Cat came to visit this week, which was super awesome and fun. We had amazing birthday, solstice, baby shower festivities. We all watched the Wold Cup US soccer game Friday, then met up to watch the England game at lunch. Then we took a rest and headed out to Elysian Fields for dinner and the Mariner's game. All and all, a great birthday. Sat. Cat, Alicia and I all participated in the Solstice Parade naked bike ride. Alicia's tummy looked beautiful as a fish bowl with a red fish. After a nice lunch at Essential Baking we watched the parade and headed home for a restful evening, which included a bad romatic comedy.

Sunday we had the baby shower hosted by Cat, Keren, Talia and Meghan. Cat made a ton of super delicious food. My favorite was the spicy shrimp. Alicia and I were touched by having all our friends come out to support us. People made us creatively decorated picture frames for the baby's room. There were fun baby/family pictures of Alicia and I set up to have funny comments added to them. Alicia looked stunning in a new dress she got shopping with Cat. It was an epic weekend!

Awesome adventure weekend! We escaped the coldest summer in Seattle history (never before have so many days past on the calendar without the mercury hitting 75 F) to hit the hot, sunny eastern Washington. Going our furthest yet in eastern Wash. we stayed in Moses Lake for my first triathalon. It was a great time, the park was beautiful, the water was pretty warm, the desert-style (with farming) landscape was amazing with Cascade mountains in the back ground, and the run was hot with a view of the lake. It turns out a wetsuit is a partial floatation device designed to make you swim faster. Running shorts will make your butt hurt a lot after 22 miles biking. Alicia was a fabulous supporter, cheering for everyone at every turn (six of us raced). We then had pub food with US soccer, lounging on the grass by the cool lake, a radiator explosion (in our friends '87 Subaru) after which we limped into Cle Elem, a gorgeous camp site by a wild river with burgers and a fire, tasty bunch at a yellow church, the historic mining town of Roslyn, and then home. Our garden passed the soil test so we had fresh lettuce tonight and baby carrots. Here's a photo of Alicia making salads.

It was a busy week after coming back from our relaxing trip. Thursday was our anniversary. Alicia and I have been married 4 years, whoohoo! We went to Dinette Sat. for an amazing fancy dinner. It was a very cute, comfortable place, but also bright, airy and elegant. It was great to get back to Capital Hill. We loved the food. The weather was beautiful Sat. for what seemed like the first time in a year. Gorgeous sunset as we were leaving dinner. We've had a lot of very cool, rainy days. In other news on Sat. I went for a long run and Alicia and I worked in the yard. I'm getting excited about the Moses Lake triathalon next week. I've learned wet suits are not very comfortable and extremely hard to put on. I hope I've trained enough and that the weather is good. Sun. we had Alicia's work friends over for dinner. I tried a new grill sauce, which was pretty good, especially with fresh peas from the farmer's market. Here's an awesome shot of Alicia looking very beautiful as we head out to dinner Sat. Then a casual shot of her nesting with baby clothes.

We've had a busy few weeks.  My parents came to visit.  Brian retiled and rebuilt the bathtub.  We went camping near Lake Chelan. 

Here are some photos for the fans