Oh Christmas Tree...

I can't believe it's already December 21st... officially winter! I'm not sure where the month went. This is the first December I've worked full time in I don't know how many years... which of course has created a bit more stress with preparing for Christmas. I'm used to going out during the days, early in the month and getting everything done before the crowds set in. Not this year. I am happy to say we are a couple of gift cards away from being done with all shopping! It gets a bit hard when you have more than 20 people to buy for. Plus the normal joys of Christmas, got all the decorations up the day after Thanksgiving, after black Friday shopping of course. Also made our yearly trip to the Delplanche Christmas tree farm... got our tree up and decorated, lights, ribbon and all. I'm hoping we'll have time to enjoy the holiday and the 4 day weekend it brings with it. Merry Christmas everyone!

Our tree

Some of my favorite ornaments... mostly from a small store in Coeur d'Alene

Love the jellyfish

and the Poker chips

Gotta represent volleyball

Santa's boot

Cable car from San Fran

Looks like Santa came early

Photo Catch Up

So it's obviously been a loooonnng time since I've written anything. I decided instead of writing about the last 4 months, I would just put photos up. Here are photos from the rest of the trip in July until Halloween. Not many photos since then. We had a great Thanksgiving and lots of family birthday get togethers... as always. I will try to be much better about updating - just for you Jason, since I'm pretty sure you're the only one who checks this. Until then, enjoy the season, and try to stay warm!

SNL theme Halloween party - Schweady Balls skit...

Ducks vs. Washington State - Cold but beautiful night

Great game

Tailgating for the Ducks vs. Utah

Annual Frybackyard Olympics... Yep that's gold my partner and I won at Lawn Darts

Skipping the first day of school - At Lincoln City with my mom

Lombard St

Giants Baseball game

Ghirardelli Square

Cable cars in San Fran

In San Francisco at the 21st Amendment Brewery

Kayaking in the San Juan Islands

The rest of the trip

I realized I never finished posting about Orcas Island and our trip back home. Tuesday was our second day at Orcas and just happend to be our 2nd anniversary. We started the day with a boat ride around Shaw Island off Orcas where we saw an unusal boat... great photo opp...

After we got back we headed into town and walked around the shops (all very expensive) and then headed back to the house. In the mornings when the tide is low there is a rock ridge right off the house and later in the day people go walking on it when they keep getting further and further away from shore but no more than knee deep (as long as you stay on the ridge). We headed out there, and of course Josh had to skip rocks towards the shore instead of from the shore.

After dinner we went kyaking (me for the first time) around the sound by the house. Just the fact that I even went was huge for me... if I'm on the water the bigger the thing under me the better in my opinion. Even though I loved our boat when we had one, I wasn't the one behind it, always in for the ride. After kayaking we decided for something we could do together, take a ride in a little row boat. We each rowed a bit, then I just took over. I loved rowing, just randomly to nowhere for a while.

I am still hoping to get the pictures of us kayaking from Josh's cousin so hopefully I can post those eventually.

On the last day we took the boat out to a reef and walked around with all the creatures it has to offer. I wish we did that every other day we were there, it was quite fun exploring the reef with family. I think the child Amy would have been jealous of me at that moment. I used to love looking around at Haystack Rock on the coast, this was way better than that, and there wasn't anyone else there but our family.

After we got back to shore off we headed back to the ferry to start our long drive home. Apparently our GPS thinks we can drive on water... sounds good.

The Ferry and 1st night at Orcas Island

Josh skipping rocks as we wait to board the ferry at Anacortes

On the ferry on our way to Orcas Island

Another ferry making a stop in the San Juans.

After arriving at the ferry terminal at Anacortes early and finding out it was running late, we finally drove onboard and off we went. I loved the ferry and had never been on one before (besides the tiny Canby Ferry, whoa). The views of the islands were beautiful and the weather was perfect with the breeze off the water. We got to the house right before sunset and had a great view our first night there. A nice relaxing night after driving from Cle Elum through Seattle and waiting for the ferry.

Our first Sunset on Orcas Island

Not a bad view from the beach at our house

I wish I could sit and watch this every night.

