Thankful in Utah

The holiday rotation had us in Utah for Thanksgiving this year. The night before we were leaving SLC it dawned on me that I had not taken any pictures. Oops. None-the-less it was a good trip. The week in UT was spent hanging out with family and of course the traditional friends party.

The friends party had a little change up this year in that we decided to focus more on the food and less on the drinking, which meant no punch. Don't get me wrong, there was still plenty of drinking, but since there was also plenty of food, it meant feeling much better the next day! We also incorporated games into the event. In the end this was a great idea, even though we had to take a few mandatory breaks cause the game was causing us to not be friends! It was great to see many of our friends that we tend to only see once a year.

Thanksgiving day was a feast. We had to bring up an extra table to fit everyone, and it was nice to all be together. I think my mom said it best when she said the thing we are all most thankful for is that Sissy is with us. After a pretty serious car wreck just a couple weeks earlier, things could have been very different this holiday season. We are so happy that she is getting better day by day. Love you Sissy!

Round two of Thanksgiving (or Fakesgiving, as we like to call it) was at Bry and Leisl's house. Since we are still off on our holiday schedules they were not with us on the real day, so we have a bonus day to celebrate. This year we mixed it up and had a pizza party since everyone had enough turkey already.

A few more days of just relaxing, playing games (I heart Perquackey!), upgrading mom to a smartphone (yikes!), raking leaves (child slave labor!),  and being with family and then the vacation was over. It was once again a good trip and hard to believe that it is already December now.

Halloween 2011

Halloween around here has not been too festive the past two years. 2009 - Jake was gone for work and Sissy was visiting. We purchased candy to hand out and then promptly got wrapped up in watching the World Series and forgot to turn on the porch light so kids would know to stop. Oops. 2010 - I don't even remember if Jake was in town or not, but either way I know we (I?) didn't do anything.

2011 was a different story. Sandy and Wes had a party at their house which was fun. There was very appropriately themed food and drink with dead man meatloaf and brain hemorrhage shots served.

We also had fun with our costumes, channeling our love for fitness and mockery. Thanks goes to the Goodwill for my full outfit and our props...

Needless to say, neither of us wore our costume to work on actual Halloween!

Hiking In The Dark

During Labor Day weekend, we decided that instead of spending our three day weekend sleeping in, we would get up before the crack of dawn and go on a hike! That Sunday we set the alarm for 3:15 AM, finished packing snacks and water and hit the road. By 4:30 we were at the trail head for Angel's Rest in the Columbia River Gorge.

We started up the mountain with headlamps shining. I had never done a hike in the dark and was a bit apprehensive to say the least. I quickly discovered that bugs like light. The light they seemed to prefer was the one on my head. Thus I was constantly flailing my arms around so they wouldn't land on my face. I was not going to be able to take 2.5 miles of this up to the top!! The headlamp was then converted to a wrist lamp which was much better. After a while I got used to the dark and was enjoying the hike. Thankfully we did not come across any wildlife, though we did spot a few scorpions in the scree fields we had to cross. We finally made it to the top, though we hiked faster than anticipated so we had to wait around a bit for the sun to come up. But once it did, it was totally worth it...

 

After soaking up the view for a bit longer we started the 2.5 miles back down the mountain. We got home and promptly went back to bed. It was a great feeling to wake up at 9:30 and know we had already put in a 5 mile hike and had the rest of the day ahead of us.

On the Water

In August we were invited to join some friends for a day of rafting on the Rogue River. After spending the night in Roseburg we got up and hit the river the next morning. It was a gorgeous day, perfect for being on the water. We paddled down river for a while until we came to a spot to pull over and eat lunch. A couple more hours of lounging in the raft, enjoying the sun and braving the "rapids" we arrived back at the pickup spot. We had worked up an appetite and stopped at a Mexican restaurant before heading back to Roseburg. The next day the guys went fishing while Sandy and I headed back to Portland. It was a fun weekend spent on the water.

