Adventures with Mylee

So recently I have been fortunate enough to hang out with one of my favorite people, Mylee.  She recently moved to Chico CA to pursue her dreams of opening a dance studio called Duende Dance Studio. I love the name.  Here's what Duende means... "It comes from inside as a physical/emotional response to music.  It is what gives you chills, makes you smile or cry as a bodily reaciton to an artistic performance that is particularly expressive".  What a great name for a dance studio, right?  Ok, and now here are a few snippets of our adventures.

This is us with our friend Zeek the trucker, receiving our gluten-free, smiley-faced, heart-shaped, snickers n' bananas pancake. Delicious!

A gorgeous view from our chilly California camping expedition.

Thrift store browsing makes for great photo shoots.  And this place called Funky Trunk was Awesome!  The owner, Sharon, makes and re-makes many of the super fun items there. Check it out if you're ever in Chico!

We went on a "find-free-fruit" adventure one day, as there is an abundance of fruit trees in Chico.  This fruit shown above is a persimmon. It was my first time trying one and it was delicious, kinda like a mango.  The boot tree was a bonus, we met the owner (donning a wicked-awesome x-mas sweater) who when asked who we were by her neighbor joked, "I caught these people trying to steal stuff!" When we inquired about the tree she plainly stated her husband was crazy. She was a hoot!

We drove to the Chico Community Observatory where we watched nature and ate burritos from her and Andy's favorite truck.  We saw ducks swimming, dogs running and chasing one another, and teenagers taking photos of each other throwing bigger and bigger rocks in the water while slowly undressing to their boxers.  Thank goodness for Mylees binocs! So big thanks to Mylee and Andy for hosting me and sharing in your adventures!

Christmas in the new year!

So this Christmas I had 3 celebrations. My family in Port Townsend, which includes the mom-prompted, annual family road trip to Wallmart (against my protest and local photo suggestions) for family photos (see below).  The rest of us gently protest and groan, playing our parts, but always have a fun time.  Our holiday is never short of heaps of food and fun-poking, and for gifts... enough socks to warm a swarm of millipedes.

One tradition we have is to take a photo of  "the kids", meaning my brother (Duane), sister (Darcy) and I in a sort of totem-pole pose.  It's been pretty fun to see the same pose over the years.  Here's this years.

After my family Christmas, Wren and I went to Hoodsport to be with his family in a cabin on the Hood Canal with snow and everything!  We did 2 puzzles, and various crafty fun things.  One of the fun craftys was making cards for people with their name and its meaning.  Here's an example.

I also was super excited to know that Wren still had his xmas card from a few years back that I gave him, and since I have been making comics and posting them here, I thought I should share this one!

All in all it was a pretty great Christmas. =)