Another one that is VERY Long over due

Yes I know its has been a VERY long time, and I do apologize for this. I need to get in a much better habit of updating this. Well lets see if I can't do this with just pictures for now. I will try to not have such a LARGE gap next time!

I believe that the last time I updated was the Rose Festival back in June. Well after June comes July. And that means the Fourth of July.

For the 4th my cousin Rose was in town for a week. It was great to see her, it had been a few years and I was loving it! We went to Salmon River during the day with a few of Rose's friends that live up here and with my friend Sarah. we had a great day down at the river.

Then later that night Sean and I went over to Sean's friend Clent's house for fireworks. Our own! Yes, in Oregon it is legal to set off some fireworks, and Sean really did enjoy setting off his own fireworks. It was kind of like watching a 4 year old boy in a toy store. It was great.

Later that week Sean, Rose and Myself went to the Portland City Rose Garden. It was BEAUTIFUL! I recommend it to anyone when they visit. It has the largest amount of roses I have ever seen. Every kind of rose you can imagine and then some! There is this one section that is experimental hybrids that they are trying to get started, plus the whole place is run by volunteers and is non-profit. It is truly amazing.

Well after July comes August!

And boy did we have fun in August! In the beginning of the month Sean's best friends Rob and his girlfriend Rachel came into town for about a week and the 4 of us had a blast! The first night that they were in town, the four of us went to this little Irish Pub near their hotel called Paddy's Bar & Grill. This place is know for a great laid back feel that you can really enjoy. We had a small dinner and just hung out for a few hours. It was so great to be able to sit back and enjoy time with a few friends that we had not seen in a while.

The next night or two we just hung out and relaxed One night during the week was Rob and Rachel's anniversary, so the four of us went out to dinner. We went to Paley's Place. This place is in an old converted Victorian-Style home. It was absolutely amazing. The basement of the home had been turned into a swanky salon and then the ground floor was the restaurant. And the food was TO DIE FOR! Sean and Rob both had the beef trio that was just cooked to perfection. Rachel had the Cedar Plank Salmon while I had the duck. There is really nothing more that I can say except that it was an absolutely wonderful evening.

Later that week we took one night for just wandering around Downtown Portland. We started off at Henry's 12th Street Tavern, one of Sean and I's favorite places to start a night on the town. Then we headed over to the Annex Bar. The Ringlers Annex Cellar Bar is part of the McMenamins Family places. The McMenamins Brothers are known for taking old and historical properties and turning them into restaurants, hotels, bars, etc. We went down stairs and wound down the night. Then like all good things, the week had to come to an end. Rob and Rachel had to go home and we had to get back to reality.

A few weeks later, Sean and I decided that we should take in a ball game. Now, yes I know that some of you are saying that Portland does not have a baseball team, and you are sort of right. Portland does not have a professional baseball team, but Portland is home to the San Diego Padres triple A team: The Portland Beavers! And just two weeks after Rob and Rachel were in town the Beavers were playing the wonderful Dodger's triple A team: The Las Vegas 51's. And of coarse, being the die-hard Dodgers fans that Sean and I are we could not possibly pass up the chance to support their triple A team, plus a few of the player that I actually had heard of had been bumped down to the triple A team... So we went to a ball game! And we had a blast. It really was nice to get out of the house for an afternoon and just have some much needed fun.

And after August comes September!

September was a kind of slow month. Very nice. The only good thing that Sean and I really did was FINALLY go see Multnomah Falls. Another absolutely wonderful thing about living in Portland! The falls were probably one of the most breathtaking things I had seen in a while. Very Beautiful!

Well we are now into October.

As most of you know.. October holds both Sean's birthday as well as mine. So as we did last year and the year before, we went to dinner at the halfway mark. This year though we went somewhere new! We went to The Doug Fir Lounge. The Doug Fir is connected to The Jupiter Hotel. The hotel looks like an old 50's - 60's motel that had a diner attached to it. The hotel has been converted into a very nice place and they turned the diner into a lounge. The Doug Fir has live local music almost every night, the food is made with all local produce and the atmosphere is really cool. Low lighting, swanky 70' s feel kind of. In one part of the restaurant that walls are covered in dark brown shagged carpet. It really is cool.

