Thanksgiving 2

One more picture . . . we all had to take full advantage of our hot tub - and full advantage includes a couple of rolls in the snow.

Happy Thanksgiving

This year, we were lucky enough to spend Thanksgiving in Pony with Kelly, Liza, and my parents. Our friends from New Zealand came along for the ride too. As you can see, we ate like kings . . .

After dinner, the guys were brave enough to go tubing at "The Widowmaker" - scary, indeed. To my surprise, everyone came back in one piece. Well, except Oscar but that's another story. Hope that you all had a good holiday.

Overdue

Hi everyone! We haven't vanished . . . just slacking in blog updates. These pictures are old, but I have to give my mom a shout-out for painting our guest room. Thanks! We took a break from painting to tour the Theo chocolate factory - the only organic, fair-trade, bean to bar chocolate factory in the US. We were FULL of chocolate samples by the end of it - well worth it.

Happy November!

Last days in Maui

I thought I would throw up a couple pictures of the sunset we had from our seats at a small restaurant on Maui. The ocean was about 5 feet from the window. Waiting for our food we could watch sea turtles poking their head up all around the shore.

The last day in Maui we decided to drive up Haleakala (the big volcano on the island). The view of the crater is supposed to be spectacular. However, when we got up it the clouds were so thick that we couldn't see 10 feet in front of us, much less the entire crater. The 3rd picture is the view we had and the 4th is the view we were supposed to have. The elevation change is about 10000 ft by the time we got to the top and the weather went from 87 to 41 very quickly. Even though we didn't see anything, the drive was pretty.

More Maui

Well I am back from my break so I thought I would get some pictures up. These pictures are from a snorkeling trip we took to a volcanic island off of Maui called Molokini. We weren't going to do it originally because it was expensive and we were told by a friend of ours that it isn't as great as it was years ago. However, we got a good deal on a trip at the last minute and decided to go. The boat we went on was a Pacific Whale Foundation boat, so all the money they made went to help all their causes (of which there was a fist full). They take you on their boat at around 6:30 and while you are getting out to the site about 9 miles from Harbor they fed us muffins and juice. Once they got us out to the cone, we snorkeled for a couple hours. There were a lot of other groups there so the water was pretty full, but it was a good time. They then get you back on the boat, give you a snack, boat over to Maui and snorkel at a place that has a high number of sea turtles. After another couple of hours they get you back on the boat and have a BBQ. All said it was a good time. Most of the pictures are from that trip (so maybe you can excuse our hair). More to come later.

PS. the last picture is Karlee at the place we stayed.

Exploring Maui

Day One: We decided to drive around the island and get an idea of things that we wanted to do with the rest of our time here. We explored Lahaina - an old whaling town that now has lots of shops/restaurants - and the beaches nearby. Then, we drove into the up country to see some areas away from the coast. I was surprised to see that much of Maui near the coast is brown & rocky . . . not sure what I was expecting. In the 4th picture, Brandon is standing beneath a banyan tree. This is a large tree that grows roots down from all of it's branches. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures, haha.

PS. For all you foodies (like me), today we had a delicious breakfast of quiche & french toast - followed by an Italian deli for lunch. We ended the night with Taco Tuesday at a local restaurant.

Maui

Aloha from Maui! We are enjoying our vacation, but it is going WAY too fast. This is just a little introduction to our pictures. Our hotel is great - it has a living room and kitchen so we have plenty of room. Speaking of plenty of room, as you can see, we don't even have to touch when we sleep.

Also, you may be wondering why our toilet is plugged in? That's because it has different seat temperatures as well as force and temperature of the bidet water spray. Very exciting. The views from the grounds are beautiful. We had some friendly ducks at our deck the first morning.

More to come later . . .

More pics from the trip

Jamie & Giarratana's Visit

My sister and niece came out to Seattle for the long weekend. It was a lot of fun. We did some shopping, went to a concert, lots of eating and a little Oscar wrestling (he wanted to lick Giarratana's face pretty badly). It was great to have them come and hopefully it won't take so long for us to see them again. Oh, Giarratana got to attend her first rock concert and flashed everyone when the music started. It was like she was an old pro.

Colorado wedding

Last weekend, we made a quick trip to Breckenridge for the wedding of our friends, Mike and Jaime. The wedding was beautiful, despite the rainstorms. The highlight was a reunion of friends who are now scattered between Seattle, Denver, San Diego, and Ann Arbor.

Sorry it has been so long since I posted, but I wanted to get some last pictures of my trip up. The real reason to go home when I did was to see my grandfather and grandma. I got to visit with them both a lot so that was good. We never get to see them as much as we hope so we really enjoy the times that we do.

The last couple pictures just sum up how tired I think everyone was by the end of the weekend.

Second to last day

Just some quick picks from TerrYYippee day. It was another warm July day. It was too bad that Richie and Karlee could not make it, as they have made Terry Yippee memorable in the past. But we still managed to have a few laughs without them. Basil put on a show for everyone later in the evening by dancing solo to the band that was playing at the street dance. I'm sad that I didn't have a video for that. I missed out on some good picture opportunities when the boys were splashing around the pool. I guess I have to remember to charge my battery next time.

Anyway, the first picture is of the 'Cornholing' competition. I was told it was the state finals. I was planning on having a team this year, but my father-in-law let me down and didn't travel to Terry to play. Maybe next year, huh Terry? The last couple pictures were taken as everyone was trying to cool off indoors. It is hard to do when you are always in a constant wrestling match.

Golfing in Medora

When I was home we took a quick trip over to Medora to golf at the new golf course they built there called Bully Pulpit. It is a really nice course that is built around the Badlands and the river. In fact, the last 5 holes are built into the Badlands. For someone who has grown up in this area, it is very strange to see all the green grass surrounded by the brown walls.

My old football coach and good friend, Pete Stanton, was nice enough to join us for golfing. It was really good to see him since I don't know when the last time was that we saw each other in person. Anyway, 4.5 hours of golf let us get caught up a little bit.