ and lake party - filled with boating, jet skiing, and swimming, as well as friends, food, and fun. :) I never realized how many muscles you can use to stay on those Seadoos until Tuesday when i could barely move without having to say 'ooofta' because of my sore muscles! It was a lot of fun though. Of course the lake I was on is a smaller lake and it has restricted hours when you can go over 5 miles per hour on any water craft... so on the 4th of July you can only go fast between 11 and 3. On a beautiful holiday that makes for a LOT of people out on the lake at that time. So there were quite some waves to ride over on that jet ski. I only threw myself off one time though! After that i was afraid i'd be run over by a boat if i flew off again... so I tried to stay on. Perhaps i'll leave my next water adventures for a less busy day!

Anyway, during the day Doug was at his friend Bill's house setting up for the fireworks show that night. Fortunately he was finished early enough to come by the lake and take a quick swim. We had an adenture with the paddleboat... Those things always seem to look more fun than they actually are though. Doug was gracious enough to get in the paddle boat with me even though he didn't really want to... We had to scoop a few buckets of water out of the boat after we were both in it... but it floated for us :) I think those things are built for smaller people who have shorter legs... Next time i'll just swim out to the floating dock and back rather than trying to paddle... much easier i'm sure! :)

So for our evening we both went over to Bill's house and enjoyed another BBQ. We had some time to test fly the small model airplane I'd given Doug for his birthday. Of course we crashed it a few times... or i should say Doug flew the plane and i crashed it... but it was fun. The battery only runs the motor for about 3 minutes, so they were all rather short flights! It was fun to try it out! Neither of us have flown those before, so it was a learning curve. It'll be fun to play with some this summer. Then of course our evening concluded with a fireworks show put on by Doug and Ryan. They did a great job with it! We thoroughly enjoyed the bonus bangs that
Eric provided for Doug to include in the show! Thanks Eric!!! All in all it was a great holiday and a fun celebration of our country. Of course during the day i didn't even hear one patriotic song... so on my way home that night i had to think of all the patriotic songs i knew and sang them to myself in the car... just to make the holiday feel complete. :) Oh beautiful for spacious skies.....

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Celebration...

This past weekend Doug and I went out for dinner with family and friends at a cute little place called B&O Espresso in Seattle. We all got together to celebrate Doug's birthday, which was a week beforehand. Doug and I had spent a wonderful day together on his actual birthday... but his sisters wanted to take him out too... and niether of us were going to argue! It's always fun to spend time with his sisters and their husbands. And this time we were joined by his cousin Suzanne, her husband Skyler, and our friend Taracina. We enjoyed a delicious meal and a lot of good company. It was great to spend an evening with wonderful friends, and enjoying the atmosphere of the city. It is nice to take the journey downtown every-so-often :) The city really does have a lot to offer! Thanks to those of you who helped to make Doug feel as special as he is for his birthday. :)