A Few Photos of the Snow

Happy Halloween!

Our collection of carved pumpkins. If you look closely, in the upper left there appears to be something in the window.
A ghost? Nope, a Morgan. 

Fall Fun Day...Weekend

A couple of years back I wrote about our tendency to try and find a weekend during the fall to head out to a pumpkin patch or some place with fun fall activities. We've been doing this for as long as I can remember. And by that, I mean like 9 years. 2011 was no exception. In fact, we amped it up this year and not only hit a pumpkin patch but also headed across the North Cascades Highway to Winthrop to take in some fall activities over a long weekend. Here's some photos and sometimes snarky comments:

I went with a pear shaped pumpkin this year. Should make carving fun. 

Tonja's catch. More traditional, for once. 

And the obligatory hold the camera at an arm's distance and smile picture. I think we have one of these from every year we've visited the pumpkin patch.

What!? Make your own scarecrow for $3! Who wouldn't do this?

Attempting to give our scarecrow rugged good looks. As you'll see, my artistic ability falls short, once again. 

Tonja making sure our scarecrow is dressed to the nines. Jeans and a flannel shirt. It's what all the cool scarecrow kids are wearing these days. 

Tonja and Leroy (yes, we named him) enjoying a cup of coffee.
We weren't able to provide him with a straw hat and some hands until we got home. 

Leroy got to ride in the trunk. Good thing we didn't get pulled over by the cops, as it might of been a little awkward, if they approached the back of the car.
No officer, that's not a body. Just a scarecrow. 

We rented mountain bikes and went for an awesome ride. 

I realize we're not riding our bikes in either of these photos, we did actually do about a ten mile ride, which included some interesting single track trails.  I've never really done much mountain biking, but I utterly enjoyed this. It was so much fun getting a little speed and trying to jump over roots and rocks. It reminded me of riding my bmx bike around the neighborhood when I was a kid. So mountain biking is very similar to riding a bmx bike around for fun, but is perfectly acceptable for a 32 year old to do. Hmmm, I may have to look into getting a mountain bike.  

Patterson Lake from the mountain bike trail. I only almost fell off my bike into the lake once. 

We took a canoe across the lake the following day. As you can see the water was like glass. So peaceful. 

Now that's a scare crow. This is actually outside the Methow Valley Brewery in Twisp, WA.  Of course, we had to stop at a brewery during our trip. Actually, we stopped at two during the trip. 

And finally we have this. The scarecrow police. To protect and serve...scare crows. 

2011...Not the year of the blog.

It's clear that 2011 has not been a blogging year for me. Why? Many a reason. Too busy. Bored with writing. I can only post so many dog pictures. Writer's block. I can only post so many pictures of beer or me drinking beer or me looking hungover from beer. My posts aren't as funny as they are in my head. I've been self censoring myself. The Blogger interface is terrible. I can only be so irrelevant for so long. I was crushed when my one follower outside the state of WA stopped following me.  I spend too much time on computers as it is....blah blah blah blah...

But, like an old family photo album that's been sitting in the bottom of a closet that the cat's been peeing in, I decided to blow the dust off this blog, despite the smell. I spent a little time going through past posts and have decided I think it's worth attempting to maintain this blog in some shape or form. It's fun to look back on. Some posts are interesting to me. Some posts make me laugh. Some posts make me cringe. Some posts I don't understand. But, it's probably good to blow the combwebs out of the part of my brain that hurts when I blog, write or attempt humor. As it's one of the few non-work related creative outlets I have. And I've felt a little like a blob of non-creative goo as of late...

More Morgan...

Writer's block...so here are a few more Morgan photos.

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Morgan and Jensen hanging out

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Las Vegas

BBH goes to Vegas 2010.

As we grow older it seems to get more and more difficult to organize trips, yet alone trips with our friends. So, it was a pleasant surprise when we managed to get a group of 11 friends together earlier in November during Veteran's Day weekend for a trip to Las Vegas. I've only been to Vegas once before, but I really enjoy the uniqueness of the place. Here's a few highlights of the trip. And yes we may have consumed a few adult beverages during the trip as some of these photos indicate.

To start the trip off right a few of the group gathered at our house for a little breakfast before our 10 am flight to Vegas.

There may have been a little something special about our OJ on this particular morning.

Since we had such a large group, we opted to rent a limo from the airport to the hotel. For this size of a group it didn't cost that much more than a shuttle. And even better was the fact that the limo driver was kind enough to take us by In and Out Burger to grab some lunch. So, we ended up eating burgers and fries with champagne in the limo. To be honest, champagne doesn't pair very well with burgers and fries.

After checking in at the New York, New York hotel we found some time to check out the city. The weather was great. Sunny and upper 60's.

One of my favorite parts of Vegas is that you can walk around the entire city with a drink in your hand. A constant reminder that you're on vacation.

Something about Vegas just makes you smile.

All you can eat crab legs!

We stopped by Ellis Island Brewery and Casino and enjoyed the $7.99 steak special which includes steak, potato, salad, side, and a 2o oz beer. A solid deal. And the steak was actually pretty good.

I'm not sure who does these ranking or how many breweries are in Nevada, but I have to say the beer was pretty good.

Now that I work in the beer industry, I'm required to do research on new breweries.

We also spent some time by the pool in the sun...and yes we are from Seattle.

The rest of trip involved eating a lot, dancing, a little gambling and just hanging out and checking out the sights with good friends. I won't bore you with the many blurry photos we have of all that. But, it was so much fun to be able to get a group of friends together for a weekend. As life speeds up, we all realize that the opportunity to do these types of things will become less and less.

Last photo before heading to the airport to go home.