We can't believe that it is already September. We have now been in Seattle for almost 4 months. It's so hard to believe that a year ago, Amber was offered a new job in Seattle and we were trying to decide whether we should move to Seattle or not. Although it was hard to leave San Diego, we made that decision and now we're here. It has been a great, although fast paced, summer. It rained for most of June and everyone kept telling us that July 5 is always the turning point of the year in Seattle. That's a little hard to believe. I mean, how can a specific date be used to predict exactly when the sun is going to come out??? But sure enough, on July 4 it was at least just cloudy and not rainy, and on July 5, the sun came out and it didn't rain for almost 2 whole months!
We have had a great time exploring our neighborhood around Greenlake. We have taken long walks around the lake with Chiara and Maggie. We have played in the neighborhood wading pool - although we know it will be much more fun next year when Chiara can actually play in the water all by herself. We have made a point to go to Bottega Italiana a couple times a week - it's a gelato and coffee shop owned by the brother of a friend and we are in LOVE with it. It brings us back to Italy!!! It is so nice to live in a neighborhood where you can walk to restaurants and coffee shops and a big park. We missed that in our last house in San Diego. The only risk is that we are going to get spoiled living here and not want to leave! We'll have to win the lottery or something to afford to buy a house in this neighborhood!
All is going well with work. Dave has stayed working for Booz, Allen and Hamilton in downtown Seattle. He's making headway into the Business Intelligence sector and gearing up for a year long certificate course at the University of Washington. Amber is loving working for NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center. She just got back from her first trip to Alaska. She went with Chiara and Dave's mom Barb and they had a great time. Barb watched Chiara while Amber was in meetings and they had a great time walking around Anchorage and Dutch Harbor. It was definitely an experience! Especially in Dutch Harbor where there are probably only 5 trees on the entire island - they all get blown down by the fierce winter winds and cant' grow very well. Chiara was the best traveller there could have ever been. A feat when you consider that no airplane can leave for or from Dutch Harbor without being at least 4 hours late! We had a lot of waiting in airports and flying on small puddle jumper planes. But we all managed to arrive and the trip was great.
Now we foray into the end of summer with the inevitable massive birthday weekend. We both turn 33 this weekend and have lots of celebrations planned! Amber's birthday will be filled with a boat ride on the lakes. Dave's birthday will be spent going out to breakfast and having a barbque. And bumpershoot is this weekend! Perhaps we'll take in some of the music scene...
Friday, September 3, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Ode to Chiara
A tempestuous squall from Chiara
As she bounced into Guadalajara.
Her parents did freak,
The baby did shriek,
Yet calmed with pasta marinara.
As she bounced into Guadalajara.
Her parents did freak,
The baby did shriek,
Yet calmed with pasta marinara.
 |
| Babysitting technique of the master |
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Picasa web album
So I have finally gotten around to making a photo album on the internet where Chiara's pictures can be updated and seen easily. The link will be the same but hopefully the pictures will change with time. Keep it bookmarked to see how Chiara is developing (and maybe a few of Dave and I too!).
http://picasaweb.google.com/amberhimescornell
http://picasaweb.google.com/amberhimescornell
Friday, July 9, 2010
July 2010
Here we go. Finally I've had time to download some pictures of Chiara. Here's some good ones from the past couple of weeks.
This weekend Mike (Dave's bro) is in town visiting. We've gone from 60 degrees and cloudy to 95 degrees and broiling sun over night. It's crazy! Everyone in Seattle is out and about. No one is cooking in their homes because it's too hot so all the restaurants are packed. And the city has finally filled up the wading pools. Maybe we'll get to take Chiara to her first wading pool this weekend!
This weekend Mike (Dave's bro) is in town visiting. We've gone from 60 degrees and cloudy to 95 degrees and broiling sun over night. It's crazy! Everyone in Seattle is out and about. No one is cooking in their homes because it's too hot so all the restaurants are packed. And the city has finally filled up the wading pools. Maybe we'll get to take Chiara to her first wading pool this weekend!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Chiara
We have been in Seattle now for 7 weeks already. We can't believe it. Time has really flown by. We spent most of our first weeks here unpacking the massive quantities of boxes that the movers dropped off. They used so much paper to wrap everything in that it has taken us for ever to individually unwrap all of our belongings, from our precious china all the way down to the duct tape and spackle.
Once the rest of our boxes are unpacked, we'll take some pictures of the house so everyone who hasn't seen it yet can get a sneak peak until you come visit us. And yes, visitors are always welcome!
Here are some pictures of Chiara, Dave and Amber from May and June 2010. Click on the picture and enjoy! We'll try to post more soon.
