Seattle

While Katya was at her conference, I was hanging with Michelle in Seattle. Let me just say that I loved every minute of it!

Highlights:

- Went to Pike's Market two times!!

- Loaded up on pastries from the French bakery, lots and lots of cheese from Beecher's (YUM), and some of the best pears I've had in a long time.

- Went to Whidbey Island and ate some Loganberry pie - yum

- Rode the ferry to and from Whidbey Island. Way cool.

- Did two seven mile walks (since Michelle talked me into the 3 Day walk to begin with)

- Had some wonderful chowder two times and I'm not even a seafood lover

- Had dinner with Michelle's Aunt Barbara and Uncle John who made dinner for us. They are awesome people and we had stayed with them once a few years ago when we (Katya, Michelle, Rese and I) went up to Seattle on vacation. They live in the most beautiful old Victorian by Lake Washington.

- Did a little shopping at the Alderwood mall

It was a much needed break and by the time Sunday came, I was missing my family. Although, I must admit I am feeling much better now than I was before I left. I needed some time with my best friend and I needed some time to myself. Sometimes you need to recharge your personal batteries before you have the energy needed to give to those around you.

It Was A Merry Christmas

I am finally sitting down to write about our Christmas. (Things have and still are a bit crazy around here and Logan has learned about the power button on the computer.)


Although we missed family and friends in San Diego something fierce, it was a good Christmas here in Bend. And it was a "White Christmas" because it dumped beautiful, fluffy snow on us all day.

I was lucky enough to have two of my bestest best girlfriends in the world come and share it with us. Michelle, her daughter Rese and Desiree and her daughter, Alia. Michelle and I lived only about a mile from each other in Poway and we pinch-hit parented for each other when we had crazy times at work. Not seeing her almost every day is still weird. I met Desiree through Michelle and I have found her to be one of the nicest, most genuine, caring, complex individuals I have ever met. Being friends with them has been a priviledge.

Anyway, everyone showed up on December 22nd (after we battled another round of stomach flu the week before) and the house was full. The addition of the lounge made things really nice though. People had some space to go to when they needed it. December 23rd was Katya's birthday and the girls all headed out to do some last minute shopping, endless window shopping, catch a movie and lunch while us moms relaxed and caught up. Sunday night was a big family pizza and ice cream cake party at our house.

Christmas Eve was spent with Desiree and the girls at Mt. Bachelor doing some snowboarding while Michelle helped me chop endless veggies for spaghetti sauce for our dinner that night. We had some extra guests come over for dinner and we all had a heated game of Taboo. Way fun.


Christmas morning brought with it a gluttony of gifts and a huge breakfast. It was a lot of fun watching Alexis really get the hang of the gift opening this year. Thank you so much to everyone that gave us or the kids a gift, it was much appreciated! We felt really spoiled by family far and near with letters, cards, homemade ornaments and phone calls.

That evening we had more guests and we all merged at Debbie K's house for a feast of Honey Baked Ham, turkey, stuffing, pies, baked potatos, asparagus, yummy rolls, Ginger's homemade cheese ball and tons of other assorted munchies. Michelle and Rese got a Wii this Christmas so most people spent the evening trying their hand at it. It was a lot of fun and it felt good to be surrounded by what family we had in Bend as well as some great friends.

Christmas is all about sharing your love with others. I got the best gift of all by having my girlfriends come up with their daughters. Throw gifts into the mix with some other great friends, family who you love endlessly and great food - it was a great time. Next year, I will be in San Diego for Christmas to be with the rest of my family .... fer sure, dude!

Seattle Trip: Part 2

Saturday morning rolled around after another long night. Again, Bob slept with Alexis. Only this time I tried sleeping with Michelle. And her cat, Smokey. And her dog, Godiva. Let’s just say that Godiva is a bed hog. She is only a little King Charles Spaniel, but that dog can spread out! Now, I love and adore Godiva. In fact, I gave Godiva to Michelle so she is like my little god-dog (like a godchild). However, I have no desire to sleep with her again. If she couldn’t sleep on me, then she wanted to sleep between Michelle and I. And slowly work her way sideways and push me off of the bed like a toddler does. What a stinker!

