girl’s weekend

The Sound of Water

Posted by Lisa Eirene

Over the weekend I got to go on my annual weekend away with my bff Rachel! This is our third year doing it and I love it. It’s a fantastic way to stay in touch since we don’t live near each other (she’s in Seattle). We email and stuff but there is something special about being able to get away together for a weekend of girl talk, junk food and chick flicks!

This year we rented an airbnb in Gig Harbor, right on the water. On Friday I got up, took Logan to daycare and went swimming and then home to pack and hit the road.

The house we rented was near Sunrise Beach in Gig Harbor, which is kinda near Tacoma and Vashon Island, about an hour from Seattle. Two bedrooms (a queen and a king bed) and amazing views!

Of course the best part of the weekend is spending time with Rachel and catching up but I have to admit…a weekend of being able to sleep in without a toddler crawling into our bed for cuddles at 5am was REALLY nice 😀

The house we rented was SO nice and private and felt remote. We were right on the water and my bedroom upstairs had AMAZING views.

This is what I woke up to on Saturday morning:

Talk about stunning. What a way to wake up! And it was a king sized bed just for me. 😀

Friday we unpacked and then went into the downtown area to look around a bit, window shop and then got happy hour at Tides Tavern right on the water. I definitely recommend it! The food was fantastic. Good service, too.

We both got the happy hour Wedge Salad, which was the best Wedge salad I’ve ever had! And then split an order of clams and garlic herb bread.

We stopped at the store for a few essentials and then went back to the house for the night. We opened a bottle of wine, watched a chick flick, got caught up on stuff and then had a snack plate for dinner.

Saturday morning we had breakfast:

Lots of coffee and then I went for a run in the little downtown area. It was 50 degrees but not cold. It was SO nice to run after having like a month off. It felt GREAT and I was happy my cortisone shot had helped. And having carbs the day before made my run fantastic! I felt like my legs were flying!

I ran downtown and looked around a bit and took some photos. I found a little path near the water.

Then I ran on the boardwalk by the marina.

It was such a fabulous run!! I did just over two miles and then went back to the house to clean up.

I saw some deer on the way home. It was cool. We walked around downtown Gig Harbor and then had a late lunch at Anthony’s on the water. I had the Dungeness Crab and Shrimp toast. It had an artichoke and tomato tapenade on it, too. Then topped with melty cheese. It was SO delicious!

Back to the house for more movies, girl time and hanging out on the deck enjoying the sunshine. We chilled outside for a long time and even saw a few sea otters swimming by us.

Dinner was more snacks:

It was so much fun and just what I needed. I felt relaxed and recharged and happy.

Sunday I got to sleep in until 8:30. I missed the sunrise, but glad I saw it Saturday. We had breakfast and relaxed with our coffee before packing up. I hit the gym in Olympia on my way home. It was such a nice weekend but I was also glad to get home and hug my boys!

Girlfriends, Houses, DIY

Posted by Lisa Eirene

What a busy but great weekend! My bff, Rachel, drove down from Seattle for the day on Saturday for a fun day of girl talk. We decided to get some other friends together to join us and it was so much fun!

My friends Samantha, Robyn and Erika also joined us! It was so great! We all went to Edgefield out in Troutdale. I figured it would be a good location for lounging around chatting, drinking and just hanging out.

When we first got there at 11:30 we stopped at the Tea House Bar and got a beverage while we waited for Robyn and Erika to arrive. Sam got an amazing coconut pina colada thing. It made me think of Hawaii! I got a glass of the White Rabbit white blend.

The cool thing about Edgefield is that you can just hang out and wander around on the grounds and explore. We took our drinks and walked around for a bit and then decided to get lunch in the courtyard. It was chilly out but sunny.

I got a burger (with a bun! my one cheat for the day). We spent a long time just chatting, which was so fun and so needed.

The one bummer was the service. They lost our order and it took an hour to get food. 🙁 I’ve ever had bad service at Edgefield so this wasn’t great. Oh well. The food FINALLY arrived and it was delicious.

After lunch we went inside to hang out because we were getting a little cold and then it was time to head home. It was SO much fun! I definitely want to do it again. It was fun to just hang out with my girlfriends in a group, something I haven’t done since my wedding or bachelorette party. It was great!

In other news, we are finally house hunting! We planned on doing it last year and the plan got postponed. So now we are totally doing it. We are finishing up projects in our house to get it ready to sell, we contacted an agent who was recommended by a family member and we started looking at houses this week. We even went out and looked at three different houses on the market this weekend.

None of them were “The House”, which is fine. I don’t expect to find our house this early. We’re still fine tuning what we are looking for. Our list isn’t very long but after seeing three houses, we definitely know what we DON’T want.

After Rachel headed home on Saturday evening, we checked out one house that we’d rate a 7/10. We both really liked it. It was a house that was flipped and they did a REALLY good job on the work!

Hardwood floors throughout, then new hardwoods (or laminate) in the kitchen/dining/bathrooms). Brand new kitchen that was gorgeous! Three bedrooms on the main, then the attic:

Attic ceilings were a little too low for the gym to be up there but we could put a spare bedroom, office and playroom up there and that would work well. The downside? No garage, just a carport. There was a finished basement but low ceilings so it was basically just good enough for storage down there. The biggest issue for me: it was on a SUPER busy street. The biggest issue for Michael: no master bathroom.

The house was great, but the location made us not move forward. We’re still looking! But dang, that house was nice! 😉

On Sunday I went swimming for the first time in a month! It went great! It was weird taking a month off after my surgery but it was nice being back in the pool. Then home for house projects.

Our babysitter spent a few hours with Logan so we could get some stuff done. Michael worked on finishing the grout for the kitchen backsplash. I painted the pantry doors and the trim in the kitchen.

Man it was hard work! Painting is easy but it also takes a lot out of you. I mean, I was painting off-white doors white. LOL. At least we got it done. I have more trim to print and we have to paint the rest of the doors in the house…sigh…but we are making progress!