Disclaimer: This post is going to be super photo heavy!

Last weekend we had a weekend getaway to Cannon Beach, Oregon. My brother -in-law works at the Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center and got us some amazing ocean front rooms for $20/night! 

The purpose of the trip was not only to get away from normal life for a 2 days, but to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with Nico because he had to work and wouldn't be making the drive back home for the holiday. Right after work we all made the 3.5 hour drive down to Cannon Beach. I'd like to say the drive was beautiful, but it was pitch black the entire way.  

After a mediocre night of sleep (king to full bed with 2 fluffy people =no bueno) We wandered around the sleepy little downtown area and I found an amaze coffee shop. Thank you baby Jesus! We wandered a little further down and found breakfast at a Pig n' Pancake joint. 

 

I thought I looked cute, so I took some selfies. Don't judge, I was on vaca and I do what I want! Plus, the Instagram filters were being extra kind to me that day. (if you don't follow me on Instagram yet, you should!)

 

I also found some pickle flavored candy canes ..... almost took those babies home out of sheer curiosity!

After breakfast, the sister in laws and I headed out to the beach to snap some photos, and well just be on the freakin' beach! I am at home when I am on an Oregon beach. Love love love. 

Alex was walking behind me and took this amaze panorama shot with her phone. The one person you see is me walking on the beach. What is crazy awesome, is when you zoom in on the photo, I am see through!

After being throughly wind blown (and loving every single second of it) we all piled back in the car and drove an hour south to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I was not leaving Oregon without some smoked cheddar. It just wasn't happening.

We needed a picture inside the loaf bus at Tillamook, so I slid in, and waited for Ricky. Out of nowhere, this little girl slid right into the bus with me and was as happy as a clam. Ricky kind of stood there waiting for me to kick her out, but when we looked around to see who she belonged to, no one seemed to be watching her or looking for her. I became a little worried she was lost and didn't want to send her out of the loaf bus to be kidnapped. I told her we'd like to take a picture and if she wanted to slide out of the bus for a quick minute, she could come back in right away. I didn't want her to run off. When I told her that, she looked like I just punched her puppy or something so I asked her if she wanted to stay in the bus and be in the picture. She excitedly nodded her head and slid over next to me so Ricky could get in. She posed and smiled for the picture even. I love it and laugh every time I look at the picture.  I guess we temporarily adopted a small white child while in Oregon! Christmas card photo anyone?!

After the cheese factory, we took the drive a little slower back to Cannon Beach and stopped at several vantage points to take in the view. 

Once we returned back to Cannon Beach, Ricky wanted to take a nap and read. I wanted to head out to Haystack Rock and take some photos at sunset. We all went and did our own separate things for a bit. I was so happy I went down and shot some photos. The time spent down at the beach to just reflect on the last couple months was really nice for me. Plus, there was an amazing sunset in store.

Saturday night was early Thanksgiving. Of course the food was great and we got to meet several of Nico's friends. Late Saturday night was spent in chairs out of the deck, just the hubby and I taking in the beautiful night sky. It's amazing how many stars you can see when you are away from the city lights. We both witnessed a couple shooting stars, which is always a treat for me!

Sunday morning I went for another stroll down the road and tried a different coffee shop Nico had recommended called Insomnia. It wasn't crazy strong, but my almond mocha did the trick! It was pretty wonderful to sit in the chair on patio on sip my coffee in 55 degree weather while the waves crashed on the beach. 

We headed over to the Portland area later on Sunday and got some shopping done (tax free). We found some fantastic outlets complete with a Coach outlet who happened to be running a 50% off the entire store sale. I'm not gonna share what happened there, because I become a raging Coach-a-holic in situations like those. We also hit up a Nordstrom Rack where I almost bought Seahawk color glasses until I realized they were reading glasses. Not cool.

