New Year and Old Friends!

To kick off the new year, we headed up north to Idaho to visit my cousin and her family.  Nick and I had never been to Idaho and we were so excited to see the green trees, snow and nature!  After living in Arizona the muted colors of the desert begin to all look the same and the cactus and shrubs can't compete with the mile high pines found in the north!

Excited to get away and for Sofie to take her first plane ride, we could not pack the bags fast enough and say so long to the work week and 2009! Leading up to the trip we kept telling Sofie that she was gonna take a plane ride and point out the plane in the sky.  The flying Gods were shining down on us the day of the trip, we only bought two seats and Sofie was supposed to sit on my lap.  Well, it turns out that Idaho is not the hot spot for ringing in the new year...so our flight was not full and Sofie scored her own seat! She was able to sleep for most of the flight and was ready to go as soon as we landed!

Here is Nick and Sofie as we touched down in Spokane. Coure d' Alene is only about half hour away.

To help us celebrate the new year, we decided to make a stop at the STATE ran liquor store.  It was so weird, you can only buy liquor at these designated stores.  The employees are even state employees.  Nick made some friends and found out that it is a small world...turns out the two people that were working in the store were at one point from Arizona?!

I was so happy to be there~! Thanks Emily, Alex and Fisher!

Here we are on Lake Fernan.  It was frozen when we got there, by the end of our trip all the snow had melted!!

Living in the desert, I rarely get the chance to use some of my Minnesota weather gear, I was excited to dust off my down vests, jackets, scarves and gloves! This place is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Here is Alex getting ready to sabor the New Year bottle of Champagne

Here is Alex saboring the bottle...I was suppose to join him but my bottle was opened and enjoyed!

These are some of Alex's trophies!

Proud hunter!

Here is Nick showing off an elk jaw bone..

I LOVE HIM!!

Waiting for the New Year! 2010 is lookin' good so far!

It was so nice to ring in the new year with family! We had good food, yummy drinks and tons of laughs.

I was so excited to finally meet Fisher!  I've seen so many pictures of him and we've done numerous Skype calls but still meeting this extrodinary little man was so nice.  I immediatly fell in love with his squeezable cheeks and his laugh!  He is so adventurous and daring...he even taught Sofie a few new tricks!

(Thanks Fisher, Sofie is now trying your sofa acrobatics)

Fisher was too heavy for Nick...he's use to his little feather!

We took the kids to a children's museum in Spokane and Sofie and Fisher had a great time!

Fisher enjoying himself!

Sofie really enjoys painting!

After we explored downtown Spokane, we enjoyed some local food as we often do. Alex took us to one of his favorite places to eat while in Spokane

This was in the parking lot of Dick's- This "warning" was on the window of a car in the parking lot...we took a picture of it because it was just too weird! We decided not to test it!  

Sofie and Fisher were excited to enjoy thier "Whammy" burger!

After seeing all the sights of Coure d' Alene Nick and I decided that we want to live there- at some point~

We strolled along the longest floating boardwalk in the world- Also looked at the Coure d' Alene Resort

The trip was amazing and we plan on going back in August for an extraordinary camping trip and to look at some properties!

We love you guys and can't wait until the summer! THANK YOU!!!