December 2009

Oh my gosh December was hectic (at least for me, not so much for Bruce). I had lots of parties to go to for Christmas and birthdays and I did a lot of shopping trying to find perfect gifts but I was usually unsuccessful because I was getting more things for myself than others :)

I have some pictures here from Desiree and Mike's annual Christmas party, from Christmas Eve with Bruce's parents and Ryan, and Christmas day with my family. We had our first Cookie Contest and I tried a lot of new recipes. I wasn't thrilled with any of them and apparently the judges weren't either because Desiree came in the winner of the Cookie Trophy. I have to say, I really liked some of Des's cookies a lot. Britt's were good for gingerbread cookies, but I'm not really a fan of gingerbread (even though I made some myself) and mama's almond cookies were eaten really quickly because I loved them too. Erin's cookies were cute and one was used in the trophy. She could not sway the judges either. Apparently biscotti is not a favorite of the boys.

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November 2009

This November has been mostly Bruce and I trying to avoid getting sick at all, but especially trying to avoid the spooky H1N1 flu. So far, so good (knock on wood).

I have been out with friends a lot this month ~ reconnecting with friends from my childhood (thanks to Facebook). It's been a lot of fun.

Bruce had a lot of time off for his sanity and because work has slowed. He stayed home with Ryan for 3 days because it was suspected that Ryan may have had the swine flu (although he didn't have the symptoms who am I to argue about what a doctor said).

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. It was a lot of fun to have so many people over and everyone brought 1 or 2 dishes. I made a turkey and a ham, we had 2 types of stuffing, home-made bread, green bean casserole, sparkling cider and, of course, 5 different pies. YUH-MMY!! Did I also mention that we had our first Thanksgiving Day FIRE! Des was broiling some suffing so it would have a crispy top. She made it crispy alright. What fun! Lucky I was prepared with the camera while Bruce and Des figured out how to put out the fire! I love this kind of stuff!

Here are the photos of Thanksgiving and from one night out with my friends and co-workers (Rachel, Lindsay and Kristin). I only photographed our dessert ~ it was enormous and delicious.

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Fall 2009

It's kind of sad but we haven't really done anything exciting so far this Fall.
* Bruce took Ryan and me to our first Seahawks games, unfortunately they lost both games we went to.
* We've had a pretty dry Fall so far so we got some yard work done, I made my first Autumn planters ever, and Bruce and Ryan cleaned out the yucky gutters (Ryan for the price of a GI Joe).
* I forgot to get into the Halloween spirit so we didn't even do pumpkins this year; however, I had pumpkin pieces so Ryan had fun making different types of creatures so I guess that counts.
* Bruce had the whole last week of October off so he got to work checking items off his "Honey-Do" list (painting the kitchen, finishing Ryan's room, making room for me to park in the garage, organizing the garage- he was a maniac!)
* Ryan discovered he likes Pokemon tournaments - unfortunately, they are on the Sacred Football Sunday so Bruce isn't exactly ecstatic.
* Of course, we went Trick or Treating as well. We met Ryan's cousins in Lacey and went to his Aunt's kid-friendly neighborhood (like last year) for extra fun with a bunch of kids.

Other than that, we've been pretty laid back and hanging out at home. Maybe we'll be more adventurous in November. Here are a couple of pictures:

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Zing Zang Zoom

We went to the circus for the first time ever! It was interesting, to say the least. We had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures:

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A Very Merry Unbirthday

Yeah! Aunt Della made it to Washington. Boo, Aunt Marcia (the birthday girl) did not make it. What were we to do when we were ready to party? Have a Very Merry UN-birthday party, of course!! Here are some pictures from the party:

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The Last Days

The last days of our trip were comprised of low-key activities.

On Tuesday, Aug 5th, Grandma Pauline, Grandpa Harold, Brooke and the kids came down to our hotel. We went to Olde Town San Diego and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant that I can't remember and we walked around a little bit before heading back to the hotel so the boys could swim in the pool. Later that evening, Bruce, Ryan and I went to the Atlanta Braves vs. San Diego Padres game with Bruce's friend, Brian. The Braves won:)

On Wednesday we took a quick trip to the Marine Military Museum for Brian, who is an ex-marine. It was really interesting to hear stories from a person who was actually in Vietnam. It was also really sad what people had to go through ~ I hate war. Afterwards, the boys went to the Braves game while I got to go shopping in downtown San Diego.

On Thursday we planned on leaving (so sad about it)so we played at one of the parks in San Diego (there were so many). We were trying to keep clean and dry before our flight ~ that didn't work out for Ryan. He loved playing in the sand and water and wanted to live there. (We want to live there too. Maybe, someday....). So sad to leave, but we were already making plans on going back to Cali next year and hanging out with Brooke and her boys a little more.

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SeaWorld

Day 5. We got up early to get to Sea World before the crowds. We had a lot of fun in the morning feeding seals, dolphins, and bat rays. The seals were definately the noisiest hungry critters. Of course, I would be noisy too if seagulls were constantly stealing the food people were trying to give me. I had 2 fish taken by seagulls! The dolphins were pretty cool, of course, so it was really crowded there. Luckily we did this early or we probably would have never done it later. I love, love, love feeding the bat rays even though it freaks me out. They are so soft and smooth feeling. I was wondering why they continued to hover over your hands after they had gotten the fish.

We went on the Ship Wreck Rapids ride and got SOAKED! This little girl across from me was crying because she got a few drops of water on her back, meanwhile I'm getting buckets of water dropped on me, but whatever. We have a picture of Ryan and me after the ride under the sign becuase we were the wettest.

We saw the Shamu Believe show, the Dolphin show, the Sea Lion and Seal show was really funny (but we didn't have a camera at that time). We saw every animal in SeaWorld except for the sharks. The line was horrendous and there was no way we were standing in it. I guess we should have done that the night before.

Here are some of our photos:

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