Nathan and Lisa

8 weeks already?

2010-09-08T16:00:00.001-07:00

Can it be? Our little peanut is 8 weeks old already? I cannot believe how fast the time has gone, though it is hard to imagine life without her! Rylee is an amazing baby. She is very content and LOVES to be held. We are excited because she is starting to stretch her nights out. She is going between 4.5 - 5.5 hours at night. Yay!

Rylee has done a lot of things already in her little life. At about 3 weeks old we drove down to Salem, OR with my parents to attend a friend's wedding. Rylee did great on the drive and pretty much slept the whole way. On the return trip we stopped in Olympia to go to another friend's wedding. It was fun to catch up with friends and witness new marriages!

We were excited to welcome her cousin, Rhyson James, on Aug. 10. Even though Rylee was a month older, Rhyson beat her out in size and length, weighing almost 9 lbs. It has been fun hanging out with my sister and her kids and between the 2 of us we provide enough baby time for anyone who wants it!

Rylee checked out great in her 6 week appt. She weighed 9 lbs, 7 oz so we are definitely on the right track! She is in the whoppin' 10-25th percentile on all her measurements. :) It was a relief to know she is still eating well and we don't really have to worry about that anymore. The doctor was really cute when he was examining her. At the end he said she looked great but had to double check his list. His reason? Sometimes he just gets too enchanted and doesn't want to forget something :)

I am enjoying being at home though definitely staying busy. I have been able to do a lot for my dad from my computer. I can't work quite as efficiently though...rocking a baby and reconciling bank statements takes a new kind of skill. :) I love being a mom though and every day is a new adventure!

Smiles!!!

North Beach

Getting some tummy time lessons from her cousins

Rhyson and Rylee

The Story...

2010-08-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

She's here! Our precious Rylee Grace arrived on July 15 at 7:10 pm. She arrived healthy and perfect in every way. She was 6 lbs, 6 oz, and 19 inches long. It is still hard to believe that she is finally here. Yesterday (Aug 2) marked Rylee's official due date. So she was still supposed to be inside until this week! Crazy! Yet here she is, going onto 3 weeks on Thursday.

I was scheduled to go in for my induction on the night of the 13th. However, late in the afternoon I got a call that the birthing center was incredibly busy and I needed to wait until morning. Grrr! Needless to say, I was a little upset as I had been working myself up for everything all day. But after a restless night of sleep we finally checked into the hospital at 7:00 Wednesday morning. The induction process started almost right away, but it was a long and slow process. I almost immediately started having contractions about 3 min. apart, but fortunately they were not very painful, just kind of annoying. On Thursday morning my doctor decided I was finally ready for the Pitocin and I started getting that around 9 am. Once again, it was a slow process and much did not happen until mid afternoon. They kept upping the dosage hoping it would kick things in gear. Well, if finally did around 3:30 pm. My water broke around then and contractions started getting intense. Around 6:30 pm I started to push and Rylee arrived at 7:10!

During the entire process the doctors were worried about Rylee's heartrate. It would drop with every contraction so I was stuck laying down on my left side the ENTIRE time. That got quite old. :) Near the end the doctor said it was a race whether Rylee would arrive first or they'd have to do a Cesarean. (Fortunately she won!) My doctor recommended an epidural to help me relax and to help stabilize Rylee's heartrate, but things started happening so fast there was never time! In the end they decided she had a short cord which was causing the problems. We are just so thankful and blessed that Rylee arrived healthy, and we are so in love with our little girl!

We went home from the hospital on Saturday morning. Then on Monday we had Rylee's 3-day check up. At the doctor's office we learned she had dropped more than the normal 7-10% of her birth weight and they wanted us to check back into the hospital. We knew she hadn't been eating well so it was almost a relief to go somewhere where we could get help.

At the hospital the nurses learned that she was not sucking correctly; she was tongue thrusting so it was impossible for her to drink. Apparently this is not uncommon for small and early babies. It only took a short while for the nurse to train Rylee how to suck properly. For a while we had to use a syringe to supplement her but we eventually got Rylee eating on her own. We went home on Tuesday with a very detailed feeding plan and a nervous mama...but we are starting to get things figured out. At her 2-week appointment Rylee had not only regained her birth weight but she was well past it! Yeah!

