Playing House

Hello all! Well, once again it's been quite awhile since we did the blog thing. Mostly because facebook has grabbed us and now we're stuck doing that all the time. It's been really great to find all sorts of friends and family and keep in constant contact with them that way. It's a little more interactive than the blog so it can be addicting. BUT never fear we still want to keep up the TeamKlein site because the photos are so much fun to share and it'll be fun to read back over down the road. -The New Zealand one sure has been!

Because the Ironman was such a huge endeavor, mostly for Mike but somewhat for me as well, we were barely able to see past it and into the rest of the summer. Once the big event was over and we made it home after some continued partying with family, we felt like we had the entire glorious summer stretching out in front of us, a clean slate! Hmm, well that lasted about a week I think when suddenly...it's mid-October. Yikes. You know how that goes!

We played and worked (well I made some work noises, but the new job I'd started for the summer, and supposedly into the fall, completely fell through and so after July I was free until school started back up again at my previous job, The Privett Academy, in the fall. Thank goodness they loved me and wanted me back!) hard all summer and fall. We got out camping over the 4th of July with friends near Cle Elem (the town we take note of, and chuckle about, because its motto is "easy through access"),

had an awesome visit from my cousin Madison from MI,

Mike summited Rainier (hey he was bored without Ironman training to do!),

watched movies outdoors at Redhook,

built an addition to the Groesch's cabin in the San Juans,

and took a lovely week-long road trip to CA and back to visit family

Atta boy! Double fisted 1st Birthday!

Wiiiiiiiiiiii

The super burrito

on the way home we got to see lots of National Parks

Half Dome at Yosemite

Hike near Lake Tahoe with Lea

Our hike in Castle Crag State Park, CA

Refreshed at a natural spring on the way back down

Crater Lake, OR --brrrrr cold that day!

School started up again in September and work continued along for Mike, and yet we have managed to stay busy and do lots of fun things this fall so far as well! And the big news is that we finally found a house! It's a great time for buyers, even if the economy is looking pretty scary. We found this cute house that suits us quite well before the most recent troubles on Wall Street, so things have gone along without a hitch. We sign Monday, will close and get the key Wed, and then move on Sat. (big thanks in advance to my mom and our friends who have volunteered to help schlepp our stuff from apartment to house! The Mac n Jacks is on us!)

Our New Digs:

The front

From the front door in through the living room

Out over our awesome deck!

In Sept, Mike climbed Three Fingers with Pete on a really lovely day and had great views!

It's a LOOOOOOng way down

And at the end of Sept we spent a weekend with our good friends Webb, Emily, and Karin and with family in Moscow pressing apple cider, picking apples, and watching Peter in his play (he makes a truly fabulous pirate as you can see),

Michael and the pirate...aarrr!

We also ventured out into the woods for a hike, drizzle and all, in truly Pacific Northwest style...sweet new raincoat and all!

This last weekend we trekked down to Portland so that Mike could give running JUST a marathon (without the crazy swimming and biking leading up to it) a try. It was a quick trip and despite the rain and lots of people, it was a blast!

Ready to get running

Finally crossing the finish

I need food and a beer!

And that's about that for the moment! We are looking forward to a mellow weekend here at home going through lots of stuff and preparing to do the real packing. I've already gotten started on the camping stuff, books, etc that we don't need day-to-day, but the real fun begins shortly! We'll try to keep you posted as the house fills up and begins to feel like a home. =+)