We're not in California anymore

Hope this email finds you well and enjoying November. November in Seattle has prompted us to bring out our raincoats, gloves, hats, and scarves - it is getting cold! Though the rain has been on and off, it has been between 45 and 50 degrees during the day, brrrrr!

With that being said, we are still loving it. The leaves changed to all shades of red, orange, and yellow and we are loving the beauty of the Northwest. I am still working away, caring for the infants who are getting bigger everyday and developing their own personalities. Adam is enjoying school and work, and is just about to finish up his first quarter. He's spending less and less time cuddling on the couch with me and more and more time with his head in the books.

We celebrated our first Halloween in Seattle with the creative help of our roommate Trixie, who transformed us into the three R's - Reading, Writing, and 'Rithmetic. Our costumes were a hit with all those we saw that night. My book opened into a pop up book, which made it a little hard to navigate around the room, but was a great conversation starter and in case you're wondering, the red hat is my "bookmark."

We are lucky enough to continue to have visitors to our new home, as both my parents traveled through since our last update. My dad was here on business and treated us to a great dinner, and my mom came up for a weekend to see the sights. We took her to Kerry Park to overlook the city, and she snapped a picture of us there as well. Despite how bundled up we are, the view is still unmatched.

 

 
At the end of the week, Adam's sister Jessica will be arriving for her first visit to the city. It is great to have family willing to brave the cold for us.

We took advantage of our Veteran's Day holiday and kicked off the Christmas season. We made breakfast for some friends (at which Christmas music and the movie Elf played in the background), and then went to see Disney's A Christmas Carol in IMAX 3D. It was a great movie, very true to the story, and we got to wear sweet, 3D glasses - what more could you want?!?
 

 
Now we need to get to the Christmas shopping...

With Thanksgiving right around the corner (I'll be cooking my first turkey ever!), we hope you know that we are thankful for your love and friendships and enjoy getting such thoughtful responses from you to these emails. We miss you and hope to hear from you soon!

Love,
Erin & Adam

Greetings from the Emerald City

We realize we're a little late on this update, but we've had some exciting milestones over the last month and have been extremely busy.

Erin celebrated her 23rd birthday on August 27th and we had a day chalked full of adventure. Trixie and I surprised Erin with a birthday breakfast followed by kayaking on Lake Union. That evening I took Erin to her first professional baseball game and her name was on the scoreboard!
 

 
After the game we had a small surprise gathering at the house with friends and my present to Erin were a pair of tickets to see Wicked. Luckily, she decided to take me to the show the next week.

I started my assistantship in early September and have been loving it. During my second week I helped lead a retreat to Camp Brotherhood (http://campbrotherhood.com/) with 40 incoming first-year students and facilitated the cluster group, "2 Legit 2 Quit."
 

 
I've officially been a grad student for about one week. It's weird and exciting to be back in the classroom and have required reading. This quarter I'm taking three courses - Foundations of Student Affairs, Introduction to Research, and Multicultural Perspectives. It's all so real now that I have to dedicate large parts of my weekend to reading and writing.

In other fun news we've had some great visitors over the last month, Jason Mockford, Morgen Marshall and Angela Kramer. We had dinner and drinks with Jason on the waterfront, spent a day at the Bumbershoot music festival with Morgen and rode the Duck boats with Angela.

 

 
Last weekend Cal Poly played UW in a soccer match at Husky field and we met up with fellow alumni to support the Mustangs.

Miss you all, can't wait 'till you visit. Lots of love.
Adam & Erin

Exciting News

I am excited to write and let you know an important update in my new, ever-changing, Seattle life. As you know, I have been working as a support staff at Hutch Kids Child Care Center (http://www.fhcrc.org/about/hutch_kids/) since we moved to Seattle. It has been great - I have been floating in all the classrooms, getting to know the staff, and can happily say I could call all 100+ children by name. However, I have been itching to have my own group of children and my own classroom space.

