We escaped! (and oh hi, I'm back!)

Hi! After nearly a three year hiatus I'm finally getting around to some writing again. I definitely imagined writing more and always thought I'd slowly shift over to blogging about being a mom, but in the end time and brain space and passion just didn't quite align. Our love of travel is still just as strong as always and traveling with our kids is something we look forward to doing more and more, so it's time to start recapping trips and sharing stories again.

Last month I flew up to Seattle for 26 hours. With two small children getting away by myself has been tricky but thanks to Mark's flexible schedule I was able to pull of flying up for a friend's birthday party. His genius wife booked us one of the puzzle/escape rooms and I did not want to miss out! Poor Mark didn't get to join but he was great sport and next time he should be able to come too.

Prior to this night, I had only ever heard of escape rooms from the episode of the Big Bang Theory when the zombie tells the group "no refund for escaping early." However, the premise of a bunch of my favorite people put together in a themed room to solve a variety of puzzles had me thinking why didn't I come up with this business? And is there a such thing as a season pass?

After watching an episode of Race to Escape to get in the right mindset, we headed through traffic to Capitol Hill. Our event was at Puzzle Break and although we have no other escape rooms to compare to, we thought the moderators did a fabulous job.

At the briefing we were encouraged to work together, communicate, and have fun. As a group of friends we've been together for nearly 15 years and most of us learned to work together in student leadership long before we had things like careers and kids. Needless to say we felt confident that teamwork wasn't going to be our downfall. The moderator's spiel was hilarious yet informative and set us all in the mood to feel clever.

The room itself was brilliantly yet simply themed and we immediately got to work. Once the door shut we had 60 minutes to solve enough puzzles to find the key to escape. There were more than enough challenging puzzles and objects to work with for our group of 12 and we all had something in the room that needed a different type of brain to solve. It was fast paced but did not feel stressful. A few times the moderators gave us some simple hints such as "you have all the information you need" or "there is nothing else in that box" but they later told us that relative to most groups we had very little moderator help.

We escaped the room in 56:32 and felt extremely proud of ourselves. Apparently less than 14% of the groups escape so that statistic only added to our collective ego. It was a dream to work so seamlessly with friends who are used to getting shit done. We all agreed that it would have been much harder and less fun to work with strangers. And while it definitely would make an awesome team building experience, having a wide variety of professions and fields of study between us was certainly one thing that made our group especially strong.

We're already dreaming of our next escape room and considering some of the other companies out there as well as returning to Puzzle Break. Have you ever done an escape room? Did you love it as much as I did?

Summer Camp

Last weekend I got to do the most awesome thing ever: go to summer camp with three of my good friends! The four of us have been friends pretty much since the first day of PreSchool Drills (aka band camp) when we were all clarinet rookies together. The last eleven years have thrown a lot of life at us and when we realized we had the chance to go to camp together, we didn't hesitate. (Unfortunately this was the same weekend as the LSU game so several of our other girlfriends couldn't make it.)

Jenn, Me, Annie, Emily at the end of camp

Camp Sweyolakan is the Campfire summer camp where Annie went as a camper and later worked as staff. Emily is a Roganunda alum (sadly the camp has been sold and is no longer a Campfire camp) and Jenn hails from Camp Sealth. Though I had camp experience it was definitely nothing like a true summer camp so this was a first for me! We went to camp's Women's Retreat, which was about 80 women reliving the good old days of camp.

Dust Devil at a rest stop in Eastern Washington

Camp is in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. We road tripped across the state and made it to camp in the early evening. Our 7.5 hour drive flew by since we pretty much didn't stop talking the entire time.

Carbon Copy loading up campers

We got to take a boat from the parking area to camp. The lake was a lot bigger than I imagined and it was gorgeous!

Emily & Me on the way to camp

The dining hall was very iconic. It fits everything you ever imagined summer camp to be. Since I spent some of my summer camps (cough band camps) staying in college dorms, this was especially novel!

Dining Hall Porch

We all enjoyed a weekend of not cooking, doing dishes, or worrying about chores! We also especially enjoyed extra desserts and camp hot chocolate.

Dining Hall 

The first night of camp ended with a campfire, s'mores, and traditional campfire songs. I am now officially on a hunt for lyrics and recordings of camp songs so that I can learn them all.

After starting out in another unit (for all of five minutes) we switched over to staying in Connemara. All of the shelters in camp were open air but these let us stay on the second floor in a nearly empty unit. Awesome does not even begin to describe the shelters. 

