Friend thankful

As Jason & I continue to work at finding & making friends here, I am feeling very thankful for the friends we've made in other places who make a point of crossing over into our new locale. Two weeks ago we were treated to one such visit from a friend we met during our first year living in Vermont.

We met Phil while working at Okemo, he was a bellman in the evenings after spending his days instructing kids skiing. He started coming to hang out with us at Forest Echo, exploring the property together and even let us use his shower in town when our water lines froze for FIVE weeks that winter. We got to hang out at his family's New Hampshire lake cabin that summer, but then he moved to Utah and we hadn't seen him for over two years when he arrived after an 11+ hour drive from Park City.

We had a great time reconnecting with him, making some new memories and got some good hiking in. Luke especially loved having a person asleep in the living room to wake up each morning ;-)

At Kamiak Butte in Washington (this is the hill that we see from our deck) --

At Coeur d'Alene Lake --

A Kenmore Thanksgiving

Happy December and Happy Monday!

Vacations always seem to go way-way to fast and getting readjusted back to reality can be such a challenge ... especially after a terrific time which is exactly what we had at the Schoening House over Thanksgiving.

Allison had always said her parents house was "on the lake" but I hadn't really visualized what that meant until we arrived into their beautiful, lake-front home and took in the amazing views.  It definitely felt like we were on a retreat and was exactly what we needed!

Thanksgiving Day -- our third Thanksgiving meal with Allison since we had two Thanksgivings together last year (one with our Solomon's Porch family and one with our AMA family).

My Black Friday shopping -- a trip to Trader Joe's!!! Hurray!

The evening ended with getting to participate in decorating the Christmas tree together - so special!

Saturday morning we awoke to a dusting of snow everywhere to enjoy before getting on the road.

We had several added bonuses to our time in the Seattle area ... Jason got to do a police ride-along with his long-time friend,Jeremy and he got to spend several hours visiting with a retired, career forester who Allison's dad graciously introduced him to.  Lastly, on our way home we got to spend time with our Peace Corps friend, Jamie and her family at a children's museum. Luke had never been to one of these facilities before and could hardly believe all the fun things to do ... a perfect way to tire him out before our drive back to Idaho and as always, so fun to see our friend!

The drive home through Stevens Pass was spectacular!

And then .... we were back on the plains of Eastern Washington ... sigh. Not bad, just different.

The view from our deck has changed again ... fields covered in white for now. So pretty.

Gobble-Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving All!!!

Luke has been learning to make the turkey sound lately in honor of our upcoming feast. I have to admit, hearing him say gobble-gobble is pretty cute :)

Jason's parents are traveling over the break this year, but we weren't going to miss out on being close to family for the first time since we got married and had an early celebration with them a few weeks ago. We had a great time enjoying all the traditional fixings and especially the time with family ...

For the actual holiday, we've graciously been invited to hang out with our friend, Allison and her family in western Washington (read: I invited our family over when Allison was here last month and made the mistake of asking what we were doing :) ). We are super excited to be spending our second Thanksgiving with Allison who was such a special part of our lives in Guatemala. And we're truly looking forward to getting to know her family better who we met when they visited Guatemala.

Jason - at the top of San Pedro volano with Allison and her Dad last year.

Sunny Seattle

Earlier this month I got to do something I haven't done in 12 years ... hang out with my sister, Bonnie, for a weekend - KID FREE. It was also my first time away from Luke for more than a few hours and a much needed break from being a mom.

We met up in Seattle and had awesome time! Something strange for this rainy city -- I have never been there without it being wonderfully sunny.  This weekend was no different. Definitely chilly, but gorgeous, crystal-clear days.













Although we'd both been to Seattle before, it had been awhile, so we did most of the touristy things -- Pike's Market, Pioneer Square, Westlake Plaza, rode the Monorail to Seattle Center and got an up close look at the Space Needle. Plus, just explored on foot as much as possible and ate some amazing food. And, of course - lots of coffee! It all ended much to quickly, which I guess God knew as my flight got delayed a couple hours leaving :)

The line outside the original Starbucks was craaaazy! But, the people waiting had some awesome music to entertain them.

Goodbye beautiful Seattle!!

Fall Family Photos -- Moscow, Idaho

Last month, we had the incredibly good fortune to get in touch with an AWESOME word-of-mouth photographer {Kelly Taklo} who was unbelievably affordable and had availability during her busiest season to take some pictures of us. We are so pleased with the pictures she took -- here are some of our favorites.