AZ & So Cal visits WA

Well it has been quite busy over in the Crowl home the last couple of weeks! We had a ton of fun with visits from both Ben's parents and my mom. It is going to feel odd coming home without having lots of people around!

My mom flew in on New Years Eve. We had a tasty dinner together. I made this garlic bread from America's Test Kitchen. I have to say that the extra effort paid off- it was the best garlic bread I've ever had in my life! Wednesday night we rang in the New Year at Kerry Park. We went to a restaurant beforehand called the 5 spot and had some $5 appetizers (ok I had a baked cookie & ice cream). We met up with 2 couples from community group. It was quite rainy and pretty chilly, but the fireworks were still beautiful!


On Thursday, we spent the morning over at Jessie & Mark's because it was freezing outside! We finally braved the weather and went down to the Olympic Sculpture Park. Afterwards, we warmed up with an incredible cup of nutella hot chocolate from here. and then onto the EMP for free museum Thursday. The museum was incredibly packed, so we didn't get to do a ton, but we did manage to hang out in the drum/guitar room for a while and get in some practice!

On Friday, my mom & I went with Jessie & James to the Shoreline rec center to play with James at their baby gym. It was so much fun! Our nephew continues to be the cutest boy alive.


After the gym, my mom, Ben's parents & I met up with Ben & Mark for lunch. We went this incredible mexican restaurant that was well worth the wait. I had the halibut fish tacos and they were delish!

We spent Friday night over at Jessie & Mark's playing games and eating some fabulous pulled pork sandwiches.

We started our day on Saturday morning by going out to breakfast at a cafe in Edmonds recommended by Rick Steves. It was both cute & tasty!


we all went on this wonderful family friendly hike in Edmonds. It was only a little more than a mile one way and it was such beautiful scenery. Plus, it ended at this beautiful beach. We want to go back in the summer to have a bbq.


After our hike, we ate lunch at Ivar's in Edmonds. yum. Then we took Ben's parents to the airport. After our airport run, we met up with my mom, Mark, Jessie & James for a factory tour of Theo Chocolate. Ben & I were sick after trying so many different flavors of chocolate! My favorite was their vanilla bar, and Ben's was the bread & chocolate bar. The tour was interesting-especially tasting "nibs"- the part of the cocoa bean that is used to make chocolate. The tour guide said it tasted like green olives.. we decided it tasted like burnt green olives. blah.

No.. our adventures are not over yet! Sunday was an incredible day. We decided to venture to Snoqualmie Pass and take part of a guided snowshoe tour through the ranger's station. I would highly recommend this to anyone! It was a 90 min. walk and it was so incredibly beautiful. There was SO much snow.. it was just fantastic.

the rest of our Christmas weekend!

It is hard to believe that Christmas is already over! We had an incredible weekend packed full of activities!

We picked up Ben's parents late Friday night, along with my friend Courtney who was returning from an adoption placement in California.

On Saturday, we started out the day with showing Ben's parents our honeymoon pictures. It was fun to relive that trip once again. It made us miss Italy even more after looking at the pics of us wearing t-shirts and shorts! We lounged around quite a bit, which was very welcomed. We went and saw Marley & Me on Saturday afternoon. I wasn't quite prepared to cry so much! I hadn't read the book before, so I didn't know what to anticipate throughout the movie. What tearjerker! This was probably the 2nd or 3rd movie that I've been to where people clapped at the end. Definitely an unexpected great movie! Saturday night we made cornbread salad, yum.

Yesterday Ben & I went to church and then we met up with his parents and went down to Red Mill burger for lunch.. yum.. that place continues to amaze me. After lunch, we went down to the Pacific Science Center and went to the Imax theater, where I almost lost the burger from watching the movie about rafting up the blue Nile River. We went to the exhibit there and then went to REI to try to scoop up some sales. Yesterday night we watched Ironman, which I have to admit, I wasn't super excited about in the beginning. I was pleasantly surprised and actually really enjoyed it!

Now it's back to work.. blah.. It's so hard to come back after a holiday. Fortunately, this week is very short because I have taking a 1/2 day on Wednesday, and then Thursday & Friday totally off.

Here is our annual stack up pic that Jessie & Mark created through photoshop.. we are soon going to need a ladder when anymore nieces/nephews come along!

every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings!

I thought i'd start this Christmas post with a quote from one of my all time favorite Christmas movies! Unfortunately, we haven't gotten to that one on our Tivo selection yet, but I imagine it wont be too far behind!

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas & Christmas Eve. It was definitely different not being in AZ or CA, but it was extra special because it was a white Christmas. The snow has not stopped yet!

On Christmas Eve, Jessie, Mark, James, Ben & I headed out on our annual holiday light extravaganza. This year we called it the extreme holiday light extravaganza because of all the snow. The honda handled like a pro except for a tricky spot on a side street. I can't say the lights here compared to Arizona's 100,000 lights put to music homes, but there were still some good houses.