Our cabin, Kerry

Cabin roof

Not pictured: the giant tin of candy that we ate while hanging out on our bunks. We may have forgot we were grown ups for a bit.

Emily's bunk

 It really was open air!

Jenn's bunk

The views from our cabin were pretty spectacular. We stole mattresses from empty bunks so we could sleep a bit more comfortably.

Home Sweet Home for the weekend

 Have I mentioned the views? It was so wonderful to spend a weekend in the woods!

On Saturday we conquered the ropes course. As a camp newbie, I was also the only one who had never done a high ropes course. When I say "high" I mean it. I think the course was about 50 feet off the ground!

Me climbing up the rope tube

I'm feeling pretty confident here 

In this picture (above) I haven't realized yet that I won't be able to reach the clip ins and I will have to stand with one leg on a tiny 3 inch peg while I reach precariously out to clip into a wire that is six inches past my reach. I actually came to the conclusion that it just wasn't possible for me to reach but the girls reminded me that if I wanted to do the zipline I had to complete the course. So after some pretty intense strategizing I managed to get clipped in to the next challenge!

Me on the second challenge

It was REALLY high. After I finished the second challenge (the first was the rope tube) the facilitator asked me if it was fun and I very emphatically told him NO. Don't worry, I later changed my mind.

Not zoomed in

After the that challenge I was met with yet another round of trying to figure out how to unclip and clip in to the next challenge. Again I announced that it simply couldn't be done, and again I was reminded that I had to finish the course if I wanted to do the zipline. So I dug deeper and thought smarter and figured out how to reach the dang wire to clip in.

Me waltzing across the steps

Interestingly enough I didn't find the actual challenges all that hard. Probably if I didn't spend a ton of time and effort trying to clip in to them I would have over thought them and freaked out a bit.

Here I am trying to reach the clips. 

Finally, I only had one challenge left before the zipline. Again, I could not figure out how to get those darn clips transfered! The girls (who may know me better than myself at this point in life) told me to just sit there for 10 or 15 minutes while I tried to figure it out. While resting, I was talking with a few more people on the ground and one of them was two inches shorter than me. She helped me strategize reaching the clips and I was really motivated by the fact that someone shorter than me managed to do it.  (read: my competitive edge kicked in)

Video (top) is of me finishing the last challenge. Video (below) is of me finally doing the zipline, which was a bucket list item for me!

After I finished the course the other three girls took their turns.

Jenn taking the leap of faith

Annie on the Tarzan ropes

Emily walking across a log (that happens to be really high in the air!)

Emily way up high

Unfortunately the video I took of Emily's zip line didn't turn out. But she took that thing upside down... as in on her way down she swung her feet up in the air and went flying head down! Crazy camper!

The ropes course was really, really challenging for me. I can honestly say it was a harder mental challenge than running a half marathon. When I ran my half, there was not a single moment that I thought it was impossible. However, on the ropes course, three different times I faced challenges that I genuinely thought I physically could not do. But I did them anyways!! And it was extra special to have such good friends there supporting me and conquering the ropes course for themselves too.

Emily, Jenn, Annie

After the excitement of the ropes course, we did some light hiking and explored the rest of camp. Then, while waiting for our turn in the war canoe, the camp director announced that we were going to get to put one of the refurbished canoes into the water for her maiden voyage!!! All we had to do was help carry her down the hill.

We ended our weekend with another campfire, a relaxed morning, and the long drive back to Seattle (which was of course filled with nonstop chatter.)

Summer Camp for grown ups was really, really fantastic. We can't wait to go again next year, though we might try out a different camp or possibly family camp so the boys can come too. Who's coming with us? 

Rain and Showers

I just got back from spending four fantastic days in Seattle. I think this is a record for shortest time in between visits! Our very good friends Emily and Nathan (Check out Emily's stamping over at stamped and delivered) are having a baby so we decided to throw them a shower. Together with my good friend Annie, we planned a DIY shower full of crafty fun.

I flew in on Thursday and spent the afternoon shopping with Emily. Few things are better than spending the afternoon at the mall with a good friend! Living far away my trips are often filled with very focused bouts of visiting time, parties, and activities. The luxury of an afternoon at the mall made me ~almost~ feel like I was home.

Thursday night through Saturday was filled with girlfriends, shower prep, and so much baby talk! Annie made a fantastic cake...

Christie made a really beautiful paper sign...

Cat and Annie constructed the diaper cake...

I made the favors (heat/ice packs filled with rice, flax seeds, and lavender)...

And somehow all the food got made too!

