Christmas in the Northwest

The holidays are always my favorite time of the year.
Spending Christmas in the warm Arizona sun last year was...different to say the least. So this year, I was excited to be back in the beautiful Pacific Northwest for Christmas. It was our year to be with the Manchak clan so we spent it with Joel's parents and his sister Joy. It was a lot of fun.

Pillow cases we made

Christmas is such a special time of year, spent with family, serving others and remembering Christ's birth and we really tried to focus on that this year. We decided as a family that we wanted to set aside some money to create baskets filled with some different "treats and prizes" to deliver to a few local women's shelters. The weeks leading up to Christmas we collected all of the items we would need including toothpaste, shower gel, soap, socks, hair ties, paper plates, tin foil etc. We also spent many hours sewing Christmas pillow cases to deliver to the shelters. After making about 20 pillow cases, we are definitely pros and I think if I never made another one for the rest of my life it would be too soon! We had such a good time doing it though. When we delivered the baskets to the women's shelter they were all so grateful and happy it was such a good feeling to know we could help make their Christmas just a little brighter. The fun didn't stop there. We had also decided that we would all help Meals on Wheels deliver Christmas meals to some of their families.

Santa Hats

We decided to start the day of right, we got up early Christmas morning and went to breakfast at iHop. After breakfast, upon request, everyone put on their Santa hats and we delivered Meals on Wheels... It was wonderful and a lot of fun! The people we delivered Christmas dinners to were so grateful and sweet. It was a wonderful experience I will always remember.

Around noon, we went home to have our Christmas morning It was wonderful and I loved elongating the magic of Christmas. We opened presents, face timed with my family, built gingerbread houses, watched Christmas movies and skyped my baby brother on his mission in Peru. It was an unforgettable holiday season filled with lots of love and laughter!

Gingerbread Houses 

Elder Woodburn from Peru 

A festive Puppy!

End of the Year Recap 2012

I cant believe another year has already flown by. I wanted to do a quick recap of some recent events:

November:
You've just won a new CARpet! I wish...We purchased another car, meet Willow! Up to this point, we have somehow made it work with just the one car but recently it has been getting really tricky to coordinate and with the other car paid off it seemed like a good time. Enter Willow, she's a 2010 Hyundai Sonata and we really like her.

Joel's 26th Birthday:
Man we are getting old! 26 already, I can hardly believe it. We had a crazy night out on the town. PF changs for dinner, that's as crazy as we get...it was delicious! PF Changs is one of the few places that is gluten free "friendly" so we seem to find ourselves there often, which isn't such a good thing because they really aren't cheap. It was a fun night though and a good birthday for Joel. We opened presents and I even got him to pose for a picture. What a good boy. He might be getting wiser with age!

 December:
Jocylin and Arylnn came to visit for a bit. We had a lot of fun. It was Arylnn's first time playing in the snow. Isn't she the cutest?

 Can't forget this sweet puppy. She is so dang cute which really has saved her many times in her short life so far. Like when she ate a pair of my flip flops or destroyed my homemade photobook or even the time she ate the TV remote! Yes, she is one of a kind that's for sure. Joel and I often ask ourselves how we got quite so lucky!

The remote, after Lucy partook

Update

Life in Spokane is good. Joel and I have been busy working and spending time with family which is always fun! Joel is still trying to get things up and running with his new career venture and I have been very busy subbing every day! We are enjoying the snow and catching up with old friends. Here are a few pictures from recently:



Pumpkin Patch with Daniel & Alicia



And yes, that is a ginormous tree laying just a few feet from my
 in-laws home! Scary!!

Bon Voyage

 Joel and I have been wanting to go on another cruise for sometime now so when my parents said that they were planning on one this Fall we decided to go for it. We went on a 7 night cruise out of Long Beach, CA to the Mexican Riviera. We stopped in Cabo San Lucas for 2 days and Puerta Vallarta for 1. We had a blast and got to do so many fun shore excursions. The first day in Cabo, Joel and I went on an ATV tour through the grass hills and along the beach. It was absolutely beautiful. We each had our own ATV which was scary for me since I didn't know how to drive a semi- automatic and almost rolled backwards down a hill once but we survived and had a ton of fun!!
FYI- Prepare yourself because this post is going to be jam packed with pictures.