Well after our birthdays come HALLOWEEN! Personally one of my favorite holidays. This year was really cool though. At work we had not only a costume contest, but we also had a decorating contest. Each department that wanted to enter was allowed to decorate their department in any theme they wanted, we decided to be the beginning of Leviton. We borrowed decorations from a co-worker and we all dressed up in period costumes. The time period was 1907. We didn't win, but we were told that we had the best group participation.

And now that Halloween is over, its time to relax before Thanksgiving, which seems to be creeping up on us already!

Back to LA for a few Days

So, as most of you who read this know.... Sean and I were back in LA last weekend for a few things. 1) The Bubbie Bat-Mitzvah 2) To see the Family and 3) Wedding stuff.

All that was attempted was accomplished, amazingly. I really don't know how we did it. Here are some wonderful pictures of the weekend back home.

This is what you see as you fly over Portland going to LA.

Sean and I decided to surprise Ris and pick her up from school on her last day.... do you think she was excited?

Let me tell you........ there is NOTHING in this world like sisters!

We tried to get a good picture of all the girls, but this is what we got. At least we tried!

Don't think we forgot Sean in all this.... a lesson in little girls, when you give one a horsey ride, you must then give them ALL horsey rides......... or face the consequences.

Step 1) Someone whispers " Attack Sean".......
Step 2) All little girls in ear shot climb on Sean

Step 3) Watch in amazement as a strong young man looses all power against 5 young girls... it really is cute.

Rose Festival Carnival

This week in the city of Portland is the Rose Festival. A week long celebration of what the city is known best for...... its beautiful roses. Sunday was yet another beautiful day and Sean and I thought it would be a good idea to go down to the waterfront park downtown and enjoy int he festivities.

We parked the car and met up with my friend Sarah and headed to the carnival. There were all kinds of things to see. There was a cultural center, a wild animal exhibit(which we made a quick stop at), and little kids section and then there was the carnival area. Here there were midway games and rides and all the good oh-so-bad for you carnival food like hot dogs, corn dogs, cotton-candy and elephant ears! All the food you know you really shouldn't eat but you just don't care.

The three of us headed down the mid way and looked at all the games, all the rides and all the food.

We would stop and look at a game and ask Sean if he thought he was up to it, walk some more, we'd stop and I would tease Sean and Sarah about not going on any of the cool rides and then we would walk some more.

We played a game or two and then got a corn dog, or 2 in Sean's case. Then Sean tried his hand at a few more games and finally won me a small dog at the SkiBall game.

After SkiBall we headed down to the other end of the mid way, grabbed some Dippin' Dots and went to sit and enjoy our nice cool treat while we looked out over the water.

It was a very good day and it makes me look forward to next year's Rose Festival.

Afternoon in the Park

Well, this past weekend was just BEAUTIFUL up here. So Saturday afternoon Sean and I decided to have a picnic lunch in the park, relax in the sun and just enjoy the day. I was the perfect way to spend an afternoon.

We went down to Gorge Roger's Park on the Willamette River. We found a spot in the shade, laid out the blanket, had our lunch and relaxed. Sean took a nap, I read my book and just sat there.

After an hour or so we took the blanket back to the car, cleaned up our trash and went on a walk. Here are some of the things we saw........

Seany the Outdoors Man!

OK, well i don't know much of what happened this day, as I was not there. However, Sean came back with many pictures and I feel I must share. On May 26th Sean went fishing with the boys and had himself a grand ol' time. So here are a few pictures from his day.

In this picture we have Clent in the center and James on the right.

Here Seany is trying to catch a fish... I think.

I dont know what is going on here

St. Paddy's Day

Well, yet again I must apologize for the frequency or should I say lack there of to the posts. Life in the Northwest has been very busy, in a good way. Work has been very good and we have been spending more time with our friends up here. As I will show you right now.

