Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve, Graham (who thankfully was feeling much better) and I, along with my Mom, Matt and Rita, went to the Nero’s for appetizers, Caviar and Champagne. Graham and I spent the night at my Mom’s and we all got up super early for Christmas morning stocking and gift extravaganza…Luckily, Rita and Matt made it over before we peeked at our gifts. After tidying up the house again, the whole Hale clan (all nine of them:) came over for the Christmas gift exchange. We had lots of food and drinks – which I snacked on all day long. It was very nice to see everyone and we even had snow! Still, I was very happy to head home and go to bed when it was all over.

Kylie’s 29!

On Sunday, I helped celebrate Kylie’s 29^th birthday – we are getting old. Rita, Matt and I met up with Kylie Sunday morning to start her birthday off with a big brunch at Zell’s – yummy! We all met up again later at her parents’ house for drinks and cheesecake. From there a bunch of us went out to the Lime Light – our local Westmoreland bar. Poor Graham missed the festivities and was at home with the flu.

Graham Cracker Party

Having a job in wine means Christmas season is my busiest time at work. Nevertheless, I was able to fit in some Christmas activities and I got all of my presents purchased and wrapped before Christmas morning - whew! Friday night, Graham and I had a little get together, where we all tried our best at graham cracker house construction. The end result was sugar overload and stickiness everywhere – it was a lot of fun.

The Best!

My little sister Rita, has been having a hard couple of months. She was diagnosed with skin cancer in November and was told she would have to have her entire bellybutton removed along with a lymph node. She underwent surgery last Thursday on the 13^th and spent all weekend sleeping. A lot of us spent time visiting, watching movies and walking Abby over the weekend. She is now alert and somewhat up and about. She is still bandaged and her new bellybutton has not yet made its appearance (she was given a new one after her original was removed). I’m so happy she is now cancer free and in full recovery. She and Matt are still resting and recovering at home and watching lots of movies. My thoughts and all my very best Christmas wishes are for Rita this year. A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I look forward to the new bellybutton revealing. I love you Rita, you are the best!

Go Ducks!

We may have lost the game at this weekend’s Civil War but we put up a good fight, especially considering we were on our fourth string quarterback…Graham and I had a fun time cheering on the Ducks at Kris and Sarah’s super cute new place. With tons of food and an array of drinks we enjoyed the game right up to the second overtime. Sarah and her friend Amber had even more to celebrate, being they were both Beaver fans. After way to much junk food Rita and I, later followed by Kylie, went to Loyly Spa to sit in steam and sauna rooms. I don’t know if I would ever go again but we had a good time. We finished the evening at Savoy with deliciously salty deep fried cheese curds - so much for purifying our bodies.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was lovely although I didn’t remember to take any pictures. We started the morning at 7:30 with the Turkey Trot at the Zoo along with my Mom and Rita. Rita ran the four miles – good for her. Graham and I walked. And my Mom sat out with a sprained ankle, which she had injured earlier that week. The last quarter mile was through the Zoo with a finish by the Elephants. I loved it! After our energized morning we headed to my Mom’s for lunch/dinner and more snacking…Graham had purchased a 17lb bird, which we brined the night before. We had and a delicious meal with a ton of leftovers that our cats (who we brought along for the feast) helped us eat all weekend. Unfortunately, everyone but Graham (lucky guy) had to work Friday, so it was an early evening and we ended the day being lazy and watching movies.

Camping in November

We knew it would be cold and wet but we are Oregonians darn it, and isn’t it always cold and wet??? Graham and I took off Saturday afternoon to meet up with my co-worker Amanda, her husband Dustin and their two dogs Jazzi and Elli (more fluff balls than dogs). We were lucky enough to snag the last two cabins at the campground; that is until we found out there were only three cabins to begin with…We had a nice time and actually spent some of our time outdoors. Lucky for us the deluge of rain didn’t start until we were all warm and snuggly in our cabins. On Sunday, Graham had a successful time gathering Chanterelles and we ended our short trip with a long scenic drive to Astoria before heading back home.

Girls Luncheon

What a beautiful fall Saturday for a lunch with all the Hale women (…and Herman’s and Attebery’s). We had a nice time at Bentley’s Restaurant in Salem. Although the restaurant had a good atmosphere, the food and the service didn’t encourage a return visit. Nevertheless, the present company made it a great time! I would like to do another girls lunch again soon and this time try out more of what Salem has to offer in food. We ended our Salem visit at my Aunt Linda’s and Uncle Bruce’s house where we had coffee and pumpkin AND cherry pie…it was a very sweet visit. Here are some super cute pictures of my adorable cousin Sophia and lovely Rita at the school down the street from their house.

