The Bodies Exhibit

Jeff made breakfast for everyone in the morning (Thanks J!). Then we dropped Brian and Jill off at the train station. We then went to the Bodies Exhibit. The exhibit was SO cool! It was all real bodies that had been dissected and preserved. Really interesting and I had my own little tour guide with me (aka- med student Jeff). We did a little stopping downtown and then went home and had some lunch. Later we went for a run in the rain (it wasn’t the nicest weather today). In the evening a bunch of my neighbors came over for appetizers for New Years Eve. It was fun to see my neighbors that I have known my whole life They were doing a progressive New Years Eve celebration so they moved on to the next house after a couple hours. Jeff and I watched a movie about this guy that had a stroke and had to communicate by blinking. It was interesting but kind of slow. We paused it at midnight and said “Happy New Year” and then continued watching: )

Snowshoeing adventure and dinner with Brian

This was a great day. I slept in and then Jeff and I drove about an hour to the mountains and went snowshoeing. We were feeling adventurous and so we veered off the trail and blazed our own trail up the side of the mountain. The whole time I was saying—umm Jeff this is fun going up this but how are we going to get down? “ Trust me girly” and so I did. I enjoyed the challenge of grabbing onto trees in order to pull myself up the mountain. When we got to a lookout we had a beautiful view. We set down a tarp and had our picnic lunch of steak sandwiches, glazed nuts, and cookies. Then we started our decent. This was not so fun! You have no grip on the front of the snow shoe so it is kind of like trying to walk down a hill with mini sleds on your feet. I would take one step and find myself amount 10 feet down the mountain holding the top of a tree for dear life, my legs dangling in mid air. We some how made it down intact with just a little snow in our shoes and down our coats. We continued hiking around this beautiful glassy lake and then headed back to the city. We stopped by Borcachini’s (Italian Specialty store) to buy some fresh pizza dough and then at the grocery store to buy some cheese and tomato sauce for dinner (we were having over one of Jeff’s friends that now lives in Oregon and his girlfriend over for dinner- my parents had dinner plans). When we got back Jeff called Brian to see when they would be arriving and we learned a new fact about Brian’s new girl friend – VEGAN and VEGITARIAN! My first reaction was not happy / disappointed because I had been visualizing a yummy CHEESY pizza with CHICKEN and veggies. However, it ended up working out great. We made one pizza a Mexican pizza with corn and beans and grilled peppers and salsa (half with cheese and half without) and the other normal with chicken, veggies, and cheese. That was probably more details that anyone wanted to know : ) We had a great time with Brian and I really liked his girlfriend Jill.

fun with old friends

We went to breakfast with my high school best friends Ally, Caitlin (and Husband), and Pam. We went to Julia’s which is a restaurant in a really cute Victorian home. I really loved my breakfast. I got the Smoked Salmon Benedict…and I am not sure how many cups of coffee because they just kept filling it up! This was one of my highlights of my trip. It was just so fun to have breakfast with old friends and laugh and talk. After breakfast we went over to Mary and Bob’s to chat. It was fun to see them as well. Jeff left all excited to design his own back pack after seeing Bob’s hand made backpacking backpack.


After that Jeff and I went to Discovery Park and ran along the sound and through the trails. It was a great run!

That evening we had dinner with my parents and then played the board game Settlers….my dad won (I wasn’t surprised- he always wins strategically games :).

Ski day at Mount. Baker

We had Breakfast in the hotel before leaving for the Mount Baker. We got there right when it opened and made it down 23 runs- making our cost per ski run 2 dollars : ) The snow wasn’t the best- a bit icy but it was still really fun! We stopped for Pho in Bellingham for dinner.

Church and Christmas dinner

Church
Run with Jeff
Christmas dinner with Rich and Carla...only time of the year we take out the silver and china. It was nice to see Rich and Carla and fun to talk to Rich about work because our jobs are sort of similar.

After Rich and Carla left we exchanged the last gifts. Jeff had brought some gifts for my family and I and I hadn't given him my gifts yet.
Jeff got be a beautiful necklace that had diamonds in the shape of a little sunflower. I love it! He also gave me some paint canvas and a Detroit Tiger shirt. Here is a picture of my dad and I sporting our Detroit Tiger’s shirts. Here is also a funny picture of Jeff trying to look buff in a shirt I got him.
We then left to drive to Bellingham with Dad and Jeff, hot tubbed at the hotel and then hit the sack. (picture of us having some popcorn in the hotel)

Christmas!

It was finally Christmas! Melissa and Stephen came over around 9AM and we did stockings and had breakfast, and then opened presents. After that my Dad and I did our traditional run / roller blade. Then I headed to Stephens Mom’s house for there family’s Christmas party. Midway through the party I left with Melissa to pick up Jeff from the airport. The party was lots of fun. Stephen has nice friends and a family that likes to have fun.

not Christmas

(pretending today is not Christmas)

Today my mom made a really good veggie frittata for breakfast. Then we went for a short cross country ski up in the mountains. We had a nice little picnic lunch in the mountains. It was really beautiful and sunny. Later that evening my dad made fajitas and we had the Kaufman/Baren family over (they are Jewish so they weren't celebrating Christmas today either). It was nice to catch up with Zack and Laura.