europe: london

we were lucky to be able to recently travel to europe for vacation. i was excited. we started in london, moved onto paris, and ended in barcelona.

we met up with this great group of forrests (mom, katie, aaron, & jon) in london where katie is currently living and working (lucky).

katie was a great tour guide and we had many adventures such as the changing of the guard at buckingham palace, an open top bus tour,

fish & chips at the tower of london,

a river cruise down the thames, the london eye,

the churchill museum & cabinet war rooms, hyde park, classic british phone booths,

delicious indian food, and of course big ben.

thanks to katie for letting us completely take over her fabulous flat with heated floors!

new orleans

for our get-out-of-boston-winter get away this year we traveled to new orleans. nola holds a special place in my heart so it was good to go back and be joined by our good friends the cannons.

highlights included a crusier bike tour around the city with a stop at st. roch's cemetery.

three sparadic parades & bead catching

two great jazz sets at preservation hall

an airboat swamp tour in the bayou where we saw quite a few gators

city park and the oaks

and of course the french quarter & way too much eating - especially beignets which we had 3 nights in a row from cafe du monde.

ice skating

we pretty much hibernate in the winter around here, but one weekend we took our friend nyshma ice skating. it was her first time and she really picked it up quickly.

it was cold and windy, but going in circles helped us stay warm.

that afternoon we decorated valentine themed sugar cookies. yummy.

christmas part 3: the wedding

the big event of the week was john's wedding on dec 26. he married his high school sweetheart at the oakland temple. yippee for john & kristen!

of course we took lots of photos after the ceremony.
and that evening we ate lots and danced a little at the fancy reception.
welcome to the family kristen - get ready for some good times.

christmas part 2: christmas eve & day

the traditions of christmas start on the 24th. mom cooked an amazingly fancy meal, we wore our crowns from the poppers, had a christmas program and some played with their napkin rings...

christmas morning of course was filled with lots of present opening. we brought grandma some boston items - including a lobster hat.
dad was the lucky one this year to get a quilt made via mom.
and keeping with tradition we talked around the lafayette reservoir. this time we even had an ornament to put on the tree. i was glad to have john back this year to jump with me.and my favorite tradition - bowling! grandma even got in the action and as long as she had a steady hand she bowled quite well.
that evening we headed to palo alto to see some forrest family, eat another great meal via katie and wished niece madelyn a happy birthday.
a very full, yet perfect christmas day.

christmas part 1: asilomar & the temple

this year for christmas we headed out to san francisco to visit the shafer family and grandma hayden. it was a wonderful week. the trip began with 2 days in monterey/carmel at asilomar. of course on the way down we stopped for fish tacos and fried artichokes.

we enjoyed a wonderful christmas concert at the carmel mission by chanticleer. we won't get into our car getting towed...

the following afternoon dad, john and i decided to bike the 17-mile drive. the ride by the water was windy and then it got really really hilly. once we hit the peak (after lots of walking) dad got a flat so we called for a ride. i think we were in a little over our heads - but at least it was pretty!
back in oakland we all visited the temple and took some family pictures. it was one of those perfect clear days when you can see downtown san francisco.

christmas prep

shortly after thanksgiving we picked up our christmas tree from a local lot and carried it home.

in addition to lots of work and friend holiday parties we wrote out christmas cards and made gingerbread houses with friends!

we are now looking forward to going to california to see family and a wedding.

the forrests

we got invited to a halloween party so for the first time in many years we dressed up. and what did we dress up as? ourselves, the forrests.

i think we pulled it off nicely. we even won an award - the most fitting costume!

bike ride in concord

we are running out of warm days here in boston, but luckily last weekend we got a 70 degree day on halloween! so ben and i decided to get in a bike ride in concord to see the last of the colors. as always when we ride in concord, it did not disappoint. we even survived an attack duck.

fall in boston

fall in new england is the best. last sunday was the perfect fall day so we rode our bikes to mt. auburn cemetery to take in the colors. it was glorious.

visit from the twin

cory came to visit! she flew into nyc and we walked and walked and walked all over manhattan. we walked through times square, central park, the met, and chinatown.

we did lots of window shopping and made lots of street purchases including food, art and accessories.

we then headed back to boston and stayed inside while we got our first snow of the season, although a little early. thanks for visiting twin!