Utah Trip December 2016

I had the opportunity to go visit my son and his family in the St. George area after Christmas. We had so much fun. The weather was beautiful and the sunshine was a real treat. Natalie and Scott took a break from their snow in SLC to join us for a couple of days.

I flew into Vegas on Wednesday, December 28th. Wayne, Avea and Amoura picked me up at the shuttle office. Avea is such a good interpreter for Amoura. After a few hours I could start to understand what Amoura was saying.

We went over to Ted and Grace's house for a tamale lunch. Andrea's brother was there with his family and they had a little Christmas. They have a new baby boy, so that was fun having a small baby around.

I stayed from Wednesday until Sunday afternoon. We spent time outdoors walking around parks, feeding ducks, enjoying playgrounds. And saw beautiful sunsets.

We played with Wayne's Virtual Reality glasses, watched movies, enjoyed treats. New Year's Eve was spent at a fun center where the kids got to play laser tag and various games as well as the balloon drop with prizes for the kids.

Amoura loved it there. The older girls had their cousins with them so they all had a lot of fun. The highlight of NYE was when I won the raffle and the prize was a giant, I'm not kidding, giant stuffed monster. We could barely get it in the car.

Annelise and I made an amazing Oreo Cheesecake for New Year's Eve. It was so much fun having a Christmas tree in my room.

I helped the girls make the craft that I had given them for Christmas, cute little hand sewn stuffed animals. Amoura entertained us with her love of dancing and singing.

Wayne, Annalise and I were able to visit Aunt VeLois in her home. That was a very special visit since she passed away 3 weeks later. She was my Dad's youngest sister and the last sibling.

It was a really fun way to spend the holidays and greet the New Year.

Oreo Cheesecake

Huge, I tell you, huge!

Visiting with Aunt VeLois

Natalie and Scott enjoying some winter sunshine.

Happy, smiling Amoura, age 2 1/2.

With my kids, Wayne and Natalie, love these two!

Annelise, Amoura and Avea, love these three!

Selfie with Annelise, the day I completed caked red clay all over my Nikes!

Super fun playground.

On the move!

With Aunt Natalie

Christmas 2016

It is so hard to believe January is almost over. I thought I'd do a short Christmas post before next Christmas is here! Christmas just sneaks right up on us so quickly after Thanksgiving. We had Wally's family over on Christmas day for a nice afternoon of dinner, gift exchange, desserts and visiting.

This is the best picture of the bunch. Someday I'll round up all our Christmas family photos and put them all together. It's fun to see who is home for Christmas over the years.

This is just our second year with our artificial tree and I have to say I love it! It can be put up earlier and as was the case this year, taken down later! And no more spilling water on the carpet.

Christmas Past

December was a whirlwind. But it was all good and fun preparing for the one day of Christmas. Since I live out of state from most of my family, it means shopping early and shipping gifts. Gifts and candies. I had a lot of fun making chocolate covered salted caramels and mailing them out. If you didn't get any this season, forgive me, there will be more later. I think I made like 600 of them over a period of 2 weeks.

I shipped something like 14 boxes to various family members and friends. Caramels even made their way to a friend in Hawaii this year.

The month was filled with fun holiday church parties, a concert at Benaroya Hall, lunches and gift exchanges at the office and food. Lots of food.

Two days before Christmas we celebrated Gisele's 15th birthday at Grazie's Italian restaurant.

On the day before Christmas Wally and I took a drive up to Snoqualmie Falls. We saw snow along the way. It was cold at the falls but still nice.

Christmas Day we slept in. When we finally got up we opened presents, ate breakfast, made many phone calls to talk with family and grand daughters. In the afternoon Melissa and her family came over for dinner and more gifts to open. It was a nice day.

Saturday I shopped, watched TV and did a lot of nothing. It was a nice relaxing day after.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. On to the New Year! 2016 awaits.

January 1, 2015

Just wanted to start the year off with a blog post. But I'm not really sure what I want to say. 2014 was a pretty decent year. It wasn't without it's share of issues, but we made it through. We were greatly blessed with the birth of sweet baby Amoura in July. My year was spent doing a lot of traveling. Between work and family visits I wracked up some mileage.

I made multiple trips to Utah to visit with my sisters, and both my children and their families. For work I traveled to Long Beach in August and Washington, DC in October.

