Because they make me smile...

My silly husband and dog :)

Me and Santa...

Go way back!

This picture was actually taken a couple of years ago.  Gess surprised me with a night at our favorite Seattle hotel, the W.  We were in their great lobby having a drink when he saw Santa come in.  Gess excused himself and went up to the Santa offering him $20 if he would go up to me and ask me what I wanted for Christmas.  Gess bought a disposable camera from the front desk and watched as I was completely surprised to have Santa approach me and make me sit on his lap!  It was pretty funny.  And we had a great rest of our stay at the W!

Beauty

Here are a couple of picture of Beauty hanging out with me yesterday. She is so cute :)

Sunrise in Seattle

So on Saturday night my husband announced that we were waking up early, but did not tell me why. He likes to surprise me, so I try not to prod and just say okay. Well, when it was before 6 and he is telling me I need to get out of bed...I wasn't exactly a happy camper, but I rolled out of bed, threw on my favorite hoodie and sweat pants. Gess announced that we were going to see the sunrise. At first I got a little excited--seeing a sunrise is on my LIST after all. But then I remembered that Gess doesn't read my blog and probably has no idea what is on my LIST. So, that made me a little sad. Obviously this wasn't romantic gesture that I thought that it might be. But...I put on my happy face and tried to enjoy it anyway and not get mad at him--since he didn't do anything wrong...

Turns out, the reason that we were going was that Clane asked him to, so that they could play with their toys--I mean there very important professional equipment.

Luckily we had good coffee and no rain and got some good glimpses of the view--even though the fog was being difficult. Gess hasn't uploaded any of his photos yet, but here is one of Clane's (thanks!)





One more to cross off the list!!

Happy Career Anniversary to Me!

Just over 5 years ago, on Nov. 3, 2003, I was sworn into the Washington State Bar as an attorney. I can't believe that it has been that long!

Happy Halloween!

Guess Who?

What Joy Looks Like

I LOVE this picture of my hubby when he was little. Makes me smile everytime I see it! :)

Random Pictures

Some very random photos:

Me and my niece Kayla at Point Defiance Zoo

Beauty giving me kisses :)

It's blurry, but I like it---from law school graduation

Scanmyphotos.com

Like many people we lots of old pre-everyone-has-a-digital-camera-days photos sitting around. We have had "scan in photos" on our "to do list" for a very long time (it is even on my 101 list!). So when I heard about a company that does it for you and is reasonably priced, I was all over it! In August there was an article in the NY Times about scanmyphotos.com, so I decided to check it out. You have to arrange your photos by size, which took some time, but in the end it was well worth it. Last Thursday I mailed out 11 pounds worth of old photographs. Today when I arrived at my office my photos were returned along with a DVD with all 1368 photos on it. The quality is pretty good and the turn around was so fast. The total cost--about $140 (which included shipping both ways). Well worth it IMHO. So, now you will get to see lots and lots of old photos--including never-before-posted wedding photos from my 1999 wedding...I bet you are on the edge of your seat!! Anywho...I am excited about being able to post all of these old photos. And also to play around with editting them in photoshop! To start it off right...here are a couple of wedding photos--January 2, 1999!

Happy Birthday Beauty!!

My baby turns 8 years old today! Here are a couple of pictures of her--one recent and one baby picture :)

Update on Beauty

Some people have asked how Beauty is doing and I am happy to report that she is doing just fine! We still are amazed at how she doesn't appear to have cancer at all! She has a bunch of energy and runs around like a puppy--even though she will turn 8 later this week. She is still doing the chemo and doesn't seem to have any side effects from it. We just give it to her by mouth at home. (And for those of you wondering, no she hasn't lost any hair).

We have an ultrasound scheduled for next month to see if there are any new visible tumors, so I will update when we hear about that.

Thanks for all of the good thoughts about her! She is our baby :) Here are a couple pics of her :)

Waiting for me to come home :)

So cute :)

I am ready for a vacation!

I know, we went to Belize in July....but I am ready for a vacation!  Here are a couple of pictures from a previous vacation:

This one is in at Dunn Falls in Montego Bay Jamaica (December 2006)

And this one is in Grand Cayman (same trip--we were out kayaking)

Time for more old photos!!

These pictures were taken in November 1999 in Orlando.  I can't believe I owned those pants!!

"Old" New Pictures

I realized that I never posted our "original" portraits by Clane (http://www.clanegesselphotography.blogspot.com/). This is actually how we met Clane. We were at the Ballard Farmer's Market one Sunday in March, getting some produce and enjoying the community when we saw Clane's booth set up. He was selling prints of his amazing landscapes and I overheard him talking to someone about doing portraits as well. I had been bugging Gessner for months to get portraits, so I went over to talk to Clane. He said that he did do portraits and that he had an opening the following weekend, but then was booked up for awhile. So, I went home and check out his blog and loved his work and Gess called right away and we set it up. So the next week we met Clane on Alki and he took our photos. He seemed like such a nice guys, so I suggested that we should get coffee sometime...and the rest is as they say "history!" Clane is such a great guy, and we love his girlfriend Skylar too. So...anyway, here are the photos that started the friendship :)

Family Photos

As promised, here are the images that Clane took while Gess's family (mom, sister, and niece) was here. Clane is SO talented!!! (To see his other work click here). These were taken at the Olympic Sculpture Park.