denali

introducing the newest member of our family...denali. she's a 2-year old black lab mix who is just a sweetheart. she was originally a rescue dog and lived with her previous owner for 1.5 years. her previous owner, a USAF recruiter, had a job change and could no longer keep her. it sounds like she was pretty picky with who denali was going to be placed with and we were the lucky ones. we're so excited to have her in our home and to call her our own.

our trip to europe...

well, we've already been back in the states for almost 2 weeks..still experiencing a vacation high though. to sum it up, our trip to europe was amazing. we changed our route a little, planned as we went and thoroughly enjoyed living a whole different life for 16 days. we already want to go back. there's so much to talk about but instead of writing a novel about all our adventures, i'll post pictures with stories over the next little bit of time..our trip in summary included 3 days in paris, a train to lorient (part of the brittany area on the west coast of france), 2 days in lorient (visiting our friend, baptiste), a train through bordeaux down to st. jean-de-luz (french side of the basque country-south france/north spain on the atlantic), bus to san sebastian (spanish side of the basque country) for 5 days, bus to bilbao and a flight to barcelona for the remaining 6 days. we lived on baguettes, cheese, fruit, chocolate-filled croissants, crepes, tapas, wine and gellato. we saw some amazing sites, met some amazing people, walked off all the calories in the chocolate-filled croissants and enjoyed the ease of european life to the fullest. here are a few shots to give you a taste of our adventures...

Eiffel Tower, Paris

Arc de Triomphe, Paris

The Louvre, Paris

French cafe, Paris

Notre Dame, Paris

Luke & Notre Dame, Paris

Seine River, Paris

Paris

Notre Dame, Paris

Lorient, France

Lorient, France (Atlantic coast)

St. Jean-de-Luz, France

St. Jean-de-Luz, France

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, France

Tickets to FC Barcelona vs Deportivo

Camp Nou

Cathedral in Barcelona, Spain

Casa Batllo, Barcelona

La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Barcelona

Mediterranean

San Sebastian, Spain

starting may first...this is what we will be doing...

 goodbye seattle...

 board a 767...

 land in paris, france...

 tour the eiffel tower (and other beautiful sites in france)...

 travel down to nice, france and then to monaco...

 travel down the mediteranean coast to valencia...

 tour barcelona...

 experience the excitement of the 2010 world cup champions...

catch a game at camp nou...

we have a tentative travel route but are staying flexible in case we want some spontaneity while over there (such as taking a side trip to visit jason and anna in italy)...15 days in europe...
we're just a little excited!!

2.16.11

Feeding the birds with Grandpa Curt...missing you a lot today and everyday.

Well, another Christmas come and gone...and it was another fun and memorable holidays spent traveling, traveling and oh, traveling. luke and i celebrated with payton a few days early in our home in washington..no snow, but it rained a lot (ha!). i flew out to florida on the 24th in time to celebrate christmas eve with the kiggins side (extended family), then spent christmas day at gram & gramps. luke made it in that evening and we spent christmas night visiting with family, eating leftovers, opening massive amounts of gifts and playing farkle! it was a great time and something i hadn't done in close to 10 years. we also got a chance to visit with my grandma and she even let us pick yummy satsumas from her backyard! it was a great visit and good time to catch up (in person)! my parents had spent christmas up in virginia with our good friends, the cummings (since my dad had a layover) and ryan and sarah spent it up in indiana with her family. jason, anna and noah had to suffer through spending the holidays with a view of the snowy alps in their backyard. we missed them dearly and are quite jealous.

so, where was i...oh yeah, traveling. so my parents flew in after christmas and we drove up to lakeland, georgia (not sure it's even on a map, but it's near valdosta :)..we spent a late christmas with ryan and sarah and of course, the pups. we had a fabulous time touring their town, riding ryan's new motorcycle, playing games, eating too much food and laughing.

we even made a special trip down to tallahassee, florida so i could take luke (and sarah) to see FSU. i was super excited to show him where i spent 6 years of college and remembered most of it (ha!)..we got to meet up with my good friends lorie and jonathon and reminisce on college days.

we miraculously made it back to seattle on the 31st..oh right, i forgot to mention that we decided to save money and just fly on guest passes this year. worked great getting to florida, but due to the insane weather up north and just end-of-holiday travel, all flights were oversold until well into january. yikes. but it just goes to show that if you stand at the gate, bug the gate agent even after they've already closed the jetway door, sometimes it works out...

all in all, it was a fabulous holiday season and i wish all of you health and happiness in this new year..

happy first...

 just wanted to send a big HAPPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY to my little brother, ryan and his wife, sarah... time has flown by and i hope this year has been unforgettable...