Thanksgiving

In an effort to try and stay caught up on the blog, I told myself I wasn't allowed to mail out my Christmas cards without first posting about Thanksgiving. So-check your mailbox for Christmas cards later this week! :)

We had a great Thanksgiving! It's always been one of our favorite holidays. We both like to cook (and eat!), and so even when it is just the 2 of us for Thanksgiving, we still go all out. This year was even more special because Dustin, Sandra, and the boys came down from Vermont to spend Thanksgiving with us and we got to have some fun cousin time!

The boys (older and younger), had fun entertaining themselves with video games.

They did take a small break from the video games to watch some of the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The weather was gorgeous for this time of year and not too cold which allowed for some relaxing on the deck and backyard football.

Wally & Skittles enjoyed begging for food from new people!

Colin showed the boys how to baste a turkey.

All the food turned out great. Leif said it was so good that we should open a restaurant! He's welcome anytime at our table! HA!

Sandra made pies and homemade whipped cream. YUM!

We are hoping Dustin, Sandra and the boys will be able to come down for Christmas when Colin's parents are here. Kieran is slightly worried Santa won't find him at our house but he said "you can still buy me a present!" Too cute! And we definitely will!

It's November Already!

Wow. It's hard to believe that we are only a couple weeks away from Thanksgiving. This year has gone by so fast. Here's a little catch up on what we've been doing the last couple of months.

In September we went to see Eric Church, Kip Moore,and Justin Moore in concert in Springfield, MA and made a weekend of it. We stayed overnight and went to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. We really enjoyed it. It's no secret that I love love love Duke basketball, and Colin is a Portland Trailblazers fan from his childhood so we had fun seeing all the memorabilia. One of the displays there was a wall of the American flag made out of red, white and blue basketball shoes. It was impressive.

Hockey season has started so we have been busy going to the games to cheer on our Monarchs. We go to every home game, and we try and make it to the away ones that are within a couple hours of us. With the NHL lockout, there are a few players that played on the Stanley Cup winning LA Kings team last year that are back playing with the Monarchs until the lockout is resolved and it has been fun to see them play. Speaking of the Stanley Cup, as season ticket holders for the Monarchs, we got to have our picture taken with it! It was a neat experience and one we won't forget for sure!

We celebrated Colin's birthday in October in Maine. He is finally as old as me again- for another 6 months anyway! Then I'll go back to being his "cougar". lol

Now for the event that I know you've been waiting all year to hear about- The Battersby's Annual Christmas Tree Tagging day. It happened the weekend before Halloween this year. As is our tradition, we went out to breakfast first and then headed off to the tree farm on the first day it was open. It took an hour and a half of searching before we found "the one". We may have to start going to a different tree farm because this one is getting to be slim pickins! The tree isn't as full or "fat" as I like them, but it's still a pretty tree.

We have still been working out, although as of late, we haven't followed our weight watchers "points" so well. All in all, I've lost 60 lbs since March, and Colin has lost around 50. We would both like to lose 20 more. Realistically, with the holidays coming up and all the good food we plan on eating, it's probably not going to happen until after the first of the year-and that's o.k. We are both happy with what we have accomplished so far, and will be glad to just maintain that through the holiday season.

We had family pictures taken for our Christmas card, and also just because we haven't had one taken in forever! We had our friend Meghan take the pictures and she did a fantastic job. It was so much easier to have her take them than to have Colin jumping up and down to reset the button on the camera between every picture. Here are a few of our favorites.

Last week Hurricane Sandy blew through here-literally. I don't know what it is about us and the weather, but after going through 3 hurricanes in Florida in 2004 where our power was out for a week at a time each hurricane, and then the 2008 ice storm in New England that knocked out our power for 8 days, along with other crazy Noreaster storms that blow through here, I have to say I get more than a little stressed anytime I hear of a storm coming our way! We were very fortunate that we didn't lose power through Sandy. We were one of the lucky few. Many of our friends did lose power. I keep reminding Colin that they don't have this problem on the west coast!

Dustin, Sandra, and the boys are coming down from Vermont for Thanksgiving. Lots of yummy food will be consumed and a good time will be had, I'm sure! Colin's parents will be out for Christmas this year and we can't wait to see them. They are going to babysit the dogs for us while we go to Toronto for a weekend to see Colin's beloved Seattle Seahawks play the Buffalo Bills. Wally and Skittles will be spoiled beyond belief (because they aren't already-HA!) and probably won't care if we come home at all!

If you're still reading this, you're a better person than me! I guess we did more in 2 months than I thought! :)

Labor Day Weekend in Vermont

We spent this past weekend in Vermont with Colin's cousin Dustin and his wife Sandra and their boys Leif and Kieran. Colin and Dustin grew up together in Oregon, and somehow they both ended up on the east coast living just 3 hours from each other. We don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like because life gets busy for all of us, but it's always a fun time when we do get together.

Oregon & Idaho

As you probably know by now most of our "vacations" end up being to Oregon and Idaho because that's where our families are. At least once a year there seems to be some sort of event in the family that we go home for. This time it was for my niece Abby's wedding reception.

We flew into Portland as usual because it's cheaper than flying into the small town in Idaho that I am from. Colin's parents live about an hour outside of Portland so we got to spend a couple days with them before driving over to Idaho.

While we were in Oregon we had a bbq with Colin's college roommates and their families. We hadn't seen them since our wedding, so it was fun for me to get to know them and for Colin to relive the "good ol' days". It was a great way to start out our vacation.

