Of Ferries and Starbucks and Tea on the High

Once upon a time we went on vacation.

And then, unfortunately, we came home...where work immediately started spinning out of control, we had no groceries for days, we couldn't fall asleep at night or wake up in the morning, and it took me nearly a month just to look through our pictures on the computer to figure out what to tell you about.

It was worth it, though, I promise.

We’re not really sure why we decided to go to Seattle/the Pacific Northwest on our vacation this year, except that it turns out we have a lot of good friends there—one in particular, Krystal, who we suddenly realized we must. go. see. before she moves to Portugal for the foreseeable future (where, of course, we will have to go see her again). Plus, I had this inexplicable desire to rehabilitate Seattle in the eyes of Jason, who wasn’t terribly impressed when we spent a few hours there a few years ago (understandably. It was cold, we parked in a sketchy neighborhood, and let’s face it, we were there for a funeral).

Seattle in June was much more fun, though honestly we didn’t spend much time actually in Seattle. We had breakfast with my K-12 friend Janae and her two youngest (and kicked ourselves for forgetting to take pictures), had coffee at a Starbucks conception store, where they don’t dress in green and do serve wine, and then walked around the pier area for a few minutes before catching a ferry to Bainbridge Island.

Let me pause for just a moment to say a word about Krystal, who is one of my favorite people in the whole world. Since this blog is all post-marriage, you don’t get to know her very well, but she played the very significant role in my life of being the friend in my life when I met Jason. In fact, she met Jason first—and when she decided we needed to go to the Starbucks conception store because she thought it would be a good story for Jason to tell later, I laughed out loud, because she was spot on. She joined us on vacation, and we had such a good time (and laughed a lot). I feel so lucky to be her friend I could just pinch myself.

Anyway, on Bainbridge Island the most dramatic section of our vacation started when we got in the car after lunch, right on time according to our schedule that said it would take 90 minutes to get the ferry to Victoria, BC…and the GPS announced that it would take two hours. I feel like that story is probably better in person, but let’s just say that Jason still twitches and jumps into sprinting position every time he hears a ferry horn blow.

We did make it to Victoria as planned, where the weather was delightful and we stayed in a great suite with its own kitchen and made elaborate breakfasts every morning (dragon fruit was on the menu, just because).

We spent a good part of the first full day at Buchart Gardens, which was absolutely lovely—spring has come really late to the Northwest, so while it was 95 degrees here, the tulips were still out in the gardens and we were perfectly comfortable in jeans. So nice. That night we ate at a fantastic French restaurant, Bon Rouge, where everything was perfect.

Thursday dawned a little cloudy, but we still rented bikes and took a ride along the coast, and by the time we got to our turnaround point the sun was out again. Such a nice way to spend the morning.

Thursday afternoon was my highlight—High Tea at the Empress Hotel. Everyone who knew we were going to Victoria said that I of all people had to do this one thing there, so we did. I think both Jason and I were very glad to have Krystal with us—she and I could get delighted together, and he could enjoy his tea and scones…and sleep…in peace.

Our nice walk back to the hotel involved peeking into a few pubs to see how the Canucks hockey game in the Stanley Cup play-offs was progressing (not good) and an attempt to find some other weird fruit for breakfast the next day (we settled on...chocolate croissants).

Friday we ferried back to Port Angelos and drove down to drop Krystal back off at the ferry to Seattle, then drove south to Olympia, where we got to see Telfer, Andrea, and Cate again and meet Baby Jane. See what a fun week of hanging out with friends we had? We love to eat out with Telfer and Andrea, who love food like we do and have introduced us to some of our best restaurant experiences, and Acqua Via didn’t disappoint. The next morning Andrea took us to their fabulous farmer’s market, for coffee (where Jason, of course, told all about the Starbucks concept store), and for a walk along the waterfront. In the afternoon Andrea took me to one of her favorite shops, Compass Rose. I've been wishing they had a DC outpost ever since. We had such a good time with them, as always.

The only downside to a trip to the west coast is the horrific time change, accompanied, of course, by a red eye flight. We got back at about 10 am Sunday morning and went promptly to bed until 4 pm. I honestly think it is harder to adjust to this change than flying home from Europe.