I think we are getting settled into a routine now. We don't have to go back to the doctor until her 6-week appointment. I am definitely done with doctors for while and sick of surprise check-in's to the hospital. :) Rylee is an amazing baby. She is very content and pretty much sleeps all the time. I still have to wake her up every 3 hours but she is just now starting to wake up hungry on her own which is a good sign. She is a precious bundle and she is quite a miracle!

Anxious and Excited

2010-07-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the night! I met with my doctor yesterday and she said that my protein levels were increasing so she wanted to induce as soon as possible before things got worse. My non-stress test went fine on Saturday...the baby looked great. We also saw baby doing some more practice breathing yesterday on the ultrasound and that is a good sign.

I was told the induction process could take a couple days. Yikes. I go in at 7 tonight to get started but probably won't be in labor until morning, so at least I should get one more normal night of sleep before my life changes dramatically! Nate is finally home for a while; he is still a little overwhelmed about everything but I know he is going to do great. So now for a long day of waiting and hopefully next time I post there will be good news to share!

Last pic...37 weeks!

Ready or not...

2010-07-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

Well, after 35 weeks of an extremely uneventful pregnancy, I was surprised by the sudden turn of events yesterday. At my weekly doctor appointment they noticed elevated blood pressure and presence of proteins in the urine, signs of preeclampsia. So the doctor wanted me monitored at the hospital for a while. That turned into an overnight, 24+ hour stay as they monitored me and baby. I was completely shocked when the doctor said if my protein levels were still high today they would induce today. If they were okay, they'd get me to 37 weeks and then induce.

Fortunately, this afternoon I was given the okay to go home yet stay on strict bedrest. They want me back on Saturday for a non-stress test and then again on Monday to see the doctor. She said she wants to induce within the next week. WOW! Not at all what I expected.

I was quite relieved to have an ultrasound this morning and find everything okay with the baby. Size and weight looked average for 36 weeks and lungs were functioning, so Baby Sak should be okay to deliver early. I will be 37 weeks on Monday but want to wait as long as the doctor will let me! The news is still settling in...I was fully expecting to go to 40 weeks (or longer) and still have lots to do, but that will all have to wait for now. Baby...ready or not, here you come!!! :)

Finally...New Countertops

2010-07-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday held the arrival of our much anticipated countertops. After a week of no kitchen due to tearing out the old ones, the new ones were installed in less than 4 hours. Of course Nate was gone all week and didn't have to deal with it, but fortunately my dad and mom took care of my dietary needs. :)

We love the countertops, and now just have to work on installing the tile backsplash and remaining trim around the windows. This was one thing I really wanted finished before baby, and I can't believe it actually happened! It's nice to have a kitchen back. Nate even got the new cooktop working, so now we just have to wait for the glue to dry before using the sink and we're set! Yay!

The Before: The Original Kitchen

After refinishing the cabinets and installing recessed lighting

Almost finished...just need a backsplash and trim! Well, a new dishwasher too but that will come eventually. :)

33 weeks and counting...

2010-06-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I see it's been a while once again. I've hit my 33 week mark and am slowly marching towards 34. Yeah! 7 weeks seems like an eternity, but I know it will come eventually. I had another appointment today and my doctor confirmed Aug. 2 as my due date. We are gradually gathering things for the baby and have most of the basics now. Fortuanately my sisters have allowed me to borrow their things which really helps a lot.

It's hard to believe it is almost summer...it sure doesn't feel like it here. We've had too many rainy and overcast days. I am very ready for some warmer weather. Nate's busy season is picking up. He is out in Eastern WA right now for the week. I just tell him he's not allowed to travel within a 2-3 week window before my due date. :) We'll see how that goes.

Samson finished obedience school a few weeks ago. While he has all the basic commands down, he has a hard time with "come"... chasing bunnies or sniffing up in the woods is much more fun. We've had our hands full with this little pup. He still keeps us quite entertained and we can never stay mad at his big, innocent, puppy eyes for long.

Our graduate

33 weeks!!!

Static

2010-05-17T18:56:00.001-07:00

This is for my sister's sake...she was wondering how Raya's hair got so tangled and messed up yesterday. Well, here is the reason.

Samson Memories

2010-04-10T22:29:00.000-07:00

I was looking through my pictures and couldn't believe how big Samson has gotten since bringing him home. Here are some favorites from the last 7 months. I laugh every time I watch that video...he is so tiny and clumsy!

Baby Samson...the day we brought him home

Helping (?) daddy with our house construction

King of the hill!!!

Out cold while watching TV

His "sling" he was carried around WSU in

So sleepy

Kisses!