We spent a day at Lost Lake with Colin's parents. It's a beautiful lake at the base of Mt. Hood. We rented a row boat and Colin rowed us around the lake. We had a picnic there later that afternoon. It was pretty cold out on the lake that day so I was wearing a sweatshirt most of the time, but for the half hour or so I went without it, I managed to get a sunburn. I think I'm the only person who goes to Oregon and gets a sunburn EVERY time! People think it rains there all the time. Not so!

We made the 6 hour drive to Idaho and had lots going on there. We happened to be in town when there was a 50th anniversary party that was being held for my former bishop and his wife who was my mia maid leader when I was growing up. It was so much fun to get to go and see them and so many others from the old Lewiston 2nd ward. A lot of them didn't know who I was until I told them, but even that was kind of fun! I got to see my friend Kimberly, and her family.

And Kimberly got this great picture of some of our young women leaders. The 2nd on the left is Sister Thornley who was the one celebrating an anniversary. I have such love and fond memories of these women who spent so much time with me when I was a youth. I still want to be just like all of them when I grow up. :) Amazing, beautiful women- all of them!

I got to see my BFF Catrina- although we didn't get to spend as much time together as I would like. It always seems to be that way. We had pizza at our favorite pizza place as is our tradition. We both showed up wearing green. We didn't plan it that way, it just happened. It happens to us quite a lot. It was fun to catch up and see how her kids have grown.

My niece Abby got married. This is her new husband Jake!

This is their baby Gracie

Me and my brother

My nieces and nephews. Of course I couldn't get all 8 of them together for a picture because that would have been too easy!

I also got to see my friend Catherine at the reception. She couldn't make it to the 50th anniversary party the night before, so it was great to catch up with her there.

It was a busy but fun 8 days. 4 of them we spent traveling in the form of driving or flying, but we made the most of the time that we had. We didn't really follow a diet when we were there because there was too much good food that we only get to eat once a year and we needed to take advantage of it! Both of us only gained a couple pounds though. Not too bad considering how much we ate! Now it's back to the gym and back to the diet. I think I need another vacation!

Ziplining

Ever been? Every year Colin's optical engineering work group gets to take the afternoon off and do a group outing. The activities change from year to year, but are usually pretty mellow things like going to a Fishercats or Red Sox game. Well, this year, someone in their group(DEB!), had the bright idea that they should go ziplining because it was on her bucket list. I just want to go on record right now saying that I don't want to do anything else on Deb's bucket list! :)

Anyway, when Colin first told me about this I thought it might be kind of fun. Stupid of me, I know! The night before the big outing, Colin brings home the liability release form that you have to sign before you can go. That's when the nerves started to kick in a little. The fact that I was suppose to sign this paper that would hold the place harmless if they failed to make sure I was buckled properly to the wire that I would be "zipping" down (with nothing underneath to catch me if I fell), somehow just didn't sit well with me. Despite my misgivings, I signed the paper.

We met up for lunch beforehand which was a bad idea looking back on it because my stomach wasn't feeling so great after we were done! A storm was predicted to be coming through, and secretly I hoped that it would show up before we went and that we wouldn't be able to do the ziplining because of the weather. No such luck.

They have you do a little practice run first, only 10 feet or so off the ground, so you get the idea of what you will be doing. Well that didn't seem so bad- but then again, it wouldn't have killed you to fall from that height! Here we are after our practice run, still optimistic about the adventure.

After our practice run, it was on to the real deal. The first line wasn't too bad. Not too high up and not very long in length. "I can do this", I thought. For the second line, we had to go up on a ski lift to get to the top of the mountain. I don't ski and had never been on a ski lift, but I always thought they looked like fun. Guess what? They aren't! I felt like I was going to fall out of that thing the whole way up. I hated it! I was riding with Colin and the 21 yr old summer intern Sam. Sam was a skier so he knew to pull down the overhead bar so I would at least have something to hold onto. Thanks Sam!

I should tell you that Colin and I have always made fun of the "hills" in New Hampshire that the locals call mountains. We are from the west coast where there are actually real mountains. I won't be making fun of the New Hampshire hills anymore though because when you are standing at the top of one and your only way down is to be hooked to a wire with nothing underneath to catch you if you fall while you go "zipping" at speeds of up to 40 mph to the other side, you feel like you are at the top of Everest!

There were 5 lines total I think, and on the worst one you had to climb a spiral staircase to get on a tower (because at 2200 feet we weren't high enough up already)! You couldn't see where this line ended it was that long. There are 2 lines side by side, so 2 people go at a time, one on each line. Colin was always the person on the other line when I went. Did I mention that the people working there all looked to be about 17 or 18 years old and were just there for a summer job? This is who I'm trusting to make sure I am buckled in properly?? Definitely crazy! Anyway, after they get you hooked up to the line, they tell you to "go". Well I was always holding on to the handle for dear life and if you push the handle all the way down, that is what makes you go. So on this super scary line, I accidentally start going before she says "go", and the last thing I hear this 17 yr old say as I start zipping down is "uh oh". What do you mean "uh oh"? NOT what you want to hear when you are a couple thousand feet in the air with nothing underneath you but trees and the hard ground!

Since I'm writing this blog post, I obviously lived to tell about it. There were times I wondered if I was going to though! I'm happy to say that all 12 of us escaped without injury. Here is a picture of us after we finished the course. You can see by my face that I'm a little shocked and just really grateful to have my feet on the ground again!

Remember that storm I was telling you about? Well, just as the last of our group finished the zipline course, they shut it down because the storm was rolling through. If only we had been just a couple hours later...