December 2008 in pictures...sort of

December 2008 was a great month. And I am, for the most part, horrible at taking pictures. We did a ton of stuff like everyone seems to during this time of year but my picture documentation seems to be lacking. The funny part about this is that I always, without fail have my camera with me. I just don't snap the shots.

The first part of the month was marked by holiday parties... I do have printed pictures from my holiday party but I didn't take any on my camera. The chances of getting those pictures to this blog are pretty slim to none. Oh well.

The second week of the month I was in Alaska. I have a picture that was taken by a restaurant up there when we took my coworker out for his birthday. Again, probably will not get that picture onto this website.

But then, at the middle of the month, I started to take more pictures!

Tim's birthday, December 15 and the cake I got for him. Yum!

For one of his presents, I blind folded him and drove him to it. Awesome. The blindfold was the first present he opened. Notice in the background the beginnings of the snow...

Birthday boy! With his stack of presents minus the one we had driven to earlier in the day and after a dinner out at Purple, a cool wine bar in Seattle.

And on his birthday night, the snow started to fall....

Ok, so one of his birthday presents also benefited me. That's ok, right? I bought us all stockings from pottery barn and had them embroidered. And yes, there are stockings for the cats. This might seem retarded but cats live for 20 years, people! I would hope that I will replace my stockings by then... It seemed so much more complete having stockings for our whole family rather than just Tim and I. Plus, the cats got gifts, too!

Later in the week, the snow continues to pile up. We have about 4 inches here.

I think this was on one of our many snow days (where we couldn't even leave the house unless it was by foot or sled). At this point, the wind had knocked off the previous 4 inches off the bushes, caused drifts, and then it snowed another 6 inches!

We decided to see if the cats like snow since they kept batting at it through the windows. Tyson ran the hell right back in and looked at us like we completely betrayed him. Calvin on the other hand appeared to be quite the little snow kitty.

Exploring in the snow, trying not to sink in.

Oops, he sank in. And then just kinda stayed there. Then ran as fast as he could into the house... once he got out of the sink hole.

Here are the tracks from him and us. This is relevant.

Because that night, they are completely covered. We got another 6 inches! Unbelievable.

Another shot of the massive snow. At this point, the airport is a mess, the city is a mess, and we are just crossing our fingers that we will be able to get to Kansas City in the next couple of days!

But, alas, we made it with only an hour delay in our flight! Not too bad considering people were stranded at the airport for 5 days! Here is Tim on Christmas day at my parents house... with a pile of presents and his new driver from Santa. And, lucky for us, the weather in the midwest is so quirky that while we were there we had several 60 degree days so it was perfect golfing weather for my dad and Tim. Where was I? Oh, my body just has great timing... I got the flu on the 28th. This was also the day that my parents had a reception for us to celebrate our wedding with all of our friends/their friends in Kansas City. Going to that on that day was not fun. I basically just sat there trying to be social but not breathing on anyone and getting up every two minutes to go to the bathroom. I literally lost 10 pounds in 24 hours. I know this because I weighed myself just to find out.

Tim and I on Christmas morning.

My brother and I on Christmas morning.

The day after Christmas, Tim and I made the two hour drive south to see one of my best friends from college (who was also my roomie for 4 years) and who is also 6 months preggo! It was so awesome to see her and to hang out with her for the day.

And Tim with us squatting because he is so freakin tall. That night all of my dad's side of the family came into town so we drove back and hung out with them which entailed games, games, and more games. The day after was the 27th and was my dad's family's Christmas (and also my dad's 65th birthday- happy birthday dad!) It was a great day until I didn't sleep at all that night because I had come down with the flu. At first I just thought I had food poisoning or something of the sort until my body felt like it had placed itself directly under two buses and let them run over me repeatedly. Like I said, the 28th was the reception. I spent the morning sleeping since I hadn't slept at all the night before while I was busy shedding the majority of my 10 pounds and then I had to drag myself to take a 2.5 minute shower, get dressed, and sit at the reception. Then I passed out again. But on the morning of the 29th, I felt like a champ! It was a really lousy day to get the flu and I was really disappointed because I didn't get to visit as much with everyone that came to see us. And, I wasn't much in picture mood. There were a few taken but not by my camera. Anyone that has pictures, pass them along!

