Happy Birthday Nick!

Had a blast tonight at the Smith-Gorden's casa. Nick's birthday was on Wednesday so tonight, they had all their friends over for a fun-filled evening of friends, food and of course, the Wii (what party would be complete without it?).

Here are some pictures from the evening.

The handsom birthday boy.

Tyson, the 6-toed cat, didn't like us much.

Birthday boy was hammin' it up.

Tyson wanted in on the action.


Strike a pose!


The girlies! Gina, me, Kels & Sara.


The future Mr. & Mrs. Gorden!


Wahoo for birthdays!

Lots of Fun at the Love Fiesta

Tonight we headed over to the Gossetts' house for a Love Fiesta party with the Reeders and Bishops. It was originally scheduled for Valentine's Day but with several folks sick, we rescheduled for this weekend.

The night started out with a delicious dinner. During dinner, we each had a special fortune cookie that had a question in it that tied to the theme (i.e. love, romance, kiss, etc) and everyone took turns sharing their answer to each question. We all learned a lot about each other and the other couples.

After dinner, it was time for the gift exchange - we each had to bring something we loved that cost $10 or less. I brought Cupcake Royale's super yummy salted caramel cupcakes-of-the-month and Corey brought some good hot fudge chocolate sauce from Williams Sonoma. Corey came home with a Chipotle gift card (from Natalie) and I came home with a jumbo pack of Reeses peanut butter cup eggs and 3 (losing) scratch tickets (from Jason).

After the gifts, we had a delicious dessert, followed by a rousing round of the Newlywed Game. We had a blast and continued to learn a lot about each other as everyone threw out answers to questions like 'If your house was on fire, what one thing would your wife grab on her way out?' to 'What one word would you use to describe your first kiss' and so on.

We had a fabulous time and look forward to next year's bash. Thanks for having us, Natalie and Chris, and thanks for the doggie toy. Roxy LOVES it. She's been in her bed quietly playing with it since we got home and we are loving that that.

Here are some pics from the night.


Ashlie & Natalie getting ready for dinner.


The dining room table was decorated perfectly for the Love Fiesta.


All the Love Fiesta couples. Jason - maybe you can use this as your 'most romantic moment' next time.


Me, Ashlie, Natalie & Lisa just before the Love Fiesta gifts.


Lisa, Natalie, Me & Ashlie during the Newlywed Game.


Corey, Chris, Nate & Jason during the Newlywed Game.


Corey trying to figure out one of his Newlywed Game answers.


Final scores. Obviously Corey and I need to step it up a bit.


Bonus Round: draw your significant other. My drawing of Corey looks just like him, don't you think?

Roxy with her new toy from Maggie (and the Gossetts). She loves it.

Happy Day After Valentine's Day

As I mentioned in my previous post, Corey and I each planned a date to celebrate Valentine's Day. Today was his big day. We kicked it off with a surprise trip to Discovery Park in Magnolia. I had never been but kept hearing how great it was and have been really wanting to go with Roxy. We packed Roxy up and made our way over to the park, along with homemade Spanakopita that Corey made as a surprise snack - it was delicious!

After our snack, we let Roxy run around and play in the huge grassy area before venturing down some of the paths / roads the park has to offer.

We probably walked 1-1.5 miles while we were there and Roxy was really losing steam by the end. After drinking lots of water when we got home, she curled up on the couch for and slept the rest of the afternoon.

Tonight, Corey took me to Palisade for dinner, which is also in Magnolia. I had never been but had heard from many people that it was amazing so I was thrilled to be able to go! It's beautiful - right on the water, overlooking Seattle, West Seattle and a marina. Inside, they have a stream and pond, which was really cool. And the food is amazing. Corey went with steak and prawns and I went for the butterfish, which was delish. And to top it all off, we shared a creme brulee sampler which was amazing. I love trying new places, especially when the food is so yummy.