Once the rest of our boxes are unpacked, we'll take some pictures of the house so everyone who hasn't seen it yet can get a sneak peak until you come visit us. And yes, visitors are always welcome!
Here are some pictures of Chiara, Dave and Amber from May and June 2010. Click on the picture and enjoy! We'll try to post more soon.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
2008-2009 Christmas update
Dear loved ones,
We hope this holiday season finds you all happy and with loved ones. Although we couldn’t muster to get a Christmas letter out last year, there is much to tell and update you on from the last two years so here’s a letter covering both last and this year!
The last two years have been full of so many exciting events and changes we don’t know where to begin! I suppose we can start by letting those of you who don’t know that Dave got out of the Navy in fall of 2008. He also graduated with his MBA from University of California San Diego in August 2008 to prepare him for a civilian career in business. Luckily, he was able to land a job starting right when he got out of the Navy. He has been working for Booz Allen Hamilton, a large business consulting firm. Their San Diego office does a lot of defense consulting so Dave started with them on a contract to look at how to make Marine Corps aviation more cost effective over the long run. He has really been enjoying it. Amber in the meantime stayed busy with her work at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In March, she completed her third full year working for the federal government helping out endangered species and trying to prevent widespread construction in San Diego from destroying the entire natural environment there. One upside to the downed economy was that most developers have either gone bankrupt or haven’t had the money to move forward with their projects, so Amber’s work hasn’t been as stressful as it was in previous years.
This year we have also had some good travels. In October 2008, we went to Italy for a couple of weeks and saw some of Amber’s friends in almost every city we visited. We started in Milan, travelled up to southern Switzerland for a weekend, toured Venice while staying with a friend in a 15th Century villa, a few days in Rome, a quick hello to friends in Naples, and Palermo before heading home. It was great to introduce Dave to all of Amber’s friends and to her favorite country! Good thing he enjoyed it...so much in fact that he’s already plotting how we will someday find jobs in Rome and live there for a couple of years! Amber also got to attend a great marine conservation conference in D.C. in May 2009 and a follow-up conference in China in July 2009. China was definitely an unusual and amazing country to visit. Her conference was in Beijing where she also visited the Forbidden City, Ming tombs, night markets, and city neighborhoods. Then she went to Xi’an where she saw the terracotta warriors (thousands of life size clay warriors that guard an emperor’s tomb) and Luoyang where she saw the Longmen caves (6 story tall buddas carved into cliff faces). She ended her trip in amazing Shanghai, where old colonial China and modern day massive skyscrapers meet.
In February 2009, we adopted an adorable 2-year old puppy named Maggie. The best we can describe her is a 3 month old Newfoundland with a black cocker spaniel/retriever head. She has the most adorable big brown eyes and has been a wonderful addition to our family. The two biggest pieces of news for us this year are still coming to fruition. The week before Amber left for China, we found out she was pregnant. Made the trip a little hair raising for both of us! But she managed through and is now in her last trimester. The baby will be a little girl and is due March 10, 2010. Up until this summer, all of Dave’s immediate family was in San Diego, but in July Dave’s dad took a new job in southern Maryland and Dave’s sister is applying to get into the Bastyr University naturopathy program in Seattle. We had been talking about moving to Seattle sometime in 2011 to be able to spend time living near Amber’s parents, so having Dave’s sister around would have been fun as well. But life fast forwarded a little and presented Amber with an amazing job opportunity in September that she couldn’t pass up to get back into the social sciences and fisheries management. Best part was that the job is in Seattle! The slightly difficult part was that they wanted Amber to start right away. After a lot of hard thinking about what would be best for our family, we decided that Amber should take the new job. She is now working for the National Marine Fisheries Service as a social scientist. She will be researching the effects of different fisheries management programs on the fishermen in Alaska. It’s as close to a perfect job for Amber as you can get for this next phase of her career.
Since Dave needs to find a job in Seattle now as well, we decided that Amber would go to Seattle to start work at the beginning of November while Dave stayed in San Diego. Amber’s new job has agreed to let her come home to San Diego at the end of January to work her last five weeks at home before the baby comes. She’ll have the baby and do her first two months of maternity leave in San Diego. Then we’ll officially move to Seattle in mid-May 2010. Hopefully, Dave’s sister will move there as well and maybe, just maybe, we’ll be able to convince Dave’s brother to move up as well.
We are both very excited about all of these new changes in our lives. We can’t wait for the new baby to come. She will be the first grandchild and great grandchild on Amber’s side and the second grandchild and 19th great-grandchild on Dave’s side. Our next letter to you all will have pictures, we guarantee! We wish you all a joyous holiday season and hopefully we’ll see you soon!