Homemade Always Wins

It has been a whole month since we went to CA, but I am finally posting about it. It had been a few months since our last visit, so we made the journey south. After spending the night in Alturas, everybody (Jake, Kari, Ethan, LaDel, Jerry, Zeke, Catherine, Cooper and Tristan!), piled into cars to go down to Susanville. It is always nice to be able to visit with all the grandparents, but this time there was the added bonus of homemade ice cream! This was not the modern version of add the ingredients to the KitchenAid and wait. This was soaking the barrels the night before, mixing the ingredients in a bowl and putting it into the tub, adding ice and salt and cranking!   

 

Ethan and Jerry did a fantastic job while Cooper and Tristan supervised.  The final product was so good! One batch of vanilla and one batch of pink lemonade. It definitely made it feel like summer. After we had all cooled off with a treat Jake took me on a tour of the property. Since he spent many years living there, he was an excellent tour guide. The little ones decided to come along as well. 

I love this picture because Tristan looks like a tiny version of Grandpa Jack, always with rolled up jeans, plaid shirt and a blue hat. 

 

 Grandpa Jack, Jerry and Jake

It was a gorgeous day to be outside enjoying time with the family and a cold treat. A little more visiting and then it was back in the car to head north. One more night in Alturas and it was time to go home.

A Much Needed Vaca

As I mentioned before, Jake left for a work trip back at the end of May. His route home was going to take him through Hawaii, so it was decided that we could not pass up this opportunity and bought a ticket for me to meet him there for a vacation. The plan was for me to arrive on a Thursday and he would get in on Friday morning. This was going to be fine because I have a friend stationed there for the Army and my mom was going to be there for work so I had people to hang out with. All went well with my flight over and I had walked out to wait for the rental car shuttle. I glanced up when I saw a guy walk out from around a pillar nearby but thought nothing of it. As he took a couple steps closer I realized it was Jake! I was so surprised!! When I talked to him the day before I left he said he was in a hotel, which I took to mean a hotel in Samoa, not having dinner and drinks with my mom in Honolulu. This was a fantastic way to start a vacation.

We had a few ideas of things we wanted to do during the week, but mostly just looking forward to relaxing and catching up on all of our stories from the last two months.

Highlights from the week:
Seeing the Grovers (Jake's aunt, uncle and cousins).
Visiting Punchbowl and Jake's grandfather's grave for the first time.
Waiting all the way until day two to get sunburned!
Actually getting up on the stand-up paddle board.
The aquarium.
Eating breakfast on the lanai.
Pineapple! Guava juice!

Kayaking in Kailua and seeing sea turtles.
Seeing the houses my mom grew up in. Of course, Dukes and Moose McGullicuddy's.
Macadamia nuts as a souvenir.

It was such a great week. I asked Jake pretty much every day if he was sure I couldn't just retire and not go home. The answer never changed, so it was back to reality after a week of fun in the sun.

Now for the pictures...

 

Good Times in the Car

Sissy came to visit! Last weekend Sis made the short trip up from SLC to keep me company. We had Italian for dinner and then just hung out at home the first night. I introduced her to Portlandia, a TV show that mocks Portland, which is funny because it is so accurate. Since she used to live here, I knew she would appreciate it. This also provided the new theme for the weekend, "Put a bird on it". The weather was on our side on Saturday so we packed up our tennis shoes, sweatshirts and rain coats (just in case) and headed out to the coast to enjoy a day at Cannon Beach. It has been a long standing joke that we always seem to have an unusual amount of fun in a car together. This time was no exception. After wandering on the beach we walked up and down the main street and stopped in literally almost every store as we did not want to miss anything (especially if it had a bird on it!). Sis made some excellent finds and we re-discovered that I have a tiny head. Every hat I tried on that day was way too big, except the ones from the kids section, so alas, I did not purchase a hat. But we had a great time soaking up the sun and seeing the sights. The next day we got our shop on at H&M, since it has not yet arrived in SLC. After a fun weekend, and a little strategic packing to fit all of her purchases back in her suitcase, Sis was back on the train headed for the airport and I was on my way to work.It was a short visit but I certainly appreciated the company. Thanks for coming to visit Sissy!

Sailor Steve! (and yes, my hair totally loves the wind)

While we did have fun, we were sad that Jess could not be here. So I will include a picture of her anyway cause I love her!