I notice as I read back here that I’ve used the word “nice” to describe a lot of things on this trip, and, looking back, that seems about perfect. It was a vacation for drinking hot beverages, walking slowly, and enjoying really great conversation, which is just what we needed.

Nate's Wedding

I have reached that happy point in one's career when I get to hire many of the people I work with, and Nate was my first pick. We have all clearly agreed that he is everyone's favorite in the office--I literally hired him because being around him makes you happy, and I was pleasantly surprised that he is also very good at his job.


Happily, Jeni is just as awesome as Nate--in fact, the other girls at work threatened Nate that if he did not marry her, we would fire him and hire her instead. It's all turned out for the best, since now we get to keep Nate and still have Jeni for staff Christmas parties and BBQs.


Jason and I had such a great time at Nate and Jeni's wedding, partly because it is so delightful to watch people you really like get married, and partly because they got married on Jacksonville Beach in Florida, which is incredible. We got up on Saturday, rented two beach chairs and an umbrella, and parked ourselves until it was time to go to the wedding. Awesome.


While I'm raving about the Greenes (hee hee!), I have to say that the wedding itself was one of the coolest weddings I've been to. Jeni has amazing style and taste and such attention to detail. Everything--from having the attendants carry big balloons instead of flowers to the guest photo booth (love the classic pic of Jason and me below) to the cute cutouts on the soda straws--was perfectly done. Our coworker Solara (Nate, Solara, and I all worked together in the old job) came, too, so we got to hang out with her as well. We absolutely loved getting to celebrate with these two!



(Note: I'm still not over referring to "Nate's wife" as often as possible, even though we've been back in the office for three days. So far, he doesn't seem to mind...)

Outside Things

Summer is here--full-bore and not looking back to lovely, perfect spring. I talked to Shaanti last Monday and was complaining that it was already 95 outside, then she said it was 55 in Meridian. Can we not clearly see a happy medium for everyone at about 75, 80?


Still, when summer hits all the outside things start creeping onto our deck and onto our counter and into our fridge, and I love that. I love summer when we are looking for lettuce for hamburgers and can just go pull it out of the ground, which is what we've been doing lately--lovely, perfect heads of lettuce, more arugula than you can shake a stick at, snow peas popping up on the vines, and little tomatoes forming nicely.


This year in our garden we planted: green onions (which hardly came up. So disappointed), carrots, radishes (all long eaten), Ithaca head lettuce, green beans, spinach, arugula, leeks (which appear to have completely died), summer squash (those little acorn shaped ones that are perfect for stuffing with goat cheese), four kinds of tomatoes, and snow peas. Oh, and potatoes. First time for those.


Ours aren't the only green things coming up--we took our first visit to the farmers market last weekend and came home with asparagus and absolutely perfect strawberries, and our CSA finally started up. Last year's farmer decided not to do a CSA this year, so it's a bit like starting fresh and not knowing what to expect...though another pint of perfect strawberries was included with the first share, which definitely started us off on the right foot!

Officially Done

Graduation was last week, and while we're still sort of picking up the pieces from a busy weekend, we had a great, fun celebration. I thought it might feel anti-climactic to walk after being done with classes for five months, but I'm glad I did--nice and official-feeling.


Both my parents and Jason's parents came out for graduation, which was so fun. They had met exactly one time (wedding), so this second visit was long overdue. We're so lucky to have parents who like each other, get along well, and are generally nice, stellar people.


We had a big graduation party on Friday, debuting the fabulous new back yard and celebrating with friends. Steven was designated photographer, so we'll get some pictures up here soon, but let me just say that our yard is awesome. Oh, and send a big shout-out to Dad and Jason, who planted way more flowers than they expected to on Thursday and Friday. So worth it, really.


Also, a post about graduation would not be complete without a shout-out to Jason. I love this picture above of him helping me figure out how to put on my hood. So symbolic of my entire grad school career, during which he put up with an exhausted and often tearful wife, read my entire thesis (God bless him), told me I was a good writer, didn't let me quit, set the timer so that I could read for an hour and then take a break, thought a Masters was worthwhile even if it didn't come with a promotion or a pay increase, prodded me with tea when I was losing it, gave direction for my scholarship application, made more than his fair share of meals, figured out what the heck I was trying to say in my thesis, and never complained (okay, well he might of complained once about having to read my thesis...). Lots of people have told me that they were glad that they weren't married when they were working full time and going to school, but I could.not. have done it without him.

