What Next?

May 2011 - Lebanon [The Big Day]

2012-01-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

So - the whole reason I decided to go to Lebanon was because my cousin Jennifer was getting married. "Why Lebanon?" everyone asks. Well - Elias is from Lebanon (duh!). Jen and Elias met in Montreal (and currently live in Morocco) but decided they wanted to get married back in Lebanon.

I don't get to see my cousins very often so it was so fun to be able to go to the wedding and share her special day with her! She is such a wonderful person and it was fun to see her so happy!

Mel, Uncle Greg, Jen, Aunt Colette

It was fun to see all the traditions they have in Lebanon for when they get married. Traditionally, you always visit the Bride or Groom the morning before they get married at their home. So - Megan and I walked first down to Elias' to see and congratulate him and then we got a ride to Elias' sister's home where Jen was being greeted by everyone.

The photographer was taking so many pictures (and so did I). Jennifer just looked so beautiful! And she had a gorgeous dress.

After all the bijillions of pictures... Jen and her Dad came out of the building and people threw rose petals down from the balcony as they headed to their car. A few of the cars were decorated as well and a procession of cars followed behind the bride, honking horns, all the way to the church!
They were married in a small, quaint church with a gorgeous view of the sea and the town (I think the town was called Jounieh where they got married).

Elias and his Mother before the Ceremony

Jennifer and the very proud Father of the Bride

The happy couple!

Ringing the Church Bell after the Wedding!

Exciting the Church! Yay!

The reception was held at a nearby restaurant. I loved the setup. Everything was just so beautiful. The way they introduce the couple was also a very fun tradition. It's called Zaffeh (i think?). A group of dances escort the groom and dance with him. All Elias' friends joined in and they danced in a circle around him. At one point he was even on someone's shoulders. Then the dancers dance with the groom to go get the bride. And they both came back dancing. Everyone greets them, claps, dances! And of course the bride also gets hoisted up on some shoulders!

The dinner was amazing. I LOVE Mediterranean food! I was full just from the appetizers because they were so good. And then they had fish and tons of grilled meats. It was so, so, so good. My mouth is watering just thinking about it right now. Actually - I didn't even get to try most of the meal because you weren't sitting down for too long before everyone was getting up to dance!

Listening to the toasts - first by Melissa (my cousin) and then Ziad (Elias' brother).

The first dance

Father/Daughter dance. Very sweet.

The Wedding Cake!

On the dance floor!

Elias threw a bunch of water (or something) as a joke before actually throwing the real garter!

Megan caught the bouquet and Elias' friend (who caught the garter) was pretty happy about that. (And so was Megan). ;)

The wedding was amazing. It went late. We danced for a long time and I loved it. They definitely know how to throw a wedding in Lebanon! The night didn't even end there... after the reception was over, we all (including even the bride and groom) decided to go to a Shisha Cafe (aka Hookah Cafe). Shisha is pretty trendy in Lebanon. They have it all over - kinda like finding a Starbucks on every corner...there seems to be shisha cafe's everywhere.

We definitely got some looks as we strolled up all dressed up with the bride and groom.

But that didn't stop Jen! :)

The guys playing some backgammon. A popular game in Lebanon.

The entire day was just amazing. It definitely made my trip to Lebanon worth every minute of this day! So happy I was able to be there and take part in the celebration!!

May 2011 - Lebanon [Byblos]

2012-01-22T17:41:00.000-08:00

After a day at Keukenhof - I went back to the airport to catch my flight to Beirut! I got in super late and my cousin Jen had sent one of their friends to come pick me up. I didn't get back to Jen's (soon-to-be) husband's family's place until about 3am or something ridiculous like that.

I spent the week with Jen's friend Megan who came from Montreal for the wedding. We were roommates at a convent up the road from Elias' family. It was great because it was only something like $20/night.
The next morning I went over to Elias' to see everyone. And meet Elias' family. They are all so nice! And so welcoming. Jen was super busy with wedding stuff so Megan and I decided to do a little touring of Lebanon on our own...

The view from Elias' house....

Megan and I went to this little town north of Beirut called Byblos. It's an ancient port city. I thought it was quaint and I really liked it. Our taxi driver said he would wait for us and then take us back when we were ready to leave. So we just wandered around the town. Took lots of pictures and got dinner at a cute restaurant with a great view of the water.

Here are some of the pictures....

An old church

The market and stores

The water

All the fisherman

Close up! eek.

Sunset on the City.

April 2011 - Keukenhof [Amsterdam]

2012-01-22T17:03:00.000-08:00

I took a big trip at the end of April! My cousin was getting married in Lebanon on May 1st and I decided that I really wanted to be there for it. So - I got to work trying to get my new passport (mine expired in March) and buy plane tickets to get myself out there. I decided that if I was going to go all the way out there that I wanted to see a few other things as well. So with the way it worked with plane tickets - I ended up using points to get myself to Europe and then bying a second ticket from Europe to Lebanon.

Because I did it this way, I had a LONG layover at the Amsterdam airport. I was at first going to go into the city, but when I landed in Amsterdam someone had posted on a comment on my facebook status that said I should go to Keukenhof for the Tulips. So that's what I did.

I'm really glad I did because I figured I should take advantage of the fact that I was actually there during tulip season. It was super easy to get there too. Put all my luggage in a locker and took the bus to Keukenhof.
The tulips were amazing. And I was so excited to try out the new camera. I'm sure these probably could have been way better with a better photographer...but that will come with time!

Mini pancakes!

Wooden Shoes! Extra big ones!

The flowers were amazing. I love tulips and to see this many! It's definitely worth going to if you have a long layover in Amsterdam. Maybe the next time, I'll hit up the city and all it's scandal.

April 2011 - New Toy!

2012-01-19T23:28:00.001-08:00

March 2011 - Football and Camping

2012-01-19T23:24:00.000-08:00

With March usually comes the annual rilvary flag footbal game between Stanford II ward and San Francisco Ward. It's a favorite time of the year for me. I LOVE playing flag football.

It was a fun game. And we won. Which made it more fun. And it was raining and cold so we all felt like we were so hardcore.

The entire team with Coach Dave...who i think may have gone into retirement after this.
I'm really sad cause for various reasons it looks like I probably won't be alble to play this year unless some of the games get pushed out to April or May. [fingers crossed].

Jen and I tried to keep warm as we watched the boys game.

I also went on a little (mini) overnight hike with these guys and gals...

We had a lot of fun. It was not that far away and I thought it was a really pretty hike. I love camping. I need to do more of it this year!

March 2011 - Jimmer Obsession Take 3 [New Orleans]

2012-01-19T23:23:00.001-08:00

The Cougars made to the sweet 16 and somehow I thought it would be a good idea to fly all the way to New Orleans to see them play!

Mike and I flew out from SFO (and man those tickets were NOT cheap) and met up with Jared and Jaren (and Jaren's friend Grant) in NOLA. We had great seats for the game and we were SO excited to be there.
Well - we all know what happened. And I don't really want to talk about it but let's just say that I was super depressed after the game. Seriously. I got back to the hotel that night and looked up flights to go home. Ha. It probably took me at least 24 hours to come to grips with the fact that the Cougars were done for the season.
Thankfully I had Mike and Jared there to pull me out of my deep dark depression! We walked around NOLA quite a bit. They took lots of pictures and made me wish I had an SLR. We watched some street performers...
Ate some Beignets at Cafe Du Monde... (so good!)....
And, of course, we went on a swamp tour! Definitley one of the highlights of our too long of a weekend stuck in the city that will forever hold bad memories for me.
We even got to hold a tiny, baby gator.

It was a fun weekend. But obviously could have been SO much better if they would have just won that stupid game. Which they totally COULD have won. It might be a while before I ever pay that much money to go to a sweet 16 game again. You live, you learn. :) Peace out NOLA - won't be seeing you for a LONG time.

March 2011 - Jimmer Obsession Take 2 [Vegas]

2012-01-19T23:22:00.000-08:00

I decided at the last minute to go to Vegas for the Mountain West Conference. I couldn't decide if i wanted to drive alllllllll that way by myself - but because I love Jimmer, I did. And I have zero regrets.

I met up with my friend Jason who was also there for the tournament and snuck down with him to the lower section to watch the BYU vs. New Mexico game - so we had great seats! And then - Jimmer had his BEST game ever scoring 52 points. It was AMAZING. I seriously can't explain how awesome it was to be there for that. It made the 10-hour drive to Vegas so worth it!

After the game, I ran accross the steet to Cafe Rio..and look who I ran into? Noah Hartsock from the Cougars! ha.

BYU, sadly, lost to SDSU in the championship game which was such a bummer. But I was still really happy I was there for the New Mexico game.

It was also SO much fun to hang out with Jen and Janice in Vegas. Jen and I went to see Jersey Boys one night. And Jen was nice enough to get us a room at the marriott with her points!

I also got to see Myra who came to meet up with Jen and I for dinner! Great weekend! Good memories! Viva Las Vegas! :)

March Madness @ Work.

2012-01-19T23:21:00.000-08:00

This is how I spent my March at work. It's called multi-tasking.

Feb 2011 - Jimmer Obsession Take 1 [BYU vs TCU]

2012-01-19T23:20:00.000-08:00

As the 2010-11 basketball season went on, I may have gotten a little obsessed with Jimmer and the Cougars. I really wanted to see him play...so I decided in a spur of the moment..to buy a ticket to Austin to go with my brother and nephews to the BYU/TCU game.

We drove up to TCU on Saturday - which is about a 3 hour drive and got to town early. We ended up at Dutch's for some delicious burgers and onion rings. I mean - look at that thing! It was so tasty!

Then we headed to the TCU stadium and watched the teams warm-up. Here's my boy Jimmer...
My friend Katie who was living in Lubbock at the time also came out to Fort Worth for the game and sad with me and my Nephew Austin..

It was so much fun to spend the day with my bro and these little guys! Just love them. They are SO full of energy! And of course it was so fun to see the Jimmer play. It wasn't his best game - but he still scored 23 points and it was fun to watch some of his magic.

