Waterfalls, Coffee, and REI

Well, hubby's vacation is over and he went back to work this morning. After a long week of sight-seeing and non-stop touring with family, we decided to take his last day off and have a lazy day together. It was wonderful.

We visited Mount Rainier and it was snowing on the top. It was my first bit of real winter this year. Here is a falls that we hiked to. Be-a-utiful.

On our drive down, we saw a fox on the side of the road. He was gorgeous. I think he must have thought we were going to give him food, because he stopped and didn't mind when we took pictures of him. Or maybe he just knew he is that good-looking.

"Make sure you get my good side" - Mr. Fox

We also tried out a few new coffee places. We recently earned enough stars for our Starbucks gold card (should I be proud or ashamed of this?), so we didn't feel obligated to go there when we wanted coffee. 

This was my favorite cappuccino.  It was from The Raw House in downtown Seattle. Love. 

And this (below) was the prettiest cappuccino. It was the first "coffee art" I had ever gotten before, from a place in downtown Olympia. Unfortunately, it was pretty bitter. I was disappointed. So I learned from this experience that you can't judge a cappuccino by it's prettiness. Although the Raw House one was quite gorgeous as well. 

We also went to REI several times with family. They are few and far between out in Illinois. Here, we have the flagship store in Seattle and two others within 20 minutes of our apartment. We've kinda become addicted (membership cards and the REI Visa card.. yep). My dad decided to talk with people on my side of the family and go in together on a shopping spree for the deployment. James is issued everything that he needs from the Army, but my dad also wanted to make sure that he gear that would make the year easier as well.

It was so amazing to know we have so much support from family. James got some winter gloves (the issued ones were not very warm), a handheld GPS, a camp stove, water proof pack bags, and a lot more. My favorite part was when we got to the register.

REI lady: Wow. You guys had fun.
James: Yep. It's all for.. a trip.
REI lady: Oh fun! Where are you traveling to?
James: Afghanistan.
REI lady: Oh. Well maybe not so fun then.

We then said our goodbyes on Sunday night to both James' parents and my dad. James's mom got pretty teary-eyed, which just confirms in my mind all the more that it's a good idea that I'm going home for this deployment to be near both my family and his. I assured her that we would hang out a lot and do care packages together.