Thanksgiving Weekend

This weekend was full of food, family, and a lot of fun. We were suprised Monday evening with several inches of snow that covered the ground and cancelled school. My Thanksgiving weekend then went from four and a half days to 6 full days of relaxation. The entire fam (minus Charlie, Eddie, and Alexa) made it safely to Mom and Dad's for a Thanksgiving feast. It was adorable to watch Henry interact with Joshua for the first time. I ate more than my fair share of appetizers, dinner, and dessert and ended up with an uncomfortably full tummy. Friday morning, Sean and I joined Mom, Dad, Jen, Bren, and the boys at the VDL. We spent our long weekend playing in the snow, visiting wineries, swimming, and relaxing. It was an incredible weekend!

I can hear Mike saying, "Cheese" in this photo

Henry Longstocking

Cousins and Second Cousins

Grandpa Bud

The view from Benson Winery in Chelan

Pit stop in Leavenworth

Pumpkin Party

Although it is now the end of November, I found some pumpkin party pics from the middle of October that I hadn't uploaded yet. On October 18, I hosted the 4th annual pumpkin party. Although I think of myself as a creative person, carving an orange squash with a small paring knife is not an artistic strength of mine. My pumpkin's unusual shape called to me and I decided to carve a panda bear face using the natural ridges of my awesome pumpkin as the inspiration for my carving.

Friends' Thanksgiving

My amazing friends give me so much to be thankful for. Last Saturday, we got together for the second annual friends' Thanksgiving feast. Everyone brought part of the meal and we shared a turkey dinner with all of the fixings. About 20 people packed into Johnny's condo for a lot of laughter, red wine, and delicious food. Highlights were watching JR and Luke carve the turkey, Alecia and Jason's dessert spread, laughing until we cried playing Balderdash, and enjoying the company of some of my favorite people in the world. I am truly blessed to have each and every one of them in my life.

Pink Warriors

Last weekend, Keri, our new friend, Katie, and I took a bold stand in the fight against breast cancer as we participated in the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure. My mom dropped us off at a park in Redmond and we proceeded to walk 23 miles through Woodinville, Bothell (by Woodside), Mill Creek and we ended up at Kasch Park by Boeing in Everett. We arrived to a sea of hot pink tents and 3,000 of the most generous and supportive strangers I'd ever come across. Saturday, our 22 mile journey took us by my house to the Legion Park in the far north of Everett, south by Georgio's Pizza, and ending up back at Kasch Park. The highlight of day 2 was definitely walking by Jen and Bren's yard filled with friends and family cheering us on. We awoke on day 3 to terrible rain and wind. We were bussed to Northgate in Seattle where we began our 15 mile journey around Capital Hill, along the waterfront and finally ending up at Memorial Stadium at the Seattle Center. The highlight of day 3 was seeing AP as we came down the homestretch. I walked to honor the courage my grandma, great grandma and she showed in their fight against breast cancer. Sean graciously hosted a dinner for 12 people at his house to celebrate the journey that Ker and I had just finished. I am one lucky girl to have such amazingly strong and generous people in my life! Thank you so much for your support! I was able to raise almost 2,500 dollars for breast cancer research!

The Big 2-8

On my birthday, Sean surprised me with a homemade dinner of chicken cour en bleu (DELICIOUS) and a trip to the cirque de soliel at the Tacoma Dome. That weekend, we went wine tasting in Chelan and stayed at the VDL. Mom made a fantastic pasta with sausage for dinner and we had Dad's favorite berry pie for dessert. It was a memorable way to turn the big 2-8.

Adventures de Peru

On August 8th, Keri, John, and I bid a temporary farewell to Seattle as we left for our adventure in Peru. After a long layover in Miami, we landed in Lima, Peru. We spent a day exploring Miraflores (a more affluent neighborhood in Lima) before catching another plane to Cusco, Peru. There, we spent 3 days acclimating ourselves to the extreme altitude. We had heard horror stories of altitude sickness and took it easy for a few days exploring the sights and culture of Cusco.

From there, we took off for our 5 day trek through the Salkantay pass to Macchu Pichu. There are something like 107 climatic zones in the world and Peru has nearly all of them. Over the course of our 5 day hike, we got to see many of them. We started in the lowlands, hiked over a massive mountain pass, down through the plateau, through the high jungle, down to the riverbeds and ended back in the moutains at Macchu Pichu. It was really incredible and I feel so blessed to have experienced it the way we did.

After exploring the ruins, we took a train back to Cusco and departed for Lima the next morning. We taxied straight to the bus station in Lima and took a 8 hour bus ride down the coast to Nazca, Peru. We flew over the Nazca lines which are ancient rock formations of different creatures that are only visible by air. As I get motion sick very easily in a car, I was VERY glad to be safe on the ground after our flight. After getting my stomach back, we made our way north through Huacachina for wine tasting and sandboarding and then to Paracas to see the wildlife of la Isla de Ballestas. It was sad to bid adieu to Peru but we were all glad to be back in Seattle safe and sound on August 25th. It was a trip of a lifetime!

Martina McBride

To celebrate my dad and Jenner's birthday, Mom bought us all tickets to see Martina McBride at the Chateau Ste. Michelle. There was dancing, laughter, and wine flowing freely.

San Francisco

Sean and I left early on Friday morning for a long weekend in San Francisco. Neither of us had spent much time there so we decided to explore the city.

Our first stop the historic Chinatown. We browsed through the small shops and found a neat kite shop. Sean bought a 52" Spiderman kite for 5 bucks and we took it to Golden Gate Park to fly. It had been fairly windy all day until we decided to bust out the kite. The winds had died but Sean was able to take flight.

After a busy day exploring, we got dressed up for a fancy dinner and Wicked. We had 5th row seats at the famous Orpheum theater in downtown San Fran. The play was AMAZING despite the rude commentary by the drunk man in front of us and having to slouch the entire second act because the gal behind us was too short to see over our shoulders.

Saturday morning we woke up and walked to pick up our rental car. It was the smallest car I'd ever ridden in but it was the perfect vehicle to take us across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sonoma County for a day of wine tasting.We visited 5 different wineries. Our third stop was at the Kunde Winery. We timed our visit perfectly as right as we got there they were starting their wine cave tour. They dug a mile length of tunnels underneath their vineyard to create natural storage for their wine barrels. This is a photo of me clicking my heels in excitement. It took several takes to catch my limited vertical.
Saturday night we met up with some of Sean's friends from grad school. It was a cool experience to sit at dinner and listen to three engineers talk shop. Normally, dinner conversations with my friends are consumed by school, school, and more school. They were all stoked to find a Texas bar that served Lone Star beer. We also found a classy wine bar that had PBR on tap.

Sunday morning, we watched Spain win the World Cup much to Sean's dismay. After checking out of the hotel, we walked to Fisherman's Wharf and Ghiradelli Square. Christine said that the chocolate sundae at Ghiradelli's was amazing so we "had" to try it. It was definitely worth the walk. Our last adventure for the weekend included walking up a very steep hill from the marina to the top of Lombard Street.

You Will Be Missed

I just finished a digital storytelling class as a part of my Masters of Education. We were asked to tell a story that represented our journey as educators. I wanted to create my movie to pay tribute to my amazing dad who retired in June.