a Thanksgiving post

Lately I've been thankful for

• the changing seasons and wrapping up of the field season
• having an awesome family who is there for support when life hits a lull 
• holiday time! and twinkle lights.
• Thanksgiving potlucks with friends 
• the GIANT SPARKLY PIE that actually made it out of the oven...homemade crust and all
• Jillian Michaels workout dvds
• being able to share a little apartment with Ben, even if we have no furniture
• the end of my job coming soon. because I need a life sabbatical

we made it to the big trees and Pacific

Ben and I made our pilgrimage to the redwoods. Yup, my life is one step closer to being complete. We drove drove drove through southern Oregon and into California until the road suddenly dove into the redwoods, such a sudden boundary of forest types that it literally takes your breath away. This is the forest of fairytales and dreams: deep, dark, enormous, covered in ferns and shadowed by the enormous trees. My poor little camera couldn't really take the dim lighting until we made it through the woods and across the marshy grassland estuary to the shore, where we sat on driftwood, drank peppermint tea with mini Snickers and watched the waves roll in. What a day. We ended up hiking more than ten miles without seeing anyone really. I can't wait to go back with a better camera someday!

fall scenes from the past few weekends

The recipe you HAVE TO MAKE this weekend.

Chewy cinnamon sugar carmelized bites of deliciousness...

 Obsessed with sunny hikes

 Rapids on the Upper Rogue

 What fall looks like in southern Oregon

Local wine tasting and farmers market

Sugar pine decorated for Halloween

I am getting a huge back-stock of photos that I haven't posted yet oops. Well, here is a sampling of the highlights of my life lately. It looks like I spend all my time outside, but that's because I am going to spare us both from scenes of me in my pj's and messy bun laying around reading Ken Follett (completely addicted to his new book Fall of Giants, dramatic juicy historical fiction). Which is how I spend the other 50% of weekends. At least this weekend. 

p.s. make the monkey bread. it is soooooooo worth the time.