BUT on the 29th, one of my great friends from high school came over and spent the morning with us. She is such a great girl and I was so happy to see her and spend time with her. Here we are sitting down taking a picture... since I was still practically dying from dehydration, standing up was still not much fun. That day was one of the days Tim went golfing with my dad.

The next day, the 30th, we saw Miss Jilly Marie and her guy Kyle for the majority of the morning. Jill is one of my other best friends... I have known her from high school but we really became inseparable during college. We have been through a lot together... it is so neat to see where she is now in her life, to catch up and to feel as though no time has really passed. The best thing about seeing her this time was meeting Kyle and seeing how genuinely happy Jill is now. Of course, I don't have pictures. I guess I had reached my max by this point.

The 31st we flew back into town. We had a couple hour delay. We ran in the door, then right back out again to the Rich and Stacie new year's eve party, where we spent the bulk of our night. It was a great time although we were both kinda jet lagged and I was still feeling a bit gross from the flu. But regardless, we got to see a bunch of friends that night and we stuck it out to bring in 2009 in style! But, guess what? Even though I had my camera, I didn't take any pictures. Maybe that should be my new years resolution... take more pictures!

And, one of the first major events of 2009- putting on Winston's new Washington plates!

Kauai Day 3, October 24, 2008: A journey through the middle

Our third day on Kauai was relatively uneventful. We decided to drive northwest to kind of the middle of the island. We didn't really know exactly where we were going, just thought we would explore some more.

Our first stop was this waterfall... beautiful! And the rainbow even shows in the picture.

When you are driving around the middle section of Hawaii, this is pretty much what it looks like. Green lushness and tons of green mountains. It definitely lives up to its name of the garden isle.

After stopping at a couple of waterfalls (a couple we really couldn't get that close to so the pictures aren't that great), we decided that we probably wouldn't make it to the northernmost end of the island (Princeville) and would just save that for another day when we could get up early and go straight there without any stops. So we decided instead to do a hike in the middle of the island. It was very green. Not the best hike we've ever been on... it was about 3 miles and VERY humid. I guess that is why everything is so freaking green! This picture was close to the top of the hike. Very pretty.

One of the shots towards the top of the hike.

Towards the end of the hike by a cool banyan tree.

Walking back to our car, we found a little friend.

After the hike, we decided that we needed to go lay at the ocean or the pool. So we went back to the Hyatt and hung out by the pool all afternoon. That night we went to dinner in town at Ray's...another great seafood restaurant. We ended the night laying in hammocks listening to the ocean. Low key but perfect.

Kauai Day 2, October 23, 2008: Our lesson on the beauty of nature

Back to Hawaii posting! I know I did not get all of this posting/documentation of the trip done in the year it actually happened but whatever.


The second day of Kauai, we were ready to explore! We started out the day at the spouting horn blowhole. It's just a little natural blowhole that is pretty neat to watch for a few minutes... and then to move on. It was right by the Hyatt so we figured we would make a stop there on our drive to west Kauai.

Mesmerized by the blowhole.

The start of our drive west. There is only so far west you can go on Kauai and the farther you go, the more like the desert it gets. It's more warm, sunny, and dry on the western side of Kauai.

We were told to make sure to stop at Jo-Jos because it is supposedly the epitome of Hawaiian shave ice. It was decent, I have to admit but I guess I just don't have a penchant for shave ice. Can't really say that I would ever crave the stuff.

Of course, here I look completely into digging into the shave ice... maybe since the small was so freaking HUGE, I got my shave ice fix for a lifetime.

Tim enjoying his berry shave ice.

Two hours later, we made it to our destination... the Waimea canyon. This is commonly referred to as the grand canyon of the pacific. It was gorgeous, hands down. Not as huge as the actual Grand Canyon but still amazing, nonetheless. We weren't really sure what to expect but like I said that day we were in explore mood so we decided to check it out and figured if nothing else we would get a hike out of the deal (there are more hikes in this area of Kauai than anywhere else on the island). Not only was the hike we went on awesome, just the views were definitely worth it if you are ever in Kauai.

One of our first shots of the day... walking up to a look out.

A closer look at the canyon.

If you look closely at the middle of the picture you will see the a helicopter flying through the middle of the canyon. It kind of gives you some perspective of the magnitude of the canyon.

Whoo hoo!! It was WINDY!!