I begin with March 17th, 2007... St. Patrick's Day

Well, for our first St. Patrick's Day up here in Oregon we decided to g out and have a night on the town. And that we did. Well first we met up with my friend Sarah, who I met at Linens-N-Things, when I worked there. We decided to meet up at our house and take 1 car. When we got downtown, we found a parking structure that wasn't quite full yet, parked that car and decided to go walk around downtown and try to find ourselves a nice old-fashioned Irish Pub. Yeah, that didn't quite go as planned, we didn't think that every other person in Portland over 21 would be thinking the same thing, and that they were.

At first we tried to go to Paddy's Irish Pub, the bar with the 20 ft. wall of bottles. We knew it would be crowded, but we didn't think it would be as crowded as it was. We couldn't even get in the front door, they had the whole block roped off and the line to get in was around the block and starting to circle for the second time. W promptly turned around and started walking and trying to figure out where else to go.

As we walked we people watched. We saw some pretty cool outfits, and some not so cool outfits. We saw HUGH Leprechauns and small Leprechauns. We saw walking four-leaf clovers, and people dressed in green from head-to-toe. It was really fun.

We finally came to a place we thought would be good to start off the night (plus there wasn't much a line to get in). We started the night off at Henry's Tavern.

Henry's Tavern is kind of like B.J.'S Brewery. It has that Chicago pizza place feel. The tavern is actually in an old brewery building. Its a really cool place. We grabbed a seat at the bar and ordered our drinks. We sat there doing some more people watching and were having our own costume contest. Judging the people as the walked into the bar and just having a great time. before we knew it almost 2 hours had passed and it was time to go meet up with Sean's friends form work. We we hailed a cab and headed uptown to McMinehman's.

There we met up with Coop and Clent ( Sean's friends from work) and their girlfriends and some of their girlfriends friends (say that 3 times fast). Sarah and I decided to order ourselves a nice girly drink, we ordered Hurricanes. We assumed that they would taste good, like the ones we had ordered at Henry's. Yeah, again we were wrong. The drink the waitress had brought us tasted just like gasoline. the worst drink on the face of the planet. Well after that fiasco, a few of the people we met up with decided to call it a night and head home. So we said our good-bye's and asked if anyone was up for a little more bar hoping. Sean's friends Coop said he was (more like I gave him no choice and told him he was coming with up if he liked it or not) and Sean, Coop, Sarah and I headed down the street to this bar/club called Gypsy's.

Sarah and I decided that this place would be really good to come to on a Girl's Night Out. and we had a few drinks there, danced a little and next thing we knew it was about 1:30 am and we wanted to start winding the night down.

Sean had read about this bar called The Gilt Club in the Portland Monthly magazine and suggested thats where we end our night. So we hailed a cab again and headed over there. Now, if you are over 21 and ever in Portland I HIGHLY recommend making a stop at The Gilt Club. This place is amazing! The only was I can describe it is, Frank Sinatra. It has a very 50's lounge feel, with soft lighting and red leather booths. Portland Monthly Magazine describes it "The Gilt Club carries the city's Rat-Pack-Era torch: candy-red booths and banquette seating offer just the kind of dim corners needed for successful surveilling, while Nancy Sinatra's teasing voice wafts from speakers crooning the theme songs to Tony Rome..." Behind the bar there are old movies playing on a flat screen TV, which is proctected by a mirror in front of it that you can see through. It really was the PERFECT place to end the night.

After re-hydrating and sobering up, the four of us parted ways, Coop hailed a cab back home and Sean, Sarah and myself headed back to the car. We headed home, said goodbye to Sarah and crawled into bed.

A Very Long Overdue Update

Yes I know the it has been a few months since our last entry, and I do apologize for it. Sean and I have been very busy. The last time you heard from us was Hanukkah, and a lot has gone on since then. So sit down and get comfy... this is going to be a long one.

Here is the story for the last 2 months......

We start at Christmas.

