Time is flying and Nora is already 6! We had a nice family dinner with Bonnie on the big day and a kids party at the Wings Gymnastics Center on the 9th with a bunch of her friends. Nora had a wonderful birthday, got spoiled with lots of awesome presents, and was one very happy 6 year old all weekend!
When it comes to birthday cake, she chose ice cream cake for her actual birthday, and a pirate ship (with not-mean pirates) for her kids party - both good choices! The gymnastics party was a blast, as always (we've had more than a couple of birthday parties there over the years!). The kids had fun doing obstacle courses, jumping into foam pits and racing around - Nora even got to go flying like a circus performer, which was the highlight of the party for her!
It's hard to believe that Nora's already 6 years old - how did that happen?? We're so excited to see what exciting challenges and fun experience this year brings for her!
Nora is 6 Photos!
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Sunday, March 8, 2020
Saturday, October 26, 2019
Claire is 8!
Time really seems to be flying - in September, Claire turned 8! She had a great day painting pottery with her friends at Ceramica and enjoying frozen yogurt. Later, we had a family birthday dinner with Bonnie featuring Claire's request: burgers with roasted potatoes and caesar salad. Of course, Katie also made a beautiful cake in the form of a toadstool fairy garden! Claire really enjoyed her presents - thank you everyone for thinking of her. Happy Birthday Claire!
Saturday, June 29, 2019
On Turning 41
Back on June 18th, I celebrated yet another birthday! I was lucky to wake up to a beautiful sunny day, and I got to spend the morning watching the girls' swimming lessons, and end the day by having a great dinner with Zach and the girls, as well as some delicious cake. For dinner, I chose one of our favourite restaurants - Gramercy Park Pizza Grill - and then we went home for cake and presents! The girls chose the cake & they did an excellent job - white cake with raspberry filling, and it was a big hit with the whole family.
All in all, it was a wonderful 41st birthday, and I'm glad I got to spend it with 3 of my very favourite people!
Here are some pictures of the cake, because as we all know, that's the main event!
Birthday Cake & Silly Kids!
All in all, it was a wonderful 41st birthday, and I'm glad I got to spend it with 3 of my very favourite people!
Here are some pictures of the cake, because as we all know, that's the main event!
Birthday Cake & Silly Kids!
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Becoming an Old Man
This year I had a "major birthday". I pondered arranging some kind of humdinger of a celebration. But with a winter birthday and kids in school it's hard to get motivated to do anything too ambitious. I instead opted for a relaxing day with some snowshoeing and family time!
After a late morning start I snowshoed two small peaks (Peak 5443, Little Camas Peak) off of US-20 east of Mountain Home. This is all part of a grand scheme to summit 40 peaks this year (I'm already at 9!). Snow conditions were good with a few inches of powder over a supportive base. However conditions were brisk with temperatures around 20℉ and a steady wind. Views were pretty good however some low clouds were swirling around and the higher peaks were mostly shrouded. After about two hours of snowshoeing, I was ready to warm up and get home!
After doing just that I opened my awesome birthday gifts. Thank you everyone for thinking of me! Dinner was at the Homestead Bar and Grill and consisted of a Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and some Old Rasputin on Nitro (which was part of my last "major birthday" as well!). At home, we all enjoyed the lovely vanilla and chocolate cake that Katie made. Unsurprisingly, it was delicious!!
A final detail is that my birthday is also National Drink Wine Day. To honor this occasion Katie and I shared a tasty White Burgundy I happened to have. While getting old is no fun, I had a great time doing it!
Zach Turns 40 Photos!
Peak 5443 GPS Track
Peak 5740 GPS Track
After a late morning start I snowshoed two small peaks (Peak 5443, Little Camas Peak) off of US-20 east of Mountain Home. This is all part of a grand scheme to summit 40 peaks this year (I'm already at 9!). Snow conditions were good with a few inches of powder over a supportive base. However conditions were brisk with temperatures around 20℉ and a steady wind. Views were pretty good however some low clouds were swirling around and the higher peaks were mostly shrouded. After about two hours of snowshoeing, I was ready to warm up and get home!
