Apple Cup

November 2005, Seattle, Wash. (Space Needle)

Because of Hurricane Katrina, another rival was created between the Cougars and the Huskies. For two weeks, money was raised for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and placed in two pots. Who ever had the most money at the end won the right to have the Space Needle host their school flag and the top painted in their school colors. The picture gave away who won the contest.

Plus the 98th Apple Cup was hosted in Seattle that year, an added bonus because the Cougars dominated Seattle by defeating the Huskies 26-22. Basically, we took over Seattle, dominated the symbol of the Emerald City and we made the Huskies cry. So far the best Apple Cup I've witnessed.

Friends

This was taken in 2005 at Lauren's house, the place where we spent most of our childhood hanging out and being kids. We were over there during spring break and wanted to catch up. Rebecca and Nicole couldn't come. Surprisingly enough, the four of us excluding Barlow, all went to Washington State University and lived less than a mile away from one another and never really hung out the 4 or 5 years we were there. Lauren graduated in 2006 with a degree in Movement Studies, Amber graduated in Winter of 2006 with a degree in Communication, Brandon graduated in 2006 with a degree in Neuroscience, Me with a degree in Sport Management and a minor in Leadership Studies in 2007 and Lindsay graduated in 2006 from Western Washington University with a degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies. Rebecca graduated with a Criminal Justice degree in 2006 from Gonzaga University and Nicole decided to do a few years at a community college while working at Starbucks. She still has a few courses before she is done. I really miss those carefree summer days we spent at Lauren's house as kids.

No Power on Chrismas ('05)

Every Christmas since middle school, we always celebrated Christmas at our house. People would arrive at 9 a.m., eat breakfast, open stockings, then open presents, hang out for a while, they would all go home, come back around 4 or 5 for dinner, we would play games, eat dessert and everyone would go home.

The day before Christmas we always cleaned house like crazy people and then for a reward on Christmas Eve, we (as our family of five) would open our presents. The grand finale would be mopping the floor at midnight...so it would stay clean and no one would walk through it until morning.

On that Christmas morning, I awoke to the sound of the electricity going off. It does indeed have a sound. I heard dad get up and call my grandmothers. I just groaned. I was so upset the power went off on frickin' Christmas. Both my grandparents had power at their house. Grammie's house wasn't ready for people to come over and neither was Grandma Karen's. Some how we talked Grandma Karen into having people over. We took all of the presents and food over to Grandma's house and did our normal routine.

After dinner, we were joking around at the table waiting to decide whether to play a game or not and Erika just reached over into my area and pretended to eat my head. It was weird. It was the first time she showed her personality in a long time. She was going through a rough patch.

The whole time we were home for break from college, the power went off once...on Christmas.