Once we got home around 8 PM, this guy was on me like white on rice. Didn't leave my side the whole night. Glad to know we were missed ;-)

     

Moving On

I've been silent on this blog for a bit. Sorry to those of you who have been trying to keep updated on my progress. There have been some personal things going on in my life and in the past 2 months my husband and I have gone from immeasurable happiness to all consuming sorrow. I am not going to get into the specific details, but anyone who reads this, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are moving forward slowly, and will eventually be OK. 

Music has been something through out my entire life that has helped me through many ups and downs. There is a song for every emotion you could possibly feel and a song will never judge that feeling. I was listening to Celine Dion's song Fly this morning and right now, this song speaks to my soul like no other. 

Fly, fly little wing, Fly beyond imagining 

The softest cloud, the whitest dove 

Upon the wind of heaven's love 

Past the planets and the stars 

Leave this lonely world of ours 

Escape the sorrow and the pain 

And fly again 

Fly, fly precious one 

Your endless journey has begun 

Take your gentle happiness 

Far too beautiful for this 

Cross over to the other shore 

There is peace forevermore 

But hold this memory bittersweet 

Until we meet 

Fly, fly do not fear 

Don't waste a breath, don't shed a tear 

Your heart is pure, your soul is free 

Be on your way, don't wait for me 

Above the universe you'll climb 

On beyond the hands of time 

The moon will rise, the sun will set 

But I won't forget 

Fly, fly little wing 

Fly where only angels sing 

Fly away, the time is right 

Go now, find the light 

     

Link Up with Life. Love. Sincerely.

My dear friend Sarah is hosting a link up party over at her blog Life. Love. Sincerely. !

Since I just ranted about our government, I felt I needed to balance out the bad with some of the good I have in my life. 

1. My husband. We will be celebrating 3 years of marriage tomorrow, and I can't help but think of what a blessing he has been in my life. I couldn't imagine my life without him and look forward to all of the wonderful journeys we will be embarking on. 

2. Bruce Wayne. He is a fireball and loves to get himself into trouble, but has also been such a joy. I can't remember what our lives were like before him and I am thankful when he decides I need morning snuggles, because truth be told, most of the time I do.

3. Richard Sherman & the Seahawks. Love. Just love all around for these guys! 4-0 baby! I am thinking we actually have a chance at a run for the ring this year. It's so fun to see the entire area rallying around these guys!

. 

4. Fall. Brace yourselves ya'll. Fall is upon us! The leaves are changing, we are having insane rain storms, it's perfectly acceptable to wear boots with every outfit, and the smell of baked goods containing some sort of trace of pumpkin is in every store! Now where'd my pumpkin candle go?

5. Breaking Bad. Although it's over, and I approve of the ending I feel the need to go back and binge watch all of the seasons immediately. I just can't let it go. I also know when I watch it again I will notice some epic foreshadowing going on! Don't call me this weekend, I will be giving my Netflix account a workout. 

     

Government? What Government?

So I have been radio silent for the past month. Not because I haven't wanted to blog but because right now our lives are a bit super crazy right now. Things are nonstop in the Garcia Household!

I just have to vent a little right now because I am super frustrated. I don't understand why our elected leaders, you know the ones who promised to do this and that if elected, can't get their stuff together and agree that this government shutdown was and is a horrible idea! I don't care what side of the fence you are on - just figure it out! 

The hubster works for the Department of Defense, as does my parents and countless other friends and family members in the area. He has been told that he is "exempt" from the furlough, which is somewhat of a relief but as a friend pointed out so well, the lesser of two evils. Sure, he gets to continue to report to work everyday, but until this is ironed out, we will get paid in big 'ol fat I.O.U.s from the United States of America. Can I show my electric company the letter that says he'll get paid eventually, and ask them with a straight face to hold my bill? Negative. 

Luckily we are not a one income household so my income will still pay for some things, but not all. Here's to hoping that this is all over before we can really feel the impact of what this is going to do. 

On a side note, can we take away congress's pay until they've figured it out? I bet if they lost their income we'd have this figured out right quick!