After doing just that I opened my awesome birthday gifts. Thank you everyone for thinking of me! Dinner was at the Homestead Bar and Grill and consisted of a Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and some Old Rasputin on Nitro (which was part of my last "major birthday" as well!). At home, we all enjoyed the lovely vanilla and chocolate cake that Katie made. Unsurprisingly, it was delicious!!
A final detail is that my birthday is also National Drink Wine Day. To honor this occasion Katie and I shared a tasty White Burgundy I happened to have. While getting old is no fun, I had a great time doing it!
Zach Turns 40 Photos!
Peak 5443 GPS Track
Peak 5740 GPS Track
Monday, February 11, 2019
Nora Turns 5!
It's hard to believe, but on Thursday February 7th, Nora turned 5 years old! We have no idea where the past 5 years have gone, but suddenly our little baby is a big kid who will be starting kindergarten in a few months!
The day of Nora's birthday was a busy one - Zach & I got to attend a birthday celebration at her preschool and share birthday brownies with Nora and her teachers and classmates. When Nora got home from preschool, we were surprised by my aunt, Cathy, arriving completely unexpectedly! She drove 2.5 days from Miami, Manitoba to Boise to celebrate Nora's birthday with us! She got to pick Claire up from school that day, and Claire very nearly walked right past her because she wasn't expecting her Great Aunt from Canada to be at school!! That night, Bonnie came over & we all had a great birthday dinner of Nora's favourite - spaghetti, garlic bread and salad, and then cake and ice cream! After dinner, Claire & Bonnie hung out at the house & made pick-up-sticks, and Zach, Cathy, Nora & I all went over to Nora's school for Parent Open House, and Nora showed us some of what she's been working on at school - she started learning piano that day, so she showed us what she'd learned so far. She's very excited to get piano lessons at school!
Sunday afternoon was Nora's kids birthday party at a gymnastics club with a bunch of her friends, and everyone enjoyed running, jumping, tumbling and rope-swinging all over the place...and then eating cupcakes. Nora had a great birthday long weekend, and loved every minute of the celebrations! We're looking forward to the next year with this funny, goofy, super smart and sweet kid!
Here are a few pictures from all the celebrations, and a bonus picture of the girls with AC. Thank you again for the visit, AC!
Saturday, February 23, 2013
So old
Well my 34th birthday has come and gone. This year my birthday landed on Presidents Day which again made me wish that holiday was taken more seriously. Fortunately I did not work on my birthday (yay for that) but I was feeling pretty bad due to a cold and opted not to do a fun outdoor activity, despite the favorable weather. Instead I slept in, went on a nose-blowy run, and spent the day with Katie and Claire. We had a very nice dinner at Flatbread Community Oven and in lieu of a cake I also enjoyed some cupcakes from Sugar Rush Cupcakery (thank you Katie!) before opening presents. Thank you everyone for the gifts!
It was a little disappointing to be ill on my birthday, but it could've been worse. It finally broke on Wednesday and I'm happy to report that I now don't feel any older than I did a week ago!
Katie and Claire at birthday dinner:
It was a little disappointing to be ill on my birthday, but it could've been worse. It finally broke on Wednesday and I'm happy to report that I now don't feel any older than I did a week ago!
Katie and Claire at birthday dinner:
Monday, February 27, 2012
Another Birthday...
My birthday this year was on a Saturday, which meant I didn't need to take off from work. I slept in and with the weather looking iffy I decided I would plan my day in an impromptu fashion. With the late wake-up, I ended up deciding to hike some peaks outside of Mountain Home. I left the house around 11am and headed over. My first peak attempt failed due to access issues so I moved on to Peak 4008', a barely noticeable top along US-20. This was a very straightforward hike across sage and grassland. The "peak" has pretty unremarkable views but it surely is a seldom visited area. After completing this hike, I decided to head home rather than hike a second peak and risk delaying dinner.
