more washington photos

we had fun at sharon's for christmas.  everyone was there, except for leah and her family.  brynn got a leapster and ava got a razor scooter from santa.  the night before emma threw up and on x-mas day dexter did not feel good.  wasn't sure what was wrong, but gave him some baby tylenol to ease whatever pain he was in.  brandon was so tired that he slept for most of christmas day.  he did managed to play some cards with us and when rhonda and laura yelled at him (rhonda yelling at him for being slow and laura yelling at him because he beat her by one point), he went to bed.  :) 

erika has her baby bump and she looked really cute.  baby is due on july 7.  she will find out the sex of the baby sometime in february. 

we left on sunday morning around 8:20 and got to diamond springs at 9:40.  we found out on christmas day that clara had passed away at 4:00 that morning.  we were so hoping that we would be able to see her, but i guess it was her time to go.  we will miss playing cards with her.

we got home on monday late afternoon and it feels good to be home.  dexter is feeling better too and is back to his old prancy self.  all we need to do now is sell our place!

brynn building her snowman - before and after

laura loves our furry babies

dexter is so pooped.  resting his head on the bar of the chair



emma likes to look at you while you are driving and she will keep on looking until you pet her.  the landscape on the left is of klamath falls.  the blue sign in the right picture welcomed us back to california!



washington photos - day 3



sharon made the snowman - so cute!  as you can see, we were bribing emma and dexter with treats so i could get a picture of them :)




emma is modeling




isn't this cute???  i am not that artistic - rhonda made them.




according to brynn, that is frosty the snowman's house :)




aaron shoveling snow as emma and dexter watches




dexter having fun in the snow.  at the beginning he always shivers, then he's okay after he runs around.




sharon made cookies for x-mas. 




aaron helped decorated them




brynn was watching and dexter was begging for crumbs :)




rhonda making swedish creams - one of my favorites :)




aaron is such a good helper!




brynn watching strawberry shortcake movie on my laptop :)



on the road

we got on the road at 4:30 on sunday morning to head to washington.  we made it in 15-1/2 hours.  emma and dexter did really well - we stopped 4 times for them for potty breaks.  below are some pictures on the way to our destination.



mt. shasta




this was our view as soon as we passed the california border into oregon.  we saw this view for the next 4 hours.  never ending route 97.




our rest stop in bend, oregon.  i thought dexter wouldn't like the snow because he gets cold easily - proved me wrong.  emma and dexter doesn't mind the snow at all.




an imprint of my license plate




aaron getting snow off the car.



emma had a puppy

before and after

my friend chris has a friend maryanne that does staging on the side (maryann's fulltime job is an interior designer), so i figured why not give her a try and see how she does with our house.  she offered such a great deal that we couldn't pass up.  we figured why not - it doesn't hurt, if anything, it'll help selling our house.

maryanne and megan showed up at around 10:00 this morning and finished around 2:30.  at first i thought they were going to put some things together and bamn! our house would be done.  but they went back and forth to see if that certain art work looks right, or if that furniture looks okay in that space, etc.  trust me, i took notes!  all the furniture are ours, with the exception of the dining table.  she said she wanted to break up the white cause our dining table was white.  some paintings are ours and some are maryanne's.  the bedding are all ours.  some pillows are hers and some are ours.  and they thought that our side tables in each of the rooms were very cute - yes, i did tell aaron that they said that :)

i love how the house looks now and i hope that a potential buyer will fall in love with the house too :)  below are before and after pictures.

den

dining area

guest bedroom

guest bedroom

master bedroom

living room

kitchen

master bathroom

guest bathroom

what a good listener

this is what dexter does when you talk to him.  and if you keep talking, he gets all excited thinking (hoping) that you'll give him something. 

gone, but not forgotten

november 20 was riley's birthday.  there is not a day that doesn't go by that i don't think about him.  i miss him terribly, but i'm glad we had five fun years with him.  he is our doggie angel looking down on us from above.  i picture him running around and eating all the yummie treats he could get his paws on.  we love you riley.

find your happy pace

while aaron ran a half marathon in clarksburg (in sacramento), thanhha, ami and i ran a 5k in san francisco.  it was an all women's run called the mermaid run.  our goal was to come in by 45 minutes and we did!  we came in around 43:37.  i am so proud of thanhha and ami!  i think they are ready for the next 5k :).  afterwards, we celebrated with some yummie lunch and ice cream at fenton's. 

weather was gorgeous and you can't beat the view!

our reward for getting up early and running 3.1 miles :)

13.1 miles on toesocks

on halloween morning aaron and his friend ron ran a half marathon from downtown san jose to los gatos high school.  they were just jogging it and their finish time was 1:45.  i guess they would have gone a couple of minutes slower, but this girl passed ron and he couldn't let a girl beat him, so he chased her and of course, passed her. 

aaron in his toesocks.  this helps keep his feet from blistering.  i tried it on and it felt weird!

party!

every year at work we have a halloween potluck and contest.  let's just say i could have gotten a lot more work done today!  some of the costumes we had - vampire beauties, dog the bounty hunter, a pimp, drunk college student, hockey player, dorothy and her lion, pacman and the ghost she gobbled up, giants fan, crazy disney fan, village belle and her little belle, pirate, and a circus assistant lady (sorry lisa, didn't know the name of your character).  we had a lot of fun and i'm already of thinking what i could be next year :)

pretty please???

disney on ice

lianne and i spent some time together on saturday by watching disney on ice magical adventures and afterwards, playing at the park.  as soon as the lights were dimmed, lianne were clapping her hands.  she kept asking where lilo was and i told her that lilo was taking a nap.  lianne then asked where stitch was and i told her stitch was taking a nap with lilo.  lianne seemed satisfied with the answer, but she asked me again five minutes later, and five minutes after that, and five minutes after that.  of course when lilo and stitch went on, she got out of her seat and screamed.  she recognized the music and started to dance and waved her little light toy.  so cute!!!  lianne kept asking what happened to lilo and stitch when their number was over - i told her they got tired and had to go nap. 

when we were walking to our car, lianne saw the carousel and a park across the street and of course, that's where we went.  she didn't want to leave, so i bribed her with ice cream.  i figured i could do that because i'm the aunt and i could spoil my niece :)  and yes, i did get her ice cream. i had fun with lianne and i think she had a great time too!

lianned loved the carousel.  all the other kids kept looking at her - she didn't care.  whee!!!