BYU fans were serious Jimmer fans. I think the stadium had more BYU fans than TCU fans.. And a lot of them (including us) stayed afterwards to see Jimmer and the team come out to the bus. Jimmer's cult following...
I love that I get to go to Texas as often as I do! I spent the rest of my time there just visiting with all my nieces and nephews! We also celebrated Emily's birthday!!
And of course we made a trip to one of my favorite Austin resturant's - Chuy's! Yum!! Love this picture!

Feb 2011 - SF with Em

2012-01-19T23:19:00.000-08:00

My good friend Emily was in SF one weekend in Feb and she stayed an extra day to hang out with me! It was so much fun to have her here! I picked her up and we went for a run in golden gate park in SF.

Then, of course, we had the traditional clam chowder in bread bowl at Boudin Bakery! And we had fun catching up and getting each other all caught up on our lives!

We walked around Fisherman's Wharf. Went to the mechanical museum. Took a picture on a trolley...

And of course...no trip to SF is complete without something from Ghirardelli Square! So yum!

We had a wonderful time together! So happy she could extend her trip to see and play with me in the city! She came back to Palo Alto and spent the night at my place and dropped her off at the airport the next morning on my way to work.

Jan 2011 - Best Fortune Ever.

2012-01-19T23:14:00.000-08:00

Well - I could maybe think of one more fortune that would be better. But for right now - this is very applicable to my life. I'll let you know when it's mine.

Jan 2011 - Welcome to the United States of America

2012-01-19T23:13:00.000-08:00

That's what the pamphlet read that accompanied this in the mail when I got home from Florida.....

Best Day of 2011? Let's just say it was a good way to start out the year. :)

Jan 2011 - The Happiest Place on Earth!

2012-01-19T23:11:00.000-08:00

Shortly after returning from Athens/Turkey - Camille, Leslie (who we met in Athens), and I decided to sign up for the Walt Disney Marathon weekend. Camille was going to do the Goofy Race - which consist of doing the Half Marathon on Saturday and then turning around and doing the FULL marathon on Sunday!

I decided to only do the half marathon and hoped that my foot would be well enough to handle that distance by then. My longest run before this half was the turkey trot 10k in November and I think I did another 5 or 6 mile run while I was in Canada.
There were TONS of people! It was a fun race...but I decided that races with this many people are not my favorite. They take a lont time to start and you have to weave in and out of people if you start in the wrong coral. I was slow and I could feel some swelling in my foot - but I finished it and had fun doing it. I was, however, releaved that I wasn't crazy enough to sign up for the FULL marathon also.

Camille is a rockstar though and she ran the 26.2 - making it a 39.3 racing weekend! She's Amazing!!!! She ran the whole thing with Leslie and Liem (we met Liem on the plane coming back from Istanbul - he had also run the Athens marathon and when I told him about Disney he wanted to do it with us!).

We also met up with Andy (also a friend from Athens who lives in London) for dinner a couple of times. It was such a fun weekend with the girls and a fun to reunite with our running friends.

Happy New Year 2010

2012-01-19T23:07:00.000-08:00

Dinner with friends, a movie, watching the ball drop, and some rootbeer. Just a typical new years eve - unlike the one I JUST had in 2011. Stay tuned for that one.. just 12 more months of catching up to do!

Ryan, Jen, Me and Mike

December 2010 - Home for the Holidays!

2012-01-19T15:27:00.000-08:00

I decided to go to Montreal for the holidays for Christmas 2010! And spent most of my time with these amazing parents of mine...

It was my first time home for the holidays in quite a few years. We normally all meet in Texas since a majority of the family live there now. But my parents were going to stay in Montreal and I thought it would be nice to be where there is snow for Christmas...
And snow there was! Sharon - one of my bffs - was in town for the Holidays as well! I love getting together with her because we can always pick up where we left off. Anyway - we decided to take advantage of the snow and we hit the slopes....

I also decided to take advantage of the snow to try out this new purchase of mine......

I figured that I should do what I can to run in the snow when I have snow thinking ahead to that crazy marathon I signed up for in Antarctica. So I did a couple of 4-5 mile runs while I was in Canada. It was about 18 degrees Fahrenheit which should be similar to what I get in Antarctica (assuming there is not a windchill that drops it another 10-15 degrees). It was so bad. The snow slowed me down - but it didn't feel as cold as I thought it would. So that was good.

I took this picture on one of my runs... In Quebec, we turn all the park basketball courts into Hockey rinks for the winter. So the guys play pick up hockey instead of pick up basketball. Actually when we were younger, there were a few years that we turned out backyard into a skating rink. That was fun..

Christmas was pretty low key at home. It's a little different when you don't have the nieces and nephews getting up early and excited that Santa came! But we still had a nice time together.

We had our traditional Christmas breakfast. And mom made that delicious Swedish Sweet bread that she makes every year. LOVE this stuff. Definitely a tradition that I'll keep in the family.

Then we opened presents. Mom got a macbook from Dad. Hmm.. present for her or for himself? Not sure. :)

After we opened presents and relaxed a little, we went over to Sharon's family for Christmas dinner. They are good friend's of our family so it was nice to celebrate the holiday with them!

And a few days later... like always... we celebrated my birthday! We went to dinner and then had some cake! (This picture just didn't want to rotate).

I finally tried making Lauren's popcorn caramel cake that she usually makes around Christmas time. It was delicious!

And no trip to Montreal is complete without some of my favorite foods....

Like Montreal Smoke meat at the Snowden Deli.. with delicious fries. And of course there is some vinegar on those fries! yum.... my mouth is watering just thinking about this meal.

And a trip to "La Belle Province" for some poutine and a couple of Hot Dog "Steamés".... [which are way better than Brazillian hot dogs if you ask me].

And of course some Ketchup chips!!!....

November 2010 - Turkey!

2012-01-19T11:48:00.000-08:00

High on my list of favorite places I've been to is Istanbul, Turkey. The whole experience was just so much fun! We booked our hotel from Crete the day before we got to Turkey [yeah - that's how I typically roll].

And we stayed here! It was perfect. At first we were a little nervous because we arrived at night and it seemed like it could be a little sketchy. But we were way wrong. The place was new, clean, and close enough to everything. It was a little suite with a kitchenette, flat screen TV, and free wireless. And it included a 1-way airport transfer. All for only about $50/night. We loved it!

The food in Turkey was also AWESOME! This whole trip was full of good food actually. We loved just about every meal we had.

Camille and I got new scarves and we decided to be artistic.

We took a boat to the Asia side of Istanbul. I had no idea Istanbul was built on 2 continents. The boat ride was nice, but a little long...so we entertained ourselves with the Camille's camera features. :)

Drinking apple tea for the first time in Turkey. And definitely not the last. This stuff is everywhere (not usually such a bright green though). It's tasty and I was a fan. So was Camille - who is probably the biggest tea drinker I know. I think she fell in love with Turkey just for their tea (well and Salop also).

The view and the sunset from the boat were pretty amazing as we were getting back to the Europe side of the city.

After we got back from our (a little too long) boat trip, we made our first trip to the spice market! And we fell in love.

We loved walking through the markets in Turkey. We had fun meeting all the people and trying all the flower and fruit teas. And they had so many amazing spices! We definitely didn't leave empty handed....

Camille and her waiter friends. They liked her! ;)

Trying Salop! - A hot drink they make there. So delicious!
Inside the Blue Mosque

Fresh pomegranate juice! LOVE!!

In front of the Hagia Sophia

And inside the Hagia Sophia!

Is this not the largest Shawarma you've ever seen!?!?!!! It's like heaven.

So - a couple of the girls we met in Athens at the race (Clyde's friend's Raquel and Sherri) were also in Istanbul the same time we were. So, we decided to meet up with them... They wanted to go try out a Turkish Bath so we met up with them at this place and had the whole Turkish bath experience! ha. We were all a little nervous...but we embraced it and went with it! "when in Rome..."

After getting scrubbed and having a massage...we found a place to grab dinner and some ice cream before Sheri and Raquel had to head to the airport to fly back to the US.

Camille and I decided to walk back to our hotel from where we were...not realizing how far it was! It took us a while. But made a few stops along the way and had a good time. Camille bought one of these cool little instruments. I forget what it's called.

Our last say in Turkey, we decided to hit up the palace and the Grand Bazaar. On our way...we ran into more people trying to sell us stuff. The men are so forward in Turkey and they don't give up.... Camille and I realized that the best way to deal with them was to 1 - ask them their name...and 2 - ask them if we could take a picture with them. It usually threw them off that we were interested in them instead of just ignoring them as I'm sure most tourist do. Then they would forget that they were selling to us and let us go on our way as we politely declined their offers.

Somewhere (pic above) in the palace. It was alright - but i realized I'm not really a palace person. They all start to look the same after a while. Old furniture, old paintings. You've seen 1, you've seen them all.. At least for the most part. Just a glorified museum.

If any of watched the bachelorette - Ali's season... She went here to the Cistern (above pic) for a date.

The view of the blue mosque from a restaurant we ate one of our last Turkish meals at. And me eating my favorite Sheppard Salad! Love this stuff. I went to a Turkish restaurant here and it wasn't the same. The funny thing is that it's supposed to be the "poor man's" salad. But I love it! It's so good!

After lunch we hit up the Grand Bazaar and even made it back to the Spice Market for a second time... And well, we met lots of people trying to sell us stuff so our little trick came in handy and we got lots of pictures from it......

Oops..how did that happen?

Camille arm wrestling for a free scarf.

On our way back to the hotel we found the cutest little restaurant and it was perfect last meal! The waiter once again fell in love with Camille. And the bartender made us some napkin flowers! ha.

We were sad to leave! We had such a great time... I've talked to some people that have visited Turkey and didn't like it nearly as much as I did. I think I just had a great combination of the best travel buddy, a great hotel, and not really any expectations to live up to. I would definitely go back!

Happy Holidays from south of the equator...

2011-12-18T17:47:00.001-08:00

It's true... I haven't been in India for a while now. I have lots to update... But for now all you really need to know is that I'm in Brazil and loving it. It's going to be a Brazilian Christmas (and birthday and New Years) for me this year!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Turkey Trot 2010

2011-11-30T15:24:00.000-08:00

Just cause I want to remember....

I ran it in 2010..and in 2011! Best way to start off Turkey Day if you ask me!!

I'm in India!!

