{January thru June 2011}

Wow! {Where has all the time gone?} Winter turned into spring and now we're in summer..except we're missing the sun! This post will be mostly explained through pictures. When not working, we're playing everyday!! We are truly blessed to have great people in our lives!

{Jan} Wine Release Party at the Red Sky Winery in Woodinville!

February's Dinner Club at Black Bottle {flowers courtesy of Meagan}!!

My co-worker birthday party at Lucky Strike!!!

...and at Via Tribunali with best friends!

...and family

{March 4-6, 2011}

March Dinner Club Getaway to Whidbey Island, courtesy of {Angie's family}!!

{The Ladies of Dinner Club, minus Jade, Nicole and Kelli}

...at the Coupeville Mussle Festiaval

Around Coupeville...

Angie, Meagan and Jules!

Angie's {backyard}: the Puget Sound!

Meagan, {mromney}, the awesome photographer!!

These pics {taken by} MRomney:

Delicious food was made by all:

Friday night: Angie's amazing Coconut breaded fish tacos

Saturday morning: Lox, dill, cheese, and capers quiche...yummm!

Lunch: a few adventerous souls at at teh Mussel festival!

Dinner: homemade pizza orchestrated by Francesca, a true {italiano}!!

Sunday breakfast: mimosas and wonderful cinnamon rolls!

Barbizan!!

{lastly: fun with tattoos}

Brooke and I getting our tattoo on!

Crystal Mountain in March!!

Brandon and I made it up for some Spring snowboarding! Our 2nd trip up...and our last.

{April 1-3, 2011}

Brooke's 30th birthday getaway to McMenamin's Edgefield outside of Portland!!

An adult Disneyland of sorts!

The What-What! {Freshly squeeze grapefruit juice and gin} SOO Yummy!

The birthday girl, Brooke, and Liana!

So fun that Christine and Tom could make it!!

{I just love tulips!}

Wine tasting in McMenamin's own winery!

Grandpa's 80th birthday celebration! {We love you} April 9, 2011

Memories!

Memory table!

{April

{April 16, 2011}

Jason and Tiffany's Wedding ~ Congratulations!

Tyler and Katie: engaged to be married next August!

The high school boys!

{April 20, 2011} Dinner Club

Taco style, hosted by Jules and Brooke!

{April 24th, 2011}

Easter Sunday!

I was fortunate to have Easter off this year!

My parents' good friend was confirmed into the Catholic Church at a special Easter vigil ceremony. Afterward we had a midnight party to celebrate! Sunday morning we woke up, Christine made her Eggs' Benedict and the boys played Pinochle! In the afternoon we headed to Brandon's family's house for a rousing game of bunco. Happy Easter!!!

Congratulations to my sister-in-law, Brandon's sister, Alicia for completing her Holy Confirmation in the Catholic Church!

Congratulations Tom on your Holy Confirmation!

{May 13, 2011}

Christine gets engaged!!!!

Brandon and I helped set up the romantic surprise!

A romantic dinner at Il Bistro, then a Hotel 1000 surprise!

Congratulations, we love you!

{May 14, 2011}

Abby's Holy 1st Communion

Christine's Graduation Party for completing her Master's in Occupational Therapy!

{May 15: The Graduation}

A beautiful, sunny day...j/k

Congratulations Christine on a fabulous accomplishment, receving your Master's Degree in Occupational Therapy

Being 'hooded' ~ signifying a graduate degree!

Showing off the graduate 'hood'

A special moment to see: Christine walking to received her graduate degree...even if we were wearing sweatshirts, rainboots and ponchos...

{May 17, 2011}

The 1st meeting of Happy Hour Club! {At The List}

Sarah, Christine, Cly'ta, me, Brooke and Liana
Cheers!

{May 18, 2011: Dinner Club, Indian Style at Kelli's house}

My attempt at Samosas

May 2011: Memorial Day weekend!!

I was fortunate to have the weekend off of work!