This was a great day to top off our Valentine's Day weekend celebration. Thanks for the amazing day, Corey! Love you!

And in case you're interested, here are some photos from today. The rest can be found here.

Yummy, homemade Spanakopita.

Roxy with a stick I found for her.

Roxy was on a mission - she pulled us just about everywhere we went.

Whew! It's rough pulling Corey and I around.

Moran family at a lookout over the water. Ballard is just off to the right of this photo.

Two of my favorite people / pups.

We tried to get a photo of ourselves in front of the Palisade sign but didn't have the best luck...

...hence the photo of just me in front of the sign.

Happy Day Before Valentine's Day

So Corey and I usually celebrate Valentine's Day with a gift for each other, cards and maybe a dinner out, but this year, we thought it would be fun to change it up a bit. We decided to each plan a date night for the each other. My night was tonight and Corey's plans go into play on Sunday (tomorrow night we'll be at the Gossett's house for a Valentine's Day party, which we're both looking forward to).

For my date, I thought it would be fun to recreate the first date I ever took Corey on, which was our second date, when I took him to Purple Cafe in Kirkland. After dinner, we walked down to the waterfront and sat on a nearby bench to watch the sunset and enjoy the warm evening (it was June at the time). This is where we had our very first kiss.

Our 2nd date re-do started with Corey getting the following poem from me:

(Don't laugh - not all of it makes sense...I was just trying so hard to get it to rhyme, because that's the kind of poet I am).

With this poem he was totally able to figure out what our date was going to be (it's a bit obvious, I must say). When we got to Purple, there was a long wait (which we expected), so we reversed our date a bit and grabbed coffee at Starbucks on the way to the waterfront. Even though it was a bit colder out this time around, we had fun chatting on 'our' bench.

The last time us Morans were on this bench, we had known each other for just over 2 weeks. Now it's been well over two years. Time sure does fly!

Corey keeping 'our' bench warm.

After coffee at our bench, we headed back to Purple just in time for our table to be ready. We had a yummy dinner and had fun remembering all the details of our first second date.

Purple Cafe, here we come!

Can't wait to see what his plans for Sunday are!

And just in case you miss seeing Roxy, here's a photo I took of her earlier this week on her dog bed. (This is the dog bed she pulled a bunch of foam out of (notice the back right), only for us to get her another type of bed, which she proceeded to un-stuff. The fun just never stops.)

I worked from home today and she spent 8.5 of the 9 hours sleeping on my legs. With all that sleeping, I have no idea how she finds time to chew our baseboards when she's here all alone each day!

Friends, Food...and Some Football, Too

We had a bunch of our friends over to watch the Super Bowl today on our new TV. We had a great time eating (tons), drinking, watching the game and of course, playing with Roxy. She is completely pooped after having to entertain so many people!

Sara is a huge Steelers fan so I think most of us were rooting for them. It was a close game and I think Sara almost had a heart attack towards the end of it --- but she survived to see the big win.

Here are some photos from the day.


My little family, decked out in football gear, waiting for everyone to show up.


Sara, our first guest, got lots of love from Rox.


Gina, who is going to nursing school, needed to take blood pressures in order to complete a homework assignment. Turns out the Super Bowl party was the perfect venue to take care of this requirement.


Sara and Gina snacking it up.


The whole gang (almost): Chris, Jennifer, Jason, Roxy, Lisa, Sara, Gina, me. Missing: Natalie (who was taking a photo with her camera), Corey (who was taking this photo) and Nick (who hadn't made it over yet).


Mmm...Natalie made some delicious football themed cupcakes in honor of the festivities.

Corey, Chris and Jason making a dent on the food and beer.

Lisa and Jennifer looking cute at the food table.

Roxy, completely worn out after the party, caught up on some sleep on Sara's lap while we watched The Office after the game.


Corey and I, post-Super Bowl, watching The Office.


And here's a cute pic I snapped yesterday of Corey and Roxy napping in preparation for today's festivities.