2011-07-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

This blog is on a break while I'm traveling through India and Southeast Asia... Go to christinetheriault-india.blogspot.com to see what I'm up to on this awesome trip!!!

November 2010 - CRETE

2011-06-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

The day after the race, we left Athens and headed to Crete for a couple of days. We were so exhausted. We actually didn't go to bed the night. We had gone to dinner with our friends and were up late and didn't realize how early we needed to leave in the morning. So by the time we packed up our stuff, it was pretty much time to leave for the airport!

We got to Crete, went to a hotel...and slept! We were going to just take a 1 hour power nap. But it turned into a 4 or 5 hour nap!! We got up in time to watch the sun go down.

We spent 2 nights in Chania. That's it. We explored Chania and just relaxed. It was a wonderful couple of days.

Our first night there after sleeping away the day...we just walked around and looked for a place to eat. We ended up being offered lots of free drinks in hopes that we would stay for dinner or attract other tourists.. Here we are with some free Orange Juice...

We wondered around some more and met this nice guy at a little store..
He was showing us the good honey and things should buy in Greece. Then he asked us where we were staying. And when we told him, he said that we should stay at his place. He had rooms above his store that he would rent out. He showed us the room and it was much nicer and cheaper than the hotel we were at. So, the next day we moved to his hotel.

We got up the next morning and after moving our stuff to his hotel, we went for a run! It was SO beautiful!

Just look at that incredible blue sky! Such a gorgeous day. We ended up getting into the water for a little swim break during our run!

After the run we did more walking around...

And exploring...
And even got back in the water.....

And ate some more good food!!

It was just a perfect couple of relaxing days! After crete...we got back on the plane to head to TURKEY!!!!!

October 2010 - The Highlight

2011-06-28T01:02:00.000-07:00

Ok....so probably what was one of the major highlights of my trip was meeting this guy....

I don't know how many of you are basketball fans. And I'm really not sure how many of you are fans of the good ol' NBA days with Jordan and Barkley and Magic Johnson.. But this guy right here - well he played with all those guys. This is Clyde "the Glide" Drexler! He was on the original 1992 dream team!!!

And there he was in Athens Greece....on the same tour bus as me! Sitting right in front of me! Actually, when I first got on the bus, I didn't pay much attention to him. Except I remember thinking to my self as I looked forward, "they must be ball players". Him and the girl next to him were just so tall. They had to be.

Yes! I got 2 pictures with him. Don't judge.

I went up to him and said, "Can I be an annoying fan and get a picture." He said of course. And then of course everyone was asking. He's so nice though.

He was with 2 girls that I started chatting with as everyone started taking pictures with him. Turns out they had done the Great Wall marathon the same year as me so we talked about that and other things. They were so nice. Clyde and Sheri were planning on running the 10K and Sheri's sister Raquel was going to run the marathon.

We ended up bumping into them again when we went to pick up our packets. Camille got a picture this time. [Funny thing about this picture.. that blonde girl who I'm guessing was from Russia.. came up to me after she got a picture with Clyde and was like "who was that?" haha. oh people.]

Anyway - I started chatting with Sheri at the expo again while Clyde was working his magic to get into an already closed race. I guess the guy was a Clyde fan so he let them enter.

On Race day - I kept my eyes open for Sheri and Clyde but there were SO many people that I didn't think there was any way I would see them again. But there was a turn around in the race...so we passed each other. They weren't that far behind me. So I took my time at the finish line.....and look at this:

Another awesome picture. Actually - Clyde even had someone take a picture of us 3 on his phone! :) Don't worry - the story gets better!

After the race was over, they asked what I was doing. Since Sheri's sister was running the marathon and all my friends were too... they asked if I wanted to walk back to the hotel with them. Of course I said YES! After I got my stuff from the bag drop.. I walked with them back to the hotel. Clyde and I waited for Sheri in the lobby when she went to her room to get something. Fans would come up to him to talk or get his picture. He would even introduce me to his fans sometimes. "This is Christine". HA! I couldn't believe it.

I asked him if he ever got tired of having to always talk to fans. He said that it can be tiring always having to put on a face and be happy all the time. But that he is grateful for the opportunity. And that he knew that his fans only get a few seconds with him so he has to make sure they have a good experience. Seriously.. He's such a good guy.

They were hungry - so we had lunch in the hotel.. Clyde paid. Clyde took me to lunch. It was awesome to just sit down and talk. We talked about all kinds of things. Oprah, Tiger Woods, Whether he was going to buy his kids a house or not (he said no), lots of random things. I didn't ask him about his career. I didn't want to be an annoying fan. He eventually asked me if I played sports..and when I told him I played bball in HS, i think he was surprised I hadn't already mentioned that.

After lunch we walked back down to the race. And we found everyone. Camille, Beth, Sheri... and then back to the hotel again. It was a pretty sweet experience. That's for sure!!!! Clyde the Glide. Still can't believe it.

October 2010 - The Race

2011-06-27T00:51:00.000-07:00

The reason we went to Athens was to run the Athens marathon. THE marathon. The run that the marathon is named after. It starts in Marathon, Greece and ends at the Olympic stadium in Athens.

It was a bummer when I pulled out my bib and knew that I wouldn't be wearing it on race day.

I debated right up until I had to make the decision if I would still do it. But I thought that after not running for pretty much 2 months straight since I hurt my foot that it would probably be a bad idea to make my first run a marathon. So I opted on the 10K instead.

Of course Camille and most of my new friends were running the full. So, I went to the start of the 10K solo and ran through Athens. It was challenging running a 10k after not running and I knew I made the right decision by opting out of the marathon...

Some people really get into the Roman spirit..

I found Camille after she finished the marathon...

Camille ran with Beth the whole way.. We met Beth the night before at dinner.

All of us together again at the hotel......

One of the best parts about going on these international marathon trips is the people you meet! Somehow the night before the race we ended up going to dinner with a big group that was staying in our hotel:

To my left was Chuck (aka: "Marathon Junkie") who at the time had ran well over 200 marathons and had won (yes, won) 100 marathons! To my right was Don... the director of the Grand Rapids Marathon who had also ran well over 200 marathons. He's even ran the Antarctica marathon 3 times!!! He runs a marathon at least every month sometimes back to back weeks. And Beth sitting next to Camille just won a marathon for her first time a couple of weeks ago! Crazyness! I was in awe! I love hearing about all their races on FB!

Camille has met up with Beth a couple of times to run some marathons. And we both met up with Lesley and Andy for the Disney marathon weekend!

It's just so great to be able to travel half way around the world and meet such awesome people that become such good friends! It's honestly one of the best parts about these trips!

October 2010 - Greece

2011-06-27T00:37:00.000-07:00

At the end of October...and into the beginning of November... I went on an awesome trip to Greece and Turkey with my friend Camille. Camille emailed me sometime around May of last year and asked "Do you want to run the Athens Marathon?" I said "sure, why not!?" and the next thing we knew we were signed up. [Kinda like what happened with Antarctica] oy.

Anyway - it was an awesome trip. Despite the foot setback (see post below).. It was still an awesome time.

I got to Greece as planned. Camille did not. I wondered around the city by myself just exploring... And taking pictures like this with my iphone front camera. Ha.

It was a lot of fun to explore without knowing anything about anything. I just wondered. I found the Olympic stadium:

This is where the marathon ends. Pretty awesome to run into the Olympic stadium at the end of the race. I'm sure it would have been even way more awesome had I ran in after completing the marathon. :(

Of course I found me an awesome Gyros place. The food in Greece is Amazing! Loved alllll of it!

The next day.. Camille wasn't getting in until later in the afternoon. So, I went on the tour that marathon tours organized. I was bummed she wasn't there. But I met lots of great people on the tour [More on that later].

We went to the Acropolis (above). Which had a pretty sweet view (below).

We went to Zeus' temple.......

And I think we went to the Olympic stadium which I had already seen the day before.

Finally Camille arrived!!! And she joined me and my new friend Andrew (met him on the tour) and we walked around the city some more. I basically showed them what I had discovered the day before.

We played with the helmets at the store...trying to embrace the culture.......

We ate more DANG good food! Check out this meat!!! Ha. Soooo good. We even made friends with the waiter....

And we found this awesome mini (and I mean mini) garbage truck thingy:

And yes, we just got in and took a picture while no one was looking.

Later that night, at our hotel, they had a little reception thing for all the marathon tours runners. We were able to meet Katherine Switzer [The first woman to run a marathon].

Her story is pretty inspiring. http://www.kathrineswitzer.com/ She entered the Boston marathon back when women were not allowed to register and run it. And somehow, they made a mistake and let her in. During the actual marathon, a race official, literally tried to pull her out of the race. But she kept going and she finished it.

The view from the top of the hotel:

And one more...

The next day we did more of the same stuff because Camille hadn't seen any of the things I had seen. So, Andrew and I went with her... And Lesley. Another new friend we met on the trip.

PS... Athens has SO many stray dogs. They are EVERYWHERE. And they seriously all look the same....

It was a great start to a great trip... I'll do a couple of separate posts about some of the highlights!

September 2010 - A Best Friend's Wedding

2011-06-25T23:24:00.000-07:00

September was also the month one of my bestest friends from CT got married! Mckay and I became great friends out in Connecticut. My last year there we pretty much did almost everything together.

So - when he decided to marry this wonderful girl...I couldn't have been more happy for him! And there was no way I was going to miss it!

They were married in the Logan temple and it was a wonderful day. They both looked so happy which made me so happy for the both of them. Nicki is just the perfect girl for Mckay and I couldn't be happier for him.

It was SO fun to have a little mini CT reunion with old friends from a place I hold dear in my heart.

Reidster was also living in Utah at the time and so we drove up to the wedding together from SLC. It was fun to hang out with him and catch up.

And of course Ethan was there! Love this kid!

Typical picture. Me looking normal. Them not so much. :)

And of course I sported the boot. I rocked it.

Since the wedding was in Logan, I called my mission president and they had just gotten home and were so happy I called. So, I ran over there for a quick visit in between the ceremony and the reception. It was so good to see them.

I also stayed with Emily while I was in Utah and got to spend some quality time with these lovely ladies....
It was so fun to visit with my old BYU roommates. Joni was there too, but we took the pictures after she left. :(

And of course I made them take this one. :)

It was a really wonderful trip to Utah! So glad I was able to see so many wonderful friends!

