TARA'S BIRTHDAY

happy 26th birthday tara!!!

Today is Tara's 26th birthday! It is 10 am here and we have already had quite the day. We actually had to work last night and have to go back tonight so it makes for a short birthday. However, we are making the most of it.

Yesterday I was going to make Tara's birthday cake but she requested cookies instead. But not just any cookies... she wanted cookies with whipped frosting. Well....I guess...you're the birthday girl. So here I am, yesterday morning trying frost these cookies and I taste tested the whipped frosting and almost vomitted. It was revolting. Horrible. It tasted like you melted a marshmallow, added sugar, mothballs and then threw it in your grandma's attic. So I only made 5 of the cookies with the frosting just to show my attempt at whipped frosting. I then frosted the rest with my favorite icing.

I think you can see where this is going. She loved the whipped frosting. For real. So it only leaves me to eat the other 25 cookies and Tara can have the 5 whipped. Shucky Darn.

Whipped are in white.

After work Tara declared birthday party time! We went to breakfast (got a parking ticket grr), opened gifts from Grandmas (I love the scarf and the popcorn!) and put a candle in the cookie. ;-) We're on the road to a good birthday...

Leavenworth

It was with high recommendation that we check out Leavenworth, Washington. It is a little city about 2 hours from Seattle. It is nearing the end of our journey (4 weeks!) and we needed to see this place before we left. So I mentioned to Tara, for us to go there last weekend as we will have company for the next two weekends. Leavenworth is unexpected, you're driving through gorgeous mountains, going further and further up the mountain looking at the trees changing colors and then bam...you're there in Germany.

The drive was long...but really really pretty.

We're here!....with no cameras! As always, I forgot mine, and Tara's camera died within 5 minutes of being there so we used her camera phone.

To our suprise (and absolute delight) it was Oktoberfest!!!

So we shopped....

And had a few!

But not as many as this guy did!!

So here we are in Leavenworth and we were only going to go for the day. We've shopped, did a wine tasting, and a couple beers and we just don't wanna leave! So we asked another Oktoberfest-er how likely it was that we could get a hotel. They said that Oktoberfest is usually booked a year ahead of time. Shootskies.

But on a whim, we stopped into Adventure Inn in Leavenworth and they had 2 rooms left!

Middle guy used to play for the Lions or Colts (can't remember) but as you can imagine, German beer had little effect on him!

But it did on me! I think this was right after Tara spilled beer in my eye. No really.

But she is just havin' too much fun with Dunkel Beer!

Bratwursts and beer. I felt like I was home.

Mama's coming!

My mom and sister, Katie are coming this weekend!! They'll be here Friday at 3:2o p.m. to be precise. So...here is a part of the email I got from my mom in preparation for this weekend:

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I've done some packing, & I think these are the things that I'm going to need to mooch of you, Char: lotion, shavers, bronzer, blush, face wash, hair dryer, a bed & your undieing attention.

Tara sent me this photo of you, Char from Alki beach..... you left this out of your blog....??

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Tell me, how many 25 year old nurses get an email like that from their mother!??

To uplift your day

I love humility, and today I'm succumbing myself to it. I hope this video uplifts your day...Mary Lou Retton has nothing on me ;-) Note that this was our second attempt and we had NO idea that we were being videotaped.

Tara also wanted me to add this photo of when the Holldorf/Stork clan was here. You see, the total number of people with Zaiya was 6. So that left someone on the floor...guess who that was ;-) ok ok...I can't lie we did alternate.

We miss you all!!!! My mom and Katie are coming this weekend-----I'M SOO EXCITED!

Tara just popped in a movie, "Swat." She asked if I had scene it (of course I haven't) and asked me if I like to see hot men....Is that a question??

Family time! and those (*#@#A% ducks.

First off, I will apologize to the Holldorf/Stork clan for taking so long in uploading these photos. We've had a serious week of Oktoberfest and returning to work last night. Weird to think we'll only be here for 5 more weeks!

Alki Beach! Once again, people are going to think that we live there!

I told them there was a shark in Puget Sound!

