Sunshine Filled Weekend

This weekend was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining brightly and the skies were boasting a beautiful blue with puffy pillows for clouds. On Friday after Glenn got home from work we took Rally out to the deck and took a nice long nap in the sunshine. It felt so good soaking up all those delicious Vitamin D filled rays of sun. It was also nice to get a little color. I've been wondering if I might end up looking like a sparkly vampire if I didn't spend more time in the sun! We spent the rest of the night inside and watched Fast and Furious (the fourth one) to prepare for the awesomeness of Fast Five the next morning.

Saturday morning we drove out to Gig Harbor to watch Fast Five in DBox seats. If you weren't already familiar with DBox, they are basically seats that have a motion code programmed into them to go along with the movie you are watching. If you've ever been on the Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios, it's like that. They're a TON of fun and really cool. We saw the last F&F in DBox and had such a blast so we knew we would definitely be doing it again. As far as the movie goes, it was AWESOME! I LOVED every action packed second of it. Plus, I am definitely not going to object to a movie with Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, and the Rock. It's definitely a movie to kick off summer the right way.

Since we were in Gig Harbor for the movie, we made our way over to our future 'Hood in Tacoma. We drove by our soon-to-be house (fingers still crossed!) and I giggled as we drove by the house down the street with all the crazy decorations. We're starting to get really excited. I've even began a countdown using the snowflake decorations from Christmas that I never took down. Our inspection is tomorrow (Tuesday) and we are really excited to get back in the house. It feels like it's been forever and we're starting to forget what it looks like inside!

I finally got to spray painting my hardware yesterday. We spent the late sunny afternoon out in the sun again. This time Glenn showed me how to spray paint. I was too scared to just attempt it on my own, so I made Glenn show me how to do it. I'm such a wuss!
We started by spraying the door handles and the diamond panel insets with glossy black. I just loved the way the diamonds looked with the black. I knew it would look perfect against the fabric I chose.
As far as the door pulls go, I've been waffling on that one. I thought that I would try and match the 50's hardware that we picked up at Sanford & Sons.
After one coat of the "chrome" spray paint I knew it wasn't going to match but I was really liking the look. It has a soft shine to it, almost like brushed nickel. The pulls look fantastic against the bright pink so I decided to spray the remaining handles later in the week.
Finally I got to pulling the fabric off of the door panels. They were attached with glue.
After a dusty mess I scraped off the remaining fabric with my putty knife. I am getting super excited about the way my piece is turning out. When it is all done it will be 100% Bri, and that's exactly what I want it to be.

With all the time we spent outside waiting for paint to dry and enjoying the sun, we thought that Rally would get to see his girlfriend for sure. He did! They are just so stinkin' cute together. They really do love each other. They don't act the same way around other dogs. Rally and Mika played together for quite a while before Rally started to get tired. It seems like just yesterday he had boundless energy. Meanwhile, Mika was still all sorts of ready to play. She's only 1, so she's always ready for fun. Rally is nearing his 4th birthday this June! I can't believe it. We've had him for a little over 3 years now. He's such a good boy :o)

We ended up getting a little more color yesterday as well, maybe a little more than we intended. Oh well! We're certainly looking forward to this week and are very excited for Tuesday to get here so we can hopefully get the final green light on the house! After that I am going to start packing things and before we know it, we'll be moving!

I hope everyone is doing well! Love to all!

Rally and His Girlfriend

While our apartment building is very pet friendly, not every pet owner is the same. Of the many, many pets that live here, very few of their owners will actually let them interact with other dogs. It's really strange. That's such a bummer for Rally because he is such a social puppy. Luckily for him he has made good friends with a Husky named Mika. We even go so far as to call her his girlfriend. They get so excited to see each other and when it's time to leave they act like a pair of star-crossed lovers. Seriously, they are too cute for words. Enjoy this video of the two playing.

A few videos of Rally

A little video

Bri playing the baseball game at Lucky Strike in Bellevue.

4th of July

I never used to be a really big fan of the 4th, but I can most closely attribute that fact to living in or visiting a hot location on the 4th. Sure, watching fireworks has always been fun, and I have lots of fond memories of that, but being hot and uncomfortable in July is just not that fun.
Like I said though, there were lots of fond memories. When I was younger, I remember Grandpa Lutes sending us a sweet little package full of sparklers and other mostly non-harmful fireworks and that was always a lot of fun. I remember a family vacation (before Glenn) where we went to Cabo San Lucas and were treated to beachside fireworks by the resort, even though the holiday has no meaning to them. It was a really special night that I will always remember. I also remember the time when Glenn took me to a Dodger game on the 4th. That was another experience I could never forget. After the 7th inning stretch, we left our bleacher seats in left field and stood behind the bullpen waiting for the go ahead to run onto the field and claim our seats for one of the most spectacular fireworks displays ever seen. It truly was amazing. It was even choreographed to music!
My most memorable 4th of July would have to be last year's. Not only was it not 100 degrees outside, but we were by water, and later that evening I got to shoot off my very own fireworks for the first time. Now that we are back in Washington, I wasn't about to spend another 4th of July simply sitting back and watching the show. I was going to get in on the action too.
This year, we made our way up North the day before to do a little outlet shopping, eat at Bajio (sadly out of business), and pick up some fireworks on the Rez. Of course, I have little to no self control when it comes to buying fireworks, so at the very first booth we spotted and stopped at, I spent all $40 that I had. We had brought Janke along on our little trip and he didn't buy anything at the first stall. At the next stall, I remembered I had $5 in my wallet, so I quickly spent that too. Since Janke is a little indecisive and I secretly think he was just planning on sharing with me, despite my protests, we decided to hit up Boom City. I've never heard a truer name.
Boom City is flat out ridiculous. If you were to create a stereotypical image of a pyromaniac in your head, multiply it by a couple thousand and put those people in a couple acres of land surrounded with stalls upon stalls of fireworks dealers, you would get Boom City. This place was nuts. I have never seen so many fireworks in my life!
Not only that, but there were boxes of fireworks for sale that retailed for $150, $350, even $1000!!! Can you believe that?!
Imagine my surprise when Janke didn't buy anything, and we left empty handed. Hmph.
At around 8:00 on the 4th, Glenn, Janke and I made our way out to Tacoma to watch the fireworks show. It was lovely as always. Afterwards, we drove around University Place to find a suitable place to shoot off our own explosives. We found a nice little area not too close to houses and proceeded to blow stuff up. I was even super nice and I shared with Janke. It was fun. I love shooting off my own fireworks. The only other person who I think might enjoy this as much as I do is Jeff. I hope I can get him up here, maybe next year, because we would have a blast!
I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July! I know we did. Love you and miss you all!
Enjoy the video below of Janke having a difficult time getting the lighter to work. (Hopefully I loaded it properly.)