Birthday Celebration

Seems we sure do a lot of celebrating around here!! Today was John's actual birthday so we headed downtown to see his movie choice, but first had to open presents. He got a book, his annual Star Trek ornament, a tool (impact driver) and then.... ... a Star Trek Pizza Cutter from Audrey. John originally thought it was another ornament, but then thought it was a little too sharp!!
We headed downtown to see Next Three Days. Very suspenseful and full of action. One of those movies you think about a few days later. Like, would I want John to try to bust me out of prison? Then we headed to the valley and had lunch at Hallet's. It is a fun local sandwich shop. I always order the Reuben paninni - very delicious. Audrey always gets the twice baked potato and dill pasta salad. John is usually the adventurer who orders something different each time. They also have some fun food gift items so you can browse and try samples while they are preparing your meal. And they bring bags of popcorn to your table so you have something to munch on while you wait for your food. Fun store!

Davenport Day #2 & Ornaments

The next morning we decided to have breakfast in the Safari Room. Audrey ordered crepes, I ordered biscuits and gravy and John had pancakes. Large portions and very tasty. We checked out of the hotel later that morning and headed over to Old World Christmas ornaments to do our annual ornament shopping with grandma. Lunch was served at grandma's house afterward while I headed out to the church to play for a baptism.

Happy Thanksgiving & Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to us! 22 years ago we were married in the Seattle Temple. I don't think I could have imagined how happy our lives would be. We are truly blessed. So to celebrate our anniversary as well as Thanksgiving (since they fell on the same day this year), the three of us headed downtown to The Davenport and booked a hotel stay in the Tower and also made reservations for the Thanksgiving Buffet.

Kind I just say WOW on the buffet? The buffet had a hot section where you could have beef roast, turkey and/or pork roast sliced to order; salmon, yams, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies and various side dishes. So we started there and filled our plates and sat down at our table to begin our feast. Afterwards we headed to the cold section where we had our choice of spinach & lettuce salads, pasta salads, sweet potato salad, assorted rolls, crackers, various cheeses, sushi (yes, sushi), shrimp and crab and assorted seafood. Audrey really liked the sweet potato salad. John thought the spinach salad with the lemon dressing was great (while I had the spinach salad with the poppy seed dressing which was also yummy). Far too many choices and all very delicious. Then we headed to the dessert buffet. There was a chocolate fountain and fresh fruit and cookies to dip. Multiple types of cheesecake, pies and cakes to choose from. We had a little sampling of desserts and relaxed for the remainder of our meal.
We then walked around the hotel and gift shop before heading across the street to the Tower and our room. Our room was on the highest floor below the penthouse suite so the view was wonderful. It was lovely to look out the window at the falling snow.

Thankful Board

During the days in November leading up to Thanksgiving, we each wrote down something we were thankful for onto fun shapes Audrey and I had cut out using my Cricut (turkey, leaves, pumpkins) and taped them on the cupboard in the kitchen. This was nice because we saw this every day - and multiple times a day. We each had different things we wrote that we were thankful for, but it certainly is not everything we are thankful for. Not by a long shot!! PS - The lists are in alphabetical order by the way. And the only reason I am posting is that I wanted to make note of what we had thought of during the month.


JOHN
A wife who plays piano, Art, Audrey, Birthdays, Candy, Chocolate, Cider, Clothes, Computers, Cookies, Garage, Grape Juice & Fiber, Heater & Stoves, Home, Hot showers, Movies, My Job, Nuts, Piano, Pizza, Sam, Soft bed, Tape, Tools, Vehicles

SAM
Audrey, Celebrations, Food, Friends, Gramlow Family, Health, Heavenly Father, John, Kathy & Family, Library & Books, Marriage, Mom, Music talent, My 2 bosses, My Daddy, My Job, Our Home, Photos, Piano, Quiet, Scrapbooking, Snow, Testimony, Traditions, Typing 110 wpm

AUDREY
Armed Forces, Disneyland, Family, Football, Headphones & Earbuds, History, Holidays, I Pod, Junk Food, Laptops/PC’s, Mariska, Movies, Music, Radio, Restaurants, SC Boys, Sidney, Snow, Speakers/Stereos, Theatre, Theme Parks, Truck & Car, TV, Welding, Xbox

Megamind and The Asian

What a fun day! We went downtown to see the movie Megamind. Good flick! We had popcorn during the movie so did not need to eat lunch, but did take the opportunity to shop afterwards. While I was shopping inside the kitchen store, Audrey sat down on a bench and started up a conversation with a nice lady who was visiting Spokane from Canada. Had a great discussion. Then John and I joined them for more conversation.

Later that evening we met the Sanborns for dinner. They had suggested The Asian, an oriental restaurant on Sunset Hill. We got there before Julie and Don and the owner, Sam, knew exactly who they were - where they liked to sit - and started in on their orders because he knew what they liked. Very personable man. Food was great and we enjoyed visiting with Julie and Don.

Surprise Bday Party!

We had a combined surprise birthday party for Kathy Thompson and John, as they have birthdays close to each other. It was great as John had no clue. Probably partly because his birthday was not until the next weekend. I had originally thought I would get him to the restaurant by needing to run an errand nearby, but he called me from work and said "hey, we should go out tonight" so it was easy to suggest The Onion, where everyone would be meeting. When we walked into the restaurant, we ran into some other friends (the Wynias) which was just fun timing. Those that were able to come were the Gordons, Fergusons, Heerdinks, Wilsons, Rusty & Dana(from our young adult years) and of course the Thompson's and our family. Fun time!!

Symphony: Big Band

Mom and I went to the Pops Symphony Big Band production tonight where Jeff Tyzik was the guest conductor. They played classic big band tunes such as Satin Doll, Take the A Train, String of Pearls and Song of the Volga Boatman. They also did the Armed Forces Song Medley which was wonderful (as 11/11 was Veteran's Day). They had anyone that had served in the Armed Forces stand during the portion of the song where their theme was played (army, navy, marines, air force). Love my country and appreciate those who serve for our freedom. Nice evening.