consecration weekend part 1

Well the first official stop of the day was at the Bodies Exhibit downtown, which was a huge success! With dad's driving and Guela's navigating we found parking right across the street from the exhibit. I think I can speak for all of us, that we loved it and now look at people in another way! (well I admit I started doing that while taking A&P but now guela and dad do it too ;)

By the end Guela starting naming the pieces, "A nerve-ous wreck", and "Out of body experience" were some of the best ones

So...the second stop of the day was Kerry Park :) I didn't realize that they have never been there or seen the view! (my bad... lol) so now they have :) and we were so blessed that the weather held off all afternoon and were able to see the city

me and my wonderful parents with the space needle in the background

me and guela :)

me and mom :)

the parents

inside a little piece of art

They had a flag on top of the space needle in honor of the police officer

And then....the Troll! Mom and dad had never been here either! We realized we've never really gone sight seeing while they've been here, its always been picking up or dropping off :)

Then we went to dinner at Ivars on the water and had a delicious dinner while watching the ferries coming in and going out

me and guela with our salmon caesear salad - soo good!

This is what Aunties are for.

So when I got to Tasha's last weekend, one of the first things she told me was that Brock really wanted to make Banana Chocolate Chip muffins. And of course, being the auntie I am once Bryce was down for his nap, off to baking we went :)

Brock was a huge help! counting out the eggs we needed...

Peeling the bananas...
And breaking them in pieces to go in the mixer - many, many little pieces I might add ;)

First, pointing at which hole he wanted me to fill, then telling me which ones needed more :)

Well I didn't get an after picture but they were delicious! We had a good bonding time, he was so talkative (shocker huh!) and so helpful! When Bryce was still talking in his bed he told me, "I'll go check on Brcye. Just to make sure he's ok. Cause thats what brothers do." (as he was ready to jump off the counter to go take care of little Bryce!) Amazing how brothers can love eachother so much at such a young age :)

Home for Halloween

This was my first Halloween home since I've been at school in Seattle so as you can imagine I was pretty stoked to be able to take my newhews trick-or-treating to all the friends and family. Early in the afternoon they were already dressed and we got pictures by their pumpkins - they have their names carved in them (in case you can't read them :)

Our #1 Lynden football player (notice the green and gold ;) and our little monkey!

Standing up on his own!

Our first stop of the day: Auntie Shannon's house!

After 5 hrs of knocking on doors, visiting grandparents, friends, and aunties we made it to the Butcher's neighbor's house....Auntie Beck had a great "touch and feel" area set up, the other cousins knew what to expect but it was my first time :)

I was glad to see that Taylor isn't too old to dress up and go out with her family :)

Grady in his horse costume :)

Jake and Weston

Brock found the little chair that was just his size! (the same chair stacey and I used to sit it, play barbies on, way back in the day lol)

Taiji and his little buddy Bryce

love these guys

the little guys playin

And the last stop of the night: Papa and Grandma's house! We finally made it about 9:30 to their house, Brock was on a sugar high at this time and Bryce had been up since 4! What troopers :) Both were crashed out by the time we made it back home

We had lunch sunday before I had to come back to seattle to study for my exam, nothing beats a Sunday lunch outside on the patio with the sun shining in November!

Lesson Learned

So found out this week that I'm allergic to Costco's Ecos scented laundry soap :) I couldn't figure it out for a day or so, but then my housemate figured it out, we washed our scrubs together using her laundry soap one day and the next day this is what I woke up with:

pictures aren't the greatest, kinda hard to see with the flash/no flash but you get the idea

Yea so thats been part of the excitement this week, my neck is still SUPER itchy, but hopefully the majority of the redness will be gone by tomorrow, because I have my Nursing Consecration tomorrow night. My parents and Guela are coming down too, so I'm excited to see them and have them see em all dressed up in my scrubs and lab coat :)

Plus, we're making an afternoon out of it and going to see the Bodies Exhibit which is in Seattle right now. I saw it my senior year of high school but after all my pre-requisite courses I'm sure it'll be from a whole new perspective!

family photo!

We FINALLY got one of all 7 of us :) with a little help from a self timer of course!

left to right:

Melissa, Jayme, Emily popping her head in, Brittany Allen, me, Natalie & Brittany Harwell, phew! that is a mouthful!

we were bored lol
Jayme, Melissa and Emily

There you go! Now you can make a face to the names of all the girls I talk about :)

A new house calls for a party

Well last night was a success! We had a house warming party last night with lots of food, friends, and flowers! We had an assortment of good from pumpkin bars to homemade cookies, vegetables to chips and guacamole! We also had hot cider from Trader Joe's which everybody loved!

Natalie's delicious pumpkins bars :) perfect for a fall party

Our bright orange sunflowers :) which everybody seemed to be amazed by

Me and Natalie :]

The 3 basement dwellers~me, brittany harwell & natalie

seriously LOVE these girls!

we didn't plan the tights or the moccasins...we just have cold feet in our house

(no shoes allowed lol)

me and emily, my roomate from last year :)

our first guests! Me, Ashley Stockman (from Lynden) and Julia (was on my floor freshman yr)

More girls from 1st west :)

I promise I will out up a house picture, but its on another girl's camera, so it'll have to wait for now. But it was so great to get the house good and clean, cook lots of food, and see all our friends from the dorms who we clearly do not see enough of :( Living all off campus in our houses with dfferent schedules makes it quite difficult. Thank goodness for parties to bring everybody back together! My PA from freshman year even came, along with a ton of all of our friends :)

Just a side note, I'm sure everybody at home is not very happy about the UW game, but since half of the girls in my house are from Oregon, they were quite stoked this afternoon lol

Can't wait for Thanksgiving to see you all! Love you!

Pepsi Health Fair

Yesterday our nursing class got to help at the Pepsi Health Fair, downtown on Alaksa Highway. We were split into 2 shifts and we were there to take the worker's blood pressure and talk to them about their BMI, lifestyle, activity level, etc. They had a delicious lunch ready for us, and after they finished their presentations we got to mingle with the workers to see if we could convince anybody to get checked :) Of course the majority was macho men who, "just had it checked" or whole BP "was perfect" or simply turned in the other direction when they saw someone in a white coat coming towards them :) But I did get to check a few peoples, and now I believe in the White Coat Syndrome - when their BP goes up when getting checked by a Dr. but no where else...

But we did get to meet the Vice President of Pepsi and got our picture taken with him

A mini photo shoot on the balcony lol we were stoked to be in our "Professional attire"

Krista is the PA on 5th East, the floor I lived on last year :) We sat at the same table at the fair and now have lots of stories to tell!

We are having our house warming party tonight so our friends can see where we live - pics to come of that later :)