This past Friday Matthew and I had a MareBear and Jenny G over for a cooking night. I worked with MareBear and Jenny G while I was at the clinic in Issaquah. I really miss working with them, so we decided if we can't work together we should cook and play together! The funny thing about MareBear is that she actually went to the same high school with my husband and his younger brother. They didn't really know each other too well back then, but it just reminds me of how small the world is.
So we decided to have MareBear to teach us how to make potstickers! I have put potstickers together in the past when our good friend, Seasonally Red would make them for potluck parties, but this is the first time, that I have actually made the mixings too.
Jenny G. brought drinks that I have never heard of before, but they were spectacular. I think they are one of my new favorites. They are called IZZE Sparkling Juice and the Clementine was my favorite! The clementine soda actually reminds me of a patient I had while I was in Issaquah. He was a sweet old man that would always sing a song that went like this:
Oh her tears fall like wine
She's a red hot tomato
My darling Clementine
And then he would chuckle. I loved him!
Anyway, back to our food night! Us girls were in charge of making the mix and stuffing the wraps, while my Kitchen Kamikaze cooked the potstickers to perfection. Then we plated and enjoyed!
I don't remember how we got on the subject, but MareBear said something about how we had to teach her how to make something "white" since she was teaching us something "Asian." And we ended up showing her how to make oobleck. Do you know what oobleck is? It's a solid and a liquid. It's fun! The name comes from a Dr. Suess book called Bartholomew and the Oobleck. So we made oobleck and MareBear couldn't get enough of it!
Who knew that grown adults could have so much fun with potstickers and oobleck!
For Matthew's birthday this year I thought it would be fun to take him out to get the Monte Cristo Sandwich that he enjoyed from the restaurant that was connected to the hotel we stayed at when we visited Seattle for the first time. Matthew enjoyed it and we had a fun time going down memory lane and reflecting on our time here in Seattle. The only thing I am sorry about is that I forgot the camera, so I only got pictures with my phone.
Other than dinner we didn't do anything fancy this year. Matthew really enjoys going about his normal routine, so he he opened gifts and went to work. The one other thing that we did was get a pastry from the grocery store bakery that is right across the street from our apartment complex.
Matthew opening the gifts from his parental units
Matthew anticipating his yummy birthday pastry...oh and we didn't have candles so we used a match!
I wrote Matthew a love letter and arranged for him to get piano lessons with our friend Steph Q. Now he can put the keyboard Cynda and I got him last year to good use!
So this week it has been snowing in Seattle! If we were still in SLC this wouldn't really be news, but here it literally shuts everything down. There are a few things that contribute to this shut down. First, it doesn't snow here very often so they don't have the number of snow plows needed to properly maintain the roads. Second, even with the snow plows, the streets here have the bumpy lines to indicated lanes rather than the reflective lines so plowing the streets becomes more difficult. And third, many people here don't have 4-wheel drive and have no idea how to drive in the snow. Luckily, we have 4-wheel drive so we were still able to get around and I even made it to work, unlike many of my co-workers. Actually one of my co-waorkers stayed at our place one night so that she could make it in (we live like 10-15 minutes from my work).
Well it snowed for several days and we didn't do anything to clear our balcony off, so tonight when we went looking out there we realized that there was a pile of snow. Here is a video off what we found:
We met some of our good friends at the corner of Pike & Pike this weekend! We met these two love birds while in the singles ward in SLC and they decided to come for a quick trip to Seattle. We were lucky enough to join them for a few hours at our favorite Public Market, Pike Place! All we did was roam around, soaking in the beautiful flowers and crafts, quirky people and enjoying some yummy donuts while catching up and laughing. It was a slightly unusual weekend for Seattle as it snowed, but it was still a good time! Check out our friends favorite things in Seattle here!
This vacation was jam-packed full of friends, family and fun. Matthew and I wanted to spend as much time with our friends and family back in SLC and Vegas as possible since we hadn't seen many of them for at least 6 months and we knew it would be at least that long before we saw them again.
The adventure started almost immediately after landing. Matthew's mom picked us up from the airport and after dropping our bags off at the house dropped us off a a bus stop headed to meet the Taylor's in downtown SLC at the Discovery Museum. We played music, built towers, made movies, went to the grocery store and filled up on gas!
Matt and I at the bus stop and Cynda in the car making sure that we caught it
Discovering with the Taylors:
This is a movie that Cole and I created:
After leaving the Taylor's we met up with Alex, Elisa and Noah at the Gateway Mall. There the boys and girls split up to do some last minute holiday shopping. I got to hold and cuddle with Noah Boa which was a lot of fun. He is such a cutie. Every time I made a noise he would grunt back at me.
The Parental Units known as Steve and Cynda met up with us in the evening to go see the lights on Temple Square, then we went back to the PUs, had dinner and opened gifts. We debated waiting until Christmas morning to open gifts, but because Christmas was on Sunday this year and church was early and the plan was to go straightway to the Taylor's after church, we decided it would be easiest to open them Christmas Eve.
Cynda made us stockings since we didn't have any!
This is one of my fav pic of Cynda! She's so happy!
On Christmas we went to church and enjoyed time with family!
For the rest of the week we spent most of our days meeting up with friends or doing a puzzle with Mama Bowen. There was a small setback to our puzzling when Matthew thought it would be funny to hide a finished portion of the puzzle under a place mat and then Steve tried to pull what he thought was one piece and that portion of puzzle fell to the floor! Luckily it didn't take too long to get back on track.
Lunch with the Wardels (the back) and Fellows (forward R)
Us with The Lowrys(on L) and The Andersons (on R)
Kirsten Fischer and Matt Meldrum
Us and the Linderpeople celebrating Bean's Bday
Us with Sharon and Keyra after yummy Cafe Rio
Anthony Woolf! and Laura with her not so thrilled about sweater with the tag still on it!
The Waldrons
Me and Jill
Bryan, Afshin and Matthew
On the 30th we headed towards Vegas to spend New Years Eve with the Kofford clan. On the way we picked up the Linderpeople and shared a ride to save on gas and spend more time with Noah Boa, oh and Alex and Elisa!
We hung out with my fam in typical Kofford fashion! We went to Macayo's (our favorite Mexican restaurant) for dinner (we even brought Jordan along for the ride), we were loud and rowdy everywhere we went (at home, in the cars, at the mall, the restaurant, etc), we enjoyed giving and opening gifts, we had fun making and eating New Years snacks as well as watching movies and playing games.
Jordan dressed fancy for the occasion!!!
L: I can't tell is Noah is happy or disgusted with me! R: Learning the planking game early!
Bella is such a cuddle bug!
Jordan needed help deciding what to eat...and a little help eating it too!
When we got back to SLC, we topped off our visit spending a little more time with the Taylor's and homemade hot air balloons and making a few more stops to see some friends.
Hot Air Ballooning:
Third times a charm; video of our successful launch!
Dinner with the Dorm Crew:
Mrs. Longlooper (Mr. Longlooper couldn't make it)
Ash and Rusty
The Lee FamiLee!!
Gregily and the chill-ins
TJ with B and T
It was a great vacation, that I definitely needed. I know that moving was the right thing for Matthew and I to do, but it has not been easy. I think that's the biggest reason why it was right. We grow and progress by being tried and stretched right? Work is crazy and I have mixed feelings about it right now, so it was good to get a breather and see so many people that I love.
