...to The Murray Harvest Festival.

Yesterday was the 8th annual Murray Harvest Festival. This became a family tradition because we wanted to open our property up to the public for them to enjoy. It is a chance to see the neighbors and see old friends. We always have live bands that come and play on my uncle's flatbed, with haybales for people to sit on and enjoy the music. There is plenty of free food, hayrides that give a tour of the property, and badmitton and volleyball for the kids. It really is a fun time. This year the rain almost scared people away but we actually had about the same amount of people as last year when it was hot and sunny! There were quite a few bands and plenty of food. Also, this year we received the Green Globe Award given for portraying an economical awareness on the farm. It is given out by King County and has only been awarded six times in the past ten years, so we felt pretty proud. A lady from the King County was there to reaward it to us. That was pretty cool. In the past couple of years we have been finishing the day off with an outdoor movie, this year was Young Frankenstien. (I went home and went to bed.) Sorry if you missed it, maybe you can make it next year.
Grade:B (I've just been there for eight years and all the Murray's have to wear this bright yellow t-shirt, everyone else would give it an A.)

...to A SEAHAWKS GAME!!! WAHOOO!!!!

Saturday night, I was at my very first seahawks game! And it pretty much changed my life. My sister Alison got tickets from her boss who happens to be a season ticket holder. I made it my goal this year to go to a seahawks game and now I am hooked. We sat in section 333 in row Y, I thought they were really good seats. We accidentally sat in the wrong section though at first, some poor guys were having trouble figuring out their seats until they discovered we were in the wrong section. Slightly embarrassing, but we got over it. It was a great game, Vikings lost 13-30. Unfortunately we left in the last three minuets so we missed the most exciting part of the game when one of the Viking players got injured in the last two minuets. Lame. But we still enjoyed it. The only thing we did not enjoy was the walk back to our car. I would not recommend going to a Seahawks game with out a guy with you. There were some nasty guys that followed us for a short while. Me and Alison are hoping to go the game against the Bears in November, we're really hoping her boss will give us the tickets though! And next time we are going to make sure we get dressed up. We felt a little out of place with out a jersey on!
Grade: A++

... to a visit with Bubble Tea Bob.

Last Friday I hung out with my cool cousins again. This time we went to the bubble tea shop in Auburn. While we were standing there waiting for our drinks we noticed a funny shaped giant sized bubble tea in the corner. It was a bubble tea costume!! How exciting! of course I dared my cousins to put it on and of course they dared me right back to put it on. I really hate to pass up a good dare, I was about to agreee when the owner came out and said that we could only put it on if we went out and danced with it on on the side of the road. That complicates things a little. I mean this is my home town, I know people driving down the road. The last thing I want is to go to work on Monday and have someone ask me "hey was that you dancing on he side of the road with that wierd costume on?" Well that thought didn't stop me. I put it on anyways, with the help of my cousins and sisters. It was made of that foam stuff and was really stiff. The tapicoa beads (the bubble part of bubble tea for you non bubble tea drinkers) were velcroed on as well as the giant orange straw. I was a sight to behold. I made my cousins come out and hold the signs next to me as I danced on Auburn Way. At first I had my head poking out and then the same thougth came back to me that I had earlier and I quickly hid my head inside the safety of my bubble tea cup. It was hilarious! And after all that, we didn't get a discount on our ok-bubble tea, or our picture put on the wall. Sad.
We proceeded to the Kent Station where we ordered a pizza from Panera Bread and then brought it into the movie theater to watch Bourne Ultimatum. Yeah, they let you bring in outside food into the movie theatre! We loved the fact that we brought two whole pizza boxes into the theatre and sat down for the movie and ate our pizza. Great fun!
Grade: A Movie: B+ (It's the same ole action.)

...to Winco and the Barber Shop.

