Let's go to the mall.

Here is a flashback from the 80's that Jeff introduced me to. Enjoy.

Hawaii 2008

Okay, so now that I have been home for a week and all of the pictures have been organized in my computer, I am finally ready to blog about my trip to Maui. Let me just start by saying that over all the trip was great. There were a few rough moments which can be expected when traveling with 10 individuals. The teenagers were mainly concerned with working on their tans and really didn't care where that happened as long as it happened. The only time they got upset was when their sunbathing time was interupted by visiting various tourist sites.

This is my second trip back to the island of Maui and I definately saw more this time than I was expecting. We went for Dawn and Darce' wedding, and Darce, having never been before wanted to see as much of the island as humanly possible. (btw, my best friend's name is also Dawn-not to confuse you) I won't bore you with all of the details, just some of the highlights.

We got to Maui on Thanksgiving day and were greeted at the airport with beautiful leis that smelled SO good. After settling in to our Condos, we quickly changed into our suits and headed to the pool for a few hours of rest and relaxation before we had to get ready for dinner at the Resort's restaurant.

The next few days went by in a blur, we went to visit a couple of old towns that had maybe all of ten stores that were WAAAY overpriced. It was funny when we got to the 1st town Darce gave us an hour and a half to go shopping. We all looked at the small town and thought, what in the world are we going to do for the remaining hour. We filled up most of the time eating lunch at a small mexican restaurant named Polly's. The highlight of our day was spent body surfing over at the North Shore. We laughed so hard at some of the girls' expressions when they unexpectedly had their legs pulled out from under them by the big waves.

Dawn and Darce got married on Wednsday December 3rd at 4pm. The morning was spent at Kapalua snorkeling with some turtles and other exotic fish. We were all so relaxed until we got back to the condo with only 45min to get ready. (not necessarily the smartest move when there are 9 girls needing to get ready at the same time) We made it down to the beach right on time, only to find out that nobody brought the marriage license with them. Thankfully our room was somewhat close so I took off running in my barefeet to get the license while Dawn and her dad stood waiting to walk down to Darce. (who kept his back to them while they waited so that he wouldn't see her before she walked down the "aisle") Besides that small inconvenience the wedding was beautiful and Bear, the officiator, couldn't have been more perfect.

After the nuptuals we headed out to a luau for the reception which was a lot of fun. We ate great food and learned to hula. The dancers were fun to watch, with the fire dancers being my favorite. The three hour party continued back at our condo with more celebrating, which, as a non-drinker, is kind of boring.

While Dawn and Darce left for a few days, we kept ourselves busy, swimming, snorkeling, surfing, and of course, shopping. Thankfully, we all got along really well and had a great time together.



I think the most memorable moment happened while we were in search for the best shaved ice on Maui. I have to say for the record that this was an adventure that I had very little interest in pursuing. Lets just say that the road we needed to take to get to this amazing shaved ice was one that the rental car companies forbid you to go on....yeah, there's a reason for that. We followed Dawn and Darce in our big van on the one way road that went on for miles and was so narrow that the driver of our car, John, was so afraid of going over the edge that he kept grazing the mountain side with the van's antenae. By the time we got to a safe place to pull over, one girl was throwing up, another curled up in a ball sobbing and John couldn't get out of the van fast enough. John was ready to leave the van there he was so shaken up. Since I was the least freaked out by the experience I volunteered to drive the van back down the narrow road and wait for them to meet up with me where the road widened again. Everybody was angry with Darce because he was the one who wanted to do this. The funny thing is, we never got the shaved ice.


Oh, another moment that was a sad reminder that I no longer look as young as I think I do, I was asked by a teenage boy if I was the mom of a couple of the teenage girls that I was with. Yeah, I know that I am old enough to be their mother, but I don't need anybody pointing that out. :)

Overall I survived the trip with a really good tan, some new friends and memories that will last a lifetime.

Catching up

It has been a while since I updated my blog, so I thought that I would give you an update on what is going on in my life. I must back track to about a month ago when Jeff, Lucy, Mikey, Sherry and I travelled up north to Vancouver B.C. to see Madonna in concert. We spent the night at the lovely and ever so popular, Sandman Hotel which is conveniently locatd accross the street from B.C. Place. (where the concert was being held) I was so excited for the concert but found myself losing my umph after waiting over 2 hours for it to begin. While the concert was fun, and the people watching entertaining, I was surprised to find myself less enthusiastic than I thought that I would be. Most concerts have me up on my feet shaking my groove thang, but I was almost bored while she was performing. At one point I looked over at Jeff to find him looking like he could fall asleep at any given moment. The best part of the night was when my little brother bought me a pair of short shorts with Madonna written on them. :) I will be saving those for a fun night out to...nowhere.

The day after the concert Jeff and I headed up to Whistler for the rest of the weekend. The last time I was at Whistler, it was snowing and the skiing was sooo much fun! The village has a magical feeling to it when the snow is falling all around you and the walkways are crowded with people who are filled with excitement. I have never been there pre ski season and was looking forward to taking the high speed quad to the top of the mountain to do some hiking. Unfortunately the quads weren't running so we had to alter our plans a bit. We ended up going for a couple of hikes over the weekend and took a lot of pictures of the area. We will have to go back next summer or maybe skiing again. All in all, the weekend was a lot of fun despite some minor disapointments.

