Turkeys, Decorations, Snow, and a Wedding!

The problem with being busy and getting behind on the blog is that when I do finally get to it, it ends up being huge! Well, settle in folks, this one's gonna be long.

Our journey begins Thanksgiving weekend where ambition struck me and I decided to bake biscuits, an apple pie, and a two cheese squash casserole *pictured below*.  Amazingly, all came out good.  Guess I didn't do much to perpetuate my reputation as a crappy cook.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house with Annette & Walt and Lucinda & Deb, who were visiting from California.  We played games and just enjoyed hanging out.

Mason and Siena duked it out over the wishbone.  Siena won but failed to actually make a wish so the win was a bit for naught.

Not sure what this look is all about but it's vintage Siena.

This too is vintage happy Siena!

Get Papa Ron!!!!!

The cat's in the box.

Friday the kids and I got out Christmas decorations and decked our halls.

Helper girl!!!

Helper girl taking a break.

Friday night Luis and I went to the Pearl Jam concert at the Rose Garden (I refuse to refer to it as the Moda Center).  It was a great show - they played for 3 hours!  Definitely worth the money.

The following Thursday, we hit the road with my parents and aunt Mary Lou.  Our destination was Park City, Utah for my cousin Shelley's wedding.  We drove 8+ hours on Thursday and spent the night in Burley, Idaho.  We continued on the rest of the way arriving at lunchtime on Friday.  We had a great lunch at the Wasatch Pub on Main Street in Park City.  Here's the happy and hungry travelers:

Utah is cold.  This was definitely hot chocolate country.

Siena enjoyed a cup of cocoa too.  She wasn't even willing to take her coat off!

My mom invested in a stocking cap at a gas station on the way into town.  With the temperature peaking out in the teens, our fashion became entirely about warmth!  Us mild weather Oregonians aren't used to this level of cold.  We also weren't used to being at 7000+ feet above sea level.  I thought I was in shape until but one trip up the stairs in our rental house set me wheezing for air.

It's the pink abominable snow girl!

We didn't have to be anywhere on Friday until dinner so Luis and I decided to check out Main Street after lunch.  Turns out that Park City is a great little town for walking around, despite the cold.  However, we did duck into about every 3rd store whether we were interested in it or not just to warm up.

A view of Main Street Park City.

Adam's parents were nice enough to invite us to the rehearsal dinner Friday night where we enjoyed a wonderful meal and got to spend some time with the family and wedding party.

Saturday morning we set out on the town again with the purpose of buying a puzzle.  Our rental house was just up the street from Main Street so we bundled up and went walking.  The kids made friends with a local bear.  Park City got a lot of snow on Saturday creating quite the winter wonderland for Shelley and Adam's wedding that night.

Wedding night!  Shelley and Adam's wedding was at Deer Valley, a beautiful resort up the hill from Park City.  Mason and Siena found the Evans kids right away!

View of the lodge where the ceremony was held.

I struggled to get a good picture of the ceremony due to lighting but here's Shelley walking in with her dad.

It was a beautiful ceremony.  This was quite the hot couple...so hot in fact that the fire alarms went off during the ring exchange.

Walking out, here's the siblings walking arm in arm!

He cleans up good, doesn't he...

So does she.  No, that isn't Siena's wine on the table...

My cousin Travis with his girlfriend Annie.

My beautiful mother!

Ellia of many faces...

Photo credits of the above to Miss Siena.

Beautiful place settings.  Look, it's me!

Oh wait, that's me.

The girls getting ready to eat.

Cute Berren!

The parents.

Heidi and Berren.

Siena's favorite part of the dinner was the fondue bar for dessert.  Apples, cookies, bananas, etc. with dark & white chocolate and caramel heated over an open flame to dip them in.  All of the food was absolutely amazing!

Mason and Siena by the wedding cake.

Mother and sister of the bride.  Amanda was nervous about giving her toast but totally nailed it and did a wonderful job!

My uncle Doug giving his toast.

The bride and groom!  Welcome to the family Adam!

We danced into the evening and had a wonderful time.  Mason even busted out some break dancing moves we didn't know he had!

The next morning was a brunch at Doug and Joanne's rental house.  I was too busy eating to take many pictures but here's miss Siena trying on some fur...

Sunday afternoon Luis, Mason, and I went snowboarding.  The Park City ski lodge is all of 5 minutes from where we were staying so we made the short drive to the "First Time Lift".  Luis has snowboarded many times but it was Mason's first time, and for all intents and purposes mine as well.  I've been once before but that was like seven years ago.  Mason did great and seemed to get the hang of it pretty quick.

As for me, I took out 2 people and have a bruise on my rear end the shape of Pennsylvania from repeated wipe outs.  We had fun though.

We decided to try to get home in one day instead of two so we'd have time to do some laundry and errands.  It was a very long day in the car but it's nice to be back to our beds.  Tomorrow we return to the real world.

Bad, Bad Blogger!!

I know I've been remiss in my blogging duties.  It's a combination of being busy, being lazy, and just not getting to it.  I realized though that I should get the Halloween pictures posted before Thanksgiving at least though!

Here's our Spanish Princess and Zombie Mason!

Zombie attacking the Princess!

Both kids scored a good haul which they're still eating.

Soccer finished up 2 weeks ago and the kids had their celebratory party last Saturday.  Siena also had her final musical performance last Saturday.  We recorded this and I'll post it as soon as our video editor makes it YouTube worthy.

Tonight Siena is off to her cousin Tristyn's house for a sleepover!  Mason and I are watching disaster movies.   Luis is counting down to the Timbers big playoff game tonight. Everyone is happy!

