in short...

city girl

It's always frightening every year how fast the summer whizzes by.  I cannot believe we will start seeing kids go back to school in just a few short weeks.  
Really cannot believe that Kristen will be having Baby Dacey in just a few short....weeks?  I hope?  That baby has us all on red alert not knowing if she (yes, I predict SHE) is going to make it to September or sneak up on us early.  So excited to kiss that little baby face!!

Here are the two athletes, David & Allison




this is my cousin Allison, one of two crazy kids who will be coming out to visit in a week!!  We've been planning this for what seems like forever, so I'm really excited their trip is almost here.

getting in some fun, uncle time


there were big inflatable toys, so henry was having a blast



He really does love me, I promise.  you can just never tell by a single picture he takes with me.


cute boys.

more cute boys.  David & Josiah at mayo clinic

and one tired boy on the way back.

merian time!



went strawberry picking the next day.  One of the farm employees (Jon would want me to mention that this girl was our cousin, and none of us knew it at first.  This hardly seems relevant to me, as it's a completely common occurrence in wisconsin) recognized my sister & I and took the liberty of writing our name on the flat.

unfortunately, we got rained out. 

had the aunts & uncles over for dinner that night...Jon with Auntie Lynn :)

and we made a date the next day to take Jon over to Radio Road, where us Zacharias kids spent many years running around the farm with cows and farm cats.  Jon had never been before, and neither had Henry.






henry's favorite was the chicken coop  :)



more merian







and I could post more pictures from the trip, but this would really go on forever!  It was an amazing time at home, and coming back to Washington launched us into moving our lives up to the city.  What a whirlwind July was, I can't even describe it.  We found a tenant family for our home so fast it was ridiculous, and Jon found US the most perfect condo I could have ever dreamed up on the north end of Lake Union.  The entire month was full of packing, cleaning, maintaining our work lives... it was stressful, I can't lie.

And just like that it was over!  We were in our new place, and that same week Cindy Binder (Amy's mom) flew into town to visit amy, and we were able to have them both stay with us.  It was a LOT of fun to have such good time with Mama B...it was like old times, and it was great to remember how much I love and miss her.

Here are some shots of Gasworks Park, across the street from us.  My brothers sent me an awesome kite for my birthday, so I've been taking it out there. 






amy & cindy


the garden up to our condo


Cindy's last night here we hung out on Rachel's rooftop deck, and ate gourmet cupcakes.  It was one of those perfect summer nights!

Speaking of Rachel, our soccer tickets kicked in last month!!  We've been having tons-o-fun at Qwest field, seeing the Sounders play amazing teams like Chelsea or Barcelona. 





Oh gosh, we had a week straight of, literally, 100 degree weather.  I know there are places in the country that endure this often, but I would wager those places also make airconditioning a household staple.  Not so in the Pacific Northwest!  AC is limited to malls, movie theaters, work, my car...definitely not apartments.  It was kiiiinda miserable in our place for a week, and we felt awful leaving Jack home alone while we went to work.  It was then that she started the habit of leaping into our fridge every single time we went in for something.

last week I helped to throw a baby shower for dear Kristen!  We went with an "Apple of Her Eye" theme, and things turned out pretty darn cute!





Kristen's cute nieces...Maggie, Josie, & Amelia.  What sweethearts!!

To blog or not to blog...

Hello from the white house!  Most of my updates go on facebook now, with how easy it is to upload and label pictures.  But what the heck, I'll do a rundown of the last six months real quick.

Hmm, back to February... there was the homage trip to Forks, WA Amy, Rachel & I took to honor the bestselling book series, Twilight.  That was a good time!


at LaPush Beach, on the Quilleute Reservation

Have I mentioned my friend Rachel?  Originally a friend of Amy's, who she met from Mercy Ships about five years ago, Rachel hails from St. Louis.  When amy moved out here for nursing school, she put a little thought in rachels mind that she should move as well, and she DID!  I had met rachel once or twice a few years ago, but have been really blessed to get to know her better in the last eight months.  She's super spontaneous and hilarious...basically, I love her! 
February chugged along, with the Hyatt being open, but the spa still NOT being open.  It was a month of work, and then no work, and then work again. 

March blew in, and the spa finally opened!  (man, that seems like a lifetime ago).  Some cookies HR had made for us to celebrate:

A week and a half after opening Amy & I departed on a girls trip we had been planning for a few months to southern california.  Like a cruel joke, I got a sinus infection & Amy got strep throat BOTH the night before we left for cali.  We were gone for four, awful days...trying to make the most of our first vacation together.  Jon's awesome cousin got us free tickets to Disneyland for a couple of days, and we tried to keep our spirits up, but it was tough.  I remember my chapped nose like it was yesterday.  Ugh.

rollercoasters help a little bit.


we got to steer the Mark Twain riverboat ferry :)


for Henry


we also got to see Jim & Mandy our last night there....it was a blast being with old friends and reminiscing about the past.  Good people :)

after california, I fell into a groove at work.  Things are going really well...started slow at first, but is steadily picking up!  Today is my 6 month anniversary with Hyatt, and I still LOVE who I work with and for.  Loving what I do!
In April, I caught wind of an open casting call coming to Seattle for a Broadway musical, and although I doubted I could actually go through with it, I showed up and sang a song for a couple of producers.

yes, it was scary.  I got wrapped up with an evening news program, and they actually filmed me, and the tape wound up on tv that night.  haha, thus ended my minutes of fame, because I never did get a callback :)

The month of april also brought a very important ball of fur into our lives, a little black kitten named Jack! 