Surprise, surprise... there were chickens at the canyon too!

Further along up into the canyon, you get a glimpse of the south end of the Napali coast. The Napali coast is indescribable in words. It was just jaw dropping. [We were stunned by it here and later in the week, we got the chance to hike it.] Amazing.

We took a small stroll down to get better looks at the coast. It was still quite a "hill" for just wanting to be able to see the coast better.

More of the view we had of the Napali coast. Looking at this picture almost seems surreal to me... it looks like I just copied a postcard or something, not like I was actually standing there in the midst of this. It really was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.

After visiting all of the lookout points, we drove back down and did a short 5 mile hike. It was actually a pretty awesome hike. We hiked down into the canyon and had views of the canyon itself as well as the Kauai coastline (not Napali). We ended at a little waterfall/stream. It was not too challenging but we hike a lot so it could be for some people.

Hiking down further into the canyon. Gorgeous. Not me. The views.

Down in the middle of the canyon at the small waterfall/creek.

Just enjoying the scenery of the little lush middle of the canyon. We are pretty avid hikers and hike pretty much every weekend but I think that both of us would agree that in many ways this hike and the Napali hike we did later in the week were two of the coolest hikes we have ever been on... just due to the broad scenery we experienced.

Climbing back up out of the canyon... from the lushness and into the desert.

We ended the hike towards the end of the day. After that we drove the leisurely drive back to Poipu and the Hyatt, relaxed by the pool and ate dinner at one of the resort restaurants that night. It was a great day that surpased all of our expectations. Just when you think you've seen many things and can't be completely awed in ways that you once were, you see or find something that puts you into that state again. I started off the day thinking it would be a fun day to explore but also thinking that it wouldn't be that big of a deal... I mean, if you've seen the Grand Canyon, how does it really get much better or different?

I was incredibly wrong. The whole day I felt that I was an audience witnessing the true beauty of nature, a beauty that I ignorantly think sometimes will not continue to impress, surprise, and awe me. On this day we were shown the true beauty of the island for which Kauai is so well known and I am so thankful that we gave it the chance to experience it.

Wow... how's that for philosophical?

Notable

Today I FINALLY got my Washington license plates... yes, I am quite aware that I am inching closer and closer to the two year mark up here. In truth, I have been here for a year and eight months. So, it was time. It actually cracks me up how long I waited.

I also got my driver's license name changed after finally getting official paper work from the state of Hawaii.

New year, new name, new plates. It is going to be a great 2009.

More to come on our holiday adventures and the last few posts of the Hawaii trip.

Hope everyone out there had a happy new years!

Happy holidays!

Well, the weather people said yesterday that we would not be getting more snow, an hour later they changed that to a trace possible, then an hour after that they changed it to a possible 2 inches.

How much did we get you ask?

Um, try SIX inches on for size. For those of you keeping track, our grand total is about 16 inches. In SEATTLE.

Today we had no snow but were still fairly snowed in.

Why?

Because Seattle does not GET snow...EVER... and if we do, it lasts for a grand total of 5 minutes. It hits the ground and then is gone. So we do not have the capacity to REMOVE snow and any attempts are half assed at best. It's kinda like when I was a kid and my mom told me to clean my room so I took about 1.5 minutes to just shuffle stuff around to make it look like I cleaned my room but really nothing was different. The only thing that made me finally start cleaning my room was one day coming home from school on the school bus and all of my underwear was hanging on the tree in the front yard for everyone to see. (Yes, I am still scarred by that...thanks, mom!)

Well, Seattle, I want to hang YOUR underwear on a tree. YOU SUCK at shoveling snow! The only thing that comes from the feeble attempts to shovel snow is creating ice rinks for street. This is not conducive to driving at all.

Tomorrow we are supposed to be heading to Kansas City for the holidays. This is completely awesome in every single way possible except for the two ways in which it could be problematic. 1) As Seattle does not have the capacity to shovel its streets, its airport also does not really have the capacity to de-ice. We saw on the news this morning that half of all flights were cancelled and some people have been stranded at the airport for 5 days!! 2) Tomorrow in Kansas City, starting in the evening, it is predicted to be snowing/icing. I think we are taking the weather with us. To our Seattle friends- you are welcome.

We will have a wonderful holiday one way or another... and to everyone out there... happy holidays with best wishes for safe travels, warmth, and love.

