Saturday, August 25, 2012

Re-cap Road Trip 2012 - first half

Day 1 - pack up and drive to the Roberts in Roosevelt for the night.

Day 2 - Relaxing morning, hit the road to Jerome, ID KOA - stopped at a small park in industrial N. Salt Lake City and to play at a park in Snowyville, UT.   KOA was nice - Autumn loved helping with tent set up and camp cooking.  The pools was too cold so swimming didn't last long, but the park was a hit.  The big slide even scared her a little - scared is a rare emotion in her world...  Slept pretty well!


Day 3 - Through Boise and west to Crane, OR.  Lunch was a congested/construction stop in Boise.  Filled up with gas before leaving ID and  then made it to our lovely hot springs campground Crystal Crane Hot Springs.  What's not to love about a natural hot springs pond, big teepee, ducks, cows, horses and bunny's? Autumn and Aaron hung out in the AC'ed commons area much of the evening, we made meals in the shared kitchen - not very rustic for camping - but really a nice mixed between camping and having a cabin.








Day 4 - up early, breakfast in the communal kitchen and on the road.  Most of this day we drove the road Aaron road his bicycle on 11 year ago when he rode across the country - so it was fun having him remember different spots along the way.  We stopped at a park in Bend, walked around Drake park looking at the ducks and geese and then ate at a pub with yummy food, The Summit Saloon and Stage.  On the road again we drove the prettiest stretch of road between Bend and Stayton.  The forest was thick, the river winded around and the smoke from a close wildfire made it almost morning foggy looking.  We arrived at our Bed and Breakfast and found that our room is perfect - 2 rooms, a king bed and little balcony.  It was walking distance to the wedding, which was awesome!  We relaxed in the AC a bit and then headed to the park for dinner and then to the pool.  Autumn ran out her energy on the equipment and then swam and swam at the pool for an hour and a half switching between the slide, diving, practicing swimming, and shooting the basketball.  She loved the slide - at first we went with her and then by the end of the night she was doing it by herself with her life jacket.  She'd climb the steps, come down slide, we'd lift the rope for her to go shooting under and she'd swim to the stairs for another go.

Day 5 - I was kind of hoping after the park and pool that we'd get a long nights sleep.  Autumn went down around 10 and I dinked on the computer until 11:30.  I woke around 6 to see the most beautiful sunrise out our balcony door.  Then Autumn woke at 6:30 - luckily she cuddled until nearly 7:30.  Aaron went to spend time with the guys last night, so we went down stairs to get breakfast and let him sleep.  Our host made a delicious breakfast with a waffle, berries, whipped cream and bacon.  We went back upstairs watched a video and then got stuck playing for a while!  We then took off for the park 4 blocks away which is right next to the wedding venue.  We had a great time riding the train to Triatica, Triathlon and Nebraska, running through the forest, playing hide and seek and playing on the equipment.  Autumn climbed some trees on the way back to the B&B for lunch.  We wanted to rest and relax and actually got to! Autumn fell asleep for a couple of hours. We got ready for the wedding and Aaron and Autumn walked there.  I didn't get things going fast enough and went ahead and drove the 4 blocks.   The wedding was lovely and it was nice having a park right there for intermittent wiggle breaks. We enjoyed long time friends and met some new ones.   We stayed until the dancing was done and the bride and groom left. The pictures from the wedding got their own post  here.


 




 Day 6 - Day with friends!  We got up and went down stairs for an amazing Eggs Benedict breakfast and then sorted and packed all our things up. Amazing how much stuff we had packed up to the room in 2 days.  We checked out and headed to a Vineyard for brunch with the wedding party and other out of town guests.  It was an amazing and delicious meal - I think I ate 3 days worth of food - omelet, waffle, fruit, honey roasted mac nuts, chocolate covered mac nuts... yum....   We then spent the rest of the afternoon with friends - hanging out and going to see Silver Falls State Park.









  We went back to the groom's house for dinner and fun.  Autumn and I left at bedtime for the hotel - she cried for at least 5 minutes because she wanted to stay with the guys.
  We checked in, went for a quick swim and then went to bed.  We thought another friend was staying at our same hotel, but there is another with the same name in town.  Luckily he was gracious enough to drive Aaron to ours after we discovered he wasn't at our 210 room.

Day 7: Off to the Palouse!  We woke around 8, grabbed continental breakfast and hit the road down the Columbus river and up into Washington.  We thought it would be a much longer drive, but we arrived at the Watson's in time for dinner!   Good to see our good friends, be at our Pullman home, and meet Vivi for the first time!!!!

Wedding Photos













Monday, August 13, 2012

9th Anniversary







Wow - 9 years!  It just doesn't seem possible that Aaron and I married 9 years ago - it has zoomed by!  I feel so blessed to have married such a wonderful guy to have made and get to keep making so many great memories with!  Our road has been blessed with a lot of adventure - with the greatest adventure being learning to love each other better and more Christ like.   We fail, forgive and learn together and praise God that He helps us through this process! 

This year we left Autumn with my parents (the first time we've left her overnight in 2 years) and headed to Snowmass for a night.  It was relaxing and great to just hang out together.  We did a short hike and walked around the two Gondola bases - it is a cute, really new ski town.  After a really nice dinner at Venga Venga Mexican Grill, we drove over to where we backed packed for our third anniversary, got ice cream and then watched the Olympics.  On the way up to Snowmass we had fun recounting all our anniversaries and then at dinner we made a list of all the cool places we have gotten to see.  Counting our blessings and spoiledness! 

Anniversaries:
1st - date to Denver to science museum, Imax on coral reefs and then dinner at the Macaroni Grill
2nd - weekend in Manitu Springs
3rd - Backpacking near Snowmass, hiking to saddle between Snowmass and Capital Peaks
4th - Ferry to Vancouver Island with our bikes and night at a B&B
5th - Weekend in Puna, Big Island
6th - Weekend at a rustic cabin on Big Thompson River near Estes Park - I was 36 weeks pregnant
7th - my 10 year HS reunion, we celebrated with dinner when we got to Vegas at the beginning of our National Parks road trip
8th - Night at Waikoloa Village
9th - Night in Snowmass

Places we've been and things we've done together that are most memorable since being engaged -

New Zealand - skydiving and overnight kayak trip in Abel Tasman
New Hampshire work camp
Playa del Carmen, Mexico Honeymoon
Buying a house
Belize Workcamp 2 summers
New Zealand Christmas
Tara's undergrad and grad graduations
Genesis Team experience for Aaron
Starting travel OT assigments
Olympia - San Juan Islands, Olympic Mountains, Mt Rainer NP, St. Helens, Victoria
Long weekend in Malibu
Baltimore - DC, Science Center, New York weekend
Kona - Hawaiian island travel
Having Autumn
Portland Missions conference
National Parks Road trip - Zion, Death Valley, Tahoe, Lassen, Redwoods, Rainer, Yellowstone
Taking Autumn to Hawaii and Maui
Aaron starting his business
Living with the Watson's in Pullman
Farm family stay in Pullman
Getting to see Chad Christie and Eric each summer since Eric was born
Thailand/Myanmar - Phi Phi islands, Maya beach, Ao Nang, Riley Beach, Bagan
Moving back to Kona
Tara's triathlon
Family visiting - Aulani and Kauai