Natalie and I had fantastic trip to New York City in August. It was such a great trip. Now when I watch TV or movies, I love to see the sights of NYC and say, "hey, I've been there!" We also were able to spend some time outside the city with my friend Gail and her husband Wayne.

So now this post has turned into a review of 2014. That's quite alright. I have enjoyed taking lots of photos this year and have some posted on my Camera Capture page of this blog.

In 2015 I need to blog more (helps me keep track of the events in my life), I need to do more with my food blog. I love cooking and taking pictures so that's a perfect combination for me.

At work we are  moving into a newly remodeled area of our same building the end of January. We are also getting a new Director. All of that will change up the dynamics of our group. Should be interesting.

2015

I will do more of some things

and less of other things.

Here's the start to the More and Less lists

More - sewing, writing, blogging, photography, time outdoors, exercising, talking on the phone to family members, card sending, listening, Skyping with the grand daughters, relaxing, hula hooping, fabric, knitting, going to movies, trying new recipes, reading, dusting, vacuuming, sleeping, positive thoughts, saving money, downsizing stuff, fruits, vegetables, and more floating. I'm sure there will be more to add to this list.

Less - gossiping, complaining, whining, buying things, wasting food, wasting time, piles of magazines, paper, clutter, dust, weight, procrastinating, negativity. There will definitely be more added to this list also.

I like this idea of a More and Less list. Think about it, what would you put on your lists?

Pictures for the New Year. I love the Christmas holiday, the lights, the feeling, everything about it. On my recent jaunt to Utah I was able to visit Temple Square in Salt Lake City and see the Christmas lights. It was absolutely gorgeous. Here is just a glimpse.

My Epic 27 Hours in Portland, Oregon

Friday, December 27th
Arrive in historic downtown Portland from Kent at 2:15 p.m. We are to meet Scott and Natalie nearby at 3:00 p.m. We park the car, easy street parking, pay the meter and walk to the riverfront. It's December, it's low 40s outside. We go back in the car and wait. I watch the people carrying their pink bakery boxes across the street. I then look up the address and realize we are two blocks from Voodoo Doughnuts. That was on our list of things to do on Saturday.

Natalie and Scott arrive early. We put their luggage in the trunk and walk over to take our place in line for doughnuts. I have had Voodoo Doughnuts once before when my son Wayne brought us home a box. We stood outside in line for about 20 minutes, then it was our turn to enter. Once inside there was still a small line. We carefully selected one dozen donuts and a key ring. The dozen included flavors such as maple bars with bacon, Mexican chocolate cake donut, Arnold Palmer and various chocolate iced variations.

We enjoyed doughnuts in the car as we drove to our hotel in the Nob Hill district of Portland. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express which offered free parking. It was a nice hotel.

4:50 p.m.
We leave the hotel to meet Scott's family for dinner at Kell's Brew Pub. Which according to my GPS system would take us about 8 minutes to get there for our 5:00 p.m. dinner reservations. As we approached a nearby intersection we had a split second to make the decision of going straight or turning right. We made the turn which we then discovered, just circled us back around to where we should have been to go straight.

It also took us to a train track right as the flashing lights came on. The bar was slow to lower and I was tempted, but I had passengers with me and I wanted to see them another Christmas. So I stopped and waited for the train. And waited some more. Then we saw the train. And then we waited while it slowly inched down the tracks. It was the longest freight train I have ever experienced in my life of driving.

And then it stopped on the tracks. And then it crept slowly. Then a lady got out of her car to go see if there was an end in sight. And the train just kept on creeping down the tracks. Scott contacted his family who by now were seated at the restaurant to inform them we would be late.

After approximately 25 minutes of train watching we were then blessed to move across the tracks and on our way to dinner. I might also add I was the first car at the track and there was a center barrier which made it difficult to simply turn around and find another route.

Dinner was very, very good. There were 9 of us. It was fun to visit with Scott's parents, sister and nieces. For 9 people we actually only ordered 3 different menu items plus appetizers. I would highly recommend their Irish Nachos. They are kind of like extremely loaded potato skins. For dinner I had a sausage roll over mashed potatoes with a glaze sauce. Others also had that as well as fish and chips and shepherd pie. I can't wait to go back there. I guess we have a Kell's in Seattle at Pike Place. I'll be sure to go there sometime.

