So we decided to take the month "off" and be "home" for the month of December. Although we have not been working in the hospital we have been on the go and not really at our house in Durham. After getting home from Connecticut on Thursday December 3rd we unpacked the car and repacked our bags to head to Asheboro, NC for the weekend for Brian and Jen's wedding! They had a beautiful wedding and we had a blast hanging out with friends and family! So after getting settled in from the wonderful wedding weekend we unpacked those bags and repacked our bags with shorts and sandals and headed to Ft. Lauderdale for a 10 day cruise to the southern Caribbean. Our 10 day cruise had 6 ports of call. First port was at Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. This was Holland America Cruise Line's (the cruise line we were on) private island. So the only people on the island consisted of the people from our cruise boat. We had fun here horseback riding on land and in the ocean! This was an experience for me since I had never been on a horse before. I survived! After the horseback ride, we relaxed on the beach and went swimming! Our second port of call was Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. We were supposed to go kayaking but it was cancelled so we did an island sailaway. This consisted of sailing on a catamaran to Norman Island and went snorkeling in the caves and then we sailed to a private beach and then we sailed back to the port. This was a WONDERFUL day! 3rd port of call was Martinique. We didn't do an excursion at this port we just shopped around and hung out on the beach and did some more swimming! 4th port was Barbados...MY FAVORITE place that we went to!!!! Even though I didn't get to go swimming with the sea turtles (it got cancelled b/c of a swell the night before) I loved it here. You will never see prettier beaches or clearer water!!! So instead of swimming with the sea turtles we snorkeled around a couple of sunken ships. After snorkeling we went to the beach and I did the banana boat and water tubed. It was an awesome adventure, but I do wish I would have gotten the chance to swim with the turtles :( Our 5th port of call was St Lucia. At this port we did a zip line through the rain forest. This was an awesome adventure! There were 10 different stations set up throughout the rain forest and we zipped to each station. Our final port of call was in St. Marten. This was my second favorite port. At this port we were supposed to go deep sea (bottom) fishing at noon and our boat got there at 10 so we thought it would be a good idea to go to the beach at the airport to watch the planes land about 50 feet overhead but what we didn't know was that there is a lot of traffic in St. Marten so we pretty much drove out to the beach (in a taxi) and had to turn around and go right back to port b/c it was time for our fishing trip. We got back just in time for our fishing trip which by the way we both caught 3 fish but mine were bigger! This was another fun port that I would like to go back to as well as Barbados! We had fun at our ports of call and we relaxed on our sea days. Overall it was the BEST vacation I have ever been on!
Friday, December 25, 2009
All good things must come to an end...
So we decided to take the month "off" and be "home" for the month of December. Although we have not been working in the hospital we have been on the go and not really at our house in Durham. After getting home from Connecticut on Thursday December 3rd we unpacked the car and repacked our bags to head to Asheboro, NC for the weekend for Brian and Jen's wedding! They had a beautiful wedding and we had a blast hanging out with friends and family! So after getting settled in from the wonderful wedding weekend we unpacked those bags and repacked our bags with shorts and sandals and headed to Ft. Lauderdale for a 10 day cruise to the southern Caribbean. Our 10 day cruise had 6 ports of call. First port was at Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. This was Holland America Cruise Line's (the cruise line we were on) private island. So the only people on the island consisted of the people from our cruise boat. We had fun here horseback riding on land and in the ocean! This was an experience for me since I had never been on a horse before. I survived! After the horseback ride, we relaxed on the beach and went swimming! Our second port of call was Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. We were supposed to go kayaking but it was cancelled so we did an island sailaway. This consisted of sailing on a catamaran to Norman Island and went snorkeling in the caves and then we sailed to a private beach and then we sailed back to the port. This was a WONDERFUL day! 3rd port of call was Martinique. We didn't do an excursion at this port we just shopped around and hung out on the beach and did some more swimming! 4th port was Barbados...MY FAVORITE place that we went to!!!! Even though I didn't get to go swimming with the sea turtles (it got cancelled b/c of a swell the night before) I loved it here. You will never see prettier beaches or clearer water!!! So instead of swimming with the sea turtles we snorkeled around a couple of sunken ships. After snorkeling we went to the beach and I did the banana boat and water tubed. It was an awesome adventure, but I do wish I would have gotten the chance to swim with the turtles :( Our 5th port of call was St Lucia. At this port we did a zip line through the rain forest. This was an awesome adventure! There were 10 different stations set up throughout the rain forest and we zipped to each station. Our final port of call was in St. Marten. This was my second favorite port. At this port we were supposed to go deep sea (bottom) fishing at noon and our boat got there at 10 so we thought it would be a good idea to go to the beach at the airport to watch the planes land about 50 feet overhead but what we didn't know was that there is a lot of traffic in St. Marten so we pretty much drove out to the beach (in a taxi) and had to turn around and go right back to port b/c it was time for our fishing trip. We got back just in time for our fishing trip which by the way we both caught 3 fish but mine were bigger! This was another fun port that I would like to go back to as well as Barbados! We had fun at our ports of call and we relaxed on our sea days. Overall it was the BEST vacation I have ever been on!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
So many things to be thankful for...
