the royal tannenbaum

 the men folk chop the tree

 the ornaments are placed just so

 honeymoon ornament//tiny guard courtesy of bro and sis ottley

le masterpiece

 betcha Adam hates this picture

It's getting quite festive in apartment H. Since we'll be staying in Seattle for Christmas this year, we decided to do it up right. I'm not sure we're technically allowed to have live trees in our apartment, and technically we did sneak it in the back door as our apartment manager was leaving out the front but this is Christmas, dangit! And in the Wolfe family, Christmas isn't Christmas until the smell of the the tree is so strong it makes you gag a little when you walk in the front door. All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.

august highlight reel

Aaaand there goes August. I wish I could say that I didn't post because we were on a really exotic trip or doing something equally exciting. In reality, we've mostly been putzing around here and trying to soak up as much sun as we can before we go back into hibernation in a month or so. But here's what we did do.

 

1. Greater Portland Half Marathon- I know what you're thinking..."a half marathon? in August?!" LOL! Don't worry, guys! We thought this all through beforehand. August is actually the best time to run a race in the PNW because you have a couple nice months to train and it never really gets above 80 even in the summer months. But wait, no. Actually, it was the hottest day in Portland in 3 years. High of 103. Joke's on us.

Adam just told me that this is one of his favorite shirts. Not quite sure what to make of that.

2. Hiking Mount Bickerson/Dickerson/Dickerman- Our friends Jake and Jordan somehow got the wrong idea about us and ended up assuming we were both really strong hikers (which is true for one of us and I'll let you guess which one). Once Adam and I finally figured out the name of the hike we were doing in 12 hours, we looked it up and realized it was 4.5 miles straight up a mountain. I'm still recovering.

not too shabby for a phone picture, right?

 

3. Some Ohani Camping- crashing family reunions is fun to do (fun to do, to do, to do!) Thanks to CA's mom's uncle's wife and her family and some of their families and friends of those families for letting us crash their annual camping trip. I still think we won the award for most distantly connected campers.

only the cheesiest of poses on this log

snowball fights optional

4. Golfing with the Brunsons- technically in September but I'll include it because we left for this trip on August 31st. Adam played his favorite course and I got to tag along in the golf cart so it was a win-win.

18th holing

And I don't like to toot my own horn but I will say that when we went and played the kiddie course on Monday I got (what I'm now calling) a "double par + 1". What can I say? I'm a natural.

the wolfes take seattle

Thought I'd better slap something down here before I lose the World's Best Blogger Award that I'm nominating myself for. Or at least Most Improved Blogger. I was seriously on fire in May and June, no? If I don't keep it up I might lose the privilege of scrolling through my blog every few days while I toot my own horn. "Adam, have you even seen my blog lately? I've had like 4 posts just this month! What are you doing over there? Oh, studying for the boards? Yeah, but have you seen my blog?"

My family came to visit the first week of July and we painted the town red (white and blue. ba-dum ching!) It was kiss-you-on-the-lips-Seattle kind of weather and they were all happy to escape the 100 degree temps they left behind in Virginia. It kind of made me wonder why I'm itching to get back east so badly? (and is also probably related to why I've been spending lots of time on this site lately. whaaaa?) 

But, like I was saying. The fun never stopped. Or at least, it never stopped before 8 pm when they were all, "well! it's 11 back east! goodnight!"

Pictures or it didn't happen, amiright?

 the freezingest July baseball game that ever there was. we had HOT CHOCOLATE when we got home!

paddle boating on green lake. pre-killer goose incident, obvi or we wouldn't look so cheerful

they see me trollin

 millioneth time to the gum wall but this was my first time leaving my mark!

 Jessica and Josh. In this family, we have a strict alliteration rule when it comes to dating

 third trip up the SN, first meal on top!

 Deception Pass or as I like to call it: if this bridge breaks there won't be any survivors

 

 I call this one: Two Fat Guys Skipping Rocks. No, I know. It's supposed to be ironic.

And now it's 1:30 back east so it's time to hit the sack. Thank you, come again. On the real.

anniversary haps

 gotta love Pike's $5 boquets. and when your husband brags about the deal he got on your anniversary flowers.

saying hello to freezer space again

 our digs for the weekend

ok, I know I'm not fooling anyone but it really was an impressive stack of rocks

 

"I'm right behind you, sweetie!" 

nope.

wish you were here?

couldn't quite capture how awesome the inside of the treehouse was but here's my best attempt

It was a very happy anniversary indeed. Shout out to my sibs who got us a gift card to Treehouse Point for our wedding. Ah-mazing. We really couldn't stop talking about how awesome it was the whole time we were there. We relaxed, read, studied (him), napped (her), ate (the crazy squirrel who couldn't take a hint), explored and even squeezed in some Friday Night Lights. Tyra and Landry threatened to ruin the weekend by freaking KILLING A MAN but even that couldn't bring us down. I don't know how I manage to squeeze talk of FNL into every blog post but it's kind of consuming our lives right now.

So let's review:

• flowers
• cake
• treehouse
• rocks
• dillon panthers

now we're all caught up.

