I know, it’s been over a month… my sincere apologies. We have been nonstop, full speed ahead since August and I can barely keep up! This update will be mostly visual since I have a lot to catch you up on!
Mom and I before dinner at Lincoln.
My mom and Roger came to visit a few weeks ago and we had a great time eating some amazing food and catching up. They were in town for “Memphis Goes Hog Wild in Portland” – a local winemaker at Elk Cove invited 5 Memphis chefs to town to pair some of their foods with his wines. It was a perfect match. We had dinner at Lincoln one night and headed out to Elk Cove for a hog roast that weekend. It was such a great visit. I even found a wedding dress!
Hog Roast at Elk Cove Vineyards
Our friend’s Danny and Ashley found out they are having a baby… GIRL, so we threw a fun party for them. I had the envelope for an entire week and had to keep my lips sealed.
John spent a week of vacation in New York with some med school friends while I spent my week on I-5. It was a really productive week at work, I feel like I am finally getting comfortable in my own skin and learning my way through the system, but I hated to miss such a fun week off with him. He certainly deserves a vacation far more than me!
While he was away we had supper club in Lake Oswego at Caitlin’s. Not a bad way to spend the end of a fun day.
I did talk him into flying back early to go to the San Juan Islands for Labor Day weekend so we were able to sneak away together for a few days of camping and sea kayaking!
On the ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor
Campsite on Friday Harbor (please disregard my appearance!)
Friday Harbor
Island Hoppin’ Brewery
West Beach Resort on Orcas Island
(Don’t let the name fool you, it was just a glorified campsite!)
After our fun trip to the San Juans my running group threw an amazing backyard engagement party. I am not very good at letting people do things for me so I made them promise to keep it small and simple. We (well, maybe I should say others) played the guitar around the fire pit until late into the night. Aofie even made us a chocolate Guinness cake! It was all perfect. I am so thankful to have such sweet friends.
Last weekend we snuck away for a day to do a 16 mile hike in the Goat Rocks Wilderness. It was the most gorgeous hike we have done yet. Washington is such a beautiful state.
On top of Hawkeye Point, Mt. Adams to the South
We are still on the fence of what to do this weekend but John purchased a camping stove and water purifier so my guess is we will be back out camping again, this time backpacking! I absolutely love this time of the year in the Pacific Northwest.
Another time of the year that I love is Thanksgiving. Last night when I got home from work John handed me a very sweet letter from his dad… he is flying us home to spend Thanksgiving in Birmingham! I was in tears. I was so overwhelmed and thankful and surprised. I cannot wait to be back and share our engagement with family and spend Thanksgiving together!
So sorry it has taken me a month to get you in the loop (ahem, Grandmother). I promise to do much better in the coming weeks! Marathon number… I have lost count… is two weeks from Sunday. Someone got up extra early this morning to run his first 9 miles, very proud of him 🙂
Not enough fingers to count my blessings these days… Love you all!
ps- I have many more photos to post but we are fine tuning our photography skills so I will save the sea kayaking and mountain views for another post another day!
happy manor 
Beautiful photos of the lake!