The Bial Wedding

we have these two friends who tried to slip off to mexico to get married. when they returned to the states, the said they 'were married...sort of.' something got tied up with their paperwork and were unable to get legally married. while they were able to go through the spiritual ceremony, they had to call us in for the legal ceremony. while we thought that the legal ceremony should be performed on a metro bus, we all opted for the lovely renton piazza; the site of many weddings!

Kris Ann & Jon [Bride & Groom]
they stole our camera.

the bride and groom with The Reverend Wesley Van Doren.
while wesley's reverend-osity is a whole other story, it should
be known that he is wearing jon's judicial graduation robe.

the reverend planned out the whole ceremony. declaration of marriage,
poem of love, and pronouncement of the married.

the declaration of marriage got me a little choked up. i'm
glad that jon had a tissue in his pocket.

andrea reading the poem of love got me again.

finishing up my interpretive dance to the poem of love.

the rev pronouncing the marriage.

the kiss.

the rev pronounce jon and kris ann husband and wife!

it's so happy....it makes me sad [if that makes sense].

the newlyweds cutting the cake [sort of.] it was a beautiful ceremony
and we wish the couple a life filled with love and happiness!

birthdays, bbq, and whiffleball

we were invited to a birthday bbq and whiffle ball tournament by our friends matt and danelle. since i'm not one to turn down bbq...or whiffle ball...or matt and danelle for that fact, we excepted the invite and headed out to maple valley for a sunny sunday.

fun was had by all, and all were had by fun. [yeah, whatever that means!]

here's a brief synopsis of the whiffle balling.

the birthday boy: matt. complete with an old school
seattle mariner lid.

it was a couples tournament: couple versus couple. the girls
were more competitive then the boys; if you can't tell by the photo.
the couples were, from left to right:
danelle and matt v, andrea and brook t,
megan and matt t, and kayla and aaron y.

andrea was a killer pitcher...i'm glad i didn't have to hit
off of her!

the playing field.

mighty casey. yes, i struck out two or three times. you should
never swing for the fences in whiffle ball...unless you are a fan
of dislocated shoulders!

slugger. she scored two runs... and my heart.

happy early birthday matt! we'll play whiffle ball whenever you want.
but first, i think i need to go ice down my shoulder!

Little Si Trail

[note: sarcasm used generously]

with the sun shining bright, we hit the road to conquer little si. located in north bend, wa, little si boasts an inspiring elevation of 1576 feet and is quite a popular rock climbing area.

if you inspect this photo closely, you should see two of those climbers.

the majority of the hike is through old growth forests, with hints of
a temperate rain forest. [read: lots of shade and moss...

and crazy roots!]

at points the old growth opens to views of boulder
fields/collapses...

and panoramics of mount si.

after an hour and a half of hiking, mostly uphill,
we stand victorious on the summit.
[this is my new favorite photo of andrea! ]

that's right, victorious. 1576 feet!

that's mount si in the background. once the snow melts on mount si
we will conquer that as well! all 4,167 ft!

here's the usgs benchmark to prove our summit!

as we were celebrating, we notice a geo-cache between a rock
and shrub: pull that out and sign the log book! we need to note
this crap!

tuckered out...and ready to relax!

we spend about an hour relaxing and taking in the views
of north bend below.

this is how we decompress.

[for my friend mike. you would have liked it.]
andrea wants to get a fern once we settle into a house...
i totally agree.

andrea thoroughly enjoying the moss on the rocks! :)

after two hours and fifty minutes of meandering up and down
this hill, i feel we will return. maybe on a less crowded day, maybe
with sleeping bags to nap the day away on the summit!

whidbey island | half marathon

this past weekend we ventured up to fidalgo and
whidbey islands for andrea to run the whidbey island
half marathon. mt baker, another volcanic mountain
in the cascade range, looms over this northern area of
the puget sound like mt rainier lurks over our part.

the flowers were in full swing for the skagit county
tulip festival. though we didn't spend too much time,
it was hard to resist getting out and taking some
photographs.

we couldn't help but glaring out over the colorful
fields.

looking for the tulips in the field of daffodils.

we passed through anacortes; a ship building town.
much like seattle's rainier, you can't go many places and not
see baker.

one day, yes, one day...we will live here.

we spent saturday night at deception pass in
our home...i mean tent. we slept in our tent...
although it feels more like home then our tiny
apartment!

the pacific coast sunset from the deception pass
bridge held our attention for more than thirty
minutes.

that's right, you better watch out for
number 1547! we awoke to a cold sunday
morning and headed down to oak harbor
for the whidbey island 'green' marthon.
supposedly the first 'green' marathon.

about 1500 runners ran the half marathon (not including walkers or full marathoners.)
number 1547 was breakin' through to the front!

as a spectator of marathons, i get to drive to random
locations and wait for my beautiful runner to come
cruising by! since the whidbey island marathon had the
most jacked up course i've seen to date, i got a chance
to peruse the landscape. this landscape will be hard to
beat. i got to wait for an hour, with a camera, next to
the ocean!

this is our current desktop background.
it should be yours too!

this is the straight of juan de fuca.

here comes my beautiful runner! she's in teal!
[cheer!]

after this photo i had to jump in the car and race
three miles to the finish line. i was hoping andrea
didn't beat me!

to finish the marathon the runners had to
run a lap on the oak harbor wildcat's track.
here is number 1547 cruising to the end of her
second half marathon!

a little tired, but fulfilled!
notice the recycled glass marathon bling!

andrea with her marathon completion gift.
a rock.
from the above mentioned beach. i knew she
would love it! it's on our mantle now!

on the way to the ferry to go home, we drove through
one of our favorite towns; langley. i had to stop and get
a mocha at one of our favorite coffee houses:
useless bay coffee company.