Vancouver trip re-visited (like 6 weeks later)

Well, as I do often, I have neglected my blogging and I havent even blogged about the best trip of the year so far!! I havent really forgotten I was just putting it off because I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hate putting pictures on blogspot especially when there are tons to choose from. For as many people that use this website, you would think it would be more user friendly especially in the picture/movie uploading features but it definately IS NOT! I have been contemplating switching websites but dont really know of other ones that are better. Any suggestions??

But anyway, back to Vancouver...

We had an absolutely fabulous time there. Everything was beautiful and there was so much more to do that we had time for. For those who didnt know, we got to plan such a wonderful trip because Matt had a chemisty meeting conveniently located there. It takes place twice/year in various locations around the world and in April in was in Vancouver. And because he is such a brilliant fellow, we got it all payed for (except my plane ticket because i have nothing to do with OU) but we did have credit card milage that allowed me to get my ticket for almost nothing! That is part of what made the trip even more awesome!

We got to go for one whole week and few days we got to do stuff together and a few days Matt was at the meeting and I did stuff by myself. Aside from getting plantar fasciatis, I can think of no bad things to report about the trip. The town was beautiful! It is the 5th greenest city in the world and you can definately tell. The have recycling bins in the hotel room! If you stay downtown, you can do big city stuff, yet you are within walking distance of hiking, parks, beaches and a bus ride away from the mountains and kayaking. It was just wonderful.

But as previously mentioned, I hate puting lots of pics on here so I think I am just going to direct you to my facebook page and put them all up on there with comments about where we were and stuff. I took so many it is really hard to cull down for blogger. So go here and look at my pictures to see all about our wonderful Vancouver expedition. If you ever get a chance to go, I highly reccomend it!!

We Made It!!!

Well after a long day of travelling and time zone changes and loooooooong customs lines, we finally made it to our hotel here in Vancouver at about 4:30 pm (our time 6:30 your time). The flights themselves were not too bad and were all on time just all the other stuff in between took a while. We went to bed last night about midnight ish and got up about 5:oo am. I took this picture of our pretty irises that bloomed last night. It looks like they are most going to bloom while we are gone and start wilting when we get back :(

Brennon got us to the airport at about 6:45 am which was as it turned out SUPER DUPER early but at least we had plenty of time and didnt have to rush like some people did. That left me with plenty of time to work on my newest knitting project!!

The first flight was pretty choppy for Matt (who was in the back of the plane). He almost got super sick but made it to Denver and immediately took some dramamine and pepto. Then he did well the rest of the trip. We rolled into Vancouver at about 1:30 our time but waited in a ridiculously long customs line. It took about an hour and a half to get through!! Finally we did, hopped on the skytrain to our hotel area, checked in, unpacked and headed to the tourest information center right here where we are standing in these pics. As you can see in the picture of Matt, we have a lot of planning to do tonight!

We then went to a local grill/pub, stuffed our faces and are now relaxing at our cute little hotel. I hope you all have a great week, I know we will :)

*If I have time, I might make another blog update but I am not making any promises...you know how bad I can be at time!

Birthday Month

Well now that my birthday month is over, I guess it is time for an update. I had an absolutely wonderful birthday month - and I celebrated with friends and family just about that long too! I think the festivities officially began the day before my bday with my bday lunch with work friends, then pre-birthday dinner with my grandparents at Iron Starr. They came to take us out to eat that evening. Then the next morning, my work friends brought a whole bunch of delicious breakfast food because I was only working a half day because my sweet hubby planned a weekend away for us at a bed and breakfast in Arkansas. I had been looking forward to that for months! We stayed at the Beland Manor which was located just across the Oklahoma border in Ft. Smith. My favorite part of the weekend was the massage that we got Saturday morning right after breakfast. We dont get those nearly enough!! We continued our eating festivities and had dinner at a great little Spanish/Cuban restaurant one night and ate at a German restaurant the other night. Both of which were delicious. We didnt do a lot of shopping but I did get to go to the yarn store there in town and we also played frisbee golf at their park which is always fun! We also watched some movies, relaxed in our room and I was often sitting in the rocker by our fireplace in the room! So that was my first celebration weekend!

