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Warning:  This might be the longest post ever!
 
We made it home to Washington the first day of December.  I traveled with the boys by myself.  This is what we looked like trying to check bags...

And that isn't even all the bags.  Have I mentioned we don't travel light?!?

We made it to Seattle, the boys were wonderful.  Love love love seeing the Space Needle.

Spent some time shopping in Seattle and watching the Apple Cup game.  Had so much fun with Lindsey, but a little too much like old college times...I am getting way too old for that!  Saw  lots of family on that side of the mountains.

Had dinner (and drinks) with friends...

Hadn't had a martini in a very long time...Lindsey always gets me into trouble ;-)

Got some newborn cuddles in...

Loving me some cuddle time with my youngest favorite guy...Mr. Beckett!  He was 4 months old in the picture.  Everytime I held him, he would just sleep in my arms for hours!  I loved it!  And here Heidi & I were at Cheesecake factory...YUM!  Check out the best cheesecake ever....

Oh delicious, heaven in my mouth...Snickers cheesecake was ahhmazing!!!

The boys played & played & played...

 

Ack!  Can you believe that Connor played with that Husky football???  And what is worse is it was on the morning of Apple Cup!  And the really bad part, I sadly played with it too!  But no worries, my nephew is now the proud owner of a COUGAR football ;-)  And I made a bet with my nephew & lost, we bet 3 candy bars that the Cougs would beat the Huskies, sadly I lost and I had to pay up.  I bought the biggest candy bars I could find!!!

The kids played...

Dylan loved his Aunt Amy...

She couldn't leave the room without him.  In fact, pretty sure she did all the cooking with him in her arms!

Connor got tortured...

 

Dylan got his hair all 'pretty'...

And yes, I think he is even hugging a baby!

Papa dressed up like Santa and freaked out both Connor & Dylan.  Connor went running and Dylan jumped into whose ever arms were closest, happened to be Colby---luckily, he found a new pal for the night.

Went to see some Christmas lights, and there just happened to be dinosaurs...

We even made it to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium one cold day...

Drove to Yakima...

Clear on the way over, hardly any snow.  Boys slept the entire way, seriously quickest drive ever.  It was so nice.

 Boys played a lot in Yakima and had fun seeing lots of family & friends!

 We headed to the Nile to go see Meme Charlene & Pepe Lyle and a little snow...

Such a beautiful day there!

And one day Brianna & I decided to have lunch at Olive Garden and check out some local wine tasting rooms.  So fun!  We started at the Sparkle Room, which is sparkling wine tasting.  Delicious!!!  Then we headed to a few other wine tasting bars in the area and had some delicious snacks as well.  Such a fun afternoon.

 The bottles before they were corked, they still had the yeast in them.

An unused cork, it was SO big!  Pretty cool.

And these bottles had the yeast removed and were properly corked, just needed aged longer and labels put on.

Thanks Traveri Cellars and The Sparkle Room for some amazing sparkling wines...we had a blast sampling 4 different sparkling wines and got to see their production room, which I loved!  I love seeing the process and how things are made.  So fun.

There were more wines to try...

It is safe to say that Brianna & I had fun.  In Yakima, no less :)

Drive back to Seattle was pretty quick too, a little more snow, as it started snowing hard on top of the pass,  But it was beautiful.  And again, the boys slept through it all.

The flight back to Dallas went pretty smoothly too, despite the long line for baggage check (must be the crazy people that have like 7 bags to check!), a delayed flight, a bumpy ride, but other than that, I had two happy and well-behaved little boys.  We had a quick stop in Albuquerque.  The view was absolutely amazing...

The photo just doesn't do the view justice.  I was slow getting my camera out, I had 2 little boys 'helping' take the picture, and I had to put it in manual and turn off the flash, which means holding the camera absolutely steady.  And did I mention it was a very bumpy plane ride?  Especially when we landed.

But, this view was pretty cute too...

We had a great time visiting the beautiful Pacific Northwest!  It was great to spend time with family & friends!

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Vineyard 5k Race

For the first time, I set a goal for my race.  I was determined to run the 3.1 miles in under 26 minutes.  My last 5k race I completed in 29 minutes, so I was hoping to shave off 3 minutes.  A pretty big goal. 

Well, even though the start was a little intimidating and there were 2 HUGE hills, I made my goal!!!  I crossed the finish line in an amazing 24 minutes and 25 seconds!!!  Woohoo!  I was SO excited.  And amazed.  Apparently, free wine tasting is a great incentive for me to run real fast ;-) 

Here are the results:  Time of 24:25, which is 7:52 pace.  I came in #119 out of 1,218 people.  #5 in my age group.  Very happy with my results today.  It was a fun race.  I ran with Becky again for a majority of the race.  Started with Lesley, but got lost at the starting line.  Since it was an out and back course,  I was able to see her and cheer for her on the course.  And I saw 2 other friends out today as well, Maurea and Heather!  So fun to see so many friends out running!  I love it!!!

And of course, there are pictures...

Pre-race photo with the grape vines in the background.  It was a chilly morning.

 

 The start...holy moly there were a lot of people!!!

You can kind of see me crossing the finish line...

And then after the race, having a little wine...we earned it!

Andy & Becky had invited us over to their house after the race for some amazing smoked pork!  What a great lunch.  So, we bought a bottle of Sweet Texas Red from Delaney Vineyards to have with lunch.  It was like a red dessert wine.  Yummy!  Lunch was great, wine was good (so was the beer), and company was amazing!

Becky & I even took a quick dip in their pool.  I mean, who could resist this...

What a fun day!  And thanks to my 3 favorite boys who came to cheer me on!  Love you lots!  I am a little sad that I don't have another race next weekend.  Today was the fourth weekend of races in a row.  I think I am officially addicted ;-)

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