Monday, December 10, 2007

Parties Galore

I realize it has been a while since I have given any sort of update on our life here in Chicago. Jason has been just as busy as ever with school, and although I'm still waiting on my nursing license, I have been watching an 8 week old boy for one of Jason's professors to keep busy.
We got some snow this past week as well as freezing rain, so the already hectic city has gotten that much crazier. This past weekend we headed North for a fondue party hosted by Steve and Susanna Swenson as well as Shanna Remmers. We had an awesome evening! Scott and Steve preparing to blow things up
desert!

Playing "Ping-pong." The objective is to say either ping or pong. Sounds simple enough. Except you aren't allowed to show your teeth at anytime during the game. It provided many good laughs!
Surviving the first few rounds.
The result after intense hours of fondue and ping-pong....exhaustion.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Two Wonderfully Amazing Months

We have been married for two months today! My awesome husband bought me a poinsettia to celebrate and is cooking dinner as I type. How did I get so lucky?

The weather has been quite cool here lately, so we decided to quit denying the fact that summer is over and do a little winter decorating. Jason seems to have quite the eye for home decor and was very good about telling me what looked best where:)


















As we were decorating I realized that I have yet to show you the "other side" of our living room, which boasts our new chair...


...and our new couch!...or old couch with a new blanket covering it..
We have also added a shelf above the couch since the last pictures I posted. I know that pictures on a blog hardly do our house justice, so please come visit! We have an air mattress and plenty of floor space!!

Thanksgiving....Wisconsin style!!


We were disappointed that we wouldn't be able to spend Thanksgiving with our families this year, but were given an invite by Sarah Sanderson's family that was too good to pass up. Jason , Sarah, and Tristan flew in Wednesday morning and were our first company from home! We relaxed for a few hours and headed up to Milwaukee where we enjoyed an amazing meal, more pie than anyone could imagine, a refreshing dose of football, lessons in shuffleboard, a talent show, and great company...all in 12 hours! On Friday we headed home, but not before stopping at some outlet malls to truly experience the madness of Black Friday! Tristan enjoyed the beeping noises of our Catch Phrase game.
Jason and Sarah

The road runners in a pre-game huddle. There was an annual football game between the young guys and the old timers. This year it was "dial-ups vs. road runners."
Taking a break for hot chocolate before beating the Dial-ups.

Jason brought a briefcase full of instruments, and everyone got to test their color vision, depth perception...etc.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Our Honeymoon!

I have been promising honeymoon pictures , and since things are slowing down a little around here I decided I better get some posted! We had an awesome time and can't wait to go back! The temperature was consistently in the 80s which was just perfect for us! I tried to divide the trip according to the islands, so I hope you enjoy! Remember you can click on photos to enlarge them.Eating breakfast on the beach Sunday morning! A couple of the friends picked us up and we were able to go to meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico before our ship sailed.

St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.

St. Thomas was our first port of call on the trip, and we had been encouraged to take a ferry to the Island of St. John. So we did, and spent the day in Caneel Bay. It was a gorgeous beach with a lavish resort on it, so we were able to sneak some beach chairs for free!
Red Hook harbor on St. Thomas
An old friend we came across at the ferry terminal!
Coming in to St. John on the ferry.
A resort in Caneel Bay, St. John

Dominica

Here in Dominica we took a kayaking and snorkeling trip. We kayaked through schools of flying fish, and thankfully none of them landed in our kayak! Then we put on snorkeling gear and spent a few hours in the water. It was amazing!
Waiting for our guides to take us the the dive shop.




Barbados

Barbados was a beautiful island, although our weather was less than favorable. There was a nice consistent rainfall until we got to the beach, where it proceeded to downpour. Welcome to sunny Barbados! Here we took a 4X4 Safari which wrapped around the island mostly taking backroads through sugar cane fields. Barbados still survives off sugar and molasses exports, and the smell of molasses is thick in the air.
Bathsheba. The locals were preparing for a surfing competition which was taking place that weekend.
A monkey! Vendors would push their animals on you and then try to charge you for taking a picture. This guy wanted $5!..needless to say, he did not get it!
The beach in Bathsheba where we stopped for punch and cake.
Working on my suntan

Jason enjoying the rain.