Dinner was at The Twisted Timber, a local place known for good beer and more recently, pretty good pizza! The three of us had a great meal and we even got Claire home early enough for her usual bedtime. Getting old is no fun but at least I had fun doing it?
Birthday Hike Pictures!
Dinner was at The Twisted Timber, a local place known for good beer and more recently, pretty good pizza! The three of us had a great meal and we even got Claire home early enough for her usual bedtime. Getting old is no fun but at least I had fun doing it?
Birthday Hike Pictures!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Katie's another year older!
As most of our loyal followers know, yesterday was my birthday - yep, I'm 24 - you guessed correctly! ;-) Zach left eaaaarly in the morning for a hike with his buddy Matt - he'll be posting separately about that, I'm sure. Matt's moving down to Salt Lake City to go to Grad School, so it was probably their last hike together.
I enjoyed a leisurely morning, complete with sleeping in & looking outside to realize that the weather was much poopier than anticipated! It was drizzly & icky...didn't the weatherman realize it was my birthday?! Anyway, my day was quiet - I talked to a couple of friends on the phone, and then headed over to Target to wander the aisles for awhile. I headed home, did some reading (I recently finished The Help, which was excellent, and am now working on A Recipe For Bees, which is also proving very good.
After a little TV watching, Zach came home & we headed out for a fantastic dinner at a local Italian restaurant called Gino's (I can't provide a link to their website, because they don't have one!). The food was wonderful - I had amazingly light, fluffy gnocchi in a cheese sauce, and Zach loved his Chicken Parmigiana...we also had some calamari that had a very light batter & were served with excellent marinara sauce. YUM!
After that deliciousness, we went to see the new Steven Spielberg movie, Super 8, which was quite good - it reminded me a lot of ET or The Goonies, from back in the 80's - a group of kids witness a train wreck & then spend the movie trying to figure out what happened.
So, that's the story of my 24th (!) birthday :-)
Happy Birthday (June 17th) to my Mother-In-Law, Jan!!
Love,
Katie
I enjoyed a leisurely morning, complete with sleeping in & looking outside to realize that the weather was much poopier than anticipated! It was drizzly & icky...didn't the weatherman realize it was my birthday?! Anyway, my day was quiet - I talked to a couple of friends on the phone, and then headed over to Target to wander the aisles for awhile. I headed home, did some reading (I recently finished The Help, which was excellent, and am now working on A Recipe For Bees, which is also proving very good.
After a little TV watching, Zach came home & we headed out for a fantastic dinner at a local Italian restaurant called Gino's (I can't provide a link to their website, because they don't have one!). The food was wonderful - I had amazingly light, fluffy gnocchi in a cheese sauce, and Zach loved his Chicken Parmigiana...we also had some calamari that had a very light batter & were served with excellent marinara sauce. YUM!
After that deliciousness, we went to see the new Steven Spielberg movie, Super 8, which was quite good - it reminded me a lot of ET or The Goonies, from back in the 80's - a group of kids witness a train wreck & then spend the movie trying to figure out what happened.
So, that's the story of my 24th (!) birthday :-)
Happy Birthday (June 17th) to my Mother-In-Law, Jan!!
Love,
Katie
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Gettin' Older...
Last Friday was my birthday, or more properly the anniversary of my birthday. Last year I decided working on this day was unacceptable so I took the day off from work. As I am wont to do, I slept in and planned the day in an impromptu manner. I knew the weather would be questionable but upon waking up I realized that a short hike in the foothills would be possible.
By 10:30am I left the house and headed up the Rocky Canyon Road into the eastern foothills hoping to get close enough to my goal, little known Aldape Peak. We haven't had much snow since New Years and I was astonished that I could drive the Escape all the way to Aldape Summit. I stopped a little bit short (not wanting to push my luck) but hiking the road proved it would have been no problem. Highly unusual conditions for mid-February!
