Visitors Take 18 & 19

Kathy & Troy drove up from California to spend some holiday time with us. We enjoyed the cooler weather, ate lots of food, played with our pup-pup, and well....we all got sick. It was nice to have them come visit us at our new home over the holiday season. We made them Christmas stocking full of goodies and we got tickets to see Bill Cosby which was so fun. Gypsy loved their company and so did we.

My friend Sarah and her friend Amanda came to town for short visit on their way down the coast. I loved the randomness of their visit! We went to voodoo doughnuts, the velvet painting museum, and beer samplers were a must for them on their journey in the PNW. They were here for New Year's so we spent New Year's morning with for breakfast.

Gypsy's 1st Birthday: December 26th

We have a cute puppy. She turned one. She got to run and play and she got one big yummy antler for her birthday enjoyment. We love her. She loves us. It is one big lovefest.

December 2009

Highlights of the Christmas season:

-I made really awesome Christmas sweaters with my friend Amy for Christmas concert. They were amazing.

-We chopped down our Christmas tree

-We had a Christmas tree! The first time in 4 years!!

-"Ginger"bread houses were made

-Christmas dinner in downtown P-town with the great company of Dani & Torbin

-Dressing the animals up as Santa & Elf

-Playing in our "snow"...no snow this year, but the frost sure looked cool!

Gobble, Gobble: Thanksgiving 2009

We cooked, we ate, we slept we conquered. Oh yeah, we made clove balls. Two days before Thanksgiving I caught our wall on fire in the living and burned my hand. One day before Thanksgiving I had to get an emergency root canal...the week before Thanksgiving I chipped a bone in ankle. November was awesome, but I was still thankful for Thanksgiving, my truly favorite holiday of the year.

November Midwestern Love: Take One

Went to Indianapolis and visited my friend Kate, then on to Janelle's in Lafayette, and then my dear friend Laura picked me up in Columbus, OH where I saw lots of Ohio, Pittsburg, PA and a wee part of WV.

Highlights of visit:

-Learning the song Party in the USA while drive w/ top down in Indy

-Fall down Janelle's stairs and busting my ankle...oh....

-Steak n' Shake baby!

-Amish country w/ Laura

-Arriving in WV and thinking "WHAT THE HECK?!"

-Big, old, historic cemeteries in OH & PA

-Delicious olives at market in Cleveland

(I'm a seahorse, she's a lobster. Got it!)

(Michael & Janelle's)

(Carefree in the fall)

(my beautiful foot)

(sandwich goodness)

PUMPKINS & MORE COLORS!

FALL COLORS, PUMPKINS AND LIFE OF CUTE DOGGY!

Fall Fun: October in the Gorge

A day in the Gorge with Dani...apple & pear orchards, lavender farm, winery, fall colors, waterfalls, cute cows...i love autumn and i especially love oregon this time of year.

Visitors Take 17

My friends Janelle and Kelly came to the Pacific Northwest for doggy show and Gypsy and were lucky enough to go up and spend some time with them. We went on a pretty hike in the Puget Sound and much enjoyment was had by humans and dog alike.

Gypsy reunited with her puppy mom Janelle. Cute!

dearest meadow

Meadow, just check out this slug we have to offer....seriously gross! This is one of the smaller ones, but they are all over the place and they leave slim trails. Gypsy tries to eat them and searches for them in the grass. I have seen one similar to the yellow banana looking slug you posted and that was also disgusting. Does anyone know if slugs have eyes?Also, another great thing we have to offer are really cool ferry rides. Oh. This has be the most ridiculous ferry crossing known to man! Yesterday we were driving to go see the Spruce Goose (pause for laughter) and while driving we had to deal with this ferry crossing. Tell me, why isn't there just a bridge to get over?!

Close of Summer

Is it officially fall now that it is September? I'm not going to lie, I'm ready for the summer to be over and for the fall colors to start showing up. Last weekend we had our last summer outing and attended a dahlia festival just outside of Portland. I never realized how many different varieties of dahlias there were or even how much I liked them. The rows and rows of flowers were beautiful and I have added a new flower to my list of favorites. Yes, Gypsy (8 months now) goes everywhere with us.

A Year

So we've now lived in Oregon for a full year and I still think it is great! I love this time of year since we get such wonderful produce. People, look at all this amazing fresh produce I got yesterday at the market. I also love my new market basket I recently purchased-way better than the bags, because nothing gets smashed. Also, just because I think she is so dang cute, here is a recent picture of our pup-pup who will only be eight month this week, but she is already pretty dang huge!

A trip down south

Since Blake's summer break is wrapping up we decided we need to get in one fast trip out of Oregon. I was sitting in the house trying to figure out what we were going to do and then quickly decided we were going to drive to Half Moon Bay (just south of San Francisco) to visit Blake's mom and stepdad...next thing I know we have the Subaru loaded with Gypsy and we were off. Man, that was a LONG 12 hour drive each way and I'm not sure we'll be doing that again. Our visit with Kathy and Troy was very relaxing and it was very nice being close to the water. Highlights of visit:

-I milked a goat (oh yeah, Blake did too-just look at how VERY excited he was about that milk coming out!)

-I met Bart the llama (just look at those teeth!)

-Gypsy got to play with Jake

-Eating breakfast at our favorite breakfast place EVER in Sausalito (you might think I'm kidding, but we been to the bay area now on three different trips and we've now had breakfast there 5 times...man, I want some of their food right now).

-Seeing massive amounts of seals and pelicans diving in the water to eat loads of sardines.

-Mexican food! We had the first good mexican food we've had in over a year! Someone please move to Oregon and open a good mexican dive.

Visitor take 15

While my grandparents were in town Blake's stepdad happened to be in Portland so he was able to come over for a quick hello. Troy got to meet miss Gypsy and Blake took him to one of the taverns out in the farms for some dinner. Too bad his visit was so short, but it was still nice seeing him either way.

Visitors take 16

Blake's dad and stepmom came the day after my grandparents left so needless to say it was a very busy couple of days (or maybe weeks or maybe even months!). I didn't have my camera with me while they were here so this is all there is in the way of pictures. We drove south one day and took them to one of the major wine areas in the state since they are both big winnos and it was a very clear day and I must admit it was funny to see hills of rolling vineyards all around in Oregon. For some reason most of their visit here is blurry in my mind, but I do recall us eating a lot. HA! Brent treated us to some very yummy meals while they were here-Thanks!

Vistors Take 14

Hooray! My grammy & poppy were able to come for a nice long visit! This was not an easy task of getting them to agree to fly, stay for a whole week, leave their dog, etc. It was so nice having them here and I hope they come again in the near future. We did a repeat of many of the same sights around Portland, but it is a difference experience with each visitor that comes so it makes it worth doing some of the same things over and over again :)

Some highlights:
-We saw a couple of bald eagles in the gorge
-W saw a four-horned sheep
-My grammy made us beans and brought tortillas with her (seriously, OR doesn't know a thing about tortillas)
-It was so hot the day they arrived they purchased a second portable a/c unit so our house is now livable
-Blake and Poppy ate lots of cheese, I mean a lot of cheese!

There you have it, my random list of highlights....I sure have some neat grandparents!