I think he forgets how big he is sometimes

More kisses

So big!

Life Update

2010-04-09T21:58:00.000-07:00

Busy busy busy...that's about all I can say for the last several months. We have been working like crazy on our house. The bathrooms are our latest project. I am very excited that finally we have one almost finished bathroom downstairs and the upstairs one is coming along. I did laundry the other day without having to put on my shoes and didn't need to do a balancing act to get in there!!! We were able to get away for a weekend in San Francisco/Monterey. We joined 8 other college friends there for a mini-reunion.

Baby Sak is still doing well and everything seems to be moving along nicely. I am 23 weeks along and feeling great. Nate was able to come to my 20-week ultrasound and enjoyed seeing the baby move and stretch. I think it helped make it a little more real for him.

Here are some highlights of our trip: Alcatraz, walking along the pier in San Francisco, the gorgeous down Hwy 101, Monterey Acquarium, Pebble Beach Drive, hiking along the beach, and many games/chats with friends.

As you can see we had BEAUTIFUL weather

Part of the gang on Alcatraz

Puppy Pics

2010-02-16T22:16:00.000-08:00

Boy is Samson growing fast! I am sad I no longer have a tiny puppy, but I am glad the early morning walks and potty training days are over (well, almost). He continues to make us laugh with his "brilliant" puppy antics. (As I type he is chasing his tail). He has made friends with the neighbor dogs, so that is a good thing. They have a puppy about his age he gets along with well.

Nate has been doing a significant amount of traveling so we haven't gotten much done on the house lately. The bathrooms are STILL unfinished but we hope to get them going soon. I am now 16 weeks along and still feeling great. I haven't busted out any maternity clothes yet and hopefully can hold off on that for a while. Thankfully things are going smoothly and we are praying this continues until the end!

Finally...some pics

2010-01-25T20:36:00.001-08:00

So here are some of the "Before" pictures (the "After's" yet to come):

Front door on the left, taken from kitchen. (All the wood paneling went)

Upstairs bathroom (The first thing we did once we bought the house was tear down this hideous wallpaper!!!)

Downstairs bathroom...once again I couldn't wait to rip that paper off

Basement (that is the master bedroom door)

Basement from other direction. Once again, all the wood paneling on the walls is now gone.

Upstairs living room (looking towards dining room then kitchen)

Kitchen

Living Room

Upstairs bedroom...we turned this one into our office

So, although we are not near finished I will work on getting some after pictures on what we have accomplished. So far, the office and master bedroom are almost completely done with just a little trim work remaining. The kitchen is almost done; we just need to get new countertops yet. The living rooms up and down are mostly done except they need all the trim yet. Much to do yet we have come so far!

Big News

2010-01-25T18:55:00.000-08:00

For those who haven't heard, we have some big changes coming up in our life. This big change will happen around August 4 when our baby arrives. A baby? Yep...though it still hasn't even sunk in for us yet. I am almost 13 weeks, so into my 2nd trimester now. (yeah!) Things have been great (too great I worry at times) since I haven't been sick or even felt pregnant yet. An ultrasound a few weeks ago did confirm the fact and we are now eagerly looking forward to the summer.

Hopefully, our house will be finished to a certain degree so we can turn our attention to more important things in life, namely, a baby. Samson, who is growing FAST, will almost be 1 and he will have to learn to adjust to being a big brother. :)

We learned other very exciting news at Christmas when my sister Juli announced that she too is expecting. Her due date is August 14, so our babies will be only a week or so apart! Needless to say, my mom is very excited. Nate's family is also ecstatic as this will be the first baby on their side of the family.

So for now as we try to wait patiently all we can do is pray for this little one and hope you remember us in your prayers as well!

Happy New Year

2010-01-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

Wow...this is awful. I realize I haven't posted since before Thanksgiving. The last month turned out to be a wonderfully crazy and chaotic month! A lot has happened, so I'll just give a brief summary of events.

December started by me flying out to Sioux Falls for about a week. I went out to help my sister Sheri travel to WA with her 3 kids (a 3-year old and twin 1-year olds). It was fun to be there over the twin's birthday and I got to watch Kiera's Christmas program. The weather was WAY to cold though...I definitely don't miss that part of the Midwest. The trip home went surprisingly well, though we were both ready to be done traveling by the end of the day.

