I had a lovely time!

Lexie, Mom, me and Dad at the West Wing restaurant. =)

 I just went home for a few weeks and visited family and friends. To make it extra special, I was able to actually surprise my mom! After about three panic-filled days worrying that somehow she had found out I was coming, it was really wonderful to finally surprise her at dinner! Yep, she cried. A lot. =)

After my secret was out, I had a jam-packed schedule trying to see as many people as I possible could! 

  Of course a visit home wouldn't be complete without a Christmas party reunion at the Olive Garden! After a lot of garlic bread sticks and a lot of laughing, we closed down Starbucks and then sat around at Riverpark Square, drinking coffee and playing with my new camera. Fun fun times!

 Me and my awesome sister Chrissy. =)

Let's meet at Starbucks. =)

My time in Spokane went by crazy fast. On the drive back to Tacoma with Lexie, we decided to go a few hours out of the way and visit our friend Rebekah. The directions to her house were: drive to the middle of no where, then drive one more hour and you're there! It was a very scenic drive and perfect weather!

A photo of part of the 4,700 acre apple orchard where we visited Rebekah. Beautiful! =)

On our way back from the middle of no-where, we headed toward White's Pass over the mountains instead of our usual I-90 route. Maybe it was the really yummy sandwiches, or maybe the Christmas music was turned up a little loud, but we missed a turn and didn't notice that Lexie's GPS had recalculated an alternate route for us. There is no way without modern technology that we would have ever found this windy ice trail of death, or decided to go up it. After about 5.8 miles on this road, we finally found a place to turn around and came back down. And lived. And then backtracked and found a really nice, snow-free road home. Nevermind that our 4 hour drive took a little over 7 hours, quality bonding time with your sister in the car is priceless, right? 

The next day, more friends, more Starbucks, and we decorated Lexie's house for Christmas! Lex was a little bit worried when I took fishing line to her dining room chandelier, but I think we can all agree that this is truly a masterpiece work of Christmas genius.

Merry Christmas!!