In the Christmas Spirit

The kids and Mason are in the Christmas spirit.

Gotta love them!!

A Quick Weekend Away to Oregon and Washington

Michael's new company flew me in for their Christmas party and it was so much fun. I met a lot of new people and had a delicious dinner. Santa even showed up!!

Michael and I then had all day Saturday to have fun in Oregon and Washington.  The first thing we did was stop at VooDoo Doughnut.  It has been on the Food Network and the Travel channel so I wanted to try it.

It was decorated really cool inside.

Doughnuts turning on the carousel.

Yep!  The big doughnut was called the "cock-n-balls" and it was cream filled.

"Why do I have to take the first bite??"

I love the big doughnut on the ceiling.

Then we went to Multnomah Falls on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge.  It is the tallest waterfall in Oregon.

When we saw that it was only a mile to the top of the falls we decided to take the trip.

One mile up a mountain is not easy and when I saw this sign and still was not at the top I almost cried.  It was another 200 ft. but holy cow that was hard, especially with a big coat, camera and my purse.

FINALLY! We made it to the top. You can see the parking lot below.

Lots of trees with moss

On the way back down we saw a rainbow.

Woo hoo!! We survived!

Beautiful view from Mitchell's lookout.

Behind Mitchell's lookout

After our workout, we drove to Hood River and enjoyed a wine tasting at the Naked Winery fully clothed.  The names of the wines were naughty!

Mout St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

Mount St. Helens... my first volcano sighting

Saturday night we had the BEST sushi at Bamboo Sushi.  The salmon was out of this world!!

I could barely see Mount Hood.

Mount St. Helens from the plane.

What a fun and quick trip to Oregon and Washinton.

Party Time When Mom and Dad are Gone

So apparently this is what happens when Michael and I leave town... my wonderful friends come over to have fun with the kids.

Sure looks fun to me!!

Annual Shopping Day

WOW! What a crazy shopping day this year. First of all Ann flew in for the special day which was actually suppose to be tomorrow but we had to change things up. Michael's new job is flying me to Portland on Friday to go to their company work party. I didn't want to miss that or shopping day. Ann and I started shopping around noon and Sheila couldn't meet us until 5:00pm. Even though our shopping day was a little different we still had a great time. Thanks friends for helping work this out so I could go to the Christmas party and have shopping day. I love you both!!

Fun at Katie's New House

Sheila, Jennifer and I went over to visit Katie in her new house. We had a great time and drank Christmas margaritas and ate salsa, sausage cream cheese dip, spinach dip, pigs in a blanket, fudge and cookie dough brownie cookies.

Enjoying all the goodies!!

Here are my cookie dough brownie cookies.

Then at the end of the night we were cleaning up and Sheila spilled my drink.  Poor Katie then had to mop her floor. 

Thanks friends for a nice and relaxing evening!!

Milano (the glass enclosed restaurant) at Crown Center

Michael and I had date night at Milano (the glass enclosed restaurant) at Crown Center.  We had a great view of the Christmas tree and all of the other trees covered in lights.

The food was good and after dinner we walked around Crown Center and listened to an elementary school choir singing Christmas songs.

Our view from the restaurant

Picture by the fountains

It was a fun date night but we are both ready to put on some comfy pants.

First Real Christmas Tree

We went to our first Christmas tree farm and picked out our very own tree.  I was waiting for there to be a Griswold Family moment but it went smoothly.

No Michael!! We can't have a 12ft tree.

We want this one!!

At least we had help getting it on top of the car.

We did it! We all agreed on the same tree.

Trying to get it straight!

Woo hoo!!!

Mason just sat and watched us put the decorations on.

Oh, wait a minute! The children just sat and watched Christmas Vacation after helping for 15 minutes.

Our first real tree!

Dylan spent most of his time putting the Christmas village up.

We are all in the Christmas spirit now.