2 of a kind :-)

These ladies voted 2/3 that I'm a better driver than Tara ;-)

Trish and Dawn -- I looove this setting on my camera

Ok, I really really like this setting.

Yeah, I'm down-right obsessed.

So these are the duck tours. It's those tours where the vehicle goes on land and water taking you on a tour of Seattle. Check out how happy Zaiya is in this photo!

Yeah, I would be too if I was a baby and I had 2 jackets on and a blanket and hat and warm lap to sit on. Me...Me on the other hand?? I get the back seat where the wind comes from the side and the back of the bus. I FROZE. Nate thought it was funny that the tour guide kept yelling back, "How is the baby doing?" 90 minutes of fun ... my eye.

There are icicles coming out of my nose.

Storks! It was GREAT having you here!

Thanks for coming!

I heart Pictionary

Pictionary may be the best game invented.

It is universal to all players, if you can draw, you can play. But if you wanna play with Denuccis and Storks, you better have guts, quick wit and most of all... no sensitive feelings. Because all is fair in love, war and Pictionary.

Tara and Trisha have to be on the same team or they'll fight (and still did). But the bad part about playing against two people who have known each other for 26 years is that they get 3 lines on the paper and then can shout out, "Don King!" (I still don't know who that is).

So here are the pictures from our game that made me laugh out loud...guess what is what:

Mona Lisa

"Push" with a signature by Nate - "I love Trish" That is a man pushing another man on the left and a person doing push ups. I guessed a dog.

"I can draw just as good as Auntie Tara!"

We played the first night and Nate and I concluded that Tara and Trisha cheated which is why they won. The second night, we got called a penalty on for doing a gesture so the third day we settled the throwdown and Nate and I won, fair and square!!! Denucci girls have nothing on us!!

Welcome to Seattle: Packers, Storks, Holldorfs!

What an incredible weekend it has been! Tara's family came to visit and got here on Thursday and just left a few minutes ago. Our guests were: Tara's mom Dawn, her sister Trisha and her husband Nate with their ADORABLE 1-year old daughter Zaiya. We took in the sites!

My sandals, Tara's crocs and Zaiya's shoes!

Nate and Trisha are great parents and love Zaiya as the perfect child she is...but if she turns out to be a Viking fan there may be issues ;-)

"Auntie Char, what are Mom and Tara doing??"

Our weekend was full of adventure including yesterday's Packer game against Seattle Seahawks! Dawn stayed back to watch Zaiya and they went on lots of walks and checked out Queen Anne Hill where we live. Meanwhile, Tara, Trisha and Nate and I tailgated early at the Pyramid and went to watch the game -- we had endzone tickets!

She was a clown...weird :-) **note that my lack of facepaint is not a direct proportion to my level of fan-ness...the facepaint would make me break out sending me back to puberty. No thanks!

We got stopped everywhere for photos! We were celebrities!

The Storks...true fans!

Entering the stadium...I have never been boo'd so much in my life!

"Let's get this party started!"

Nate told us the beer was gone when he took this photo, that's why we look so sad...

Packer fans love packer fans!

Nate loved this guy so much he gave him his can-coozie!

We went to Cowgirls Inc where we showed how proud we were...then Nate got asked to leave, I guess Seattle doesn't love Wisconsin as much as we thought!

Family Time!

Tara's family is here this weekend!! So we'll have more stories to come!

My ears will be ringing after this weekend...for those of you who know the decibal level of the holldorf/denucci girls....you understand :-) FUN TIMES!

Save a horse, ride a mechanical bull

Thursday night was our only night off beftween work so we had to do it right. After a long bad day for me, I hit the bottle a little too hard and drank too much, so there will be no photos of me from that night ;-) But Tara had seen the mechanical bull one other time at Cowgirl Inc. (it's just like a coyote ugly bar) and took full advantage that no one was on it.



So here are the photos I got...note they're a little shaky but that's because I was laughing so hard!

"That's ok, I don't need help, I've done this before"

She asked me if the rodeo limit was 3 minutes.... nope...8 seconds :-) She made it!