Brandon and I had a quick getaway to our condo on the Columbia River...not much was done..Brandon was busy studying for finals...other than that we just {relaxed}! The sun came out in little spurts...but we relaxed! Exactly what we needed!

Fun with Jenga!

And ofcourse, a little underwater camera action!

{June 11, 2011} Aunt Kathy's Funeral

Brandon's aunt Kathy had been fighting lymphoma for years which had progressed into her lungs. She was surrounded by family when she passed into Heaven. We traveled to Post Falls, ID to attend her funeral. Many of Brandon's relatives attended. It was nice having all of Tom's family together!

The Arnson family
Brandon's family

Brandon's gramps

The brothers and cousin Tina
The remaining Arnson children

{June 12, 2011} Brandon's graduation from Seattle University and my dad's birthday!

The family

The chef at his own birthday party

Happy Birthday

{June 13, 2011} My first hike of the season!!!

Dirty Harry's Balcony in the I-90 Corridor!

4 miles roundtrip, elevation gain 1,200 feet. A good first of the summer hike!

At Weeks Falls

The nature trail
A 'nurse' tree

{June 14, 2011} 2nd edition of Happy Hour at the newly renovated Wasabi Bistro!

{June 24, 2011} A dual bachelorette party

My coworkers Meghan and Jessica are getting {hitched} this July. Meghan's wedding is July 10th and Jessica's is July 30th. Congratuations! I am so happy for the both of you!

...to a lifetime of happiness!

We hit up the Matador for a little food, drink and gifts...then off to the Swiss for some dancing!

The soon to be {Mrs.}

Opening up their little gifts!

All white!!

{June 25-26, 2011} Portlandia

My sister just moved back down to Portland to finish 6 months of clinical work for her Master's Degree. She will be working as a occupational therpaist in a couple clinics downtown Portland.

My mom and I drove down Saturday morning. We snuck in some wedding dress shopping, some happy hours, window shopping, a couple what whats from McMenamins. All in all, a great visit before Christine started her first day Monday morning!!!

A glimpse of some wedding dresses!

Happy Hour time!

McMenamin's {with the grand What-Whats}

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas came and went! What a great holiday. Much time was spent relaxing with family, cooking and playing! I took off work the week of Christmas which gave me plenty of free time: all day cookie making with my sister and mom, a dinner party for Brandon's friends, dinner out with my high school friends, midnight mass on Christmas eve after working a 4 hour princess shift. Christmas day was jam packed. Eggs Benedict and champagne for breakfast and a German feast for dinner complete with pork in sauerkraut! Thanks to all who made Christmas special!!!

I was lucky to get the entire New Year's holiday off! We spent the New Year's Eve at Crystal Mountain eating yummy pizza, a fireworks display, and dancing the night away. Thanks Ana and Travis for making New Year's Eve a fantastic night.

Brandon getting down!

The next morning we hit the slopes for a sunny day of snowboarding. The gondola had its grand opening! I must say, it is well worth the extra $8 to bypass chairlifts and ride from the ticket line to the restaurant at the top. Walking off the gondola we had an awesome view of Mt. Rainier!

Our first gondola ride!

The picture below is the unedited picture of above!!! Thanks Photoshop!

Couldn't help but take a few more!

There were a few people standing behind Brandon, not bad for a first time editing!

And that same orange rope was behind me! I'm already loving Photoshop!

On January 2nd we celebrated Christmas again with Brandon's family! More fun was held relaxing and enjoying the season! We ended the night with a Seahawks victory!!

My new task is getting a handle on Photoshop, a program entirely too wonderful! I bought a guide from Borders and am slowly editing pictures and creating flyers for Brandon's business. It's a work in progress for sure!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!!

'Tis the Season...to be Jolly!

