Welcome Back

I'm back! Sorry I didn't post on vacation. I didn't do much of anything on vacation. We had a really lovely holiday with the families. Thanksgiving in Oregan was wet but fun. We hadn't seen some people since our wedding and all the others we hadn't seen in a couple years at least. All the kids had grown so much! Greg's Aunt and cousins did a wonderful job putting together a very tasty meal and were even willing to deal with our tofu-turkey! We enjoyed a "young people's" movie night, tours of Mcminnville, and lots of time to visit.

One activity the entire family did one afternoon was go to the local museum of flight to see the Spruce Goose. This was the plane you may have seen in the movie The Aviator. It is the largest wooden plane ever built and was only flown once by its creator Howard Hughes. It filled the entire museum and was so big all the other planes fit down below its wings. Amazing that it ever got up in the air!

We drove up to Seattle after stopping for Hazelnuts and a wine tasting (Oregan is now a hotspot for wine production! Who knew!). While in Seattle there was a snow storm that shut down the whole city. I tell you, these people have no idea what to do in the snow! There were no plows in Renton where we were so we were pretty much stranded at home. Next time I am packing some salt in my suitcase! Don't worry, salt can't "hurt the roads" if you only use it twice a year!!!!!!!!! The snow forced me to cancel a lot of my plans to visit people and do things but we did manage to see my sister's new house, do a little shopping (3 new pairs of shoes for me!!!!), and I even got to see baby Ava for a little while. I love this photo of her!Plus I got to sit and visit with my mom a lot which is always nice. She gave me a lesson on ironing which I needed help with. The new washer/dryer leaves our clothes so wrinkled I am now having to iron more than 4x a year and I wanted to learn some of my mom's secret techniques for quick ironing. She can iron a shirt in like 10 seconds or something crazy like that.

Here is Greg acting like a dork! I had to throw that in. Being trapped inside during the snow did give me an excuse to knit and get my hats finished for HFNY. Here I am wearing the basketweave hat. I liked the style so much I knit an extra hat for myself out of some cheap black yarn I picked up on my last day in town. I got the hat finished in time to wear on the plane. I sleep best when I am really warm.

Well, there is a brief re-cap. For those I didn't get to see while in Seattle, don't worry, we will be back before summer time.