Happy Birthday to Patty!

Patty's birthday is here (February 21) and so I've gone through our photo archives and made this short video I hope you enjoy.

Happy Birthday, Mom (and Grandma) — We love you!
Brett, Jodi & Connor

♥♥ Happy Valentine's Day ♥♥

:: ♥♥ View the short slideshow ♥♥ ::

It's a long weekend for us with President's Day being on Monday, so we've decided to remain home given the lousy weather we're experiencing. But today, it's Valentine's Day and my sweetheart bought me a lovely flower arrangement that is an art piece in of itself. While these pictures don't do it justice, I can't help but share them with you! I am such a lucky girl to be married to such a wonderful person and ♥♥ I love him ♥♥ dearly! To many more years together and for you as well!

The cute files... from the Morgan Chronicles archive

Over holiday break with the time off I had, I ported all of our old videos to DVD so I could digitize and tweak them. It was so fun for me to reflect back on the earlier years when Connor was little. Here's one I put together today. Brett and I had a hard time understanding what he was saying back then — it was so funny!

A ladylike affair...

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Today, I met up with some work friends at this great tea house called, The Secret Garden Tea Room & Gift Shop. It's set in a Victorian mansion in Sumner and it sort of felt fancy to be having tea in teacups and be in such a quaint place and setting.

Note: Don't be too judgmental about their poor website. I did at first, but realize they're not in the website business, and they focus on what they're good at—Tea and good food!

I had never been to a place like this before. As you could imagine, they have every kind of tea you can think of. Great sandwiches and soups and salads too. For lunch, I had a vegetarian quiche with Gorgonzola cheese (a recent favorite of mine) and Orzo Pea Salad with a delicious scone, accompanied by caramel toffee tea. It was all delicious. They have a "Frosty Cranberry Salad," which is slightly frozen and is a sweet and tart concoction some of the ladies who ordered it seemed to enjoy. I might have to try it the next time I go. (c:

Dessert (which I didn't need but couldn't resist). I had their Chocolate Tea Cup. As the name implies it's a chocolate teacup filled with coffee mousse—it was decadent.

Good conversation and good company; it was nice to regroup to catch up. The venue was spot-on and I will definitely have to revisit it again!

Northwest outdoors in the winter...

:: View our slideshow ::

It's 2010 and before we venture back into the corporate world again, we've been out and about despite the cool temperatures, and taking in some of the sights around the northwest outdoors. Above is a photo from our visit today to Flaming Geyser State Park which runs along the Green River. As the name would imply, we didn't see any "flaming" geysers, but we did see some bubbling ones. I think in the summertime you see the flaming ones, but it's wetter here so this is understandable. We've also taken in some great views of our grand Mount Rainier for you to enjoy from a trip we made just after Christmas.

Wishing you all a prosperous and successful new year!

Good times... circa 2000

We were at the Puyallup Fair back in 2000. Dave and I decided to ride this ride called the "Ejector Seat." I did the favor of screaming for the two of us while Dave tried to collect himself. Enjoy!

Happy Holidays!

Christmas is just a couple days from now, can you believe it? We certainly can't! Please tell me where this year went?

Well, I just finished wrapping the last gift today, and we have one work day remaining—a half day at that—and then we're off until the new year!

We have so many things to be grateful for that we should acknowledge; and at a time when others do not.

1. A job
2. Loved ones to share the holidays with
3. A roof over our heads
4. Clothes on our backs
5. Food in our pantry

This year has certainly had its trials and tribulations, and I'd like to wish they never happened in many, many instances. But it's never good to focus on the negative. And for that, we must move forward because it's good for us to do.

So, what does the year ahead have in store for us Morgans?
We'll strive to get out and about more than we did in 2009; I can promise you that! Perhaps sell our home? (We're not sure... we're thinking about it though). We have some camping trips planned for 2010 and I'd love to go in search of waterfalls. I want to expand my photography experience to start working with shutter speed and see where that takes me. I also want to get more into the video parts as well and serve them up here on the blog. But it's about content and it has to be entertaining, so I'll try to make sure to produce something that has substance. (c:

What's the deal with this RedBubble site?
Well, if you can tell, I've started working with a website called RedBubble. I've done this because I have heard comments from friends that I should sell my work. I was so flattered to hear their feedback and thought, well others do it, why not give it a try?

So, I set out to find a way to do this in an electronic format, so my relationship with RedBubble began. Here, I have some of my more "prouder" shots that I can showcase and the site provides the opportunity for people to buy my work in a variety of prints to choose from—from cards to canvas, to framed prints, to posters, etc. It has been fun getting familiar with the online community, as well as inspirational to view others works. It has taught me a few things and I'm looking forward to experimenting further!

My gallery is located at this web address: http://photogyrl.redbubble.com

Feel free to post a comment here to share your well-wishes to those who view this blog, or if you have a comment regarding this post; we'd love to hear from you!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to each of you!
We hope for a peaceful and brighter year ahead!

« Jodi, Brett & Connor

Remembering heroes...

:: View the photos ::

These photos were taken prior to the large funeral procession to take place from McChord Air Force Base to the Tacoma Dome. The motorcade arrived to pick up the family members of fallen Officer, Mark Renninger, who lived in our neighborhood. Once this motorcade met up with the rest of those participating, the entire procession took 4 hours to drive the approximate 9-mile route to their destination in downtown Tacoma. Clearly, the turnout for the memorial was enormous.

It was a hard day that I hope brought closure and peace to everyone. A lot of hurting and sadness for the heroes we lost on November 29, 2009, who are gone but not forgotten.

Photos of Fall...

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I am grateful to live in a place that has seasons. Sounds crazy, I know, but it's true. Each season brings some color, but nothing like Fall... it's a full-blown kaleidoscope of color and I love every bit of it! I love to watch the changes, despite the lousy weather that we might encounter. At any rate, I've taken a few shots of this year's color changes in the above set and managed to fit a few shots in of the boys at the same time.

A visit to New York City

:: View the slideshow from this trip ::

I had the great fortune to go to New York City for a conference with a friend and colleague of mine from work, Misty, and I took a few pictures along the way. It was my first-ever trip to the Big Apple, and it was so enjoyable—I wish I could have stayed longer. I know I didn't see all of it by any means, but we did make good use of our limited time to tour around as much as we could.

Misty had been to New York a few times, so I was lucky to have this great tour guide help navigate about the city. She also had great tips on what to not "fall for" as there are a lot of opportunists out there that I couldn't tell.

We took the "Top of the Rock" tour to check out the sights from atop the Rockefeller Center building and worked our way around the skating rink and the familiar NYC scenes around there.

I attended my first Broadway show to see "Wicked" at the Gershwin Theater... it was awesome! I felt lucky for the nice seats we were able to score, and the show had a beautiful set and costumes; it was such a great experience to have!

The food in New York was amazing. You really can't go wrong in any place (well I didn't have anything bad)—Everything was delicious.

Now, I didn't take as many pictures as I normally would because I was too busy watching everything, taking it all in with my own eyes. There was so much to see, I couldn't possibly take pictures of it all.

I would so love to go back again with the family and have go on a trip with just a bunch of friends to do it again!