Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day in St. Louis

Brad and I headed home to St. Louis this past weekend...it worked out well because this weekend was also Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day. It was a bit of a whirlwind weekend...we took a red eye flight late Friday evening and got in at 11am Saturday. Luckily, Brad and I flew out Monday morning so we got in 2 full days. Brad headed on home while I flew to Des Moines, Iowa for work.

I can't believe it has been a year and 5 months since I was last home in St. Louis...just long enough so that it felt foreign to me but short enough that I was able to jog my memory fairly quickly. It was great to be back and see familiar faces. Brad and I also took this opportunity to visit some of the places around St. Louis where we have had some great memories. Below are some pics from our trip.
Brad and I had requested to go out to dim sum both Saturday and Sunday morning...and dim sum we got! As soon as we landed in St. Louis Saturday morning, we headed to Wonton King (where we had dim sum the morning after our wedding!). The picture above shows the group Sunday morning; we went with my family, my uncle Bill, and Sarah to Lulu's for dim sum (where we had our rehearsal dinner).
Since this weekend was also Chinese New Year, my parents took us to a huge celebration (300 people) that included a lion dance (pictured above) and a 10-course traditional Chinese meal. There was also a raffle where we won a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant! Maybe this will be a lucky year for us...
The lions wandered the room. Brad somehow caught a pic of one of the lions behind me. Traditionally, you're supposed to feed the lion a red envelope with cash in it. I'm sure the big orange tongue (in the picture) helped to eat up the red envelopes :)
We are convinced that my parents party more than we do. Their friend, Tony, hosts poker and mah jong at his house every Friday and Saturday every weekend. Poker was a lot of fun...and it didn't hurt that Brad and I were both the big winners of the night :)
Here is a pic of the mah jong game going on. I think we've learned to play this game 3 times and I still can't remember how to play it.
During the trip, Brad surprised me with a trip to the restaurant located in the Marriott Union Station for Valentine's Day. September 2, 2007 Brad and I had gotten married at the Hyatt Union Station (it changed hotel names but looks exactly the same) and actually haven't had the chance to visit since we've been married. Brad even called ahead and had the hotel concierge order some red roses for our table to surprise me. It was the best Valentine's Day surprise I had ever received.
Me holding the roses on the lighted floor in Union Station. We had some of our wedding pics taken here.
The exterior of Union Station at night all lit up. It sure is gorgeous at night!
And finally...a pic of the Grand Hall. Brad and I stood to reminisce about our wedding and the amazing reception afterwards located here in the Grand Hall. It was an amazing feeling to be back.

Florida with my 2110 girls

My best friends from college and I have always talked about doing an annual trip out to Florida and this year it finally happened! We have all been close friends since freshman/sophomore year in college and were bridesmaids in each other's weddings. It has been 7 months since we've all been together, but now that we all live in different cities, it's a lot harder to meet up. Pauline lives in Chicago, Christal in Minneapolis, and Amanda in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After this trip, we have definitely agreed that we will make Florida an annual thing...especially around the winter when we're all having to deal with snow (or rain in my case!). Below are some pics of our wonderful and relaxing trip (not in chronological order) to West Palm Beach, Florida.

Here we are posing on our way to a block party that Vince Neil invited us to. So there's actually a little story to this - we went to the famous Breakers Hotel to grab drinks/appetizers. Pauline recognized a familiar face in the corner of the bar but couldn't place what band he was with. She texted a friend and he texted back with Vince Neil (the lead singer of Motley Crue). I googled him on my iPhone and got to actually compare a side by side picture of him (from a distance). We agreed that it was him and went up to him and asked for his autograph. What an awesome guy - just really nice and chill (and didn't complain that we interrupted his lunch!). He told us about his block party that he was throwing that evening at his club, Dr. Feelgoods. And so here we are in this pic...on our way to the party :)
We all took a walk to the beach to get our exercise in. It was windy, the waves were huge, and they put a flag up indicating that jellyfish and man-o-war were predominant in the waters...so we decided against hopping in the ocean. But at least we enjoyed the sunshine!
Every night, we hung out at the Blue Martini and enjoyed our free martinis (thanks for the VIP cards!). And the food there was phenomenal. Yum!
This is why this post is out of chronological order (I didn't want to have to re-upload the pics). Here's a pic of Vince Neil up close during his block party. It was awesome rocking out to Motley Crue songs and some of his new stuff! Not someone I would ever go and choose to see live...but if it's free, I'm not going to complain!
Ending this post with a relaxing pic. We stayed at Christal's parent's condo. This is the view from their condo of the pool...just relaxes you looking at it eh? I'm looking forward to our future trips to Florida!

Portland's Annual Snow Storm

Believe it or not, but it only snows once a year in Portland. But when it does, it really dumps. We get a lot of warm fronts off the Pacific which keeps it between 35-50 and rainy all winter. However, when the conditions are just right, all that rain turns to snow. This year, the snowstorm hit very unexpectedly and everyone got out of work early. Despite that, it still took Emily 4.5 hours to drive 25 miles home from work. Since the snow is rare here, the city is not equipped with snow plows and the locals have no clue how to drive in the slick stuff.

