MoreyPee:The Time of My Life

This past Saturday was the annual Halloween Bash at my cousin Lanette’s house. She hasn’t had her party in a few years, so we were all excited she was bringing it back. Lanette is a great host and loves to have theme parties at her home; she is the master of decoration and designs. This past year she build a large pirate ship in the backyard for the kids (she has many little ones running around though none are hers, she is like an aunt to everyone.) With the huge pirate ship in the backyard it made sense that her Halloween party would have a pirate theme to it.

The party wasn’t until 8pm and Kevin and I had to go all the way from Woodinville to Graham, 1.5 hr drive each way. Knowing that we were only going to be able to stay a few hours, we decided we needed to make a day out of the journey (notice a pattern here). We are working on a few home projects so we planned on stopping at Home Depot and Fred Meyer on the way out. I told him I knew of a walking path in Puyallup we could spend an hour on and get some exercise, we like walking. Then, we planned on stopping at my parent’s house for dinner and a quick visit with grandma.

Once we got to Puyallup, we walked along the Foothills Trail for 45 mins. It was a pretty simple trail, nothing too complicated. After our walk, we headed out to the parent’s house. Mom made some awesome potato soup from scratch. It was her first time making it and it tasted delicious. After visiting with the parents and grandma for awhile we started getting ready for the party.

Kevin and I had no real intention of dressing up at all; we hadn’t made any plans to do so and I’m not usually into dressing up. My parents, Jonathan, and Jessica all had costumes picked out, so I decided to see if I could find anything entertaining to wear. I tried on a few different things and then decided to wear an army coat and hat; Kevin wore a hat with a pirate symbol on it. My dad was Christopher Columbus, mom was a soldier too, Jonathan was Dwight Shrute, and Jessica was a greek.

The party was fun. There were lots of people and lots of good food. I got to see some people I haven’t seen in awhile; mostly family. I was hoping to see some old co-workers, but they weren’t there; at least not while I was. It was still a good time and Kevin and I were able to duck out at 10pm as we discussed. Our plan for Sunday was a dangerous hike, but that is another post.

Here are some pictures from the event:

Kevin in his pirate hat

Jonathan and Jessica

My dad as Christopher Columbus, not a king

My brother Brian as Waldo and his girl Caroline as Twister

Me in my army outfit

My mom and me with a sneaky Jessica

Ripping up the dance floor.

Last weekend Kevin bought us tickets to see the Kevin Smith show in Seattle. Trenton, Kevin, and myself were excited to see Kevin Smith ‘perform’ and spend some time in Seattle. Kevin Smith does a question and answer forum and while he answers questions he goes off and tells stories on his past adventures before finally answering the question, it is highly entertaining.

Of course we needed to make a day of it, so we all got together and tried to figure out what to do. A few weeks ago, Kevin and I found this great bookstore in Bothell called Third Place Books (http://www.thirdplacebooks.com/node). It is a small little bookstore located in a mall like setting, complete with a food court. We went to the food court first and ate some lunch, then we puttered around the bookstore for a bit. Trenton and Kevin found some good books and some chairs, while I continued to browse every single aisle of books.

After the bookstore, we decided it was walk time. Kevin suggested we walk around Greenlake; I hadn’t done that in a long time so I was all for it. Trenton didn’t want to go for a walk, he wanted to stay in the car and read…teenagers. We drug him out anyway and he ended up having a great time. Here are some great pictures of our adventures:

Trenton and I standing near the water, he is taller than me!!!

  Trenton was taking a little nap and Kevin snuck up on him and tried to scare him, but we all know Kevin is not that quiet.

Kevin was inside the box and Trenton could not get in.

After our 3 mile trek around Green lake, we headed out to Benaroya Hall (http://www.seattlesymphony.org/benaroya/) to watch the Kevin Smith show. The auditorium was gorgeous and large. This is the place where the Seattle Symphony performs held because the acoustics are just phenomenal. Below is a picture we took from highest balcony point; our actual seats were down on the floor but we snuck up to get a good look.

The day was fun and eventful. Its fun when we can go and do things as a family. We have such limited time with Trenton lately and he is growing up so fast, soon he won’t want to spend time with us. Being about to get out of the house and do things together brings us all a little closer and gives me a great opportunity to spend time with my future step-son and integrate myself into this family.