Then, the weekend after that, the Meredith clan came to visit us! They made it just in time before we got all the snow that weekend. Luckily we only lost power in the middle of the night or that really would have cramped our style on Saturday! We did a lot of hanging around the house which is always nice. We cooked some delicious food, watched tons of movies and played with some of my new bday gifts too. I got a super awesome Italian Cook Book from Deanna, a few clothing items and a new Wii game called Just Dance from John and Monica and then a surprise present that is not here just yet from everyone which is: a new laptop!!!!!!!!!! (But since this post was originally written, my laptop came in and this is the official new post from my new lappy)! Matt got a super good deal since he is a student at OU and surprised me with it since I always steal his :) We had tons of fun with the new Wii game (which included forcing the boys to play) and just enjoyed being with family and not having too many plans to attend to. And we again managed to eat out a time or two that weekend too!

And then, the weekend after that (last weekend), we got to go to Tulsa and spend time with my family! Shay just moved to a new apt and we went and helped her get all set up in there. And everyone knows how much I LOVE organizing and moving things!!!!!!!!!!! We did tons of shopping but Shay certainly won the spending contest by a factor of 10 or more :) Matt and Janoah got to play frisbee golf, Lucy got to play at the little dog park near by alot, we met up with my grandparents, had delicious desserts from Whole Foods, and got to meet up with some dear friends that we haven't seen in almost 3 years! Way too long! Shay got me a whole bunch of knitting books with tons of cute ideas in them and mom got me a kit to make knitted boots and all of the ZOE group cds that I didnt have and have wanted for a long while!

I am so incredibly blessed to have friends and family that love and care for me so much! They do way more for me than I deserve and I love them very much! I am sure I dont say that enough too!!! Thank you everyone for all the special things you gave me for my bday and for spending time with me and for loving me so much. I love you all and very much!!!!

**sorry for the lack of pictures, I didnt take very many with my camera but I got a few from the John and Monica

Houston Happenings Part Two

I know it is way past Thanksgiving but I feel I should finish my post. So later Thankgiving day Matt's grandparents came over and we had a great meal and good time with them. We took this picture with them for Monica to make them a Christmas gift and we always laugh because he smiles like this in every single picture. With his mouth open. We took another one with all of us imitating him but i forgot to post it. But we pretty much spent the day watching football and consuming 10 times more calories more than we just burned off running that morning! And I guess I had been more tired than I thought from work and what not because I took a 3 hour nap late that afternoon and then turned right around and slept for 9 more hours after like a 3 hour break from sleeping!!

Aside from the race, we didnt make too many plans and events that we had to attend. We tried a couple of new restaurants, did some shopping, and hung out mostly. We tried a new pizza place that is New York style pizza that was really good. And it was funny because we ordered 3 pizzas to share but we had at least 4 different servers bring us like 7-8 pizzas and ask if they were ours. We also tried a new yogurt place like all the ones that were here and it was delicious of course. This picture below was taken at the riverwalk. We saw this purse from about 20 feet away and thought someone left it and so we were going to go see if it had an ID and got there and it turned out to be fake. It was this artistic display called "treasures from grandmas purse" or something silly like that with all kinds of things around that were part of it. I think all the people around were laughing at us!!

Oh yeah and one thing I was super excited about doing was roasting chesnuts this year. When we were in Tulsa I bought some at this whole foods store and took them to Houston and told everyone how awesome they were and how much I loved them in Vienna when I was there. Anyway, so I cooked them and when we went to try them, they were so nasty!! They tasted like a weird potato. It wasnt the worst thing I have ever eaten but it certainly wasnt the best thing by any means. We took a picture but I forgot to get it from Monica's camera.