The Foot

2011-06-22T00:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what was up with me last year. But it was not a good year for me as far as keeping all my limbs in working order!

While in Vegas, I went on a 12 mile run on the Friday. And I felt great. My feet also felt great. Then the rest of the weekend, we walked A LOT. Up and down the strip. And I wore flip flops just like everyone else. But by Sunday, my foot was starting to bother me. And by the end of the day, it was really bothering me. Then I noticed the next morning that it was even swollen.

I was not happy! I was worried it was a stress fracture. UGH! What was I going to do!?! I was supposed to be running the Athens Marathon in 2 months!

Anyway - after several trips to doctors...and them making me wear this:

And not really figuring out what it was. "It sounds like a stress reaction. Just stay off it" I finally found a doctor that would take an MRI. Turns out - I had tendonitis. All my tendons were inflammed. So - basically he said to take Ibprofen and stay off it and wear good shoes. And he pretty much said "No marathon for you".

Such a bummer. I had trained all the way up to a 17 mile run....and now I just had to stop. All because I wore flip flops in Vegas. And now I can't even wear flip flops anymore. Double bummer.

September 2010 - What happens in Vegas....

2011-06-22T00:01:00.001-07:00

Well... You know the rest!

I'll share some of it with you though! ;)

A group of us decided to hit up Vegas for a weekend in September! Here is everyone on our last day!

We stayed at the Paris hotel! And spent lots of time at their pool soaking up the sun!

We ate lots of good food at good restaurants [Including some Cafe Rio, of course!]. Here we are after dinner right next to the Trevi fountain at Ceasar's Palace....

And of course we had to go to Serendipity and get the oh-so-delicious fried oreo Sunday! To die for!!!! I mean look at this thing......

We did lots of walking...

Up and down the strip..... So much walking in fact that I messed up my foot. :( More on that later.

We saw some shows.....

Waiting for Blueman group to start....

We goofed around....

We roamed around some more. Lots more.

We may have gambled a little...

Don't judge.

We had lots of fun. Good weekend with Good people!

August 2010 - The Rest

2011-06-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

Oh...the rest! I got back from Montreal and the following Monday....well, it was time to go back to work! Goodbye mini retirement. Goodbye long vacation. Goodbye Sun. Goodbye Free time.

But don't you worry.. The fun still continued.

Lauren wanted to try longboarding. So, with some reluctance... I agreed. Pretty sure I also said "People die longboarding, you know?"

We borrowed some gear and we got Andrew to come along with us and give us some tips. It started out fun...

And then... well - then it happened! I fell! And alllllll the pressure of my fall shot up my left arm and into my elbow. M elbow was in SO much pain. It just didn't feel right. I could move it but not very much. I went home, iced it, and hoped it would feel better in the morning. But it felt worse. So - I took a trip to the hospital.

They told me I had a small fracture. But (thankfully) it was just a small hairline fracture. The doctor didn't really know what they were doing so I went to see a sports medicine doctor who told me to take that stupid thing off and move my elbow as much as possible so that I would get my range of motion back in my elbow. He drained the blood out of the elbow too which helped a lot. Once I started moving it, it started feeling better. I got my range of motion back and it healed up well. Sometimes It will still bug me (a year later). Like if I carry too many things with that arm. Maybe it will always be that way. I dunno.

All this hospital fun happened the same day of Lauren's birthday! So, fracture or not...I was still going to party! We had a little tea party for her at this cute little tea & crumpets place in SF!

All Lauren's girl friends came! It was a lot of fun and a great time with the ladies!

Of course when Lauren has a birthday - she goes all out. We couldn't just have one party... we had to have 2! This one was for everyone.. And she had an ice cream sandwich bar [like Diddy Riese in LA]. So yum!

Me and the birthday girl!!

Lauren, her besties, and me. I was very lucky to have Lauren as a roommate when I first moved out here. And even more lucky that she let me be friends with her and her best friends. I just love these girls!!!!

August 2010 - MTL

2011-06-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

After a good couple of days in CT - I headed up to Montreal to spend some quality time with the rest of the Fam! Everyone except Kathy & fam were there...

And I got to spend some quality time with these gorgeous kiddos!

We had lots of fun! And did lots of stuff together...

We walked around Montreal together! Em and I looked like twiners this day!

We went bowling Quebec style [with the small bowling balls of course]....

(When I was younger this was normal bowling to me. There aren't very many bowling alleys in Quebec that offer the big bowling balls and big pins).

We ate some Montreal Smoked Meat at Schwartz's. Best stuff ever!

I think it was Kim's first time experiencing Schwartz's. I'm going to assume from the smile that she liked it.

We (well...they) went on a bike ride on the island of boucherville. I actually ran all around the Island - I think I ran about 12 miles if I remember. I was training for a marathon at the time. The island was great to run on. But I was sad I missed all the biking fun.

We ate Queue de Castors (Beaver Tails) at the old port in Montreal. They are a must if you ever visit. So yummy.

We celebrated Dad's birthday!!!!

We went to see the fireworks! Montreal has a firework competition every summer. Different countries perform every week. They are usually spectacular.

We even had fun just riding in the car... Give Em and Me a camera and we are destined for fun. Here is the proof:

Even Mom joined in the fun....

We went to one of our favorite family restaurants --> St. Hubert Bbq. Grandma and Grandpa T. used to take us there all the time when we were growing up so I think we love it not only for the food but also the memories.

Speaking of Grandma --> We went to visit her for her birthday!

And of course we all tried to get as much Jenna time as we could. Pretty sure Kim and Dave didn't have to worry about holding her the entire trip! She is a cutie!

It was a great trip. The perfect way to end off my 5.5 months of freedom from work!!

August 2010 - CT

2011-06-20T01:46:00.000-07:00

August was a busy month.

First - I bought a ticket home to Montreal...but on my way, I made a stop in CT to visit some friends for a couple of days. It also just so happened that my sister & fam were going to be in town also! Perfecto!

So - I got to spend some time with them.. Swimming at their hotel and going to Cosi! And making silly faces with the kiddos! Love these kids.

I stayed with Josh and Colleen who live right on the water. And while they were busy doing something... I took the kayak out for a spin! So fun! Mckay and Nicki also joined me in the sound when they got there.

Then we had a delicious bbq....and played some singstar (nuturally).

The boys....
Against the girls.....

Of course we killed it. I mean we had Colleen (the Singstar Pro) on our team! I just love these girls!

Arroyo Secco (Also July 2010)

2011-06-19T22:05:00.000-07:00

A group of people..some from PA and some from SF decided to go down to Arroyo Secco for this pretty amazing hike/water floating day. I had heard great things about it. You hike up a little a bit and then float down the water.

I was used to taking trips with Dave H [which meant long and you always wanted to be prepared] - so I brought my food and some H2O (naturally). For some reason poor Kianna (to the right in this picture) and Ryan (not pictured here) didn't bring any. Good thing I had some to share cause what we thought was only going to be 2-4 hours...turned into 8 hours!!!

I learned a couple of lessons this day. 1 - Don't always rely on the planner to do know what they are doing. 2 - Always make sure you have plenty of water and food. and 3 - Make sure you know the way out!

It really was gorgeous. And I even jumped off a cliff.. which was way scarier than I thought it would be. Kind of a rush.

And some parts of the water was fun to just float in. But some of the little rapids really hurt. I got so bruised! SO bruised. Lots of rocks. And we were in the water for so long because we weren't with anyone that knew the way out.

Would I go again? Yes. But ONLY if the person I was going with knew what they were doing!

We were starving when we finished...and we stopped for some food. We had a choice of Outback or Denny's and for some ridiculous reason...they chose Denny's. Weird. I could have used a steak after that day for sure.

July 2010 - Cayoneering! Woot!

2011-06-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

Last year for July 4th weekend I went on a little canyoneering trip with a group of friends. We left on a Friday - drove the 12+ hours to Southern Utah... Camped near Zion's National Park...and the next morning (bright and early), we hit up the Canyons at Zions.

This was my first time going camping. And only my second time every repelling (if you count the one night my friend took a group of us to teach us the basics). It was SO much fun!!!

We did Birch Hallow, Orderville, and the Narrows canyon route in the park. It was beautiful and just so much fun repelling!

Me and Janice!

See that mud on the rock I'm standing on in the above pic?? And see the mud on my booty? Yeah - I slipped on that mud and got a little (lot) dirty.

One of the fun parts about cayoneering is just figuring out the different ways to get down certain parts of the Canyon. You had to be a little creative sometimes. We had a good group of guys that knew what they were doing and they took great care of us.

If you've been canyoneering in these canyons, you may recognize this (above). It's a part of the Canyon. And yep - that's me. I wish it was so blurry.

It was seriously SO much fun!! I want to go again! Actually - Dave (who organized this all last year) is taking another group this weekend. But unfortunately I couldn't make it.

We finished it off in the narrows...which I don't have pictures of. We walked through a few feet in the Narrows. It got dark and by the end, I was tired and hungry! But it was SO worth it. I think the only thing I would have changed is just to have gone with a big smaller group.

We rented a Condo in St-George for Saturday and Sunday night - so we headed there after the Canyons, cleaned up, ate some pizza and crashed.

The next day we went to church and relaxed at the condo playing games and stuff.

Then Monday we got back in the car for another 12+ (actually more like 15 hours with traffic) drive back! Of course it wasn't complete without a stop in Nevada somewhere to take a ride on the El D0rado roller coaster somewhere. :)

June 2010

2011-06-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

You already heard about most of June of last year - the awesome Fhelio video, Myra's trip to SF. And then to finish June off.. I took a trip to Texas to visit the nieces and nephews and of course the bro and sister. I had a good time watching baseball, going to swim meets and hanging with the kiddos.

Paige-y

Austin

Jacob - playin' and winnin'

Caleigh - getting all grown up.

Noah the swimmer

And of course Emily!

I'm Back!

2011-06-18T02:21:00.000-07:00

So - that's officially the biggest break I've ever taken! Well, brace yourselves folks.. I'M BACK!!! It's time to get this blog going again.