Emily amidst the blizzard on the roof balcony at work

The Christmas tree at Pioneer Square (downtown Portland)

Our house covered in snow. The 4Runner earned its keep....and was a lot of fun playing around in the snow....I guess I get this from my Dad. I remember as a kid, he was always looking for an excuse to take his Chevy Blazer out when the snow hit hard in Ohio. I, ahem, "toured" a few (many) parking lots on my way home that day. :)

Now that it's winter, we have made several trips up to Mt Hood for snowboarding. Unfortunately, the weather has been real fickle up there - some days are great powder, while other days are pouring rain. Here are some pics from the good days:

the wall of snow on the side of the road to Mt Hood shows how much snow they have been getting...with the peak of Mt Hood glistening in the sun

Em taking a break from riding to soak up the sun and the view

the view from atop Meadows Resort - we are high enough to be ABOVE the clouds....it may be gloomy in Portland, but it is sunny up here!!

view of Mt Jefferson peaking through the clouds on the horizon

Just as quickly as the snow came, the snow melted during the normal Portland rain the next day. Our standard 45 degree and rainy weather returned and life in Portland went back to normal. We even got a few 50 degree days, so we did some local hikes on the weekends.

a new tree growing out of a stump

a hike in Forest Park includes seeing some amazing houses perched on the cliffs

We had a clear sunny weekend this weekend so we finally took our inaugural ride on the Aerial Tram in the South Waterfront district. The Tram is part of the public transportation system and connects the South Waterfront district to the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).

the view of downtown Portland from the Aerial Tram

We had a slight delay in our excursions around the city because the draw bridge was raising to let a ship pass through:

Today we had another day of nice weather, so we did some short hikes at the nearby Tualatin Hills Nature Center (about a 5 min drive from our house). The trails were a little soggy, but it was still nice to get a nice walk in the woods. We almost stumbled over this little fellow.....then he went hopping on his way....

Last of our Christmas posts

Though we ended up staying in Portland over Christmas, we had plenty to do! Some of our friends were around for the holidays as well (since a lot of them are from the Midwest too), so we all hosted get-togethers and dinners so that something was always going on. The first party we attended was Courtney and Charlie's annual holiday party. They always have a White Elephant gift exchange, so that's always fun to be a part of. After the White Elephant, Charlie pulled out a little black box that was hidden on the fireplace and proposed to Courtney in front of all of us. What a great event to be a part of! So I nudged Brad to grab his iPhone quickly and grab a picture to help capture the moment. I guess it's about time since they've been dating for 6 years...


On Christmas Day, we hosted a dinner at our place. Actually, I forgot to mention...Christmas Eve we went over to the Maya house (the family in the back) for an amazing dinner of duck, beef tenderloin, and noodles. It was yummy!
Part of the spread for our Christmas dinner. Kristina is digging in to her vegetarian lasagna while Matt is grabbing a slice of our spiral sliced ham.
Some of the group chilling around the fireplace
Here's the group again - we whipped out the Wii and got some bowling and tennis in. The kids loved playing it and were giving out hi-fives to the bowlers who bowled strikes and spares :)

Work Holiday Party

Mid-December we had my work holiday party at the Portland City Grill in downtown Portland. It's a really nice restaurant at the top of the tallest building in the city, so the views of Portland are spectacular from up there. And the food is amazing...it is definitely one of the most popular happy hour spots in town. My company rented out a private room where we ate dinner and had a casino night (with fake money of course). It was a great time being able to socialize with co-workers outside of the office and meet their significant others...definitely one of the best parties we've been to in a long time.

My company also hired a photographer for the event. She took formal pictures of people when they came in to the event (we received a nice 5x7 picture to take home) and then took candid shots throughout the night. Below are some of the pictures she took.

Actually, I think this picture is photoshopped :) But it does serve as a good representation of the evening.
Here are Brad and I at the roulette table. Also in this picture are our good friends Laura and David. Laura and I used to carpool to work together (when we both lived in downtown Portland). We also bought our houses at the same time and closed 1 day apart from each other, so we definitely helped each other with tips with the whole process.
Here we are playing a little blackjack. Too bad they didn't have a poker table to play on...
This is a pic of my co-worker Scott and his wife Suzette. Scott is another good friend of mine at work and also a Business Analyst like me. Our cubes are right next to each other, so it's good to have someone to joke around with all day. He went to Michigan State for undergrad and Ohio State for his Masters in Accounting - so he's also a Big Ten guy! We're definitely a minority at the office...but at least I have someone on my side when we argue with our University of Oregon co-workers about who's going to win the Rose Bowl January 1, 2010.
Besides dinner, open bar, and a casino night, our company also hired this guy to provide us with entertainment. He performed Frank Sinatra covers...and sounded exactly like him!
And finally...the view from the Portland City Grill. Too bad it was night time...the view from up here is really gorgeous when it's sunny out and you can see Mt. Hood.

