A bit of travel and a wonderful Christmas

So, we got cabin fever after the bad weather a week or two ago and decided to spend a few days away from home. Jeff and I booked a hotel room in Seaside, and with no babysitter we took the kids along. Jeff says we will never take the kids again. Ariana stayed up till past midnight each night crying and yelling in her crib. It was horrific.
It was a nice stay and a great hotel (Best Western) except for some drunk creeps that were in the hot tub making disturbing comments...they got kicked out later, thank goodness. The staff were extremely courteous.
The days were mostly enjoyable though, if a little tired and cranky. We went to the small aquarium there. I did not feel that it was worth the price to get in, but feeling the seals there was fun. Ariana liked to plead to go feed them again whenever nap or bed time rolled around. We had a wonderful room for a nice price because of the time of year, and Jeff even cooked me a dinner in the small kitchenette.
I want to put in a plug for a wonderful place we ate at on the second day. We drove up to Astoria and hiked the Astro tower to fly planes off the top. Then we ate at the best restaraunt ever...Charlie's Chowder and Coffee, or something like that. I had a Wild Salmon salad...it was the best salad I have ever had in my life and it made me remember why salad is one of my favorite foods. I talked Jeff into going back the next day and we ate there again, still delicious.
I must add that our first meal was rather lacking. If you are ever in the area, go to Charlie's on 101 near the large pet store. I would not go back to the burger joint in Seaside that has an Elvis theme... we thought it would be a lot like Jamie's here in Corvallis but the burger was about as thin as a piece of cardboard and yet they still managed to leave parts of it uncooked. The fixings for the burger were okay, but it just left me wishing for something better rather than enjoying my meal. The fries sucked too, and I threw away 3/4 of a chocolate milkshake (unheard of!). But yeah, Charlie's was wonderful. I can't say enough good about it. Go there. (Jeff says their clam chowder is better than Mo's!)

We just had Christmas celebrations today with Jeff's family and mine. It was one of the best Christmas' either Jeff or I have ever had. We are so grateful that our family were willing to come to our house and let us host (and stay late :> ). Thank you all for the thoughtful presents as well!

January 4 will be the start of school for me, January 11th for Jeff. We will be working hard to get ready for another round, but we also have a few holiday plans left in store. We are hoping to go up to the snow with anyone who will go with us! The trip will be geared towards the kids since they can't stay out in the snow as long. We also plan on having our friends over for a breakfast of biscuits before we head out.

I hope everyone is having wonderful holidays and plans for a happy new year!

Strawberry Jam

Jeff and I made and canned some strawberry jam on Saturday on our own for the first time. We just ran out of our last batch from two years ago yesterday and got to open one of our new jars and try it out. I am not sure whether my taste buds are biased by all the work we put in, but it sure tastes good. Hopefully next time we will be a little more prepared (we got a late start and finished after midnight), but we put in the work and it paid off. Only one of our many jars didn't seal. It was fun to hear them pop as we continued to work. I stayed up an extra half hour cleaning sticky red mess off of every surface in the kitchen, and it was rewarding in the morning. Some of our friends traded us a fresh homemade loaf of bread when we gave her a jar, so we got to try our very first taste of the jam on steaming delicious bread, it was wonderful.
What else is going on? My 18 month old has found yet a new way to test me. She has learned how to say no and has put it to ample and excessive use in the last 24 hours. I am used to talking to her, telling her that it is time for a nap or lunch, and not getting a response. Now I am shocked when I say something and Ariana says a forceful "NO!" I am sure I will get used to it, but it has been testing my nerves and patience so far. She even tells me no for some things wants, of course. If I offer her a cracker and I know she really wants a cookie, she will tell me no, then when she sees that it's the only offer she is going to get, she takes it anyway. I always tell people she is getting too smart for me! Between learning how to take her diaper off and realizing when Dad is away, she is certainly testing my abilities.

So, if anyone didn't get pictures still, bug me because they are beautiful. The lady did a really nice job.
We have just been hanging out recently. Jeff is overwhelmed with school and I am overwhelmed with the house. We are really excited about getting our new apartment though. We have already moved some stuff, but it will take a lot more work, especially to make it nice.
Ariana's favorite word right now is "up," which also covers down, in, out, or any other change in position she wants at the time. She has six little chompers and she bit me for the first time yesterday just because she was mad at me for trying to take something from her. So it is not really as easy as they say to take something from a baby.
Of course, she is not really the baby anymore. I am sure you read on my dad's blog that we found out a little while ago that we are having a boy. The great and epic name battle has already begun.
I hope everything is going well with everyone on this rainy day. I am hiding inside.

Pictures

Our professional pictures have arrived, and they are beautiful! Unfortunately, we are too sick to give them to you.
What I thought was just Ariana teething was actually a bug too, so I was not careful enough and now she and I are miserable sick buddies. And of course, getting sick while you are pregnant is always loads of fun (no medicine).
I have an 8 by 10 for my mommy, and wallets for everybody else. Please don't throw darts at them or anything; they were quite expensive. We also bought a CD of all the pictures with the rights, so we plan on putting them up on the family website...someday. If you want your own big one for any weird reason (I honestly can't fathom why anyone would want a big picture of us, but hey) then I am sure Olan Mills would love to sell you one, or you could get the picture file from us and go somewhere cheaper. And don't forget to check out our pictures when we get them up, either on our site or in our house, because we don't have enough copies to give everyone each picture, and there are lots of super cute ones of Ari.
Can't wait to get them to you, right after we feel better of course.