~m
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Making our way around New England
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Life in New England
So we have been living in Connecticut now for a little over a month and we have a little over a month left. Hartford is not quite what we had in mind when we thought about moving up here, but we have had some fun times in the surrounding areas.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
4 days, 12 states...East Coast Bound!
Maggie hanging out at the Great Salt Lake
Monday, August 24, 2009
Our time here is coming to a close!!!
At our swim spot in Lake Tahoe
Rafting down the Truckee River in Lake Tahoe
Thursday, July 2, 2009
"The Biggest Little City in the World"
Sunday, May 31, 2009
So long California!!!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Back Home in NC
~m
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Road Trip to L.A.
Hiking up Runyon Canyon Park overlooking LA
Meeting Mickey in Disneyland
Monday, March 23, 2009
Brian Came to California!
~m
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Finally Settled...
Friday, February 20, 2009
We have officially driven across the US!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
the life and times of -m and -p
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Stop #4: San Jose, CA
I'll keep you posted on our next stop!
-m
New Camera
Stop #3: San Antonio, TX
Still wearing shorts in December at Sea World
...the great state of Texas. We are in the 7th largest city in the US...San Antonio. We have been here since the end of Sept. and we are ready to move on. For some reason I keep having to extend my contact for two weeks at a time (I'll get to that story later). San Antonio has been fun. The best thing here is the mexican food...YUM!!! We have been to Sea World, a Spurs game, underground Caverns, Wurstfest, Downtown, the River walk and of course the Alamo. We have also eaten at the BBQ Capitol of Texas. I guess that it was good...I wouldn't know, but I think Patrick enjoyed it! I got to spend my birthday here in TX so we went up in the Tower of the Americas for dinner and that was a pretty awesome view of San Antonio. The weather is crazy here. One day it's 80 degrees and the next it's 50 degrees. The wind blows like crazy. While we were here we had some awesome guests. Brian was the first to come out west to visit....as a matter of fact Brian is the ONLY friend that has come to see us every place we have been. Thanks Brian...I hope to see you soon in Cali! Patrick's Mom and Larry also came to visit and we had an awesome time with them...I think they will fly out next time though ;) Larry seems to have a lead foot once he gets past the Lousiana border ;) It was nice to have my parents and brother out here for Christmas!
One of the coolest things we have discovered here is Oak Hills Church, which happens to be the church Max Lacado is the senior pastor. For those of you who don't know who Max is, he is one of today's best selling Christian authors. We have really enjoyed this church!
-m
The Big Purchase!!!
We made the decision that it was time to head west. It was a hard decision but we were ready. Since driving the Honda was not an option and my Explorer has 120,000 miles on it we made a purchase. The most expensive purchase we have made together as a couple...we bought a car. Very wise decision considering it is a Tahoe and we can pack a lot of stuff in there and it has a DVD player....very handy when traveling halfway across the country.
It took us two days (19hours) but we finally made it to Texas!
-m
Stop #2: Boynton Beach, FL
Our Little Piece of Heaven
Jaxon's with Mama, best ice cream!!!
Key West, FL
We thought we were going to spend the summer of '08 in Durham but quickly learned that would not work out so we headed to southern FL in June '08. Boynton Beach to be exact. We decided to be smart and drive Patrick's little Honda down there since gas was so expensive and since I have so many miles on the Explorer. Ironically the A/C went out in Georgia...so we drove pretty much all the way (~10hrs) without an A/C in 90 degree+ weather. Needless to say when we got the A/c fixed and the gas was $4.39/gal we did not complain about that anymore. But we did learn on the way back to NC (at the end of the contract) the Honda was wayyy to small for all of our stuff and the kids. We lived there all summer...right on the beach, aka A Little Piece of Heaven. Loved FL, loved the beach, but the hospital could have been better. We spent most of the summer hanging out at the beach but we also ventured down to Key West with Brian for a few days. We also we on a cruise to Grand Cayman and Cozumel and lived through Tropical Storm Hannah. We actually drove down to Miami the day she came through...haha. Maggie and Henry discovered the ocean while we were there. We would sneak them down to the beach at sunset and Henry would bark and pounce at the waves :) Ahh, how I miss south FL and those white sandy beaches and that crystal clear water...
-m