Merry Christmas!

Earlier in December, Shawn and I went down to the Davenport Hotel for our annual date night tradition of checking out the Christmas Tree Elegance tree display. It was a real fun night, and I look forward to doing it each year. Here's a photo of us in the hotel lobby. Christmas we unwrapped presents and spent time with family. A fun time was had by all.I got a cute little Gumby and Pokey set in my stocking. How cute!The three amigos on Christmas EveMerry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Can you believe it's after Christmas and I haven't even posted pics from Thanksgiving weekend yet? Oh how I've become such a horrible blogger lately. I think about it often, but for some reason it always seems like a burden.

Thanksgiving weekend, Shawn, Ellie and I headed over to Seattle to spend time with my family and also to accomplish some wedding related tasks.

Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful, but I forgot to take any photos - this one of Ellie, me and my Mom in the car on the way is the only one I have of the day. For dinner we went to my Aunt Mary's house and all of my cousins and aunts and uncles were there, it was SO good to see them all again. The day after Thanksgiving we went up to Pike's Place Market to shop around. We had to stop near the market and check out the famous gum wall. Pretty gross, but also pretty amazing - quite a sight to see. The market was so pretty all decked out for Christmas with greenery everywhere and it was a gorgeous, sunny day!Saturday afternoon, the fam made about 200 wedding announcements for the upcoming wedding of Yours Truly. There was quite an assembly line. Dad stamped...Mom and I were in charge of the embossing powder...and Ellie and Shawn worked the heat gun. Check all of those out!!!After they were all dry, we layered them onto some beautiful Maui ocean colored paper. When you all receive your announcement in the mail, you can be sure that many hours of T.L.C went into each one! :)After our laborious day, we went to see the Zoolights at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma. Here's a cute family photo.Here's a photo of the group of all of us at Zoolights taking in all of the beauty. L to R is Travis, Ellie, Shawn, Me, Mom, and Dad. The lights were so pretty, and this tree was my absolute favorite!!Awww... how cute. No mistletoe, but I still got a kiss. I love this dude.

Extras from Pirates of the Caribbean?

Shawn and I used the first tiny bit of the spa gift certificate that we won at the Diamond Dash to try out body bronzing this weekend. We potentially wanted to use it before we took off to Maui to get married, but wanted to make sure that we liked it before we used it days before the wedding.

The bronzing process was not the spray kind, it was lotion that was put on kind of massage style after being exfoliated. It was relaxing and I was feeling like a Caribbean Queen when I came out of our room and saw Shawn looking super bronzed. We both looked at each other and kind of went "Whoa". No biggie though, we were feeling good so we went out to dinner, went to the mall, and then to the grocery store.

We got back to my apartment and Shawn went to the bathroom. He came out and said, "Uh, why didn't you tell me I looked like an idiot?" I said, "Well, I didn't think you did, but now that I see you in the bright lights, maybe it does look a little like shoe polish!" We were both laughing so hard we were crying - we looked like total fools! I said that we looked like extras from a Pirates of the Caribbean movie - see for yourself - here's a photo!!! The ladies at the spa told us that this look was totally normal, and that the brown streaky stuff would wash off in the shower and leave us nice and bronzy. So don't worry, we don't look like this today.

Go Zags!

I got some free women's Gonzaga University basketball tickets for Thursday night's game, and enjoyed the courtside seats with my friends Melissa, Staci, and Staci's husband Logan. The Zags played the USC Trojans, and won by almost 20 points. It was a really fun time, and amazing seats.

Halloween Dinner

For Halloween, we had a creepy kooky dinner. I surprised Shawn and Ellie with all of the decorations and food - they had no idea what they were in for! The table was all spooked out, a CD was playing of eerie sounds to help with the mood, and there were cobwebs strung from all over the ceiling. They both walked in my apartment beaming as they looked around, and they both said, "whoa..." Mission accomplished.Our first course was scrambled brain salad (acini de pepe fruit salad dyed a gross peach color). I forgot to take a photo of the brains. Next up was witch's eye pie (pizza with cheese & olive looking eyeballs). It was a hit, and turned out better than I thought - it actually looked pretty gross! Here's a photo of me enjoying my witch's eye pie. Yum!Here's a photo of Shawn and Ellie enjoying their meal. Shawn was so funny with the little rats - he loved them and kept putting them all over his body. For dessert we enjoyed baby tarantulas. They turned out SO cute! They are mini muffin sized cupcakes with black licorice legs and mini M&M eyes. Yum!
Many thanks to my mama who helped me come up with many of the genius ideas!