Christmas Eve Sean introduced me to his family tradition of opening Christmas PJ's and all the fun the that brings... I don't think I quite got the whole concept, as the PJ's I got for Sean weren't really Christmas themed... but he liked them anyways.The next day was Christmas Day and Sean and I decided the we would combined our traditions. In the morning we opened presents and had a pancake breakfast ( which I made, I am getting very good at it too!) Then we did what my family always does on Christmas Day.... Chinese food and a movie, not in that order. We picked a movie and were off.... little did Sean know that there was another Christmas present in store for him later that night. We saw a late showing of The Holiday with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, I really liked it and Sean said it wasn't too bad. After the movie I told Sean that I wanted to go home a relax for a little bit before we went to dinner. He said OK and back home we went.

Now, the reason I wanted to go back home was so that I could surprise him with his last present.... His Family.
Sean's mom and I had been planning and scheming for about a month on surprising him for Christmas, both he and his mom were beginning to get a little depressed because they missed each other so much this time of year. I honestly thought that we would never be able to pull it off, but we did! and I am very proud of myself. At around 6:45 Sean grandmother called to stall and them a few minutes later there was a very loud knock on the door. I knew who it was and was ready with the camera to capture the moment... and it was classic. Sean looked at me confused and asked " Who the hell is at our door?" I told him I didn't know and to go find out. Well he opened the door to find his sister Marisa standing there and whispering "Hello". Sean just stood there in shock.
It was great. Then his mom came up the stairs followed by his dad. I took the phone from Sean and he hugged his sister and it looked like he was never going to let go. He was still in shock and crying, I had to remind him to breathe. Well, we sat at home for a little bit then decided to go to diner. We got into a restaurant by the skin of our nose and enjoyed the rest of the night. I had never seen Sean so happy.


The next few days were spent with Sean's family and just enjoying all the time we had together. It was fantastic. Sean and Marisa got to spend some much needed time together as did his parents and we all had a blast. But like the saying goes " All good things must come to an end" and before we knew it, the time had come for them to head back home. I had to work that day, but the met me for lunch and we had a very good time. Sean saw them off to the airport and got to say goodbye.

The next day was when my very good friend from home, Jenn was coming into town to celebrate New Years with Sean and me. I was very happy to see a familiar face. Sean and I picked Jenn up from PDX at 10:30 the next night and then the fun started for me.

We had one day in between when Jenn came into town and New Years Eve. I had nothing to wear to the cocktail party we were going to for New Years Eve and Sean and I wanted to show Jenn all the fun shops and everything fun about downtown. So we decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. We piled in my car and went downtown. We showed Jenn all the cool sights and drove across the bridges, then we went to 23rd street. That is where all the cool shops are downtown. We found me a dress at American Apparel... one of my favorite stores and then walked up and down 23rd street. We were having a great time and didn't realize that it was dinner time. we found an actual deli and decided that it was perfect for dinner. We sat, we ate and we had a great time.

The next night was New Years Eve and time to party. We got all dressed up and left for the party. Sean was having a really good time with his friends from work... and as the night went on I started to get a migraine but was able to make it to midnight and got my New Years kiss. Then we left for home. We spent the next day recovering and relaxing.

Then it was time for Jenn to go home. :(

The next week or so went on as normal, then the snow storm hit on January 16th.

That morning I woke up to get ready for work as usual and as I was going to get my cup of coffee I looked out the window and saw that my car was COVERED in snow. This was taken at 7:00 am. It was beautiful. And I had never driven in snow before so Sean warned me about driving slow and don’t worry if people get pissed off at me. As per my instructions, I took it slow and only slid once or twice, but I made it. I decided to leave work early because I wasn’t comfortable driving home when it was dark and all the roads were still covered in snow. When I got home that is what I saw when I pulled into my parkign sopt and looked behind me. Our complex looked amazing, so I ran outside with my camera and took a few pictures.

The snow lasted about a week and I was able to make it to work every day.

And that brings us to the Car Show. Something Sean was very excited to go to.

On January 27th was the Portland Auto Show. Now its nothing like the LA Auto Show, but it was nice. I had never been to one and was enjoying watching Sean have fun. I don’t really know what else to say about the Auto Show other than we both had a blast and cant wait for next years.

