Palm Springs Holiday

Another family tradition...we spent the week between Christmas and New Year's in Palm Springs.

I think we probably hiked every peak in the valley. Such is the lot of being born (or marrying) into the Robinsons. Mike loves it because it brings his hidden outdoorsy streak out. We awarded him "trek leader" for over half of the hikes. Oh so funny.

PS. We also found out Austin and Rachel just got engaged! Congrats!

The bonus prize we received out of the Palm Springs trip is that we completely forgot that we had to return to a Chicago winter.

The tradition lives on...

Surfing on Christmas day

This was the main reason Mike didn't complain to much about being in CA for Christmas (instead of back home where they were getting slammed with perfect skiing snow).

It was a great day...the waves were "perfect" (aka big enough to ride, but not too big to scare me out of the water). I really am not that good. Mike has learned fast though, and pretty soon he's going to be passing me up. I keep telling my dad that we've created a monster...

Annie's Bachelorette Party

We had Annie's bachelorette party while I was in California. FUN.

Happy soon-to-be wedding Annie!

I had to put this picture to show how adorable Annie's fiance is. Here we are decorating cupcakes before the party. What a cutie.

Christmas in Chicago

We have been cramming in hang-out time with our favorite friends before we leave Chicago for warmer weather. Here is a sampling of our adventures.

1. Dinner @ Volare with Chicago GSB friends

2. Christmas lights at Daley Plaza (aka: the square with the giant Picasso sculpture) with Shanny and John

3. 1st Annual Featherstone Friends Christmas Party and white elephant gift exchange.

Note: We were heartbroken we weren't going to be at the real Featherstone Christmas Party (where the white elephant gift exchange is more of a battle than a game) and we had to have one on our own. We made the cupcakes.

Mike just loves his new tie (his White Elephant gift). If you can't tell, it's a picture of Santa golfing with his reindeer. Where else would you get a tie that cool?

The Feathie Cabin

Thanksgiving at the Featherstone Cabin was hilariously fun. In our quiet Chicago apt I almost forget how much fun & adventure it is hanging out with the Feathies. The first picture is Mike holding baby Emmie, Jon and Shae's new baby. She is the first grandkid and she got a lot of attention; there was always a long list of people wanting to hold her. The second picture is the Feathie kids out for a spin in the Golf Cart. I told you they're crazy! But we love their craziness.

Here are mom and dad Feathie who made sure we ate better over Thanksgiving than we ever eat in Chicago. When we got back to Chicago we had to go on a fruit-&-veggies-only diet for a day to make up for it!

We gave baby Emmie her gift over Thanksgiving (since we are going to CA for Christmas). We decided to be creative and make a few gifts. Here is a pic of one of the gifts for her future room.

Christmas is coming...

Christmas is coming and we can't wait. We (especially Mike) are major Christmas fans. We put up our tree in November. We're going to CA for most of December so we put it up early so we could enjoy it while we are here.

My favorite part of our tree are the ornaments Mike and I made last year. We made them out of black and white pictures.

New paintings

I just finished two new paintings. Mike and I hung them last night.

Also, thanks Featherstone family for the birthday flowers. I've decided I always need fresh flowers when I paint. They smell so great.

Birthday

I don't think I need to comment much on my birthday. Suffice it to say I got really really sick and didn't get to enjoy it. But the night before (Fri) we went out with school friends to dinner, and the night after (Sun) we had some of our church friends over. So overall I guess it turned out okay. Thanks for everyone who cheered me up!

Happy Halloween

Our friends had a Halloween party Friday night. Our ward party was last night, but we didn't take any pictures because we were too busy running everything. But man, you've never seen such a great caramel apple stand!


Here are pictures from Friday night.



Here is the greek goddess with the GSB student (Mike came late due to a recruiting event)...

Boston & the Harvard Invitational

The winning Chicago GSB volleyball team!

We went to Boston last weekend for the Harvard MBA Volleyball Invitational. Mike played for the University Chicago, who came in second. We played surprisingly well until the very end. Chicago beat (in order of games played) Harvard, Wharton, MIT (barely), but then lost to Kellogg in the very last game. Mike was so upset they lost in the very last game to their own cross-town rivals.

We stayed in Cambridge with Katie and Christian (Erin's cousin) who were so sweet to let us sleep on their floor.

Of course since we were in New England, so I convinced Mike to let me order the $42 Lobster Bake at Legal Seafood ("Mike, you have to get seafood while in New England"). Keep in mind, the Lobster Bake is this GIANT pile of clams, oysters, and lobster.

I have never had most of these seafood items before. I took one bite and it was disgusting. It was so gross having to pick up a whole lobster to dig for its meat. It's like a real animal with eyes and antennae. Yuck. I pushed my plate away and refused to eat any more. So guess who ended up eating my giant $42 plate of seafood in addition to his own food...

Hopefully Mike wasn't too mad that I just wasted $42 bucks because I told him "Think how much money you're saving in the long run--I'll never order this again!" So Mike left overly full, I left hungry, but we were both happy campers (hey, I didn't have to eat the thing with eyes). Oh, the Legal Seafood saga...

The rest of the time in Boston we hung out with the Robinsons (church, etc), visited our old SLC friends the Whiteheads (we love & miss you guys--I can't believe we didn't get a picture), and walked the Freedom Trail.

My absolute favorite part about Boston is Beacon Hill.

We went to the oldest restaurant in America and ordered clam chowder. Now that's seafood I can eat. Yum.