Frequent Flyer Points?

My good friend Les saved me today. If Les Schwab Tires had a frequent flyer-like program, I think I'd be near the top of the list. I get more flat tires than a normal person should, and I don't get why.

A coworker let me know today that she noticed my tire was flat out in the parking lot. She said it was really low, and that she had noticed it the day before but forgot to tell me. I went and took a look, and it was definitely low! It was really scary because I went to the dentist this morning in Deer Park (which is about 15 miles north of my house), and then all the way to work in Liberty Lake (which is about 35 miles south from the dentist)!!! It must have been flat the whole time! Scary.

Anyway, it's a good thing Shawn bought me a membership to AAA last year for Christmas, because he got his money worth this year. I called AAA and they came out to my work to put the donut wheel on free!. Then after work I went to Les Schwab where they fixed my flat for free! I love that place.

Here's a photo of the poor deflated tire. It looks so sad!

Flu - I dare you to get me now!

I got a flu shot this year! Yay for me! It's the first time in my adulthood that I've decided to get the shot, but I wanted to take the extra precaution to not be sick for my upcoming wedding, and my work gives them to us for free, so why not?

Anyway, I just wanted to post a photo that I survived it! Maybe if it works this year I'll consider doing it again! Woo-hoo!

Corn Maze

Last weekend we went to the corn maze in Hauser, ID. I've wanted to go for several years now, but just never made it until now. I'd never been to a corn maze before, so I didn't know what to expect and it was really cool! The maze was about 4 miles long, and at the beginning they gave you maps and punch cards. The goal was to find all 18 stations with different hole punches and complete all punches on your card. Ellie and I were lost upon entering the maze within the first 5 feet, but Shawn just loved it - he knew exactly where he was going, he kept leading us along, and he'd turn around every once in a while and say, "I'm good at this; I'm having so much fun!" It was so stinkin cute. He is so stinkin cute. Here's a photo of Ellie at station #5 punching her card.

Here's a photo of all three of us. I'll toot my own horn and say I'm incredibly good at taking "timer photos". This one I took by wedging the camera in between a few corn stalks. Turned out perfect!!

My Birthday

My birthday this year was perfect. I woke up with grand plans of stopping at Starbucks on the way to work to treat myself to my absolute favorite peppermint hot chocolate. Then I started dreaming about treating myself to an Egg McMuffin. I just LOVE those things, but don't eat them too often. Mmmmm, my mouth was watering as I left my apartment with a growling tummy.

My commute on this morning was in Shawn's car. You see, he traded me cars the night before because he was doing something birthday related with mine. I got in the car and adjusted the seat, moved the rear-view mirror a bit, and then reached to adjust the steering wheel. I pulled the lever, and I guess I busted it because the wheel was all loosy goosy. It was bouncing all over the place, and I couldn't get it back to normal! I fiddled with it for about 10 minutes and couldn't fix it! I called Shawn to see if there was some magical trick, but he didn't answer. I decided at this point I was going to have to just drive with the wheel loose or I was going to be late. I made it about 2 blocks and pulled over because it was almost impossible to drive. I was going to crash and die on my birthday! I played with it more to no avail. I was definitely going to be late now, and stopping for a fattening birthday breakfast was definitely out of the question now. Ugh.

I make it to work without dying, but now I'm crabby because I'm late and hungry. I round the corner to my desk and I see a peppermint hot chocolate and an Egg McMuffin sitting on my desk!! My friend and normal carpool buddy Melissa knows me so well that she knew the Starbucks would make my morning. I love having friends who know me that well. Another friend brought be the muffin. It was such a relief and the best possible way to start the work day. I felt so special.

A few friends took me to lunch at the Pita Pit - Yummmm. I really love the Pit.

I came home from work, and Shawn was going to come over and make me dinner. He made some fabulous avocado hamburgers that was easily the best hamburger I'd ever had. Then we went out to see my car... with new tinted windows!!! Wow! I was really surprised, and super excited.