Well, that’s about all that has happened for the last 2 months. And don’t worry, the next update wont be so far away.

The First Hanukkah of the Great Northwest

This past week has been the glorious holiday of eight crazy nights. They've only been mildly crazy up here, more like slightly nutty (like an almond, not a peanut). The first night we opened presents from each other and our friend Jen (we really should of waited until the second night to open hers, oh well). I had given Celia a Rachel Ray cookbook for cooking for 2, 4, 6 or 8 people and Celia got me Lost: The Board Game. Jen got us a couple ornaments for our Christmas tree, one of which my mom had already gotten us. I ended up exchanging it for a "First Christmas" ornament. Since we opened all our presents that we had on the first night, we didn't have anything to open on the second night.....just light the menorah.

On Saturday was Celia's family party back in L.A., which we participated in via Skype (an web cam phone call program). The family gift exchange produced a 49ers t-shirt and some Israeli comics from Sam and an American Apparel gift card from Tracy. Next we proceeded to the White Elephant Gift, which we had to participate via phone, since they needed the Skype to talk to Sam in Israel. Celia ended up with a purple dress picture holder and I got a box of See's chocolate (which I ended up trading with Renee later for a Barnes & Noble gift card). After the party, it was off to finish up some more shopping, and then on home to light the menorah. On Sunday we had our own Hanukkah party at the apartment. Since Leslie and Bill lost their power in the big storm during the week and didn't get it back for a couple of days, we gladly offered up our apartment for the party. So the six of us started a new tradition of parties up in the Great Northwest. We exchanged presents and lit the menorah, and watched a little football too (and the news about the climbers that were lost and Mt. Hood, which came in cycles during the football game). Leslie and Bill got us a nice modern floor vase and Eric and Chevelle gave us some gift certificates for the movies. Bubbie had left her gifts with Les and Bill, so we got her annual little homemade packs off dreidels and gelt, with a added surprise of a check. Celia made the latkes and I cooked kosher hot dogs on the BBQ. Leslie and Bill brought over donuts from Krispy Kreme, while Eric and Chevelle brought their appetites. There was sooooo much food, I ended up bringing a lot of it to work the next day.

Renee's presents showed up on Wednesday, or Night #6. We opened them up posthaste. Celia was very excited to finally get the package. We thought it might have gotten lost in the mail. More like lost under our carport (which is where the mail man left it for who knows how many days). Celia got a nice sweater, that's good for her to wear to work (plus it 's purple), and I got "Superman Returns" and "Idiot's Guide to Being a Groom". I was pretty psyched to get the movie, I had to watch it immediately. Along with our presents was a nice purple pillow and the annual handmade Hanukkah pillow with our picture sewed into it. My mom's "care package" arrived on Thursday, along with the Hanukkah presents were Christmas presents, cookies and some left over mail and shirts for me. There were two Hanukkah presents for each of us, so there was just enough to finish off our first Hanukkah up here. Yesterday we opened Superman PJ's for me (please disregard the Superman theme for this holiday....contrary to popular belief, Spider-Man is my favorite comic book character) and a thermal top and sweater ensemble for Celia. Tonight's presents yielded more warm clothes for Celia, a thermal top and bottom to be precise, and a beanie for me (unfortunately it didn't have any tassels, but it's like the one I always wear, so now Celia and I don't have to argue over who wears the beanie that we both own).

And thus concludes the "First Hanukkah of the Great Northwest". Hope everyone had a joyous holiday and a happy new year.