So, as most elderly people do, Matt's grandparents have to wear depends. Monica bought some to take to them and before she did, we took some silly pics of Lucy in a pair. She looks like she is wearing the "Oops I crapped my pants" underwear from the SNL skit! She looked pretty cute but she didnt stand for it too long. After about 30 seconds she tried to tear it off!!!

And one last picture of our kiddo!

Houston Happenings Part One

So after we came back from Tulsa, we had to work for 2 days then headed out for Houston at 9:00 pm at night because we both had to work late and finish packing. We decided to stop south of Dallas and stay at a hotel so we would be past all the bad traffic. We had booked a LaQuinta ahead of time hoping that it would be nice and it was. I was a little skeptical of staying in a small town because I didnt know if the hotel would feel safe but this place was brand new I think and only charged 5 dollars extra for dogs.

Lucy enjoyed the luxurious accoutrements: down pillows and blankets, leather furniture, a big window, fridge, flatscreen TV and a queen bed all to herself!

(We put her in the bed for the pics, she didnt actually sleep in the covers)!

We rolled into Houston the next day about high noon and hung out with the fam and cooked for Thanksgiving the next day. We had to cook early because we were all participating in the "Run Through the Woodlands" bright and early Thanksgiving Day. It was great weather for running, not too cold and we all finished with great time. Matt ran the 5-mile race in 46 minutes and Deanna and I ran it in 58 minutes. We have been training for it since the Race For The Cure and I am so proud that we finished. I was just thinking the other day that we have run in four races this year!! Three 5Ks and one 5-mile race. We plan to keep running through out the winter but it has to be at least 32 degrees or warmer for us to get out in that in the mornings.

Here we are before the race...nice and clean not sweaty and disgusting yet...

And John and Monica before the race...they walked the 3 mile race that day.

And here we are crossing the finish line. Matt finished first so I dont have a picture of him :( I did just look on the website and found one pic of Matt and like 10 of me but I cant copy the proof and I am not going to buy one bc they are expensive so I guess I am out of luck. There were so many of me and Deanna because we would wave and act crazy when the camera was close and they laughed and took pictures. But there were some regular ones too.

I think I will stop here and post the other half tomorrow...same bat time, same bat channel.....

Craftiness all around

Well I went to Waltonia with the intention of making at least two scarfs but only made one. However, it turned out well and if I dont give it away, I will keep it myself.

I wont let a little thing like the dirty river get in my way of knitting. It was too dirty for me the first day from the rain. Knitting was a better use of my time :)

And by request of Deanna, I brought my cupcake supplies and we made an awesome cupcake creation. I got the idea from my cupcake book. The gave the idea of making a family tree with cupcakes and that is exactly what we did. We also made a cupcake cake with the river and mini replica of the cabins and landscape of Waltonia.

The whole fam...

Grandma and Grandad

Margaret (who actually isnt related but a close friend and coworker of Matt's grandad for like 20 years. She comes to Waltonia every year).Aunt Mary

Trina (matt's aunt) and her family

Matt's Uncle and fam (he has one green eye and one brown eye in case you were wondering why there are two colors on there).

Andy (Matt's other uncle), Sally and Hudson
Our family (John, Monica, Deanna, Matt, Me)

The Waltonia landscape.

Hudson helped me draw all the faces ahead of time so I could get the features right and make the glasses and things.

Us eating ourselves, which sounds creepy.

And lastly, our annual picture by the sign. Until next year....

A vist to the Bat Cave, Stonhenge, Easter Island, and other adventures...