I am happy to let you know that as of last week, I was given a promotion and starting in September, will be co-teaching the "Duckling" infant classroom at Hutch Kids. My co-teacher Tanya and I will have together a group of 6 infants, and we will each specifically be the primary caregiver for 3. Tanya has been an infant teacher at Hutch before, but has also been a support staff for the past few years. My administrators shared that they were really excited that I have moved up with children through the older classrooms, as I did at the ASI Children's Center, and hope that I will stay at Hutch Kids in the years to come allowing me to move up with my infant group.

I am thrilled for this opportunity and feel that it is a great chance for me to grow. Adam and Trixie did a great job of helping me celebrate by giving me a card, bringing home raspberries (my favorite) and cupcakes, and taking me to dinner. I say this promotion was just an early birthday present to myself. :)

Hope all is well with you. Just for fun - attached is a picture of Adam and I at Kerry Park, a beautiful spot that overlooks the city.

 
And if you are a fan of the TV show Frasier, it is also supposed to be the spot that gives you the view that you would see out of Frasier's apartment window.

With love,
Erin

One Month In

We've been Seattle residents for a little over one month and decided it's time for an update. Between unpacking, starting work, a busy social schedule and a kick-ball league, we've been non-stop since arriving.

It all started with our first weekend in town celebrating 4th of July. We celebrated with an afternoon of games in the park and a BBQ to follow. We watched the Lake Union firework show from a friend's house overlooking the lake. We took our first roommate picture with Trixie just before the BBQ.

The following weekend we waited with crowds of others on Alki Beach to witness the Seafair Pirates storm the beach to kick-off the 60th annual summer festival. On the way home we came across an intersection with special significance to us.
 

 
San Luis Obispo's favorite band, Still Time traveled up the coast for a weekend festival and played an amazing show at the Seattle Center. Adam was having withdrawls from Nick, so it was a timely trip. After the show we took our first trip up the Space Needle (For free! Thanks Lindsey!) and Nick came along for the ride. Nick and Adam took advantage of the romantic setting.

Our Kickball Team got off to a slow start (forfeited game one), but bounced back with a win in game two. Regardless of the outcome, we'll always enjoy 15% off at Leny's Bar after the game.
 

 
Something we have really enjoyed about Seattle is their abundance of cupcake shops. We decided to test out our three main options (Trophy Cupcakes, Cupcake Royale, and Sugar Rush Bakery) and have a cupcake tasting. Adam and Trixie went around town and picked up a Triple Chocolate cupcake from each location and we made a six category scoring sheet. We're happy to announce that Trophy Cupcakes was the winner and don't worry, we'll do our best to take you there to taste the goodness when you come to visit. Also, the Blue Angels made an appearance in Seattle in early August and we had a roommate picnic on Lake Washington to watch their spectacular show overhead. It was awesome.

We're still in love with Seattle, especially during the summer when it's warm enough to enjoy a Sunday night BBQ at the beach.

 
Miss you all, can't wait 'till you visit. Lots of love.
Adam & Erin

Adam and Erin make it to Seattle

Happy Independence Day and greetings from Seattle!

After approximately 1200 miles of driving and over 20 hours in the car together, we can say with confidence that we still love each other. It was patchy at moments, but we're stronger because of it, and now we live in Seattle.

To everyone that thought we were crazy, we successfully packed the Toyota Matrix with room to spare.

The first leg to Sacramento was a long, straight shot through 104 degree temperatures in Bakersfield. Thanks to a good friend in Roseville, we had a place to crash with cold beers waiting. (Thanks Anne!)

We began the second leg at 5:30am and made some scenic stops along the way, including Erin's own, Bailey Hill Road.

 
We knew we weren't allowed to pump our own gas in Oregon, but we never knew how awkward it is to sit in the car while someone else pumps your gas...what are you supposed to talk about? The only serious traffic we hit was in downtown Portland, so we took the opportunity to take some pictures in the car.

We didn't know when we would make it back to Olympia, so we decided to visit our new state capitol and it was beautiful.

After becoming best friends with interstate 5, we made it safely to Seattle to enjoy an incredible sunset in the park next to our new home.
 

Thank you for your support and kind words in regards to the move, we miss you already. Come visit us soon!

All the best,
Adam & Erin