RYD...

Tomorrow is Reclamation of Youth Day. RYD. It's a local holiday up here where the men of the town (or at last all of our friends who are of the male persuasion anyway) kick adulthood in the face and spend the entire day reclaiming the splendor of their youth. Isaac will be there. And Justin. And Tommy. And Jared, Mark, Jacson, Caleb, Zach, Ty...but no girls. Because when you're pretending you're six again, everyone knows you're lying if you said you actually enjoyed the company of girls.

Here's a sneak peak from a couple years ago. Do enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXK1W_yoi1A

*OFFICIAL RECLAMATION OF YOUTH DAY ITINERARY*

6:00am - Ride bikes from _______ (house TBD) up to Arboretum for Poetry, Monologue, Sunrise.
7:15am - Breakfast at Ranch Room. Flying 'V' w/ Roman Candles on Holly St.
9:00am - Ride to Westside Beaches for Tree Fort, Pipe Throw, Bomb Shelter Challenge, Dam Building.
10:45am - Arrive at Broadway Park for Wiffle Ball (8 teams of 4 - tournament) and Ultimate Frisbee.
12:45pm - Drop bikes off at _______ (house TBD) and get into cars.
1:00pm - Boulevard Park for Amazing Catches, Bike Jumps.
2:30pm - 7-11 for Slurpees, Snacks.
2:45pm - Whatcom Falls Park for all sorts of Buffoonery.
4:15pm - Tommy's House for Biggun, Kayak Stands, Flyer's Up.
6:00pm - All-Access BBQ. Kites, Calvin & Hobbes, Volleyball, Buck-Buck.
8:15pm - Dairy Queen for Dilly Bars
8:45pm - Dodgeball Tournament at Northwest Baptist Church
11:45pm - Charge Up Hill of Youthful Tranquility
12:00am - Plant Flag, Drink from Chalice, Declaration of Youth. Huzzahs all around!

I'll bet right about now you're wishing you were a boy (ahem...man) in the 'ham, aren't you?

It was only three poles...

I am FREE from the clutches of the deep, dark chemistry that has sucked away practically my entire existence these past four weeks! Ha! I actually thought it would never end, but Friday was my lucky day. 10am final...check. Work the rest of my day...check. Come home, pack my bags, drive off into the sunset with my love, Justin, and Alex...check. And no, my love is not Justin and Alex. There were four people in the car. Do the math. We rode off to a campground up by Baker and spent the weekend doing what Bellingham couples do - camping in the great out of doors. Isaac and I were rather excited because this weekend marked the debut of two recently purchased incredible items. First was our orange beauty of a tent that we purchased earlier this year. Jealous? We pulled into the campsite that Morgan and Tommy had so selflessly been holding for us all the livelong day since they don't have to work anymore and immediately the boys took off again to go russel us girlies up some firewood so we wouldn't freeze, so it was left to Alexandra and me to put up our new tent. Easy enough since it only has three poles and Isaac and I had put it up in our living room right away when we first bought it. However, despite all my incredible skills at life, I still managed to put it up wrong and my knight in shining armor had to redo it all in the dark once they got back with the firewood. It was fine, though, because that just means I need my man to help me survive in the big woods, right? A mere three hours later I was debuting the second (and arguably more incredible) item on our trip. My fleece insert for my sleeping bag. I have never ever been warm when we've camped outside and with the new fleecie, as I affectionately refer to it, I slept like a cat in the sun all night long. The peak of comfort. Isaac had gone out and bought it for me with my birthday money right before we left and, I'll tell you what, I couldn't have picked anything more amazing (thanks, mom and dad!). And don't even think I won't bring it inside once the weather starts turning and our house gets cold, because I will.

Morgs and Tommy are leaving in a week to travel Europe/Asia/Africa for the next nine months, so this trip was our last hurrah for our little group because we will miss them oh, so much. Aren't they cute? Also cute were the boys being manly and chopping up ridiculously huge pieces of tree. We were very impressed. Also cute was how the boys insisted on cooking their food on this sheet of steel that Justin had procured from his work and scoured 'clean.' They actually refused to eat Lex's bread unless they could cook it on the metal like true men. Also cute was the fire that Alex and I built by ourselves! Morgan's been building fires ever since she was a girlscout, but Lex and I haven't necessarily, so you can imagine our pride when we got it flaming on only the second try, just in time for the boys to return and be very impressed with us.