My sister Tami and her 3 kids flew out the day after we arrived in WA, so the blessed chaos increased. In all there are 8 kids, 7 of them are 4 & under. We had a great time hanging out. Going anywhere proved to be quite the sideshow with all the car seats and highchairs but it was great. We celebrated my 25th birthday by going to Red Robin with just the adults (a rare treat).

In the midst of all this chaos our house was slowly getting worked on. The cabinet people finished retaining our cabinets, we finally finished painting, and carpet was installed downstairs the week before Christmas. With all the people in my parent's house Nate and I decided to move into ours even though it wasn't completely ready. So I guess we are now moved in, but a lot of work is yet ahead of us. We finally emptied our storage unit (and the van we had parked in storage last year still full of stuff!). It was like Christmas as we went through everything, some stuff we had never even opened since we didn't have a lot of room in Olympia.

As I look back it is hard to believe it has almost been one full year since leaving Olympia. We are VERY ready to finally settle in and get our lives organized. It is amazing to see God's hand in all the events, from losing our jobs in Jan, and incredible trip to Europe, Nate's new job allowing us to live close to family, and my availability to help my dad as he underwent chemo and radiation this summer. God is good!

Painting

2009-11-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

We have spent the last week painting in our house. Last weekend we got the whole house primed. We then worked on the living room, kitchen, and dining room throughout the week. We have the upstairs mostly finished except for the ceiling. The guy doing our drywall recommended a certain technique to do the ceilings, so we are going to try that sometime this week. The whole painting process has been frustrating and toilsome; I am VERY ready to be done with painting! I am still holding on to the goal of being in by Christmas. We are actually getting close. Once the painting is done we can do the flooring. Everything else can be done while we are in the house! Yea!

Today we celebrated Nate’s 26th birthday. 26? Wow! That’s so old! :) We spent the day with my family and tomorrow we will have a party with Nate’s family. We both decided that the best present this year will be moving in the house (plus all the big purchases we have to make yet…yikes).

We hope all of you have a blessed Thanksgiving and enjoy spending time with friends and family!

Cleaning up after priming the upstairs

Okay...so we were tired and sick of it

All this painting will give you gray hairs!

Nate telling Samson some"tricks of the trade"

Gettin' some love from the pup

Samson all tuckered out after a hard day's work

San Diego

2009-11-04T20:59:00.001-08:00

A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to go to San Diego with Nate for a business conference. His company had an end of the season grower weekend.

The first night we stayed right off the coast in Carlsbad. It was great walking down the beach, feeling sand in our toes once again. (We don't really get out in the summer, so we have to enjoy any nice weather we can get). The next day we checked into the Hotel del Coronado with the other attendees. That hotel was a beautiful, old building from the late 1800's. Our room had a partial ocean view and was very nice.

On Saturday we went to the San Diego zoo with everyone. I had never been there before and Nate had been long ago, so we had a fun time there. That evening we went downtown to a beautiful restaurant on the 14th floor of a building with a panoramic view of the city.

When we returned home on Sunday we were met with a great surprise. Before we left we decided to hire someone to do our drywall. He ended up getting most of the drywall hung that weekend. We were VERY glad with our decision to hire that part out. Once he is done taping and texturing we should be ready to paint. And then we can do flooring...and then move in! Well, that's extremely sumarized but you can see we are finally moving away from demo work towards improvements you can see.

Overlookinig part of the zoo from the SkySafari.

The view from our room

Our baby is getting so big already!!!

Popcorn ceiling and WSU

2009-10-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Samson and I went to visit my sister-in-law Naomi at WSU with Barb and Natalie. We had a great weekend together and it was fun to finally see where Naomi has been spending the last several years. She is over halfway through vet school. Samson was a SPOILED puppy that weekend. We didn't want him to keep others up in her apartment building, so he was given attention at every whine and bark. We did a lot of walking around the campus and his little puppy legs couldn't keep up, so Natalie carried him around in a bag. He actually liked it and would fall asleep in there and just hang out. We smuggled him in lots of places...an ice cream place, bookstore, and even Wal-Mart. :) Naomi, Natalie, and I played volleyball Sat. afternoon with some of Naomi's friends. It was cold that weekend but we still braved playing with bare feet! I am definitely not ready for winter yet. It got cold over there!

