Happy Thanksgiving

No Thanksgiving would be complete without a Turkey Bowl. Russ and Steven (his brother) were on one of the teams and I was on the other team. Obviously I played harder, because our team WON!!! This picture is the aftermath of playing in the pouring down rain and mud. It was a lot of fun.

On Friday, Pam, Raime (Steven's new girlfriend) and I went Black Friday shopping. I know, we are crazy. We went to Wal-Mart, Target, JoAnn's and Fred Meyer. I think the worst place was Wal-Mart and Target. But the good news is that we got all of the things we set out for.

Saturday we went to the Festival of Trees at the Red Lion Hotel in Vancouver, Washington. Here is a picture of one of the trees that was decorated with a Santa's Reindeer and sled. It was a lot of fun, there was a little stage where we did a little dancing and picture posing. We also got to sit on Santa's lap and take pictures.

Here are all of us with Santa. The first one is of Pam and Frank Rigby, Russ's parents. Then there is Russ and me. And then Raime and Steven.

After the Festival of Trees we went home to play games. We played Perudo and the guys were totally insensitive and kicked our butts. Here is a picture that I took with my new digital camera of how bad they beat us. I was orange, Pam was green and Raime was black. It was not a good day for women. Now that I have a good, fun camera, I should be posting more. We shall see, of course.

Russell Got A Job

So Russ was contacted over the summer by a tax firm called Bader Martin. He met them at a tax recruting event about six months before and didn't really think anything of it. However, they emailed him regarding an interview for a tax summer internship. That worked out really well for us, since we were going to be moving down to the area for school in the fall. Apparently he made a good impression on them there and they offered him a full time position for when he graduates from the University of Washington. YAY!!!!!! Russell finally got a job after two and a half years of living off me... hah, just kidding. He always calls me his sugar mama, but he will soon be my sugar daddy! So he will graduate in June and start working on July 13th 2010. We are so excited that we will finally be done with school and can start being grown ups... :) Who knows what will come after that... stay tuned!

Mariner's Game

Here is Russ and me at the Mariner's game. A guy at Russ's work had season tickets and he could not go, so he gave them to Russell. They were the 13th row right along the first base line. It was so fun, and being so close we could actually see what was going on in the game. I think I watched more of this game than of any other I have been to or watched on T.V. We felt all grown up that we were sitting with a bunch of season ticket holders.

Here are some of the pictures of the players. We had such a good time, but they did lose, so that was a little sad!

Seattle Underground Tour

We went on the Seattle Underground Tour a few weeks ago (look I am almost caught up with all of my blogging). It is kinda funny how you live in a place your whole life, but don't go do all of the touristy things. So we finally decided to go on the tour of the first Seattle that was built with David and Cody Koenig. We had not seen David and Cody since they left for Honduras about a year before, so it was really good to catch up with them.

This is a picture from the tour of a crapper, as they use to call them after the creator. Apparently they didn't really have the sewer system set up very well, so they dumpped all of the waste into the ocean. But when the tide came up they would have all the sewer waste floating on the streets. Pretty gross!

Seattle burned to the ground from a glue fire. And instead of rebuilding the city the government built on top of it. However, the business owners did not do this so when the streets were a 10 feet above their entrances, there was a little problem. So they built the sidewalks as you see below. With the skylights to provide light for the sidewalks. This one you could still see people walking on it from above and how it would provide light for the walk. There is a lot more to the history, so you should really go on the tour, it was very informative and fun.

Casey Goes to Montana

In August I went to Montana with my Mom, Geir, Jake and my grandparents. Russ was suppose to come with us, but he got a job and that was a little more important. I didn't get a lot of pictures, but here is one of Jake and Sami. She is the family MONSTER dog. We went swimming

together and she thought I didn't know how to swim or something. I jumped off the dock and she jumped after me. And then she decided to drag me into shore by my arm and thumb. The brusing did not go away for about a month. It was actually kinda scary, she is a little bit stronger than me and nither of us could touch the ground at that time.

Later we went to Glacier and I got some good pictures of the wildlife. Geir and I went walking around trying to find a some other wildlife or something. But all we could find were these mountain goats that were not scared of us at all. Some were even walking along the trail with us.

2 Year Anniversary - Baker Lake

Alright, I am getting closer to the present. See I took all the pictures off my camera finally and they have all these different things that we have been doing this summer. With the move and everything it has been really hard to blog. So I am doing all of them right now, or this weekend...

Two Years Baby... and going strong!!!For our two year anniversary we decided to go camping, we both love camping. We found a beautiful campsite near Mt. Baker, on Baker Lake. Our spot was right by the beach and there were day campsites next to us on either side, so it was very secluded and fun!!

Here is our view from the campsite... we got the water and the mountain view. It was really amazing, because there were different views of the mountain around different parts of the lake.

Here is our actual campsite... Our cool tent that we got for the wedding and the amazing fire that Russ built even though it was so so windy... Yay for my little Eagle Scout.

We found a really cool rope swing and this tree where I carved in our initals and year that were went there to commorate our trip. We jumped off the rope swing several times into the coldest water I have ever been in...

Here is Russ the PYRO!! Flame on!!!

