December 2012

Birthday

Our birthday is December 4th, it's fun to share.... 

we sure celebrated well this year.

Denny's for breakfast, yup free grand slams. awesome.

Olive Garden for dinner, they don't do anything for birthdays, 

but our waiter brought us a load of mints! 

picture from our actual party, 

the candles were "sparky" and a little freaky up so close to our faces

Gift Basket from the Mechams, yummy

The best Birthday chocolate bar.... soooo good. 

Dinner at Red Robin, we got balloons instead of dessert, we already had our fill. 

So yummy, gonna be a yearly thing for sure.

Cable Bridge Run

Swanger Crew all ready to go. 

The kids all did a 5k and Mom & Dad did a 10k.

**Disclaimer: Joseph is NOT wheelchair bound, we do use a wheelchair when traveling and he wanted to do a 5k in his chair, and he wheels most mornings. It's a great freedom for him.**

Joseph on the Bridge

 We did have to run to keep up with him at times. 

The only part he needed help with was the railroad tracks,

 they tried to "buck" him out of the wheelchair.

We finished in 46 min. 

Seaside Oregon

Travel was good and almost uneventful until we were closer to seaside, 

when we actually needed to chain up. 

Valerie and I learned how to put chains on, it wasn't hard. 

The worst part was getting them off, 

Valerie and I were wet and dirty when we arrived at the resort.  

But it was worth it...

View outside our condo. 

We went to the Seaside aquarium, not too exciting but fun.

The seals were so cute, especially when it was feeding time.

The sky was beautiful, this was taken on our walk to the aquarium.

It did rain A LOT one of the days that we were there, this is right off the side of the road.

 We were trying to go to Canon Beach, but the road was flooded.

Joseph at the shipwreck on the beach, fun times were had there. 

We had to hike to get there, quite literally the sand had blown up very high,

 up to the parking lot and beyond.

Astoria Bridge. My first Panoramic.

Seaside was amazing, relaxing, fun and wet. 

Vacations are good, vacations with family are the best.

Christmas Time

we got to spend time with lots of family and lots of relaxing. 

Keeping up our tradition, we went to see the hobbit on Christmas day.

We have been doing this for 4 years now, 

it started the year Joseph was diagnosed blind at Christmastime. 

This makes that memory happier and makes for a fun tradition for us. 

The cat was really insecure, she was very cuddly when we got home. 

She's right up between our heads in this picture, very unusual.

 More scenes with our lovey-dovey kitty, un-posed

She would hop up and snuggle anytime we stopped to sit.

she stuck her paw in while we were holding hands

Sleeping on my chest in the morning

trying to open the door while we were getting dressed.

2012 went out with a bang, literally. 

The back-door neighbors were setting off fireworks, 

totally freaking out the animals. 

No, not little fire crackers but BIG fireworks

 and once they started landing in the backyard

 we called the cops, twice. 

Does that make us old? 

We weren't planning on being up until midnight,

 but when it sounds like your house is being bombed it's hard to sleep.

Not exaggerating, seriously.

So goodbye 2012,

we weren't bff's or anything, 

so see you around. 

2013 please be kind.