Christmas in New York

Right before Christmas I had a work trip to NYC.  It was a quick in-and-out visit but the night I was there I managed to visit Rockefeller Center to see the giant Christmas tree and the ice-skating rink.  I've never been to New York around the holidays and was quite excited to take in some of the 'traditional' sites.

Taxi ride in from JFK

In Jacques Torres Chocolate

The tree!

30 Rock ;)

Merry Christmas!

Catch Up Posting!

You know you love these posts --- the ones that show how much I've neglected my blog over the past months and have a lot of random things to cram into one giant blog roll?  Well, this is one of those!  Honestly, these types of posts are really the most telling because it will give you a snapshot into what is really going on in my brain at all times --- always hopping from one thought to the next :)  Here goes...

Baby Shower for Stratton Mary Michaels
A few girlfriends and I got together and hosted a shower for our dear friend, Blake.  She's due in early January with her first baby, Miss Stratton Mary.  If you think that sounds "Southern," you'd be right -- Blake is from Macon, Georgia (and went to UGA...but I don't hold that against her!).  We all chipped in and brought food and decor, games etc.  My assignment was the gift for guests, instead of food or something that would end up in the trash, we did pink and grey nail polish, after Blake's nursery colors.

The Hostesses with Blake
L to R: Nicole, Kim, Lauren, Blake, me, Priscilla

Heliotrope Ridge Trail Ski Tour

The day after the shower, Will redeemed a coupon for a ski tour (I made him some sports-related coupons for our anniversary). The idea was that we'd get in some nice turns early in the season - it was really clear and a beautiful day.  The reality was we hiked with our skis on our packs for most of the day and then had a few small turns in an area that I was not comfortable with. We were off trail because there weren't many people out and we were following some ski tracks that had been put in and we knew it wasn't right but thought the winter route may have taken a different route than Will was familiar with.  End of day, we learned not to follow existing tracks just because they are there or people ahead of you are taking them.  Go with your instincts, your knowledge of the terrain, and make good decisions.  Overall, even though we hiked with skis most of the time, it was beautiful out on Mt. Baker and we got in a nice workout.

Iced waterfall

Whistler, BC

Next up --- Thanksgiving in Canada.  Sounds funny to say, eh? We went to Whistler to ski again this year over Thanksgiving like we did last year. Technically, we were there the day after Thanksgiving; our friends up the hill, Kal and Amy, were kind enough to invite us to have Thanksgiving dinner at their house again this year (I failed to take a photo). Whistler is such a nice resort and not super crowded early on in the season. Roughly a third or a fourth of the mountain was open, if I had to guess, but still plenty to keep us busy while we were there.  We had a little studio condo with a full kitchen right by the lifts.  The days went like this: wake up, Will would make coffee and breakfast and get everything packed while I dress (b/c he always wants to be first one in line at the lifts), ski until about 2 pm, afternoon nap and tv watching session, cook dinner and walk around Whistler Village. Oh, and all the while having a nice drink or two, or three :)  I have a feeling we'll be back for many more American Thanksgivings to come...

California

Mini-update but still wanted to include this one for the photo alone.  I went to California for work, UC Davis, who happen to be the "Aggies"... so fitting!

Cows on campus!

Parties

The last section to this update will be "parties" --- including a Stella & Dot jewelry party that I hosted, a birthday diner, and a cookie swap party at Priscilla's house with my close group of girlfriends. Blake is a Stella & Dot stylist: http://www.stelladot.com/sites/blakemichaels and she brought over her jewelry to host a party.  It was lovely and I think everyone who came had a nice time and got some great Christmas gifts.

Last week my friends and I got together for "Mexican Monday's" at Poquitos in Capitol Hill to celebrate Kim's (from Texas, sort of) birthday.  She regularly has "Mexican Monday's" throughout the year so it was only fitting that we do this for her big day. To add just a bit more commentary, it was exactly 20 degrees last week in Seattle, the coldest it's ever been since moving here, so in the group photo below you will see me in a giant puffy vest, which I wore under my giant, below-the-knee, puffy coat --- and I was warm!  Only thing I needed was a pair of puffy boots.  A bit off topic, but this is my favorite coat of all time, so if you need a dependable go-to, that's super warm, comfortable, machine-washable, check out the Patagonia puffer.  I purchased a kid's one for about half the price as the 'adult' version so if you're petite, I'd recommend going this route. Mine is the black one below, but looks like they have replaced it with a chevron-style (sans hood) this year. A jacket in Seattle without a hood is a deal-breaker for me though. http://www.patagonia.com/us/shop/girls?k=eY

And, lastly, a picture from last night's get together at Priscilla's (from South Carolina) house. I had to include this because my friend Corinna (from Mississippi) just had her second baby, Georgia Leigh.  Do you see a theme with lots of my "Seattle" friends, haha! Here I am, holding her 5-week old sweetie; not a peep came out of her all night, so well behaved!

