xmas aux states

Well the whirlwind vacation is over, so as a little recap I thought I'd post some pictures!!

We flew into Seattle 2 weeks ago and my mom picked us up with my little sister and her boyfriend at the airport and then made the 2 hour trek home out to the Olympic Peninsula. The time spent there was very relaxing with little planned other than enjoying fires and the jacuzzi. We did however, plan a wonderful sushi dinner the 23rd to celebrate Mystery Guest's birthday! We also built an awesome gingerbread house to enter in a local competition, like our Norman design? :-)

Christmas eve dinner was a low-key event. I brought 2 kilos of raclette cheese with me so we scarfed that down leaving the Christmas presents for the following morning.

We were surprised with personalized Christmas stockings for everyone which were stuffed full when everyone rolled downstairs on Christmas morning. That afternoon Mystery Guest and I took advantage of the sunshine and went on a walk through the State Park before an early dinner of a beautiful bbqed turkey and other yummy things to eat (including mom's homemade bread! yum!)

On the 27th we all flew down to San Fran to spend a few days with my dad and step-mom. It was a jam-packed trip with visits to Google (where my dad works), Carmel /the Montery Bay Aquarium and SF. We also managed to fit in some shopping and came away with tons of jeans! yippe!!

Down in Carmel Mystery Guest even braved the cold temps to experience the Pacific Ocean for the first time! It was sunny and warm out but I'll believe him when he says the water was freezing :-)

We had a couple days left back in the Pacific NW where we celebrated New Years in style - some flutes of champagne in the jacuzzi - before flying out so we went on a quick day trip to Seattle. From what everyone said everything should be open downtown on the 1st of January but sadly it was only the big department stores. Even Pike Place Market was all closed up!! I've never seen it closed before but we still walked around and checked out the 1st Starbucks and got stocked up at the Levi's store.

It was a wonderful trip, it was good to be home and see my family again (after a year and a half!) but too short, especially with the jet lag!

Just thought I'd leave you francophiles with this licence plate which just cracked me up ;-)