Christmas in Ohio

Christmas has been a long month celebration that we've been too busy to post to the blog! So as usual, we are a little behind on our posts. Christmas this year started out with a trip to Ohio in the beginning of December. I had a work trip planned in Cincinnati for a few days, so we decided that I would stick around for the weekend and Brad would fly out so that we can celebrate Christmas with his family and attend our nephew Elliot's baptism.

After Brad landed in Cincinnati, we met up with Tony (a friend of Brad's from college) and his wife Kim for dinner. After dinner, Brad and I drove up to West Alexandria to spend time with his family. On Saturday, we met up with Paul Kersey (Brad's friend from grade school) and his fiancee Leeanna for lunch at Brad's parent's restaurant the Twin Creek Tea Room. We haven't seen them since they got engaged, so it was great catching up with them. Later that evening, we opened presents and had a nice Christmas dinner.

A pic of all of us (minus Kristy since she was the picture-taker) at the dinner table. Also included in the picture is Pat's dad who drove in for Elliot's baptism.
A pic of the group in the family room opening gifts. Of course, the center of attention was Elliot :)
On Sunday morning, we went to church where Elliot was baptised. What a trooper! He didn't cry at all during the ceremony even as his face was dripping with water. He is by far one of the happiest babies I've ever seen. The pic above was taken during Elliot's baptism. Brad and I were part of the baptism since we're Elliot's guardians.
After the baptism, we had to get a few shots of Elliot in his cute outfit. He's laying on a quilt that I sewed for him. I started this quilt when we moved to Portland over a year ago. This was prior to even knowing if he was going to be a boy or a girl :) I thought it would be fitting to sew a quilt for him because Kristy actually taught me almost everything I know about sewing. Though it's only a baby sized quilt, I think all in all this quilt took me over 100 hours to cut, sew, and create. Yes, I'm a little slow at sewing...but it was also my first quilt that I've ever created and I had to learn to complete it on my own.
I love this pic of Elliot. This just shows how happy of a baby he always seems to be.
I forgot to mention that Saturday night we hung out with Kersey, Leeanna, and Greg. We also got to meet Miley, Kersey and Leeanna's adorable new puppy. What a cutie...she was so playful!

Thanksgiving and Christmas around the House

I know, I know...it's been awhile since we've posted. We're almost past 2 holidays here. So lets take you back to Thanksgiving. We hosted our annual Thanksgiving dinner at our house for those of us away from our hometowns. Actually, it seems everyone who attended this year was at our Thanksgiving last year with the addition of Eric. The nice thing about having the same people year after year over for Thanksgiving is that you know what dishes they're good at making. So now everyone kind of has their token dish they bring to Thanksgiving, and man, is everything good!

The group around the dinner table minus the two hosts :) Hopefully some day we can upgrade to a formal dining table! Sigh... But on the plus side, we have a huge kitchen counter top to serve as the buffet this year.
The spread. I bet you're just drooling right now looking at this picture. I am at least. I suggested to the group that we host a mid-year Thanksgiving feast. Why celebrate one of the best holidays only once a year? It sounds like a go :)
The weekend of Thanksgiving we didn't have much going on since it was pretty icy on the mountain (so no snowboarding...we can be picky like that now!), so we decided to decorate the house for Christmas. Here's our Christmas tree - we went to a local tree farm and did a U-Cut where we sawed down our own tree. No worries though...this is Portland, and this farm plants new seedlings for future Christmases where we cut our tree. Turns out too that our tree is decorated in semi-Ohio State colored ornaments (how did that happen?). We also got some stockings put up - the extra one is for our CAT. No kids yet. And we had a nice fire going that weekend...definitely felt like Christmas in the new house.
I came up with the idea of decorating our stairway with garland for a really festive look. Notice too in the background that we have some framed pictures hanging. These are actually some great shots we've taken in the past of unique locations and great views. We have some pics up from Egypt, Lebanon, Utah, Hawaii, and Mexico. Guess you'll have to come to Portland to check them out!
We decorated the outside of our house with the icicle type lights. Sorry the lighting isn't very good, but at least it kinda portrays how the lights look outside the house.
Thanksgiving weekend also happened to be a gorgeous weekend, which is kinda rare since it's usually in the midst of rainy season. We took advantage of the weather by going on a hike around Forest Park, which is a park located right in NW Portland (pretty much downtown). It's very lush and full of elevation changes, so it made for a good workout. This trail that we hiked is a 30+ mile trail...I think we only ended up doing about 5 miles of it.
On the hike up the hill in Forest Park, we ended up at Pittock Mansion where we were treated to an awesome view of downtown Portland and Mt. Hood. Definitely makes for a rewarding hike!

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Keep in touch and stay warm! :)