Caden's message from Santa

Santa has sent Caden a message this year.  I hope it is a good one.

Santa's message 


You can watch the video by clicking on the link.  Merry Christmas!

Chicago - a summary

Well I have had a pretty uneventful trip, thank goodness.  Chicago is a beautiful city and very fun, but also very cold.  I spent all day on Tuesday working at the trade-show at the Hyatt.  Wednesday we made some sales calls and we were able to squeeze in a late lunch at Portillos.  I had a chicago dog this time, my first I believe.  It was wonderful.  I think the pickle really made the hot dog!  Yum!

Making a gingerbread house

Caden & I went to the Davenport Hotel and made a Gingerbread house.  It was a lot of fun.  When you arrive, they give you a pre-built house made from graham crackers, a bag of frosting and a zip lock back of candies.  Caden really wanted to just eat the candy, but I persuaded him to decorate the house.  Once he started decorating, he loved it.  He was so proud of his finished product.  

 

This was a great event and the proceeds go to a local charity in Spokane, Christ's Kitchen.

Happy Holidays!

living it up in Chicago!

Well I am not really living it up in Chicago, but I am here for work.  I am currently watching the chicago news from my hotel room.  The big story of the night... specialty license plates getting tickets wrongfully.  Illinois has something like 60 specialty plates. 

I am here for holiday showcase and I have a feeling it will be a good show.  Hoping for lots of leads and prospects for meetings in spokane!  I also ran into some industry friends from Rhode Island.  They keep me up to date on the area.  They also reminded me not to jump on the patriots band wagon. .  I assured them, Justin is the patriots fan, not me. 

I am staying at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.  It is a great hotel, but makes me reminisce about my Hyatt days.  Along those lines.  I think the Hyatt should send it's manager's here when they reach 5 years with the company.  I think they could use it as an incentive, along with a training.  This is an amazing hotel, but I think it could generate some ideas for managers in their current positions.  That is my 2 cents for the Hyatt.  :)  Still love the Hyatt, but also love my job.  One thing I realize is that I definitely travel more now that I don't work in a hotel... not sure how that works out, but it does.

christmas card 2

Sweet Monogram Ribbon Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Busy day at Huckaba's

  We went to get our Christmas tree today.  It is extremely snowy here as you can see.  We heard a sled was a good idea for this adventure, and it was.  Here is our checklist:  We got a tree.  check.  candy cane. check.  nap on the way home.  check. 

we had fun getting our tree today

Free Holiday Cards from Shutterfly!

That's right, you read it correctly, you can get 50 free cards from Shutterfly!  Just blog about their products and they will take care of you. 

So I started browsing the site and this one caught my eye:

The great thing about these cards is that you can type the text for the letter on the inside and then you don't need to do a separate letter.  That is going to be awesome so I can update everyone on the excitement of 2010 and what we are up to.

The other card I like is this one:

I think I like these because you can have multiple pictures, and that is always the hard part for me... which photos to use.

They also have gifts available.  So If you want to share a fun event that you did with others, this is the solution:

A photo book is a great way to share some pictures and add some captions.  Love it!
So if you are a blogger and want to get some cards for free, this where you sign up!  So start Blogging.

Well I am not sure how many cards I will be ordering, but be on the lookout for our special card courtesy of shutterfly.  If you want to make sure you get one of the special cards, leave me a comment - don't put your address because I probably have it.  :)  Merry Christmas!

A day in the life of travelling

I am going to start this post by saying... I travel a lot.  I am not at the super status yet for alaska, but am one round trip away.  I am in Portland right now and I know it is the start of the holiday travels.  Based on what I saw today, people forget common courtesy when they walk in to the airport.  I saw a lady walk up to the baggage check-in at Seatac and yell at the Alaska employee because she didn't want to wait in line to check in for the flight.  Really?  How will you get through security without your boarding pass?  Then I saw a guy checking his cooler of fish.  Instead of taping it shut in advance, all of us had to wait for him to do that.  The last one was an Indian family that was flying internationally.  They had 1 giant suitcase that weighed 65 pounds.  They had to pay $75 to check the bag because it weighed so much.  Why not just pack two bags and pay $20 each?  Just an observation. 

The best person I saw though was someone I felt a little sorry for.  He had just gotten off his horizon flight, didn't understand that he was supposed to pick up his bag at the ala carte, went to baggage claim and 3 ticket counters before I told him he needed to go back through security to his gate and get his bag, then go to his connecting flight.  He had 40 minutes to do this.  I knew how this would end... missed flight.  Sure enough, I saw him in line at the customer service with his suitcase at 10:05.  His flight was at 10:10.  I felt bad for him.  At least I was helpful, but obviously not enough. 