The Pumpkin Patch

It's Pumpkin patch time. Graham and I have had two P-patch experiences this year. The first was two weekends ago, on a perfect fall day; Kris, Sarah, Graham and I went to the pumpkin patch for a day of fun. Although we were fighting the crowds you couldn't get better fall weather. The next weekend we went again with Kylie, Nate, Rita and my Mom. This time we ran from the pumpkin patch to the covered produce area as fast as we could. We had hot cider and fresh doughnuts and got soaking wet! We had a great time both weekends.

More fom our family visit.

Chicago and baby Jackson...so cute!

Chicago.

Graham and I got to spend four sunny days in hot, humid Chicago, visiting Graham’s family and friends. The main reason for our visit was to meet our newest family member…Jackson David Ventura - at just two weeks old; he is Graham’s sister Elyce and her husband Dave’s first baby! We had a great time, although we didn’t get to see everyone we hoped to and we wish we could have spent more time with everyone we saw. This was only my second time to the ‘windy city’ but we didn’t spend much time visiting tourist sites. We did go to Millennium Park which is in the middle of downtown Chicago and has the “bean” and Graham and I went up to the 96th floor of the Hancock and had cocktails. It was a great trip, we had a lot of fun and it was so nice to see everyone. Hopefully we will all get together again soon. We miss you guys!

Oaks Park Oktoberfest!

Oops! I missed posting our most recent Oktoberfest experience. Kris, Sarah, Kylie and of course Graham and I, headed down to Oaks Park for a night of German themed amusement park fun. We all got sickeningly ill from to many spinning rides. By the end of the night both Graham and I were sitting out the rides and holding everyone's loose items. Although no one won the chicken dance, or sausage-eating contest, we had a lot of fun and of course look forward to next year.

Widmer Oktoberfest

Here’s to another weekend at a brew fest! Thanks to Kylie: Rita, Ann, Kat, Graham and myself, spent a Saturday evening drinking Widmer beers and listening to live music late into the evening. Somehow no one brought a camera and Kylies’ didn’t work. Lucky for us the Widmer people were dedicated to documenting their event so we have this one picture. We’re missing half our people but it’s something.

Portland Bridge Pedal

Although we spent most of the weekend recovering from Graham’s Birthday, we did participate in the Portland Bridge Pedal on Sunday. Graham and I joined 19,000 people, on a 36-mile bike ride over Portland’s ten bridges. I wish we had brought the camera to capture some lovely skyline views but the only picture we have is us in our awesome Bridge Pedal uniform. Maybe we will get better pictures next year.

Graham's Happy Birthday!

Graham’s birthday really began when he opened a present from me – adult Heelys (the shoes you see kids wearing and skating around in). After a few trial Heelin’ attempts, Graham was ready to show off his new skills. His first public appearance was a bit shaky (i.e. he wiped out twice skating up to our table at the restaurant) but he got the hang of it quickly. We had a tasty, meat packed dinner and dessert, with Kylie and Rita at Jimmy’s Smokehouse. We can all thank Kylie for this great shirt…then we went downtown to an arcade bar and met up with some more friends. We ended the night at Portland City Grill with a final birthday dessert.

Oregon Coast Fishing

I have never been good on boats…

Luckily Stan, my step-Grandpa, decided to give me a chance. I’m not sure if we will be invited back but we managed to have a good time regardless. Graham and I drove down to Newport late Friday night and slept on the boat. We woke up around 5:30, after maybe five hours of sleep, to go buy fishing permits and to purchase the later regretted Cinnamon whole milk latte – blah. We were out to sea by 7:45 and did not return to solid land until 5:30pm. Graham and I both caught Halibut (Halibut are bottom fish that we caught 250ft below the surface). Mine was about 20inch long and 17lbs and Graham’s was 40inch and 40lbs! Stan’s son Richard, also caught a Halibut but we let that one go. I was sick most of the time and finally fell asleep in the sun only to receive a terrible sunburn. Still we had a good time and we had a great dinner Sunday night – plus was have these brag worthy fish pics.

Beer Feast 2007!

A well-spent Saturday had us down on the Portland Waterfront, holding souvenir, color changing mugs of beer (I had the blue and Graham had pink). We walked to the waterfront from our house around noon and met up with Rita, Ann and Lindsay. This was an all day event, during which I’m pretty sure with the five of us, we tasted most of the beers presented! Kylie and Matt met up with us later and tasted everything else….I also did a good job sampling most of the food vendors. We had a lot of fun and can’t wait to do it all again next year.

B-Day Road Trip

Just wanted to get out of town for a while. What was suppose to be a weekend road trip became a fast paced one day driving marathon but we had a good time doing it. This was Graham's first (and probably last) experience at Char Burger an Oregon/Western experience. Graham was mesmerized by all the guns, arrowheads and wagon artifacts that hung on the wall. After burgers and milkshakes we drove around the Mountain. We stopped for some pretty high dessert hikes in Kahneeta and then headed home.