I, perhaps foolishly, didn't even bring snowshoes but fortunately they weren't really needed. I hiked the main road to Aldape Summit and had intended to follow the Boise Ridge Road to the summit. However this road was gated as private property, which I didn't remember from my last hike in the area in 2003. I thus took a detour and hiked to the summit. From there I followed a jeep trail to the vicinity of the peak. Despite fairly deep snow, it held my weight pretty well in most places. It appeared this path had been snowmobiled awhile ago which is probably why it was sufficiently compacted for boot travel. With minimal struggle I made it to the summit in just over an hour, taking in partially obscured views of the surrounding area. What surprised me the most about this peak was that it had a great view of downtown Boise, something not possible in many parts of the foothills. I had a quick descent and got back to my car in just under two hours. On the way home, a passing storm dumped snow over east Boise and made for an interesting scene.
After getting home and cleaned up, around 5PM I headed to Cafe Ole to meet some coworkers for our usual "beer thirty". I stayed for about an hour and then met Katie at The Front Door in downtown Boise for a birthday dinner featuring quality beer and delicious pizza. The pizza was half pepperoni and half artichoke and impossible to stop eating! The beer list at The Front Door is extensive and unusual and provided me the rare of experience of not knowing what many of the beers were. Fortunately, I took advantage of the situation and expanded my beer vocabulary by trying the Kostritzer Black Lager, an IPA whose name escapes me, and the Bridgeport coffee porter.
In short, it was a great birthday and while I'm not excited about being older, I wouldn't mind every day being like this one!
Hike statistics: 4.17 miles, 1360' elevation gain, 2 hours
Aldape Peak Pictures!
GPS Track
By 10:30am I left the house and headed up the Rocky Canyon Road into the eastern foothills hoping to get close enough to my goal, little known Aldape Peak. We haven't had much snow since New Years and I was astonished that I could drive the Escape all the way to Aldape Summit. I stopped a little bit short (not wanting to push my luck) but hiking the road proved it would have been no problem. Highly unusual conditions for mid-February!
I, perhaps foolishly, didn't even bring snowshoes but fortunately they weren't really needed. I hiked the main road to Aldape Summit and had intended to follow the Boise Ridge Road to the summit. However this road was gated as private property, which I didn't remember from my last hike in the area in 2003. I thus took a detour and hiked to the summit. From there I followed a jeep trail to the vicinity of the peak. Despite fairly deep snow, it held my weight pretty well in most places. It appeared this path had been snowmobiled awhile ago which is probably why it was sufficiently compacted for boot travel. With minimal struggle I made it to the summit in just over an hour, taking in partially obscured views of the surrounding area. What surprised me the most about this peak was that it had a great view of downtown Boise, something not possible in many parts of the foothills. I had a quick descent and got back to my car in just under two hours. On the way home, a passing storm dumped snow over east Boise and made for an interesting scene.
After getting home and cleaned up, around 5PM I headed to Cafe Ole to meet some coworkers for our usual "beer thirty". I stayed for about an hour and then met Katie at The Front Door in downtown Boise for a birthday dinner featuring quality beer and delicious pizza. The pizza was half pepperoni and half artichoke and impossible to stop eating! The beer list at The Front Door is extensive and unusual and provided me the rare of experience of not knowing what many of the beers were. Fortunately, I took advantage of the situation and expanded my beer vocabulary by trying the Kostritzer Black Lager, an IPA whose name escapes me, and the Bridgeport coffee porter.
In short, it was a great birthday and while I'm not excited about being older, I wouldn't mind every day being like this one!
Hike statistics: 4.17 miles, 1360' elevation gain, 2 hours
Aldape Peak Pictures!