From there we headed back to the hotel where in the process of making a "hard left" turn as instructed by Scott in the back seat, I proceeded to run a red light as announced loudly by Natalie, also in the back seat. Luckily the drivers in town were very patient, they honked but no one had jumped the green light so we were safe and protected.

There was one brief moment after hearing Natalie shout, "red light" where I looked out my driver's side window and saw nothing but headlights. What they saw in my face, I will never know.

We decided to drive around in the Nob Hill area which was very fun. The trees on NW23rd all had lights on them, restaurants were open and shop windows were decorated. We then drove up to Pittock Mansion. Natalie and Scott had toured it earlier in the day. At night time, the drive was interesting, it was very dark. We got up to the driveway of the house and then drove back down the hill. But I can say I've been there now.

Saturday, December 28th
9:00 a.m. we were meeting to go down the street for breakfast. We arrived about 9:30 to put our name in at Besaw's. We were told about a 25 minute wait. We walked around the neighborhood a little bit. Then found Wally a warm seat to wait inside. We waited one hour to get our table. The food was delicious. And I learned about pullman Brioche. Pullman is the style of pan it's baked in so the top stays flat. I will be buying me one of those loaf pans.

Their breakfast potatoes are made with rosemary. I had Croque Madam which is thin sliced ham in-between slices of Brioche with a gruyere sauce served with eggs on top of it. With the potatoes. Very good.

From there we went to Salt and Straw. It's an ice cream parlor in a really old movie theatre building. Cute little place. I know ice cream after breakfast is not the norm. However, we knew we wouldn't be back in that area so Natalie and I indulged. It was very good.

From there we thought we might drive around a little bit. Natalie and Scott needed to be to the airport about 2:30 for their Saturday afternoon flight home.

I asked my phone how to get to Forest Park (not really knowing what or where it was). And we followed the GPS directions along the river in an industrial area where we saw lots of oil companies and a cool bridge. We continued to drive on a little winding road going up and up into the side of this hill. We got to the top and there were houses. And that was it. Just houses. So Scott turned into one of the driveways to turn us around to go back down the hill. And the car died. And the car would not start back up.

We are in someone's driveway, it appeared they were not at home. We were at the top of a very narrow winding road and they needed to be to the airport in 2 hours and we had plans to drive home that afternoon.

We popped the hood and the four of us stood around looking at the engine. Isn't that what you do when your car dies? We tried to start it a couple of times. Then Natalie says to me, "Mom do you want me to check you in?" Humor to ease a tense situation. I had been sure we did a Facebook check in for all our restaurant adventures.

I stood there in front of my old trusty 12 year old Toyota and offered a silent pray pleading for assistance and safety. I took the car keys and sat down and turned the ignition and it started. We immediately all hopped into the car and Scott took us down from the side of the hill out to the main road.

We then made our way back to the downtown historic district. We parked and walked along the river and took a few photos. It was a gray overcast day, in the mid 40s, but pleasant.

We then found our way to the airport and dropped Natalie and Scott off, way early. Good thing they had their iPads to keep them entertained.

I then took Wally to yet another landmark site in Portland, Fabric Depot. It was my second visit there. they boast 1 1/2 acres of fabric, notions, crafts and more. And everything in the store was 20% off. And Portland does not have sales tax. I did my job and boosted the Oregon economy.

Then it was a late lunch for Wally and I then we hit the road again to head home. We stopped off at Cabela's. I'd heard a lot about it but had yet to experience it. It was quite interesting. Then we were homeward bound and created by very thick fog when we arrived in Kent.

It was a great short trip and very fun to visit and explore a new city and to spend time with Natalie and Scott.

And that was my epic 27 hours in Portland, Oregon.

12/15/13

Ten days away from Christmas. The house is decorated, the tree is in it's stand in the living room, but it's naked. Tonight it will get it's lights and some decorations. This December has been a whirlwind of busy activity. But I like to say it's all good. And you know it's not the end of the world if the cards are late, or a package someone doesn't even expect to get shows up late.