Our Holiday Weekend

This past weekend, Celia and I decided to get ready for the holiday's that are coming up. Since we already had a menorah, candles and dreidels, that meant a Christmas tree. Saturday we went out to this tree farm about 10 minutes out of town. There you were able to pick out and cut down your own Christmas tree. It was a big farm so we narrowed our search down to size and type of tree, but a lot of the trees were mixed in with each other. We found one we liked pretty quick, but decided to explore the lot a little more. It had just rained, but there was a break in the weather (which is why I decided to get it now, while there were still decent trees available), so the ground was kind of muddy. We trekked on through the lot, but couldn't find another we really liked. So we went back to the first one we saw. When we got back, another family was looking at the tree. Now when we got to the lot they were all out of the saws that they loan out, but the guy that picked the trees up with the tractor had a chainsaw and could help cut the tree down. This family that was now looking at the tree happened to be lucky enough to get a saw, and picked out their tree and started cutting it. It was back to exploring the lot. I explained to Celia, who has never done this before, that if you see a tree you like, you have to pounce on it. I guess it was fortuitous that we didn't get that tree, because we found one that we liked better. The first one was very full and didn't leave to much room to display ornaments, but the new tree had a little more room in it. So we stood our ground and waited for the tractor to come by. We went and payed for our tree (which was a little more expensive then I thought it was going to be) and went to load it on top of the car. After about fifteen minutes and about 40 feet of twine and rope, I felt it was secure enough to drive home (and it was, the tree didn't move an inch). When we got home, I pieced together our new stand and found a good place in the apartment to put it. I put the lights on the tree and relaxed a bit, before heading out to the store to get some ingredients for us to make gingerbread and sugar cookies and picking up a web cam so we can talk to Sam in Israel and everyone back home with Skype (if you have Skype, please email us your info, if you don't have it, we suggest that you get it).

After we got back from the store, I started put the ornaments on the tree (including the Pooh and Piglet ornament my mom gave us). Saturday night we started making the dough for the cookies and I hooked up the web cam to the computer. We tested our new Skype out by calling Renee, Barry and Ash. After an interesting conversation, that was mostly made up of Ashleigh making faces at the camera, it was time to relax. Sunday, we did a little holiday shopping and driving on an adventure to find Hanukkah cookie cutters. We finally found some at a Fred Myers near downtown. When we got home Celia and I started baking the cookies that we started making the night before (you have to let the dough sit for a couple hours, we decide to let it sit overnight). Four and a half hours later, the cookies were done, and so were we. After dinner we trudged on, starting to put icing on them. That didn't last to long. We iced about 25 cookies before calling it quits almost seven hours after we started. Tonight we were going to finish, but between the cookies we each took with us to work and the un-iced ones we've munched on, there aren't too many left to ice. Even though it took forever and tired us out we both had a lot of fun making them (surprisingly, no icing made it onto each of our faces....maybe next time). It was a very full and fun weekend.

A Happy Thanksgiving

I decided to save up all my blogging until the weekend ended, so this might be a little long. If you have to, grab a cup of coffee and turn your phone off for the next half hour or so.

Wednesday night Renee, Barry, Bubbie and Ashleigh arrived in Portland for their Thanksgiving Weekend trip. Celia was working that night so I went over to Leslie and Bill's house (where Barry, Renee and Bubbie were staying) to pick up Ashleigh. Bill invited me to stay for some pizza, since I hadn't had dinner yet. We had a good visit, some Round Table Pizza and it was time to head home to start my pie for the next night. When Celia got home I was expecting fireworks, but between a long day at work and a long drive for Ashleigh, it was a big hug and smile. They ended up hanging out and watching some tv, while I finished my pie (which I almost burned). After the pie was done, it was off to bed.

On Thanksgiving Renee and Bubbie came over to help Celia make some sides for the dinner, and Barry came along to watch football with me (Bubbie ended up watching the games too). Before the girls got to cooking, I made everyone some pancakes and coffee for breakfast. Once breakfast was done, I handed the kitchen over. I started watching the games and wasn't paying attention to the kitchen anymore, but it sure smelt good. We went over to Leslie and Bill's for dinner, since we didn't have the space to accommodate 10 people (Eric and Chevelle came over for dinner as well). We had some appetizers and conversation as we waited for the turkey to finish. Dinner was amazing, Leslie and Bill made the turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and cranberries; while we brought mashed potatoes, yams, these onion appetizers, magic cookie bars and my apple cranberry pie; and Eric and Chevelle brought the salad and an apple cake. As I said it was delicious (as far as what I had, but everyone was saying that it all came out great). We came home that night and watched a movie and passed out from too much turkey.