Anyhoo…. We all got up and visited some more and got ready to head out for our day. Bob went back to the Arlington Fly-In to try and hit some of their workshops and talks as well as drool over some more airplanes. Michelle, myself and the chitlins (as Michelle calls them) piled into my trusty Durango and, with Michelle at the wheel, we headed to downtown Seattle. We plopped the kids into my uber cool Phil and Ted’s stroller that Michelle had sent me as a shower gift for Logan and walked down to Pike’s Place Market. I love that place! Granted, with it being summer there were tons of tourists crowding the sidewalks. Not that it slowed us down. First, we went to a French pastry shop and bought a few pastries that were OH SO GOOD! I love and adore baked goods, much to the detriment of my desire to lose more baby weight. Then we went down to a fruit stand and bought some apples, grapes, Rainer cherries and some nectarines. Next was some iced coffee and then we sat at a park across the street to munch on our goodies, admire the gorgeous view and visit. And swelter – it was another hot and humid day. After our brunch we stopped by Beecher’s Cheese shop and I loaded up on some of my favorite cheese as well as their mac & cheese (soooooooooo amazing). I had my little refrigerated cooler in my truck so nothing would spoil.

From Pike’s Place we headed over to Michelle’s Aunt’s house. Her name is Barbara and her husband’s name is, John. They are just amazingly lovely people and they live in one of the most beautiful Victorian houses I have ever seen on Mt. Baker. Michelle, Rese, Katya and I stayed with them in March of 2005 when we went to Seattle for a vacation. We had so much fun and Michelle’s aunt and uncle did their best to make sure we had a great time. It was so nice to see them again! Barbara, Michelle, the chitlins and I loaded onto a city bus and headed back downtown to attend an International Festival in Seattle’s Asian District. There was lots and lots of great smelling food, vendors galore, free Starbucks samples and a stage that had some great drumming demonstrations. It would have been more fun if it hadn’t been so darn HOT! And, as I found out, Seattle doesn’t really have air conditioning anywhere because it rarely is ever that hot. So no matter where we went, there was no escaping the heat. It is disconcerting to stand up from sitting for a while and feel like you wet your pants. Yulky. We eventually loaded back onto a bus (Alexis loves buses) and headed back to Barbara’s house and met up with Bob there. We hung out with them for hours and they were so nice as to buy pizza and salad for us all.

All in all, it was a great day. Great food, amazing company, gorgeous location and very relaxing. Man, I miss seeing Michelle every day!

Seattle Trip: Part 1

Bob, myself and the kids all packed into my trusty Durango (with the new Thule roof cargo thingie) last Thursday night and headed off towards Seattle. Bob had decided at the last minute that he wanted to go to the Arlington Fly-In (an airplane event) and it worked out that my most bestest best friend, Michelle, lives in Everett just a mere 15 minutes from the airport. So we left home around 8pm and arrived in Everett around 3am. Brutal!

We said a few hellos, got our junk out of the car, got the kids into their sleeping locations (Alexis with Bob and Logan in a pack and play), and then crashed. I slept on the floor – I don’t recommend it as it is not comfy. Michelle had to go to work on Friday so she woke me up on her way out the door and I took her bed. We didn’t make it to the fly in until around 1pm because we got up late and then went for breakfast at IHOP.

The fly in was pretty cool. I was expecting something along the lines of the Miramar Air Show, so it was a bit smaller than my expectations. However, it was pretty neat nonetheless. Bob really liked walking along the long rows of planes and dreaming about the day when we own a six seater Bonanza and fly in to the airshow and camp out among all the other planes. They had some amazing flying demos there with old bombers, some bi-planes and other things that flew and were cool but I didn’t know what they were. Alexis watched the air show for a long time, but it was HOT (in the low 90’s) and ungodly HUMID so we were all hot, sticky, sweaty and kind of miserable. Again – I hate hot weather.

We stayed until 5pm and then headed back to Michelle’s pad to meet up for dinner. We all went down to Mukilteo and ate seafood at Ivar’s restaurant. Way yummy. I had King Crab Legs and they were delicious!!! But, I won’t ever order food again that requires me to mess up both hands when I have Alexis sitting next to me. It is just way too hard to eat and keep a toddler from tossing everything off the table. Michelle did her best to wrangle the wild beast so I could eat, but after that we avoided restaurants. The downtown area of Mukilteo is right on the water and you can catch a ferry there to a small island (I totally forgot the name) –it is BEAUTIFUL. What an amazing place. When I go and visit Michelle next February sans kids we might go over there to do some exploring.