That's it, sum, finito, done!  I'm heading out next week to NYC for work then directly to Alabama to visit my family then to Atlanta to visit my inlaws for Christmas.  What I'm hinting at is don't expect another post until after the new year.  So, my dear readers, until then, have a very Merry Christmas!  

To the South I go...

I headed down south to Atlanta to visit my best friends and of course my favorite little children - Vivi and Harrison.  I took a red-eye from Seattle two Friday's ago and landed in Atlanta bright and early on Saturday morning.  Jessica was there with coffee and a smile to pick me up at 6:00 am!  The weekend was very busy, I guess that's a given when you have a 2 year old and an almost 1 year old :)  

The first thing we did was go to gymnastics with Vivian.  She was definitely the best in the class, and I'm not just saying that...she really was! We spent a long weekend doing stuff with the kids and also had some quality girl time while Gavin watched the little ones. The weather was sunny and really nice while I was in town as well, so I took Tobi (puppy) out for a walk one day and he loved frolicking in the leaves with me.

Straight from my trip to Atlanta I flew to Davis, CA for work then headed up to San Francisco for another work trip, then finally home back to Seattle to see Will.  It was a long week but full of nice weather, nice places and I loved getting to visit my besties in Atlanta.

Harrison enjoying his favorite pastime...

VIvi showing Aunt Meme how to use
an iPad.

Baby Harrison Boy (as Viv calls him)

Gavin, Sara, and Tommy

Getting beautified

Viv found her mother's high heels and
was very good wearing them!

 

Happy Tobi

Birthday in Bend, OR

For Will's 32nd birthday we went to Bend, Oregon for a long weekend.  We went last year for his birthday, too :)  It's such an awesome place - good climbing, mountain biking, great beer and food!  We stayed at the same place as last time, McMenamins - Old St. Francis School http://www.mcmenamins.com/OldStFrancis. The hotel is a cool and quirky place that used to be an old Catholic school.  There's a pub with home-made beer, a theater, cigar bar with fire pits, and a soaking tub with muraled walls and a skylight open to the outside air. This year we spent the first day with a guide we had on our trip on the Haute Route, or as I like to refer to it, "Snowpocalipse 2013"http://melaniemeidson.blogspot.com/2013/04/haute-routeverbier-arolla-and-beyond.html.  Pete Keane owns Timberline Mountain Guides http://timberlinemtguides.com/ and has been climbing at Smith Rock a long time.  We hooked up with him for a day to give us our first intro to trad climbing class.  He brought his rack of gear and taught us the basics about how to climb routes placing your own pro.  He top-roped the routes for us and then we lead them using his rack, learning how to place cams and nuts in just the right spots up the huge rock walls.  It was an awesome day, perfect weather, and such a cool day of climbing.  I'm excited about getting our own trad gear and starting to practice placing it so soon we can lead our own routes.  If you're ever in need of a mountain guide, check out Pete's company -- he does everything from ski mountaineering, rock climbing, to international trips and he's a really cool guy.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped by Crux Fermentation Project http://cruxfermentation.com/, one of the newer breweries in town, for a pint. It was not our favorite pub of the weekend but had a good atmosphere and a phenomenal view out the front door. After cleaning up, we headed out to Deschutes http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/locations/bend for dinner.

We spent our second day mountain biking at Phil's Trails.  I lasted about an hour and a half until it started snowing/raining on us and my feet got cold.  Will kept riding for a while and I sat in the car getting toasty.  He rode the "Whoops" trail, which was his favorite part of the weekend he said.  I gave him a bump up the trail head again so he could ride it twice.  He busted through the woods to the car with mud all over his face and bike with a huge smile.  We headed lunch after that and had amazing burritos and beer :)

To relax ourselves before dinner, I booked us massages at a little place in downtown.  It felt so great to have a warm and relaxing massage after two hard days of playing outside.  For dinner that night we went to Jackson's Corner http://www.jacksonscornerbendor.com/, or as locals refer to it, 'The Corner' for pizza.  It's such a neat little place with a cozy back corner where we played checkers, drank and ate. For dessert I had mini pumpkin pie with a caramelized praline topping and vanilla ice cream... YUM!  After a nice long dinner we went back to our hotel to hang out by the fire before turning in.

On the last day in Bend we slept in, drank coffee in bed while reading comics then rolled by the local coffee shop to get us ready for our 6 hour drive home.  Such a great weekend.  Visit bend if you haven't already, trust me.