No Little Girl Has Ever Been More Excited...

...for her 8th Birthday.  Siena's official 8th birthday was on Wednesday the 16th (along with her birthday buddy Papa Ron).  She had been begging me to go visit her class at school so I went by for a couple hours on her birthday and volunteered with her class.  31 second graders is definitely herding cats.

Siena's party was today and she was SOOOOOO happy.  Since she loves swimming, we planned this year's party at the aquatic park.  Here she is with her friend Leslie from school and cousin Ellia.  And some tres leches cake of course.

Since it was a pool party, we did the "party" portion first with cake and presents.  She tore into her gifts like all little girls do and loved the neat stuff she got.  She's doing some Easy Baking as we speak...

Showing the b-day card Giada made for her with her friend Myla next to her.

Here's a few of the kids swimming - Myla, Leslie, and Siena.

Look who worked up the nerve to go down the big slide!!!  He was scared but he did it...and then he loved it!  After the first slide he went again and again and again....

It was a lot of fun celebrating Siena's birthday this weekend!!  Now it's on to another busy week...

Fall = Go Time!

Fall has begun, school has started, and we are busy.  Luis has become "Coach Luis" this season and is coaching Mason's soccer team:

 His team from upper left: Zen, Louie, Coach, Zach, Chase; middle row from left is Sonny, Cody, Matthew, and Chris.  Bottom row is Mason and David.  The wins haven't exactly been piling up but our goal is more about teaching all the boys all of the positions and getting everyone equal playing time.  They did get a good 4-4 tie yesterday.

 Mason and Siena clowning around at the soccer Jamboree.

Mason and his friend/teammate Chase.  This has been a fun group of boys. I hope to add more in game pictures later.  I'm usually on the sidelines with Luis during the games (yup, Coach Kris at your service) trying to track playing time and positions so it's hard to take pictures at the same time.

Cousin Craig and Aunt Janine came out for a visit last week.  I was able to take a few days off work, which after a crazy busy couple of months was awesome.  Craig and I went hiking around Multnomah Falls on Wednesday.  I only had my camera so I didn't add too many pics.  This was a nice little spot though at Ponytail Falls.  

After 3 uphill hikes, including to the top of Multnomah Falls, we had to hit up this place...

Thursday was Morbidity Tour 2013!!  Stop #1 Skyline Cemetery.  Here's Craig by his father Richard's grave.

You can make it up that hill Mom!!

My grandparent's grave - Fred and Novia Kinney.  

Craig, Mom, and Uncle Ron by the Kinney graves.  They look awfully happy for a morbidity tour...but I digress.

Two beautiful ladies - Janine and Mom.

We had lunch at the Skyline Restaurant which while the burgers were just okay, the milkshakes were pretty awesome.

We drove by the Kinney's old house on Johnson Road.  It's hidden behind a fair amount of shrubs and has been remodeled rather extensively but Mom and Ron still recognized the old place.

We also visited Uncle Leonard who is suffering from Parkinson's and is struggling health wise.  Janene is checking out his ramp.  Leonard seemed emotional but I think was happy we came to visit.  I was happy to visit as well.

Did I mention we had breakfast at Original Pancake House twice in 3 days?  Well that happened.  And it was pretty awesome.

I was going to take Craig up to Mt. St. Helens on Friday but thanks to the Federal Government and it's inability to compromise, Mt. St. Helens was closed.  Plan B: downtown Portland.

We went to the Oregon Historical Museum.  If not for the visiting display of Presidential letters, the Museum would have been a dud.  Craig did enjoy checking out the size of beds that were aboard the old fur trading ships.  I'm not even sure Mason could fit on those comfortably.

Midway through the day we decided to go pick up the kids after school and take them with us to the Japanese Gardens.  I actually don't think I had ever visited the Japanese Gardens before.  They are quite beautiful.

The kids were given a scavenger hunt map to try to find certain landmarks throughout the garden.  Made the visit extra fun for them.  Here's the cranes...oh, and Mason and Siena too.

Checking out the koi pond.

Craig and the kids on the Moon Bridge. Did I that this garden is rather impressive?

The koi were following us around...much like Tommy in the morning looking for his food.

The garden crew:

Posing in front of a deer something or other.

Goofy kids.

Siena's channeling her inner zen while Mason, I don't know what Mason is doing.

Haiku-ing.

It was a beautiful day in Portland on Friday and I don't know if I've ever seen a more beautiful view of the city...

After garden visiting, it was back up to Mom and Dad's for an extended family dinner and October birthday celebration.  Oh yeah, guess I'm getting a year older tomorrow...

Here's 3 of the 4 birthday kids...

Examining the camera lens Dad?

In a fit of insanity, I signed up to do the Tough Mudder in Seattle with Angie, our Mentor Graphics fitness instructor (3rd from left).  I rode up with some gals yesterday morning for the race.  Here we are pre-race, still looking nice and clean.  It didn't stay that way.

After 12 miles and some awesome obstacles (check them out here: http://toughmudder.com/obstacles/).  We completed most obstacles (Everest was the only one I couldn't make it up.  Gave it 2 solid tries though) and ran wherever we could.  It took about 4 hours.  It was incredibly tiring but was an absolute blast.  I'd do it again anytime.  Except today.  Need to rest the sore muscles today.  

I hope to have more pictures to share next week.  I didn't take any myself but need to get some from some of the other girls who were there.  This was probably the toughest run I have ever done and has been on my challenge list for a long time so I was really glad for the opportunity and to have been able to knock it out with some great ladies.