Kevin and I like to hike on the weekends, but during the week we like to take walks in the area. Some days we walk around the neighborhood and can get 2 miles done in 30 minutes, so its quick.

Recently, we discovered the Tolt Pipeline trail that runs    through town a few miles from our house. We knew the trail was there before we would walk on it for an hour or so, starting at different points.

me turning on the stopwatch to time the walk.

A few weeks ago, we Goggled the trail and found that the trail going to the west ended after 3 miles. We decided since were starting to get in better shape that we would just walk to the end one day. So, a couple weeks ago, we did it. The trail was vicious and was more like a hike then a walk. Some of the hills almost killed me and I know Kevin was out of breath, but we loved it.

The pipeline trail actually ends up connecting to the Sammamish River Trail which is part of the Burke-Gilman trail, a popular trail in the area. Anyway, here are some pictures of the terrain on the trail and one of the big hills we had to conquer:

the terrain

the huge double hill

pretty leaves changing colors.

I found this cool website by Google that works like a mileage chart for walkers, runners, or bikers. It will let you plot your starting point and ending point and calculate the mileage covered. It will also show you elevation and figure out how many calories you burned based on weight. I use it at least once a day to figure out how many miles I’m doing when I walk around the neighborhood and to figure out new routes. Here is the link: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

This year Trenton has decided to play football, and though the season is almost over (one more game) Kevin and I have supported his wishes. He has games every Wednesday at 3:30 over in Port Orchard. We missed most of the games in Sept, but have made it a point to go to every game this month.

Kevin and I are not huge sports fanatics and we barely even know the rules of football, but we pretend to know and that makes it even more fun. I know a couple positions on the team like quarterback, full back, half back, and center, but don’t really know what any of them do except the quarterback. I now know what the center does because that is the position Trenton plays. It is the gayest position on the team…I only say that because, well look at the picture:

Anyway, Wednesday (two days ago), Trenton’s team won their first football game in two years. The varsity team at the junior high has won almost every game for the past two years and the JV team has done the opposite. It was a pretty exciting game actually. Both teams did well. Once our team started scoring some points, the boys let adrenaline take over and they were having fun. It was fun to watch, even when though it was sprinkling on and off.

Trenton is giving me the thumbs up after they won.

Team huddle with coach after the game.

Junior high football is funny to watch because some parents are so intense. They are out there shouting and yelling at their kids on the field. Kevin and I just sit and laugh. As long as Trenton is having fun, we are proud of him. He doesn’t have to be the best player on the team and he can even make some mistakes, we just want him to have fun. I mean seriously, its junior high, half of these kids won’t even play in high school and only a hand full will try to get scholarships for college; so relax.

Anyway, after the game we asked Trenton if he wanted to come to dinner with us. A Christmas miracle happened and his mother actually agreed to release him for a few hours. We were shocked and pleasantly surprised all at the same time. Trenton wanted to go to Spiro’s a great pizza joint.

The poor kid must have been starving because he ate a salad, cheesy ravioli, and couple slices of our pizza. Kevin and I had some salad and split a pepperoni and sausage pizza. It was good and we had fun with the kid. After we took him to visit his grandparents for an hour before returning him to his mother’s house. It was awesome to be able to celebrate Trenton’s team win with him and spend extra time with him when we get so little time these days.

Kevin and I have been really getting into hiking lately and we love to find new places to explore. This past weekend we had Trenton, and we love to bring him along. He whines and complains for a few minutes, but once we get going on the hike he always has a good time. He is just one of those people who finds something fun in everything he does whether its something he wants to do or not.

On Sunday, we decided to try out a new trail called Poo Poo Point. The name alone makes for a good time. We headed using a really good hiking book with really bad directions. The book basically said “park at Issaquah high school, the trail head is north of the school.” Sounded easy enough.

The school was a huge construction zone and Trenton decided he needed to….well do what the name of the trailhead was. He jumped a fence and used a Honey bucket. This really has nothing to do with my story, I just have to start practicing being a step-mom and torturing the kid.

Anyway, we found the trail that went around behind the school. I found the actual trailhead while the boys climbed a bunch of fences behind the school until they found the trail. We met somewhere on that trail. The trail wraps around the entire back of the school, and there was no direction as too where the trail started. We followed the trail all the way around to the other side of the school, where it ended.

