Travels To The West Side

Last weekend Reid and I decided to venture over to Seattle for a little get-away. This was probably the last chance we will have to be out there for a fun (non-work related in Tara's case) trip. We were able to do some shopping at the outlets, try a new brewery (Pikes Brewery), hike in Discovery Park, and catch up over lunch with a highschool friend. Even though the weather was a bit scary driving out there, we had a great trip and a much needed get-away.



At South Beach in Discovery Park

Walking the beach of the Puget Sound

Not So Sunny, But Still Beautiful California



Reid recently went to San Francisco, CA to participate in the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court compeition. His team spent a lot of time preparing a written brief to submit as well as prepping for oral arguments. They are happy to report that their brief won first place in their division! Congratulations guys!!

After the competition, Reid drove down to Monterey to stay with Tara's cousin Erinn. Erinn was running a 5K the following morning and Reid decided to join, and do the 10K. Good work Reido!!



"No wonder California has such happy cows."

 Now that Reid is finally done with all the preparation for moot court competition he finally has a bit more free time...I saw a bit more because now the time will be spent preparing for the Patent Bar Exam and prepariang his application for the Colorado State Bar. So close but it still feels so far away.

Full of Surprises!

Last weekend I was able to go back home and surprise my friend Stephanie for her baby shower! She had NO idea and it was wonderful to see her. I was also able to catch up with a few other friends and have dinner with my grandma and aunt and uncle. It was a short, fun-filled weekend! While Tara was away, Reid judged a debate tournament at a local high school. Even though it was an all-day event, he was thoroughly entertained by some of the topics during the improv section. His favorite: Who is the original gangster...Teddy Roosevelt!

In other news Reid and I have a fun announcement to make...we have thought and thought and decided to follow our hearts. After graduation in May, we will be moving to Colorado!! While we both love the Northwest, Colorado is much closer to family and friends and it has always been one of Reid's dreams to go back there. Come on May :)

Time Is Flying

Just realized the other day that I haven't updated this thing in a while!! We haven't been up to a whole lot lately, but have lots of things planned for the future. Reid started his last semester of law school and thought it was going to be a breeze with only two classes. Well he is only a week in and busier than ever with the two classes, moot court practices, work, GJIL papers, patent bar studying and externing at the courthouse. While that doesn't sound like enough already, he still has to find time put in volunteer hours before graduation.

Tara is continuing her routine of work, workout and housewife (cooking way more dinners than I ever thought I would ;) and keeping the house clean). She recently started taking a gymnastics class which has been very enjoyable.

We ordered a new workout program to tackle called INSANITY: THE ASYLUM! It is a 30 athlete training program. We'll see how it goes...

We hope everyone is having a good start to 2012!!

So Long 2011...Hello 2012!!

Well I can safely say we held true to our new years resolution for 2011. This past year has been quite the journey testing out new workout programs and pushing ourselves to get into the best shape possible. We are now more aware of what we eat and strive to do at least 30 min of working out 6 days a week. 2011 was a great start to a well-balanced lifestyle.

And now onto 2012. Reid will look forward to graduation from law school and Tara is thrilled to finally be settled somewhere. I would say our resolution for 2012 is good fortunes. Good fortunes in Reid finding a job, building a new friend base and maybe an extra surprise thrown in as well.

We hope to wrap up our last few months in Spokane with more times with friends, more camping, hiking, snowshoeing, and skiing adventures and finally being able to sit back, relax a bit and prepare for our new venture after graduation.

Happy New Years!!

Holiday Celebrations

Christmas Eve: we started a new tradition this year by ordering Jack Stack for our Christmas Eve dinner. It was so delicious that it is one that will most certainly be carried on. We invited some friends over who were very thankful we shared our BBQ :) After our dinner we moved on to our next tradition of opening our Christmas morning pajamas. Ended the night with the clay-mation version of Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys.

Christmas Morning: we started the morning with our stockings. Each year we both think our stockings aren't very good for each other, but we always love them! Tara got lots of new workout clothes and Reid's favorite was his Michael Buble Christmas cd...that and his Christmas countdown decoration.

For our Christmas breakfast we had fruit salad, cinnamon-oatmeal pancakes and OJ! Delicious. Breakfast was followed by opening our presents which is always fun!! Even Snyder joined in and dug a treat out of his stocking. Patti (Reid's mom) sent Snyder a holiday outfit which he was a team player and sported for 2 seconds, lol!!

After all the Christmas festivities were over, we decided to head out to Riverside State Park in Spokane and do a little hiking. It was nice to get out and enjoy the outdoors but not nice to get back to our car and find a ticket for not having a permit for parking inside the state park.

Birthday Celebrations: after hiking we headed home and made Reid's birthday dinner...pizza! Tara was not feeling the baking this year (and we were not really feeling the idea of having lots of left-over dessert) so there was no birthday cake but instead put candles in the pizza! Tara actually surprised Reid this year with his birthday gift of some hiking shoes, a Mt Rainier summit t-shirt and a geo-survey point for Mt Rainier. He said the gift was "very thoughtful."

We completed the night with some K-State basketball and our holiday beers! This was a wonderful Christmas and we hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday as well.

Holiday Treats

After much thought about what kind of cookies to make and who we wanted to give them too, Tara finally settled on making holiday cupcakes this year.

We made German Chocolate cupcakes with peppermint icing made from greek yogurt and confectioners sugar. They are shaped to be little peppermint teacups (thank you Betty Crocker wedding edition cookbook for the idea)

For delivery to friends Tara put them in a cute snowman bag. Hope everyone enjoys!