A Day in the Life

I took some random pictures today to show everyone how exciting we are. I got let out of work early today, so I thought I'd make a post before we head out for our New Years celebration.

I put a container of water on the patio last night to see what it would do. The dogs came out with me and helped by drinking some of it while I wasn't looking.

I checked back in the morning and it was mostly frozen!

The low tomorrow is going to be 24. Brrrrrr.

I came home and Mirav was making Challah. 

Small round ones for the new year

Mirav, keeping an eye on the second big one.

The first one came out a little crooked, but tasted great! Mirav is a great cook. Don't tell her I said that, I'll deny it.

The lot next to us has been empty since we moved in. Recently there was some activity over there. I came home today and found this. These are the forms for the basement of the house they are putting in. I think this is the model home. Looks like room for 4 houses. We picked up a flier. They look nice, but Mirav said she doesn't want to live there. They are too far from the places we like to go. But next door is ok for a while I guess.

Christmas and Visitors

We had a nice low key Christmas. Just a few gifts. Tami was keeping an eye on the presents to make sure Mirav didn't open them too early. 

Mirav got a cupcake caddy. She is now obligated to make me cupcakes all the time. 36 at a time to fill the caddy. Pickles looks concerned about all this. She kinda always looks like this though. 

Mirav's Aunt and Uncle came in town from Las Vegas over Christmas. Christmas morning we went out for breakfast to the Radio Room, one of the only places open. They were going to be open from 9am to 3pm serving brunch. They ran out of food and apparently coffee around 11am when we got there. My cup sat empty, lonely, longing for coffee for what seemed like eternity. They ran out of fillet mignon as soon as they were ready to take our order, so I had to get trout. Shortly after, they ran out of trout. Which is fortunate for people who came after us because it wasn't very good anyway.

We spent about 2 hours at brunch waiting for food. Most of the time was spent playing angry birds on our phones. 

Next, we headed up to our go-to spot at the top of OHSU for some views. Luckily the fog rolled out and the views were awesome. Andy looks angry about something. 

The crew, heading back downstairs

Shot of snow capped Mt Hood

Mirav's mom came in town the night of the 25th. We had dinner and drinks at a bar up the street from us. I asked the bartender for a beer suggestion and he said "Oh I don't really drink beer" What kind of bartender are you?

The bar was really busy. By the time we left there were people out the door. It was a fun weekend. Andy and Darlene left the morning of the 26th and Jill stayed for a couple more days. Thanks for coming out!

Updated Apartment Pictures

After nearly three months, I think we finally finished moving in. We got our couch a couple weeks after moving in and ever since, it's looked strange in the living room all by itself. We had been talking about it and decided it looked lonely so we got it a chair to keep it company. They seem to be getting along so far. 

We picked a fun print because the rest of our apartment is so drab and brown

Mirav picked out a nice throw pillow to go with the chair. It's very comfortable. 

Here's Mirav putting the finishing touches on cleaning the kitchen in preparation for Andy and Darlene's visit tomorrow. We're excited to have our first guest see our fully furnished new place. We made our mom's sit on office chairs because we didn't have a couch. Sorry mom. 

We also got a set of shelves to go with the desk. I am very excited to have a place to put our office stuff. Mirav is sad that we had to take down her Australia picture to put up the shelves. We'll have to find a better place for it somewhere else.

Eric's Trip Back Home

I was a little homesick, so I arranged a trip home on a long weekend. I was back in AZ last weekend to visit my my parents. I got to visit with Mirav's family and my sister and Logan. I was supposed to be flying out at 8:05 Friday night. 

As you can see, Southwest flight 1408 was not on time. After spending 5 hours in the airport, we ended up taking off at 11:35. My mom was nice enough to pick me at 3 in the morning. 

We were quite literally, the only people in the airport. I'm not sure what I expected at 3 in the morning.

The next day was designated as annual cookie day. We were feeling lazy so we let Logan make the cookies. We only made three kinds this year. I brought some chocolate crinkles home for Mirav and they were gone in two days.

Sunday, I met Mirav's family at Tempe marketplace for lunch. They have a huge tree in the middle of the mall. The tallness was overcompensating for the extreme fakeness. I walked around outside a bit because it was so warm and dry. High of 80+ all three days I was there.

