First Snowboarding of the Season!

So this snowboarding season started out a little choppy. I guess it is just the third time I've ever been snowboarding, but it was a rough day. We went down to Crystal Mt. for an afternoon of snowboarding. It's been a little warm in Seattle, so the slopes were pretty icey/slushy in some parts. I decided that I'm going to need a little refresher lesson again before I get back to practicing. It was still fun to get out on the mountain though!

This took me forever to figure out how to post a video on here. Turns out the new, updated blogger doesn't have the ability to upload videos so I had to switch back to the old editor. That seems a little silly. Either way, Ryan got me a Flip Video camera for Christmas, so here's a little clip of the mountain from that! More videos to come now that I have this fancy little gadget!

Happy Birthday Me!

I turned 26 on January 3rd. On to the next exciting year of my life. So far it's been quite a ride and i can't wait to see what being 26 gets me into! My birthday was my last official day of vacation, so it was nice and relaxing starting out with a surprise afternoon at the spa getting a massage and ending with a great dinner out on the town.

[birthday decorations...even the dog was decorated!]

[birthday cupcakes from cupcake royale!]

Key Lime Cookies

A few weeks ago, my roommate had some frozen dough for key lime white chocolate chip cookies. They were really good. I may have had a few of them so I thought I'd replace them with some home made ones. I looked up a few recipes online and made a nice blend of them all based on what I had available. They turned out really well. Just another key lime option to take place of the pie!

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lime zest
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 14 ounces good quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped or a 12 oz. bag white chocolate chips
• 
  

Directions

1. 
   

   1

   Preheat oven to 375 F (180C).
   
2. 
   

   2

   In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
   
3. 
   

   3

   In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugars and vanilla extract at high speed until well combined.
   
4. 
   

   4

   Add the egg, lime juice and lime zest and beat for 1 additional minute.
   
5. 
   

   5

   Gradually add in the flour mixture.
   
6. 
   

   6

   Stir in the white chocolate chips by hand.
   
7. 
   

   7

   Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonful onto ungreased cookie sheets.
   
8. 
   

   8

   Bake for 8-11 minutes or until edges are slightly brown.
   

A John Denver Christmas Special

Merry Christmas one and all!! I just got back from a great Christmas in Columbus, GA with the Stephensons. Before we headed out of town, we got to have a mini Christmas in Seattle. My awesome family sent out so many fun goodies that there was hardly enough room under out little tree! We actually had to put the tree up on a box to make room for them all. It was so pretty to see everything under the tree! Thanks everyone for everything, it was a really awesome way to start out the holidays!

[our little Christmas tree full of presents]

[tara had lots of fun opening presents too!]

The Tuesday night before Christmas (which also happened to be Ryan's Dad's birthday) we headed out to Georgia. Luckily we didn't have the rediculous airport issues that we had last year! A girl that Ryan works with was going to take Tara for us so she dropped us off at the airport after picking up Tara...much easier (thanks Thomasin!). At the beginning of the flight, as we popped through the clouds, we got to see Mt. Ranier and a couple of other mountain peeks peaking through the clouds. It was really beautiful.

[Mt. Ranier through the clouds!]

We finally got back to Columbus pretty late...or really early in the morning. The rest of the week was filled with all kinds of Christmas festivities, family time, games, movies, football, and lots of other good times. Ryan's Mom had the house decked out with Christmas decor and lights and a big ole tree. I love Christmas decorations! We all got some kind of board games for Christmas, so there was lots of gaming going on. I also worked on perfecting my football throwing...it might still need a little more work. I have a halfway decent shot in basketball though, so at least I have that going for me! Here's a few pics of the Christmas festivities. There are a lot more that I'll probably be putting up on flickr...so stay tuned!

  [stocking hung by the chimney with care!]

[the Stephenson family...Dad, Aaron, Mom, Ryan, and Brandon]

[scrabble slam...it's intense!]

[Wags and Ryan]

[there are some special people in this family...i might just fit in!]

 

[Auburn snuggie! And we can still use our hands, how convenient?!? It even works while playing the Wii!]

[Merrrrrrrry Christmas!]

 

Happy Holidaying!!

We're getting ready for Christmas!! Tree is up, shopping is done, cards are written! Now I just need to finish up working this week and I'll be ready for vacation!!

Po

...update from an earlier post: This summer we attended a hot dog tasting party for some friends of our who were opening up a new gourmet hot dog restaurant. The new place, Po Dog, opened up in November and we have become regulars ;) I am determined to try each of the flavors...eventually. Plus, they have specials of the month, like the thanksgiving dog last month, and the chili dog this month. DELICIOUSNESS!

Spanksgiving in Vegas!

This was a very different Thanksgiving! Mom and Dad booked a couple of suites in a resort in Las Vegas since it was the closest and cheapest place for us all to rendezvous at. It worked out really well! Ryan and I got into Vegas Tuesday night before Thanksgiving. Everyone else got in on Wednesday. From then on it was pretty much non stop excitement. Thanksgiving day we all got up bright and early to take a little drive over to Boulder city (near the Hoover Dam) to run a 5k. It was mom and dad's first 5k, and it was a good way for us all to burn a few calories before consuming A LOT more. It was also a really pretty run along a scenic route on Lake Mead and went through several old train tunnels through the mountains. Despite that Jordan claimed he hasn't run in forever, he still schooled us all and got 7th place overall.

When we got back to the resort, we started up on cooking some Thanksgiving foods! I had made all the girls a cute apron with initials on them, so we all sported them while we cooked up a storm. In the meantime, the boys watched some football. While waiting for some thing too cook, we also caught a few Zzzzs to make up for getting up early for the run. Despite the fact that we were in hotel rooms, we were still able to cook up everything to make a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner, with lots and lots of leftovers as usual!

After watching some more football, we finished up watching the games on the strip to get ready for a night on the town! Ryan and Jason got pretty comfy at the craps table (which is waaaaaaay too confusing for me to actually try to bet on it! i could handle rolling some dice though!) I felt a little more comfortable with the video blackjack and even doubled my $10 (which didn't last much longer).

Friday started out again with some more awesome football!! Auburn vs. Alabama in the Iron Bowl! We started out watching in the hotel room. What an AWESOME game!! After a ridiculously exciting first half, we quickly jetted over to ESPN Zone to finish watching the game. Even though Auburn ended up losing, it was still a great game and I was proud. Alabama should be embarrassed for sure. For the rest of the evening we went around as a whole family trying to get some touristy things in. We went to the M&M store (yummmmmmmy), saw the Bellagio fountains and gardens, and ended up on Fremont St. (the old strip). It was really cool because it was all covered and they were able to project shows on the ceiling. We stayed to watch an 'illusionist' who was hilarious! the guy was german and had a great accent and his whole show was so funny because of the way he talked and how showey he made it. It was great entertainment! Since Friday night was the last night many of us had there, we partied the night away. Definitely the latest I've been out in a looong time, which called for some serious sleeping in the next day.

We got back to Seattle Saturday night and I got to pick up my pupster on Sunday. The couple watching her said she was such a sweet dog...I agree! It was a great vacation, and now it's back to work. Luckily it's only another 3 weeks of work until my next vacation...I love the holiday season!!!