Northwest Flower and Garden Show

I cannot believe how February flew by! The first weekend of the month, Keith and I spent a couple of nights in downtown Seattle. We attended the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in the downtown convention center. What a great way to be inspired and get one in the mood for Spring!

A picture perfect potting bench! (hint, hint - Keith)

I loved this planter - a mix of natural wood and industrial metal complete with beautiful flowers (I want to say larkspur or delphinium, but I'm not sure. Keith....where are you?)

Isn't it wonderful?

Loved these sweet little flowers - again, I had to ask Keith what they were and have since forgotten. I love picking his brain when I see something I want to know the name of!

Can you imagine this on the wall of your home? Gorgeous!

I loved these metal pots (galvanized metal?). Sorry the pictures aren't the best. Crazy indoor lighting. All of these flowers were forced/greenhouse flowers. It wasn't quite tulip season.

Cute metal garden trellis - I think I see a project for Jordan in his near future. . . .

Isn't this a fun chair for a garden? There's an abandoned one out of driftwood near our house that I've been dying to ask if the landowners will let me take home. I just haven't gotten up the courage to ask and I know Keith already thinks I'm a little cuckoo for wanting it. But I can just see it in the garden of our beach house - uh, you know . . . the one we're going to have in a few short years (wink, wink).

Bad lighting and you can't tell how MASSIVE this tree was. I'm still wondering how they got it up 3 or 4 flights of stairs and set up indoors as well as securing it so it wouldn't topple on the crowds if bumped.

An outdoor retreat. What you can't see is that the back wall under the plants had a water feature/waterfall. What a peaceful place to relax!

The show even had a couple of booths with my favorite kinds of vintage wares.

An unfocused picture that I'm embarrassed to post, but I just had to show you. It's not my taste, but I appreciated the whimsy of this canoe mantle. It was beautiful wood, too!

The rustic wood and stone combination was a nice idea.

More beautiful flowers under bad lighting.

A unique garden gate.

Fun checkerboard moss carpet!

A very whimsical table for a garden theme: stepping stone chargers, burlap napkins, fairy garden, twiggy table. Cute idea! But I'd have to post a sign - no leggy spiders, wiggly worms or hungry ants are invited!

Fabulous cut flowers and timeless ivy.

Love hydrangea!

An example of ingenuity. The chair, pillow on chair, picture frame, chandelier, rug, and even the dog are made out of some form of vegetation.

Did you enjoy the tour? We did, but it was even better in person! We had a great weekend complete with dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, shopping at Anthropologie, some treats from See's Candies, and good ol' city immersion.

Mountain Springs Lodge

Last Saturday, we left home in the wee hours of the morning, stopped to pick up our niece, and drove up to the snow in Leavenworth, WA for the day. We got there in time to enjoy a scrumptious buffet breakfast in front of the massive fireplace in the Mountain Springs Lodge. A girl could get used to that. . . . .Kayla and Jordan already dreading Mom dragging the camera out.

The hooligans.

They couldn't wait for the real fun to begin!

Hey, look! Here comes our ride.

The website said we'd get to feed the horses in the meadow. Hmph! That was if you were on the right sleigh (which we weren't 'cause I wanted to ride the "pretty" one). And I thought we got to hand feed them, not dump a few pieces of hay off the back of the sleigh as we glided along. But who's complaining? We got the pretty sleigh to ride in!

It was a gorgeous and mostly sunny day just for us!

Wild turkeys

Our shadows on the beautiful and sparkly snow.

Now this is what I call a sleigh! I'd love to go for a ride in one of these someday. . . .

At the end of the ride, we warmed ourselves by the campfire and drank hot apple cider - the best I've ever tasted!

The main lodge where we had breakfast. They have many cabins on the property and the next time we go, we'll definitely rent one. That way we can play more in the snow. It was hard to throw snowballs this time because the snow had more of an icy layer on it and it was pretty crunchy. Felt more like dirt clods being thrown at you.

Jaeden and Boo practicing their turning.

What everyone was really waiting for. . . .the snowmobiling! Usually they take everyone out in groups, but we were fortunate enough to get a guide all to ourselves.

If you click on the picture above to enlarge, it looks like Boo is checking to see if her nose is still attached after the cold ride.

We took a few breaks along the way for pictures and play.

Boo was tickled about how deep the snow was here - past her knee.

Cousins - who cannot wait to go back on a MUCH longer ride.

