My personal treasure chest

Making Morgan Garay my own person hero?...

Remember how it took me 7 months to get my permits for the Peruvian collections and how I didn't get my samples until 3 months after I got home? And then how some of the samples didn't make it into the package, and since the export permit was a one time deal, sat mouldering in Lima ever since? Well, my darlin Morgonian went to Peru to visit his family over Christmas and through the miracle of modern technology (still doesn't save the stomach lining though, ouch) I actually managed to get a hold of him, put him in contact with Hector, and get someone here in Davis to venture into the chaos of my office to find the US import permit (brave Carl!), on New Years, on a college campus... well you get the idea. Miracles do happen though, and Morgan managed to get the samples, pass through customs, and mail them to me here. So, it may not look like much, but a big part of my PhD hinges on these scruffy bags of flowers. Yea Morgan!

By the way, I know I haven't posted for ages, and unfortunately this trend is probably going to continue. I have about 1 years worth of work to do in a measly 6 months (or is it 5 now?) and for some odd reason I am panicking. If I go on fun weekend adventures, I will try to take pictures and post them, but alas... I will see you in August, when the world ends!

Fun in the snow

Rinley and I love playing together, and he especially loved the snow. While I love my camera (obviously), I can't do this video thing. So, I have to wait till lovely people like Katherine capture stuff like this for me.

Diana

I had lunch with Karen's good friend Diana. We went to Powells (yippie!), had lunch at Jakes (yum), and had a wonderful time. Then, after she left I was walking through town and walked past a movie theater. An idle perusal of the showing make me squeal with joy: Holie's movie, The Auteur was playing in ten minutes! Of course I had to see it. weeeeeeeeeeeee

The happy Knox Hunt Family

I spent a lot of this holiday languishing at Katherine and John's house.

Darling Isabella!
Though sometimes she was rather more gross than charming.

Happy group though.

Mischievous kid.

She loved to make us sit down stand up, fall down... with varying forms of encouragement.

Singing with Momma

Charmed the socks off of me though.

Wasn't too sure about the snow. If she touched it, she screamed that it hurt and made Daddy clean it off.

And I have to say absolutely adorable!

Don't you agree?

Portland Christmas

After Christmas at Dad's house, Keith and I joined up with Mom.
Mom Larry and I went to the Anistasiadis clan for a lovely evening.

Lots of music

Mom and Larry

and more music

weeeee

Estacada Christmas

I got a crash course in snow driving trying to get to my Father's house. It took me over 3 hours. I only lost control 2 or 3 times, though nothing dramatic. Until I reached the driveway. And this is what greeted me. If you look close, you can see all the trees down blocking the way. I made it up to the first tree, caught my wheel on the branch and spun there. Backed up, moved the tree, tried again. 3 or 4 tries later, I gave up hope of making it up the hill. Dad had to tow me home. Made it all the way to Estacada, but got stuck in the driveway.

Incredibly beautiful though.

Home sweet home

When that snow came off the roof, man did it shake the place!

Kendra's Granddaughter Kimberly and I went sledding on the infamous driveway. Rinley loved chasing us.

He would race up the hill and wait impatiently for us to trudge back up.

I used to pretend these woods off the driveway were haunted. Regardless, they look pretty cool in the snow.

It was fun to see Kendra's 3 granddaughters again. Here are Mindy and Genny, the oldest and youngest.

More prettiness

Unfortunately, the power went out. You may wonder why I have so many pictures of snow. Well, I had to get out of the house as often as possible. 3 teenage girls for for 3 days in a house without power?

And with that many girls (add their mom, aunt, grandmother and me), toilets filled pretty quick. We had a pretty efficient system of melting snow going.

Our crazy snowman and its kangaroo/cat/dog/whatever.

I took a little walk down to my favorite place on this earth.

Used to seeing it in the summer though, snow is odd.

beautiful... but odd.

Rinley loved it
I got thoroughly wet.

Damn I miss being a country girl!

Snow in Forest Grove

When I got to Portland, the roads were almost clear. In the next few days, it snowed like crazy. Then there was freezing rain. Rinley could almost walk on top of it.
sort of.

We took Bella sledding. She didn't really like it.

She did like walking in Daddy's shoes though!

And then it snowed some more.

My car was totally buried.

It took some serious effort to dig it out and get the chains on.

If you look close, you can see the layer of ice sandwiched in the layers of snow.