Sandpoint parade and Hope fireworks: how we spent the 4th of July

Have you had enough of a break by now from seeing photos of the 4th of July and the fireworks all over the Internet? I hope so, because today I'm sharing my part of the celebration!

In the morning of our first 4th of July in Sandpoint, Idaho we woke up late, quickly made coffee in our press, and headed out to the parade. The streets were packed with cars, bikes and people, it made us once again feel thankful for our wonderful little apartment downtown! It's great to just walk everywhere with no need to get there in advance in order to drive in circles looking for a parking spot. 

The parade was fun, we saw many familiar faces walking down the street with the flags, performances, vintage cars and horses. It was a bit too hot, and next year I'll bring a hat and a bottle of water. Something to sit on would be nice, too.

In the evening we met with Ben's parents and all together headed to a friends' beach house near the town of Hope on the other side of the lake. The place was gorgeous: a private beach, fantastic views of the lake and the mountains, lots of boats and people water skiing and boarding. We had a wonderful dinner which was followed by the Independence Day firework show above the lake. It's a new experience to me to watch a show in North Idaho: the sounds of the fireworks echo from the mountains and reflect in the lake. Breathtaking!

a week or so ago

I can't move on without leaving a note about Father's Day 2013. It was such a great weekend! We had breakfast with Ben's parents at "The Readery," which is our favorite place to eat so far this year. We had so much fun putting together a gift bag for Ben's dad.  The pink toenail polish for Sam-dog was the highlight. It was hilarious to reveal that the "dog's dog" had hot-pink nails. He didn't even notice, of course, and sat patiently while we petted him and painted them.

In the evening we went to the city beach and had an "international meals" picnic with friends, watched a train shooting fire while driving across the bridge (scraping the track), and enjoyed the lake Pend Oreille sunset.  If you're visiting Sandpoint - no matter what you came here for... go to City Beach, 3rd avenue pier, the bridge or anywhere overlooking the lake and watch everything change colors, and say "Hi!" to the mini Sandpoint Statue of Liberty!  Sandpoint is the best in summer!

A few sunny photo cards from the trip

I'm finally getting a new laptop (hopefully) next week - I can't wait! But until then it's pretty hard to keep up on all of the online fun and look at all of the photos from the past few weeks by myself. I even shot and developed 3 rolls of Golden Half film! So excited!

we celebrated our first year as a family

I can't believe it's already been a year! The craziest, happiest and sweetest year ever... Thank you for being a part of it, Benjamin love! <3

birthday week: candles, cat tales, spices and other things

It's time to write these new memories down so that next year I look back and remember what a great time it was. And because I was too excited to experience all these moments I often forgot to pull my camera out and take photos.. Some things were not pictured, some will make their appearance here thanks to the iPhone camera.

On my birthday after work, we hopped in a car with Ben's parents and all together went for a family sushi dinner. While we were crossing the bridge we saw the sun going down into the lake and covering the mountains in pink gold. Then I blew 25 candles and made a wish feeling extremely grateful for everything at the moment but of course looking forward to more good moments in the future. When we returned home I bursted into tears, I was overwhelmed with feelings and couldn't even express how touching it was to have people in your life who care about you. Not for anything, just because.

And then there was a road trip: we loaded up with cameras and snacks and headed out to Washington on our way to the zoo. We were lucky to visit Cat Tales park when it was sunny and nice between the rain showers. Watching the tigers and lions yawn and a black bear sunbathe was pretty interesting after living in Idaho for almost a year. 

We continued our adventures in Spokane, touring our favorite product spots: the Kiev and Asian markets - for the next few weeks we're cooking and eating only Russian and Korean meals. And of course we couldn't leave without having dinner at Kim's Korean restaurant. 

After the long drive home we headed to the pool and it was just the only possible and perfect ending of the road trip: a few strolls there and back in a nicely cool water followed by soaking and chatting in a hot tub... Typing this makes me want to go there again this week. I'll finish right here saying that right now I'm eating English sweet peas in my bed while blogging and being the happiest person tonight.

my first American Easter

In Russia, Easter is a religious holiday, not much of a family gathering. We color eggs and bake Kulich (Russian Easter cake covered in white icing and colorful drizzles), Orthodox people go to churches and celebrate there... And actually, Russian Easter is still to come in a few weeks, the Orthodox church uses the Julian calendar to calculate all important dates. 

Anyway, this year I is the first time I've been in the US during Easter. I'm far from being a kid, but I was probably the most excited person in our town: wearing bunny ears, coloring eggs and then looking for chocolate eggs all over the yard. I think the egg hunt was my favorite part because it reminded me of mushroom hunting, which I'm pretty good at after lots of years of experience. Also, the weather was amazing! I mean we're in North Idaho and it was above 60 F, sunny and dry.. It feels like winter suddenly ended and it's summer now! Russian spring is not as pleasant this year, it's still snowing over there.. I want to send some warmth and sunshine their way. 

How was your Easter?  Anybody have any other traditions?

what to wear for St. Patrick's Day

Ben: shirt//JCP; pants//ASOS; boots//thrifted

Katie: sweater//American Eagle; skirt//Lapis; boots//JCP

St. Patrick's Day is coming up and we decided to go green! Last year we spent this day (and many others) in Moscow and it was way colder than here now. Even now it's far below zero over there! But anyways, last year was great: we went to a parade, had a party in a pub and the next morning a photo of me was in the newspaper! 

This time we're planning on just going to an Irish bar and dressing in green. We got our outfits this year from a bunch of different places. Wearing green definitely gets us excited about the spring, we're looking forward to the snow being replaced by sunny grassy spaces again.  What are you wearing?