Fast forward to the present where last week I had a minor surgery to remove some endomitriosis that I have in my tummy. I wont go into detail about all that it entails, but it basically causes a lot of pain. The surgery itself only took an hour but the recovery is taking me longer than I was expecting. Jeff was nice enough to come spend the day with me and made sure that I was taken care of. (He even brought me a barf bag from work, which, thankfully I did NOT need to use) After taking a few days off from work to recoup, I went back this morning. It was nice to be among the living for a change but was in desperate need of a nap after only a few hours. I am willing myself to get over this so that I can feel better about getting on a plane tomorrow morning.

Yes, you read correctly, tomorrow morning I am heading to the land of Maui where I will be continuing my recovery in the sun. My best friend is getting married a week from today on the sandy shores of Hawaii. Her father has been very kind and is flying 10 of us there which should be a lot of fun. Dawn (my best friend, and yes she has the same name as I do) is marrying a man named Darce with whom she has been dating for just about a year now. They got engaged 3 months after they met, and they're not even Mormon! They both just have felt like it was right from their very first date so the speed of everything didn't really faze them much. This is the happiest I have seen her in a long time.

So now you are updated on all of the fun things that are going on in my life. I will try not to be such a slacker next time.

Our final game!

So here it is...the last home game for the Huskies and I am hoping beyond hope that we will pull out a win. It has been a really saaaad season and I am mad that I spent all this money for a team that sucks! The irony is that I never went to a game while I was attending the UW and now that I finally get some school spirit they can't find the end zone to save their lives. I am conviced that the reason we are losing is because our mascot is on the DL. We haven't seen hide nor hair of him all season. The least they could do would be to have a look alike come in and lay down on the mat...no one would know. (By the way our mascot is a dog)

Well, we will soon be off to learn our fate, there isn't much hope of a win though. Most of the fans are expecting that our one and only win will come from the Apple Cup against WASU. WOW! What a victory! Beating a team that is just as bad as we are doesn't really mean much to me.

Anyways, I don't mean to sound bitter, but do think we could ask for a refund?

More Pictures!

I went over to Quincy this past weekend and ended up taking a ton of pictures of the beautiful scenery there. It was a great opportunity to try out the different settings on my camera and see what would happen. Lets just say that I am ever so grateful for digital and the power to delete! :)
Here are some of my favorites:

Road Trip to Forks

(We thought the sign was really funny. Thankfully we didn't have to go back a second time).

My friend Lucy and I decided to take a small road trip last Saturday to the Olympic National Park. The photo above is of a port-a-potty we, sadly, had to visit on our way over. In our defense, we had been driving for a couple of hours and this was the only "bathroom" we could find....and we were desperate!


We set out early where we took a ferry from Edmonds over to Kingston to begin our 3hour drive to Forks, Washington. Yes, you heard me right, Forks. For those of you who have read the Twilight books, you will know exactly why Lucy and I chose Forks as our destination. I, myself have not read these books, but Lucy has filled me in on all of the details, so a trip to Forks sounded like fun.

I must say, Forks was.....how do I say this? Disappointing. It was a really small town where we located only a few of the places made famous by the book. There were some funny signs making references to characters in the books that people put in their front windows, but other than that it seemed no diffrent from other small towns. I don't know exactly what I was expecting but we didn't even get out of the car. After a few minutes of roaming the town, we decided to head back to LaPush where the beach is and check it out. It is worth noting that when we pulled up to the beach there was a man there selling Elk jerky...yummy! Lucy and I spent about an hour here walking on the beach collecting rocks. Lucy was like a little kid, with pockets full of the little white rocks she was collecting.


This is the view from the beach at LaPush.


No worries....we saved the starfish. We helped him find his way back to the ocean.


What is wrong with this picture?


Lucy's precious stones!

After hanging out at the beach we decided to head back to Port Angeles to check out the crab festival they were having. (Unfortunately I am allergic to shell fish so I was unable to indulge). After wandering around the many booths that were selling homemade arts and crafts and checking out the food, Lucy and I decided to finish our evening eating at...yes, you guessed it, Bella's restaurant, another of the places made famous by the Twilight series. The food was decent, slightly over priced but the people watching was great. Random groups of people would stop and take pictures in front of the restaurant, which we found amusing. I offered to take a picture of Lucy at the restaurant to document this momentous occasion, but she said she was good.

After a lovely day spent visiting the small towns across the water we decided to head back to Kingston to catch the ferry. Unfortunately, Lucy and I took a wrong turn somewhere along the way and ended up in Port Townsend. Sorry to say we didn't spend much time there sight seeing as it was getting dark and we had no idea of where we were in respect to Kingston. We stopped at a less than clean gas station and asked for directions and quickly headed back the way we came. Once we found HWY 101 we were golden, and got to the ferry 20min before it was set to depart.

We ended our busy day with a trip to B&R to fuel up on ice cream. All in all it was a great way to spend a Saturday. Good friend, good food, quaint towns to visit, and lots of laughter!

There's nothing like fall in Seattle

The leaves have turned and the sun has retreated to some lucky part of the world where summer is just begining. I think that there is something I like about each season. The summer, for obvious reasons; Fall, I love the change in the trees, the colors are so vibrant. There is something about the change of the leaves that signals a new year ahead with new possiblities and fresh starts. Winter brings snow which I think has a slightly magical feel to it. Snow also means skiing and snowshoeing. Spring makes me the happiest of all the seasons. The days get longer and I love walking out of work to the sun going down and smells of BBQ (the charcoal kind) wafting through the air.