Icy Field Work

I had some cold field work in Moses Lake (central WA) this week. These posted pictures really capture the winter wonderland...

Everything was coated in these amazing ice crystals

You can't say I don't get into my work! We had to break through the ice in some places to get to our sampling sites. Most of the time we could just walk on the ice. Yikes!

The Winter wonderland...

December 25th - Highest Tide, Oysterfest, Christmas Dinner

This was an eventful Christmas in Olympia. We started it off by heading downtown to see Olympia's highest tide of the year. After that we celebrated a Miller tradition by having friends over for a breakfast of grilled, raw, and fried oysters. Later, we had a very nice Christmas dinner with Brandee's mom and Doug. We even got a white Christmas! We miss everyone we couldn't be with today and reflect on how grateful we are for everyone and everything in our lives. Merry Christmas!

Croissant -time to wake up

The Highest Tide - and a chilly morning at Percival Landing

Carmen ran into Bingo at the waterfront!

Santa was a little tired after delivering all of those presents to good boys and girls

Fresh Oysters from Taylor United in Shelton

Grillin' - Our neighbor Jeff brought over his grill

Keeping the Miller tradition alive - Beautifully fried oysters

Neighbors Merey and Jeff with some stout and oysters

Men around the fire pit on a chilly Christmas morning

(Jeff, Aaron, Cree, Eric - and Bailey)

Jeff, Merey, Aaron, Eric, and Patricia

Christmas dinner at the Pankretz's home
White Christmas in Olympia and the snow pup loves it!

All worn out with her candy cane and new personalized food dish - thanks Betsy!

A Long Overdue Posting...

It's been a while since we last posted on the blog. A lot has happened and we've been very busy. Brandee had two consecutive weeks of field work in Eastern Washington. In that time we've seen snow, a lot of rain, the passing of Brandee's grandfather, Willard, Brandee's clinching of the Seattle cyclocross series single speed category, a new roof for the house (just in time!) and a lot of work on the house, including an unexpected upgrade to our furnace.

Snow Pup

A rain on snow event leads to this - some of the worst flooding in the area (Lewis County)

Brandee on her way to clinching the series victory, just before the snow fell

"Supervisor" Carmen overseeing another home project

A new gutter for the garage with a lot of help from the Captain

Home Maintenance Headquarters - a new shop bench

Thanksgiving Sleepover

Eric and I spent Thanksgiving with Ronna, Grant, and the kids at my Dad's house. We all later visited Grandpa in hospital. Kira then stayed the night at our new house for the first time. It was a nice holiday with family.

2 Seconds of Fame!

A picture of Brandee jumping the barriers at last weekend's Cyclocross race at South SeaTac was posted in Velonews, a nationwide premiere cycling magazine. Check it out at the following link: http://www.velonews.com/photo/html/photo1895.html