There are risks to every reward. Her hand swelled up from having to hang on so tight that she can't extend her hand or fingers straight. And she had a softball size bruise on her thigh-- still does but I couldn't take a picture of it and put it on the blog without getting kicked off :-)

Grocery stores...food?

This morning we got done with work and dropped off Tara's car to get new tires and walked (an hour!) home and I crashed. Tara woke me up and said we were going back and then stopping to get teriyaki as our friend Eric told us that it is the best in Seattle and we haven't tried it yet!

So we ate and walked past a grocery store to get milk. Only milk.

This is what we walked out with:

* A case of beer
* 2 bottles of wine
* Corkscrew
* 1/2 gallon milk
* Toilet paper

What does this say about us?!? haha!! Going out to have some fun tonight then 5 days of work for these ladies! We miss you all!

Picture is worth a 1000 words :-)

Mmm...

Our touristy weekend...and visitors

I know that Seattle is a tourist attraction and that there are many things to do that do not involve buying a mug/pen/sweatshirt stamped with Seattle, but for this weekend, that was the scene for us!

We picked up our friends and I was excited to see some friends from home. Now, I know I pick on Tara sometimes for things she says and in her defense she just doesn't remember all the stupid stuff I say, so I'll put myself out there. In excitement of picking up our friends, I shrieked, "Just think they're starting their distention!" Tara looked at me and said, "You mean they're descending!" Whoopsies...

Touristy stop #1: Seattle Aquarium and Pikes Place Market

So we had some friends come this past weekend and we thought that we would do all the very Seattle things. Starting with the Space Needle. We went for dinner on top of the Space Needle and our friend Shawn HATES heights and we found this on our way up to the 34 floors to the very top for dinner. SUPER expensive but definitely worth it and we over ate everything in sight! Tara and I had to go to the bathroom, now remember that the floor rotates so that you see the entire city over an hour. But, the center of the space needle where the bathroom is and does not move. So when we came back from the bathroom, we couldn't find our table! I have no idea how the servers keep track of the tables!

We live a few minutes away from the Space Needle and this was our first time here!

I told Tara I heard a loud crack at this point and it started swaying.

We've posted pictures of Alki beach before and ok...here are some more. Again, great views of Seattle, and a nice walk after breakfast :-)

Checkin out the beach scene.

Right before this, Tara and I were stretching over this edge trying to check out the water temperature. Then we saw the stairs, where you could walk right down.

Of course, it wouldn't be like us to not show a good party. We hit up Belltown first at the Amber then dancing the night away at Tia Lous.

Tia Lous!

Saturday we woke up early and made plans to either go to Snoqualmine Falls or Mount Ranier. Jonesy said, "Ya know we should really check out Mount Ranier since it is closed after October 1st." I wrote down directions true to my navigator role in this trip and we started off. First we stopped at the gas station and Jonesy was telling Tara that he wanted to go back to the Market (another touristy thing we did) to get fish and cook at the apartment. Now, mind you we are IN THE CAR, on the way to Mount Ranier and Tara IS DRIVING and she said, "Well how are we going to get all that done if we're going to Mount Ranier tomorrow?" Tara...we're going right now, today, that's where you're driving.

The first five minutes of the Nature Walk...Note that I still have a smile on my face ;-)

I climbed it.

It isn't THAT big :-)

The photo just doesn't do it justice. So so pretty!

He asked me for ransom money not to drop her. I offered $5. He took it.

Now serving table 47

Now, Tara and I are down-right, plain and simple, party in the cornfield, camping outside, hunting deer (ok, the hunting is Tara, not me) but you get the idea. There is nothing complicated about us and the outdoors and nature is perfect for us. But we had no idea how much Jonesy enjoyed it. I loved it for the first few hours, liked it for hours 4-6 and it dwindled down from there until the final photos of Mount Ranier. We went to a nature center on our way to Mount Ranier on Saturday (and a brewerie too!)

So brave! Mary Lou Retton has nothing on her!

All you can eat!!! MMMM....