January happenings

We are loving the pace of life that January brings. Even though we are busy during the week, our weekends have been pretty low key!

We've done a few fun things this month!

I celebrated Adelle's birthday with the girls at a local tea shop in Bothell. It was such a fun experience- you can't help but feel like a refined lady while drinking orange spice tea and eating crumpets! I constantly praise God for the friends that I have made up here in WA.. they are such incredible family to me.

One Saturday Ben and I went downtown and explored the library and went to a remodeling home show (Ben had free tickets and really wanted to go- I thought it was funny since we are buying our house new).

We also had a new little one join our group! Brayden James Ericson was born and a few of us made the trip across the water to meet him! Poor Kaci is way outnumbered.. Jill is also pregnant with a boy, due in May (far right) We're all rooting for Adelle's 2nd pregnancy to be a girl!

We also went over to Courtney's house one night for some catch up and tasty food! Nothing makes you feel more at home than a long time friend!


House update- it's crazy to think we were supposed to close tomorrow! We checked it out this past Saturday and we now have a roof, rough electrical, and siding! It is really starting to look like a house!

progress...

Even though the closing date of our house has now been moved to March 10th due to freezing weather/poor planning, it was super exciting to see some wood up! We're hoping that the roof will be on in the next couple of weeks!!

welcome 2010!

whew, did we have a whirlwind end to 2009! We started our travels in AZ with visiting my parents and brother. I'm not quite sure how we packed so much in to a few days, but we did. Here are some pics from our adventures:

Christmas morning we had a fairly lazy morning with opening presents, having a super soaker war, and eating a delicious linner. We headed out into the desert in the evening for some shooting. Ben had brought a stuffed duck that said Aflac that he wanted to shoot, but the little animal had a life of its own! It stayed on the tree no matter how many times we shot him!



The next day we went hiking with parents and then did our annual Christmas lights tour. I can now show people in WA what they are missing out on!

Sunday we went to church, freestone park for James to ride the train, Inn and Out and some bocce ball.

Monday Ben and I met up with my good friend Keri to catch up..there is truly nothing like an old friend!

Tuesday my mom drove us out to CA and stayed the night at Ben's parents house. On Wednesday we all drove down to San Diego for brunch at Jessie's inlaws. Austin & Kelsey even made a surprise visit!

Wednesday afternoon we went sailing and met up with Ben's great aunt and uncle.

Thursday we drove into LA and saw some of the floats for the rose parade, ate lunch to Phillipe's, and went to the very interesting Venice Beach. There were some interesting characters out, but completely worth the incredible sunset we saw! We rang in 2010 by watching a movie and struggling to stay awake!

Friday we spent the day with Ben's grandparents playing 7 hours worth of cards!


Saturday we went back to San Diego to get Ben some suits and get a burrito from a shop near Ben's 1st college, SDSU. We also saw Avatar in 3D which was incredible.

Sunday we flew home! Wow, it's exhausting even writing everything :) Happy New Year! We hope that this year is a year full of blessings for you!