I came on to add a cake recipe I want written down, and honestly thought I’d updated this somewhat recently. I was mistaken! So to get up to date quickly- Halloween was great. We lucked out again with no rain. Luke wanted to go to Dave and Buster’s with Jack for his birthday, so we did that. We spent Thanksgiving as our little family unit. We had our whole feast and it was a very chill day. I met up with Meghan in Vegas for a weekend before Christmas to celebrate her birthday. We saw some shows and had a great time! Christmas was super fun. Everyone was healthy, which is all we could ask for! We did all our usual Christmas activities. The weather was warmer than usual, the kids were bummed we didn’t get any snow. Everyone was happy with their Christmas gifts. We facetimed with family and spent the day eating and hanging out. We baked a lot over break.
In January Cirque du Soleil came to Seattle, so we took the kids. Joe and I love their shows and were glad the kids got to see one. My dad flew out the week before Joe’s birthday. We did some touristy things and had fun hanging out. Joe and I spent a night at the Salish Lodge for his birthday. We went to the spa and had massages before checking in to our fancy spa level room. We had dinner at the hotel, and even though the service wasn’t great, we had a great time. We had breakfast at the hotel before heading back to town. The kids and I took dad up to the top of the space needle, it was a beautiful day and we had great views.
For our 12th anniversary, the whole family took a trip to San Francisco for a week. Our anniversary lined up with the kids mid-winter break. We stayed at an Airbnb in the cutest town, Mill Valley. It was just north of Sausalito. We had a snafu with our rental car and ended up with a ridiculously massive truck that we were stuck with the whole week. I wasn’t able to drive it, Joe handled it like a champ. We drove an hour out past Berkeley one night to have dinner at Flemings. The kids were excited to go to a fancy dinner, and they were great. It was a long dinner, but we had a great time. The food met all our expectations and more. It was very rainy the first few days. We went on a ferry to Alcatraz, it was basically monsooning. We wore ponchos and made the best of it. Touring the prison was pretty cool, the kids weren’t freaked out by it at all.
We hung out in Sausalito and the surrounding areas mostly. We really loved our little town. We could walk from our Airbnb to a ton of shops and restaurants. We went to Muir woods on a really pretty day, and there were barely any other people there. We did a two mile loop through the woods, the redwoods were very impressive. We really liked our Airbnb, we would definitely go back again. When we left SF, Joe flew to LA. He left Bungie and is starting a new job. He was able to start in person, he’s going to be there until next week. I’m very excited for him, I think this new job is going to be so great for him.
So now we’re caught up again! I left out a ton I’m sure, but mainly I wanted to catch up so I could get to the important stuff, like the carrot cake recipe I need to save! Ha. Other updates….the kids have been taking guitar lessons since January, and they both really like it. Joe plays on his guitar with them, and it’s adorable. We’ve been working with a contractor for what feels like ages, and we’ve finally signed the contract to start our remodel of the playroom into a master bedroom! It’s going to be a huge process. Our house is going to be a wreck for the next three to five months, but it will be so worth it when it is done!
Rachel's Red Kitchen 