Sunday night, My parents and I met Amanda and Logan for dinner at Chevy's. We caught the tail end of a really cool Arizona sunset. I haven't seen a good sunset in a while. When the sun does come out in Portland, it goes back down by 4pm.

Jet was feeling feisty and it soon turned into an epic cat fight. It was hard to tell which was which when they went at it. 

After the war of the black cats, Jet retreated to the high ground atop the Christmas tree. From there he plotted his revenge, and played with some ornaments, but mostly plotted. 

 

Monday was a more laid back day. My dad and I watched a marathon of American Pickers; surprisingly interesting show. My mom was stuck at work reassuring reporters that all was still well at the school district despite some burned up football gear. My plane was late, again. So I had an extra hour to grab some dinner with my parents once my mom finally got away. It was a nice trip home. I love it here in Portland, but I do miss AZ.

Thanksgiving!

This year Eric and I decided to stay in Portland.  Flight prices were outrageous and it would have been a rushed trip.  This was our first thanksgiving away from our families.

The cooking started on Tuesday when I made cornbread.  On Wednesday I made pies and mashed potatoes.  Thursday was everything else.

One very important dish was the stuffing.  Eric insisted on taking pictures.

We buttered up the turkey...

Eric was very proud of the turkey.

It went in the oven, and an hour and a half later it came out like this.  It was good, but could have been better.  It was my first attempt at turkey... I'll get better.

I made 2 pies.  I'm still not quite used to the oven.  They were a little over cooked, but still tasty.

The final product.  We had a bit of everything.  It was a yummy meal of turkey, stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, gravy and two pies.  We had a lot of yummy leftovers.

Seattle Trip

We seem to have been slacking on our posts, mostly because we don't do anything interesting, but still...

A few weeks ago Eric and I went up to Seattle to visit our friends the Smith's.  They recently had a baby and we hadn't seen them in quite some time.  We decided to bring the doggies along for a quick weekend trip.

Pickles was pretty excited.  She gets pretty excited doing anything, but I'm attempting 'glass half full'.  We got ok weather on the way up, a little rain but nothing too bad.  Oddly enough there was better weather in Seattle than Portland.  Saturday at least...

Before we left, we stopped and picked up a few treats to bring with us.  Yum!

We decided to head out and see Pike's Place Market.

It was really freakin' cold in there.  Eric and Michael went and got coffee.  Eric brought back a ginger apple cider for me - it was disgusting.  It kept my hands warm for a few minutes though.

Up next, we went to the troll under the bridge.  I got a picture of Eric with a little kid in the background.  He saw me taking a picture and apparently didn't feel like he had to move.

We were very cold and the baby was hungry so we went back to the Smith's apartment and relaxed for a bit. 

Eric holds Pickles the way Michael holds Landon.  Ahhh fatherly love.

Michael with his pride and joy.  He is a very doting father.
We went to dinner at a pizza place.  It was tasty and we all had a lovely time.  Everyone that walked by our tabled stopped to say hello to Landon.  We also got 1 picture together... a rare occurrence.

We went home and everyone went to sleep, the next morning we awoke, hung out at the house for a bit and Eric held a baby for the first time.

The Smith's were nice enough to pose for a family photo...

We all went to breakfast.  Eric and I hung out for a bit and then headed out.  We wanted to try and get home before it got dark, which is at 4:30pm.  During the drive it started to snow.  Even Eric's phone started to snow...

As we drove we saw lots of trees covered in snow.

We were almost home.  Ta'ami said he was tired and ready to be back in his bed.

Overall it was a very good trip.  We look forward to visiting again!

Hawaii - Wednesday

On Wednesday, it was finally time to head home. It was a pretty uneventful day. I took some parting shots on our way out.

The pool next to the ocean at our hotel

View of the mountains from the hotel

We tried to eat at a little restaurant and the line was huge. The didn't take your name and call when your table was ready. They just made you stand in line, the people at the front of the line got the table when it was ready. There was about 20 seats and 40 people in line. So we left. 

 

We ate a place farther into town. I got corned beef hash. I'm pretty sure they got it from a can. 

Our rental car being dropped off. Still not a full size. 

One last shot from the airport terminal. Goodbye Hawaii.