Happy Anni to us!

anatomy of a year

weeks spent apart: 16
thank you notes written: 240ish
fl oz sunscreen applied: 0
haircuts given in our bathroom: 6
countries visited: 2
flights taken together: 4
dishes broken: 3
weeks of Netflix: <1
episodes of Friday Night Lights watched on Netflix: 11
children conceived: 0
camping trips: 4
blog posts: 15
student loans taken: 30k (ouch!)
waffles consumed: 80
joints smoked in passing: prolly around 30

I think it's safe to say that one year later....

we've still got it.

so long, farewell

Memorial Day weekend found us in Kennewick bidding farewell to Ma and Pa Ottley who have sold all of their earthly possessions and are heading to London for the next two years. They’ll be serving a mission for our church. They both spoke on Sunday and let me tell you, there wasn’t a dry Ottley eye in the house. And there were like 40-something Ottley eyes. As Adam’s Dad said in his talk, they’ve been preparing for this mission for 35 years and I couldn’t imagine a couple better suited for the job. Then on Sunday night we reviewed all the British swear words so now I think they’re really ready. 

On a sidenote: I’m totally digging this sequence of pictures of my SIL Cindy. Gotta love that Tri-cities wind. Over the weekend she made me a solemn promise that she would never read my blog.

 

 Who’s laughing now, Cindy?

on beyond med school

Something Adam's going to be doing a lot less of in the near future...

and not just because he's about to get awesome at golf.

Well, folks. The end is near. It's crazy to think that this time next year we'll (probably) be packing up and shipping out to who knows where. But we have a lot to look forward to this year. Fourth Year is Third Year's cooler sexier cousin who is extremely charismatic, naturally athletic, and is often referred to as "the hope of the family". She's also a very busy year (but not like that! she's incredibly chaste...practically a pillar of morality). People are constantly asking us where Adam will be/when he'll be there/what he'll be doing/can they please have some Methadone. Of course, we're happy to educate them but it has gotten a teensy bit old. Which is maybe why we've started exclusively hanging out with doctor friends. So here is a tentative timeline of what we (ok, mostly Adam) will be up to next year. Now you can print it out and hang it on your fridge so you'll always know what Adam's doing at any given moment. And more importantly, when he can start prescribing you the drugs.

June 15th: Last day of 3rd year! Wahooo! We survived!
June 18th-July 6th: Adam has 3 weeks off to study and take his second board exam
July 5th: Adam takes Step 2 of his boards (say a prayer/light a candle/send him good vibes if you please)
July 9th-August 3rd: Pediatric sub-internship at Seattle Children's
August-September: Adam does more peds and non-peds rotations (peds rehab, peds head and neck surgery, radiology)
September 1st: Adam turns in his residency applications to all the pediatric residency programs he's interested in
October 22th-Novemer 18th: Adam does an away pediatric rotation at Children's National Hospital in Washington DC
mid-November-mid-Decemberish: Adam interviews at residency programs who are smart enough to be interested in him
January-May: Adam continues to do more rotations but with much less pressure (peds urology, neurology, peds ICU, emergency medicine)
March 15th: Match Day! The day we find out where Adam will be working and we'll be living for the next 3 plus years! Also, probably the day I get an ulcer.
June 1st 2013: GRADUATION!
mid-June: move?
end of June: I kiss my husband goodbye and promise to write...he starts residency.

 So, there you have it. The road is long, but we're told it's worth it.

the trail to fame and glory

 

 

 hey lil s'mores baby!

 hey lil hillary step!

 

 

Adam and I spent the last two weekends in a row on a camping/hiking/spelunking extravaganza. This is a pretty big deal for me because Adam and I went camping all of two times last summer and both times I vowed it would be my last camping trip. It was "too cold! my back! my neck! I'll never recover!" But I guess I'm not as high maintenance as I thought because I was actually quite comfortable on this trip. I've discovered that the secret to my success is: a sleeping bag laid out, then an air mattress, followed by a 15 degree sleeping bag that I sleep in, all topped off with our spare comforter. Oh, and don't forget the two pairs of socks, spandex, sweat pants, and hoodie over a long sleeve shirt. And a pillow is essential. There. Now we're ready for some camping!

We went with our friends Brent and Courtney who are working on a pretty intense bucket list. Highlights of this trip included: Mount Storm King, the Hoh Rainforest (where we encountered lots of supposedly aggressive elk that we were cautioned to stay either 100 or 1000 feet away from, but ended up having to share the trail with), the Pacific Ocean (which I've never actually seen before! "Whaaaat?!", cried Courtney) Mount Saint Helens, and Ape Caves.

My own personal highlight of the trip was when Courtney dropped all but two of the hot dogs on the ground and then proceeded to eat one of the dirty ones on principle to prove that it was "no big deal, guys.  People eat stuff off the floor all the time". Except this wasn't the floor. It was a dirty, ashy campsite. No one ended up eating those 2 clean hot dogs anyway but I'd like to think we all learned a pretty valuable lesson that night.