Christmas morning we woke up and took our friend Courtney to the airport. We then opened up our stockings & presents. We were both really spoiled this year! I got a cool winter hat (seen in all the Christmas day pics), gift certificate to get my hair done, slippers, fleece pants & top, a Willow Tree statue that i've been wanting forever, and a really creative "date box" with lots of different gift cards of places we like. I got Ben some slippers as well, an ESV study bible, a couple games, glass blowing lessons, pea coat, dress shirt, pj pants, wallet, and a charging station for his cell phone, ipod, etc. After gifts, we headed over to Jessie & Mark's to open family gifts over Skype with my parents. That was a fun little twist on Christmas!

For the rest of the day we baked cookies (you have to try this recipe), ate a fabulous prime rib dinner (easily done with our handy electronic talking thermomenter), played lots of games and busted out some super mario kart.


today Jessie & I hit up some day after Christmas holiday sales. I got a wreath, angel for the top of the tree & a card holder all for 26 bucks!! sweet! We are now waiting to make another run to the airport to pick up Ben's parents. They will be here until Jan. 3rd. My mom is also heading up on Dec. 31st so we should have lots of fun to post about soon!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

ugly sweaters & sugar plum ferries

The Christmas season is in full force at the Crowls. Despite being in the middle of a huge snow storm all weekend, we managed to still have lots of fun.

Friday night we were supposed to babysit for James while Mark and Jessie went to Mark's work's Christmas party. It ended up getting moved to Jan. We went over there anyway and ate some tasty chicken tenders, played hand & foot, watched a movie called Transiberian (remind me never to take a week long train ride across Russia) and made ice cream sundaes. yum!

Saturday night we went to an ugly Christmas sweater party hosted by our community group leaders. it was a blast! There was a white elephant gift exchange. Here is what we brought.. I stole the idea from this blog Don't worry, Ben & I managed to win most creative sweaters! Here is a shot of our handiwork.. all handmade! yes those are battery operated LED lights coming out of Ben's sweater!


Today we went to church, made some cookies for our neighbors, and went to see the nutcracker at Edmonds Center for the Arts. We really enjoyed the performance! We dont have any pictures to post from the nutcracker because it was like a blizzard outside and we didn't want to stop and take a picture.

And of course, i cant leave the rest of the world wondering how much snow we have accumulated over the past few days. Here is a picture from our apartment parking lot.


ok not really, but we have probably 6-7 inches on the ground.

Snow Day!

We got quite a bit of snow for Seattle last night. Ben & I had some fun building a snowman in the parking lot.

No work for me this morning.. if only Ben didn't have to go in too!

oh the weather outside is frightful...

Just when I was thinking that it would be a mild winter, we woke up to this on Sunday morning!!

It was a slippery ride to church, but we made it!! This weekend was a blast. It started out with a big surprise! Ben had told me that he planned for us to go out to dinner on Friday night, but wouldn't tell me where. Once we arrived at our restaurant, my sister & Mark walked in! They had planned to meet us there for a surprise double date! The food at Flying Fish was absolutely wonderful!! We had a sampler of crab cakes, fish tacos, salad and shrimp. The next surprise was that Jessie & Mark bought Ben & I tickets to the last comic standing tour! We had watched the show faithfully and were so excited to see some of our favorites perform!


Saturday night we went to Ben's old bosses Christmas party. Parties are always a little interesting when you only know the hosts, but we played a board game which helped break the ice a little bit. The food was fantastic!


It's hard to believe Christmas is 10 days away! I am pretty much finished with my Christmas shopping which is a relief!

so bring me some figgy pudding..

Another fun weekend! Friday night we headed down town for the great figgy pudding caroling contest with some of our community group friends! Unfortunately, we didn't judge traffic on a Friday night into downtown, so we crawled along the freeway and got downtown around 7:15- right at the end of the caroling. We were also pretty hungry so we ended up eating in the food court & caught the end of the carol-off on the stage. Next year, we'll pack some food and leave about 40 min. earlier :) Pics to be posted later..

Saturday Ben & I split up and did some of our Christmas shopping- I ended up returning some of my impulsive buys that weren't so great after I got them home. Sat. night we had Ben's old college roommate over for dinner. We had a wedding gift for them that was long overdue to give to them (about 7 months) They are expecting their first baby in two weeks, so we also got them a little fuzzy outfit! It was fun to catch up with them and eat some tasty food. We discovered that Trader Joe's makes chocolate covered jo jos.. needless to say, the entire container was devoured in a matter of a day (we'll blame it on our dinner guests :)

We finally got our Tivo hooked up, and we have been enjoying lots of Christmas movies. So far we've watched Christmas Vacation, Home Alone & the Grinch. I was bummed when we went to watch Miracle on 34th street and it was a version from the 70's!

Tonight we're going caroling at a senior center with Jessie's community group, and tomorrow we're having some friends from community group over to dinner. I need to go shopping! It is supposed to snow here on Friday/Saturday, so that should be fun. Nothing like the high being 32 degrees!!

ps- today I got to work and had this sitting on my chair .


Inside? A beautiful silver cross.