While I was having fun in Pullman, Nate was quite miserable at home. He tackled our popcorn ceiling removal project. Fortunately my brother-in-law Randy offered to help Nate with the horrible project. We found out the ceiling has asbestos, so the guys wore haz-mat type suits. They spent all day working on it and after many frustrations and lots of hard work, they got all the ceiling off. Unfortunately Nate started getting sick the day before and he has been battling his cold/flu for the past week now. Today he is finally looking more like himself. We both spent a lot more time down there yesterday removing carpet, paneling, and cleaning. The next step is to texture the ceiling and put drywall up where all the paneling was.

Dr. Naomi givng puppy a check-up

Samson so content in his "sling"

Us girls at WSU

Nate and Randy in their HazMat suits

Puppy Update

2009-10-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

Well, so far life with a puppy has been pretty exciting. We are glad that Samson has been sleeping through the night. :) He only cries in the morning when he is hungry and ready to get out. He absolutely loves cuddling. Yesterday he played hard with Frodo and Natalie and by that night he was pooped. He fell asleep on Nate and was absolutely out to the world. It was quite hilarious. We are definitely having fun with the little guy.

Some people "baby-proof" their house; we decided to "puppy-proof our house. We put plastic up everywhere so Samson doesn't get anything dirty.

Hahaha...just kidding. We have plastic everywhere because this weekend Nate is going to be taking down our popcorn ceiling. It will be a big job and fortunately my brother-in-law Randy offered to help. Hopefully it won't be too difficult and they can get it all done on Saturday!

Samson out to the world!!!

Introducing...SAMSON!

2009-10-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday marked the beginning of a new adventure...we finally got to pick up our puppy, Samson. We had to drive down to Tacoma to get him. He did great on the trip home and just snuggled on my lap the whole time. My nieces came over and he did great around them. He loved following Raya around. He also met his uncle Frodo the pug. Frodo was bigger then him, but Samson will overtake him in not too long. We decided to wait to introduce him to the big dogs...a giant chocolate lab and a crazy golden retriever.

Samson had a really good night and didn't even cry until morning. He was pretty spoiled today...he got lots of loving and attention. He LOVES cuddling on someone's lap and is content to stay there. We aren't looking forward to leaving him when we have to work. He cried when we left him for church this morning and it was so sad!!!

We have been making some progress on our house. We almost have all the plastic on the floors and walls for our popcorn ceiling removal project. Hopefully this weekend Nate will tackle the project. We ordered some pretty sweet safety gear and Nate will look styling in his mask and Tyvek suit. :) I am definitely looking foward to doing constructive work on the house versus demolition work. Right now we also are taking out the paneling downstairs. Wow...so much ahead of us.

We provide a comfy pillow, but he still chose to sleep in his water dish all afternoon.

An overdue update

2009-09-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

Wow! I see it's been a long time since I posted. This summer went so fast; I can't believe we are a week away from October! Nate and spent most of the summer working and searching for a house. We have been looking at houses since April trying to find the "perfect" house. We probably looked at every single house in our price range in the Skagit Valley and none stuck out to us. We wanted a good investment house--one that needed some TLC and updating. Well, we finally found that house! It was actually staring at us from down the street the entire time. To make a long story short, we submitted an offer for a vacant house near my parent's. The owner passed away last year and his elderly siblings live on the East Coast. They knew it needed lots of work but couldn't do it themselves. So they accepted our offer and several weeks later the house is officially ours!

We are very excited to have finally found a house although our move-in date won't be for a while yet. We have lots of work to do before moving in...remove popcorn ceiling, paint all the walls and replace all the flooring. That's just a small list of what needs to be done. It is really nice that it is close to where we are living so we can work on it whenever we have time. The house is 2-story, 3 bd/2 bath with an additional family room in the daylight basement. It is on a 3/4 acre lot, so Nate is very excited about room to have a garden and a dog.

About that dog...we are getting a puppy next weekend. We found Newfoundland/Lab mix puppies that had been rescued and put our name down to get one. Nate's family had a lab/newfie mix growing up and it was their favorite dog ever, so they are all excited we are getting one. So this weekend I should have pictures of our puppy!

Well, I will hopefully do a better job keeping the blog updated and get some pictures on here.

Nieces and Nephews

2009-05-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

I (Lisa) was able to spend the last 2 weeks visiting my sisters. The first week was spent with Tami, Chad, Levi, Tori, and Elliana in Cloquet, MN. I met 8-week old Elliana for the first time and immediately fell in love with this beautiful little girl. We had lots of snuggle time together as we got to know each other. The week was spent relaxing, playing games with Levi and Tori (lots of Bocce!), reading books, going on walks, and just enjoying being together.