Just Right

We had the most lovely week of weather this past week...which means I watched the 75-degrees-and-sunny-with-no-humidity pass by longingly through the window by my desk. Still, mmm. Spring has been spotty so far this year, but it finally seems to have settled in for a bit before making way for hot, humid summer.

Last night we went on a run then puttered around our garden for a bit. These radishes were part of dinner--I don't really like radishes, but do you know they are ready to harvest in 20 days? Um, that is awesome. I have, like, three rows of them. But not for long. They are all ready to go and about to pick themselves (and actually pretty good roasted). How's that for gardening?

Risen Indeed

I know I am SO BEHIND, but I still feel compelled to write about Easter. My Lenten preparations this year involved not only giving something up, but committing to do as well—I worked on being diligent about Bible study and journaling, and I also spent March and April reading One Thousand Gifts and N.T. Wright’s book on the resurrection, Surprised by Hope. Both books were incredible. Surprised by Hope in particular brought home what the resurrection really means, that God is in the business of restoring the world, us included, something that brings meaning to everything we do. I love that, I want to embrace that in my every day, the idea that what I do matters.

I know that in the wrong spirit Lent becomes legalistic, but it shouldn’t be. Lent this year was about putting myself in a place where, on Sunday morning, I had tears streaming down my face singing, “Christ is risen from the dead, we are one with him again!” and wanted to shout that “He is risen indeed!” Wright talks about celebrating Easter at least as long as we prepared for it, and even today, three weeks later, I feel like raising my hands in gratitude that I get to be a part of the new creation Jesus ushered in at his resurrection!

I missed spending Easter with Jason, but it was—and always is—really special to spend it with my family. Prep for Easter also includes egg decorating, of course, and we had a lot of fun dying eggs with the boys. Mom wisely moved things outside, since Mason was blue from the top of his head to the tips of his fingers within about two minutes…and had also cracked open at least one egg and was eating it, dye and all.

At least he knew where to put the yolk when he was done with it???

We got a fabulous Easter surprise when Casey and Kim randomly joined us for dinner at Texas Roadhouse on Saturday night--they'd driven down from Potlatch to spend Easter with us! What a treat to get to spend time with them! Made everything extra fun. It was the first time more than one boy was into the egg hunt, and then during the grown-kids hunt, Kim came away with the golden egg! I was hampered in my hunt by Kade-boy, not a bad deal. :)
What a glorious celebration!

Ice Cream Dates

When Kade was born, I sent Cole and Mason a "New Big Brother" package, complete with awesome goodies like monster cookies, pieces of gum, quarters, and coupons for ice cream dates when I was in town next. The latter was the hit of the week while I was in Idaho--for the boys and for me.

Cole was pretty keen on getting to go to ice cream all by himself--he'd generously invited Granny to join us at one point, but by the time our date rolled around on Friday, he made it pretty clear that we should NOT invite Mason to come! We had two rounds of the sundae bar at JB's, and I had so much fun hanging out with Cole--he is so funny and so smart and so grown up...even with his silly camera face!

Taking Mason and Troy for ice cream required a wee bit more planning...and some strategic backup. Mason is lightening fast and slips through your hands like they are buttered--watching Shaanti strategically tackle him is pretty amusing (for me, not her). And it takes Troy a while to get warmed up to me...even when ice cream is in the mix.


The solution was to take Papa with us. He may not be sure about Aunt Missy, but Troy adores his Papa--at the dinner table one night he thanked God for Papa but left everyone else off the list--and between the two of us, Dad and I managed to limit the number of things stained bright blue by the ice cream (you'll notice that lips and hands escaped our control). We had a great time. It's hilarious to watch those two carry on a conversation, and between their two smiles you just want to laugh out loud.

Coop and Kade missed out on the ice cream dates, but there will be time for that next time.

Best Day Ever.