There is lots and lots and lots I need to update. And don't you worry - I'll just give you the highlights. But be ready for lots of blogging and lots of pictures.. :)

testing the blogpress app

2011-06-13T19:03:00.001-07:00

I like it... and here is a pic.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Coming out of Retirement

2010-08-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official. Today was my last day of my mini-retirement and tomorrow I return to the mundane routine of work. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm "ready" to go back? It's no big secret I was not a happy camper at work almost 6 months ago...but to answer everyone's question. Sure, I'm ready. Am I bored out of mind and looking forward to going to work - NOPE. I don't know what is wrong with people that say they need a job or they will get bored and go crazy. There are so many things you can do with your time. The problem for me, however, was making sure I was being productive. Time can quickly slip away if you aren't too careful.

Would I be a little more excited if I was going back to co-workers like these....

And these....

..Most definitely!

But regardless of the fact that I'm not going to back to those co-workers and the fact that I will miss my free time....I'm ready (and my bank account is definitely ready) to go back to the grind.

So, here is to the end of mini-retirement #1 (And I say "#1" because I hope there are many mini-retirements to follow throughout my life!! I'm a big believer in them now!)

Internet on Airplanes

2010-07-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

Is probably the best idea ever. I'm on my laptop right now thousands of miles above the ground updating my blog. How awesome is that? I'm even almost all the way caught up on my blog! All thanks to a 6 hour flight to NY from SFO - with nothing else to do. Totally worth the money I spent to connect and get things done!

Myra comes to Town!

2010-07-29T18:48:00.000-07:00

Myra came to visit me and we had a blast! We did SO much while she was here. I was exhausted by the time she left and took a LONG nap Sunday afternoon. :) But I loved having her here and showing her around. We took tons of pics...but since I'm airborne right now (yes, I'm flying in a plane across the country), it is taking forever for pics to load. So, maybe I'll add a few later or just put some up on FB.

What we did: Saw the "Full House" houses, drove down Lombard street, ate amazing Thai food (it was SO good and great price too!), biked across the Golden Gate bridge to a little town called Sausalito and took the ferry back to SF, sampled a bunch of salt water taffy, walked along fisherman's wharf and pier 39, went to the mechanical museum, ate clam chowder, shared a Sundae at Ghiradhelli Square, Toured the Japanese Gardens at Golden State Park, Went to Carmel, took a nap on mediterranean food. And I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting something.

We had lots of fun! Thanks for coming Myra! I had a blast with you.

Single's Paradise by FHELIO

2010-06-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

My ward had a music awards activity and all the FHE groups had to put together their own music video. We had a blast putting ours together. You can see it on Youtube (it was taking forever to download to my blog):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n4XtFUf4qA

In case you couldn't tell from the video, I totally got into it and let my ghetto-ness out. I don't think my ward knew I had that in me. Oh - we even named our group - Fhelio (pronounced "FUH-HEE-LIO").

Here are a couple of pics of us at the Stanford Music Awards. We dressed the part.

Jaren, Jem, Jon, Christine, and Nate

Oh...and we tied for 1st place with another group! Woot!

Hike 'O Death

2010-06-09T10:17:00.003-07:00

So, I was sitting at church one Sunday when my friend Dave asked what I was doing Tuesday night. He then proceeded to invite me on an overnight hike he was thinking of doing. Since my friend Katie was in town and we were kinda thinking about going to Yosemite that week - we thought this might be a good alternative since the thought of doing half dome just about scared us.

Of course the weather called for rain on Tuesday....and so Dave asked if we still wanted to go. Thinking I was tough and could handle a little rain - convinced the rest that we should still do it rain or shine.

Well - rain it did and hike we did.

We left Palo Alto about 2 hours later than planned (I've since learned that means "on-time" for Dave). We had a fun car ride down to Big Sur - sharing frostys, chatting it up, and being forced to listen to a chapter of Dave's book on tape (we squashed that pretty quick).

We got to the place we needed to be and started our Hike around 8pm - just as it was getting dark. Perfect. Dark and Rain. And 11 miles of fun ahead of us. Yep - we hiked 11 miles that night. I made the huge mistake of wearing my chacos ( sandals that I was informed are good for hiking - totally false). You'll see evidence of this later.

Ready for it! (or so I thought).

I was exhausted by about mile 8 and wanted to die at about mile 9-ish. I'm proud to say that I didn't complain and just sucked it up (and when you see the evidence of my feet you'll understand that that was impressive!

We finally got to camp at about 1am! (Right after hiking through a freezing cold river i might add). oy. We set up our tents, ate our dinner, and went to sleep (well - they all went to sleep...I lay down, eyes wide open, and finally fell asleep around 5am!)

Dave and Me

The next morning we had some delicious oatmeal for breakfast and headed to the hotsprings (the reason we came to this location). They were nice and hot. But a little small. We relaxed for a little while and then made our way back to our tents, packed up and hiked out (Another 11 miles!)

The hike was WAY better in the light, without the rain, and with wearing running shoes! It was like a whole different hike actually.

Me with Katie and Ryan

It was nice to be able to see everything around us. There were all these waterfalls that we couldn't see the night before. And the trees and wildflowers were beautiful.

Was the hike worth it? Yes. Would I do it again? Not in the rain and never wearing those stupid sandals. But it was definitely worth all the memories! Overall I had an awesome time.

Oh..and sorry this next picture is kind of gross....but now you can see why I was impressed that I didn't complain. My feet were torn up. I couldn't wear shoes for 2 weeks after that hike. I could only wear flip flops. My feet were swollen and those cuts were deep. I still have scars from it 2 months later.

I learned a lot from this hike. 1 - Always listen to Dave (he told us exactly what to bring/wear, etc.) and 2 - Don't voluntarily go in the rain. Dumb idea.

A-town!

2010-06-09T10:17:00.001-07:00

Back in May....me and a couple of my girl friends from CT decided to meet up in A-town to surprise our friend Michelle and have a little girls weekend!! I spent a couple of days hanging out with these lovely ladies.....

Maya, Carolyn, Me, and Michelle

It was such a GREAT weekend! Maya, Carolyn and I got a hotel in the city and spent the first day relaxing by the pool. We then surprised Michelle - who had no idea we were in town and took her to dinner!

Saturday, we spent more time by the pool....but then Maya and I decided we wanted to venture around A-town and at least try to see some of it! :) Carolyn was happy just to sit and read by the pool all day...so we left her and headed towards the Coca Cola Museum.

Unfortunately we were a little late and didn't make it in time for the last tour so we just walked around and took pictures. I have been to the one in Vegas so I wasn't as bummed as poor Maya who really wanted to see it. Next time, I guess.

We walked across the street to the Olympic Park and just enjoyed the sun and the scenery and took more pictures.

Maya and I spotted the EY building.... and of course had to take a picture. Oh - that's how I know these awesome ladies. We all worked together in CT! If there is any reason why I am happy I worked in CT it was because of the awesome people I worked with! They are such amazing friends!

Saturday night was awesome! Michelle met us at our hotel and then we headed to this Tapas restaurant that my friend told me about. It was good. We just kept ordering more and more food. They kept ordering more and more drinks! ha. We knew we were about to have a hell of a night!

Michelle's friend (I think his name was Dwight) met up with us and decided to show us some of the A-town night life. So, we headed to a couple of night clubs after our awesome dinner.

I wish I had my camera with me at the clubs. You would think we were a bunch of 18-year olds out partying it up. We were out until way too late! Let's just say the ladies were very happy to have a designated driver with them! ;) Pretty sure we didn't get back to our hotel until almost 4 in the morning....and Maya and Carolyn had to leave by 8 the next morning to catch their flight. Ha. It was definitely a night to remember.

Thanks for the awesome weekend ladies!

We need to do this again soon!!! Perhaps the west coast this time? :)

After I dropped Carolyn and Maya off at the airport, I headed up to Sharon's to spend a few days with her and the boys! I love visiting Sharon at her house and spending time with her family. They are so wonderful. I had a lot of fun watching the boys play baseball and going out to dinner with Sharon and it was fun to visit with Micah. I only wish I took some pictures!!!! Ugh! Next visit, Sharon...don't let me leave until we get at least one good picture together!!

Jaime & Danny get Hitched!

2010-06-09T10:16:00.003-07:00

I got back from Egypt late Monday, spent ALL day Tuesday doing stuff for Jaime's shower that I was in charge of putting together, and drove all day Wednesday down to San Diego! Oy... I was exhausted! Jet lag was in full force and I had no time to sleep and try to get back to "normal"!

Thursday was spent helping Jaime and getting things for the shower and wedding. Lots of shopping and cooking! But everything turned out great!

The table all decorated for the shower!

Making and frosting cookies in the shapes of wedding dresses is not as easy as one would think! They kept breaking on me! Luckily enough of them didn't break and I thought they turned out pretty darn cute (at least for an amateur cookie decorator)!

The food! I made this super delicious french toast casserole and a yummy egg & sausage breakfast casserole! Steph was kind enough to buy and cut up the fruit to go along with it. Everything was delicious.

Jaime got LOTS of lingerie! She was not lacking in that department after this shower...that's for dang sure! :)

We had a great time. We had the shower the day before her wedding because none of her family or close friends live in San Diego. This way we could all be there for it. I'm glad I got to put that together for her. Jaime is SO wonderful and she definitely deserved a party in her honor!

The night before her wedding, they had a get together at the beach for family and close friends. Love that Jaime lives in San Diego. The beach was gorgeous.

We had a good time. We just chatted, hate hot dogs and smores and chatted.

I loved getting to know Danny's family better. He has the BEST sisters - Christy and Julie! Jaime is lucky to marry into such a wonderful family. I think I spent most of my time at the beach get together and reception with them.

Getting our hair done before the wedding!

All the bridesmaids waiting for Jaime to come out! Yep - there were a lot of us! Danny had even more groomsmen!

They did it!!!!

Jaime did a great job putting together the outfits, don't you think!? This is SO Jaime. Didn't surprise me one bit when she told me they shoes were lime green! This girl is crazy. She died all our shirts the same color. And she dyed all the groomsmen shoes too! How this girl was able to get everything done, I have no idea!

The Happy Couple!

The boys! See the shoes - those were white when she bought them!

The Carpenter Family

Wedding Cupcakes!

Me and the lovely bride! I love this girl! Was SO happy I could be there for her big day!

