Our Journey with Janet to Miss America.

I was lucky enough to attend Janet's send off from the airport! What a turnout there was.



We were able to attend the 2009 Miss America pageant in Las Vegas, at the Planet Hollywood. It was incredible to see the pageant so promoted, Kirsten Haglund, Miss America 2008's, face was everywhere as were all 52 contestants. We were so impressed with the show and had a wonderful time cheering on our Miss Washington, Janet Harding. She represented us so well. We are so proud of her. Check out her blog at www.misswashington.org called "Janet's Journey" for more of her take on her experience and life beyond the show.


We traveled with dear friend Mitchell and luckily he was more than willing to help us document our trip.We landed in Vegas late morning, got checked into our hotel and made the most of our first day on "the strip." What fun!

















This is our first day in town seeing the sights.






The M&M factory was a favorite.

This was the night we got to see of preliminaries - Thursday when Janet did her swimsuit and evening gown. She was phenomenal.

On Saturday we spent the day seeing sights and being ever so anxious for the final night of competition. What a day! We also got some great shopping done.



The three of us ate at the Spice Market buffet and wow did we eat! Janet would have been proud. We all love to eat!



We tried all the desserts in honor of Janet.













Then we were off to see The Beattles Love - Cirque de Sole! Simply amazing.
Waiting for the show to start - such anticipation

She's coming home to us!

Ben gets a warm hello from Jan! We missed her so much and were lucky to spend the remainder of the evening with her!


The Miss Whatcom County Legacy is a strong one. Janet was well supported by our director Carol Starcher and her Miss Whatcom County Sisters!

On our way home. Let's just say that this trip was filled with a lot of cribbage! :)


What an adventure!

First Holiday Season Together

Off we went with sister, Emily and friend Brandon to the Roloff Farm in Oregon for our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch.

For our first Thanksgiving we had the Rich Jacobson family and the Duchemin family over for dinner. It was so special to cook for everyone and then sit around a table and china cabinet that we inherited from Ben's grandparents. Alex even tried a turkey recipe that no body had had before and it was a big hit!

Setting the table was one of Alex's favorite parts. Using her grandmother's china, and Ben's grandparents' table was so special. Check out those cool center pieces - dried Indian corn in vases!

Ben had also worked SO hard in preparation for this day. He had painted the dining room wall red and the living room wall blue. Plus helping to get the carpet cleaned before everyone came for dinner.

Alex with our two beautiful, blonde sisters Tonie and Emily.

The Jacobson family.

The Duchemin Family

The Ben Jacobson family - with Ipa-Mae and Marley-Moe.

We carried on a Jacobson family tradition and decorated gingerbread houses after dinner. This year it was "boys against girls." .... You be the judge....

Luke wore his Santa hat all day to get us in the Christmas Spirit.

Here are 3 generations of Alexander/Duchemin women.

The next day we headed out to the tree farm to begin our own tradition of cutting down a Christmas tree. We ended up with such a beautiful tree, it will be hard to top it next year. And Ben was "The Man" cutting and hauling it all on his own. (While Alex documented the day. )

Here we are in The Cider House, warming up and having a cup of cider. It started to snow while we were there.


Here is the tree all decorated. We used ornaments from Alex's childhood and then some we had received together in the past two years. Our favorites were an ornament we inherited from Ben's Aunt Julie, a red and green beaded bulb, and the pearl J's that were used on our centerpiecs at our wedding.

Let it snow! We had a beautiful white winter.

We celebrated with the Rich Jacobson family early since they were in California with the Munson side of the family for Christmas. We got snowed in and church was cancelled so we had two down days with the family to celebrate! Here we are in our new PJ's from the parents, looking very "gangster." Alex tried so hard. :)

On Christmas Eve we attended the Duchemin family party and chruch was cancelled due to bad weather. Later that evening we had sisters Tonie and Emily and friend Brent Giestbricht over for gifts and games. We had so much fun exchanging gifts. We even got Brent a Beta Fish! Alex received a beautiful engraved "married" Bible with my new married name on it from Ben. Such a treasure.

After games we played "The Game of Life."

The next morning, Christmas morning, Alex and Ben had coffee and Ben opened his stocking.

Then later we headed to the Duchemin house for Christmas morning. After exchanging gifts and stockings we had a rousing "recycled" gift exchange. Alex went home with 3 used (and unbeknownst to her, winning) lottery tickets. Ben got a grass pot, a decorative item for the bathroom.

After the gift exchange and breakfast we adorned ourselves with humorous costumes and played a rousing game of Texas Hold Em. Even Alex's 85 year old grandmother got involved! What a holiday season this was.

We felt so blessed to share it with both sides of the family and so lucky to have each other and our families.

Kung Fu meets Karate Kid - Happy Birthday to Ben!

Surprise!
October brought Ben's birthday with friends and neighbors. It was a a "Kung Fu" meets "Karate Kid" themed gig and what fun we had. He celebrated with friend Erik Martin who was also born on Halloween. They were surprised by friends from all over. They didn't know it until just prior to party time, but they had to wear Karate Suits to the party and were greeted by friends in costumes and food galore!

We had Vietnamese Pho, egg rolls, Japanese curry and Asian cabbage salad. Accompanied by "Rising Sun" Japanese flag cupcakes and a a fortune cookie ice cream cake.

The happy couple cuts the cake - oh these two!

There was a great debate over which tier of cupcakes was more elegantly frosted.

Top or bottom? What's your vote?

The ladies turned out in great costumes!

Opening gifts with the birthday glasses on. A small group tradition.




Randomness.


Friends came from all over!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIK AND BEN!