She is a big source of joy and laughs to Jon & I, although all of our furniture has taken on a new semi-shredded look, and we each have at least ten scratches on our bodies at all times.  She is a little stinker with a big personality, but we really can't imagine life without her by this point. 

Jon & I got away for a night to a hotel in seattle, which was really short, but such a treat to feel pampered for even one night.  Even if it was at the Hyatt across the street from work, and I had to run to work the next morning.  It was still glorious :)  Here was our view from the room as the sun rose:


May brought warmer and warmer temperatures, and Jon & I (more Jon) have taken an interest in Major League Soccer.  We went to our first Sounders game against the San Jose Earthquakes (some of the players of which I had massaged earlier that morning!), and had an awesome time!

We loved it so much, in fact, that Jon, Rachel, & I have all bought seats from mid-July through the rest of the season, including the MLS Cup, which happens to be in Seattle this year!  We are so excited for our tickets to kick in.

Working in the city means getting to spend much more time with Amy, which has been really fun for me.  Here she is on her bicycle, shaking her tailfeather:


Our chicago friends Stacia & Stuart came to visit us in May as well, and it was the greatest time.  The first night they were in town, Kristen and Ryan met us for dinner with them.  It was so much fun getting to see cute, pregnant Kristen and Stacia together, comparing their baby stories and sharing their excitement!

We had a great time showing S&S around Seattle, and were so sad to see them go.



Summer hit us fast, and it hit us HARD.  One day it was still drizzly spring, and the next it was 80 degrees and sunny, and hasnt changed since!  I've loved basking in all the sun we've received, and have a big jump on Tan '09.  Some beautiful Seattle shots:



Amy and I took advantage of a day off together + beautiful weather last week, and went for a gorgeous hike up Rattlesnake Ledge.  It's amazing how much beauty is all around us out here.






"We hiked all the way up there!"

This last wednesday, the biggest news of my year arrived, in the form of a tiny, squishy, cute baby named Merian Carmen.  My sister, Katie, had her baby eight days early!!  I can't believe they waited nine whole months to find out the gender, but what an amazing surprise for all of us to receive a new little girl into our family!!  She weighed in at 7lb 11oz, and was 20.5" long.  Jon & I get to fly home in a few weeks to love on her, and I could not be more excited!!!!

first moments



henry is definitely unsure about his new life as an older brother :)


can't handle it :)

And our current news, which pales in comparison to a new baby neice, but still important, is that Jon & I posted an ad on craigslist tonight in hopes of renting out our house and moving up to Seattle.
We LOVE our house, and will be really sad to move out, but the commute to work every day is really killing us.  We're both commuting up to two hours or more every day, and that's direct time that we dont get to spend with each other, or doing other things.  We have both reached a point in which we love where we work, but dont want to live so far away...so this is a great exciting change for us. 
We're having so much fun looking at neighborhoods to live in, and are getting so excited at the possibility of living close to Amy and Rachel (and soon, Heather Patanaude).  Excited to live in the city, and get to be present where we live.  I'm excited to spend more time with co-workers...I'm tired of weasling out of group outings, because I dont want to be on the road so late at night.  I'm stoked to rely on buses again instead of my car, and glad to be near farmer's markets, the water, festivals, and so much more. 
So we'll see if we get any nibbles on our ad, we've got our fingers crossed!!

And that's how you squeeze six months of news into one entry. 
thank you, and goodnight.

Grand Opening

The Hyatt at Olive 8 opens tomorrow!!  We are jumping in head first by welcoming 150 guests, and I'm having a hard time believing that we were actually able to tie up all the really really loose ends and get the hotel ready for opening in time. 
Seriously, my head is spinning.  Up to this point in my life, I had no idea whatsoever how intense opening up a brand new hotel really is, but I have a newfound respect for anyone who has been a part of it before.  Down to the itty bitty details, everything takes so much time and work.  Gosh, maybe I should back up and start from the beginning.
well, here is a final shot of me at my clinic.  With all my sheets piled up, pretending to be sad about my departure.  I was anything but sad, to be sure.