Speaking of impressed, can we please talk about how much we harvested from our garden yesterday? Yes, this was just from yesterday. One day! I mean, it's not like it's been this much fruit since day one, but the last few weeks have been bringing in the bounty. Our poor little cucumbers didn't take the first two times we planted them, so the third time, Isaac laid a ton of them down just to make sure at least a few would come up and, of course, every single last one of them decided to come up. We have cucumbers coming out of our ears, as you can see. Not to mention we'd just given away a dozen cucumbers earlier that day. But we're not complaining, don't worry. We just happen to have a ton of cucumbers growing fatter every day.

Umm, did you notice that our blog looks a little different? Yeah, I was tiring of the same old blog background, so I spent hours searching for a new one that was the perfect blend of artsy without being too girly, but had no luck. Then my artsy husband reminded me that he could easily just make us a background (it's amazing how quickly I forget these types of things), so I contracted his skills and he designed and drew this one up (by hand!) last week. I LOVE it! Simple, but very Isaac and Becky. Thanks, love!

I stole his day...

Twenty six years ago yesterday a cute little baby with rockstar hair made his entrance into the world. He thought August 17th would be his special day forever. And it was...until I decided to make my infamous entrance on the same day exactly one year later. Ha! Sucker. Now it's our day and he has to share it with me.

The day started out rather normal. It could have started out awesome if Isaac had let us open presents right away, but the man has no sense of curiosity whatsoever, and I'm pretty sure it actually brings him joy to watch me suffer in agony over the anticipation of having a surprise that I have to wait for forever to find out about. My ceaseless begging over the past several days appeared to have no effect on him, and we headed to work as usual, planning to celebrate together in the evening when we got home. In the morning, I had my chemistry class - nothing new there. Except that this happened to be the most horrific chem class I've had thus far. It's just a terribly complex section and after listening to the prof for two hours straight, I was way more confused than when class had begun, and positively convinced that I was now going to fail the final that loomed a mere three days away. Stuff like that stresses me out, so I headed out of the classroom trying not to cry, and trying not to be furious that my birthday had been ruined by stupid chemistry. But do you know what I saw as I opened that classroom door? The sweetest faces of a Morgan and an Alex, waiting for me to wish me a happy birthday. And they'd brought me a love fern! It was the best thing that could have happened after that miserable class. Things started looking up after that...I finished out work, went to dinner with my love, opened my beautiful gifts from Hannah. And then finally I got to open my gifts from Isaac only to discover that he'd gotten me the first season of I Love Lucy, which just might be my most favorite show of all time! So then we got to watch a couple episodes, I did a little chemistry and got every problem right (God must have been smiling on me after all), and Morgs and Tommy took us out for ice cream to finish out the night. It was a good day. A really good day.

Happy birthday to us!

The Art of Wooing

We're going to Bastyr tonight. Bastyr!

So I can woo them into accepting me to their Master's program.

Good luck, me.

Where the switchbacks are...

I have found the place I want to live forever and forever. It's perfect. Beautiful rolling hills amongst a forest of evergreens and leafy greens. Country driveways...the kind that are mostly dirt with patches of grass growing up through the middle section of earth between the two tire tracks...snaking away from the road deep into the trees. It's an island, surrounded by the most beautiful water you've ever seen. Just a small population of people call this island home, which makes it even more perfect. And those who do are largely hippies and artists, content with living life slowly, uninfected by the rush that so often defines the lifestyles of mainlanders. Isaac and I biked onto the ferry to Orcas Island this weekend with Tommy, Morgan, Justin, and Alex and spent the day riding through the land to the tune of a perfect 75 degree day. The whole ride to Eastsound, I couldn't stop shrieking about how incredibly beautiful everything we rode past was. Apparently I was 'being a girl,' but I couldn't help myself. Isaac, Tommy, and Justin decided to tackle riding up Mt. Constitution in their cute little biking outfits for fun - yes, fun - but us girls opted to stay in town and meander through the farmer's market and cute little shops. Mt. Constitution, I should mention, gains about 2000 ft. of elevation over a 'short' 8-mile stint of switchbacks, so once you start up, there's no relief until you hit the top. And nothing short of dying from a heart attack would make these boys stop to rest before conquering the mountain. So they pedaled up the entire thing while we cheered them on from sea level. I even bought the most adorable dress ever in one of the shops to celebrate Isaac's great feat! Unfortunately, Isaac said we can't live there because there would be no jobs for us. Which is true, but still...sigh...it would be so perfect. It was so perfect. Maybe someday, huh? I suppose if I can't live there, though, where we live right now is a pretty good second, so I should probably stop complaining, but still...