GPS Track
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Happy Birthday
Thursday was my 31st birthday. For various reasons, I opted to take the day off from work. I couldn't come up with an appealing snowshoe trip idea, so I opted to sleep in. Upon waking up, I chose to go up to Bogus Basin Ski Area for some cross-country skiing. It was my first time cross-country skiing and I was able to get a 1-on-1 hour-long lesson for the amazing price of $5. Actually the entire package of ticket, rental, and lesson was only $25 which seemed really cheap to me. The lesson went well and I was pretty quickly able to navigate the beginner and intermediate courses. I had a great time and would like to go back soon!
After spending roughly 3 hours on the snow, I returned home for dinner. Katie and I went to The Front Door for pizza and beer. The pizza was actually really good... we got a pizza that was half double-cut pepperoni (extra thick, in other words) and half pesto & veggie. I'm not sure which half was better - they were both amazing! They also had great beer - I had the Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, Rogue Chocolate Stout, and the Sockeye? ESB. My main peeve was they had the "beer snob" thing going on where they serve you beer in snifters. Totally unnecessary!
In summary, I had a great birthday - I'm sure I will remember my first day cross-country skiing as well as I remember my first day downhill skiing on Super Bowl Sunday in 2001!
To top it all off, on Friday I had a nice birthday dinner with Gary & Bonnie at Red Robin. Upon getting home, I had some tiramisu from the Boise Co-op that Katie picked up. All amazing food but I think I'll have to burn some calories this weekend!
Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts!
View from the Nordic lodge at Bogus Basin
Gorgeous sunset on Bogus Basin Rd in the foothills above Boise
After spending roughly 3 hours on the snow, I returned home for dinner. Katie and I went to The Front Door for pizza and beer. The pizza was actually really good... we got a pizza that was half double-cut pepperoni (extra thick, in other words) and half pesto & veggie. I'm not sure which half was better - they were both amazing! They also had great beer - I had the Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, Rogue Chocolate Stout, and the Sockeye? ESB. My main peeve was they had the "beer snob" thing going on where they serve you beer in snifters. Totally unnecessary!
In summary, I had a great birthday - I'm sure I will remember my first day cross-country skiing as well as I remember my first day downhill skiing on Super Bowl Sunday in 2001!
To top it all off, on Friday I had a nice birthday dinner with Gary & Bonnie at Red Robin. Upon getting home, I had some tiramisu from the Boise Co-op that Katie picked up. All amazing food but I think I'll have to burn some calories this weekend!
Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts!
View from the Nordic lodge at Bogus Basin
Gorgeous sunset on Bogus Basin Rd in the foothills above Boise
Friday, June 19, 2009
Another Exciting Installment of "Vickery World" News
Yes, that's right folks, it's time for Katie's 2nd blog post ever! I like to keep you waiting :-)
First things first - As of Thursday, I am officially 30+1. I had a great birthday (even though I had to work!), and then Zach & I went to a great sushi place here in Boise (yes, that's right, I said the words "great sushi" and "Boise" in the same sentence!). The restaurant is called Fujiyama, and we ended up getting an assortment of sushi rolls & a couple of pieces of salmon & spicy scallop sashimi, along with an appetizer of gyoza (potstickers, I guess, would be an equivalent). All of it was very good, and we enjoyed every bite! For a restaurant serving mostly seafood-based dishes, and being in such a dry, land-locked state, this restaurant had very good quality sushi - we were pleasantly surprised! After dinner we came back to the house & I opened all my wonderful & thoughtful presents & cards from everyone - so very generous of all of you! Thank you! Don't worry, Grandma, this is not the only thank you anyone will get from me! ;-) It was a great birthday, full of lots of love & good wishes...what more could a girl ask for?!
In other news, I got a new job today! It's still with the same company (NYK Line), but it's in a different department. As of July 7th, I will officially be a Sales Support Specialist for the West Coast of the US. It's a pretty exciting move for me, since a lot of this job will be completely new, but basically I'll be one of a team of Sales Support people, working with the Sales Reps (who go out to the customers & sign/extend service contracts), and our Corporate office to make sure the service contracts are filed correctly & to take care of fixing anything that is incorrectly filed. I've spent the last 1 1/2 years working as a Revenue Analyst, which required me to work closely with interpreting & applying the shipper's service contracts, in order to add rates & charges to bills, so now I'll be working on the other side of things - actually filing & following up on the service contracts.