When I made it to Portland, I took the MAX and rode to the hotel for about $2.50.  What a deal!  Way better than my $50 cab ride from Bellevue! 

As I was walking up the street with my suitcase and laptop bag, a water delivery guy asked if I wanted help with my luggage.  I told him I was fine, but thanks for the offer.  That was pretty nice.  :)  How often does that happen?

If you are travelling this season and you see someone that needs help.  Help them.  :)  I will try to be helpful too.  :)

Free Cards from Shutterfly!

I can't believe this, but you can get free holiday cards from Shutterfly!  Interested?  Submit you blog right here and tell them about it and they will send you a code to get 50 free cards!  This is not a too good to be true deal, Jeannette just did it  and she ordered 75 cards, got 50 free and got free shipping. 

Sounds good to me, we did this a few years ago and was able to update everyone with a wonderful letter about all that was going on and what we were up to.  That was about 3 years ago... So maybe it's time to do this again!

Trip to Orcas & Bellingham

Last weekend, Caden & I went on a quick trip to Orcas to help my mom and dad get some more items and an extra car to Spokane.  We got up early and were on the road by 7:15am.  The first hour was a bit rough since we listened to Samantha bark for the whole time.  Then we stopped for a park break in Coulee City and put the muzzle on.  Ahhhh peace and quiet!  After that we had a few limited stops to stretch and eat.  We made it to the Ferry landing by 2:15pm for the 3:30pm ferry.  Life was good! If you have ever taken the ferry, you know you do not want to miss it or it is another 2 1/2 hours in the car with no room, 2 dogs and a 3 year old.  Oh and did I mention the dogs had gas and it was starting to rain. 

Here are some pictures of us on the ferry. 

We had a wonderful quick visit with my dad, Ginger, Tami & Greg.  Tami even brought Toy Story 3 so Caden was entertained.  We got to see the new loft being added to Ginger's cabin, the new door on our cabin and the amazing renovation of Tami & Greg's place.  It's not done yet, but it will be amazing!

After packing, we decided to head to Bellingham after the first ferry on sunday and visit my friend from high school.  We met at the bagelry and had breakfast.  Let's preface this with some things never change.  The bagels were awesome!  The crowd, still a bit eccentric.  Seeing my friend and her new baby, wonderful!  We were able to chat about what's happening in our worlds and life in general.  Afterwards, Caden & I went on our own mini tour of Bellingham.  Since I have been there about 5 times since my parents moved to Orcas in 1999, some things have changed. 

The Samish Drive-in is now a park & ride.  Bellingham High School got a facelift, (also saw the memorial for the girl that was run over by assumption).  Stopped at Trader Joes (the old Thriftway? grocery store on James) and picked up some snacks and wine.  Next we drove out to visit my cousin Pat.  Him & Debi bought my grandparents house that was next door to our old house.  They gave it a makeover and it is lovely.  Our old house now has green trim, and the Ross's old house is not looking good.  There was a fence around the tennis court that was smashed by a tree and the house looks like it needs a good pressure washing.  Next we drove by Silver Beach and saw that the middle building (where mrs Brink & Mrs Warner's classes were) was gone.  There was a beautiful new playground there instead.  It turns out that happened a few years ago, but it was news to me.  Last place to drive by was up to our old house on Lone Tree.  News flash, the house is for sale.  There were also houses built in all the lots on the coul de sac.  They also finished more of the street by Yolanda's and 40th goes through now. 

I did not go by Whatcom Middle School, but I did find out they are not the Warriors anymore.  It was fun to take a trip down memory lane.  Then we headed back to Spokane.

Caden tucked in his carseat amongst the treasures.

My parents van full of a combination of books and fragile china.

We had quite the adventure !

Happy halloween

This was just before we headed out to go trick or treating.  We headed out on a different route this year and it paid off - very flat streets and minimal stairs and hills.  Happy Halloween for us!  Spiderman was a big hit and we all wore our glow necklaces.  When we got home, we even had some trick or treaters visit us!

Trick or treat

Caden and Keegan were ready for trick or treating!  Spiderman and the chicken hit up lots of houses and got full buckets of candy.  most creative treats - doritos and soda!

Playing catch up

I just uploaded some pictures from the various events and things we attended in the last 2 months.  This picture gives you an idea... We went to 2 weddings.  This is from my cousin Tylor's wedding and it was the 3rd one of the summer.  So needless to say, Caden was a serious dancer by then.  As you can see, he is showing Charlie what the proper dance moves are and what how to dance with the beat.

I haven't laughed as hard in recent years as I did watching Caden show off his dance moves.

