The 365 Day Challenge-- day 5

Another picture of Riley because I am tired and wasn't very observant today. This is him under the covers this morning! I missed him so much.

The 365 Day Challenge--Day 4


Of course many of my daily pictures will be of Riley! We got him back after being gone for nearly two weeks and were so excited to see him. He was excited to see us, but even more excited for his food, which is what he's looking at in this photo.

365 Day Challenge--Day 3



We went to a wedding on Saturday night in Sacramento and this picture of the couple during their first dance shows the true joy of being married! Congratulations Kyle and Jana!

The 365 day challenge-- day 2

This is the view from our hotel room in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I have been coming here my entire life and I love this place. I have so many memories here. Tomorrow we are off to destination 3 of our holiday trip: sacramento for a wedding.

The 365 day challenge-- day 1

Jan 1 we were headed to Everglades National Park. I had heard about this amazing fruit stand called "Robert is Here" just outside the park. They had every fruit you could think of and had Avacados the size of Grapefruits! You could get any flavor of smoothie or milkshake you could imagine. I had banana and Chris had Coconut/Chocolate/Banana.

The 365 day challenge

I read about this on my friend Vanessa's blog. It is a challenge to take a picture of something in your surroundings every day for a year and post it and blog about it. I am not great about blogging but I have downloaded an app on my blackberry that will hopefully allow me to post from my blackberry. It will be very easy for me to post from my phone. I can't say the picture quality will be great though! I of course will continue to do regular posts about trips and things as well.

For now I know the formatting will be off on my posts so until I can get to a computer (Sunday) that will have to wait.

I know some of my friends will enjoy this and hopefully will start it too!

So now I will catch up with the past two days. More to come...

Christmas in Idaho

We spent 6 days in Idaho with Chris's family over Christmas this year. There was snow on the ground every day so one day we went sledding (or "tobogganing" as they call it here). So fun!

Here is Jessica (Chris's sister) having fun in the snow



A family picture minus Bud and Uncle Matt



Here is Sam, who I mentioned in my last post about Boise. Having so much fun in the snow!



Tia Missy braving the hill



Family picture, this time only minus Bud (who was in the comfort of the house)



Beautiful Finn having SO MUCH fun in the snow! He LOVED it.

Christmas 2008

Here we are picking out our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving 2008. Right after we landed at LAX from Tennessee we went to get it! We get our tree from the Delancey Street Foundation tree lot (they have several in LA).





Here is our tree--I'm sorry for the bad picture, but I just couldn't get a good picture! It was a big tree--9 feet tall! Of course Chris's allergies were terrible with the live tree so we might have to get an artificial tree next year.



Finally, on Christmas morning (we celebrated on Saturday, December 13) we opened some presents and even let Riley open one of the gifts. Keep in mind that this gift was a box of Little John's Toffee so it smelled really good to him! Video below...

Shana's baby shower

I am home for 6 days over Thanksgiving this year and Emily, my mom and I hosted a baby shower for Shana. Shana and Emily are my two best friends who I have known almost my entire life. Shana is due in March and is having a girl, Margie (named after her grandmother).




My mom, sister and I at the shower




Shana and her mom with us.

Eagle, Idaho

Chris and I went to visit his family in Eagle, Idaho a few weeks ago (a suburb of Boise).  His family has been slowly moving there and now his aunt, sister, grandmother and parents live there.  We love going there because it is always a time for us to relax.   We are usually there at Christmas but I was excited to go during fall so I could actually experience the season.  I miss seeing the leaves change color so much.  

The view from their front yard

Aren't these red plants beautiful!  They are called a "burning bush"

Of course I took animal pictures.  This is Spike.

Chris's cousin has a pet rat.  Yes, a pet rat.  Rats are the only thing that will make my husband scream.  This was a big step.

This is Finn!  I love Finn.  He is a flat coated retriever.  

Sam and Finn.  I'm not certain of the specific terminology, but Sam is similar to a cadaver sniffing dog.  He goes to crime scenes and searches for evidence, body parts, etc.  He does "small finds", so no bodies, etc.  It is quite fascinating to see him work.  Finn is being trained to do the same.

My sister-in-law got a cat!  Chris is highly allergic to cats, so this is as close as I'm going to get to owning one.  Parker has beautiful eyes!

I of course made Chris hold Parker.  It didn't go over well.  I'm going to put this picture up on ICANHASCHEEZBURGER.

Believe it or not, this picture was taken just outside Chris's Tia Missy's house.  Doesn't this look like a postcard?

Finally, if you've never seen a cow run, watch this video.  I didn't think Annabelle was going to stop!