Home for the Holidays.

On December 14th I came back to my wonderful home in Kenmore, Washington.  As luck has it, Tyler got to home for the holidays too!!  We were able to celebrate together.  The celebrations began with my birthday on Dec. 18th.  My family (+Tyler and my brothers girlfriend) went to Seattle to ride on the carousel and have a nice dinner at Thai Ginger.  It was so much fun, and a lovely way to welcome me into my 19th year.

The cake that my Mom ordered for my birthday was from Hoffmanns Bakery.  This cake is literally heaven.  Marzipan and whipped cream for days.  After having this cake on my brothers birthday last year, I was obsessed; this may have just "stolen the cake" as being the best part of my birthday.  

Tyler and I then celebrated my birthday together a few days later.  We opted for going out for a fancy dinner at The Barking Frog in Woodinville (next to Willows Lodge).  This restaurant is very expensive, but we decided that we needed to treat ourselves since we hardly ever see each other.  Tyler wore his dress blues and I wore a nice dress.  For the appetizer we shared a beet salad, which was super fancy.  There wasn't much food, but the presentation was amazing!  Unfortunately we didn't take photos of the food since we decided that would be a little odd in such a fancy place.  For the main course Tyler ordered blackened salmon, and I got gnocchi(:  We were about to look at the dessert menu when our waiter came out with 2 desserts and a card!  A lovely couple had ordered us dessert and payed for us because Tyler was in uniform.  Tyler got a peanut buttery chocolate fancy dessert, while I had a sponge sort of dessert with caramelized carrots.  Even better, as we were about to pay, the waiter came to us and said that another couple had taken care of the bill!!! By far the best birthday dinner ever...and free!! And my birthday gift was beautiful.  A promise ring (with diamonds and a tanzanite jewel).  Im so thankful that we were able to spend the holidays together!

A Moroccan Thanksgiving!

Tyler graduate on November 27th, and on November 28th we were already back in San Luis Obispo. And ironically enough, it was thanksgiving!  So, Ty and I got to spend our first Thanksgiving together in San Luis Obispo.  Unfortunately the downside of living in the dorms means that there is no way to cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  As a result we found ourselves wandering into town to see if anywhere was open for dinner.

Lucky for us a nice Moroccan-Mediteranan restaurant called Oasis was open.  This was probably the only place in all of town that was open on Thanksgiving, thank goodness we found it!  Although it wasn't traditional, we loved having pita bread and hummus, moroccan tea, and a thanksgiving dinner of quinoa, raisins and sweet potatoes (:  Unique, just like us!  To be honest we were just thankful that we were able to be together and have some delicious food.

The next day we decided to go out for breakfast at a nice place called Louisas Place.  Tyler got a hearty Country Fried Steak and Eggs, with a buttermilk biscuit on the side.  I on the other hand got a veggie omelet (maybe spinach and feta?) of some sort with fruit.

Country fried Steak and eggs

Veggie Omelet

Overall I think that we had a great time over Thanksgiving break together.  We went to the " SLO Pasty Co." and I got a chicken curry pasty and Tyler got a steak, Guinness and cheddar pasty.  In addition we also got some amazing cheddar fries!  The pasties brought us back to the great time we had in England.  We also had a meal at the Splash Cafe.  A renown SLO restaurant.  They have amazing chowder so we had some of that and a salmon taco (:  We love to try interesting foods, its such a big part of our relationship! 

Tylers Graduation!

After 3 LONG months, Tyler finally finished his first portion of training at MCRD San Diego.  After limited contact for such a long time, this was a HUGE deal.  Since my college is about five and a half hours from MCRD, I was luckily able to attend!  Tyler's parent's picked me up on a Monday night and we drove all the way down to San Diego and attended both family day and the graduation.  

Ty's Platoon (1063)

Im SO thankful that I was able to attend his graduation.  After 3 months apart it was finally time to relax and enjoy the end of November and December together.  Directly after Graduation we headed back up to San Luis Obispo to spend Thanksgiving together!

Tylers Grad Cake

But before heading to San Luis Obispo we took a short stop in San Clemente were we had a wonderful dinner at Sonnys Pizza.  It concluded with some celebratory cake made by Ty's wonderful cousin Devon.