St. Lucia

St. Lucia is an independent nation, part of the commonwealth. It is located in the Lesser Antilles. We signed up for a shore excursion that would take us through the island on a tour bus. Then we would take a catamaran back to the ship. We were able to see so much of the island. St. Lucia was hit by the tail end of a hurricane earlier this year, but the only death was a man who tried to save his cow. The cow survived.
Fishing village of Anse la Raye where we sampled banana ketchup. It tastes very similar to ours, only having a slight banana aftertaste.
The Diamond Botanical Gardens.
Another stop was Sulfur Springs, which is an active volcano. We took a guided tour and were able to walk right through it!
In the village of Soufriere we boarded a catamaran which took us on a 3 hour trip along the coastline. They dropped us off right in front of the boat about 30 minutes before sailing time. It was great!

Antigua

Antigua was our last hope of sunshine before we headed back home to winter, so we decided to just hop a taxi to the beach and spend the day soaking up all the Vitamin D we could. As soon as you step foot off the cruise ship there are taxi drivers offering to take you anywhere, so after finding the best price we headed for Long Bay. Our taxi driver stayed there and hung out all day just waiting to take us back.Grand Pineapple beach. There were vendors renting out chairs and umbrellas but we opted for towels on the sand and spent most of our time in the water. What a beautiful day!
A nice restaurant on the beach with free shade and cold drinks!

Relaxing in the shade!

Our last night on the ship! These are the two other couples that we shared our table with in the formal dining room. One couple lives in Minnesota while he finishes medical school, which gave him and Jason quite a bit to talk about, and the other couple is from New York City.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

This was the final port of call on our Cruise. Since we had a few hours before we needed to catch our plane home we decided to put our luggage in storage and take a walk through Old San Juan. We had been told this was the area to see and didn't get the opportunity earlier, so we debarked at 7:15 found a bag storage and took to the streets. Waiting to clear customs as we left the ship.
Jason standing guard atop the wall that surrounds Old San Juan. San Juan is home to two old forts and this wall was their protection.
A nice clean park!...We were there fairly early in the morning, so there were two homeless men still sleeping on the benches!
One of the streets leading to the Governor's Mansion. All streets which led there where beautifully maintained. However, that didn't seem to be the case with the rest of Old San Juan. Walking in sandals you had to pick your way around the garbage just to keep your feet clean!



A beautiful building at Fort San Felipe del Morro which stands guard over the cemetery.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Good-bye sun, hello snow.

We're home! Although there is something to be said for familiar territory, being home is a little bittersweet. I have to admit I would take the Caribbean weather over Chicago's any day, not to mention the island lifestyle. We had an awesome time on our cruise and completely understand how people get addicted to that style of vacation; the ship was a blast and the islands were beautiful. I will try and get some pictures posted along with a few more details, but for now, the laundry pile is somehow managing to steal my time and attention!

Friday, November 2, 2007

Thank you!

A very large thank you needs to be given to my sister Bethany who loyally edits our blog from Montana!! We depend on her grammatical expertise.
You can visit her website by clicking here. I guarantee you'll enjoy it.

Frightening Fun

The weekend before Halloween we decided to visit Six Flags as it was not only their last open weekend, but also the beginning of "Fright Fest." So we loaded up Jeff and Todd and headed about 45 minutes north. It was the first time I had ridden a rollercoaster with 2 coats, mittens, and a scarf. Instead of snowcones and dippin' dots the concession stands offered coffee and hot chocolate. Each were sold in line as well. We arrived about 30 minutes prior to the opening of the rides and were able to enjoy quite a few before we stopped for lunch. After lunch the park started to fill up, and after waiting in line 2.5 hours for one ride we decided we had had enough!
Welcome to Six Flags Amusement Park! We hoped the decreasing temperature and increasing wind would keep the park empty, but it didn't quite work out as planned.
The boys wanted to start the day off with a power plunge. These are about the only type of ride my stomach can not handle so I dedicated myself to photographing their experience. ...waiting in line...
Here they are about halfway up...anxiety building accordingly...
...they dropped!..and by the looks of their faces, thoroughly enjoyed themselves....
Todd found an interesting tombstone along the way...
Jason and I in line for Batman.