Happy New Year - Happy New Roof

Happy New Year!!

This year we've treated ourselves to a new roof!! We've talked about if for a couple of years and finally bit the bullet. Yay us!

On Christmas Eve we went out for Indian food (yummy) and Aaron drove us around looking at houses that were decorated. It was pretty fun and there were a lot of blocks that were decorated.


After sleeping in on Christmas, we openned some fabulous presents. Aaron got tools, including a big power cord to use with his blower from his birthday. Now he can blow leaves and pineneedles all the way from the yard to the road. Go Aaron, go!

Anner got a lot of "things that are red", including a cute little tea kettle that looks perfect on the new stove. Can I just say, how much we love the new stove? We've baked almost every day since we've gotten it. Oh-oh! That could be a problem, eh?

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Happy Birthday Grandma Elise

On Monday, Aaron and I got home from our fourth trip to MN this year. Here's the Trip in pictures:

This was the pre-party for Grandma's 98th birthday, which is on Christmas Day. Aaron and I made out like bandits on this trip because everyone gave us our chrismaunikah presents.

Mom's house was decked out!! Martha Stewart has NOTHING on my mom's holiday decor.

There was an ity bity snow storm while we were there. (Nothing like the blizzard that's going on as I type). Aaron wanted to use a snow blower, but sadly all mom has is this blue shovel.

Heidi and her family met us at Mall of America for an afternoon. We had SO much fun.

...and then we ate:

Homemade sweet rolls. I don't know exactly how to describe the fluffy sweetness, but everyone should be so lucky as to get to taste these. Mom also made homemade bread, which she used for french toast and we put homemade peach syrup on it. Yu-ummy!

This is one of several jello desserts offered up to Aaron.

Jello Fluff at the grocery store.

And as if that wasn't all super-cool...check out the red tail (we think) hawk that was perched right out of Mom's kitchen window. Pretty darned cool!



We also saw all the kids and had a great time, but I realize I don't have many usable pictures to post for that. Still, it was a great time and we're glad we made the snowy trip home.

Hello New Stove!

We were down to one small burner and an oven that kept temperature to its own liking. Cooking was like playing the lottery....you always started out with big dreams of a two course meal that wasn't burnt or undercooked... but it was up to fate if you'd win a delicious meal or not.

After an exhaustive research project we finally bit the bullet and bought a new stove. We've been cooking ever since and testing as many of the features as we can!

Good-bye old stove. Say high to Aaron's darned-fuzzy-slippers...




Hello new stove:

It glows when we boil water.


there's a big window and light so we can watch things bake. We didn't even have a window in the old stove.



And look! Things turn out pretty good! (I knew I wasn't a horrible cook, no matter how bad the old stove made me feel!)

Fare Thee Well...fuzzy slippers

I simply couldn't believe it when Aaron called with the news, "The slippers need to go" he said.


I've been saying that for the past five years. Aaron was steadfast in his love and loyalty for the fuzzy slippers, which he said had just the right amount of ventilation. In recent months he had taken to sewing up the gaping holes in his slippers and referring to them as his, 'darned slippers'....call them what you like...they served him well but he's right, it's time for them to go.

Ba-bye darn-fuzzy-slippers. We'll miss you. And my "we" I mean, "Aaron".

Striker gets a new home...

My co-worker's baby shower was last week and it was time for Striker to move to his new home.

I think he's completely adorable. So did my co-worker's dog. I can see it though. The difference between a kid's toy and a dog's toy is so very slight. Since the incident with family pet, Striker has taken residence on a high shelf....a place of honor. (I still need to finish the blanket. When complete, I'll post a pic.)

In other news:

My honey's home. MY HONEY'S HOME!!! I need to sign off because we made a committment to lay on the couch and watch TV on demand... now that's the good life!

Have a happy halloween!

Road Trip to Shelton

Aaron and I went on a big road trip to Shelton, WA last weekend. I had to take a day off of work because of our work schedules. Boss gave me a hard time because really, Shelton is a couple hours away. Any excuse to be out with my honey is fine by me.