I am so excited to be entering the Christmas season!!! There is so much to be thankful for! This year I am thankful for my health, my husband, my fabulous family and great friends! I have made a point to make this season about giving, and not about receiving.
We started out this holiday season by getting a tree the weekend after Thanksgiving! We found the perfect tree we both could agree upon! After spending a couple nights decorating the tree and house, our home looks fabulous...it's totally ready to welcome the Christmas season...which is good since I am hosting Christmas day at my house!
Already December has been busy...between working, we have decorated for Christmas, wine tasted in Woodinville (including some to die for cheese), celebrated Brandon's successful quarter at Seattle U, made fish tacos and had game night with my high school friend, went to my work Christmas party, celebrated my good friend Ana's birthday at her mom's house, bought clothes and gifts for the underserved and went to my Christmas edition of dinner club, where I received a fabulous scarf. Not bad for it only being Dec 14th!!!
I am truly enjoying the season and the reason for giving!!! I have found it more rewarding to give than to receive!! I look forward to many more joyous Christmas events in the next two weeks!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!


Brandon working hard!! Only took us an hour and a half to find this tree!

Ta da!!!

My Christmas work party: Jo, Megan, me, Jaime, and Meghan!
Brandon and me!
Me, Traci and Kelly!
Kelly, Dawn, Traci and Lynn!
The guys...look at how spaced out they are!
Norah, Jessica, Jo, me, Jaime, Jen and Katy!


Ana's 27th Birthday ~ Yeah!
Bob, the dog, loved Brandon!!
The girls!!

THANKSGIVING Weekend 2010,

much to be thankful for!

This past weekend, we celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday with my mom's relatives. I had had a busy week prior...with working almost 7 12 hour shifts in a row and catching Brandon's cold Tuesday night....I came home Thursday morning ready to sleep for 12 hours straight. Instead, I stopped by QFC, bought the needed ingredients to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and candied yams...made the cookies, slept 3 hours, woke up in the midst of a nice REM sleep, took a shower and stopped by Brandon's parents to say, 'Happy Thanksgiving'. After a couple hour visit, we traveled north to Sammamish to enjoy turkey dinner with the relatives. Good turkey and wine was enjoyed then a much needed Diet Coke to get me home awake. A tradition, is to go around the table with each of us stating what we are thankful for this year. I have to say I am very blessed with a husband and family that loves me very much, friends and a great job that I love!

The family
Checking on the side dishes!

Me, Grandma, my mom and Alex

The cousins

The family!

Grandma, Mom, Grandpa and Aunt Debbie
Me with my grandparents

Thanksgiving weekend was spent hanging with my family! Brandon and I spent Thursday night at my parent's house and slept in Friday morning. Instead of black Friday shopping, we woke up and persuaded my sister (she and her boyfriend were in town) to make us Egg's Benedict (its her signature dish now and I LOVE it). We spent the day playing cards, board games and Scrabble...I have to say, I love playing Scrabble 10x more than Words With Friends on my iPhone..it's just way more fun! Thanks everyone for letting me be the games winner this weekend! We finished the night with wine and the movie, Eat, Pray, Love, which I have to say is a better book than a movie. I did learn a new game, Pinochle, but I'm not convinced I like it yet...not sure why Brandon, Tom, my dad and Grandpa play it hours on end...

Saturday my mom made a turkey for turkey sandwiches to help celebrate my Grandma's birthday. Best sandwiches ever are the weekend after Thanksgiving!!! Something about the stuffing and cranberries on the sandwich with homemade gravy, plus as my grandma added, "you can put as much salt as you want on a turkey sandwich after Thanksgiving' make these a hit. Happy Birthday to Grandma!

Sunday, after leftover turkey sandwiches, Christine, Tom, Brandon and I headed to Seattle via the light rail to watch the Seahawks game! It was the first game we had all been to together and it was a blast! Even the sun came out...it was a close game until the 4th quarter, but we don't have to mention the ending! We met a friend from my high school prior to the game at Pyramid for a pre-game beer! The game ended a great 4 day Thanksgiving weekend! Thanks to all who made the weekend so fun!!

From friend Colleen, 2nd from the left and her friend Kerri, me and Christine!
Christine, me, Brandon and Tom
Sunny but still bundled up!



Touchdown the field goal!!

View from our seats! Gotta love Seattle on a sunny day!