Thanksgiving and Birthday Fun!

We have had a great November, between Thanksgiving, my 24th birthday, and Cameron getting accepted to Nurse Anesthesia school!

I put the pictures in the reverse order and don't want to fix them, so start at the bottom and work your way up...

The last day of November we got a letter in the mail saying that Cameron had been accepted to Nurse Anesthesia school at Case Western University here in Cleveland. It is really a great school(ranked #6 in the nation for Nurse Anesthesia) and was our top choice. He will begin the program in August and it's 28months long. It will be a long 28 months, but So worth it. After he graduates from school, he has agreed to work for the Cleveland Clinic as a Nurse Anesthetist for the time that he was in the program, so we will be here for another 28 months after school. So about 5 more years in all. It will be a really good opportunity for him to get a couple years of work experience under his belt before we hopefully move back to Washington.
We are so excited that we didn't have to move to some random new place and that we can stay with our ward and all our friends here in Cleveland. It is such a blessing to get in here and we are so grateful for this opportunity. Thanks for everyone's thoughts, prayers, and support through the application process!

they have a little viewing deck on top of the restaurant, so we tried to take a picture of us and the view. This was the best we got.

the view right out the window!! So pretty

We told the waitress to take a picture with the view in the background, but she obviously didn't understand (:

At our table. We were in a raised booth that gave us the perfect view.

Shrimp stuffed crab cakes for our appetizer

Cameron's food...Blackened Hawaiian Mahi Mahi

Purple Peruvian Mashed Potatoes, Avocado Salsa

This was my food. Hearth Oven Roasted Cedar Planked Organic Salmon

With Braised Organic Spinach and Rosemary Roasted New Potatoes(copied and pasted from the menu(: )

We got our virgin drinks and we ready to go!

Cameron's last big present of the day was making arrangements for our neighbors to take the monitor after Grant was in bed and taking me to dinner. It wasn't just Applebees either. Apparently he had read about this restaurant in a magazine while he was waiting for me to do a urine sample at a dr appt before Grant was born. He said he wanted to take me last year, but it was still just too crazy with Grant being so little. So he made reservations a while ago and wouldn't tell me where we were going. It is called Pier W and is literally on Lake Erie. i guess in the magazine it was rated the best view in Cleveland, and that was well deserved. You looked out the windows and there is just water and then the downtown skyline. It was all lit up and SO pretty. I LOVED it!!

Here we are just before leaving our house

Shay took me out to lunch at an awesome place I had never been before. It was really good food and even better company!

After we ate, we walked over to the running store to look for some winter running gear. We always have fun trying everything on...

This was another awesome present that Cameron surprised me with. He got us tickets to a Cirque Du Soleil show that is coming to Cleveland in the spring. We have seen a couple of them in Las Vegas and I always love them, and i'm sure this one will be great too.

Cameron got me these beautiful flowers. He listened when I had casually said that I like Costco flowers, so he got them from there. I loved them.

Tessa took the camera and decided to go on a little photo shoot!

a sample of her work

the delicious food!

Some of the group relaxing after dinner

trapped!

After our morning run Jill and the girls and Grant and I went to watch the husbands play some turkey bowl football.

It was freezing, so we didn't stay for the whole thing, but it was fun getting to watch for a bit.

Grant playing

starting the game

So cute of Callie and Grant

Shay, Mamie and I started out Thanksgiving with our very own 5 mile turkey trot. It was a great way to start out the day.