Thanksgiving Week

This Thanksgiving, like many before it, I traveled  back to Boise to spend it with my family.  It was a fun surprise to see Shandra Jeffries on the same flight with me.  I saved her a seat and we caught up with each other on the way to Boise.  I flew in Tuesday night and Jake picked me up.  

Wednesday I spent the day getting errands done, got my teeth cleaned, deposited the HOA checks and made some account updates.  That night Jake and I went over to Chuck and Emily's house for some games and drinks.  Jake and Chuck did a great job of polishing off the southern comfort!

Thursday morning, Thanksgiving day, Jake and I headed downtown Boise for the turkey trot.  It's a short 5K race run/walk.  We met up with Damian, his sister and Mom.  When the race started I jogged off on my own and the others jog/walked.  Jake ended up jogging quite a bit of the race.  It was a fun race because as  I was running it I would run into people I knew from Boise and I'd be like "Hey there!" and shock them.  Haha!  Both Mat Johnston and Jim Cauthen were two of the people I surprised.

Then it was time to help get turkey dinner prepared.  As always, by the time everything was set and ready people had already showed up, greeted each other and sat down for my Dad's moment to share his thoughts with the family.  This year he introduced Jake and put him on the spot to say something about himself- sorry Jake!  My Mom got really animated this year in response to something my Dad had said so I snapped a few pictures, she's so cute!

It was wonderful that our good friend Alice could join us again this year.  Whenever she can make it, we're glad to have her!

 Emily sent me this picture we'd taken together and I liked it a lot so I'm including it here.

Friday Jake had to work in Pocatello, so Damian and I went along with him.  While Jake was working Damian and I checked out the Museum of Clean.  The gentleman who created it is famous for his books on cleaning and his expansive collection of historical cleaning items.  It was really insane how many and what dated items he had inside this massive restored building.  He was onsite and eager to show anyone around the facility and talk to them about the history of clean.

Saturday I went on a jog along the greenbelt.  Zombies or my phone, something glitched out so I had to enter most of the rest of the jog manually.  After cleaning up, I met up with two of my best friends; Katie and Jenn for lunch at Bacon, a new restaurant downtown Boise.  They served delicious bloody mary drinks!  (of course, with a bit of bacon on top!)

That afternoon I brought my Christmas tree over to Chuck and Emily's house and Emily and Jake went to work setting it up.  They made very quick work of it, despite some of the branches not being labeled how we thought they should be.

Then Chuck, Emily, Jake and me went to Casey and Kari's house to hangout with them and their newest addition to the family; Cooper.  He was very cute and Emily sure enjoyed holding him.  It was a nice evening of horderves, wine and games.

For the remaining few days Jake and I stopped in for breakfast at Raedeans and I treated myself to one of their amazing cinnamon rolls.  We met up with Andrej for drinks and dinner at Barrel House where I snapped a picture of him inadvertently using the Women's room instead of the Men's.  HA!  That was pretty funny.  It was a lovely Thanksgiving Holiday with those I hold dear.  Glad I'll be back in just a few weeks for Christmas!

Catching Fire!

No, not the theater, the movie!  Tonight I met up with co-workers and friends in the IT department at Old Chicago in Petaluma to send off Niko who has accepted a position on the east coast.  I'm excited for him and his wife as they look at this new opportunity.

After dinner I headed up to meet Amanda at the Roxy Theater in Santa Rosa.  We were set to watch Catching Fire!  It was very good and Amanda even said "It was worth getting home after 11pm, which I haven't done in years!" haha!

Saturday I went over to Debbie and Mike's house for dinner, except I got the plans confused and I stopped off for dinner first because I thought we were only doing drinks... whooops!  It was painful having a full stomach and not being able to eat any of the delicious fixing's Mike had prepared!  Ugh!  Oh well, the drinks were delicious the company was a blast!

Sunday Trisha, Jeff and I jogged around Spring lake and then met up to watch Catching Fire!  Twice in opening weekend?  Sure, why not!?   I sure do enjoy the Hunger Games trilogy.

Yay Snow, Before Thanksgiving!

Friday night I flew into Boise for another fun-filled weekend with my Boyfriend Jake and my family.  It's hard to believe how much we do in just a few days!  This time Boise greeted me with snow- and before Thanksgiving.

Yes I was prepared with gloves and all, so no worries there.  First things first; Jake and I met up with Javier at Big City Coffee in the linen district of downtown Boise.  This is a favorite of ours, they have huge delicious portions of all types of foods.  After breakfast, Jake and I stumbled across musical stationary bikes installed for the enjoyment of the people of Boise.

We ended up at one of the Farmer's Markets.  I was totally impressed by the massive variety and talent of the art pieces.  This particular picture captures a variety of pickled items.  It made me think of Emma who loves her pickling skills!

That evening Jake took me to the Village at Meridian.  He'd been talking about it and how nice it was with the Bellagio style fountains and fine drinks and dinning.    My gosh- it's spectacular!