Dodson's Diamond Dash

Shawn and I decided to do Dodson's Diamond Dash last Saturday (kind of a cross between The Amazing Race, and a scavenger hunt in downtown Spokane), for a top prize of a $15,000 diamond ring!! They accepted about 400 teams of two to play, and no motorized vehicles were allowed, but you could use anything human powered so we brought our bikes down. The entire dash was done through text messaging, so they would text you a clue to a location, then you would have to text back the location name (and spelling counted). Next you would be asked a "challenge" question about that location - something you would only possibly know by being at the location. We got points for each question we got correct, and the point value varied depending on how hard the clue was. We had 2 1/2 hours to complete as many questions as we could.

The competition was fierce, but we felt pretty good about our odds. Shawn's an extremely knowledgeable local who knows a TON about the city, and I'll toot my own horn and say I've got some pretty good street smarts and a pretty strong competitive edge. Sounds like the perfect team, right?

Here are some photos of us as we took as we were waiting at the start line.

The buzzer went off and we received our first clue via text: "Things in Riverfront Park are all off scale! Send back what child's toy has been blown up so big it can be used as a slide." Immediately we knew it was the huge red Radio Flyer wagon and we were off on our crazy adventure.

There were times in the race I honestly thought I could never run as hard as I was for over 2 hours. Shawn and I were riding our bikes so fast, and my legs were just shaking because they were so weak. We felt like we were doing really well, but we didn't loose focus, "this is worth $15,000, just keep pushing" we kept thinking.

Hours of racing went by, and we got a clue that read, "Home to the Chamber of Commerce, send back the name of this Riverside building." Ugh. We were stumped, and knew that time was going to be running out shortly. We rode our bikes to Riverside street and frantically looked all over for the Chamber of Commerce for what felt like forever. This question was worth 7 points, and shortly we got another text that read, "The game is over! Your team scored 409 points. Now head to the after-party at the Marquee Lounge to find out who won!"

Off we headed to the lounge, and while we were waiting in line to get in, conversation started up with fellow Dashers and we began comparing scores. We soon found out that most people's scores were in the high 200's. We were starting to feel really confident! But, there was no way that we would win this thing, right???

They started with the 5th place finisher (but of course didn't reveal how many points they accumulated), and built up from there. Each time they called a team/place finisher, I got more nervous that we might have actually won, and more disappointed that we might not have won. They got to third, and my heart really started to sink. Then they called second place - IT WAS US!!!!!! Shawn and I won second place out of 400 teams!!! We went to the stage and claimed our prize. Then they called the first place winner up to the stage and announced that their final score was 414. 414?!?!? Are you kidding me???? We lost by 5 points? I looked at Shawn and said "Oh my gosh, I'm totally going to cry" (and I did a little)

Still a cool experience, and we won a $2500 gift package to a spa, and an overnight stay at Silver Mt. Resort.

5 points?!?!? It's been a tough pill to swallow.

Official photos can be seen on the sideshows at http://www.dodsonsdiamonddash.com/. Look for my super bright pink hat, I think we're only in a few photos.

Mmm...Mmm...Good!

I made some mint filled brownie cupcakes last night. Yum, yum! I was in charge of a co-worker's birthday, and these were the delectable treat I chose! I made the brownie batter from scratch, but you could easily do this with a boxed mix. You scoop one spoonful into the cups, then place a York peppermint pattie on top and wiggle it down into the batter a bit. (I ate several York's at this point.)

Then you fill the rest of the cup to the top with more brownie batter and bake. This is what they looked like when they came out of the oven. They were SO perfect!The recipe didn't call for anything else to be done with the brownies, but I took one look at them and thought they would look pretty with a little sprinkling of powdered sugar. I went to town with that, and I thought they looked just so cute! They were so easy and super tasty - they vanished pretty stinkin' quick at work too, so I'm thinking that others liked them as well.

H1N1?

There has been at least one confirmed case of the swine flu at my work. I promptly broke into our "influenza outbreak kit". The mask lasted about 5 minutes - it gets hot under that thing, and I feared I would break out (in pimples, not swiney) or something!

Here We Go Again

I have a love/hate relationship with hockey season. There, I've finally said it. I love it because it's fun and I really get into it, but I hate it because it eats up SO much time and money. Pretty much every Friday and Saturday night from now until March is spent at the Spokane Arena.

Anyway, with that said, hockey season started on Saturday night. I was pretty excited to see the team again and see what new players we had. This year is the 25th anniversary of the Chiefs in Spokane, so there were lots of pre-game festivities. We played our arch rival the Tri City Americans, and that always makes for a good match. We won 5-2; a great way to start off the season.

