The Nursery

I spent a lot of time on Apartment Therapy, even dabbled a little bit on Pinterest, but it still wasn't easy to figure out what to do with the nursery. It took about a month to figure out what color to paint the walls. Originally we were thinking about doing a shade of green, since it really is my favorite color, but the perfect green has always seemed rather elusive. It also turns out that there are way too many rabid Oregon fans in our life. When you show an Oregon alum anything green, all they can see is DUCKS. While I am open to the idea of my son attending school in Eugene, I definitely don't want to push him south this early in life. So we decided on blue. Because purple and gold don't make great wall colors.  

Once Kate and I narrowed it down to blue, the actual paint color was a quick decision. We found Hale Navy at Benjamin Moore and picked up a gallon (maybe he has the Naval Academy ahead of him). 

The Hale Navy Wall

After we decided on blue walls and a navy/boat theme it only made sense to add some signal flags. A trip to the local West Marine lends some authenticity to the room. Bonus points to anyone who can read what they spell out.  

Baby Mod furniture = Future Don Draper

I've always been into clean lines, so we went with a more modern take on a crib and dresser. It's very minimal and clean... for the time being. This is ALL pre-baby. If he takes after me I'm expecting things to stay relatively spotless. Everyone knows there are a ton of spotless babies in the world.

 This might be a good time to mention that I have never changed a diaper in my life. And I don't like filth. We'll see how a baby changes my view on dirtiness. Maybe he'll come out of the womb potty trained. 

Stuffed Animals

We're Expecting!

Baby boy.

August 2016. 

20 Weeks

28 Weeks

Watch this space...

Mardi Gras 2015

Mardi Gras 2015

As is tradition in our family, Mardi Gras is celebrated every year with a buffet of fast food. As a kid it meant that I got to pick up a couple of Double Whoopers at Burger King. When Kate and I started dated I wanted to make sure the tradition lived on, mainly as an excuse to host a smorgasbord without guilt. 2015 was no exception. 

As usual I took out my camera to document each and every guest's contribution as you can see below. 

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

The Mardi Gras table, complete with photo of the absent Nick

Kate measuring out ingredients for "crunch wraps"

"Crunch wrap" griddled and ready to serve

Liquid nacho cheese makes all the difference.

McDonald with McDonald's

Lauren's first year joining us on Mardi Gras complete with rookie mistake (she brought veggies)

   

Kristin & Dennis with dessert

Bubbles

Breaking into some Pliny the Elder

No Mardi Gras is complete without pigs in a blanket from Makenzie and Eric

The only item missing from this list was from the latecomers, Sean and Kelsey who brought what might have been the best treat of the night, Ezell's fried chicken!

Wedding Recap

It turns out that throwing a wedding takes a lot out of you. You do all this planning, meet up with all of your old friends and family, and all of a sudden, in a blur, it's over. Then it's back to work and life, and all of a sudden you are rapidly approaching your one-year anniversary! We just now realized that we never posted any sort of recap. No photos. No reviews. Nothing.

Of course the public is clamoring for all of these things.

Since it is almost a year later, this recap will be brief. We had a LOT of fun. The wedding was all we could hope for and more. We hope everyone had almost as much fun as we did.

To brag a little, here are a few links to the event:

From our florist: Lola Floral Designs

From our photographer: Kim Hayes Photography

Pre-wedding photographs in the St. Ignatius Chapel

Kate tearing it up on the dance floor

Late night burgers from Dicks

Finally we have the photos themselves: Wedding Album

Our wedding was so much fun, and the first year of marriage is going great. Looking forward to celebrating one year together as a married couple!

Another travel note…

Apparently we’ve picked a popular weekend here in Seattle. Not only will the Rock’n’Roll Marathon be on the same weekend as our wedding but t’s also Gay Pride Weekend. 

As part of the festivities, there will be the Capitol Hill Gay Pride Festival on Saturday with live music, food and other activities on Broadway between East Mercer and East Denny Way. This is a just a few blocks north of where the reception and ceremony will be. We don’t think this will impact your transportation too much, however you will likely get to see Seattle’s pride hit the street. 

Remember that there is parking both at Seattle University and Pravda Studios for our wedding guests so please take full advantage as the usually challenging parking area will likely be next to impossible.  And of course allow for a little extra time to get around Capitol Hill. 

Engagement Photos

Kate and I definitely lucked out with our photographer, we are using an old co-worker of mine, Kim Hayes, who is making it big in the Seattle Wedding Photography world. 

We headed up to the top of Queen Anne on May 13th, 2012, grabbed some coffee and smiled (or at least Kate smiled big enough for the both of us). 

Walking by Marshall Park

A kiss in Parsons Garden

Taking in the Galaxy Gold roof on the Space Needle at Kerry Park

Check out all the photos yourself: 

http://clients.kimhayesphotography.com/josephandkate

Bridal Shower

The bridal shower featured a margarita machine and liters of tequila...

Margarita Man

The booze. 

Javier keeping careful watch over the glasses

From Miss to Mrs.

just think of how much fun we can have at the wedding reception!