The dancing fountains were designed by the same person who designed the dancing fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.  They change color and shoot water in sync with the music.  A fun visual artistic piece to watch as you stroll around the lake surrounded by restaurants and the cinema.  

Jake had dinner reservations for us at Kona Grill.  This place is faaaancy!  There's bubbling water walls with ambient blue lighting and chic music playing.  Of course what matters the most is the delicious food!  Great choice, Jake!

Sunday morning Jake dropped me off at the Marigold & Glenwood greenbelt access spot so that I could go for a run.  I ran Zombies, Run! mission 26 "Panic" and then mission 27 "Hello" for a total of about 11 miles.  Love my greenbelt jogging!

That afternoon was cards at my parents house with Jake, Chuck and Emily.  Chuck and Emily had a surprise for me!

Casey and I will be Chuck's best men and Emily's sisters Abby and Julie will be her maids of honor.  Hard to believe they're getting married in just about 6 months- Yikes!  ^_^

It was a full-packed weekend in Boise, and I loved every minute of it!

Running Spring Lake

Living next to Howarth Park, Spring Lake Park and Annadel an adjoined state park has been a dream come true!  I used to drive 25 minutes to meet Trisha and Irene here for our weekend jogs.  The fact that I can step out of my house now and go for a run along the paths and around the lakes makes me feel like the luckiest person on earth!  A good run from my house around the two lakes, Lake Ralphine and Spring Lake is right on 5 miles - it's perfect!  You can see this particular run where I took the pictures on my Runkeeper page.  Also, here's a map of the route.

Wine & Vodka Night

Tonight Emily Seguine invited everyone over to her place for some chili she made and to enjoy some ice wine with vodka and frozen grapes.  I wasn't so sure about this idea; mixing wine and vodka?  Oh my gosh is it amazing!  Had a lot of fun with Emily, Megan, Tiffany and Katelynn as we enjoyed the mixed drinks and company.  I can't wait to try out this idea with one of my ice wines.

A Sonoma Saturday

This morning I dropped Trisha's Jeff off at the eye doctor's in Rohnert Park.  While he was having his eyes dilated I stopped off at the new Starbucks on Commerce.  It was crazy busy!  I enjoyed my favorite CDL (Cinnamon Dulce Latte) and a scone.  I picked Jeff up after and took him back home- he wasn't supposed to drive due to the procedure.

Then I headed back up to my place got on my motorcycle and headed over to the city of Sonoma to take Savannah to the park with Amanda.  Savannah just couldn't get enough of the swinging- she tired me out!  Such a beautiful little girl.

On my way back home I drove around through some of the side roads off Sonoma Highway 12 and stopped several times to take pictures.  The sun was so bright and the fall leaves were just beautiful.  Here's some of the pictures I took.

This evening I'm going over to Debbie and Mike's house for snacks and drinks.  What a lovely Sonoma Saturday!

The SSU Student Center

Today was a soft-launch opening of the new Sonoma State University Student Center and specifically "The Kitchens".  Amanda and I walked over and sampled the food from the various "Kitchens".  The place was looking really nice!  I think we enjoyed the over-sized salad bar the most, although the Mongolian BBQ was very good.  In the large open space before going to the food area you can see Amanda standing front of the gas fire place with the lights hanging down from above.  The venue is another gem for our campus and we're so lucky to have it!

Moving Weekend!! And Tainted Love!

No rest for me - just because last night was the Halloween party with drinks and frivolity gotta keep on moving.  Literally- today the movers are packing up my items and moving them to my new condo in Santa Rosa!  Here are the pictures of moving day and my new place pre-move in.

Having the movers was the best few hundred bucks I've ever spent.  The week leading up to the move I packed everything up in boxes and put all my furniture and boxes in the garage.  They came, picked up the items and moved them to my new place.  During the move Jake and I got to break for lunch while the movers just kept working.  Easiest Move Ever.  Big thanks to Jake for all the help he gave me helping organize before hand, moving things during the week and then unpacking.  So glad he was here for a full week!

After a day of moving it was time to get ready and meet up with the ladies in Petaluma for the Tainted Love concert!  It was totally packed and full of people all decked out 80's style.  What a fun night with some great friends!

Halloween

Jake flew in for another California visit Wednesday night and doesn't leave until next Wednesday- a nice long visit!  Tonight we went out to one of my favorite restaurants in downtown Cotati, Tiny Thai.  It literally is a tiny Thai house.  There's three tables inside with a small seated bar for 2 people.  Jake had the pad Thai and I had my favorite; green curry with chicken.

After dinner it was time to get ready for the Halloween party at the B street house (Where Katelynn lived when going to SSU).  Some of her friends still live there so it's a great place for everyone to meet up and have a party!  There were some great costumes; of course I just recycled my costume using an old favorite "Batman".  I also had costumes to spare for Jake and we dressed him up as the scarecrow; complete with makeup.  There was a slew of super-hero themed costumes.  From Left to right there's Brian, Katelynn, Ross, Mike.

It was a fun night with beer pong, mixed drinks and Jake being an angel driving us home in the end.