Ski Trip to Winthrop Wa

 Every year we love to get out and cross country ski.  This year we decided to go back to Winthrop as there are so many trails to ski in the Methow Valley area.  This has been a weird weather year with warmer temperatures and a lot more rain and we weren't sure if we would have snow but we were excited when it snowed the night before we showed up.  It was the perfect temperatures and we had just enough snow to ski. We skied Cub creek, Gun Ranch and Sun Mountain.

It took old age for her to finally allow me to cuddle her.

We played many rounds of Pictionary.

Christmas Vacation

Chloe was in Seattle the week before Christmas and she and Avery made a traditional Korean dish for us.  It was delicious.

Avery wanted to make creme brule over break and we experimented with lighting the alcohol on fire, it was pretty and toasted the top perfectly.

We added more lights this year, it's always nice to come home to a bright house on the dark December nights.

A fun tradtion, waiting for Grandma's Christmas breads to be delivered.

We met Chloe and her friend Ellen at the Seattle Christmas market in the Seattle Center.

We were tight on time this year but they managed to make gingerbread houses from a kit.

Alia wanted to make homemade Christmas trees for our dessert.  The white cake was really good but it was way too sweet with the dipped chocolate.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Rainy Thanksgiving walk to Kvi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We smoked the turkey this year and it was delicious.  I usually don't like how dry turkey is and smoking it helped seal in flavor and kept it from drying out.

 

Avery invited Chloe, an international student from Korea to enjoy Thanksgiving with us this year.  This was her first Thanksgiving.

Apple and pear pie from fruit we picked this fall and a pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust.

 

Halloween

 

We don't really like the Halloween candy so we made homemade Dubai chocolates after seeing them all over Japan.

Zombies

A Fall visit to Corvallis

We decided to do our yearly haunted maze/forest near Avery this year and include him since it had been a little over a month since we'd seen him.  It's the longest we've been away from each other and we all needed a visit and he needed his snack closet replenished.

We found a great little breakfast spot downtown. 

All settled in.  It's nice to see after 5 years Maia finally accepts Luna.

Fall is beautiful in Corvallis.

Robot doing food deliveries to kids on campus.  I took a picture of this one because Maia smelled the food and was almost run over trying to get it.  The robots are smart and usually stop or go around but she is a little scrawny and hard to detect.

They saw the statue and wanted to recreate it.

We went to The Grange in Millersville to do a haunted house.  Avery invited Chloe, Kensie, and Kenso to come with.  The boys are brothers from Indonesia and Chloe is an exchange student here from Korea.  None of them have celebrated Halloween or been in a haunted house so it was a treat to take them.  You have to go through with 4 people or less so we had to split up.  Initially it was Avery, Chloe, Kenso and Kensie but at the last minute Kensie got scared and bolted.  Avery said he had to basically drag Chloe and Kenso out as they both froze and wouldn't move through the haunted house. Since Alia, Scott and I were next through, I convinced Kensie to go with us, promising we would protect him.  Somehow we ended up in a conga line with me first, then Alia, Kensie and Scott.  The actors started making fun of us and asking why we were in a conga line.  Kensie had a death grip on Alia's shoulders so she bolted forward and he lost contact.  At that point he turned around to Scott and yelled, "I'm really sorry but you are just going to have to hold me!!" The entire experience was hilarious and one we will never forget.  

Team Davis together again

Fantastic baklava

We stumbled upon a No King's protest downtown.  It was surreal to watch history knowing this protest will be remembered for a long time.  It is estimated that 7 million people worldwide joined in the protest.  It was interesting talking to Chloe, Kenso, and Kensie when they were asking what people are protesting and to view it from the lens of someone from a different country. 

 We completed another Escape room.  They do a great job on these rooms and we all liked this one.  It was well thought out with a lot of fun puzzles.