At the shower we played pictionary with baby themed items. Not surprisingly the couple in the group who already has a kid totally rocked this! Carley cleverly illustrated "PackNPlay". She's got a little one on the way too, due just a month after Emily.

Maija took a turn at pictionary. She drew a BIG baby! (Looks like an ultrasound to me!)

Finally we took a big group picture and eventually had to say our goodbyes. Suddenly we are older, grown up, at that age where everyone is having babies and jobs and houses and they are so with it. I came home with the edge of baby giddiness worn off and a little bit weary about my friends getting old! Luckily I'm not anywhere near as old and not nearly half as successful as they are hehe.Here we are, all old and grown up and just the thought makes me overcome with an urge to do something completely irresponsible.

I want to talk for a bit about pictures and beginner photography. So for those of you only tuning in to stalk my life, feel free to tune out now. Up until recently Mark and I have been taking pictures in the beginner mode known as "auto/no flash", AKA "point and shoot". This has been working out in our favor as we have been taking a lot of pictures outdoors or in very well lit areas. A few times Mark has had the time and patience to mess with the settings. An example is the amazing pictures he got of the St. Louis Arch. To be fair to myself, I have messed around a lot with the preprogrammed settings like "kid" or "pet" or "sports" and I have read enough about cameras to not feel dumb when other people talk about them. Ultimately though neither of us have really truly set the camera in manual and made it fly. However, after looking through our pictures from the shower we saw that they turned out a little less than fantastic and that has us pondering how to make future pictures better.

So the debate is this. Should we have shot in the dim indoor setting with the flash? We have a crappy flash. Mark wonders if we had a really nice flash if that would have helped. Or should we have shot in... gasp.... manual... with a wider aperture and F-Stop or some other configuration. Those of you real photographers out there can stop laughing now. But we're learning as we go, and this was this first real "huh" moment for us and to be honest the first time that shooting in plain old auto/no flash didn't give us pictures we felt really happy with. Here are the two group shots: one with flash and one without. Clearly the flash picture turned out better. Now we know!

I'm not entirely convinced a flash (even a nice one) would have done the trick. But alas, I can't go back and retake the exact pictures again with different manual settings. I can play with the pictures in picnik and expose them a little more and saturate the colors and what not. I did that with this cake picture and feel "okay" about the results vs. time and effort.

From what I've been able to tell is that a lot of photographers really value the time and effort spend on photoshop or other picture editing programs as far as making their pictures look good. I don't agree or disagree with this style of picture making, but I do have a goal (and so does Mark) of making the straight-out-of-the-camera shot as good as it possibly can be. My reasoning for this is that why do with a mouse and arrows and 15 minutes what you can do with a twist and click in 5 seconds on the camera? Plus, realistically, just getting those pictures off the SD card, into Picasa, sorted, and uploaded is kind of a miracle. I say let's make them come out of the camera as good as we can!

Regardless of what mode to be shooting in, one thing's for certain. The more pictures we take, the better we'll be! Oh... and I think we might also need a tripod.

Seattle Christmas, 2010

After four days in Illinois, it was time say our goodbyes and catch our flight to Seattle. I just checked my calendar and Christmas was our 5th (FIFTH!) trip to Seattle in 2010. If it seems like we're always there... well we are! Over the last five and half years we seem to be averaging somewhere between four and six trips per year, though they are usually very short. We were excited to be able to spend eight days with family.

If you were to look at our pictures, you might think the only exciting thing that happened was putting Christmas ribbons on the cats.

Mme. Batch

Mr. Oscar

Miss Cleo 

Mark, holding Oscar and Cleo

This is in fact a lie propagated by the cats and their interest in keeping themselves at the center of our attention. But the truth is that our week was filled with a lot more than cats. We hung out with friends, spent time with family, and generally enjoyed not rushing for once!

We even had time to go over to Bremerton to see some of my mom's side of the family. We took the ferry to and from Bremerton. It was a rainy day but we still enjoyed the ride (ask me sometime why I love ferries). How many people can say they spent a little of the holidays with so many branches of their family? We were truly fortunate this Christmas.

We also managed to find time to go skiing, but the trusty camera stayed at home and the snowy day did not lend to great pictures. The other really cool thing we did was go to the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Seattle Center. This was a Christmas present from my mother-in-law (MIL WIN!!!) and it was really awesome! Unfortunately though, there were absolutely no pictures allowed and there just is no sneaking around with our DSLR. It was still a fantastic afternoon and an extremely well done exhibition, even to my very picky fan eyes.

Even the longest trips come to an end though, and soon we were saying our goodbyes and flying home. Till the next time, Seattle!