Danny's sister made all these cupcakes! They turned out great!

I love this picture. It was there last dance together before they left the reception. Almost everyone had cleared out to get ready to blow bubbles at them as they ran to their car. So sweet.

Congrats Jaime & Danny! I love you guys! :)

Eqypt - Been There, Done That!

2010-06-09T10:16:00.001-07:00

Wow. What. A. Country!!! I've always wanted to go to Egypt. See the great pyramids, ride a camel, see all that amazing history you hear about. In fact, I almost went a few years ago. Even bought a tour book about it.

And now that I've been, I have no plans on going back. Don't get me wrong - I'm really happy I went. Seeing the Pyramids and experiencing the culture was cool and all....But that country is kind of crazy! The people are rude, the food will make you sick (guaranteed), and it is dirty, dirty, dirty!

Been there, Done that. It is checked off the list! I definitely saw some amazing things! Here are some pics in no particular order.....

The Great Pyramids of Giza - which by the way....are right outside of the city of Cairo if you didn't know that. Most people think they are far out in the desert somewhere. Nope - they are right next to the city! I went in the 2nd Pyramid (pictured in the middle) - It looks like the biggest from this picture...but it's actually a little smaller than the one on the left which is called "The Great Pyramid"!

We kind of had a whirlwind trip in Egypt. We drove all the way from Galilee area of Israel (we left at 2am) to the very southern tip of Israel to the only border crossing you can go through. You get off the bus in Israel, walk across the border, and get on a bus in Egypt. (No Israeli buses can cross the border). Took the bus to Cairo, visited a museum until it was time to catch the night train to Luxor. Visited Luxor all day and caught another night train back to Cairo, visited Cairo all day until most people flew out. A few of us stayed an extra night in a fancy hotel so we were able to shower and relax before we flew out the next night! Whew! Talk about packing it in!

This is in Luxor - someones big tomb/temple thingy. Everything is some kind of tomb. Ha.

In front of "The Great Pyramid" of Giza.

Inside some Mosque that they happened to open and let us in. We girls had to cover everything up!

Taking a ride on a camel! Not going to lie - I had fun doing this!

On the train ride back to Cairo - playing some cards. We even got our train guy Sayid to play with us!

In Luxor. Amazing how huge these columns are! To give you perspective - that is a person standing at the bottom! Amazing that they built this a million (ok - maybe not millions - but it's been a while) years ago!

In front of the Pyramid we went in! I hate to burst your bubble - but it's kinda anticlimactic inside the pyramid! And a little claustrophobic.

The Sphinx!

A cool looking Mosque - that we did not go in.

Cool HUGE statues!

In Luxor

Luxor - at the tomb/temple thingy

At our fancy hotel we girls stayed at our last night in Cairo! With a view of the Pyramids! It felt so good to be back in "western civilization"!!!

Spent most of the day doing this! Awesome pool!

We ventured across the street to get this ice cream. We pretty much saw our lives flash before our eyes trying to cross the dang street!! Insane drivers. And just about every single car that drove by honked and waved at us. It's exhausting being a white, female in this country! We decided that being outside the walls of our fancy hotel was not that fun....

So we went back and walked around the hotel taking pictures!

And relaxed, drinking fun drinks like this...Until it was time to leave for the airport to catch our 1am flight back to the US of A!

Such a fun trip! So glad I went to both Israel and Egypt! You don't always get opportunities like that so I'm really happy I jumped on it! Perfect way to start my LOA from work!

Israel

2010-06-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

Shortly after I decided to take a little break from work, I found out that a spot had opened up in the Israel/Egypt trip that my institute teacher was taking a bunch of people too. So, what does someone like me do? Well, you buy a ticket and go!

It was quite an adventure! I really need to organize all my pics and write down everything we did....But because I need to get my blog up to date - here are a few of the pics for now!

A view of Jerusalem from the BYU Jerusalem Center.

The Wailing Wall - Very cool experience to see this.

Stepping out of the Garden Tomb.

A few of us just outside the walls to old Jerusalem.

Having fun at the Dead Sea!

The sign says it all...

At Capharnaum

Jordan River - You can see on the right side of the picture someone in the water. All these people would buy these white robes and go immerse themselves in the water. Interesting.

Having a meal in Nazareth - "2000 year old Menu" meal. It was actually really good!

Walking on the Sea of Galilee!

We really did so much.... Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Garden Tomb, Gethsemane, Masada, Dead Sea, Nazareth, Jordan River, Sea of Galilee, Sermon on the Mount... I'm sure I'm not even remembering half the things. It was such an amazing experience to walk where the Savior walked and to experience everything we did. It has made reading the Bible and scriptures that much better because I can picture what I actually saw. Not that you need that - but it's cool now that I have that.

I definitely recommend going to Israel. I didn't feel like I was in danger at all. It's a beautiful country with such amazing history. It's not to be missed if you can make the journey!

It's official --> Antarctica here we come!

2010-06-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

I found out yesterday that my friend Camille and I are finally officially confirmed for the Antarctica 2011 Marathon!!!! Remember this? And how I signed up right after getting back from China to run the Antarctica Marathon? Well...3 years later - it's actually going to happen! And considering I'm SO out of shape right now, I'm kinda freaking out about it!

But don't worry....I also signed up to run the Athens Classic Marathon in October to help me get in shape before Antarctica! It's the 2500th anniversary of the original marathon from Marathon, Greece to Athens and we are going to run the original course! How cool is that?

Don't ask me why I do crazy things like this.. I still don't even like running! But for some reason that I can't quite explain, I am super excited about both of these runs! I think it has to do with the feeling you get from crossing the finish line. Nothing really compares to that sense of accomplishment.

Mini Retirement

2010-06-02T12:29:00.000-07:00

Or perhaps the better way of putting it is extended vacation. I haven't been working since March 1st and it has been the best thing I could have ever done. I was extremely burnt out at work and needed a break and thankfully HR was willing to work with me and give me the time off I needed to re-energize or whatever. People keep asking me if I'm bored and I can honestly say that I am not the least bit bored. I love not working. I have kept myself busy with moving, traveling, coaching bball, running, and reading/studying.

Now if only I could find a way to make money doing this. That or find myself a rich husband!? :) Anyway, as of right now I'm heading back to work in August. Although I'll miss my time off, my bank account is going to be happy to see some income again.

Football

2010-05-30T02:13:00.000-07:00

There are many things I love about living in California. One of them is the fact that you can be outside year round! Back in December I joined the ward Flag Football team!

Every year the Stanford ward plays the San Francisco ward in the "Battle of the Bay" friendly competition. We played a scrimmage game against the Stanford 1st ward and killed them (to put it lightly). It was SO much fun and I pretty much fell in love in flag football. (As a side note - I also, accidentally, gave some girl on the 1st ward team a shiner! oops!)

This is the team before the big game against SF ward - when we were still all so clean!

And after the game....not so clean!! It was more like mud football since it had rained a ton the day before!

We ended up with a tie game so not exactly the outcome we were wanting....but I guess at least we didn't lose (like the guys did)! Oh..and we even had a mascot (Our Bishop) and 2 fantastic coaches.

We are supposed to be playing Hungtington Beach ward in a few weeks so we are starting up practices again! I can't wait to play. I just wish we had enough people to get a league going.

Chilliwack, Canada!

2010-05-22T23:16:00.000-07:00

In February, I bought a last minute ticket to go up to Chilliwack B.C. to visit Grandpa and see Mom & Dad who were also out west to spend time with Grandpa Peel!

I am so glad that I went! I had a wonderful time visiting with Grandpa, putting together puzzles, and just chatting with him. His memory isn't so good these days so I feel like any time I get to spend with him is a blessing.

I was really stressed with my situation at work and really, really, really needed to get away so it worked out as a perfect little vacation to spend time with family and see some of Western Canada.

I happened to be in BC the week before the Olympics were starting. So, I got to see the Olympic torch pass through town!

And saw all the Canadians with their Olympic fever! It was so great to see "Go Canada Go" everywhere I went and see all that Canadian pride!

We tried to see some of the Olympic stuff in the city, but nothing was really open to the public yet. This was about as close as we got to anything.

Vancouver is really a great city. And so beautiful!

We went to some park to walk across a suspension bridge.

On the bridge!!

It was a gorgeous area so we went on a little walk and explored a little bit. There were a couple of little water falls and the trees were massive.

Dad and Me on Vancouver Island with the bridge in the background.

Mom & Dad in a tree trunk!

Of course we stopped to take a look at the Totem Poles!

It was a perfect getaway weekend! I love going back to Canada - it really is such a beautiful country!

Can You Jump?

2010-05-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

I love to take jumping pictures. And so I gathered the troops and we started to "TRY" to get a good jumping picture. But apparently our family is not the best at getting up in the air all together at the same time!

2 up, 2 down

Steve looks good - but that's pretty much it.

1 up, 3 down.

2 up, 2 down (again).

Not sure what in the world made us think we could do it with 5 when we couldn't do it with 4. but we gave it a shot.....

3 up, 2 down

Laughing at our ridiculous failures and giving up.

Maybe with 3 people?

2 up, 1 down

1 up, 2 down

And oh my goodness...we finally have a winner! We finally did it!

And just because it looks like I have mad hops in this one.

Texas New Year

2010-04-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

I spent New Years in Texas with the family. The first day I was in Texas, we all drove down to San Antonio to go to Sea World! Everyone was there except for Dave and Kim who flew in that night.

We watched some of the shows together. I think we are watching the Sea Lion show here. I just saw the movie/documentary The Cove. It's all about Dolphin slaughtering. I'm not sure how much i'll be going to Sea World after seeing that movie.

Janet and Austin watching the Sea Lions!

We got to go on a couple of roller coasters. Definitely my favorite part of any kind of amusement park. This was the Steel Eel. You can tell from Caleigh's face below that it was a good time. :) She looks like she wants to die.

Not really sure what I was going here. I thinkg we were waiting for the kiddo's to go on the kiddy rides...

And decided to have our own fun killing time by taking jumping pictures!

We went on some water ride and somehow Kathy and I managed to get ourselves drenched in water. I'm still not sure how everyone else got away so dry.

The kids on the kid ride that they shut down when the wind started to blow too hard.

We took some walks to the park....

And played some Bocce Ball!