We went out to Shelton to see an artist friend of Aaron's. They were incredibly nice and fabulous hosts. We had a great time. We'd have fun no matter what, but getting out of town is always a treat.

Went to the High Steel Bridge. Some locals told us about it. We had to follow a few forest service roads in the rain but the car did just fine. The bridge WAS high and the view was pretty cool. It was super misty, trees were turning colors, there was a river and a falls.

While we were visiting Aaron really liked the wood pile. We have a lot of pictures like this one. I'd have to agree it's pretty cool.

On one of our stops I went into a little local jewelery store because they said there was an estate jewelry sale. Turns out they had wood watches! How cool is that?? We HAD to own one. This was a RARE trip where Aaron out spent me. Well done!

Out for lunch at a little Mexican place. We were huuuungry.

We were surprised by how many dahlias we saw on our trip. Entire yards full. We're so jealous!

Seattle Picker Meets Striker the Sock Critter

Every watch that show, American Pickers?
http://www.history.com/shows/american-pickers

It's on the History Channel, so you know it's good. These two guys drive around the country stopping at housed that have a lot of junk, er, ah....I mean a treasure trove of Americana, rusting in their yards. The guys "pick" through it and buy the, ummmm....fabulous artifacts. Then they take it back to their shop in Iowa were a gothy-take-no-crap girl behind the counter awaits. She turns around and re-sells it at a profit. Everyone wins!!

It's Aaron's favorite show.

As it turns out there's an gentleman of a certain age out here in Seattle who's been making jewelery for his entire life time. He's decided to turn his sights more to wood working and was selling all his jewelery supplies and tools. I say, "was" because Aaron saw the advertisement about a week ago.

It all started out simple enough, Aaron yells from the other room, "Honey, I'm going to take a little money out and go see this guy...okay?" As if I would ever say 'no' it's quickly follow-up with, "You buy a lot of shoes..." With that he's reminded me...I haven't bought any shoes for fall!! Completely distracted, I ask myself just what I've been doing with Labor Day so close...I can't wear sandals much longer... Um? I decide I better answer Aaron, "Great! Have fun!" Meanwhile, I log onto the laptop and bought myself "a few things" to help "freshen up" the fall wardrobe. No need to go into details here. The important thing is that Aaron visits "the guy" and comes home completely thrilled with his purchase. What was it? Mmm? No idea. I just know it made my honey happy.

A few days later, he's still talking about all the stuff at the old guy's shop. He starts telling his friends. Then he tells me he's going to go get a few more things. No worries there, I figure. Then as he's getting ready, "Hey, think I can borrow your debit card...I don't think I can take enough money out with just one card." Dear lord!! I've clearly not been keeping up with my end of the shoe deal. I hand over my card and Aaron heads out on his adventure. While he's out, I thumb through a catalog...searching for the perfect pair of boots.

His trip didn't take long. A couple of hours later the most happy hubby in the world returned home- my very own American Picker.



He tried to show me all his newly "picked" loot, but all he could say, "there's a box of stuff...and another box of stuff....not sure what's in this one but it's a big box of stuff..."

I had planned to borrow the car this week but my seat was occupied by a kiln. What could I do? Check this out.... Aaron loves this whachamacallit:


He's spent the rest of the week and all day Saturday unloading, cataloging, and photographing all of these amazing items. Look out Craigslist....

Meet Striker
This is my latest sock critter. I call him Striker but he's also known as "slugg-a-sorous" --- I'm not sure what name suits him.

Here he is, on the left.


Front view of his slug-like face:


Side view of this stegosaurus-like back:


We also had the kids here for a little Camp A2 --- totally great time with them! We just glad they still like to come over. They missed the ice cream social, so we were sure to recreate it for them in the kitchen. It was good times...



And finally, our lone dahlia for this season. It just wasn't very warm or sunny and the dahlias didn't really bloom. We're thinking of bringing them inside with a plant light so maybe they'll bloom by December. You can always hope.

SUGAR HIGH

Another successful ice cream social! Even thought the 10-day forecast looked sketchy, the rain managed to stay away and it was all systems go!

