Thanksgiving 2009

Like many of our southern California readers, we enjoyed a day of pleasant weather and sunshine. Oh wait....nevermind, it was 40 degrees all day, and pouring nonstop. Here is a glimpse of what I see almost daily (notice the little rivers moving down the slanting driveway):




We had an enjoyable morning drinking coffee, followed by making deviled eggs and sweet potato casserole. We headed over to Travis' family's house for Thanksgiving dinner:


Here is Travis with his grandma:


After we finished there we headed over to my good friend Lynette's family's home for some jewelry making and poker playing:



Lynette was probably licking off some of the delightful peppermint hot cocoa her aunt made for us (:

To conclude the night, Travis won us a whole $5 by winning second place in the Texas Hold Em tournament!



All in all we had a great day although we missed everyone down south. We definitely agree that we have a lot to be thankful for this year. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Date Night

Last weekend Travis took me out on a nice surprise date. We dressed up and drove out to Troutdale to eat at a nice candlelit dinner on the river. Here we are!

Thank you Travis, you are the best (:

It's Freezing Here!!

I would just like to start off this post by encouraging all of you non-Portlanders to look at the 10 day forecast for zip code 97005 so you can see what we are dealing with here. Cold and rain. Luckily, the sun is still making short 10 minute appearances here and there, but it is nothing like Southern California!

Despite the weather, so far we are both still really enjoying it up here. I wish I could give you all some exciting news, but the last couple of weeks both Travis and I have been doing nothing but studying, sleeping, cooking, cleaning, volunteering and working (repeat,repeat,repeat......). Travis and I both have only 4 weeks left of our term for school, which means he is mastering general,biological,and organic chemistry mixed with matrix algebra/trigonometry and his core classes while I spend most days memorizing bones, joints, muscles, and how they all fit together. Bored yet???

Needless to say, we are definitely looking forward to our break in San Diego! Almost every day I bring up how excited I am to be making my way back down south!

That's all for now...hope you all are doing well,

Happy Birthday to Lia

October 30th was the 3rd birthday of my sixth sibling, Lia. She was a super surprise when I was in college, and she cracks me up. Here are some pictures of her life so far...



She was so tiny when she was born...


As she grew older, she got more hair...




And more into everything...



Sometimes she looks like an angel....


And sometimes...well...she cuts her own hair.

Lia has been a special addition to the family, we love her tons! Happy 3rd birthday!

HaPpY hAlLoWeEn!

This year for Halloween we went over to our good friend's Betsy and Karl's housewarming/Halloween night. We had a blast! Here are some pictures...


TAI girls! That is Julianne (Raggedy Ann), Betsy (Pumpkin), and myself (bumblebee).


Gina and I, my fellow Portland explorer (:



Travis (soccer player) and I. He was in the middle of chewing, he might kill me for posting this but thats ok (:



And most importantly, me and the love of my life Jack (:

Hope you had a great Halloween!