Christmas

We had a very busy Christmas around these parts. My brother's family came in for the weekend, and we celebrated Christmas Eve with some members of our extended family (and a couple of friends). Manfriend makes great In-n-Out style burgers and he was commissioned to create them for our Christmas Eve get together.

We had a great time just hanging out, eating, and enjoying each others' company.

On Christmas morning, we woke up (the girls and I first, as we were sharing a room), and opened presents.

This is what I look like in the morning. I'm sorry. (That's my 12k shirt!)

After opening presents, we went over to the house my cousins were renting, and had brunch. And karaoke. Karaoke on Christmas? I guess there's a first for everything, but it certainly was worth it to see my brother and sister-in-law bust out "Bohemian Rhapsody", with my cousin Scott doing backup and my mom laughing hysterically.

Manfriend and I took off from that party and headed to Washington to visit his family for a few days, which was nice and relaxing. There aren't too many exciting pictures from that, except we did take a nice portrait before we left.

Road Trip!

I had a few days off from work, so Manfriend and I decided to head down to Southern Oregon to visit my brother's family. Living 5 hours from my nieces is much better than living in another country, so I have to take advantage of that and see them when I can! They are 8 and almost 6. Kids are fun at all ages, but it's great to have them reading and so interactive with Manfriend and I. The girls (and my brother and sister in law) met in May when we all went to Disneyland together, but haven't spent any time together since, so this was a good chance for everyone to get to know each other better.

I made my sister in law show me how she makes cinnamon rolls, because every time I try to make them I fail. Fail with a capital F.

While Rinda and I were making cinnamon rolls, Manfriend played team Boggle with the girls.

Wow. That's the extent of my pictures from the trip. We did a scavenger hunt for the girls, who in turn made a scavenger hunt for Manfriend and I  - and executed it perfectly. I can barely put together a scavenger hunt without confusing myself, and these girls totally nailed it. We all went out for pizza together one night, and got doughnuts the next morning.

Run

With the hot weather still persisting in Portland (90+), my mom and I planned to go up to Long Beach, Washington, to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We looked up the weather forecast - 81! That sounds perfect!

It was not 81 degrees. It was not even close. I was so thankful I had decided to grab a heavy sweatshirt on the way out our door Wednesday morning. I was so cold that I had to change into jeans.

Knowing it would be cooler in Long Beach, I took along my running clothes. Long Beach is a nice place to run because the roads aren't busy, the weather is cool, and it's hard to get lost. When I arrived in Long Beach I realized I had forgotten my running shoes. In my lamenting, my 14 year old cousin stated that she had some shoes I could probably use. And use I did.

I went running yesterday morning for the first time in four weeks. I had resigned myself to the thought that I would have to take walk breaks, but I ran the entire 30 minutes. It seems like such a silly goal and success after what I've accomplished in the past, but it felt so incredibly good. I got up with the same intention this morning, yet my (very) sore muscles and a bad sore on the back of my ankle (from the shoes) kept me well under 30 minutes.

At the very least, it has encouraged me to continue, and I believe I'll head out to the trail on Sunday morning.

It's been a long time comin'

Whew! I went on vacation for a couple of weeks, and right after I got back to Mexico, our internet went out for a few days. My Google Reader is backed up to 103 unread blog entries (even though I read a few things over the two weeks), and I've got some major catching up to do in the blogging department.

I'm going to just do highlights of the trips. What this actually means is that I'm going to write about the things I have pictures for. That's right - the only things that matter are the things that can be shown with pictures.

My brother, sister in law, and (smart, beautiful, wonderful) nieces, my parents, and I all drove up to Anaheim a couple weeks ago. We stopped in San Diego to pick up a very important person: Manfriend. That's right. Let's all stop and give a round of applause to Manfriend for saying "yes!" to meeting my brother and his family and "yes!" to hanging out with all of us at Disneyland. He is a good manfriend.

So we went to Disneyland! We all went for one whole day together, but my brother's family stayed for a couple more days. We had a nice, relaxed day doing whatever we wanted. A few big rides were closed down, but we didn't let that dampen our day.... especially because Splash Mountain was closed (ba-da-ching!)

On the tram to Disneyland!

 Me, my brother, Mom, Dad (in front of the Haunted Mansion)

 Manfriend, Rinda, Joel, Dad, Mom, Dana, Hannah

 She likes it when my double chin attacks her head.

 Two bad chicks await their Riverboat Cruise

 I guess we are just this cool.

At one point Manfriend and I ran over to Space Mountain to see if they had opened it yet (they hadn't). Instead of going straight back to wait for the kids to get off a ride, we ran into watch Captain EO. Yeah. Michael Jackson in 3D? With weird side characters, an evil witch woman, and choreographed dance? Yes, please!



Have I mentioned how wonderful my nieces are? Their parents are doing something right because they are the most well-behaved kids I know, along with being incredibly smart and hilarious. While we waited in a very long line I invented a game for Hannah (8) to play with me. "What's a 5 letter word for a piece of clothing?" "Shirt!". "What's a four letter name of a President?" And yes - she got it.

The weather was great, the company was even better, and we were all exhausted by the end of the day.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Our neighbor owns strawberry fields, and his wife, Lupita, invited us to go pick strawberries yesterday. I'm not quite sure I understood correctly, but she made it seem like it was the end of the strawberry season. It sure looked that way when we showed up to the field and there was not a worker in sight. However, there were plenty of strawberries to be picked!

Hannah at work

Dana and her prizes

Pickin'

And allow me to be very transparent by showing you a picture for which I was not ready, the wind was blowing, and I was in the middle of telling my mom to "just take a picture of my hands".

 Lupita was out there with us. Her goal was to look specifically for the biggest strawberries.

Oh, I guess we had time for this cheesy photo.

 We quickly filled our little buckets and went home with un monton of strawberries!!

After taking them home it was time to clean and hull the berries. And eat some in the process.

Many hands make light work. We drove there, picked, cleaned, and hulled in an hour and a half. Not bad!

The family is coming! The family is coming!

Well, they've already arrived.

Yesterday began what feels like 2 1/2 weeks of vacation. I'm still working for a few more days, but having my brother, my sister-in-law, and my nieces here sure feels like vacation. Next week we are all (my parents included) heading up to Disneyland for a day, and from there I get to go on a vacation of sorts with my manfriend. So, vacation? Yes!

I haven't taken any pictures yet (bad!), but my mom did take this picture of my brother and I last night. We were forced to sit on the same chair, but decided to pose for the camera. Regal, no?

(By the way, that's a Charles Dickens book. Bro don't mess around!)