Peninsula Roadtrip!

This weekend was short but amazing! Since I had to work Sunday we decided to make the most of my day off. Friday I actually was able to get off work after a half day because I hit my 40 hours so I decided to do my long run that afternoon so I could have the whole day on Saturday. It was my last long run before the half marathon, so I ran 11.5 miles. I had a pretty bad wipe out in mile two (like not trip and fall, but the superman fall) but luckily I only got a few scrapes and was able to finish out the run. However, I was pretty miserable after and super sore. That night we went over to a co-workers house for game night which was so much fun. We played Cards Against Humanity, Cranium, Avalon, and a drawing game. The girls pretty much kicked butt! On Saturday, we did a road trip around the Washington Peninsula! It was amazing and definitely worth the drive (around 8 hours without stopping). We had a few places where we wanted to stop, but other than that we just drove the 101 all the way around. Such fun and soo  beautiful!

Our first stop was just outside of Port Angeles at Washington Lavender Farm! It is a beautiful little B&B that is a replica of Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. They had a cute little gift shop with lots of products made from the lavender they grow there. The grounds smelled AMAZING! I also learned that this part of Washington is the largest producer of lavender in the world! They also had a beehive there where they harvested honey from, so when you walked in the field all you could here was the bees buzzing around.

Lavender field

The gift shop and the entrance

"Mount Vernon"

Me and the lavender

Stop number two was at Olympic Cellars Winery which was just down the road from the lavender farm, home to Working Girl wines. I had sampled some of their wines before, but it was fun getting to do some sampling there. My favorite was a special mix they had made for the Lavender Festival the weekend before- a sparkling wine infused with lavender. So yummy!

Our next stop was in Port Angeles for lunch. We picked a local place called Kokopelli Grill for some seafood. They had a lot of seafood with a southwestern twist so we really enjoyed it! I had southwest salmon alfredo, and Braden had crab chile relleno. Port Angeles is a cute little town!

Stop number 3 was Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. WOW. It is so amazing. I wish we had had time to explore and hike a little but it was well worth the drive and the $15 entrance fee. There was even a line to get in because the parking was full! The mountains are beautiful, with the tallest being Mt Olympus. We saw lots of deer and they were not fazed by people at all. We love the mountains!

Olympic Mountains

This deer didn't care that people kept walking up next to it

This is the view from the other side of the ridge- You can see Canada!

On 101 we passed by Lake Crescent. It is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen! The waters were a beautiful blue- breathtaking!

Lake Crescent

Lake Crescent

Beautiful Trees

Next up: Forks, WA! Eat your heart out, Twilight fans. I'm not a Twilight fan personally,but thought I should document it anyway. It really isn't that great of a town.

The van says "got Twilight?" It was the Twilight tour bus!

Me and the Forks sign

Our last and final stop was Beach 4 near Kalaloch, WA on the Pacific coast. It was so pretty! It has some rocks that form tidal pools which were so pretty and fun to explore. There were starfish! And I was really excited about it. It was a little chilly with the wind, but not uncomfortable. We put our feet in the water and it was COLD.

Tidal Pool

Me and my starfish friend, NBD

View from the top of the rocks

All those brown and orange things are starfish! There were so many!

Braden and the Pacific

We ended up getting back around 8:30, and Macie was really glad to see us. It was a pretty exhausting day, but well worth it! The only thing we didn't have time to do was explore the Hoh rainforest but maybe next time. Washington is such a beautiful state and I'm so glad that we have gotten the opportunity to explore it. The verse Psalm 19:1 was constantly in my head all day, "The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above declares his handiwork"! 

This weekend I have a three day weekend because my parents are coming for a visit! It will be so much fun to see them. I can't wait until Thursday!

Here's to making this week great! I can't believe we are down to less than 4 weeks left in Washington. Hopefully we will be finding out soon where we will be heading next!

Weekend Roundup!

This weekend was busy but a lot of fun! Friday I got to work a shorter day because I had worked a few extra during the week. We were able to make it into Ken before the traffic started. We were able to house sit for some friends which was awesome since we were a lot closer to Seattle. Less driving! I will say it was nice having an oven so we could get some of our favorite Papa Murphy's pizza. The nice thing about running so much is I get to eat lots of carbs! On Saturday morning I had a long run- 9 miles! I felt pretty awful when I woke up and was expecting the run to be miserable. I was pleasantly surprised and had my best run ever and run an extra mile for a total of 10! My split was my best on a long mileage run: 8:47/mile. Bring it on Huckleberry Half!

After the run, we met up with some friends from California, Chris and Kim at Pike Place Market. We were able to get some beautiful flowers as well as some art prints for our future home! 

Kim and Me

Braden and Me

Our very Seattle art prints- I love the Impressionist style

After the market, we walked down to the water front and ate at Red Robin.

Beautiful water, Washington ferry, and the Olympic mountains!

That afternoon, we headed to the races at Emerald Downs! We had fun betting against each other. I ended up winning our pool! 

On Sunday, we went out to Snowqualmie falls! It is absolutely beautiful!

This week has been super busy again at work. It's hard to believe that after this week I will only have 4 weeks left at my job here. We should be finding out soon where we will be heading next and I can't wait! My parents are in town next week and it will be great to get to spend some time with them. This weekend I will be working on Sunday so I can have next Friday off to spend more time with my parents. On Saturday we are planning to drive around the peninsula! It should be beautiful!
Here's to finishing out the week! (and I have to run 11.5 miles on Saturday! eek!)

