The past 3 months...

Well here I am again. 3 months later after I set y'all up thinking I was back. That lasted a day. What a disappointment I am. So Cal has been having the biggest rain storm for the past week so I'm feeling inspired to blog as I sit in here wrapped in my blanket, heat cranked up to 75 (shhh don't tell Dave), hot tea in hand while Chase naps. But oh man, sooooo much has happened between the last post until now that I am feeling overwhelmed (this blog tends to make me feel like that more often than not) and already defeated. There is no way I can get you up to speed on what's happened in the last 3 months like I would have liked BUT I'll just have to let it go (Which by the way is one of 2010 Resolutions - let go of all the little things I stress about and accept that I can't be super wife, super mom, super friend, super daughter, super clean, super fashionable, super skinny....that's a whole nother story) Back to what's more important and that's getting you caught up on what's been going on in the Dawson household after going MIA. I will recap below but I'm sure after looking through old pictures I'll have to randomly post good times that happened in between all this madness.

Dave called one night while he was on a biz trip (go figure) and said he was going to have to go to Beijing, China for a week. Being the creative manipulator that I am, I pleaded a case of why I should get to go with him. And it worked! Pre-China travel was not ideal for me but it was the price I was willing to pay to see Beijing. I flew Chase up to WA to stay with my parents. God bless their sweet souls for willingly taking my non-stop child for 10 days. After a quick drop off at the airport and a few tears, I boarded the next plane back to CA. After an exhausting flight trying to tame my live alligator and 2 delays, I was ready to crawl into a hole. But no. I arrived back into Newport at 10:30 PM, packed up a weeks worth of clothes and woke at 5 AM to catch a cab to LA for our 16 hr. flight. Sweet. Unfortunately I couldn't sleep a wink on the flight. Although I was stoked to be going to China, I'm not gonna lie...I was even more excited that I was going to be kidless for 10 days!!!

We had a weekend to do touristy things before Dave had to teach the training so we checked off a life list adventure by climbing the Great Wall of China. Absolutely amazing. I'll have to post another blog specific to China. What great memories.

On Oct. 3rd my little sis Katie tied the knot!! She was a gorgeous bride! It was a bitter-sweet day for me as my title of "Wedding Planner" came to an end but I was so excited for this new chapter in her and Danny's life to start.

They are a match made in heaven. So perfect for eachother. We are so blessed to have Danny and his family part of ours.

What a F.U.N. day!!! This was the rowdy wedding party waiting to get announced into the reception after a wild and heavily liquored limo ride. I'll have to post a blog specific to the wedding as well. Too many pictures not too share.

We went up to watch University of Washington pounce on USC!!!!!

Dave's two buddies - Jeff and Allen, both sucker USC fans - came up with us for the big game.

Who let the Dawgs out!?!??!!? So fun to be there. The stadium was shaking!

Pumpkin Patch - Nothing like a 90 degree day in late Oct!

If you're wondering what is on my hand - I broke my knuckle (Boxer's Fracture) on the hotel door knob in WA stupid so this was pre-cast. I'll add that to my stupid list.

Kim's birthday party also coupled as a Halloween costume party so we were stoked we had an excuse to dress up. The Dawson's LOVE to dress up. Dave was a Navy pilot and I was Sally Jesse Rafael, the Talk Show Host from the 80's.

Chaser was a spider although a track runner would have been a more fitting costume for him. All I do is try to keep up with this active ball of fire.

We spent Halloween with the Thurmans. Chase's buddy, Hank, was hating every second of it.

We flew back up to WA for Thanksgiving. Nothing like being home for the holidays with family. Chase loves his Nonee!

While in WA for Thanksgiving, our close friends Ryan and Rachel got married! We were thrilled to be part of their special day.

For Christmas we were back up in WA AGAIN. Ok that's my excuse for not blogging. I was traveling too much. :)

This was Christmas Eve before our annual dinner/game night. Helluva night.

Christmas morning at Nonee and Poppi's. Santa tends to go overboard during Christmas but Chase didn't mind.