Here are five things I loved about what quickly became known as the Best Day Ever:

1. The giddiness in Shaanti and Jenny's voices when they marveled at how easy it was to shop, shop, shop without (most of) their energetic boys in tow (we took Kade along so that we'd have someone to coo at);

2. How tan my mom's feet look in the picture of our pretty new pedicures (wonder which one of us spent two weeks in Hawaii this spring?);


3. Having the opinions of the people I trust most while swim suit shopping (yikes!);

4. Prawns and halibut chunks at the Stagecoach--the ultimate "special occasion" dining experience for the Johnson family;


5. Staying at the mall...and then the restaurant...and then Target as long as we wanted to (or until they kicked us out), with no pressing engagements or responsibilities weighing on us.

The only thing not to love was the absence of Kim, who would have rounded out our Johnson Girl Day Out experience perfectly. So, so fun.

Hi, Again

Hey, remember us? We used to blog here. I'm not sure how we disappeared off the face of the earth--maybe it was the traveling, maybe it was the fact that the "busy season" at work seems to be stretching into a "busy eternity," maybe it's just taking me a long time to figure out how to move pictures from my iPhone to the computer.

We're doing our usually Sunday night thing, trying to get our ducks in a row for the coming week--Jason is calming ironing while I am frantically wondering how my Cooking Light subscription expired (don't they send you, like, a million notices before that happens?!?) and just realized that my laundry is still not put away. It's really hot tonight, and yet I still have sweaters hanging in my closet. So we're a little behind in other areas of our lives, not just the blog.

Dawn had a great blog entry this week about how she gets sucked into thinking she has to "catch you up" on every detail of the big events that happened while she was not blogging, and I should totally follow her lead and just start from today...but I have such fun pictures of my nephews to share from my time in Idaho, so I probably won't do that.

I'll be back, just didn't want you to feel neglected anymore.

Readers of the World Unite!

So, while the awesome moment of last week was this (long sought after, hard worked for, can-hardly-believe-we-pulled-it-off kind of legislative high...), and while I will confess to doing the happy dance around the office on Tuesday morning, there were a couple of other cool moments to recall.

This one came in the middle of a pretty mind-numbing hearing on Thursday. I sit through a LOT of hearings, but sometimes they end up being very cool. Like on Thursday, when Ken Burns spoke about the value of the National Endowment for the Humanities and country singer Trace Adkins spoke about the value of preserving Civil War battlefields (could listen to THAT voice all day!).

And like when Azar Nafisi testified on the value of the humanities, particularly reading. She wrote Reading Lolita in Tehran, which was on my Amazing Books List circa 2004 and actually jump-started another reading binge, after too long away from books. Her book is a memoir of life in Tehran, described through the tale of the illicit reading group she taught to women in Tehran. Austen, James, Gatsby...and Lolita, of course. I'd never read Lolita before, so I tried, and I honestly couldn't finish it. But I like knowing that I couldn't finish it.

Dave, our subcommittee clerk and fellow English major, said that he wanted to jump up and clap for her because she reminded him why he majored in English twenty or so years ago. I felt the same way. After she testified, my boss thanked her profusely and then told her she couldn't leave until she talked to his staffer, who had been raving about her book all morning. I was beet red but also grateful--got to talk to her briefly afterward, and she wrote Nabokov's quote about readers being free.

Very cool. Almost as cool as finally, finally getting wolves off the endangered species list.

Almost.

Then and Now

In late Fall of last year, we decided to create a "backyard." Our home's true backyard is filled by 3 giant homes constructed before we bought the house, so I suppose what we really created is a "sideyard," but we wanted one with a backyard feel. Between tearing out invasive vines, installing a new privacy and picket fence and laying new sod, we now have a "backyard" space worth the investment. Looking forward to future summer BBQs on the lawn! Here are two snapshots that show the change:

Summer 2009

Spring 2011

Facetime

For my birthday, Jason totally surprised me with an iPhone--I had literally been counting down the days until the iPhone came to Verizon, but I knew that the technological/corporative contract/deal-striking challenges were nothing compared to his unshakeable distaste for Apple and his commitment phobia when it came to signing up for a data plan (the extent of interactiveness on our lovely once-cool, rapidly-aging flip phones is texting. oooo.). I was fully expecting to wait another year or so (or until my phone actually died) before we could have a serious talk about taking our cell phones to the next level.