Isn't little Jenna the custest thing ever?? Gotta love this baby.

We made some delicious donuts with maple glaze!!

And some with just powdered sugar! Yum.

And even though they were so good....we had to go try out Gordough's in Austin!

The owner was there and I guess she used to make these donuts for friends/family and everyone always loved them...so she decided to open her own place. Check out the flavors! I really wanted to try the "Mother Clucker" but they were all out of chicken.

Steve was very happy with his selection. It Granny's Pie with some kind of Graham Cracker, Caramel, banana goodness..

Waiting patiently for the donuts!

I can't even imagine why Austin was so sad when he was about to get the best donut of his life! I mean, check these things out!?!!

Em was loving life!

And so was I! :)

We almost always go bowling when we are in Texas...but this time we played some mini putt instead.

The course was a little ghetto, but it was a good time. These paper mache looking things are seriously ancient.

It's no surprise that Dave would take this picture. "Scoop the Poop". ha ha.

One of the things I love about getting together with the family is playing games. We played Bang, Ticket to Ride, and a lot of banagrams!

Dave was nearly impossible to beat at banagrams (aka - speed scrabble).

Apparently choosing a chocolate from this box was a difficult decision for Kim and Me....

It was so much fun to spend time with my nieces and nephews! Sometimes I really wish I lived a lot closer to them so I could spent more time with them.

And I'm pretty sure that Jenna was the most popular girl around! Everyone wanted to be holding her and playing with her!

It's always fun to visit everyone in Texas. I'm planning to go back for a visit in June sometime.

Dirty Thirties

2010-04-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

I'm not entirely sure how I got to be this old, but I did. I still feel like I'm in my early 20's...I wonder if that mentality ever changes or if we always just think we feel younger than we are?

This was my very first birthday (not counting the ones on the mission) that I wasn't with my family. (When your birthday is 3 days after Christmas, it's rare that your family isn't together for it).

I woke up to the doorbell sometime in the morning and to my surprise it was a delivery for me! I was so excited that my parents sent me these flowers and balloon! It meant the world to me that they thought to do that!

And then my wonderful roommate Lauren came home from work with Kara's Cupcakes and took me to dinner! It was a perfect, simple birthday...and the best way to turn 30.

Skipping Christmas

2010-04-22T20:15:00.001-07:00

I decided to do things a little differently this year for Christmas. I decided that since the whole fam would be together for New Years, that I would go to Texas then which meant I was on my own for Christmas.

I was talking to my good friend Cassidy one day and when she told me she was doing the same thing...I thought, what the heck! Why not go to Vegas and hang out with Cassidy over Christmas. And I'm so glad I did. I flew in on the 23rd and we spent the day and the next relaxing, watching movies, eating sushi and good food.

Then Christmas morning I woke up when I wanted to, went for a run, we made a delicious breakfast, went to see Sherlock holmes, and then we of course went gambling. Don't worry, we only spent about $5 on slot machines.

For dinner, we went to Serendipity! I had never been to the one in NY so I was excited to go try out the famous frozen hot chocolate.

The food was good, the frozen hot chocolate was better, but the deep fried oreo sundae was to die for!!! Seriously - it was SO good! If you go, skip the frozen hot chocolate and go for the oreos. They will not dissapoint.

Then we enjoyed some free entertainment courtesy of the Bellagio (to Christmas music) and the Mirage Volcano!

The strip was surprising packed with people! Apparently we weren't the only people that thought about going to the strip for Christmas. I think one of the main reasons is that everything (minus the mall) is open.

I even got to see Heather and Kyleen the next day! Heather was down from Utah to spend Christmas with her family.

I honestly had a great time skipping Christmas. It was definitely different than any other year, but I don't regret it one bit. Cassidy was the best host and we had a blast together!

JY comes to PA

2010-04-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

My girl Jaime came up for a weekend in December and we had a great, great time together! It was fun to finally have someone come here to visit me! My first visitor actually.

I picked her up at the airport, we got some food, and then we headed to Half Moon Bay.

And we walked around the beach and got a little picture happy! It was such a gorgeous day and the beach was so amazing.

We love jumping pictures!

Our little fighting series of pictures...

More pictures

Ocean Foam

JY is happy to be here...can't you tell? PS - those were some extra sunglasses I had in car.. They kinda swallowed her face.

Cool Trees

The next day, we headed to San Francisco to spend the day and see the sites! We started off with some oh-so-good chowder in a bread bowl!! Delicious!!

Looked at Alcatraz from afar.

And thought I was going to be able to show Jaime all the seals at Pier 39...but according to the information girl at the Pier, all the seals left sometime in July and hadn't been back! Remember these pictures from when Steve and Janet came? Yeah - well, it definitely didn't look like that this time. Weird. I wonder if they are back?
Jaime and I were way excited to go get our GOcar to tour around the city! Check this thing out....

It was SO much fun. Just a tad bit cold though. We followed a GPS tour and the radio talks to you and tells you where to turn and what you are looking at. It was great (minus the cold)!

Aren't you so jealous of us right now? I bet you wish you had cool helmets and a GoCar to tour your city in.

The Golden Gate bridge!

They warn you when you rent the car that it can make it up all the hills on the tour, but if you go off the guided tour...it can't guarantee it will make it up. After going up some of those SF hills, I am grateful we stayed on the path and didn't have to push the car up any hills.

Just getting some more pictures of the bridge. We got out and walked around the museum/fort thing they have under the bridge.

The tour lasted about two hours and it ended with Lombard street! One of the crookedest streets in town (but not THE most crooked street...which we drove down in my car later that night).
After we returned the GoCar, we headed over to the "Full House" houses and took a picture. It was dark by the time we got there so this is the only one that turned out....

And of course no day would be complete without stopping at Ghirardelli square! We were so cold from the afternoon in our little convertible GoCar that I opted for the hot chocolate instead of ice cream!

Sunday we went to church and then headed over to Stanford Campus to walk around. We had a little too much fun taking pictures with all the Rodin statues outside the museum and on campus.

The Gates of Hell...I remember seeing this at the D'orsay museum in Paris.

Jaime helping complete the statue!

Jaime copying the statueAbout the closest thing I've had to a boyfriend out here.

Me copying the statue

Jaime and Me on campus

hmmm... I learned this from Mckay in Portugal.

It was so great to have Jaime here! I wish she lived a little closer so we could have more fun weekends like this together! Hopefully this will convince some of you people to come visit me!??! Do it sooner than later cause I'm not sure how much longer I'll be here...

Orlando - Training

2010-04-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

As soon as I got back from Europe, I had to fly straight down to Florida for new manager training in Orlando.

We stayed at the Marriott World Center. I had actually stayed here when I was younger when my dad had a conference for work down in Orlando. I remember being so amazed at the hotel when I was young....and now it was just another a hotel. Still nice, but it just doesn't have the same affect it did when I was a kid!

I was very happy that a couple of my co-workers from Stamford were there. I spent pretty much my entire week with them. I still miss the Stamford crew.

Besides all the boring and pointless training, the week wasn't too bad. They took us to Seaworld one night where it was only open to us. They had tons of food, the rides were open, we got our very own Shamoo show, and our very own fireworks!

We also had a fun little casino night and I ended up winning the last hand (after having to "buy-in" about 5 times. ha ha). And all I have to show for it is this picture...

The last day they gave us drums and tried to brainwash us about how great our jobs are. Don't worry, it didn't work. But I did have fun banging on the drums. :)

Portugal!

2010-01-08T20:03:00.001-08:00

Yep, I know. I have failed once again to keep my blog updated. A lot has changed in my life recently and I have found myself with a little extra time, so my goal is to get this thing all updated!

Starting with finishing my posts on my trip to Europe last year. I already posted about the Spain and Morocco portion...but never got around to posting any pictures of Portugal! So here they are!

Mckay and I arrived in Lisbon and walked around the city before Candice met up with us. I really liked Lisbon a lot more than I thought I would.

All the sidewalks and squares are all made out of this flat stone and in very cool mosaic designs. The only inconvenience was how slippery they got when it rained! But besides that, I absolutely loved it! Imagine how much work when into designing sidewalks like this all over the city!?

Another great thing about Lisbon during the time of the year we were there, was all the Christmas lights! Every street had some kind of lights.

It looked amazing throughout the city. It was fun just to walk around and admire all the lights, sidewalks and buildings which were almost all made with tile.

The next morning we got up and headed towards St. George's Castle which can be seen from almost anywhere in the city.

We grabbed some breakfast right outside the castle...which of course was a little overpriced, but we enjoyed the omelets and fries (I think fries comes with just about everything in Lisbon!).

PS....if you ever go to Lisbon, be prepared to always be sent goat cheese with your meal...which will be added to your bill if you don't send it back right away!

A view of the city from St. George Castle.

Mckay doing what he does best.

More pictures from inside and around the castle

And more of Mckay...being Mckay.

This is Lisbon's Cathedral and oldest building.

Eating Pastille de Belem! So delicisious! We bought tons of these while we were there!

This monument (called the Monument of the Discoveries) was out in Belem which is just about a 20 or 30 minute train ride out of the city.

These pictures were taken from the Tower of Belem.

Looks a little like the Golden Gate, yes? no?

Gorgeous Sunset!

On top of the Monument of the Discoveries!

This was a little town just a little bit further by train from Belem. I think it was called Caiscais. Mckay was hoping we would find some good seafood here....but I don't think we were successful.

I thought this building looked cool and had taken the picture the first night I was in Lisbon. It was the train station...which we didn't realize until we took the train back from Belem and walked out the front door.

We definitely took the trolley for a ride around the city on our last day in Lisbon! It was a lot of fun and we got to see more of the city.

We left Lisbon and headed out to Sintra to see Moorish Castle and catch a glimpse of the palace. We wished we would have planned our day a little better because we really liked Sintra and could have used a little more time there.

A view of the palace from the castle

Pictures climbing around the castle. Very cool. Probably one of our favorite parts of the trip.

After the castle closed, we went back down to the town and walked around the streets and did a little shopping. We even ran into the Elders who were also doing a little shopping on their Pday!

We ended the day with a great meal and then headed back to Lisbon to catch our night train to Madrid!

