Christmas Eve

We had our Christmas on Christmas Eve since we were going to get up and go snowboarding Christmas morning.

Andrew immediately headed to the loft to test out his new mouse.

We also made Kruschiki for dessert that night. And by "we," yes, I mean Andrew too. It was so exciting and delicious! I'm not sure I got the pastry dough thin enough, but it's a work in progress. We certainly didn't have any trouble emptying the plate with our friends Jina and Jeremy. Their 2 year old mostly sucked the sugar off and then promptly handed the pastry back to her mom. I think she enjoyed them in her own way.

Don't be fooled by this face, he loves cooking.

See...


Sugar coating the kruschiki, yum!

Merry Christmas Ellie

Ellie discovered her Christmas present and despite what the tag says there are cat toys in there.

She managed to dig out the best part of the present and had a great time... the receipt.

First Day of Snowboarding!

We have season passes to Stevens this year. This was opening weekend, our first trip of many many more this year. I fear taking my camera or phone with me while I snowboard because I know I would destroy it falling or something, so this is what I have. Up the mountain...

Down the mountain...

Design Work - Published

I designed a recipe book at work and here's the final product. It's so exciting to see our efforts come together. It's has 12 recipes for different popsicles using fruits AND vegetables. The recipes typically use agave nectar as a sweetener (not sugar) which I love. You can order it through PayPal here: http://fixyournutrition.com/products/.

Snow Day!

It snowed, not much, but enough to warrant a snow day since they don't salt or plow and no one knows how to drive here when it snows. Yay!

Rainn Wilson & Friends

It was an entertaining show! Rainn Wilson is from Seattle and in support of a local nonprofit, The Mona Foundation, he put on a show called "Rainn Wilson & Friends." It was essentially Rainn Wilson with some his favorite bands and friends, including Craig Robinson (Darryl) from The Office.

One sock down...

... and one more to go. I started knitting my first pair on socks. They are only ankle socks because I didn't want to waste too much time on the cuff in case I screwed the rest of it up.

Linda Johnson

You will be remembered and missed. March 5, 1991 - September 27, 2010.

The Scarf is Complete

I started this scarf and almost had it complete in April, but I just couldn't bring myself to finish those last 20 rows it needed. I finally did it, just in time for the cold weather.

Shiny & New

I got a new car! We finally sold the Saturn (while we still could) and got a 2010 Ford Escape. It's fantastic!

AmeriCorps Vista Farewell

It was our last day of AmeriCorps service at the Red Cross. It was time to celebrate!

We ended our last day early and headed to Amanda and Carson's apartment where the festivities began. The party commenced with a ceremonial "untucking of the shirt" dance to a singing card which James provided.


We then hopped on a bus to head downtown for some drinks and food at our favorite happy hour location, Noc Noc (mostly because of its Vista friendly happy hour prices).






We met up with everyone else at Broadway Billiards where we spent the rest our evening. These people are AWESOME!















PS - I fear it was an expensive bar tab.

Good times with Casey & Nelson

One of my good friends, Casey, from AmeriCorps had her boyfriend, Nelson, in town this weekend so we spent Saturday evening with them. Good times were had by all, even if they are a little fuzzy.

We started out with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and then headed down the street to the bar, Von's, where Casey and I started out with the house martinis, ouch!

Angie also joined up for the later part of the evening. This bar has a happy hour wheel with different deals and it gets spun every thirty minutes. We got $3 vodka ice teas and the next spin was $4 lemon drops and we felt it was necessary to order 2 rounds immediately.




After closing Von's (it's a hotel too, so they close earlier than typical bars), we headed towards home but got distracted by the Chapel on the way. It's an old church that's been converted into a martini bar... oh so good! Techno and laser lights... who could complain!

2 Years!

Andrew and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary in Oregon at McMenamin's Grand Lodge for the weekend. It was originally built as an orphanage for children who lost their parents traveling the Oregon Trail. It was later turned into a senior living community and then into a hotel. There is a theater in the hotel with free movies and local McMenamin's Brewery Beer at all the restaurants and bars throughout the hotel grounds. We also visited a sake factory nearby, and learned on the tour that they are the only American owned sake factory in the world. Who knew we were so close? We came home with two bottles even though during the tasting Andrew discovered that sake in not his favorite.

The entire place is painted very eclectically. There are stories and images painted throughout the halls and each room is named after a previous resident. Our room was the Al Reynolds room.

We decided to take the longer more scenic route home, up 101/Oregon Coast Highway, so that we could get a few glimpses of the ocean.