Thanksgiving 2009

We are in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving this year.

It was a beautiful drive down with a little more traffic than usual, but I can't complain since it was supposed to be the busiest travel day of the year! Willy seemed to enjoy it!

Willy will be staying with Grandma and Grandpa for the month of December. Justin and I have a week long conference to attend in San Francisco and then a week in PA for Christmas. Willy doesn't seem to do so great without people around these days, so Ron and Sharon graciously agreed to Willy-sit for us. Thank you!!!!

Thanksgiving day was full of friends and family. We went to Aunt Linda and Uncle Alan's house for our first meal. It was great to see everyone and Pappa Jack too. I didn't take any pictures, but hopefully Aunt Linda or Jenny will post some.

Next was dinner at home with Brandon, Jayden, Hailey and friend of the family, Marie. Wonderful time...but after my second dinner, my belly was ridiculously full!
And finally it was on to cousin Sulaya's house. We had lots of fun hanging out with NanEvelyn and all the friends and family. A great Thanksgiving!

Love, prayers and turkey to all my family back home and across the country!!

"Fetch the car" trip. Day 3 & 4.

Finally finishing up posting on this trip.

I forgot to mention we went down to the locks on Day 2 and saw the salmon ladder exhibit.

The morning of day 3 we left Seattle and headed south to Portland. We spent the afternoon walking around downtown Portland browsing several huge bookstores, record shops and visiting the Willamette River. I luckily had enough hotel reward points to get a room right downtown.



Day 4 we departed Portland and made our way down to Trail, OR to visit Justin's grandfather, Pappa Toby. Because we came in from the north it certainly seemed like he lives way out in the boonies, but in reality he's not that far from Medford.

We spent the afternoon and evening visiting with Pappa Toby and his wife Twila, who live with Twila's daughter Melinda, her husband Bud. They have a really nice home set back near the forest. Pappa Toby showed us his scrapbook and told us all kinds of stories. It was a really nice day. Now I know where Justin gets his thick curly hair from too!

"Fetch the car trip". Day 2.

While in Seattle we stayed with friends of Justin's family Christy Cameron. Her brother, Kelly (Justin's best man) was also in town so we got to hang out with both of them. Christy has a sweet little apartment in a trendy part of town with little shops, restaurants and bars all around.

We also met her most interesting cat--Boomba. There is seriously the brain of a cynical old man in his furry head.

Christy is a graphic designer for corporate Starbucks, which is located in Seattle. We went to visit her at work and got a tour of the building and some of the creative things they do.

I learned why Starbucks has the mermaid as their logo. She is actually a siren, just like the ones from mythology that sang and lured the sailor to their death. I guess it's because coffee is rather addicting, so it's symbolic. Crazy, eh?

The pic of Christy and I was in corporate Starbucks with one of their displays of coffee beans and the burlap coffee bags on the wall.

We had dinner at a sweet mexican restaurant and visited the biggest vinyl record store I've ever seen.

And finally we had dessert at his coffee shop/cupcake bakery. Holy cow they were good. And they had a cupcake late happy hour--buy 3 cupcakes, get 3 free. Oh boy!

Check out all the sprinkles!!!

"Fetch the car" trip. Day 1.

We made it safely back from our "fetch the car trip". Although the sole purpose of the trip was to pick up the car we bought in Seattle, we packed a TON of other fun in there too. I'll try to summarize.

Wednesday we flew to Seattle and picked up the car. 2003 Volkswagen Jetta, TDI (turbo diesel injection). Spiffy little ride that will be mostly Justin's commuter car to Reno as he starts his new job this week!

That afternoon we drove into downtown Seattle and walked around the markets and did a bunch of awesome people-watching...one of our favorite pass times.

We ordered a local cheese plate from a popular brewery/restaurant as an early evening appetizer and this is what we got. Count them. Five pieces of cheese. Five. For $10.



For dinner we went over to my cousins Manon and Ian's house. They have a beautiful home and it was just awesome to see them and baby Will. We had a blast catching up on what we've all been doing, had a fabulous dinner and got to play with Will. Thanks, Manon and Ian!!

Roadtrip

Greetings from Seattle, WA! Justin and I left for a total last minute roadtrip on Wednesday. More details and pictures to come. Right now we're jumping in the car and heading for Portland...

LEAVES

Oh the leaves. The leaves. All the stinking leaves.

We tried a new way of disposing of our leaves this year....racking piles of leaves onto a tarp and then stomping as many as possible into the back of Justin's truck--and then going to the dump. Defiantly saved time not bagging all those leaves. Besides--I don't like the idea of 40 bags of organic matter stuffed inside plastic bags sitting in our landfills.

Justin made make-shift sideboards for his truck to increase our leaf capacity. The pic on the right is looking into the back of the truck through the back window from inside. hehehe

Mitch's b-day

Our friend Mitch's birthday was a few weeks ago and his wonderful girlfriend, Jackie had us all get together at P.F. Chang's for dinner.

It was a really good to see friends we haven't seen in a while.

Miss Jackie, Lisa and I...I don't get to see them enough. Who'd a thought moving 30 miles south would make it so we only see each other a few times a year!?!

A whole bunch of hydros and their families.

Halloween 2009

Justin and I went to Jeramie and Margo's annual Halloween costume party on Saturday for the first time in 4 years. The last time we were at this party--Justin asked me out for the 1st time. ahhhhhh.

This is my honest to goodness Girl Scout vest and I made Justin's. You can't tell here, but all the patches are spoofs. The top says "untrainable" and the rest are patches for everything from "stop global warming", to "public farting" to "frisbee throwing".

Nevada Day 2009

Saturday was a State holiday--Nevada day, the day Nevada was inducted into the Union in, I want to say 1864. Living in the state capital, this day is quite the celebration. The parade was 3.5 hours long!!! Here's a few peeks at the parade.