We had a great group of people, including about 10 high-energy little kids --- who I think truly appreciate the ice cream social.

This is half of the best topping bar ever!
This year - an ENTIRE table just for sprinkles!


Aaron made mini-donuts, (yes, donuts), mini-cookies, and mini-marshmallows. He likes mini.

SOOOO CUTE!



Anner made krumkake and cut the circles into 4ths to get cute little cookies. We noticed that some people just took the krumkake, put some homemade whip cream on it and then cover it with toppings. They skipped the ice cream all together! Genius!




New this year was homemade caramel apple topping. Big hit and really tasty! We noticed quite a few people eating it straight or with some peaches. ...because caramel makes everything better!


Some parents metered the ice cream out for their kids. Smart thinkin!


There's no end to the ice cream sundae creativity.

PEACHES!!!

Fresh from the orchard! Aaron surprised me a couple of days ago by buying 20 pounds of fresh peaches from the other side of the state!!! He said he used some of his bday money from my mom and Mary. Thanks Minnesotans!!

I started "putting them up" with five decent bags (quarts???) in the freezer tonight.

Aaron's a smart fella...he knows this means fresh peach crisp in the dead of winter. YUMMY!

The rest? Well, they are totally irresistible so we've been munching away all we can and maybe we'll need to make some pancake syrup or something like that. The big ice cream social is rescheduled for this Saturday so perhaps some of the best peaches ever can be in the best toppings bar ever!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AARON AND SANTA FE

Aaron and Santa Fe share a birthday!! Turns out Santa Fe is 361 years older than Aaron. We had a great time celebrating his birthday with Ed and Brigit -- who are moving away from Seattle (sniff, sniff) and then jetting off to Santa Fe.

Santa Fe claims to be the second biggest art market, second to NYC. Who knew? We was some amazing art and had to buy some for ourselves.

We also did a lot of wedding activities. The wedding was amazing and really reflected the personality of the bridge and groom. It's always extra-fun to attend weddings like that.

We're home again and trying to get back into the swing of things. Here are some pictures!


Aaron and his second birthday cake. Yup! He got TWO cakes this year. This one is a single-layer version of the cake he grew up with. There's still a piece in the freezer that he's saving. The other cake was made with an entire bottle of maple syrup. He loved it. Any why not? It was ALL sugar!


In Santa Fe there's "Canyon Road" which is a long stretch of really nice galleries. We spent more than a day walking up and down it, trying to take it all in. We took lots of pictures of the doors, flowers, and art.


Sunflowers on Canyon Road.


Street in the center of Santa Fe, near the Plaza. (Anner loved the Pop gallery.)

These three pictures were taken in Bandeleir National Monument. There were a few miles of trails and you could climb up into some Pueblos. The last one was 140 feet straight up. It was incredibly beautiful. We spent the morning of the wedding there. It was about an hour north of Santa Fe.

After we did our hike, we had to hurry back to hotel. We got home a little late, showered and changed in half-an-hour and then hurried to the wedding site. This time, just 45 mins north of Santa Fe.

All the hurrying was worth it. Bandelier was amazing and the wedding was amazing. We're glad we could do both.




The Wedding!

Driving to the wedding spot. We followed a school bus full of wedding-goers.

Anner and Aaron. Behind us there's a weird sculpture looking thing. Turns out it's a fireworks machine!!! A wedding with fireworks! I l-o-v-e-d the fireworks! HolyMoly that was cool!


Aaron and the Groom chatting. Drew's suit was made for him in India. Pretty swank, eh? Why is Aaron wearing a scarf? Well, as it turns out, Aaron was not only the jeweler, but also an usher. Drew gave all the ushers scarves from the World Cup to wear. It looked pretty cool all the guys and their sport scarves. It was a fun and personal touch.


You know I love the flowers. 'nuf said.


Here comes an usher! So handsome...



Sunset in Santa Fe.
Ba-bye Santa Fe. Happy birthday.
And Happy birthday to my honey...