Blast From the Past: Winter Break 2009

Go all the way back to the winter of 2009. I was a senior in college completing my last semester of classes. After winter break, I would begin student teaching, and then I would be completely finished with school. Dan was completing his first year at the United States Air Force Academy at the Preparatory School, and he was planning on visiting his family in Oregon (near Portland) for Christmas. I had never met them, but he invited me to join him and get to know his family.

We packed a lot into two weeks, and I saw a LOT of Portland. We also took a trip to Seattle while we were there, as I had never been before. We had a lot of fun spending so much time with each other, and it was great getting to meet Dan's mom, aunt, and uncle.

Instead of explaining everything, I'm going to let the pictures tell the story. I will caption them with what we were doing at the time. :)

We went and chopped down a real Christmas tree... that was an interesting experience, but I will probably never have a real one again. They make me a sneeze. A lot.

Goofing around at the house...

We saw Mt. Hood. It was gorgeous!

Multnomah Falls was really pretty, but it was SO COLD there! 

We found this at Multnomah Falls and couldn't resist a picture! 

Isn't it GORGEOUS? :)

Of course we had to pose in front of it.. :) 

Chilling at the house one night...

We went to Downtown Portland and found a natural amphitheater. It was really cool because everything echoed! 

Yep, it was fun posing with all the weird stuff there!

I don't even know what to say.

Taken in Downtown Portland :)

Dan took me to the most amazing vegetarian restaurant EVER! It's all Chinese food with NO MEAT, but they have the most realistic mock meats, and I got to thoroughly enjoy some "beef" and broccoli! :) 

The sign on their door :) 

We went to Starbucks, and Dan told them my name was Cupcake... so they called it out when our drinks were ready! :) 

From VooDoo Donuts! 

From VooDoo Donuts!

We drove to the Oregon Coast, and it was so cold, windy, and rainy (so don't mind our faces), but it still felt neat being in an ocean in December.

From the Oregon Coast...

We took this picture on the lightrail train thing on the way to see Beauty and the Beast live.. it was SO GREAT! :)

We drove up to Seattle for New Year's Eve :)

And of course we spent HOURS at the Museum of Flight. It was actually really cool!

Inside the museum

I made Dan pose in front of the planes!

He's posing with his dream woman, Amelia Earhart! 

Giving her a little kiss! Aww! haha

He wanted to kill me after posing him for this picture! :)

Look, everyone! I'm a pilot too! ;) 

That night (New Year's Eve), we saw CAKE in concert. It was really cool ringing in the new year in a different type of place! Balloons were everywhere! 

On New Year's Day, we visited the Space Needle...

And took a picture all the way from the top! (I really wasn't impressed at all. My whole life I had pictured it being huge. It was a pretty big let down seeing how small it really is...)

Afterward, we had time to kill, so we went to a science museum, and that was a BLAST! 

The giant tables were so funny...

And last but not least, we visited the ORIGINAL Starbucks in Seattle. It was neat to grab a coffee from there and then chill in the biggest bookstore I have ever seen. (And did I mention that I had to fit all the new books I bought into my luggage? Oops!)

Well, this post closes out 2009. I still have a long way to go before I am all caught up, but I am making progress! :)

Birthday Crafts for My Mom's 50th

Since July is nearing an end, I decided I better post this while I still can. My mom turned 50 on July 7th, and I wanted to give her an amazing birthday present for it. Since we all know that teachers don't make much money, I decided to try my hand at making her something she would love even more than anything I could buy. But first, I had to give her a gag gift, right? After all, she did turn 50! I made both things, but the second gift, the one with the photos, is the meaningful one. Check them both out!

Gag Gift -- 49 Sucks, but 50 Rocks!

First, I bought glass bowls and painted on them: 49 sucks... but 50 ROCKS! 

Then, I put one of those weird foam flower things inside the "49" bowl...

I counted out 49 suckers...

... and stuck them in! :)

Doesn't it look cool? :)

Then, I filled the "50" bowl with 50 rocks...

... and the finished product! 49 SUCKS, but 50 ROCKS! 

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Okay, so that was the FUN, silly gift, but here is the special one. I decided to collect several pictures of my brother, Derek, and me from when we were growing up. I made sure to have an equal amount of photos of JUST Derek, JUST me, and a good amount of us together. I made them square by putting them on Instagram (on an alternate account so no one had to be bored by these photos) and then ordering them through Snapfish. I made one a little bigger so it could go in the middle. The small photos are 2x2, and the one in the middle is 4x4.

I started with a 12x12 canvas and some printed pictures...

All finished! Yay!

Detail...

That gift took so much time to make, but the supplies were really cheap. I did put two layers of matte Mod Podge on top to ensure that the photos won't fall off of the canvas. I think it turned out great for my first one, and I'm excited to make more like this!