January 26, 2008

Taking advantage...

of the beautiful weather!


Today after school, the kids and I, plus my friends Jennifer and Kasie, heading to Lake Padden to play. It was SO gorgeous - blue skies, warm (in the sun), crisp air... The kids were thrilled to be able to play outside.
It is amazing what cabin fever does to you. Once the sun went behind the trees, though, it was FREEZING! So we headed home for some hot cocoa with whipped cream and sprinkles!

Snow is forcasted for the next three days here... looks like a little more cabin fever.

January 21, 2008

Leavenworth

This weekend, we headed over the pass to Leavenworth, WA. Rick was performing a wedding ceremony for a couple from our church over there, so we were able to use the opportunity as a weekend-getaway! I had never been to Leavenworth, but I'd heard a lot about it. I love Europe, especially Bavaria, so this was like a little piece of heaven to me. If you like little villages and the european style, go to Leavenworth.

This is the village during the day. This weekend was the Icicle Festival, so there were a lot of people. It was still really enjoyable to walk around, though. I still can't really figure out what they were doing for the festival, though. Some guy was announcing over the town loudspeaker system something about ice cube races... I'm not sure!
This is the same part of town at night. The entire village is lit up with beautiful Christmas lights. Even though the stores were closed, I loved walking through the village at night. It was COLD, but the ambiance was so magical!

This was one of the store fronts. I just liked the decorations!

A true Bavarian Christmas tree - pretzels and all!

On Saturday we has a chance to explore the village while it was awake! There were kids sledding on the hill right behind us (in the picture). There were people sledding at all hours of the night. I just couldn't get over people sledding down the hills in the middle of the village!

This, of course, is Rick's signature shop. If you know Rick at all, you know he LOVES cheese! He will stand in the kitchen with a block of Tillamook and a knife, and be happy as can be. This store, however, has stolen his heart! They gave out free samples of any and all their cheeses. They were very accommodating in answering our questions, and quickly won us over! Hence, Rick loves this store. He IS the Cheesemonger!

The drive home was beautiful. The trees were so majestic looking on the mountains... this picture was just along side the road as we were driving. I loved being able to get away and feel like I've actually been on a mini-vacation.

Congratulations, Bill and Katy! Thank you for helping us make this weekend a memorable one...

New Years weekend

Our good friends, Nate and Laura, moved to Portland a couple years ago. When we decided to get away for New Years, we couldn't think of a better place to go, or better people to see than the Streibs! Much to our happiness, they were excited to have us down. We spent three days there enjoying Portland, all it's yummy food, and got some wonderful time in with our friends.

I am a big fan of the McMeniman's pubs and restaurants, so our first night there, we went to St. John's Theater and Pub. The food was outstanding... as was their Ruby beer... yum! Rick enjoyed their Nebraska Bitter. Their restaurants are the coolest. If you ever have a chance to go to one, DO IT! The next day was New Years Eve, and we had plans to meet some of their friends from the Seattle/Portland hockey game. Neither of us had ever been to a hockey game before. It was a lot of fun. Rick enjoyed shouting the lingo, such as, "Clear it!" and "Keep it in!" We did have a fundamental issue, however, with cheering for the Portland team like everyone else was. We are, after all, Seattle peeps! So we quietly rooted for them!After watching Seattle destroy Portland, we ate dinner at Widmer Brothers... YUM, then headed back to the Streib's for some drink and card playing! We had so much fun. We even stopped our card game (briefly) to toast the New Year! Thanks Nate and Laura for welcoming us. We can't wait for some more time with you two!

January 20, 2008

Christmas vacation in Olympia

The kids and I made our annual pilgrimage down to Olympia a couple days after Christmas. They were heading to Nani and Poppa's house for their Christmas vacation - 7 days worth!! They were SO excited. That meant 7 days without mom or dad, 7 days on the farm with Nani and Poppa all to themselves, and most importantly, 7 days of CEDE-girl! Maddie could not WAIT to see her dog. She loves that dog so much. She can't wait to bring her back home someday...Maddie and Taylor are, of course, always thrilled that they get to stay at Nani and Poppa's house. They got to play outside, take hour-long bathes every night, stay up late, get up late... what a great Christmas vacation!

While we were there, we got to see my sister, Kathy Lynne, Eric and my nephew, Nicolas. It was SO great getting to visit. We don't get to see them very often. It was a wonderful surprise.
Every Christmas, my group of old friends (former interns) from CTE gets together for dinner. Here was our group this year! It's always a crapshoot who can make it.
Katie, Jeremy, Shannon, Tyra, Scott, me, Kimo. Sean was there, but he left before the picture. We missed Kelly, Matt, Bree, and Bethany. Hopefully next year! This was the first year we all got to see Scott in a long time... it was great catching up with him.

As you can see, Shannon and Tyra are about to pop! They are due a few weeks apart from each other! Shannon is expecting a girl and Tyra a boy... we can't wait to meet them!

My next reunion of the trip was getting together with my girlfriends from childhood. We get together a couple of times a year... this was our first time in a while.
Courtney, Shannon, me, Christine, and Nicole.

We had dinner at Anthony's Hearthfire Grill... it was so delicious! It is always so much fun to get together and see where our conversations will lead us... :-) We had a lot of fun reminiscing, talking marriage, kids, life in the mid-30's... we still feel young! Don't we look it?!

Christmas time 2007

Ok, so I know it isn't Christmas anymore, but I am playing catch up with the blogs! So bare with me...

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! We got to stay home ALL day. It was awesome. Here are the kids in their Christmas PJs.

We got up in the morning, and the kids were so excited to open presents. Taylor, for some reason, was not thrilled about opening he stocking - he saw the bigger presents - but once he realized there might be candy in the stocking, he was all too happy to open that first.

Maddie's favorite toy (at first) was her new Bella Dancerella ballet DVD , mat and ballet barre. She ran directly to her room to put on her ballet outfit Nani bought her for her birthday last year so she could practice her new ballet dances.She was SO cute. The DVD, on the other hand, is going to get old after a short while... :-)

Taylor was SO wiped after a few presents, he put on his new spiderman towel, snuggled down, and watched Maddie practice her ballet. He was SO funny to watch.

My family came over in the late morning. We ate A LOT of wonderful food, opened presents, Nani and Poppa napped on the couch :-), and we had a fun time. Rick's mom and dad came over for dinner, and we relaxed some more. I can't remember the last time I said it, but this Christmas was actually relaxing, as far as Christmases go. I wanted to take a little more time to focus on the Reason we celebrate Christmas... alas, time got ahold of me. I know that we are blessed to be able to call God our Father, and I thank Him everyday for the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. I want to celebrate Him EVERY day!

I hope your Christmas was memorable and blessed!
www.flickr.com