I Was Doing Other Stuff...

I did not have great blog stats in 2013. But I did take a lot of pictures with my cell phone---along with the rest of the world apparently (check out this article).  My year in pictures:

January 2013

Roller Coasters!

 Doughnuts in Los Angeles with friends.

My toes in sunny California. 

Endeavor Space Shuttle at the California Science Center in L.A. 

It was breathtaking in real life. Watch this.

I know him!
Pinky Nelson was my advisor at WWU. 

February 2013

Chinese New Year in Seattle with MLE.

 Lion Dance.

Oregon Coast weekend road trip with my roommates. 

I made some muffins.

Seattle wanted a Shuttle but got NASA's Space Shuttle Trainer instead. I got to go inside with JJ. Very cool. More here.

 March 2013

 I can NOT believe I forgot the 1 in 3.14, I started with the numbers from the bottom up and got distracted by the end. I found the missing 1 sitting on the counter after I stuck the pie in the oven--I guess it looked like pie crust scraps. Oh well, I forgive myself.
Cherry-Rhubarb-Raspberry pie, otherwise known as: Cherub-Berry Pie; as heavenly as its name.

April 2013

Me with Lil' Sebastian at the Puyallup Spring Fair ;)

Demo Derby!

My birthday brownies. All this ice cream was already in my freezer, just hanging out. NBD. I heart Snoqualmie ice cream.

Mt. Vernon, WA ~ Tulip Festival

May 2013

Cherry Nectarine pie. Just because pie is always a good idea for a Sunday night.

Rain storm with some cute n's and n's.

We might have been singin'.

June 2013

 Out on Elliott Bay looking back at Seattle.

I forgot my camera for Sierra's graduation! So proud of her!!

My lovely assistant for my science demo at a church talent show. I lit several chemicals on fire to the tune of The Final Countdown.

Cave of the Mounds in Madison, WI with Siri and her adorable family. I loved visiting them.

Everybody loves Dad. 

Will and I playing bugs.

July 2013

Wallingford Avenue on the 4th of July.

I made cookies.

Puget Sound in the Summer.

 Two week long Educator's workshop at Boeing. This should probably have been it's own blog post. It was an incredible experience. This picture is taken inside a training plane for newbies learning how to put planes together.

 Learning how to drill and rivet. (!!!)

How to patch up 787s. 

Inside a 747 under construction with the 747 line manager. He walked very fast. Easily my favorite day of the workshop. 

Landing gear. 

Walked out to the Tarmac to see a finished 747 waiting to get picked up by Lufthansa. I didn't take it for a spin but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to sit in the pilot's seat. What a rush :) As a side note, this plane I'm sitting in was designed by my friend Jill who works at Boeing. Nice job, Jill.

 A windy day on the ferry with Damon. Love.

In case of tsunami, fly away! 

Damon and I went to Vancouver to see the fireworks competition on English Bay. Three countries compete; we saw England's show. We met a lovely couple from Australia.
Brooke and Laurie met up with us there too.

Beautiful.

August 2013

Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Cairn

Bumpass Hell.

Breathtaking. For its beauty as well as its stench.

Boiling mud. 

Linzi with a fuzzy friend on our family camping trip. 

I canoed out onto the lake with some of my n's and n's. Coming back against the wind was much harder. I was pretty sure we were going to have to live out there on that lake in our canoe forever.

Brielle with a movie camera. Driving through eastern Washington on our quest for peaches.

 Peaches from Yakima---the best part of any summer.

Beautiful Whitney at Carrie's wedding in San Diego.

I don't know these kids, they were just paying at the tide pool with us. I probably should not have videoed them and put it on the internet...  They were just so excited.

With Abbie and MLE.

 Sea creature.

 They let us hold the baby pandas at the San Diego Zoo!

 This is not a baby panda.

My Dad always told me I was an orangutan. 

September 2013

Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA

Jacob and Eliza. 

I love how this photo shows their personalities so well.

We're on a pretend flight.

October 2013

 29 kinds of cheese to celebrate Jennifer's 29th birthday!

Behold, the cheese.

Beautiful birthday girl.

Reptar and Rex.

November 2013

Dry Falls. Read this!

I drove out to Pullman with MLE to visit Lindsay. It was a wonderful trip. On the way home we drove to dry falls. It is as incredible as it sounds.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield visited Seattle.

Full disclosure: this photo was not taken by my cell phone.
But I wanted to convey the astronauty feel of the evening.

I felt awkward getting my picture taken but everybody else was doing it and I needed proof that I met him, right? I told him I was a teacher and my students had some questions for him. He was incredibly likable. Such a fun night. 

I showed this video to my students the next day.

Thanksgiving. Selfie with Roger and Megan. I can't believe how beautiful she is, inside and out. Way to go Emily and Brian.

December 2013

 Linzi's Christmas band concert. She was awesome!

Chocolate mousse pie with an oreo cookie-candy cane crust.

 Proud grandpa with some adorable granddaughters.

 Damon loves warheads!

 Totes adorbs.

 Isla wants my phone.

 Gingerbread house competition with Linzi and Brielle.

 Brielle made herself at home for their slumber party at my house ;)

 Beecher's Cheese!

 Linzi is ready for a solar eclipse.

 A sunny day in Seattle. How cute is this girl?!

It was REALLY sunny, and I took off my sun glasses. Pain.

 Merry Christmas from the troll.

 My friend Christian built this awesome oven. We've made pizza, naan bread, and s'mores in it but over winter break he decided to try something a little more complex.

 Pumpkin pie going in.

Pumpkin pie coming out. It was delicious!

 I went curling on New Year's Eve.
Siri and Chris, I got this picture for you!

Jen, Wren and Ken.

My curling teammates. We got pretty good by the end :)

And that, my friends, was 2013.

Multiple Choice Test

Which pie should win for "Best Pie of 2013"?

A. 

Churub-Berry

B. 

Cherry Nectarine

C. 

Chocolate Mousse

D. 

Pumpkin Pie from Christian's handmade oven

There were many unphotographed pies from 2013, if you ate one and remember it, you can vote for it. Which ever pie wins will made again. If you want some, I will invite you over ;)

International Space Station Alert

Earlier tonight I was working in my classroom and had so much to do that I was beginning to feel convinced that I should just spend the night there; crawl right under my desk with my rolled up lab coat as a pillow when I couldn't stand to grade another Science journal. In this defeated moment a chirp from an app on my phone alerted me that in just a few minutes the ISS would be passing directly over head at my exact planetary location.

Five minutes later, science journals abandoned, with my coat, my keys, and my dreams held tightly in my hand, I stood in the middle of the dark and abandoned parking lot staring up at the twilight sky. I watched as the Space Station cruised by and then slowly dimmed and went dark as it floated into Earth's shadow.

As I walked on to my car, glad that Science had saved me from a grading all-nighter, I could only hope that one day I would be up there looking down. Until then, this:

This is Our Planet from Tomislav Safundžić on Vimeo.

Just Go For It Baby

Who hasn't wanted to crawl right into a bowl of nutella?

Summer, the darling of our hearts

I know that most grownups don't get an eight week vacation in the middle of the year so I know I shouldn't mourn that it is over. But I do. It was a great little summer.