Picture 23

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011

We did Sunday dinner with Dana’s Dad in Salem, OR. We carpooled down with Anton and Tessa. Tessa tried to vanquish the Loopz game before dinner. I think she found it confusing and infuriating.

Picture 22

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

We went to the zoo and the leopards were stalking around their enclosure. This one prefers its heated rock. I would too.

Picture 21

Friday, January 21st, 2011

We got this in the mail from my parents! Thanks, Mom and Dad! Now our little Viking has somewhere to sleep. Dana got it set up in record time.

Picture 20

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Dana did a presentation tonight for a group of homeschool kids on “Insects and why they are awesome.” They were all appropriately impressed.

Picture 19

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Un-photogenic day. We did do stuff today (got a package from my mom, did research, organized our baby things), but our pictures were limited. Needless to say, we watched Brigadoon! I haven’t seen it in a while and there were many things I had forgotten. But I still remembered a lot of the words to the songs…

Picture 18

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

Bug hunting. This is at Burnt Bridge Creek where recent rains have raised the water level a bit.

Picture 17

Monday, January 17th, 2011

We found these beautiful purple potatoes at Pike’s Place Market during our trip to Seattle. We finally cooked them tonight. We just baked them like a normal potato. Their consistency reminded me of a Yukon gold, but their flavor is all their own. Try them if you ever have a chance.

Picture 16

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

After Sunday luncheon, (that’s a thing, right?) Dana and I played checkers. I haven’t played in many years, but still managed to play him into this pickle. Muahaha! I don’t win that many non-word games against him, so I felt pretty good about myself.

Picture 15

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

I used some birthday money at Michael’s tonight. I went just to get a pretty ornament to put on the front of my felted purse, but found this journal in the dollar bin and couldn’t leave without it. I may be addicted to blank paper. The gold coins have all the symbols of the Chinese zodiac on them. They are more suggestions of animals than anything else; the boar and the ox look very much like the ram and the dog…

Picture 14

Friday, January 14th, 2011

We enjoyed some family game time tonight. I know we don’t look like we’re doing much, but it’s a pretty intense game. It’s called Defend Your Castle.

Picture 13

Thursday January 13th, 2011

As I mentioned on Picture 12, we had the missionaries to dinner. After eating Mexican lasagna and the berry meringue dessert, Dana let the missionaries hold one of our Madagascar hissing roaches. They weren’t going to do it until Dana reminded them that they could use this experience when their friends who went to South America bragged about all the bugs in their apartments.

Picture 12

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

To prepare for having the missionaries to dinner, I made this meringue. If you’ve ever watched the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten makes this dessert about every 4th episode. So I finally tried it. When you serve it, the hard meringue gets piled with whipped cream and then topped with berries. The finished dessert did not last long enough to be photographed…so you’ll have to be satisfied with this.

Picture 11

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011 (1-11-11)

We were jealous of the pretty snow in Rhode Island and Colorado, so we had some. This was all we could muster. This is what it looked like when we drove to the theater to see True Grit (very good; we recommend it). By the time we left the theater, all the “snow” had wilted under the blanket of habitual rain. Thank you, Great Northwest.

Picture 10

Monday, January 10th, 2011

In our travels today, we got all this stuff for $16! The awesome chair cost $12.50 (yay for half price day at Salvation Army), and the last two Harry Potter books we needed to complete our collection cost $2.50 together. Everything else was free. Victorious day.

Picture 9

Sunday, January 9th, 2011

We got this Sicilian blood orange at Pike’s Place Market and have been saving it. It was especially delicious.

Picture 8

Saturday, January 8, 2011

I found this great bag today at Target. It made me smile. It even has bugs on the bottom of it.

Picture 7

Friday, January 7, 2011

Today, we went to an orientation class at the hospital we will be using. Every little thing (or in this case, a giant thing like a hospital) seems to make it a bit more real.

Picture 6

Thursday, January 6, 2011

For those just tuning in: Ruth is Pregnant! Here is a picture of her at just over 6 months. So, just a few months to go. Then the blog will have a more exciting subject.

Picture 5

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

We got to go see Zoo Lights one last time for the post Zoo Lights employee party. This included a free ride on the Zoo Lights Train.

Picture 4

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

We took my parents to the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge where some trumpeter swans are migrating through. We could hear them honking and see them bobbing their heads.

Picture 3

Monday, January 3, 2011

We went up to Seattle with Ruth’s parents, and we were able to give them a short tour, which included a stop at one of my favorite places in Seattle. It is a small park on Queen Anne Hill, which has a beautiful view of the city, with the Space Needle, downtown, and Mt. Rainier.

Picture 2

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Ruth’s parents, Dave, and Will and Courtney came to church with us. Right after Sacrament meeting Will and Courtney headed back to Cheney. We said our good-byes in the foyer. Here Grandpa and Whitney share an understanding.

We had a thought. And Picture 1

So, the Picture-a-day blog seems to be the popular thing to do these days, and Dana likes taking pictures. And we're going to have a baby in April. So we thought we'd do the cool thing and do one too! The bad news is that you'll have to deal with four months of no baby pictures. So if that's not your thing, check back in April and see how we're doing.

Today (January 1st, 2011) I drove down to Gladstone with my parents and my brothers to say good-bye to my sister and her family who will be returning to Colorado Springs tomorrow. We had a good time with them. Unfortunately, this was the best picture I got all night.