 

 

 

The second day in Cabo, Joel and I decided to go parasailing. I had never been before and it seemed like it would be a lot of fun so we went for it. We had a blast. It didn't last nearly as long as I would have liked but we enjoyed it. When we finished parasailing we met up with my parents at the beach and spent the rest of the day there with them, swimming, sunbathing and shopping. It was way more fun than I could ever tell you about so here's some pictures.

 

 

On our day in port in Puerta Vallarta, Joel, my dad, and I all went ziplining. (mom was not a fan so she stayed on the boat and enjoyed the peace and quiet) This was probably my favorite shore excursion. There were a total of 12 different ziplines through the beautiful canopy. We had so much fun and the views were absolutely breath taking :) Again, pictures will show more than I could ever explain.

 

 

Upside down- no hands! Very Scary!

 

 

The days at port and shore excursions are great but the cruise ship is pretty amazing as well. Our boat had 2 pools, a water slide, like 5 hot tubs, an outside movie theatre, a casino, comedy club, basketball court, mini golf course, and buffet after buffet. We had a lot of fun on the ship as well. Here are a few random pictures from the trip:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had the best of times! I am so grateful that we were able to go on this trip. A big thanks to my brothers and sister back at home who puppy sat Lucy for us... what an adventure that was;)

We had so much fun and I will always treasure this special trip with my parents and husband :)

 

 

One Year Down!!

Today marks one year that my favorite little brother has been gone on his mission! One year ago today my family drove down to Provo, Utah to drop Tyler off at the MTC. He has been serving a mission in Piura, Peru for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the past year and will return this time next year!! I cant believe that he has been gone a year already. I miss him everyday and cant wait for this next year to fly by. He is such an amazing missionary and I know the people of Peru have truly been blessed by his service. Keep up the good work little bro, we'll see you in a year!!

One year ago, the night he was set apart as Elder Woodburn

 

 

Moving Day

This post is painful just to write; remembering back on this day makes me cringe.
So I'll give you just a brief rundown... We had been contemplating moving back to Spokane for some time now and although the idea was out there we really didn't make up our mind for sure until like 3 weeks before we were to go... crazy? yes, I am aware! Being off of school, I was home everyday with nothing better to do than pack. So I packed the majority of our apartment. Joel's mom, Ann, came down to visit and helped us pack and move as well which was a huge relieve.
Now this is the painful part, we (and by we, I mean Joel) decided that it would be best for us to get everything packed up during the day on Thursday so that we could get on the road as soon as possible. Sounds like a great plan right? Not so much, we had a few friends who had agreed to come over after work to help us move and doing it during the day would mean that we would be moving it by our self, down 3 flights of stairs, in the middle of the day, in the heat of the Arizona summer, brilliant I know!
 The 3 of us, had a pretty sweet set-up where Ann brought all the boxes to the top of the stairs. Joel brought them to the bottom of the stairs and then I carried them to the truck. We sold a lot of our big furniture on craigslist prior to moving so it mainly was a lot of boxes. It seriously was one of the longest days of my life and there were moments where I thought I might die from heat exhaustion but thankfully we made it and will never have to do that again!
After scrubbing down the apartment and having the carpets cleaned we didn't really have a place to sleep so... (enter brilliant idea #2) we decided to get in the truck and begin our journey. So after working all day, non stop in 100+ degree weather, we got in the moving truck to begin our 12 hr. drive to my parents house in Westpoint, Utah. Keep in mind Lucy has been along for this entire adventure and is very confused by everything but did so well as we were driving. Around 6:00 am, Joel and I both were so exhausted so we decided to just pull over for an hour to sleep. As luck would have it, Lucy decided this would be a great time to wake up...devil dog! We ended up sleeping in shifts so one of us could walk around outside with Lucy. This trip was pure madness but we did survive and surprisingly still even liked each other when we arrived in Spokane 3 days later :) HOORAY!
We are excited to be back in Spokane but will definitely miss all of our family back in Arizona :) Especially these little guys...