For Memorial Day weekend, we were looking forward to having the Lymans visit. We were going to hike the Y and visit family and have fun – but sometimes plans change. When Josh’s family found out they couldn’t make it last minute, we found the next best (or probably better) thing: go to them! So we had an awesome weekend in Colorado.
We drove the Rav out (thank you, thank you, thank you, family, for letting us use it!) on Friday night and flew back Monday night. Highlights of the trip?
Friday: Driving, pretty mountain scenery, crashing in a hotel
Saturday: Driving some more, seeing the Lyman family, biking along the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs together, yummy sack lunches, eating ice cream, driving even more, relaxing at home, watching The Village
Sunday: Church with the Lymans, spending time together, playing Scrabble, Heather’s delicious dinner and Dale’s delicious grilled kabobs
Monday: a wonderful Memorial Day family home evening lesson, playing Mario with Chris, introducing Luke to Portal, being introduced to NCIS, shopping with Heather and the boys, eating at Boston’s (one of Josh’s former employers and favorite restaurants), flying home and sitting next to a very nice man and his happy, friendly nine-month-old daughter who we got to play with
Below are some pictures from our adventure biking in Glenwood Springs. Hope you enjoy! And thanks family, for such a wonderful weekend! We loved it!
So a new year has started! Life is good. Paige recently started a new full-time job (more details to come later), and Josh is busy with school and looking into internships. But in the midst of all this busyness, we realized we haven’t posted our pictures from our awesome Alaskan vacation last summer! Maybe it’s a good thing because it gave us the opportunity to reminisce about a great vacation. Here are some of our favorites…
FAVORITE FOOD TO TRY
Josh: I tried crab, because I’ve never actually eaten crab. The verdict? I’m just glad I stole some of my brother’s and didn’t order it for myself. ;-) Everything else was totally amazing though! I liked having a real plate of different cheeses (many French) for dessert, how français!
Paige: Baked Alaska! A glorious dessert involving ice cream, brownies, assorted toppings like carmel and berries, and glazed cream. How could you go wrong with a creation like that?
FAVORITE RANDOM MEMORY
Josh: In Juneau, we watched a presentation on the Tlingit Indians (pronounced Klink-it for all of you uncultured saps, but the tl and ng really actually make different sounds in the native tongue) to help us better understand the native cultures and their history. Afterwards, the presenter asked if there were any questions. A middle-aged man asked the brilliant question, “So why don’t you just spell it ‘Klinkit?'” “Uh, because that’s not how it’s spelled. It’s difficult for most Americans to say it properly, so we say it like that to help you,” came the presenter’s answer. “But why don’t you just spell it Klinkit?” O my… American cultural awareness at its highest.
Paige: One of my favorite stories was how Josh’s dad’s rules on food changed over the week. When we first got on the ship and went to our first of many all-you-can-eat meals, Dale told the boys, “Whatever you want to eat, you can! You can have dessert first if you want.” Well, a few days and several dozen ice cream cones later, Dale’s new rule for everyone was, “For every ice cream cone you eat, you walk a lap around the deck!” That story probably shows how awesome the food was, and how much of it there was, and how much we all enjoyed it…
FAVORITE EXPERIENCE
Josh: It was great to have everything at your immediate disposal for the entire week you are on the boat. We got to be around family the whole time, and you could do basically anything you wanted at any hour of the day. Watch a movie, go swimming, eat, exercise, eat some more, see a magician, look at the scenery, eat some more. It was pretty awesome. O, and did I mention that you could eat at all hours?
Paige: I loved the fancy dinners each night! I don’t usually think of myself as a classy or fancy person, but I loved the fancy dinners: getting dressed up, eating new foods, three-course meals, fine dining, visiting around the table…yeah, livin’ the high life! (or at least pretending).
FAVORITE THING OVERALL
Josh: Seriously, spending an entire week with the family was just fantastic. I loved being able to almost get to know them again, as it had been a while since we had been together that long. Paige and I also had the time to just get away, and that was absolutely wonderful! Such a great experience!
Paige: Other than the fancy dinners, it was great to just spend time with the Lyman family and get away from it all. It was a wonderful break from the normal grind. We had so much fun talking, laughing, playing games, eating food (and ice cream, lots of ice cream). What a great experience!
So it was my sister Audrey’s idea this Christmas to make a music video for my mom–apparently she really likes homemade music videos. Christmas day, after Josh and I opened our brand new video camera (our Christmas present to ourselves, yay!), we headed to the park and shot this amazingly awesome music video. Josh filmed it and (with some help from me) edited it, and it was ready to give to my mom the day after Christmas. After we had all enjoyed a tasty banquet of homemade sushi, my sister Brenn dropped in, “You know what would go great with this meal? A music video.” To which my mom oh-so-perfectly replied: “Speaking of, you guys should make me one!” We presented her with the DVD right then and there, and Mom loved it. Josh and I had a lot of fun making this video with my sisters, so enjoy!
Our honeymoon was by far the most amazing thing ever, and quite the adventure as well! We had everything from ritzy hotels to completely hurricane-devastated beachfronts to see, and we enjoyed it all.
After spending the night at the Moody Gardens Hotel, we set off for Corpus Christi, driving along the beachfront from Galveston some 50 miles. What a crazy 50 miles it was! We continued “at our own risk” along a particular stretch of road that had been heavily damaged by Hurricane Ike, and some parts were even entirely washed away! We often found ourselves driving on straight beach. There were abandoned and irreparable beach houses, some half-fallen to the ground. Both Paige and I thought it was pretty dang cool! We took lots of pictures, you know, to show just how romantic the drive was. Check them out!