Sitting on the deck after sunset

Downtown Roslyn and Ronald

The closest towns to where we were was Ronald, and Roslyn (where Northern Exposure was filmed). Not much in these towns. A couple bars, Cousin Ryan and Melinda went to a couple, one was so sketch Ryan didn't want to leave Melinda alone while he went to the bathroom. And some of the locals asked Melinda if Ryan was a Seahawk... sure. Josh and I drove through the town and were back to our cabin in 5 minutes. We loved the Ronald Fire Station below. Good thing there wasn't any fires.

Ronald's Fire Station

Roslyn Movie Theater

Josh outisde the Roslyn Brewery, we got there an hour before closing time, but it said it was closed anyway... sad

A lady inside saw us sad outside and let us in, now Josh is happy with our Growler.

Family Reunion Part 2

Sunday was the most beautiful day at Cle Elum. We woke up to sun and it didn't leave. We started the day with a family ping pong tournament, Aunt Lee and Uncle Don won the championship round. It was fun getting everyone in the family involved somehow. After that Josh, Matt, and I headed down to the lake again, this time hoping to find canoes. We knew there was a place you could rent toys but we could never find it. We walked up and down the beach over and over again, meanwhile cars and trucks lined up along the whole shoreline. It was crazy how many cars drove down the beach to launch their boats, jet skis, etc right there, kind of took the beauty and fun out of the lake. We finally found out that the rental place was down the road a bit off the lake and we'd have to go there, tie the toys to the top of my car, truck them down to the lake, and back when we were done. We decided to bag it and head back to the cabins. It was a good 90 degrees so we headed for the pool. Matt stayed for a bit, then Josh and I hung out with Aunt Judy, Heather and Garett. It was fun and I loved getting some sun finally! Sunday night was pizza and beer followed by the annual Texas Hold'em tournament, which Cousin Doug won.

Monday morning we woke up to clean up and pack. We were headed to Orcas Island with some of the family for a few days. Josh and I stopped in Seattle on the way and hit up the space needle, which I had somehow never been up in. It was odd but I actually felt like I was experiencing vertigo, it was gorgeous up there, but wow. Never felt that way before.

Family Reunion

At lake Cle Elum, WA


Well after our interesting adventure in getting to Cle Elum for the family reunion we finally made it and just in time for a thunderstorm. Saturday morning was cloudy as well, but it started to clear up a bit by early afternoon. After Josh, Matt and I went down to the lake to check it out I joined Josh, Matt, Wayne, Cousin Ryan, his gf Melinda, Uncle Ray and Heather's bf Garett on the golf course. I of course did not golf. The course was less than exciting, and shortly after making the turn, the weather turned as well. The rain was back and the thunder and lightening began. We were done. 13 holes in and I was glad to be headed back to the cabins. Saturday night was a great dinner at a local seafood and steak house, Mama Vallones. It was excellent, and they did a great job of taking care of all 31 of us! After dinner was the change game of call your own game poker. Didn't do too bad, didn't do too well, about even, we'll take it.

A very deceiving picture of the golf course, looks pretty, it wasn't

Where is the sun?!

It's the Berger family reunion in Cle Elum, Washington! We left our house at 12:30 thinking that since it was supposed to be a 4 hour trip, we might get there around 5 or 5:30 with traffic... well were we wrong. We headed up I-5 and maybe 10 miles after the bridge to Vancouver we were stopped. Nobody came to an abrupt stop or anything, we stopped just fine... but we both looked at each other and said... is that a truck on it's side? Well it was a Toyota Sequoia with (what was) a nice camping trailer all tipped over on it's side blocking all 3 lanes of traffic. And of course this was on a bridge so we couldn't go around anywhere. All this happened about 30 cars in front of us, we were there before any emergency vehicles. People started abandoning their cars on the highway to go see what happened. Josh headed up while I sayed in the car... I'm not about to leave my car on the freeway, even if traffic came to a complete stop! After he headed up of course all the emergency vehicles came up from behind us trying to get by, and had a heck of a time since there were abandoned cars on the highway, drivers nowhere to be seen. People were out walking their dogs, ridding bikes, skateboarding, etc. It was quite the scene... After 1 hour of sitting in the car with it turned off, they got everything back upright and opened the far right lane... we of course were in the left lane. We started up and saw an Explorer letting a bunch of cars in so we tried that route... it turned out the people in the Explorer were both asleep! We still laugh about that one. After hitting traffic in Tacoma, we finally made it, 6 hours after leaving our house. Here are some pictures Josh took at the scene.