Our Travels

For our Anniversary I made Wade a book of our life together so far. Just to note, this book does not include any of our family adventures with the kids, I am compiling a separate book for these trips. I wanted to record our life together and all of the fun places we have gone that have started to build our memories of our time together. Here is a recap of what is in the book (shortened version) and what our adventures have been so far.

We visited NY in the spring of 2009. Wade had a work conference, and so I flew out for the weekend to join him. We stayed down town and had a wonderful time. We went out to dinner in little Italy for some of the best food ever and then saw the play Wicked (one of my personal favorites).

The next day we went to brunch at Tavern on the Green and walked around Central Park. We rented a row boat in the middle of Central Park and this is where Wade proposed.

For our Honeymoon we decided to go to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (just like most of our trips, we pick them based on where Alaska flies and where there are Marriott hotels).

Sugar Loaf Mountain with Copacabana in the background

We went our to a salsa club that was three stories high and packed with great people watching.

Christ the Redeemer

We toured the favela (slums) where 1/3 the population lives.

Copacabana Beach...

The summer of 2009 we went to Kamloops Canada and stayed in a cabin with no running water and no electricity. We hiked most of the weekend and just relaxed.

I had a conference in Orlando in August 2009, so Wade flew down for the weekend to meet me. We did Disney adult style - 2 parks per day for the weekend. We saw Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon and Sea World. I did however manage to lose my credit card and drivers license on one of the rides at Sea World...that made getting back on the plane a little more difficult.

Wade wanted me to add the caption that he is petting the monkey..

For Labor Day 2009 we decided to go camping at Cannon Beach since Wade had never been. As you can see in the pictures, the weather wasn't the best. After one night of camping in the rain, Wade was done....so we decided to drive along the coast to see the Red Woods. It was a seven hour drive and absolutely beautiful. Neither of us had ever been to the Red Woods either, so it made for a memorable weekend.

For Wade's 34th birthday we planned a last minute trip to Cabo (about a week and a half before). It was the perfect time to go, as all of the kids had just gone back to school so the resort was empty. We only stayed for 4 days, but it was the perfect amount of time. Wade even found a sports bar on the roof of a building to watch all of the NFL games while I could sit in the sun and read my book. Cabo has quickly become one of our favorite places to go.

In December we went to Maui for a week. I forget how awesome Hawaii is and I can't wait to go back. We had a perfect balance between sight seeing and laying on the beach or by the pool. We stayed at the Marriott and had the most wonderful ocean view room right next to the adult pool. While we were there we also went to the north shore, went to a Luau, woke up way too early and went to see the sun rise on the top of the mountain Haleakala (it was a freezing 40 degrees), drove the road to Hana, and went Snooba diving - my personal favorite ( a mix between scuba diving and snorkeling).

The Sun Rise on Haleakala

The Road to Hana

For New Years eve the past two years we have created a tradition of going to El Gaucho for dinner (awesome steak) and then getting home before midnight and watching all of the fireworks on TV. It is so great to enjoy a nice romantic dinner and be back home before all of the crazies are on the road.

In January 2010 Wade had a conference in Orlando (I am not sure why we always have meetings in the furthest place from where we live). But this time we were able to visit my family. We also spend one night in Savannah which was such a beautiful city, but unfortunately we were visiting during the coldest weather in recent history. Is was below freezing the whole time and colder than it was back home.

In March Wade had a conference in Big Sky MT and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves skiing, eating great food, and spending time in the huge hot tub.

In April we decided to make another last minute trip to Cabo. I was changing jobs (to a job I absolutely love by the way) so before I started my new job we decided to go to Cabo for another 4 days. We went back to the same resort and this time rented a car the whole time. We also did a sunset cruise....I would do that again in a heart beat.

As you can see we had a great past year and a half and we are so fortunate to be able to travel together and have so many great work functions that we can extend into a long weekend. Wade, I love you more than I can say and I am so glad that you have such a passion for life and love to experience all of the new places we do and that you want to share it with me. I look forward to another funfilled year!

Happy Anniversary my love!

We survived our first year together and what a year it has been. We have managed to keep extremely busy and I feel fortunate because it definitely can't be said that life is boring for us. I don't know of any other couple that gets out computers to plan each month based on work schedules. Let's just say we are well organized, but this allows us to do so many fun things during our travels. We had our first anniversary on June 27th and it was my turn to plan the day. Wade planned Valentine's Day and so it was my turn to plan our Anniversary.

Wade had been talking about white water rafting, and I had never been so I planned a 5 hour trip and we lucked out with beautiful weather...which was good because the water was freezing!

We had an early dinner at Salish Lodge...one of our favorite places to go. We go upstairs to the attic and on Friday and Saturday nights they have a guy come in and play the guitar to all the best songs (Beatles, Chicago, etc)

After that we had a couples massage (sorry, no pictures) and then we met up with some of our friends at Chopsticks - a piano bar. It was packed there, standing room only and there were so many bachelorette parties there I couldn't keep count. Apparently this is a good place to go out with the girls...so lets just say the girl to guy ratio is pretty high....I am sure the guys were totally complaining. Our friends submitted our names to the front and much to our surprise we were called up on stage to "participate" in a song. It was their version of head, shoulders, knees and toes and we have video that I am not sharing. Lets just say it was very funny, but not exactly rated PG so it won't be posted on the blog. This will stay between Wade and me....and the other 100 people that witnessed it.

