August updates...

for Mike, Lanae and little miss cutie pie :)

She's four months old and loving life! And LOVES cereal! :)
 (Well I'm a little late because she's almost five months old but you know how life is.)

Enjoy!

Of course I got her the ONE second she wasn't smiling.  But she was SO excited to eat 'real' food!

So much it wasn't enough! She wanted more!

Just trying on some hats :)

She LOVES her toes; mostly on her left foot….

Is she going to be a lefty???

This cutie pie is getting so big so fast!!

Four months old

Mike started LAW SCHOOL at the U of I

Can you spot him??

SIX years ago I went to Seattle for the first time.  

This picture was taken EXACTLY six years ago today!

Mike and I had been dating for about two months and I went for a whole week to meet his family 

and so he could show me around his hometown and Seattle :) We had a blast!

That week was also the first time we said I Love You to each other;

and the rest is history as we all know :)

Love

The Dukes

Moscow

Things we have learned in Moscow so far.
Some we like, some we don't like, or understand.

*  Our apartment stinks; literally stinks.
* They take around $150 out of your deposit to clean the carpets for the next tenant.  WELL I'm pretty sure they just pocket that money and give it a quick vacuum. Hence reason number one.  This one made and continues to make me very upset.
* First priority get my Scentsy warmer out and fill it full of something good!
* We have a master bathroom!
* Having a Two bedroom Two bathroom apartment is sweet!
* The master bathroom is HALF the size of the guest bathroom; what the Heck?!
* The previous tenants did a terrible job of cleaning before they moved out.  I don't even think it's legal to have someone move in in this condition!  This too makes me very angry.
* We live on the third floor
* We have a balcony, WITH a sliding back door AND a screen door!
* We have a balcony storage closet
*The carpet is nasty colored. Totally 70's style. Light blue with light brown scattered so it looks like someone walked through with muddy shoes.
* The power turned off the second day we were here.  I thought the power went out.  Or I thought they turned our power off because it was a new month and we hadn't paid our bill yet. So I had to call the power company.  Luckily it was just the breaker that tripped because our AC unit was on. Ugh.
* Reading schedules; dates and times; for school is VERY IMPORTANT!!! Mike got accepted into an early welcome program for the law class…..And he missed the first day because we thought it started on Wednesday! Turns out it started on Tuesday. Opps! The lady in charge emailed Mike and asked if he was ok and asked if there was anything she could do to help. Mike emailed back and apologized.  she said no worries just come to our BBQ tonight. We had NO idea where it was or how to find it.  So after two hours of looking at old emails and googling the professor we luckily found it JUST in time to show up for the BBQ on time!
*  "Welcome to the BBQ, the beer is that way" the first guy we saw said.    "haha ok cool thanks, is there water that way too?" Quite the adjustment for us.  Ya like we are going to drink since we have a sleeping baby in tow.
* There is a super Walmart AND a Winco in town!!!!
* We sold the jetta and the corolla so we only have one car. Mike will be riding his bike, walking or taking the public bus system :)
* The are One-Way streets EVERYWHERE!    UGH I hate one way streets! pray for me, haha
* Park under the parking port then take the elevator or escalator to go UPSTAIRS to get to the bank!
* Our apartment complex gave us some paper work to fill out; they also gave us some microwave popcorn as a welcome treat with a cute saying on it, "Let us know if anything 'pops' up that you need" cute right? WELL,….the apartment DOES NOT provide a MICROWAVE!! how am i suppose to eat my popcorn?!?!  (This ones my favorite).
* Our apartment management IS. A. JOKE.!!!!!  They have been nothing but rude to us and look at us like they are annoyed with us and that we are stupid. UGH
* Our mailbox situation is A. JOKE.
I changed our address for everything so that by the time we got back from our two week vacation we would be caught up on our mail. When we got back we asked the office if they had a mail key for us, they looked at us stupidly and said, "Ugh you have to go to the post office to get that." oh ok. Like we knew that?! So we just go and ask them for a mail key? "No you have to take your signed copy of your lease" oh ok.  Actually we are still unpacking…
interruption…What is your email?
...we were wondering if you could email us a copy…
…WHAT IS YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS MA'AM?!
see what I mean, rude. And that's just One example!
So we finally get our printer hooked up and print our lease.  We go to the post office to get our key.  She comes back with a new lock and two keys.  "Oh we get a new lock huh?" Mike commented.
 "Ya every time a new tenant moves in we change the lock" post office lady
"Oh wow, ok cool"
Ya they change it because you can make as many copies of the key as you want so they don't want old tenants coming to get into the mailbox so we just change the lock"
EVERY person in line, in front of us and behind us, had mailing address issues or key issues.  Seems like a lot of work if you ask me. Just hand out two mail keys turn them, in rent them out, turn them in, rent them out, etc. Why go through all this hassle.
* I have a peep hole in my front door; I can see you :)
* Mike gets his own cubicle in the library to study in for all three years :)
* Mike loves law school
* Hannah and I are still adjusting
* I swear every body drinks, smokes or does drugs. yesterday there was a frat house with a bunch of guys on the roof having a ''smokin'' party
* Frat houses and sorority houses EVERYWHERE
* The family Ward we attended Sunday tried to kick us out and said "Oh…um…do you know about the married student ward? We are supposed to encourage students to go there. They don't want you to come here unless your oldest is turning eight years old" Talk about weird!   "But if you decide to stay we will love you just the same"
So our interpretation, "go to the married student ward but if you want to stay I guess we will love you if we have to".  So we will try the married student ward next sunday.
* Every car, every business window, every apartment building etc, there is Vandal stickers, etc EVERYWHERE!!! And I thought Boise State had a lot, haha.
* I've learned I miss Idaho! haha, I totally feel like I'm in another state, it almost feels like I'm in WA or something.
* We have met some really nice people and are starting to run into people we know as we wonder through town and campus.  One of the librarians teaches belly dancing…. maybe I'll sign up HAHA.  We have run into her like four times now   (I would NEVER think she would teach belly dancing.  She's a little shorter than me and well she looks like a librarian. I'm not being rude, it just surprised me. But good for her!
* I miss my friends. A LOT!!!  I miss my social interaction, I swear I'm getting dumber by the day.
* Time is flying by and school hasn't even officially started yet!!
* Moscow is an adjustment for us for sure but I'm sure we will learn to love it! And find many other goo things about this town! :)