I am a pyro too, but I took all the pictures, so Russ has to be the pyro in the pictures....!!

Graduation and the Hike

This is late too, I know we suck... we have had a busy summer. No excuses, but you have to be proud that I actually have pictures of stuff. I actually remembered to bring my camera some of the time.

Here to the right is the family walking to Russell's and my (late) graduation. Apparently you can walk whenever you want. When I graduated I had way too much stuff going on with still student teaching and working and helping my mom plan Russ and my wedding that I decided that I just didn't have time to walk at my graduation.

But it worked out because Russ made it possible for me to walk with him at his graduation. It was so much fun.

Nathan (our brother-in-law) was our professional photographer, he took some excellent shots of the graduation and of Russ and me together after the graduation. He took all the pictures on the post. THANK YOU NATHAN!

After the graduation we had a picnic at a local park to celebrate. My mom, grandma and brother Jake came from my family and Pam, Frank, Sarah, Jared, Nathan, and in the belly Kayla came from Russell's family. It was a lot of fun.

After the picnic Russ's family wanted to go for a little hike, so we went somewhere along Chuckanut to climb to a scenic viewpoint. It was a lot of fun too... Jared was sleeping at this point of the trip on Uncle Russ.

But when he woke up he was very happy and excited to be on uncle Russ's shoulders.

WWU Regatta

Sorry this is so so so late...

Russ and I went to a Western Washington University rowing regatta vs. Puget Sound. It was a pretty intense race, WWU barely won.

We were pretty suprised at this since they are the NCAA Division II defending champions four years in a row. The varsity 8 won, but is was very close and a couple of the JV boats lost.

However, as we now see they were just warming up for the championships.... and WON AGAIN!!!

That's right, we rock!! FIVE YEARS IN A ROW BABY!

Way To Go Russell!!!!!

Today we found out that Russell is in the Top 10 students in the Accounting program at Western Washington University in the College of Business and Economics. They are going to honor him and all of the other students and accounting awards at a banquet in the middle of May.

It is a dinner that he usually goes to each year, but this year he is invited to go for free!! Which of course we love. So this means that Russell is amazing and will graduate with a extra award.
We are very proud and happy for Russell and all he has accomplished. Oh and he starts at Lowe's tomorrow, so when I told him to get a job... he really did go get one. I love how motivated he is!!

Life is Crazy

Life at Washington Mutual is crazy!!! Construction has commenced and is going... Hopefully we will have carpet tomorrow. Today it seemed like we were working in a warehouse, it was echoey and cold. Some places they were able to get all of the tile off the floor, but others they could not get the glue stuff off, so the floor is not even flat. It made it really hard to walk on especially if you were wearing heels or using a cane. Anyways, so now we have a teller drawer and give out money instead of printing a receipt and having the customers pick up the cash. It is a lot different, but we all love it and the customers seem to like it too. And they don't get as confused anymore, which is nice.
Russell is still doing great in school and will get A's this quarter, even though he doesn't think so. We still plan on him going to the University of Washington, he is already making connections so that he can get a job for the fall of 2010. He is the best husband ever. He also got a job offer from Lowe's for the rest of the school year and the summer. When he told me it cost $17,000 for his grad school next year, I told him to GET A JOB!! We shall see where things go from here...

Kim and Ryan VanderVeen

I finally got some pictures from an unknown source from the wedding. All of my pictures did not turn out too well and I didn't get to take any at the reception.

Here is the beautiful couple coming out of the temple after they were just sealed for all time and eternity.

Oh, and did I mention that is snowed all day and night before the wedding day. It was a little cold so Kim was able to wear a little coat to keep warm.

It did make for some really great pictures, with all of the snow, it was a winter wonderland.

Here are the pictures that mysteriously showed up on our door today. These are at the reception. Russell and I were part of the bridal party, that is why I have a wonderful blue dress and he has a cool blue vest. We were not the same color because I "walked down the aisle" with Ryan's brother and Russell walked with Kacee (Kim's best friend).

My hair totally died by this point and I did not care. Everything was very beautiful, and as always it went way too fast.

Our Future...

So it has been a while since I have last written... sorry about that. Lots has happened, so let me catch you up. Russell has been accepted to the University of Washington's accounting masters program. Apparently it is really hard to get into or something, they only accept 45 people to the program a year, so I am very proud of him. So since he will be going to school there and probably getting an internship there for next winter we are going to be staying in Bellingham. I know it makes so much sense. We just feel like it is not our time to move away from all that is going on here. I finally have a job that I look forward to going to each day and don't want to destroy everyone I come in contact with. Anyways, Russell is going to drive to Everett each day and take a bus into Seattle for school. It is only four days a week so at least it won't be so bad and he is already driving to Everett each day for his internship, so it won't be much of a change for him. He will be able to do homework on the bus both ways.
As for my job/life... we are starting the conversion process. We have the new uniforms started and the training for the new systems have begun. It is going to be a long process that is suppose to be done by this summer, but who knows. It sure keeps things interesting.
We sure are excited for the spring weather we have had these past three days, hopefully it is here to stay. Russell and I have been wanting to try out our new tennis rackets. That is all for now, we shall see what the future has in store for us.