Seattle

We had another great weekend this weekend! We stayed at our friend's house closer to Seattle again which was a lot of fun. It's nice feeling like we have family here, and getting to go "home" for a little while. Saturday morning I got to do my long training run with my best friend Sarah again which was really fun. It was an 8 mile run which was pretty brutal, but we are almost there! We are less than a month away from the half marathon! Macie had a pretty good weekend hanging out with her friend Tink and getting to play in the backyard.

Sometimes all a girl needs is some sunshine and her squeaky toy

On Saturday afternoon we tried to go to a cuban sandwich place that I had heard a lot about called Paseo. It was terrible trying to get to because there was a craft fair so parking was insane and some streets were blocked. When we finally got parking and walked up to the restaurant they only took cash and of course we didn't have any. So instead of dealing with finding an ATM and driving back, we just went ahead and went to the Space Needle. We even had a nice guy give us his parking stub so we got our parking for free! We did have to wait for two hours before we got to go up to the top though, so we found a good little restaurant with fresh squeezed margaritas. The space needle was amazing! The views are spectacular.

Space Needle

So excited!

Lake Union

We got to watch several sea planes land on Lake Union which was pretty cool.

Seattle and Mt Rainier

Space Needle Selfie!

Elliot Bay, Puget Sound, and the Olympic Mountains

Yes that is a Supersonics shirt. Yes I got lots of complements.

Accidentally wore the wrong color shirt!

It's been warmer than usual here, but don't let the news fool you, it's still not that hot. Braden and I were cracking up at the news report- they kept talking about the "blazing" and "scorching" heat. It was 90. My favorite part was when they said it was hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk- they showed them trying and the egg did nothing. It was pretty funny.
Sunday Braden watched the World Cup final, and I went shopping with my other mom and best friend.
Can't wait to see what this weekend has in store!

Best Friends are the Best

This weekend was so much fun! It was obviously the 4th of July, but that didn't really matter to me because I had to work anyway. But Friday night was pretty fun. We were able to hang out with my other family! It was great seeing my best friend and her two brothers, as well as meeting the two girlfriends. I grew up with her and her brothers and this was the first time in years that we had all been in one place. It was great catching up, and a nice feeling to be around family! We were able to watch some fireworks from the backyard, but we didn't set any fireworks off ourselves. On Saturday morning Sarah and I ran our 6 mile training run. It was a nice cool morning, but there was tons of trash and debris left from the fireworks. After our run, we were able to meet up with our mom's dearest friend and our other mom for a much needed girl's day! We went shopping and then went back to the house to pick fresh raspberries for cobbler and watch a chick flick (Serendipity- one of the best!).

The girls!

Even Macie enjoyed helping!

There were A LOT of raspberries

The cobbler was pretty easy to make, and smelled so yummy. It was just perfect with vanilla ice cream!

Making cobbler

While the girls were having fun, the boys went to the Museum of Flight. Braden said it was impressive and a lot of fun- well worth a visit!

The finished cobbler- yum!

Sunday was a much more relaxing day- we were able to go to the church I had been to as a kid growing up and it was so much fun seeing so many familiar people still there! After lunch we continued an old tradition from growing up...going to Azteca! Yum!

Macie made a new friend- Tinkerbell!

The weather here lately has been GORGEOUS, although people keep complaining it's too hot. This Texan thinks it's just fine. I'm still wearing jackets in the mornings! This weekend the beautiful weather is looking like it will continue, so I'm betting we will be doing something outside.
It's hard to believe that after this week my contract here in Washington will be halfway over!
Hopefully we will find out where we are headed to next sometime soon.
Here's to finishing out the week!

Weekend Shenanigans

This weekend was pretty laid back. Since I am training for my half marathon (which is only 6 weeks away!) I had my first long run Saturday- 5 miles. I hadn't run that far in, oh, about 4 years. It actually went pretty great, although my legs are pretty dead from all the hills. We ran in Priest Point Park which is absolutely beautiful! Everything was so fresh and green. It had also been raining off and on which made everything just feel so clean and peaceful. The natural beauty here is unreal! Here are some beautiful points during our run:

After our run we didn't feel like driving into Seattle to do something, so we just hung around Olympia. We drove down to some outlets in Centralia but they weren't that great so it was kinda disappointing. Braden found this cute local wine bar called Swing which overlooked Capital Lake. They had a great happy hour!

View from our table

My drink: sparkling wine with lavender syrup. YUM!

Today we went to church, watched some soccer, and took Macie on a walk around Capital Lake! It's definitely going to be a new running spot. Macie had fun, and the sun was out which made for a beautiful day.

Capital Lake

Macie and Me!

This work week should be crazy again, AND it's the 4th of July on Friday. I can't believe it's almost July, I need to get cracking on my Christmas shopping!

My other bit of news is that I have made the leap into being a THRIVE promoter! If you had told me a few months ago that I would be a promoter for a brand, I would have laughed and told you that you were crazy. I would NEVER do something like that. But I just love THRIVE so much and am a big believer in what it can do, and I want others to feel better too! If you struggle with exhaustion, feeling tired or sleeplessness, or are just wanting something to give your work outs/healthy lifestyle a boost (it has seriously helped kicked my work outs up a notch!), I encourage you to give THRIVE a try! I can't believe the difference it has made for me, and even my husband Braden has noticed a huge change. Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have, or if you want to give THRIVE a try! Also check out my website for more info: melissajoye.Le-Vel.com
Keeping Up With The Joneses just got a little bit more difficult!