Friday, Celia had to be at work at 5:30, so Ashleigh and I slept in a little longer than that, and then spent the day together. We watched a few movies and then got ready to go out when Celia got home. When she got off work we went down to downtown Lake Oswego for the annual tree lighting. We wanted to go to the one Downtown, but there wasn't going to be enough time to get down there once Celia got off of work. We'll just end up going next year. When we got there, the high school choir was singing Christmas carols, Starbucks was giving out coffee and Safeway was handing out cookies, cheese and tomato soup. It started drizzling a bit while we were out there, but I didn't mind too much (the girls however were freezing and felt like they were melting under the rain). They lit the tree, and it was pretty lame. They hung these cheesy snowflakes from the tree and that was it, and once it was lit you couldn't even tell they were snowflakes. After the tree lighting, we went down to Millennium Square for apple cider and some live music. It was pretty cold so we didn't stay for the band to warm up (cause we weren't). Are plans were to see the Tenacious D movie, but we had about an hour to kill. We decided to walk around Bridgeport Village until we had to go into the movie. We went over to Urban Outfitters and the Apple store. Ashleigh had wanted to get an iPod, so Celia treated her to a nice green one (Renee actually treated, cause she paid Celia back for it later). Then it was movie time. The movie was pretty good, for what you were expecting (a lot of cursing and fart jokes).

The next morning we started off by having breakfast with everyone at Amerigo's, this nice little restaurant down the street from Celia and I. They were short a waiter and cook that morning, but failed to tell us until we had waited over 45 minutes for our food. They did their best to get everyone their food, but about half our orders came out cold. Renee mentioned something to the lady who writes the recipes (who was filling in for the waiter...long story, don't ask) and she was so upset at the situation she comped our entire meal. Let me just say that was not the intention any of us had, but it was very nice of her. Leslie and Bill went home and the rest of us went off to watch Celia try on wedding dresses. After about 2 and half hours, we settled on one that she like, but it is far from over (but not for me, I was there for moral support and I'll try to keep my distance from wedding dresses until the big day). The Wedding Cottage was the next stop to show everyone a couple of Save the Date card that we had picked out. When we got home, Renee, Barry, Celia and I sat down to discuss some things about the wedding. We came to some conclusions and the two of us have some things to think about now. We met up with Bill and Leslie for dinner at this cool Chinese food place near them, called Shanghi Noble House. The waiter was really friendly and funny (he kept calling Bubbie the "Prime Minister"). They gave us so much food, but it was so good that we finished everything. On the way home Celia and I drove Ashleigh around Downtown. We wanted to show her the beauty of the bridges and the lights on the river. Then we took her through Downtown, past Pioneer Square, the Park Blocks and "The Schnitz" (where we saw Carlos Mencia). We stopped at Blockbuster to have a cozy night at home (not like that's what we did every night, but Ash was freezing anytime we were outside).

This morning was the long good-bye, but not before we had a big breakfast at Manzana's. When we were done with breakfast, we packed the roof bag (yes the one we used on the way up) and Celia gave everyone big hugs. She cried a bit, and Ashleigh tried to pull her into the car. It was sad, and I gave her a big hug because I knew how she felt. But I told her that she would see them again, and she can talk to them whenever she wants. They headed back to Leslie and Bill's for some stuff, and we headed down to the Outlet Stores to do some holiday shopping. Celia had been sick most of the weekend, but she was a trooper as walked around the different stores for a couple hours. We had to hit Target before we went home, and she looked like she was going to pass out, but she wanted to keep going. We were almost done at Target, when she sat down while we waited for a salesperson to get us something from the back, when she did in fact pass out. I got her home and put her to bed. I made her some tea, oatmeal and got her some medicine before she went to sleep. When she got up, she still wasn't feeling better, but I hope she will in the morning.

It was a big weekend and we're all exhausted (some more than others), but we had a lot of fun and can't wait until we see everyone again.

PS......sorry for no pictures from Thanksgiving. I forgot my camera and I'm waiting for a cd from Renee.