I love my iPhone, but I confess that I spend a lot of time looking at it...and not really knowing what to do with it. Why, for example, when I say, "call Jason," does it call St. Alphonsus' hospital? And why, honestly, does my phone have the number for St. Al's in it? Where is Kim's number? When I went to call her on her birthday, I could not find it in my phone, and yet the next day when she texted to tell me that Cole and Mason each sang "Happy Birthday, Aunt Missy," to her, her name popped up as if my iPhone already knew her. These are mysteries to me. But still, love.

And yesterday my love hit a new level when I tried Facetime for the first time and got to meet this little face in (sort of) person. Let's just be honest here, third children get the shaft when it comes to baby pictures...and therefore long-distant aunts get the shaft when they don't get showered with pictures of their newest nephew the way they did when, say, his oldest brother was born (though kudos to Shaant on updating the blog lately, from where I stole this picture!). But Facetime, mmm. I got to watch him coo. I got to hear him grunt. I got to see him staring at his dad and licking his lips. It was awesome.

I also got to see Mason put on his sweet helmet for scooter riding and have Cole tell me that "he didn't have much planned" for the rest of the night. Highlight of the weekend. Even Jason was enjoying my iPhone.

The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful. Assured that we would have jobs and paychecks come Monday morning (though it was a close call on Friday night!), we had this lovely Saturday planned with where we'd actually canceled plans so we could just hang out together--sleeping in, delicious breakfast, reading until we got bored, maybe even a bike ride...and then we woke up to the State Department calling, and Jason ended up having to work until 3 (some crisis in the Ivory Coast, blah, blah). I was ungraciously and childishly cranky, but happily the sun came out today and I gained some perspective and we got to plant our garden--yay! I planted radishes this year simply because they are ready to harvest in 20 days--20 days! I don't know who will eat them in 20 days, but they will be coming up!

And We're Back!

Spring is back, that is, though no one has dared to put sweaters away or take out shorts. I'm getting tired of seeing my turtlenecks hanging in my closet and turning on my space heater at work.


Today was a nice relief from the very cold, rainy week we just had, and the trees are in full bloom! Love spring in DC (minus hoards of people and tour buses). I went on a run (sad, slow, out-of-shape run) after work today. I'd forgotten my iPod (tragic), so I carried my new iPhone that has, like, five songs on it. While the music was certainly lacking, I managed to take a few pictures of one of my favorite spring sites--since I only see it running and never have my camera on hand.


The little garden outside the Smithsonian Castle is lined with magnolia trees that are perfectly in bloom right now. It is like a fairy land. I wish I could eat my lunch on one of these benches every day.


Happy April!

False Spring

Um, hi, this is what we woke up to this morning:


You have to be kidding me.

I felt sorry for all those Cherry Blossom Festivalers stamping around to keep warm while trying to figure out which puffy white things were flowers and which were snowballs. Unbelieveable.

We, meanwhile, were having a delightful weekend, snow and all. As a birthday treat, Jason booked a night at the Marriott Ranch near Front Royal, Virginia, just shy of the Shenandoahs. It's the one bed and breakfast in the Marriott chain and was once the vacation home of the Marriotts...after it was the home of James Marshall, brother of John Marshall, the Supreme Court Chief Justice. That was in, like 1814.

We'd hoped to spend the weekend walking or bike riding, assuming that the 70+ degree weather from last weekend was here to stay (ha!). Even so, we enjoyed curling up with cheese and books and napping under blankets just fine. We had a fabulous dinner at Apartment 2g in Front Royal, where we ate five courses, watched the chefs cook, and had to roll ourselves on of the restaurant and back to the Ranch.


We stayed long enough for breakfast today and then drove back, and we felt fantastically rested. The heart just pumps a little slower outside of the city.

Birthday Weekend Recap

Apparently in my old age I can't blog in a timely fashion anymore. No matter--since today was the final part of my annual week-long birthday celebration, it's totally timely to post about birthday weekend now.

Birthday weekend was not only my birthday this year--we were rockin' and rollin' with the b-day parties. I can hardly keep up with all the birthday celebrations in my own family this month (as can be attested to all the extra postage I've paid for gifts in order to get them there on time)...first Casey, then Mini-Coop, then Kim, then Adam is Saturday, and Jenny is just around the corner. Phew! Ready for the break that is May!

Anyway. My birthday. Perfect day. Jason started it out with chocolate croissants and tea, and we ended things at Duangrats, my favorite Thai place near our house--last year's celebration was so fun, I thought we might as well do it again! Jason made me an amazing chocolate cake and my friends came out to celebrate. Such fun.