It. will. not. stop. snowing.

I kid you not.

Two days later after a snow day, I think we are starting to get cabin fever.

We walked to the grocery store the other day. Yesterday we Christmas shopped for 5 hours until it started dumping again. I do not think I have seen this much snow since, um, Iowa.

It is still snowing now.

We woke up this morning thinking it was over, but nope!

Anyone who saw the Seahawks game today (or anyone who lives in the Seattle area, obviously) knows what I'm talking about.

Snowed IN in Seattle.

Crazy enough, the weather people were right...

Last night we got dumped on. During the middle of the night, we were surprised to hear thunder, see lightning, and hear hail. When we woke up this morning, there was about 4-6 inches of snow on the ground on top of a layer of ice.

No one is getting anywhere unless it is via sled. Literally.

We have been watching the news all morning on the people who have tried, without much success, to get somewhere. These same people, after trying, then were shown on the news walking down freeways and roads when they determined that it was not safe to drive. Seriously.

And currently, it is still continuing to dump. It is a winter wonderland. I am drinking tea, working some, watching it snow (and watching the cats try to attach the snow through the window... I don't think they get it) and occasionally getting up to see if I can see people playing Sesame Street on ice on the road outside. Huge SUVs with chains were just slipping and sliding down the rather flat road (for Seattle) outside of our house. It is beautiful... especially from in here. I love it!

Snow in Seattle?

YEP.

Over the weekend, temperatures plummeted and all we have heard about it "winter storm 2008." It's actually quite amusing.

But, in all honesty, it is a little exciting. We hardly ever see snow here and if we do, it usually doesn't stick around longer than a day. Well, guess what?! We got a blanket of 2 inches of ice/snow on Saturday evening and it is STILL HERE!

And guess what else? They are predicting another 1-5 inches tonight! So weird.

Temperatures have been FREEZING. Like 20s. I think average for this time of year is usually 40s-50s. Seattle is a pretty temperate place to live which is why we rarely see snow. But apparently this artic air mass is giving us cold air + snow. It's pretty neat. The mountains are getting dumped on.

Tim's birthday was yesterday (Happy birthday, honey!) so he had a white, snowy birthday... not to mention the fact that this artic air is just fridgid so it's been completely clear and sunny when it's not snowing. It's a nice change for a city that doesn't really see much sun or snow this time of year. I am crossing my fingers for more of the same when we head back to Kansas City for the holidays in a week!

Kauai, Day 1-October 22, 2008

We had a 9am flight from Maui to Kauai with a short stop on Oahu in Honolulu. The flight was only about an hour or so long. Neither of us had ever been to Kauai (Tim hadn't been to Maui, I had) so we were both excited to see the island.There were two things that were notably different about Kauai that we noticed right away upon our arrival: 1) Holy crap, this is what a tropical island should look like. We have never seen so much green lushness. 2) There are wild chickens all. over. I kid you not. It was the most bizarre thing ever. If you have ever been there, you know what I'm talking about. However, if it was prior to 1991, you probably don't have a clue... I guess with the hurricane in 1991, there came an abundance of wild chickens. Weird!

We stayed on the south side of the island in Poipu, which is known as the sunny side of the island (hence the reason we stayed there... there is enough rain for us in Seattle as is!) And, as a sidenote, this turned out to be an excellent decision. We went up to the Princeville side (the north shore) a couple of times during our week there and got absolutely drenched both times (more on that later).

The sign that greeted us at the airport... would definitely agree that Kauai is the garden island.

We stayed at the Hyatt Poipu resort. Here is a shot of the grounds (and basically what the whole island looks like).

The first waterfall of many that we saw on Kauai.

Eating lunch at the grill by the pool at the Hyatt resort. Not quite as good as the Fairmont's pool bar/restaurant but still delicious!

And a picture of me at the poolside restaurant.

The resort grounds were absolutely beautiful, the pool was absolutely astounding. It was basically just uniform with the grounds so you didn't really feel like you were in a pool, more like you were just swimming out in the wild. It was lined with black lava rocks, complete with caves, etc. Pretty cool. There was also a lagoon down by the ocean that was salt water if you didn't want to rough out the ocean waves.

More of the resort grounds. There were hammocks and swings all over. It was great at night just to sit outside in the warm air by the ocean.

