Tryon walk, 12/26

The weather was gorgeous today, so we took the opportunity to head to Tryon for a crisp morning walk, followed by coffee (and other goodies) from St. Honore in Lake Oswego.

Christmas 2017

This year, Mom joined us for Christmas. The last time she was in the States was in 2008 for our Wedding, so she hadn't seen our house or Pepper. 

Here she is snuggling with Abby and Pepper

and playing on the Oculus Rift

Of course, I also showed her my lab

We also went on the Portland Race Track with Billie and Rod.

The weather was sort-of-friendly, but we did have some cool morning fog

and even some icy rain on Christmas Eve

 

There was the traditional Fondue

And a 12-inch bully stick for Pepper (boy, was he happy!).

Merry Christmas.

2017 wrap-up

It's been a while! Time flies... as always...

October and November found us enjoying the fall foliage in Wilsonville

Kitty sitting Sailor for a few days

and taking the obligatory research group photo 

There was also a lot of snuggling with the furries:

Handsome George!

George relaxing

More of George relaxing

George kneading

Kitty in a box!

Afternoon nap with the furries

Our cutie

Abby discovering my new TicWatch

Tasty??

Christmas snuggles on a new blanket (so soft!)

Pepper on his new dog bed. All curled up and ready to go... nowhere!

Look at those paws!

One of my favorite photos! Pepper and George butt-to-butt and Jan listening to something.

Fashionable!

Snuggles after surgery.

We spent Thanksgiving again at Billie & Rod's. Always good fun with amazing food and a fun photo show!

Maggie being extra cute!

And then the semester was over with Dog Days and the gloriously lit Star Trees.

Imagine Dragons, Evolve Tour 2017

For my birthday Jan surprised me with a trip to Seattle to see Imagine Dragons life in the Key Arena. What a show!!! But I'm getting ahead of myself :).

After my morning lecture I drove back to Wilsonville, we made sure our kitties had enough food until Saturday, and then we settled in for the 3.5-hour drive to Seattle. 

The hotel was nice, and very conveniently located (just a block from the Key Arena!). Jan ordered some pizza for dinner

while I nibbled on an apple ;).

(I had some bread with salami too.)

Off to the Arena!

We were early enough for the two opening acts, K. Flay

and Grouplove.

Both were rather meh. K. Flay has an interesting voice, but for the life of me I couldn't understand a word she was singing. And the music was too "aggressive" for my taste. I knew some of Grouplove's songs (like Tongue Tied and Welcome to your Life), and I enjoyed listening to those. The rest of the songs they played, though, wasn't quite my cup of tea. That's OK; they're just the opening acts ;)!

Now, Imagine Dragons was a whole nother league! What a show! We were super close (thanks for the great tickets, Jan!!), and it was a lot of fun to see the joy the group has when playing their songs. Great light effects, too. Overall, an amazing experience!

We tried to go up the Space Needle on Saturday morning, but they had just recently changed their hours to 10 am (instead of 9).

Since we were too early and didn't want to wait that long we decided to grab a coffee and head up to the roof of our hotel instead. Not quite as high, but a nice view nevertheless! Awesome trip :)!