     

(Pre) Birthday

The hubster has this huge nerd gaming convention he looks forward to all year long labor day weekend every year. This year, the first day happened to fall on my birthday. I could have been stingy and made him spend my birthday with me, but I know how excited he gets about this convention, so we celebrated a day early. He told me we were going to Seattle, but didn't reveal what that entailed. There was a 25% chance of rain at the beginning of the day, so we decided to drive across just in case we needed the car. The ferry was running 30+ minutes late, and once on the ferry we new exactly why.

This fog was intense. You could barely see past the front of the ferry! Once we got to Seattle, we parked down by the space needle and this happened...... it is still August right?

The rain didn't bother me one bit, it was actually kind of fun. I can't wait for fall, so I was excited for the little preview. I've always wanted to do the tourist thing in Seattle, and so Ricky surprised me with a trip on the Duck. If you don't know what that is, it's a big amphibian vehicle that you ride in around Seattle. It's a 90 minute tour both by land and water. 

It was totally silly and a ton of fun. We even got some "quackers" to make a ton of noises and quack at strangers on the road.

Quackers!

Seattle from Lake Union.

Sleepless in Seattle house on Lake Union.

Gasworks Park.

After the Duck, before we headed we took the monorail and walked dow to Pike's Place. We basically ate our way through the whole area.

Best hot chocolate in Seattle!

Classic Seattle. Delish.

And no trip to Pike's Place is complete without a giant bouquet of fresh flowers bigger than you head!

                                                                                      

8 Stages of Gym Motivation

This is not made by me - it's from The Stir but it is SO true, I had to repost this! Here are the 8 stages of workout motivation:

1. You first think about going to the gym, but you'd rather do this:

2. Then you think about your workout mantra. Note: Your workout mantra is completely unrealistic.

3. But regardless, you get your butt up and get going toward the fantastic domain of physical fitness:

4. Suddenly, you start to feel motivated. And you think maybe I should just run there!

5. You've made it to the gym. Great job! The only catch? While you think you look like this:

6. What you really look like:

7. But regardless, you feel accomplished because YOU DID IT!

8. Since you've sweated a whole bunch, it's obviously time to think about your next meal:

     

Manning Love

My sister in law Alex loves Payton Manning. Hands down. He was in town with the Broncos last night for the home (preseason) opener for my beloved hawks. The game has been sold out for a while, but I kept checking for re-sale tickets just in case they dropped into my price range and Ricky and I could take her as a surprise to see him in person. 

Luckily around noon, on my way back from a shopping trip with my sister and mom,  I saw a post on craigslist for 2 tickets to the game, for pick-up in my town and BELOW FACE VALUE!!! I jumped on those like white on rice. Turns out it was a season ticket holder who couldn't make the game. Thanks dude!

When we got to the stadium, because I love Alex, and it was a preseason game, we high tailed it to the visitor's tunnel so she could get an up close view of her man.

  

If you didn't catch what she said, it was along the lines of her life being complete. A highlight for me was seeing John Elway was at the game. Pretty darn cool if you ask me!

Apparently the newest bachelorette and her man were also at the game though I didn't see them (bummer) but my parents and sister saw them!

This was off Desiree's twitter. Yes, I follow her, sue me.

The game, if any one reading this watching it, it goes without saying that the Hawks wiped the field with the Broncos and I loved every second. There is nothing like the feeling of being in the Clink, watching your team with the rest of the sold out crowd, and screaming your head off. Nothing like that game atmosphere! They don't call us the 12th Man for nothing!

A little food porn for you all, Alex had this new fangled food called Potachos. They were exactly what they sound like, nachos with bbq potato chips, carne asada, grilled onions, and some yummy liquid cheese..... 

I had the regular tortilla chip version, which was not the best choice heath wise, but when you are at the stadium, you might has well participate in all things football including the faire. 

I am so excited for this season!