Here's a photo of Shawn and I as we kill time waiting for the game to begin. We got there super early because the first 2000 fans through the doors got a commemorative 25th anniversary puck.

And here's a photo of Ellie and her cousin Sam who were also killing time taking photos of themselves.

High School Days

Shawn and I went to the Mead High School game with Ellie on Friday night. First, I was very surprised that she wanted us to go with her and second, I was super surprised that she sat by us the whole time! I wouldn't have done the same when I was her age. I was pretty bored throughout the game - it's amazing how when you're not in high school hanging out with your friends that the games are actually not that exciting. Oh well. They won, and it wasn't cold, so I survived just fine.

Yay for Free Stuff!

Shawn and I got a call the other day from the registry department at Macy's telling us that we had won their quarterly wedding registry prize! How stinkin exciting! I hate to admit that we were both pretty skeptical in the "prize"; we figured that it would be something everyone gets such as a coupon for 10% off your purchase of $200 or more.

We were definitely wrong! Saturday we were at the mall, so we went to claim our prize. It was a REAL present! It was even wrapped!!! It contained a little cookie spatula that I wanted really bad (it was even on our registry!), and a super cute set of Martha Stewart dessert plates. WOW!

Here's a photo of the super cute spatula. The photo totally doesn't do it justice, it's so cute in real life. And here's a photo of the dessert plates! Did I mention they are super cute! I was so excited to receive our first wedding present. This is so much fun!

Here's another shot of the plates. They are assorted colors with one red, teal, yellow, and green. Shawn loved them too; he even said he can't wait to use them in our married life. YAY! This is so much fun!!!

Sunrise

There's something about a sunrise that makes it seem so different than a sunset. They seem to symbolize newness and the quiet of a new day.
I can still remember each sunrise I've seen (there's only been a handful of them). The most memorable sunrise I remember was on a road trip with friends driving from Washington DC to Austin - we took shifts driving so that we wouldn't have to stop, and I was the lucky one who got the late-night/early morning shift. I remember driving through Kentucky when the sun came up against the Blue Mountains - it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen and literally brought tears to my eyes. I was the only one awake in the car; it was so quiet and peaceful - there was no one else to be seen.
I had to work the early shift (6:30am) last week, and it was perfect timing that I got to see the sunrise each morning. Monday morning as I watched the sun come up, it reminded me of the others I'd seen and how special they seem to be. Here's a photo I snapped of the glorious morning sun.

Do I even remember how this works???

August has been a crazy month. Sorry about the lack of Blogging. The beginning of the month a dear friend of mine got married; that was joyful. A week later my sister moved across the country; that was not so joyful. The rest of the month has been busy with wedding prep and the initial stages of Shawn and I buying our first home. Talk about stressful! Then finally, this last weekend we got to ignore it all and visit my parents to enjoy no responsibilities for a few days. Anyway, I promise to be a better blogger in September, and hope you enjoy the following posts of August in a nutshell. Where did summer go???

Mini-Vaca

Shawn and I had the opportunity last weekend to take a much needed mini vacation over to Seattle to visit my parents and also to visit Ken Griffey Jr. (We went to a Mariners game). Our seats were amazing, and the first thing I noticed when I sat down was how close to Griffey - I mean the dugout - we were. Look at the photo below! That's really him, not a fan with a jersey on!

It was a great night for a ball game; the weather was warm and calm. We didn't even need the sweatshirts we all brought! Yay!Here's a photo I took of Griffey at bat. Kinda looks like he's hitting an amazing home run, but it was actually a pop fly out. :( Oh well, still makes for a cool photo!And here's Shawn and I at the game. We had a lot of fun, and it was so nice for my parents to take us. Also while visiting the parents, we took a full day and went up to the Olympic National Forest to explore around Hurricane Ridge. We decided to go on the Hurricane Hill hike, but none of us really realized how much of a hike it was going to be. We thought it was going to be more like a walk! It was really steep, but we made it to the top. The view was really cool - we could see all the way to Canada! Here's a photo of Mom and Dad just as we started out on the walk/hike. Here is Dad and Shawn at the top checking out all of the sights and different mountains through the binoculars. Check out those mountains! We were so high up that we were at the same level as them! Wow!Here we are back down at the bottom after surviving our hike with the Hurricane Hill sign.

My mom quickly realized that the sign shouldn't say "Hurricane Hill", it should say "Hurricane Hell". So here I am with the revised sign.