More to follow, but this is all for tonight.  Facebookers, I posted 3 different albums so check for pictures there.  :)  Don't worry dad, I will post more here too, but I think you are supposed to be packing not blogging.  :)

Cupcakes are awesome

This saturday Caden & I set out on an adventure. We went to lunch at Mary Lou's milk bottle restaurant and then we went to happy hour at the Cupcake shop called Celebrations

They have happy hour specials on their facebook page. basically you get the cupcake for half off. They are delcious! Caden had the green one - mint chocolate and I had the red velvet with cream cheese frosting! Yum is all I can say.

The look on caden's face pretty much sums this up. Delicious!

What are we up to?

This last week has been kind of busy and a little complicated. My mom hasn't had a phone for a week because my dad upgraded them and it took effect before he could get her the phone in spokane... So we deliver messages by driving to her house. This is her with Caden & Samantha.

Last weekend (while making tomato soup) Annie came over to play while Matt & Jeannette took Charlie to his soccer game.

Annie & Caden can be pretty wild together, but once you add the einstein's to the mix, things calm down.

Tomato soup from scratch

Some of you may know that we added a garden to our backyard this year.... We had some success and some not so successful ventures. One of our successful items was tomatoes. We had 4 different kinds of tomato plants and they are ripening late this year.... so that means we have a ton of tomatoes! We decided to make tomato soup from scratch. Here is the progression...

Jeannette and Matt happened to come over when this was finished and they had some. It met their approval.

It was my first time making soup from scratch. I learned some things for future and will note it for next time. Final vote: Yum!

Cleaning the river with recycle man!

This is from a few weeks ago... We helped out at the Friends of the River Clean-up. There was a guy there called Recycle man. Caden thought he was awesome so he got his picture taken with Recycle man. The guy even has trading cards, so Caden shows me the trading card fairly often to remind me about recycle man. :)

Route of the Hiawatha - finally!

Another adventure from this weekend (last weekend of August) was the Route of the Hiawatha trail. I have heard about this trail since i moved to Spokane. It is an 18 mile trail, that used to be a railroad track and is now a bike trail with a gradual down hill slope. Seems like something I can do and not be miserable the next day.

Well this is going to be a long post, so get comfortable...

It started out with a 2 hour drive to Lookout pass to rent our bikes. It was great, we got 2 bikes, a trailer for Caden and a bike rack for the car. They even installed everything for us. Small problem, when we got to Lookout pass, I realized I had no gas. We still had to drive a few miles to the trailhead. We asked the bike people where the closest gas station was... it was in Wallace, the town I had just driven through about 10 miles back. So we headed back to Wallace for gas. Now that we had gas, we continued onward to the trail head. On the way to the trail, we missed the exit and had to go past it (5 miles to the next exit) and loop back around. By the time we got to the trailhead, we were ready to bike!



After we unpacked the bikes from our car, and got the bike trailer attached, we felt like we were ready. So we took a little test drive on the bike. Next thing I know, the chain comes off my bike. Oh man, this is going to challenging. I am not a bike mechanic, but I figured I would do my best to repair it. Well I just hooked it back up, good as new.


Then we headed to the trail head. To get to the trail, you had to go through these barriers, posts in the middle of the trail. Well, with the bike trailer, you had to be centered exactly between the posts or you will not make it through. I know this because it took me 4 or 5 sets of these to really figure it out. The first time I thought I had slowed down enough to make it through... nope. A loud crash and came to an abrupt stop. Oops, not centered.


The beginning of the trail is actually a railroad tunnel that is pitch black for 1.8 miles. Lucky for me they gave me a little lamp. Bad news - I pointed the lamp straight ahead, thinking this would help me see better. Nope, turns out you need it pointed a little bit in front of your tire, towards the ground. So I took my sunglasses off (someone reminded me to do that) and headed into the tunnel. It was really dark, and my lamp wasn't really doing what I needed it to do... But I couldn't stop because someone might crash into me from behind. This is a real problem since there is not any light except for your small bike light. As I was pedalling in the dark, I realized I wasn't sure if Caden and the bike trailer were still hooked up to me.... I started calling out Caden's name. I was getting nervous because he wasn't answering - after 4 times, he finally said something, but I was a little concerned. I thought that I may have lost my little boy in the tunnel. When we got to the other side, we stopped and I looked at him. I forgot to shut the mud flap and he had mud on his face. Super mom of the year... that's right! After that, I figured out that it was a good idea to shut the flap.


From there, we travelled on through the tunnels, bridges and trails, stopping to look at scenery, adjust lights, have snacks and take breaks. About halfway through the trail ride, it started to rain. Not just rain, actually it was more like a downpour. At that point, we just had to ride fast to get out of the rain. As I was riding fast, I would hear a few "mommy" shouts and would stop because either the flap wasn't keeping caden dry, or the last time his neck hurt... Each time I stopped, he just wanted out of the trailer, but I couldn't let him out because he would be soaked.