The team I'm joining is made up of 6 other people from different departments within our office, so it will be interesting for us all to come at this position with such varied knowledge and experience in the shipping industry. I'm really excited about the move, mostly because I was getting very frustrated with the job I have been doing, as it's gotten pretty monotonous & downright annoying! This is a very welcome change!
Zach is planning a hike tomorrow, with a couple of guys, so as long as the weather in Eastern Oregon holds up alright, he should have a pretty nice trip. I'm planning on running errands & getting some reading done. On Sunday, we'll be heading over to Gary & Bonnie's for a barbeque, to celebrate Father's Day for Gary & also my birthday. It'll be a wonderful time with great food and company!
Have a wonderful weekend!
First things first - As of Thursday, I am officially 30+1. I had a great birthday (even though I had to work!), and then Zach & I went to a great sushi place here in Boise (yes, that's right, I said the words "great sushi" and "Boise" in the same sentence!). The restaurant is called Fujiyama, and we ended up getting an assortment of sushi rolls & a couple of pieces of salmon & spicy scallop sashimi, along with an appetizer of gyoza (potstickers, I guess, would be an equivalent). All of it was very good, and we enjoyed every bite! For a restaurant serving mostly seafood-based dishes, and being in such a dry, land-locked state, this restaurant had very good quality sushi - we were pleasantly surprised! After dinner we came back to the house & I opened all my wonderful & thoughtful presents & cards from everyone - so very generous of all of you! Thank you! Don't worry, Grandma, this is not the only thank you anyone will get from me! ;-) It was a great birthday, full of lots of love & good wishes...what more could a girl ask for?!
In other news, I got a new job today! It's still with the same company (NYK Line), but it's in a different department. As of July 7th, I will officially be a Sales Support Specialist for the West Coast of the US. It's a pretty exciting move for me, since a lot of this job will be completely new, but basically I'll be one of a team of Sales Support people, working with the Sales Reps (who go out to the customers & sign/extend service contracts), and our Corporate office to make sure the service contracts are filed correctly & to take care of fixing anything that is incorrectly filed. I've spent the last 1 1/2 years working as a Revenue Analyst, which required me to work closely with interpreting & applying the shipper's service contracts, in order to add rates & charges to bills, so now I'll be working on the other side of things - actually filing & following up on the service contracts.
The team I'm joining is made up of 6 other people from different departments within our office, so it will be interesting for us all to come at this position with such varied knowledge and experience in the shipping industry. I'm really excited about the move, mostly because I was getting very frustrated with the job I have been doing, as it's gotten pretty monotonous & downright annoying! This is a very welcome change!
Zach is planning a hike tomorrow, with a couple of guys, so as long as the weather in Eastern Oregon holds up alright, he should have a pretty nice trip. I'm planning on running errands & getting some reading done. On Sunday, we'll be heading over to Gary & Bonnie's for a barbeque, to celebrate Father's Day for Gary & also my birthday. It'll be a wonderful time with great food and company!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Getting old...
I had a pleasant 30th birthday despite not being very excited about the occasion. I spent the bulk of the day at work and that was uneventful. However it was much better than last year when I had to spend the day training replacement workers. That was probably actually my worst birthday ever.
Katie and I had a nice dinner at the Bitter Creek Ale House. I got the stout battered trout and chips which were excellent. In addition, I chugged a couple of glasses of my new favorite beer, the nitrogen charged Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. I also tried the Dogfather and Black Butte XX Porter, neither of which were as good but still worthy.
Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts!
Katie and I had a nice dinner at the Bitter Creek Ale House. I got the stout battered trout and chips which were excellent. In addition, I chugged a couple of glasses of my new favorite beer, the nitrogen charged Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. I also tried the Dogfather and Black Butte XX Porter, neither of which were as good but still worthy.
Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts!
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