On Sunday I had dinner at my cousin's house- barbequed salmon, baked potatoe boats, fresh green beans, rice and a peach crisp for dessert. Yummy!!! After dinner we discovered we had no ice cream to go with our dessert so my sister Kathryn, cousins Carlia and Tilana, and my very good friend Nicole hopped in the Allens mini van and drove on up to Winco. Well we are such a crazy bunch something had to happen. And happen it did. My cousin Tilana jumped into the freezer at Winco. Yep. No one was around, so I of course busted out the camera. Good times, good times. Grade: A+
On my way home from work I randomly stopped and got my haircut at this little barber shop on Auburn Main Street. I really like my hair up, I'm just not sure about what to do with my hair when it is down. It almost looks like I have a mullet which is cool if I was in Europe, but since I am not.... I wear my hair up. Grade: ?
You can see my hair here with my friend Aric who has been going to school in China for the last two years and finally came home for a break. Welcome home Aric!

To A Great Many Places...

So I have gone a lot of places since last week. First of all I went To Spain. Almost. Well, I at least had Spanish food. I went to Centralia last weekend and on Friday night we had Jessica and Rose over to eat spanish food. Mmmm. We had Spanish tortilla, (not to be confused with Mexican or Honduran tortillas,) Gazpacho, Sangria, salad, and flan. I think that was all. It was really yummy. Unfortunately I was still getting over jet lag and I pretty much fell asleep on the table. Grade: A

Saturday was Jonathan and Jessica's birthday (Happy birthday again!! You guys are awesome!) So we went down into the wilds of Oregon to pick up Jonathan from the youth camp to go eat at.... THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY!!!!! Yummmy!!!! Oh I had the most amazing burger ever!!! It was life changing, just like their banana cream cheesecake. Aihfisagdfldbfj that's my made up word to describe how I feel about my burger and my cheesecake since there just are no other words to describe my feelings. My burger had to be at least hlaf an inch thick and then there were the grilled onions... no burger is complete without grilled onions. And of course cheese, lettuce tomatoes and a mystery sauce. Aihfisagdfldbfj! After we were stuffed with food we went to see a movie, except that we got a little turned around in crazy Oregon and could not find the movie theatre. When we found it we were a little late in seeing our preferred movie, Transformers. So we opted for a mystery movie, Rescue Dawn, which well... I would not recommend it. The night ended with hearing a message from Pastor Nathan at camp and hearing Aardvark Arsenal. It was great! Grade: A Movie: D

A few random travels were to the kent Station on Monday with my friend Amy, and my mom and sister Alison. After eating at a cute pizzeria where we had some of the yummiest flat bread and margherita pizza, we went to see the chick flick No Reservations. It was really cute! I recommend that one! Of course it is not as cute as the original German version Mostly Martha, so see that one first. Grade: A Movie: A

My other random travel was to the Puyallup fairgrounds yesterday to hear Hillsong United. Me and my sister went and thoroughly enjoyed it! Grade: B (Puyallup is not that cool of a place.)

...to the Saddle of Skyscaper Peak

So in attempt to get over my jet lag my mom thought it would be a good idea to go for a hike at Mt. Rainier. I love hiking so I agreed. We brought my aunt along and headed out at about 8:30. I seriously love hiking! And Mt. Rainier is so beautiful! I have not found a more beautiful place yet! We got to see some cool wildlife along the way, a marmot and a camp robber (I don't know the real name of the bird that is just what my aunt called it.) Here is my mom and my aunt trying to get a headstart. We had lunch at the saddle (we never did get to the top of skyscaper peak) where we also got eaten by mosquitoes. Grrr... We met a random lady from Mass. on the way back who had lost her husband and son. We told her we had not seen anyone and that she could hike along with us until she found them. It was pretty fun! I had hoped to summit Mt. Rainier this year but I think I will have to wait until next year since I could not find anyone to go with me this year.

So you hopefully noticed I changed the title of my blog again. I decided to try and keep a theme for all my blogs, so I am going with the travel theme. The "random things" will cover anything that does not fit into the travel theme. I think I will also grade each place. In that case this one gets a B+

And as for the "random things" well my mom got a new washer and dryer while I was gone. (Definitely not as good as yours Julianna!) And another cockateil found us, which is funny because two years ago when I was in Greece our first bird flew into our yard and now while I am in China the second one flies in and lands on the same tree as the first. Since we named our first bird gyro (or Euro, we have not really agreed) my mom thought we should name our second one some asian sounding name. I don't really like birds at all so I really don't care. And we also have four horses that belong to someone else. That's all for the "random things."