Thursday, December 3, 2009

It's hard to believe that this story is real...

but it is. Read this girl's story here.

I know that kind of life isn't for everyone, and at least for me it can be hard to relate to at times. But, I still think we can all get something out of her journey, even if it's just to be incredibly thankful for the blessings we all enjoy on a daily basis.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Spain

Our trip to Spain was an adventure. It had some good parts and some bad parts, but I definitely wouldn't have wanted to experience my first taste of Europe with anyone other than David!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

James Island

To celebrate my birthday, we took an Olson family boat trip to James Island (which is a small peanut shaped island in the San Juans). David's family used to go to James Island when he was little and he has always had very fond memories of their trips there, so it was especially fun to see the place that David loved so much as a kid!

We had a great time hanging out on the boat relaxing, eating a super yummy lunch, going on a beautiful hike, and just spending time together as a family. Theo even came along and he did so well! He was awesome on the boat and didn't seem to mind it a bit, and he was a trooper on his first hike ever. We called him our little billy goat because he just wanted to climb over everything. It was a wonderful day!


Wednesday, July 22, 2009

This summer so far...

~ We've played lots of tennis, and I while I don't think I'm good at it yet, I do feel like I'm getting better. Theo even comes with us and runs around while we play.


~ We celebrated David's 28th birthday with a BBQ at a beautiful state park with his family.



~ I've taken lots of walks with this little beauty, her mama (my friend Kristy), and Theo.


~ We've had several game nights/bbq's with friends and hope to have more. Game nights are our favorite!

It's been a good summer so far and we have lots to look forward too...my birthday, visits with family, camping, Spain (assuming our passports go through and David can get me on the plane, ha).

Our garden...

We made a small Square Foot Garden in our backyard. Much to my horror, David let Theo out so he could "help." What do you want to bet that he got a bath that night?



The finished product (this was back in early June, some of the plants are crazy huge now...I'll have to get some updated pics of the garden).

Friday, July 3, 2009

Update...

It's been forever since I've posted, but a big change has happened since then. We started thinking about buying a house in March, and by May we had bought a brand-new townhouse 15 miles north of our old place and moved in! It's 3 stories, 2 bed/2.5 bath, and about 1300 sq. ft. It's a starter home, but it's perfect for us right now. We are loving having such a nice big kitchen to cook in (especially compared to the postage stamp size kitchen we had in our old apt.), and having a nice big garage to store our stuff in has been awesome!

Here are a few pics of the place before we moved in.

Kitchen. The refrigerator is off to the right, and a powder room is tucked back in the far right hand corner.


Dining Room/Kitchen (taken from the living room).


Dining/Living Rooms.


The view from the master bedroom. It's actually really pretty on clear sunny days because you can see the mountain range behind the hills.


Our little yard. I've since planted a small Square Foot Garden to the right of the grass.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

After a cancelled flight, a missed flight, and a 22 hour drive...

...we finally made it to "The Happiest Place on Earth."

Getting down there consisted of two of the absolute worst days of my life, but it was worth it, and we ended up having a wonderful time at Disneyland with David's family! Thanks for everything Jan and Dan!

Now for tons of photo spam:

David and I spent Christmas Eve at a cheap hotel in Roseburg, OR eating takeout Chinese food.


The only upside of Christmas Day (aka - hands down the worst day of my life)...was seeing these lovely snow-covered mountains.


The day after Christmas...Southern California at last!


First day at Disneyland.



The castle all decorated for Christmas.


That night we had a scrumptious dinner at the Blue Bayou, which is the restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.


The next day we spent at California Adventure.




We watched the Pixar Play Parade that night, which was actually really neat.



Then we all went to Bubba Gump's for a yummy dinner.







The next day we got up really early in order to use our one Magic Morning pass (this lets you get into the park an hour before it opens). It was kinda nice getting to see the park and all the pretty decorations before the giant crowds were there.





I'm normally not a huge fan of the "It's a Small World" ride, but the holiday version was actually really cute.



Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters - one of my favorite rides! The first time we rode this ride I beat David (clearly a miracle), but by the second time around he had far surpassed me and I sabotaged myself by spending to much time trying to thwart his efforts and not enough time scoring points myself!



New Orleans Square is probably my favorite part of Disneyland!



That night David and I stayed pretty late and watched Fantasmic! and the holiday fireworks show.


The next morning David and I had an awesome breakfast at The LaBrea Bakery and Cafe in Downtown Disney, then we headed to California Adventure again.


We saw a lot of super cool shows at California Adventure over the days. A few of my favorites were a Broadway-style production of Aladdin, Talk Time with Crush, and a 3-D show called "It's Tough to be a Bug."



That night we met up with the family for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney.




I loved the way they decorated all of the trees in Downtwon Disney. They were so beautiful in person!


After dinner, we all took the monorail back into Disneyland, as this was the rest of the family's last night at Disney.






The next day David's family flew home, but David and I stayed a couple extra nights because we'd driven down. We took a Disney break on this day and just spent some time relaxing. We saw a movie in the afternoon (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, good film) and then went back to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. Since it was just the two of us, we split a chicken salad and then got the famous Volcano for dessert! I think we ate about half of it, lol.


The next day was New Years Eve. David and I spent the day at California Adventure, and finally got to go on the best ride ever...Toy Story Midway Mania! The two previous times we'd tried to ride it, it had been broken. It is such a fun ride though!!




That night, after we'd taken a nap and changed into nicer clothes, we headed to Downtown Disney for a fabulous dinner at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen.



After dinner, we stopped by the "O" in California (outside of California Adventure) for an Olson family picture.


Then we headed into Disneyland. It was so CROWDED!! Seriously, you could barely walk, it was insane. It was a fun, but crazy, way to end our vacation!