From Cloquet I drove down to Sioux Falls to visit Sheri, Ryan, Kiera, Caleb, and Joel (thanks to Chad for letting me borrow his car!) The twins are already 5 1/2 months old, so it was fun to see how they had grown since Christmas. I also got lots of baby time here between the 2 boys yet still managed to play with Kiera and read her lots of stories. (I still have the book "26 Princesses" memorized.) She is extremely talkative and had us laughing constantly with her silly chatter. Sheri and I managed to get out several times and get some shopping or exercise in with the kiddos. It was so fun to spend time with everyone but it always so hard to leave. We just look forward to the next visits.

I drove back to Cloquet to drop the car off then took the shuttle back to Minneapolis to catch a flight to Chicago. Nate and I met up in Chicago as we had plans to attend a wedding in Michigan. This was also our anniversary weekend...3 years already! We spent the night in Chicago then drove to the wedding on Saturday. The wedding was beautiful and it was fun to see our friend again. We had to leave early Sunday morning to catch our planes and with that my adventerous trip came to a close!

Tori

Levi in his "farmer" costume

Elliana

Levi and Tori eating lunch outside

Elliana

Caleb and Joel in their bumbos

Joel

Kiera

Caleb and Joel

Good lookin' boys!

Tulip Time

2009-04-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

Our friend Charlotte from Olympia came to visit Nate and I a few weeks ago. She wanted to see the famous Skagit Valley tulips. Unfortunately, the flowers were late this year and the fields were not in full bloom yet. However we were able to see a few fields that were just starting and enjoyed the daffodils in full bloom. It was great to see Charlotte and we had a fun afternoon together.

A few videos

2009-04-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

I uploaded a couple videos from our trip. The first one is taken from le arc de triomphe in Paris. I think that these people need some help with traffic flow and figuring out how to use a round-a-bout. We had some good laughs at the cars, especially the one near the end that is perpendicular to the traffic. The second video is the elevator ride up the Eiffel tower. The last one is taken outside of Amsterdam at a sawmill windmill we toured. This working windmill was renovated a few years ago and demonstrates how the windmills used to work. It was interesting to watch the logs being sawed...as the wind blew harder, the blades worked faster.

Day 22: The Trip Home

2009-03-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

We did it…3 weeks around Europe! Nate and I were very pleased with the itinerary we put together in less than a month. We saw tons of stuff, experienced many cultures, and didn’t miss a train once even though we rode on over 50 trains. This trip was something we have always wanted to do but it seemed hard to accomplish with limited vacation days. It was amazing to see God working throughout the last 3 months. Everything fit together perfectly; we couldn’t have planned any of this better ourselves!

We left Amsterdam Tuesday afternoon on a direct flight to Seattle. Our flight was about 10 hours, but we had plenty of movies and games to keep us entertained so it actually wasn’t too bad. However, we were ready to get home and it felt great to sleep in our own bed that night!

Our trip is over!

Day 21: Amsterdam

2009-03-31T20:32:00.000-07:00

We had a busy day planned for the last full day of our trip. We had heard about this giant flower auction outside of Amsterdam. Andrea gave us directions to it so we found the correct bus and rode about an hour to Aalsmeer, the location of the second largest building in the world. Every day millions of flowers are sent here, auctioned off, and shipped to customers around the world. We toured the plant and watched the auctions taking place and the orderly chaos in this huge warehouse.

After Aalsmeer, we headed back to Amsterdam and took a 15-minute train ride to Zaanse Schans, another neighboring town. From downtown we had to take a passenger only ferry to get to Zaanse Schans. This area was once home to over 600 windmills, but only about 6 remain now. I was excited to see, as I put it, “windmills in the wild” (We had seen plenty in town, but not along the countryside). We were able to tour a working sawmill. The harder the wind blew, the faster the blades cut the wood. It was interesting! We also went through a cheese farm and wooden shoe museum. Once returning to Amsterdam we had enough time to walk around the streets and do some shopping. We had to pack our bags and find a way get our souvenirs home safely. We still only had our 2 backpacks and small day pack, but we managed to get everything in.