Every year, we always try to find a fun side trip to take one day or place to go. This year, Deanna had looked up one of the bat caves to go to and watch the bats fly out at night. It was so awesome and a full moon, even more ominous! We went to an old abandoned train tunnel where Mexican bats migrate to every year and mate and live while its warm. By the end of August every year, there are 3 million bats that live in the tunnel that come out every night to feed (we went at the beginning of August). A school in Austin does research about bats here and helps protect the area to ensure the bats keep coming back every year. Apparently, tons of people come here throughout the summer to watch the bats leave. It is about 10 minutes long and is an incredible sight to see. The video doesnt do it justice. We even saw a hawk swoop in to catch some dinner for himself. Here are some interesting facts you might not have known about bats:

1. These bats eat millions and millions of insects each night and save farmers over $1.7 million dollars each year.

2. The enormous amount of guano they produce is sold as fertilizer in Texas.

3. You are more likely to get rabies from a dog or squirrel than from a bat. And you are likely to not see a bat flying that is rabid because it is too sick to be flying.

4. The moms leave the cave to give birth and they only have one baby/year. Then they return to the cave after that.

5. The young bats become the scouts. They are the first to leave the cave a few at a time before the whole group emerges.

Well now that you are properly informed...you can now view the video. Its pretty long so you might not watch all of it if you dont want.

They come out a few at a time and then the big swarm comes. Its like an F5 bat tornado, then they fly up into the sky.

This is a zoomed in view of one bat that Matt got a picture of. They move so fast it was hard to get a good picture. Behind us is the tunnel they live in, an old abanded train tunnel. We went down the trail after they flew out not during because it is too dangerous. It was the rankest smell I have ever smelled in my life. I could literally not breath with out stuffing my face into my shirt. Needless to say, I didnt stay down there long.

On the last day, we went to Stonehinge/Easter Island....

Well actually it was a replica. Some guy built a 2/3rds size replica of these statues on his land for some reason and people can go in and check it out at their leasure. I havent been to either place so it was pretty cool. Here are a few pics:

Matt being Sampson



Pretending to kill Matt on the sacrificial stone.


And Matt picking the nose of the Easter Island guy.

The only other exciting/eventful things that happened were:

1. Our car got hit by our cabin neighbor one morning. But she had insurance luckily and it is already fixed.

2. My hair dryer exploded on the last day when I was using it. Flames and smoke and the whole bit.

One more post to come about the crafty/baking stuff I did and I that will be all for this trip.

so back to the family reunion week...

Aside from all the fun animals, we spent a few hours every day in the river and doing whatever else we felt like the rest of the day.

This is a view from our dock at the cabinsDustyn prooved to be quite the entertainer that week. He was shy at first but came out of his shell later in the week. More to come about that later. You can tell I am not related by blood because I am about a foot shorter than Matt and Deanna :)

And on the last day, we went to the dam and played. Last year we discovered this diamond in the rough and thought we would keep up our new tradition by going here on the last day. There is about an 18 inch spot on the whole dam that everyone takes turns sliding down. Last year and this year, Matt has torn the butt of his pants from sliding which is weird because it is super smooth on this part. It is super fun but kind of dangerous. We saw someone wipeout and hit his head on the cement and probably received a concussion. Then we saw the sign pictured above on our way out. I guess we missed it coming in!!

As mentioned previously, we had lots of fun playing with Dustyn, Andrew and Hannah (Matt's second cousins). Aside from us "big kids" they were the only kids there. Matt and Andrew and melting solder in water...a mini science experiment whilst on vacation. :)

And he also taught Dustyn the necessary skills involved in disc golf. Not only did Dustyn want to do want to play with Matt, he wanted to stand super far away where Matt was instead of close for a tiny kid and he wanted to have as many discs as Matt, not just one. It was super cute!This looks like an ad for Omega putters to me!
And every kids favorite game is Peek-A-Boo with a corona box isnt it? He was carrying it around on his head then I guess it was my turn. And lastly, he was obsessed with drinking my tea. I guess unsweet-dilute-weak tea is his new fav drink! He would run around the table and stop every time to have a drink out of my tea bottle...maybe it was just the bottle, who knows.

**Thats it for tonight...two more post updates about our crazy side trips and crafting to come later tomorrow.