And that ended that stage of my life.  At the Hyatt, my extremely gracious bosses, Erica (spa director) and Leah (assistant spa director), allowed us to go home for Christmas.  So I took some time off during training to go home for a visit, which didnt actually end up being a big deal, because Seattle got a  bunch of snow dumped on it, and everybody freaked out and no one went to work anyway.  Seriously, no one in the pacific northwest knows how to handle snow.  And who can blame them?  With san fransisco style streets, even a couple inches can be hazardous for any sort of driving.  Over the holidays, my friend Sayaka sent me a camera picture of people skiing down the streets of Seattle.  crazy : )
Not a lot of Christmas pictures...I'm hoping to get a smaller camera soon.  I dont take pictures anymore, because the camera we have isnt one you'd want to carry around with you in your purse.  Anyway, here's a couple:




Christmas was a blast with my family, and I love every moment that I get to spend with them.  My sister has the cutest baby bump ever!!  I'd like to predict that she's having a little girl : )  We shall see!

Back to Seattle, Jon & I threw a new years eve/housewarming party.  We packed 18 people into our home, and had a really good time with new and old friends. 
This is my friend, Sayaka. 

I actually worked with her at InSpa, and we used to get along really well, but we fell out of touch once I quit.  Imagine our surprise to find out on the first day of orientation at the Hyatt that we'd be working together again!  This time around we're a lot closer, and we have a great time hanging out.  Gosh, I cannot express how much I love everyone I work with, including my bosses!  It hardly seems like work when you love what you're doing and it just feels like I'm hanging out with my friends.  I feel so lucky to have found this job.

here's another co-worker/friend, Ethan.  Justin Timberlake lookalike?

The month of January has been a month of readjusting expectations.  We had hoped the Olive 8 would open Jan 5th, and the spa the 12th, but construction never goes like you think it will.  The fire marshall kept holding off our "TCO" (temporary certificate of occupancy) for weeks and weeks, and we started to run out of things to train for.  Our hours were cut back a little bit, and we've had to be really super flexible with hours and such, but just when we were starting to feel the strain, we learned we could start moving into the hotel!
So instead of hiring movers and extra people, they put us right to work with setting up this huge hotel.  I can't explain the enormity of the whole thing, with every little thing that goes into each room, and a limited number of working elevators, and construction going on all around.
geezlawheeze.
I just want to ask each of you to pay proper respect to something as simple as a coffee maker when you stay at a hotel.  Someone put that coffee pot in your room, and probably put in hundreds of more coffee pots, and spent their entire day doing it.  At the Olive 8, that person was me.  And bath mats, and tons of lamps, and taking packing tape off of lamps, and breaking down a million boxes, and putting Hyatt notepads in little black folders....  so many things!  I had my trusty camera phone with me, so I was snapping pictures of anything I could! 


a hallway outside of the Grand Ballroom.  oh yeah, I washed all those windows.

 
need a cartful of irons?


a hotel room waiting to be furnished


view from the presidential suite.



Oh yeah, Elaia (Uh-lay-uh) is the name of our Spa.  They pulled everyone off of construction in the spa in order to finish the hotel first, so we still wont open officially for another week and a half or two weeks.  Still hoping to stay busy, though!  There's lots to do in the meantime.


had a hardhat day, until we received our official TCO.




the pretty tile covering all the walls in the pool room.

our 65-foot saline pool.  and yes, there are speakers under water so you can always listen to music, even if you are swimming laps.

my fingers after spending a whole morning scrubbing grout off a crappy tiling job.  sorry. sensitive subject.


the flatscreen on all of our cardio machines in the Hyatt Stayfit fitness center.  These puppies have cable tv, a virtual personal trainer, various screens that show you how far you have run, and in this picture I'm holding up the ipod hookup.  Yup!  you can plug in your own ipod and listen to your music, OR watch your own movies on the screen.  NUTSO, right??  For $10,000 each, they had better be state of the art...


a shot of our spa family.  I believe there's 18 of us in total, and I love every single one of them.  Here we are browsing through our spa menu, which just arrived from the printer:



the other night I wanted a few extra hours, so I stuck around to man the elevators.  I got a radio and everything.  Very important.


and the lobby (bad picture, sorry!)  everybody is bustling around, eager for the first guests to arrive tomorrow morning at 7 a.m.!

and an outdoor shot of the hotel at night.
Tonight we got to sit in on a "mock banquet" so food & beverage could get in some good practice.  So fun to be served an awesome four-course meal and be treated like rock stars.  Once the hotel's restaurant gets close to open we'll get to sample all of its food as well.  So exciting!  And, yeah.  I'll stop, I could go on talking forever about everything, but I can sum it up by saying I LOVE this hotel, love being a part of the grand opening, and just love being downtown every day.
Working in the city has allowed me to see much more of a certain Amy Binder, and that's been a lot of fun.  Which leads me to mention that her and I are going on a trip to Disneyland in a month and a half!!!  Plane tickets are bought, hotel reservations have been made (at the Hyatt in anaheim, of course!), and a secret disney insider will be getting us into the park for free for two days!  Haha, we may be too old for a trip like this, but it's turning out to be super cheap, and we're really excited. 

Our friends Stacia and Stuart are coming out to visit us in May!!  So excited for that.
annnnd, I gotta go.  Sorry to end so abruptly but this has really turned into a doozie of a post.  night!