Tripping to Austin

Mike still works for the Austin team even though we are living in Oregon again.  This means he works a few weeks here in Oregon (from the house), and a couple of weeks in Austin, back and forth.  He is here more than he is there and with this arrangement he's eliminated his long, daily commute.  This is working nicely for us so far. 

Eleanor and I decided to join him in Austin this past weekend.  We caught up with Eleanor's school friends and their families, and we hung out with my school friends from way back.  We ate outside, comfortably, in shirt sleeves, under the twinkly lights and big live oaks out at Salt Lick.  We shopped for and found boots (wha?!).  We saw the lighting of the tree at the capitol.  We generally just enjoyed our time.

Christmas is Launched!

We can barely wait to turn on the twinkly lights each holiday season.  When the winter rains set in, and it gets a little colder and darker than we'd like it to be, the lights really make the season much more fun.  Since we weren't in charge of cooking the Turkey this year, we launched on Thanksgiving day.  AND, Mike got ambitious and pulled out the train set.  (Eleanor has never seen it before this year! It was a gift to me from my step-Dad when I was in junior highschool, and it hasn't been assembled much in the last 20 years.)

Pink Santa

Here's a funny photo from a visit with Pink Santa this Saturday.  He ate too many pink cupcakes.

Chanterelles

A friend took me mushroom hunting today, in some forest land about an hour and 20 minutes from home.  These are some of the Chanterelles I found in just 30 minutes of hunting.  Fresh dug this way they have an incredible texture.  The large ones pictured are as big as Eleanor's hand.

A weekend away for Stephanie

A day pass to Qua Baths + lots of couch and chatting time with friends... And I thought I didn't like Vegas!

Election Night Celebrations!

We had multiple election wins to bring cheer to our Tuesday night, so we decided rather last minute to head downtown to the campaign party headquarters to take in the celebration. 

Solo Recital

Just before the recital today...