At the end of the trail, there was a school bus waiting for us. We packed our bikes and trailers on to the bus and headed back. Little did I know, they were dropping us off at the original tunnel.... We had to set the trailer back up on the bike and get ready to ride in the tunnel again. By now I had learned my lesson on the lights, but it was getting chilly out with the wind. I had given my fleece to Caden because it was getting cold, I figured I would just suffer, but someone gave me their sweatshirt to wear in the tunnel so I wouldn't freeze too.

All in all it was a great day, and I would highly reccomend this adventure to anyone interested in getting near nature. It was a peaceful relaxing day, and we created memories. I am looking forward to taking my husband and family there to experience the Hiawatha for themselves!

First day at north wall

Caden started a new pre-school last week called North Wall. His cousin Charlie goes there too. This picture is from his first day. He was so excited about his bike helmet and his spiderman lunch box. The school has been wonderful and exciting so far. In 2 weeks they will go on a field trip to an apple orchard and learn about apples and how they grow and what you can make with them.

I got the field trip schedule and we are a chaperone in November when they go to the bakery... I hope I get that morning off so I can be the chaperone. yum!

Pig out in the park

Last weekend we went to pig out at the park. If you are not familiar with that, it is like having all fair food items available to eat, but not paying to go to the fair! My brother and his family came to visit too! We got to see Royal - his little boy which was so fun!

This is Caden having fun with Pete while we waited for Sha na na to start their concert. That is right, they played at Pig out. They were in Grease and they had their own tv show 1977 - 1981. Remember Bowser?

Wine tasting in Spokane

We went wine tasting in Spokane this weekend. Karen is our DC rep for work, and she asked if we could visit some of the wineries in the area, so I made it happen. She only gets to visit about 2 times a year so we need to get a lot in during her visits. We visited 5 wineries, and we had a mini bus to take us around. I think the best part was that 3 of the 5 wineries had complimentary tastings.
Something that really made me laugh was these 2 ladies. There was a group that was going about the same pace as us. They were using the wine maps that our office made as their guide. Then I realized one of the ladies was familiar, she is from the weight watchers meeting that I used to go to.

It could be a sign that I need to watch what I eat...

This was our group - Karen, Cherie & her husband as well as Shannon.

The picture at the bottom left is a bottle tree at Townshend winery. I guess the artist makes and sells these. I didn't check out the price because I figured it was out of my league.

A day at the neighbors

We were at our neighbors house watching the Shock game and having smores. The Shock won the AFL championship - the superbowl for arena football. Our neighbor Griffin happens to have a jersey autographed by the players, Caden wanted to try it on.

Fun times.

Watching travis tritt live in person. Fun day at work!

One of the group's that was here in Spokane recently had Travis Tritt as their entertainment at their awards banquet. We got to sit in the front row. I hadn't heard his music before, but it sure was entertaining. Here I am on the dance floor.

Day at the park

Caden got to go to a birthday party at the park this weekend. Great weather! He was so happy to have the cupcake!

They had a pinata for the kids to hit. Caden got 2 pieces of candy and a toy car and was thrilled. So funny to see him get his candy and stop looking for more so he could open it and eat it.

Swimming lessons rock

Caden is my super swimmer! This is him swimming the length of the pool with no assistance - other than the noodle. Last night he got to tread water for 10 seconds on his own! That was amazing to see! He is growing up! On a side note, he weighs 34 1/2 pounds. Always curious what he weighs, so just thought I would note that. :)

Fun in vancouver

A quick pic of me with some friends from my days at the Hyatt in Seattle. Oddly enough, we all were at the MPI conference in Vancouver, and none of us are working for Hyatt. Good to see you Christie and Jessica!

A day at Deer Lake

Well to start off, these pictures are not in order... Most posts start that way for me anyways so why not. A few weeks ago, my sister's in-law's were nice enough to invite us to their house for the weekend. We got to spend the day at the lake and it was fantastic!

As a reward for eating (really any meal) the kids would get half a cookie. Some of them (Caden & Annie) were more motivated by the cookie than others (Charlie). This is Annie enjoying her cookie, some even went in her mouth.

The 3 cousins enjoying their capri sun after swimming.

Caden & Charlie relaxing in their lounge chairs.

My parents came up in the afternoon to hang out as well, so my dad got to enjoy some swimming too.

We didn't know this was possible, but caden can ride a bike with training wheels. His legs aren't strong enough for any incline, but he likes to go on the bike.

Caden has some water wings now and they really work!