Boise and Olympia

After moving to Moscow we spent a week at my mom's.  Like I mentioned we literally spent the first two days being lazy and hanging out at the house.  Then we got to work and got some errands done and paperwork done that we hadn't had time to do before we moved.

Hannah is just so cute!

Mike, Hannah and I walked down to the temple site.  We missed the visitors center hours by like five minutes! dang! Next time :)

 

 

silly girl wouldn't look at us. I'll just assume she was trying to look at the temple :)

The next day my mom was so kind and watched Hannah for us while we attended a session at the Boise Temple :)

Friday was a busy day for us.  Mom and dad went to a wedding in the morning then we rushed out the door to attend the luncheon. Then we rushed up the mountain to my Grandma's cabin to have some fun :)  The whole ride up Mike was doubting me that there was even a cabin. And kept saying, you're lying! Where is it? Why are we here? Why didn't we turn there? Why can't we drive up to the cabin? Why do we have to wait for them to open the gate? Is this the cabin? Is that the cabin? You're totally lying about this cabin. LOL It was so funny for me but he was serious!!

But he ended up swimming and we had a lot of fun! :)

 

my parents taking my niece and nephew for a ride on the floating dock around the lake

After the cabin and eating dinner at the lake we rushed back to the reception for the couple who got married earlier in the day. It was quite a busy day but we had fun!!

We also spent an evening this week at my grandma's house and visited with my aunt and uncle who just moved back west from back east :)

Four generations! :)

On Saturday my mom literally kicked us out of the house and babysat Hannah for us while we had some time alone doing a few errands and spending time in downtown Boise at a new annual International Food and Culture Festival.  It was an interesting concept but it was still kinda fun :)

We also went to The Village in Meridian; I had never been so we went and checked it out…

It was like the mini Billagio Fountains! Dancing to music! :)

Downtown Boise...

On Sunday we packed up and left to drive to Olympia to spend the next week at his parents house 

(we figured we better spend time with our parents before we get SUPER poor and can't travel to see family for a while).

On the way we stopped in Portland to see our neighbors who helped us move.  

Their daughter had surgery and we HAD to stop by and say hi :)

my visitors pass :)

In the car I had to sit in the back and feed Hannah and put her to sleep :) This is how she likes to fall a sleep; Thumper near by, pacifier in mouth, her hand on her face and holding my hand while my hand touches her face :)

The first day in Olympia Mike deserted me and went to Seattle for the day for his 'nerd convention'…

A video game International Tournament. People even dressed up for it!

The next few days we spent at his parents house hanging out and being lazy once again :)

His parents live across the street from a lake and up stairs on the balcony is a relaxing view of the lake :) I could sit there all day in the sun :)

His mom drove us around downtown to the WA state capital; Olympia

The State Capital building

She LOVES Thumper!

Mike and Hannah relaxing :)

His mom insisted we go on a date so she could babysit, so we drove to downtown Olympia and walked along the boardwalk (which we found on google; things to do in Olympia; apparently it's a fun must see attraction in Olympia...) there wasn't much there; at least the night we went.  But we did find a fun art gallery and talked to the lady for quite a while about all the art and the artist and put our name in for a drawing! 

We then googled to find some ice cream near by.  So we got in our car to drive there.  Turns out the place we wanted to go was literally AROUND THE CORNER!  Silly us we could of just walked there.  We almost just went back to our parking lot to walk but instead paid a parking meter; and made it back with TWO minutes to spare! 

Man we timed that good!

 This cute statue was behind us and the below picture was in front of us across the street.

across the street of the boardwalk 

On Friday I again looked on our list of fun things to do in Olympia and so us girls; Katie (mike's sister) and her daughter Josie, Hannah and myself, found a fun nature walk to go on. 

It was about a mile loop around this lake.

Josie wanted to take some pictures with Hannah; I liked these ones the best :)

On Saturday Mike's mom wanted to spend all day with me.  I had told Mike I wanted to go up to Seattle to Pike Place Market etc. but we never got there ourselves so she took us; all minus Mike because he was at his nerd convention haha

I LOVE coming to Pike Place Market and just roaming around :) 

We timed it right and Mike and his cousin Travis (they attended the nerd convention together) met up with us when their event was over and we were just sitting down to eat.  Then we walked around outside for a few minutes. 

We had such a blast visiting family. Now its back on the road to actually move in and settle in.  

Ok,…one last stop to see family.  My brother had his baby while we were at my moms so we stopped by to see them; because it was on the way to Moscow.  

She's so cute and TINY at two weeks old :)

We made it back to Moscow safely.  :)

Love, 

the Duke's :)