Era Gals Snowboarding Trip

Over my niece Kira's mid-winter break (late February) she, my sister Ronna, and I went to White Pass for 3 days of snowboarding. Ronna and Kira did beginner packages and by the end of day 3, they were snowboarding!  We stayed with my dad on the farm.  It was great to visit with him also. He made healthy smoothies for breakfast every morning and had dinner for us each night.  The trip was a blast and I got some time on the slopes while Kira and Ronna were in lessons. The Era gals rocked it!

 Nice picture of the slopes from the chair.

 Look at Kira go!

 Ronna all smiles.

Kira taking a load off after a long day learning to shred the gnar!

5th Annual Oyster Christmas

On Christmas Day we had our 5th annual Miller Oyster Brunch with our close friends and neighbors at our home.  It was another wonderful event with lots of grilled, fried, and raw oysters. Altogether we ate almost 12 dozen (144) oysters!  It rained but we had canopies and a fire, so the weather didn't stop us.

Our cozy place with a fire on the tele.

Mmmmmmm... Spanish coffee...

Lots of good food including our neighbor Jeff and Mereys' famous coffee cake and broccoli-onion fritatta.

 Good times!

Jeff on the grill and Eric on fry duty.

Making our midden on Central Street.

 Carmen LOVES oysters!

Christmas dinner at Mom and Dougs' house.  Mom made tofurky, ham and scalloped potatoes.

Meet Javi!

We adopted a second dog!  We drove over the snowy mountains and desert to central Washington (Yakima) to pick him up on New Years Eve.  He's really sweet and smart.  He's much smaller than we thought he was going to be based on the pictures from the Central Washington Humane Society's website.  He weighs about 20 pounds.  They estimate he's around 1.5 years old based on his teeth, but we think he might be younger.  His name is Javi (short for Javier), pronounced Ha-Vee.  We are all still adjusting to the change in our "pack", but it's going well.  Happy New Years!

Another Anniversary for the Books

For our anniversary in December (11 years married and 16 together) we went to the quaint and artsy town of Port Townsend again.  We stayed at our favorite dog-friendly hotel, the Palace Hotel.  The weather was very stormy, so we mostly window shopped and vintage-used clothing shopped at the many great stores in town.  We had a lovely time.

 This year we stayed in a new room to us at the Palace Hotel: Marie's room or the "Red Room" on the second floor facing the waterfront.

 Carmen enjoying the special treat of being allowed on her own couch.

 Waiting for coffee outside "Better Living Through Coffee".

 Neat alley picture...

 Still in love after 16 years!

Carmen enjoying the winds at the beach on Admiralty Inlet.

Orcas Island Thanksgiving 2012

Dad and I went to Orcas Island for Thanksgiving.  We had a very relaxed and fun time.  We even had 2 days of sunshine (which we took advantage of with hikes) amid a wet and stormy November.  Ronna took a lot more pictures than I did, so I'm hoping she posts some on her family blog.

Amazing rainbow while waiting for the ferry at Anacortes.

Sunset from the ferry - looking towards Orcas Island.  This never gets boring.

Ethan and his best friend Finn with a very large Doug Fir at Cascade Lake.

Carmen's cousin Ben.  What a cool dog.

Cascade Lake.

Nice new brewery in Eastsound.  Had to try the sampler...

Richmond Wedding - Part 2

Here are some more pictures from Betsy's wedding.  The first 4 pictures were taken by the wedding photographer and the rest by Eric's dad, Dave.

 Betsy and me before the wedding.  I love this photo because we both look so beautiful.

 I love how this picture really captures how much Betsy loves Eric.  She's a wonderful sister to have.

 Walking in to the reception at the Richmond Art Museum with the wedding party.

I danced Nani Hanalei for Betsy and Colin to honor them.

 Eric's (only) cousin Jessica and her husband Mike.

 Brandee and Dave.

 Eric with his second cousin Jacob (Jess and Mike's son).  Jake is a good dancer and he and Eric had an awesome dance off.

My post dance refreshment.

Alaska relatives visit

Mom's cousins from Alaska, Margaret (left) and Bee (right) came down to visit their relaitves in Washington and Oregon.  They stopped by our house in Olympia for a nice visit.  This was my first time meeting Bee. It was great to see them.