Well, we tried for a surprise, but in the end it was a not-so-surprise party.  But still fun!  With so many exciting things going on in the hubs life, we decided to celebrate.  His 30th birthday is November 9th so we celebrated a few weeks early, in the hopes of making it a surprise.  It was great to see everyone and fun for us all to show our love and support to David.  These are the only pictures I had time to take…so enjoy!

Every other Monday is Magical Monday in the Richmon household.  That is because David and I both don’t have to work.  There is something so fun and….magical about not having to work on Mondays.  Maybe it’s that everyone else does!!  We have been trying to rediscover the city we love during those special days off. This week we went to the tourist hot spot the Pike Place Market.  It was wonderful and beautiful and showed us the importance of being tourists in our own city from time to time.  While making a purchase the shop owner asked for David’s ID (which is still Missouri).  As we left he said, “Enjoy your stay in Seattle!”  And so we will, for (Lord willing) a very, very, very long time.

In honor of David’s ordination exams being completed, my family celebrated at one of our favorite restaurants- Salty’s on Alki.  Every weekend they have an incredible brunch buffet featuring the most delicious foods. The seafood is amazing- all you can eat Dungeness crab, Penn Cove mussels, oysters, fish and so much more!  There is also every other kind of food imaginable. All for a steep price, of course, but so worth it for a special occasion.  We had a perfect time enjoying the food, the company, and the beautiful view of the city from our table.

Mmmm…more crab please!

Believe it or not, the “His” is still alive and well. Shocking, I know. He has been a little preoccupied lately though.  These past few months David has been studying for his ordination exams to become a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America.  Five written tests, three papers and two oral examinations later….and he passed!!  We are so relieved and thankful for everyone who has supported us both through this long and challenging process.  It was worth it and for that we say, “Praise the Lord!”

The best thing about living in Seattle is the time we now get to spend with family.  A simple thing like a family dinner was once a dream, but now is a frequent reality and such a joy.  It’s hard to believe that for my entire marriage my family has been a four hour plane ride away.  Now, apart from my much beloved sister, they are a mere four minute drive away.  Unfortunately, it took me moving away to realize what a blessing it is.  Never let me forget!

Our Whidbey adventure was punctuated by the surprising number of salmon we took home. We arrived at the small cabin only to find the shores lined with expectant fishermen. Every few seconds we would see  salmon leap from the water  and then splash down in glory–it was quite a sight. But soon these jumping, splashing fish found themselves on the end of some fishermen’s hot pink lure. One man near us cast his line three consecutive times each returning  a fish. Fortunately for us there was a four fish limit. Consequently all the non-fishing onlookers soon found themselves with fish too. We ended up with two fairly large salmon, which left us quickly wondering, “exactly how do you clean this thing?” Thanks to YouTube we were soon able to gut and fillet the fish. There is nothing more tasty than a freshly caught fish. I ended up pan searing 8-10 salmon steaks this past weekend. A little butter, salt, pepper, and thyme from our garden–done!

While we’re not in Saint Louis any longer, our friend’s underground restaurant is still making waves. Here is a promo video they recently put together. More info can be found here. Enjoy.

My family first visited this cabin in 1990 when I was five years old.  Since then it has been an annual tradition to vacation at the much beloved “Red Oar”.  We had such an amazing week relaxing and spending time together.  Nena was much missed as she was on an African safari and couldn’t make it.  Poor girl.  Here are some pictures representing what we did on our trip.

Beach walks:

Kayaking:

Reading and relaxing inside the TINY cabin:

Enjoying the view from our front yard:

We had the perfect time enjoying each other and the beauty of the Northwest.  Here’s to many more years at the cabin!

My family has had a pretty eventful week (despite the lack of blog posts).  My brother had his first baby, my parent’s their first grandchild and I guess that makes me an aunt.  The baby’s name?  Listen to the Thunder.  The Maldives released their CD last week and celebrated it with 3 nights of shows, radio station performances, listening parties and more.  It was so much fun to once again be able to see them preform, a privilege I didn’t have while living in St Louis.  The CD is wonderful and I am so proud of them. To learn more, visit their website or listen to their music on myspace.

I’m alive!!!  And so is the hubs!!!  But apparently we haven’t done anything blog worthy in the last three weeks.  I take that back.  I had a migraine.  That was pretty traumatic and usually trauma=drama=blog.  But alas, even that didn’t inspire a post.  Well I absolutely apologize and I apologize for the “His” who has been MIA for a long long time.  He has a little more of an excuse.  He has been in the process of completing 5 tests followed by an oral exam to become ordained in the Presbyterian church.  No fun…on any of us Richmons.   The 5 tests are behind him now and as we await the oral I hope we will hear more from him.  The lack of posts has made me realize that we need to do something fun and soon!  If not for our own good, then at least for the good of the blog.