Frustrated, we wondered up to a shooting range and found a trail up there. We ended up following that trail, which went in a circle and brought us back to where we started. The whole hike took about an hour, but it was not Poo Poo Point like we wanted. We still managed to have a good time and enjoy ourselves.

After looking at a few internet sites, I have an idea where we went wrong. We just missed the actual turnoff thinking it was a driveway. Next time, we will actually do the 7 mile hike and make it to the top.

 This last week has been a rather busy one here in the Miller household. The last two Wednesdays have been spent making the long trek down to Port Orchard to watch Trenton play football.  He really seems to be into the sport this year, so we felt it would be an honor to go watch his games. We get to see him involved in a sport he enjoys and we get to sneak in some extra time with him.

The last two Wednesdays Kevin has used as ‘work from home’ days and his job likes to fill his schedule with conference calls. Last week, we planned our whole driving schedule around these calls. I drove down to Fife while he was on his first call, then we stopped in at Sportco bought some hiking shoes and eat some lunch at Dairy Queen. After lunch, I drove to the Miller Compound in Port Orchard while Kevin took another call. We hung out there for another hour or so, Kevin did more work, and then we headed out to Trenton’s football game. Kevin did a tiny bit of work while at the game, but we both enjoyed the game.

Trenton plays center this year and he is first string, so he plays almost the entire game when his team is playing offense. It is fun to see him play and cheer his team on.

This past weekend was full of adventure as well. Kevin and I have been trying to hike each weekend for the past few months. Last week we decided to kick things up a notch and choose a larger, longer, more difficult hike. Our first choice was Bare Mountain, near North Bend. The hike is an eight mile hike, roundtrip, up 3200 feet of elevation.

We packed up our Camelbak backpacks with water, snacks, and lunch and headed out the door. We meet up a co-worker from Kevin’s work and headed out to North Bend. The directions in book were pretty lousy, and with some further research we found out we needed a forest pass to park. We gave up our dreams for Bare Mountain and choose a similar dream…Mount Si.

We drove turned the car around and headed for Mount Si. This hike was also 8 miles round trip and the elevation gain was 3150, so only slightly less. The entire hike took us about 4.5 hours roundtrip. The hardest part was climbing up to the top. I admit, I had to stop…a lot, so that may have been why it took so long.

The hike was good, but hard. I felt accomplished when we finally made it to the top. We took a long break and ate our lunches while enjoying the view of Seattle, Bellevue, and the top of Mount Rainier. It was breathtaking.

The hike down was much easier, but we were all sore. I found it difficult to walk for two days, but it was well worth it. A few months ago we feared we would never be able to do something like hike up Mount Si, but we proved ourselves wrong. We have been working to get into better shape and have enjoyed the hikes we have gone on. We look forward to all the hikes we have in our future, easy and hard.

It’s funny how much life changes right in front of our eyes. I can still remember being a little girl laughing and playing outside all weekend long. I used to dread doing chores like cleaning my room, changing sheets, and cleaning the bathroom. The older I got the more life changed. Trying to make new friends in high school, decided which college to go to, and what job to take.

 Once you get out of your teens and into your 20s, it feels like an eternal search to find out who you are and what you want for the rest of your life. I tried several different things jobs and lived in many places trying to discover who I was. I learned a lot on my journey and I wouldn’t be who I am today if not for those paths I took.

 Dating has never been my strong point. I have dated a few men in my days, some great and some less than spectacular. I don’t regret anyone I have shared my time or life with. Through it all I learned so much about myself as a whole and myself as a partner. I call it all practice and all necessary.

 Now, I am in my 30’s and life is changing once again. After months of talking, last night I officially became engaged to the greatest man out there, sorry ladies. It is surreal and strange to say I’m engaged; not because I never thought it would happen, but because I can’t believe I’m finally ready for this stage. I can honestly say, in my 20’s I wasn’t ready for a lifelong commitment. I have taken the time to really get to know myself and I’m comfortable with the women I have become.

I am ready to take the next step in life. I don’t always know where the road is going, but I’m always excited to find out where it will lead. This next step in my life is a big one, but I know I have the right man and with him by my side nothing is impossible.