Love,
Amber, Dave and Maggie (and baby Cornell)
We hope this holiday season finds you all happy and with loved ones. Although we couldn’t muster to get a Christmas letter out last year, there is much to tell and update you on from the last two years so here’s a letter covering both last and this year!
The last two years have been full of so many exciting events and changes we don’t know where to begin! I suppose we can start by letting those of you who don’t know that Dave got out of the Navy in fall of 2008. He also graduated with his MBA from University of California San Diego in August 2008 to prepare him for a civilian career in business. Luckily, he was able to land a job starting right when he got out of the Navy. He has been working for Booz Allen Hamilton, a large business consulting firm. Their San Diego office does a lot of defense consulting so Dave started with them on a contract to look at how to make Marine Corps aviation more cost effective over the long run. He has really been enjoying it. Amber in the meantime stayed busy with her work at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In March, she completed her third full year working for the federal government helping out endangered species and trying to prevent widespread construction in San Diego from destroying the entire natural environment there. One upside to the downed economy was that most developers have either gone bankrupt or haven’t had the money to move forward with their projects, so Amber’s work hasn’t been as stressful as it was in previous years.
This year we have also had some good travels. In October 2008, we went to Italy for a couple of weeks and saw some of Amber’s friends in almost every city we visited. We started in Milan, travelled up to southern Switzerland for a weekend, toured Venice while staying with a friend in a 15th Century villa, a few days in Rome, a quick hello to friends in Naples, and Palermo before heading home. It was great to introduce Dave to all of Amber’s friends and to her favorite country! Good thing he enjoyed it...so much in fact that he’s already plotting how we will someday find jobs in Rome and live there for a couple of years! Amber also got to attend a great marine conservation conference in D.C. in May 2009 and a follow-up conference in China in July 2009. China was definitely an unusual and amazing country to visit. Her conference was in Beijing where she also visited the Forbidden City, Ming tombs, night markets, and city neighborhoods. Then she went to Xi’an where she saw the terracotta warriors (thousands of life size clay warriors that guard an emperor’s tomb) and Luoyang where she saw the Longmen caves (6 story tall buddas carved into cliff faces). She ended her trip in amazing Shanghai, where old colonial China and modern day massive skyscrapers meet.
In February 2009, we adopted an adorable 2-year old puppy named Maggie. The best we can describe her is a 3 month old Newfoundland with a black cocker spaniel/retriever head. She has the most adorable big brown eyes and has been a wonderful addition to our family. The two biggest pieces of news for us this year are still coming to fruition. The week before Amber left for China, we found out she was pregnant. Made the trip a little hair raising for both of us! But she managed through and is now in her last trimester. The baby will be a little girl and is due March 10, 2010. Up until this summer, all of Dave’s immediate family was in San Diego, but in July Dave’s dad took a new job in southern Maryland and Dave’s sister is applying to get into the Bastyr University naturopathy program in Seattle. We had been talking about moving to Seattle sometime in 2011 to be able to spend time living near Amber’s parents, so having Dave’s sister around would have been fun as well. But life fast forwarded a little and presented Amber with an amazing job opportunity in September that she couldn’t pass up to get back into the social sciences and fisheries management. Best part was that the job is in Seattle! The slightly difficult part was that they wanted Amber to start right away. After a lot of hard thinking about what would be best for our family, we decided that Amber should take the new job. She is now working for the National Marine Fisheries Service as a social scientist. She will be researching the effects of different fisheries management programs on the fishermen in Alaska. It’s as close to a perfect job for Amber as you can get for this next phase of her career.
Since Dave needs to find a job in Seattle now as well, we decided that Amber would go to Seattle to start work at the beginning of November while Dave stayed in San Diego. Amber’s new job has agreed to let her come home to San Diego at the end of January to work her last five weeks at home before the baby comes. She’ll have the baby and do her first two months of maternity leave in San Diego. Then we’ll officially move to Seattle in mid-May 2010. Hopefully, Dave’s sister will move there as well and maybe, just maybe, we’ll be able to convince Dave’s brother to move up as well.
We are both very excited about all of these new changes in our lives. We can’t wait for the new baby to come. She will be the first grandchild and great grandchild on Amber’s side and the second grandchild and 19th great-grandchild on Dave’s side. Our next letter to you all will have pictures, we guarantee! We wish you all a joyous holiday season and hopefully we’ll see you soon!
Love,
Amber, Dave and Maggie (and baby Cornell)
Monday, December 21, 2009
Starting of new phases
Seeing as though everyone has started doing these blog thingys (that's the official term for them), thought we might as well start too. It'll be a great way to keep everyone updated on the next phase of our lives in Seattle and with our new baby.
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