Quote of the Week

Our neighbors have a little girl they adopted and she says the funniest things. Wade thinks I should start posting the funniest comment she says each week....here is this weeks - her mom is washing the rug outside with the hose and the 3 year old asks "mom, why are you washing the rug", her mom replied "because the dogs peed on it." The 3 year old response was "mom....can I pee on the rug?". Wade was laughing all night over that one.

Don't eat me...I don't taste like chicken

So we have had 3 more incidences with the lovely Bear that has decided to eat dinner in our neighborhood every so often. We actually haven't had a problem in about a week and a half so I hadn't thought much about it. That is, until tonight when I open my garage to take my garbage out and see a big black bear in the cul de sac staring at me....it didn't even run off! I immediately ran back in the garage and closed the door as fast as I could and called our neighbors to inform them that it was in fact a very large bear going through our trash, not just a bunch of well organized raccoons. Now I will try to go to sleep...after my heart stops pounding.

Trip to Florida

We took a trip to Florida with me, Wade Alliya and my mom to visit my Dad's side of the family (Dad, Grandpa, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins). Wade and I could stay 5 days and my mom stayed 9. We had a great time and the weather was awesome.

We started the trip flying into Orlando and we were able to see Wade's sister Amber. We ate at Bone Fish (amazing food) and Amber and I were craving something sweet at the end so we decided to order the brownie sunday with extra ice cream for Wade. It had to be the best brownie I have ever eaten...it was almost like a chocolate lava cake....unbelievable!

It was so good, I felt bad not giving Alliya any (even though it was 9pm and she normally doesn't get many sweets like this) so I gave in and we shared some. She ended up staying awake until after midnight....I guess I can blame some of that on the time change, not just me being a bad mom for giving her so much sugar so late at night.

Amber and Wade

So the next morning we started our 2 hour drive to Ormond Beach. 30 minutes into the drive Alliya says she has to go to the bathroom (she had just gone before we left). So tried to rush to find an exit with a bathroom off of the toll highway and I look back to see her puking all over herself and the car seat. This is how the trip started...maybe it was partly from that brownie sunday the night before. The good news is that after she threw up all over and we stopped to clean it up, she was fine.

The family at the beach

Us with my Grandpa

It was so hot there we spent almost all of our time in the pool, which wasn't that refreshing at 93 degrees (the water was this warm).

This is how Alliya started the week in the pool, she was a little afraid of the water so she would only go out on floats with someone holding her

Alliya and Grandpa Greg

Alliya and Grandma Lorna

This is how the week ended, with Alliya using arm floats and a noodle...she did so well. I think if we could have stayed a couple more days she would have been fine with only the arm floats. Since Alliya no longer needed her other floats, Wade decided to borrow them for the remainder of the vacation.

We had many different rooms at the hotel, and luckily my Aunt and Uncle were upgraded to the captains suite. This was huge and had a great kitchen, living room and deck that the whole family could hang out in.

Aunt Skeeter and Alliya have a nail party!

Wade is teaching my cousin Keith how to make an apple pie. He told him that every guy should know how to do this, and he would thank him later. Wade's famous quote "if you can't be handsome, be handy" - if you are both that is even better.

Very few naps were taken on this trip but both Wade and Alliya napped by the pool...Wade must have been exhausted from all of his hard work floating around the pool and making apple pie.

Alliya's birthday comes to Florida - Grandpa gave her some princess jewelry and some great beach toys and towels, and Aunt Skeeter gave her princess PJ's, swim suits and some really cute Gator cheerleader outfits. (We will have more pictures to come with all of the girls in the cheer outfits - they are so cute).

We borrowed my cousins boogie boards to play a little in the ocean. We had a great time the first day so we tried it again the next day, but a storm was coming in making the waves big and the current strong so it didn't last long. It did last long enough for Wade to break the boogie board - at least the boys got a new boogie board out of the deal.

One of the days we went out in my uncles boat and in the ocean for a bit. The waves were a bit big going out, and Alliya didn't love the big waves, but once we were on smooth water she had a great time. We saw, dolphins, and a giant sea turtle...very cool.

This is the view from the hotel, can't beat it. We can't wait to come back and visit everyone again next year.

Good Friends and Good Food

Once again I am behind on my blog posts and I am going to try my hardest to get caught up today.

A few weeks ago we met up with our friends Becky and JJ and went to dinner at Joeys. Such great food and it was so nice to hang out with Becky and JJ. I have known Becky since 2nd grade and I am so glad that JJ and Wade hit it off. They have kids the same age as ours (3 year old girl and 5 year old boy) so it is nice to have play dates, but also be able to get out just the adults.