Main building of the Hyatt... it was pretty impressive. Honestly though, if I had to choose, I would say that I liked the Fairmont on Maui better. It was nicer, more personal, and not so HUGE.

We spent that first afternoon at shipwreck beach (the beach directly down from the Hyatt). That rock in the middle of the picture jutting out into the ocean is the "trademark" of shipwreck beach. Apparently people jump off of it. We didn't. It's a lot more daunting than it looks. Plus, the ocean was really rough that day. Tim body surfed, I didn't. I went in the ocean and got toppled by waves, even though I am a strong swimmer (I've been swimming my whole life and even taught swimming lessons as a teenager!) But the currents that day were too much for me... seemed more fun to just lay on the beach!

That night we went to tidepools restaurant, a restaurant at the Hyatt. It was very good. I was getting tired of fruity drinks (imagine that!) so I had wine but Tim had a lava flow, which I have to admit was very good here. I believe we both got some sort of seafood... I think that every restaurant on the islands is just amazing because you can't really screw up seafood when it is that fresh.

Next up: Kauai day 2... JoJos and the grand canyon of the pacific.

Maui Day 7

The last day on Maui was just relaxing...by the pool with fruity drinks. And why not?? After the wedding day before, it sounded like the perfect way to spend our last day on the island and our first day as a married couple. As we were walking from breakfast straight to the pool that day, we walked by a blonde lady with her two girls. Her voice sounded strangely familiar. I grabbed Tim and made him stalk the lady with me (nice, right?) Anyway, my suspicions were right! It was one of the gals that I work with Renee- a tax manager in our firm (also by the way, one of the sweetest people I know!) Apparently, she had left for Maui the day after the October 15th tax deadline with her family and had been at the res0rt we were at the whole week we had been there. What a small world!

That morning and afternoon we pretty much were hanging out by the pool (with Renee and her family who had the same plans!) as well as the beach. That night we went to what is known as the best restaurant on Maui- Mama's fish house. It was definitely good. Tim had Ahi tuna and I had some sort of white fish... I think ono? I can't really remember. All I know is that the seafood everywhere on the islands was nothing short of amazing.

Laying by the pool, soaking up sun.

You can only really lay in the sun for about 30 minutes before you start to feel like you are in a 500 degree oven. We jumped in the pool a lot. And yes, the POOL. We loved the ocean but that day we did not feel like getting salty.

Playing pool basketball. That was fun.

Look how far he can get up and out of the pool... must be nice to be 6'4" tall.

Outside before our reservations at Mama's. The restaurant tables look out on this beach. It was very pretty scenery.

Tim outside of Mama's... the sun is starting to set here so it is more of a silhouette picture.

Both of us before our last dinner on Maui- some lady took our picture. Beautiful!

Perplexed

Sorry for not continuing the Hawaii posts. They will resume shortly.

We are up in Alaska for our annual December trip (we go in December and February for a client we have). Funny that I met Tim on a trip back from Alaska and now I go up there every year during the same week in December that I was up there before I met him. And to the same place- Anchorage.

What I don't understand is this: When it is 25 degrees with a windchill of 5, snowing, I'm wearing 4 layers, 2 hats, 5 pairs of socks, and a coat- how come Alaskans keep telling me this is warm? For the record: This. is. not. warm. I know that they truly believe that it is warm because driving around today, I am not even kidding you, at least 8 out of every 10 cars had their windows down with their arms out. Like it was 80 degrees and the best weather in the world. My jaw would have been permanently affixed to the floor seeing all of these cars except for the fact that then I would have let more cold air into my body than was necessary and I probably would have frozen to death. (That sounds rational, right?)

Instead, I am huddled up with the heat at 120 degrees in my layers upon layers thinking, "Seriously, these people are nuts." I thought about trying to put my window down to see if maybe they were right and I was wrong but I was greeted with a big gustful of FRIGID air and snow in my face. And then I turned up the heater to 200 degrees because the gust of that air lowered the temperature of the car to about 10 degrees.

It is a different world up here. Don't get me wrong- it is by far one of the most beautiful, stunning, unique and pure places I have ever been. But it is most definitely also different. It takes a special person to be able to tolerate 5 hours (at best) of daylight during this time of year and to call a 5 degree windchill and blowing snow "warm" weather. That person would never in a million years be me.