I'm taking a relaxed attitude this season and I'm enjoying it. I've been taking my camera along with me for a few days looking for the letter "L" and of course I found it in my own backyard. I have a super long list of things that need done, gifts that need wrapped and boxes that need shipped, baking and treat making to complete. But hey, I have 10 more days (minus the shipping time).

To explain why I needed the letter "L", I'm doing some alphabet photography for a friend for Christmas and I'm slowly acquiring my alphabet and didn't have an "L". Here is a picture of it. I think it's great.

Hope you are all enjoying this holiday season, taking it all in and enjoying time with friends and family. Here are a few holiday light pictures I captured one day on my way home from work this week from downtown Kent.

Kent Regional Justice Building

The Year is Winding Down

I have to say we had a great Christmas. Complete with lots of fun gifts, good food and hanging out with family. I'm on vacation until January 4th, so I'm planning on enjoying each day of it.

I got cook books for Christmas and I've been having fun reading through them. I received Pioneer Women's cookbook; http://thepioneerwoman.com/my_cookbook/

and the two Artisan Bread in Five Minutes cookbooks; http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

Today we had homemade bread for dinner and I was surprised how good it turned out. You make the yeast dough and let it rise then put it in the fridge (up to 14 days). When you want to cook bread you take out a chunk of dough, shape it, let it rest, then bake it. I'll put some pictures up later on my food blog.

December, where have thee gone?

I was shocked to look at my blog and see that I haven't posted since November. But that just shows you what the month of December does to any normal routine. It throws it all into a new state of non stop activity and general constant busyness.

But it's all been good.

There has been;
Two church Christmas parties
One Messiah program
One grand daughter dance recital
One visit with out of town relatives
Two trips to the Post Office
One trip to UPS
Four sewing projects to finish
Multiple trips to the store
Tons of wrapping gifts
Oh and did I mention - plus working 40 hours a week on my job.

It is now December 23rd, the tree is up and decorated, the presents are all wrapped, the candy making is all done (and mostly gone), the coworker gifts have been exchanged. This is the last work day until January 2010.

Tonight we get to step away from Christmas and celebrate Gisele's 9th birthday.

Tomorrow it's grocery shopping, laundry and housecleaning but at a much slower pace.

Happy Holidays to all!

Christmas Eve

Twas the night before Christmas and here I am on the computer. I was getting sleepy watching a rerun of Bones and then I remembered I needed to get the stockings stuffers ready. That's how I end up on the computer.

I checked on my husband's gift that I ordered on December 15th. It was shipped Fed Ex (ground I think) from NY. It's been in Portland, Oregon since December 20th. Oh well, I'm printing him a photo of his gift and the gift will be here anyday now. Of course that's what we say everyday about the garbage trucks also. And we haven't seen them yet either.

The snow has been challenging. The way it just lingers and doesn't go away. It's so pretty when I wake in the mornings and look out the window and see the white blanket of snow. We'll enjoy our white Christmas and it'll be one we remember for a long time.

Merry Christmas to all!

Oh Christmas Tree!

We got our tree on a Saturday morning. By Saturday evening it was in the living room, in front of the window. I managed to get the lights on it that night. It took me three more days to get the rest of the decorations on it.

 

During those few days where it only had lights on it, I thought it was just beautiful. There is something so magical about the lights at Christmas time.

 

I think a lot of the emotions and the "spirit" of Christmas have to do with how we celebrated Christmas as children and how we celebrated Christmas with our own children when they were small.

 

Days later as I was putting the ornaments on the tree, I had a lot of memories of Christmases past. In the early 1980's I had two small children and worked at Ernst in the Brickyard Plaza in Salt Lake City. I worked for awhile in the garden shop and it's there that we sold all the Christmas decorations. I bought a lot of discounted decorations that year and when I get them out each year, I remember that time in my life.

 

As I hang the stockings I remember as a child in Rigby and later in Boise hanging our real stockings above the fireplace. Thank goodness for long knee high socks in those days. We used to get an orange and candy in our stockings, I don't remember what else. But I remember the year Santa put an orange in my children's Christmas stockings and they thought that was so odd.

Even though I don't have small children at home and I don't get a lot of company at my house, I still enjoy putting up my Christmas decorations. I love to sit in the evenings and look at the tree (and try not to think about the presents that still need to be wrapped).

 

Christmas is indeed a magical time of the year.