Minnie

Still having trouble with nighttime - it's just too much fun to sleep, but she's settling in...making eric her newest couch buddy.






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Minnie

Minnie, a 10 week old boston terrier female, joined the family on December 26th as a little Christmas surprise. She is very tiny, weighing only 4.8 lbs right now...the smallest of the litter and almost half the size of her brothers. She has quite a lot of growing to do.

She took her first solo car ride today with a seatbelt harness since bags aren't her fav and she has a habit of crawling in your lap while driving. We visited my office where hopefully she'll be able to come a lot once this housebreaking thing is consistent. (still working on that).


yes, that's a cat toy. she probably won't be much bigger than the cat. that is, if Roxi ever would show her face. she's having some only child syndrome problems in adjusting to this 'thing' in her house. she's made it known.


She loves her giraffe, it came from her litter so she sleeps with it.

She moves quick...this was the best of all of them. I can only take pictures when she's sleeping.

The Mountain Adventure Christmas 2007

So off we went into the wild wilderness. We did have to put chains on the back wheels and no, I don't have photo documentation of this because it was a LITTLE tense and there was some yelling. We had the directions out in blowing snow attempting to put these on...fun times.

The atmosphere at the lodge soon made up for it, this was my reading nook by the 3 story atrium and a roaring fire. Not pictured here is the WONDERFUL outdoor hot tub and heated pool. No pictures b/c it was kind of like the polar bear club running from the heated building through the pelting snow and jumping into the tub..blizzard like conditions on christmas night made it downright miserable getting in and out. Some people actually wore their ski goggles into the tub.

A mountain Christmas tree!! Looks like ours but slightly larger.

The view from our cozy (small) room. It is definitely a rustic lodge....I think people were smaller back then.
Setting out on Christmas Day it was slightly eerie, rather ominous. As we found out half way through our snowshoe adventure, those dark clouds mean snow's a comin'. Stupid city people.


Happy and snowy on the snowshoe adventure around Trillium Lake. Note, Trillium Lake is NOT small. The trail was a good uphill climb to the Lake and around for about 4miles.

We were not the only crazy ones out...lots of people were at the snowpark. We met many people on their snowshoe or cross country skiing christmas adventure.

Half way into the hike...it started to snow heavily. It didn't stop...when we left there was 2 feet and it was still falling.

Yes, there is a lake there. Trillium Lake. You'll have to take my word for it b/c it was snowing so hard, you can barely see the open space. After this adventure, I figured I deserved something for burning off 300+ calories, so we went and had our Christmas dinner - wine/beer, hamburger, and onion rings....yum. Now I'm -150 calories.

Christmas Eve Eve

Rather than lugging the presents up to the mountain, we decided to celebrate early on the eve of the eve!!

Christmas kitty...not sure what all this is. This was her first Christmas with wrapping paper!! Very exciting because of the fun crunching noise..

Eric and the muppet show season 2, his favorite. reliving his childhood all over again..

The christmas eve eve setting...the stocking were hung by the chimney with care.

What a manly tool for a manly man...now he just has to find something to drill!!


Anyone for golfing? I can now travel!!

Christmas weekend at the beach

Not quite sure what to do with ourselves, we headed the opposite way of everyone else to the BEACH!! We had never gone to some of the coastal towns for fear of the crowds in the summer so now was the perfect time as there wasn't anyone there!!

Sunset at 4:00pm! Hooray, the longest day of the year has passed!!

We stopped in Seaside, Cannon Beach, and Astoria. Cannon Beach was my fav... see all the pictures of the beaches above and below.
Very chilly...


Cannon Beach is famous for the rock formations along the shoreline. I just loved the fact that there was no commercialism screaming along the beach. Cute stores and a great little pub with local brew and clam chowder and fish and chips made the day complete.

Snow in PDX

it followed us....
small flakes for now...nothing stuck.
you can't see it probably, but it's there.

you can see how in the christmas spirit our neighbor are though...it's a regular chevy chase winterwonderland.

Christmas Kitty

Roxi is getting in the holiday spirit...she is fascinated with the Christmas tree. She parks under the boughs every night and stares at the lights...and bites the branches.

The black blob - that's kitty.

Thanksgiving on the Mountain

The crew and appetizers...waiting for the turkey.

Our hostess, Amy, hard at work.

The boys...
Annie, brown dog, waiting for something to fall.

A beautiful clear day. Also meant it was frickin' cold out there with the wind blowing us sideways on the mountain.
2-3 feet of snow on the mountain where we went to chop down the tree. Loads of fun for about 3 minutes until I couldn't feel my fingers or toes, and I got stuck in a hole. On the waydown...wiped out on the ice and now icing my bum.

Annie, snow dog. I still don't understand how she isn't cold.

The tree crew.

Very windy conditions, blowing snow and numb toes made for a poor photograph. Sorry. Nice shot of eric's pants while cutting down our tree. The tree is different from what we usually have, reminds me of a mountain christmas tree. Kitty has already tried to drink from it and scale it. Completely fascinated with the moving branches.

The drive in on Thanksgiving Day.

A Thanksgiving Day hike by the rushing mountain stream, very cold.


Amy and Junebug.

The table setting - notice the beautiful centerpieces? Handmade by me! Complete with hollowed out munchkin pumpkins with tea lites. Very martha.

Thanks to the Phelps for the beautiful mountain setting.

Parents weekend!

The Columbia Gorge.

Multnomah Falls.

Did the wine thing.
Nob Hill dining at 23 Hoyt.

More eating...at the brewpub, Bridgeport.

Still more eating..notice a trend? At Salty's on the Columbia River.

An engineering marvel, the Vista House.