Saturday morning I headed to Dawn's where she hosted some friends for a lovely birthday tea party (if you remember, her birthday is the day before mine--"Our Birthday," as we call it). She'd done up the table just perfectly, the jasmine tea was delightful, and I ate way too many cucumber sandwiches. And we wore hats. Fun.


I got home in time for us to turn around and walk across the neighborhood to Hudson's first birthday party--an "I Love You, Stinkyface" party. Hudson is the youngest of the "five in six months" babies born in our dear group of friends, and his was the first party where all of the babies had basically turned into interested toddlers--below is the picture of Carter (who, at 4 1/2 months, is remarkably good at sitting in a chair!), Carly, Walker, and Anna listening to the story.

Somehow we didn't get a single picture of the birthday boy!

Champions at heart

My ice hockey team played in the winter season final match a few weeks ago. Though we entered the third period leading 2 goals to 1, we lost in the end 3 to 2 in what became a competitive and physical game. A supportive crowd came to cheer me on (Mark Wojo and two of his boys, the Harveys, the Petersons, Kevin Patterson, and Missy of course)! While we turned out our best season ever since we became a team two years ago, it was still a disappointing end. On to summer season -- starts March 25!

Little Dresses

It was Dress Day around here--the girls in our Sunday school class got together to spend the afternoon turning pillow cases into dresses for little girls in Africa who have lost their parents to AIDS. Pretty cool idea--check out the website here.

We had a fun crowd--seven girls brought their sewing machines, and we had lots of extra hands to iron, cut, and pin. We ended up working well into early evening and finished 13 dresses. We have 15 more waiting for the final step. I was thankful for all those Caravans badges in sewing, I tell you what! I'm also thankful for Amy's great camera skills that captured the day!

Missy gives us a demonstration so that we have a small inkling of what we're doing!

Lots of cutting...

Kathryn sews casings while Maria measures elastic.

It turns out sewing is not always fun...right Natalie?

Donna ironed bias tape for hours.

The finished product was beautiful!

This Week at Work

We're in the middle of the mad season at work again. After ten years (!!!), I've gotten used to the crazy days and late nights, but I have yet to develop a taste for it. Sometimes we get by on plain silliness. For example, this week:

* MJ celebrated Justin Bieber's birthday by bringing in her ukulele and singing that "like, baby, baby, baby" song for us all. And by us all, I mean the entire staff and the Congressman. And the night mail clerk.

* We had our first hearings with my boss as the Chairman. I sat behind him for three hours while the EPA Administrator testified, and all I could think of the whole time was that some reporter was going to take a picture of my boss in which I was going to be chewing on my lip awkwardly or sneezing or rolling my eyes to the back of my head, and that picture was going to be plastered all over every news website in Idaho. Forever. Why do I think this? Because this picture has been used for the past two years every time my boss is mentioned. Poor Kaylyn and Megan.

* One of our district staffers was in town, and she convinced all of us to wear pink on Thursday, because that was what she had brought to wear. So we did. I don't know why. It's not Breast Cancer Awareness Month or anything. I also don't know why it was so easy to convince us. But I know it was funny--especially when Mike sat up in the dias with his pink tie and I sat right behind him with a matching shirt. (As you'll note from the picture, Nate had to balance out his pink tie by covering it with a blue sweater. Just in case.)

(And by the way, this picture makes me want to roll on the floor laughing. Not only did we decide to take a picture right before Mike left and had therefore changed into a polo (which looks great with the pink tie), but his expression is classic. I love working for him!)

* We have our own barista in the office, as Nate makes coffee each morning in his French press. He and I have been the only coffee drinkers in the office, but in the past few weeks two new staffers have started. Between them and the visiting Nikki, he had to press two pots this morning. I think we should probably start tipping him.

* One of our new staffers is a nuclear engineer doing a fellowship in our office. He told me during his first week that he thought I was too cynical for someone so young. This week he started responding to constituent mail. Suddenly I don't look so unreasonably cynical...

Don't worry, we also had five hearings this week, passed some legislation, prepared a handful of speeches, and met with a lot of people. We just figure that we might as well add a little color to make these busy days a bit brighter...and if that color is pink, well, fun for us!