Europe 2009 - Part 1

2009-12-28T22:41:00.000-08:00

Actually - it's really part 2 because I'm doing these entries a little backwards. I went to Europe for thanksgiving yet again! I flew into Lisbon, Portugal and then headed to Spain! I'm blogging about the Spain portion first.

We relied quite a bit on Rick Steve's for our trip. I never really plan that much before these European vacations so a book always comes in handy! What I loved about Ricks Steve's book is that he has all these self-guided tours in it so you don't need to pay extra for the tours when you go places. Just follow along in his book. We used it quite a bit.

So - we took the night train from Lisbon to Madrid. I've done night trains before but never paid for the bed. The beds are such a good decision. Got to Madrid rested enough to actually do something!

Here we are are Km Zero in the center of Puerto Del Sol...pretty much the middle of Spain.

Puerto Del Sol

This was the BEST pastry shop ever. We stopped here just about every time we walked by.

Me and Mckay eating delicious pastries!

Plaza Mayor

I thought this guy in the Plaza Mayor was hilarious! The things people do for money.

Walking around Madrid.

Mckay and me in front of the Palacio Real

Attempting to be Egyptian in front of the Temple of Debod (an egyptian temple)

The colors of the trees were amazing! I love fall!

I travelled with Candice (a girl I knew from BYU) and Mckay, my friend from CT. And then Candice's boyfriend met up with us a little later in the trip. This is us with the Palace in the background.

Madrid's very own leaning/twin towers....

Day 2 in Madrid was much more relaxing. This was about the middle of our trip and we were getting a little tired so took advantage of the fact that we had to be in Madrid for 2 days to relax. Mckay and Candice went to the gym of our hotel and I went for a run outside. I ended up finding this awesome park. It had a 1600 meter track that went around the park. In the center was a couple of driving ranges, futbol fields, and parks for kids. They even had a "stretching" zone with these cool structures for specific stretches. If I lived close to this park, I would probably go just about every day.
Eating Paella in Madrid somewhere. I was not a fan. I don't know if I just happened to have bad Paella or it's just not as good as I thought. I've had some in the US and loved it - but it was different. This was hands down probably our worst meal. Oh well..

Mckay decided to get a European haircut.

Candice and I just hanging out and waiting for Mckay to be done.

The finished product!

We needed to rent a car because the next day we were heading down to southern Spain! So, we found this great deal for a car online from SixT. I read some reviews online and they were horrible!!!
But we decided to chance it anyway because it would save us a ton of money if it worked out fine. There were all these reviews online about people getting charged ridiculous amounts of fees. But we didn't have any of those problems. Everything worked out great! And our Volkswagen was great!
The best part of Madrid was being able to go to a Real Madrid game! They played Zurich and won of course. It was so much fun to be there. We had great seats (9 rows from the field).

Mckay was of course in heaven!

And I made sure to wear the appropriate attire. :)

Day 3 of spain (day 6 of our whole trip) - we were on the road headed towards Granada.

We made a little pit stop in Consuegra to check out the windmills.

How cool are these things?

Then we made it to Granada and went to the Alhambra! Very cool place. It is massive. So much to see. Unfortunately, this was also our worst weather day so our desire to be outside for long periods of time was not the greatest. It was so rainy.
One of the rooms in the palace. If you stand in one corner and whisper, then the person standing in the opposite corner can hear your whispers! There is a place in Grand Central station that also does this. We had a little fun whispering to each other.

Love this picture

A view of the city from the Alhambra

Walking around Granada. Such a quaint little city. I really liked it.

The next day we headed south to Tarifa, Spain (very souther tip of Spain). This is also where the Mediterranean sea meets the Atlantic Ocean! So - to the left of me is the Mediterranean and to the right is the Atlantic Ocean! We didn't go touch the water, but apparently they are different temperatures. Pretty cool.

Those mountains behind Mckay and me is Africa!

On the rooftops of Tarifa, Spain

The ferry we took to Morocco! Just a quick 40 minute ferry ride!

Europe is on the left, Africa is on the right!

So typical.

So - Tangier, Morocco! Wow! Quite an experience. Mckay hated it. I didn't. But I also didn't love it. It was interesting. Would I go to Morocco again? Yes, I plan to. But probably not Tangier. The minute we stepped off the ferry we were harassed by locals one after the other of men trying to be our tour guide for money. We were aware that this would happen (thanks to Rick Steve's) - but wow, I don't think I realized how relentless they would be. We seriously (and literally) had to run away from them. We finally lost them when we turned into a local market.

Arabic is their first language, but french is their second language. So thankfully I could understand signs and talk to people if I needed to. We walked around the non-tourist area first. And no one was bothering us which was great. We saw people selling live chickens and lots of interesting (and gross) things. Mckay hated it. We eventually found ourselves in a more modern part of town and got some grub.

FYI - shrimp in Europe (or at least Portugal, Spain, and Morocco) always comes with the head on. Gross. Thank you North America for cutting that off for us. It's much appreciated.

This was a mosque with all the muslims exciting after prayer. By the way - they announce that is time for prayer over loud speakers throughout the city.
Right beyond this point is what is called the "Casbah". There were lots of small, winding streets that you easily got lost in with lots of little shops were every bugs you to buy their stuff.
We got SO lost in the Casbah! Mckay was getting so frustrated and hating the place even more than he did in the beginning. We just kept heading downhill and eventually made it out! We then raced for our ferry because we didn't want to get stuck there after dark. We made it just in time...and I took this picture as we sailed away! So - I've now been to Africa! After next year, the only continent I will have yet to step on is Australia.

This road separates the Mediterranean and the Atlantic!

The Atlantic - I just liked this picture.

This picture gives you an idea of how close the 2 continents are!

On our way back from Tarifa, Spain to our hotel - we made a little pit stop in Gibraltar - a little piece of the UK all the way in southern spain! It's pretty much that big rock.
It was weird to just be in the UK all of a sudden. Everything in English and Pounds. Strange! We didn't really stick around...we just wanted to say we went!

Welcome to heaven (aka - our hotel!). We stayed here a couple of nights and it was amazing. The amazing part. We got it for 65 Euros! Yep - that's right folks - we got a steal of a deal!

It had gigantic chess, mini putt, a million pools, and the freaking beach!!! How amazing is that?

And this was our "apartment" as they called it! 2 bedroom, 2 bath, full kitchen, living room, washer/dryer, everything! It was amazing!

How can you not love staying here? I only wish we could have stayed here all week!
I even got to put my feet in the Mediterranean! Unfortunately it was a little too cold to put much more than that in.

We sadly left our hotel Saturday morning to head to Sevilla, Spain!

What a fantastic city! I loved this place. I only wish we would have had more time to visit! I just loved the city. The architecture and the atmosphere. Everything about it. I want to go back some day.

The Cathedral. One of the largest in Europe.

Inside the Alcazar! Amazing place.

Eating tapas and churros! so yummy.

Another picture of the cathedral

One of my favorite sites in the city - Plaza de Espana. So amazing.

We left Sevilla kind of late and headed up to Madrid because our flight was leaving the next day. We finally made it to Madrid at about 3am and decided to try the Formula1 hotels Jason and Ashley told me about. It was no beach resort...but it did the job.
It took me a while to fall asleep. The walls/door is not very sound proof. And you could smell cigarette smoke through the door. But once I was asleep all was well. And my flip flops came in handy for the public showers. I think formula 1 hotels are a fantastic idea though. Only about 30 Euros for a room!
The last day we pretty much just headed to the airport! We were going to swing by the temple..but woke up a little too late. This was the last picture of the trip..waiting to board our flight back to NY!

It was a fantastic trip! And I continue to still love Europe! I've been every single year the past 5 years. I think if I go in 2010 that I really, really want it to be Greece! Greece or maybe Norway and Sweden. Any takers?

Christmas Fun with a Party Planner

2009-12-28T22:27:00.000-08:00

I happen to live with a party planner. No, not her profession - but it should be. She has planned at least one party every month since I moved in and she always has the next idea on her mind!

Christmas was the perfect excuse to put together a party...so my wonderful roommate Lauren planned an ugly sweater christmas party!

Lauren, Gloria, Me, and Kristine before everyone else arrived.

My roommate Jenine has TONS of christmas decorations all over the house. Lots of little things here and there that she collected over the years I guess. It was nice that the decorating was already done for us for our party.
Lauren made ginger bread men for everyone and we had lots of other yummy food.

I was SO ready for the party to start!

This guy won one of the prizes. A bit much, don't you think??

Cary, Gloria and Me

My gorgeous roommate and party planner Lauren! We made our shirts. Hers was amazing...the tree even lit up!

This was my favorite "couple" of the night! Pretty sure Brian was ready to throw me out the window every time I referred to him and his partner. :)

Bradshaw loves his Canadians. (He was wearing a sweater made in Canada)

And just 2 days AFTER the ugly Christmas Sweater Party...we had a roommate dinner! Annette has the 12 days of christmas china set that she wanted to use and Lauren got a huge ham from work for Christmas...so naturally, we had a little get together!

Scary picture, I know. But the ham was really good. Actually - all the food was!

So was the desert! Lauren had some of her delicious chocolate cake her grandma sent all the way from Canada. And I made some Tarte Au Sucre (Sugar Pie) - a quebecois desert. It was so good!

Party planning and hosting can get a little exhausting (which I definitely was after this weekend)....but I am so grateful to have a roommate that loves to be social! If you ever need a party planner, I have her number!

Oh....and this is what happens to me when I'm tired from all the partying - I rock out to some Celine Dion Christmas music...

Progressive Dinner

2009-12-28T22:17:00.000-08:00

I live in EPA (East Palo Alto). I usually just tell people I live in Palo Alto and then they think I'm rich. Then when I clarify that I'm actually in East Palo Alto, they give me a look like I'm crazy. I guess it has a reputation of being the "ghetto". But I think EPA is just fine.

We decided to have a little EPA progressive dinner with all the houses in our area with members from our ward. Lauren (my roommate) planned it and it was a success.

Walking from the hors d'oeuvre house to the salad house.

Karen with her lovely salad.

At home getting ready for the main course

We had grilled salmon, tri-tip, veggie kabobs, asparagus, corn and green beans. We out did ourselves. It was amazing!

Enjoying the delicious dinner

And then to the final house for a little desert!