Thanksgiving Weekend!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving over at Lesa and Colin's house. The food was fabulous, and the boys had a fun time playing together. I was terrible about taking pictures. Here are the only two I took:

Then, Friday we went and did a little bit of shopping, but we weren't very ambitious. We left the house around 8:30, but we went out for breakfast first, so we probably hit our first store around 10am and were home again by lunch time :).  Then, we put up the tree. Jack is very excited about Christmas this year. He thought decorating the tree was great. It just kept getting "more awesomer." 

 We woke up to snow this morning, which was even more exciting than Christmas decorating. Jack was dressed and ready to go outside before 8am this morning. Since we were out anyway, Mike and I decided to start putting up Christmas lights while Jack played.

I did the ladder climbing since Mike hates to. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I have one strand on the hedge to the right of the door that's not working. I'll have to investigate in the light of day, but otherwise, I like it!

This afternoon, we did a little family painting time. Mike did the Santa, I did the star, and Jack painted the Christmas tree ornaments.

 Here are some pics of the house, all decked out.

 Then, Mike decided Jack was old enough and got out his old legos this afternoon. Jack was SOOO excited. He's been building things and telling stories about them all evening!

 I also got my burlap wreath reset for Christmas and worked on several Christmas projects today. All in all, it's been a really busy weekend so far. I'm glad we have one more day left tomorrow.

Weekend Getaway: Portland

We had a good weekend away. We started Saturday with a visit in Tacoma with Marty, Susan, Ari, and family. We had a good Mexican breakfast and then Jack and Ari played while the adults caught up. Then, we headed on to Portland. We arrived mid-afternoon and started with a park visit to get Jack and Aspen some exercise. Then, we went for a stroll through and Arts and Crafts market downtown before going to check into our hotel.

We went to a lovely Swiss restaurant for dinner called the Swiss Hibiscus. I had a poached Salmon with Spatzli, and Mike had a Chicken Milanese with Rosti. Jack had a European style hotdog. Oddly enough, his favorite thing about the meal was the mustard, but it was all really yummy. It was a tiny little place with about 6 tables. 

 On Sunday, we drove out to see the waterfalls. However, it started pouring just as we hit the parking lot of the first one. We started out to hike up to first one anyway, but half mile in we were all soaked and Jack was done. "I don't like this place," he said. He was ready for the car and refused to get out at a second one, so we had to give up the venture.  Here's our one picture of Wahkeena Falls. The picture doesn't due justice to just how wet it was.

We did a little viewing of Multnomah from the parking lot before giving up.

 We ended up going shopping at an outlet mall instead. After that, we drove around a bit and then went back to the hotel early and let Jack play in the swimming pool before heading out to get some really good pizza for dinner.

It was a very quick weekend, but fun. Today, we sent Jack off to preschool and we spent the day on yard work, laundry, errands, and baking before it's back to work tomorrow.

Trick-or-Treat!

We had a good Halloween. Jack wore his costume all day. He wore it to pre-school where they partied, he stopped in to my office to visit, and then we went trick-or-treating with Colin and Lesa and their boys. We only went to maybe 10 houses before Jack needed to potty and it was raining, so we called it quits. But, the boys had a really fun time. They were both very into their flashlights and going to the houses. They kept saying "trick or treat" before people opened the doors, which was very cute. And, both boys were very polite and good with their thank you'd. Tommy liked walking the neighborhood, but wouldn't actually go up to the doors to get the candy. Here are Superman, Captain America, and the grey kitty:

 They were very excited to receive flashlights and glow bracelets. The adults spent the entire time telling the boys not to shine lights into people's faces and their houses!

Today, we went to run some errands and stumbled upon a Seahawk's rally. Jack liked their "monster machine."

He also got to check out the Lombardi trophy (I'm sure it was a replica!); it was heavy!