The view including Lake Wenatchee in the middle.

Great memories were definitely made that day! We look forward to many more this year.

Happy 2010!

Love,

The Hansens

Lions and Tigers. . . .Oh My!

At the beginning of January, I took the kids to the Oregon Zoo down in Portland. It was really cold out that Saturday, but the rain held off. We got there early and it was so beautiful and peaceful, very few people out.

Our first main stop was the Lorikeet area. We each got a little cup of nectar and when we went inside, they swarmed us. This was definitely a highlight of our day.

We discovered that Jordan's hair makes a great nest!

Sorry I can't turn the video around, but it's more for the sound anyway.

Nice kitties. . . . .

Bats - way too creepy for my taste! Ewwww!!!

I'm second-guessing the whole driver's license thing.

Love these kids! And cannot believe they will be 10, 17, and 9 in just a few short weeks (Jordan in 3 months). We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Hillsboro, OR for a yummy lunch. Fun times with fun kids!

Holidays

Nana and Papa paid us a visit at Christmas time. They drove up from AZ to spend a couple of weeks with us while the kids were on their break. The time went all too fast!

What??????

(pic from 08 driving to S. CA)

7 degrees outside! It'd be nice if there was some snow to go with it! Heard Flagstaff, AZ had 20+ inches. Boy, does that bring back memories of sledding down the hill behind Aunt Peggy & Uncle David's house! Homemade sleds and all...

Bundle Up!

It's a whopping 10 degrees Fahrenheit this morning! Brrrr...... Make sure you're staying warm wherever you are!

Catching Up...

A super quick overview of our lives since Oct 31. I sure miss blogging and feel so out of touch with everyone right now.

We moved.....again......on Halloween.....
Fact: we've now lived in three (yes, that's 1, 2, 3) houses in less than one year.
It's been said to us that we must surely be good at moving/packing by now. Well, the answer is yes, we think so, but believe us - we don't enjoy it! Lots of craziness, that's for sure. Just makes us wish we had a tent, some bedding, and the clothes on our back. Sure would make moving easier! Makes us realize how little we "need".

This time, it didn't help that I went back to work full-time for the first time in 10 years just two days after moving. Needless to say, the house still isn't in order like it was the last time. Which drives me nuts every time I come home from work and think about all that needs to be done.


Jaeden and Boo got in some pumpkin carving after the move - not the same night, though.


Story of the bees - We took the van down to Keith's work so he could pick up a rail for the door to his new shop he's been building. We closed the doors and buckled in. As we started down the road, I looked over and saw these bees in the rail (it was between the seats right next to my face) and they were starting to stir from a winter's nap. Yikes! I kept my fingers crossed, took a deep breath, and prepared to bail if they decided to meander far from the nest. Luckily, our house wasn't far and they didn't get too wound up. We definitely didn't hang around chatting in the car once we got there!

We had an opportunity the weekend after moving to get to spend a day in downtown Seattle with some of Keith's family - some from AZ.

Our sister-in-law Jolene with her granddaughter - our grandniece.

Good food, good times.

The guys had to see if they could fit the giant burgers into their mouths. Took a bit of work.

Keith's brother and his two sons. The baby belongs to the one on the left. Who knew when I left AZ ten years ago that this part of the family would make their way down there? Funny how that works!

We enjoyed a small Hansen reunion the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Aren't these turkeys and pilgrim hats, that some creative gals made, cute?

The gorgeous lake we live on. We're trying to tempt people to come see us - can't you tell?


The latest love of my life. . . . isn't it beautiful? I adore old mantels and the chippy brown and blue paint makes it perfect! Ignore the ugly stove - someday this beauty will go over a real fireplace! Since I quit blogging on my cottage blog, you all have to put up with things like this every now and then.
Don't you envy us, just a teeny-tiny bit, to be able to slip out the back door and into the lake on a whim? Brooklyn, Keith, and Jaeden took off to do a little fishing yesterday afternoon. Hmmmm...do you think this could be why we're not getting a whole lot of unpacking done?

We hope you had wonderful times with friends and family in November and we look forward to sharing our December with you! Where, oh where, does the time go?

Jordan finishes up his first semester at college on Monday and we look forward to him being back home during his Christmas break. My parents are planning on coming up from Arizona for the holidays as well. We're excited about that!

Love to all and to all a good night!

The Hansen's