Just a tiny fraction of this huge warehouse

One of the six auction rooms

Day 20: Delft/Den Haag/Amsterdam

2009-03-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

We left Antwerp in the morning and headed to Amsterdam, our circle almost complete. On the way we stopped in Delft and looked in some stores and browsed through the real Delft pottery. From there we met up with my college friend, Andrea in The Hague. She is studying for her master’s there and was able to meet us at the train station. We ate lunch together and had a great time catching up. From The Hague we finally made it to Amsterdam…our trip almost complete! Our hostel required a ride on the tram, but we found it easily. We decided to try the Anne Frank house the night. The line was a little long, but we decided to wait anyway. The house is now empty with no furniture, but each room had information explaining what used to be there. It was an interesting yet sobering walk through the house. Anne’s actual diary was in a glass display for the visitors to see. Later that night after walking around town a bit we had a type of Asian stir-fry…it was pretty good and a nice change.

Oliebollen: A family favorite treat!

Our green hostel room

Downtown Delft

Day 19: Antwerp

2009-03-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

Although we had originally planned on going to Bruges, Nate and I decided to take the more practical and efficient route to Antwerp, Belgium. We had booked a hostel there so we left Brussels in the morning. Antwerp is a charming small town with lots of character. We enjoyed exploring the town square with, most naturally, a huge church. Antwerp also had some delicious chocolate shops. We also enjoyed many snacks of frites, or fries. They serve them in paper cones and you can choose from countless sauces with ketchup being the minority. Nate was in heaven with all the dipping sauces. However, due to differences in dipping preferences we just had to get separate orders. :) We crossed the river via a long underground tunnel and spent some time in a park. After returning we stumbled across a street performer. He was juggling fire on a giant unicycle. It was amusing because he did his speech in several languages. Every time he switched, you’d hear a rumble of laughter from the French…then the Dutch…then the English. It was rather amusing.

Frites!

Antwerp from across the river

Day 18: Brussels

2009-03-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

After an hour on the high speed train from Paris we arrived in Brussels, Belgium. Nate and I really enjoyed Brussels. It is much smaller than Paris and the atmosphere more relaxed and pleasant. We found our hostel easily after taking the Metro from the central train station. We went back downtown to look for some dinner. We settled on a traditional doner kebob restaurant. This fast-food type restaurant cooks meat on a large rotating skewer. The chef slices pieces off the meat and serves it on pita bread or in a wrap. We found food to be much cheaper in Belgium than in rest of Europe. That evening we enjoyed walking around the shops and sampling lots of delicious Belgian chocolate. We definitely enjoyed taking in the culture of the city and took a break from museums and traditional sightseeing.

Day 17: Paris

2009-03-28T14:43:00.001-07:00

Nate and I were extremely excited to find the next day in Paris sunny and clear...definitely not what was forecasted! We had a big day planned: the Louvre museum, the Eiffel tower, the arc de triomphe, the Champ de Elysee, and the Orsay museum. We got to all of these places and more during this beautiful day. At the Louvre we saw the original Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and much more. The Orsay was also very interesting and showed the progression of French art. The Orsay held paintings of Van Gogh, Monet, Courbet, and many more. We walked along the Champ de Elysse, a famous street (and expensive!) that runs through the downtown area. It ends at the arc de triomphe, a arc that Napoleon built to honor war victims. We actually climbed the arc. It is situated at the middle of the city so all the roads converge around it like the spokes of a wheel. We ended at the Eiffel tower. We did wait a while to get a ride to the top, but it was worth the wait. The structure itself is actually not the most aesthetically pleasing...just a bunch of metal. But the view at the top was pretty neat. We stayed until dark to get some good night shots. We were surprised by a light show that we did not even know about. Thousands of flash-like lights went off all around the tower making for an impressive display!

Having some fun in the park

Outside the Louvre

Venus de Milo

Beginning the walk down the Champ de Elysee

The arc de triomphe

Taken from the tower

Day 16: Paris

2009-03-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

After a long, loud, and hot train ride from Rome, we arrived in rainy and overcast Paris. We really had not planned this part of our trip in too much detail, so when we arrived in the train station we really had no idea where to go. The Metro was a little ways away from the station, but we found it and managed to get to our hotel. This hotel was not the best of our accommodations (actually the worst). The bathroom wasn't even on the same floor...we had to go down to the first level.

Unfortunately, our first day in Paris was tainted with credit card problems. For some reason both of our cards stopped working. Since the time difference is 9 hours to the States, we couldn't connect with anyone until their customer service opened. So that afternoon was quite stressful. We eventually got one working but not our ATM. One problem was that in Paris they have a Smartchip, so most vendors didn't even know how to use the American style credit card.

We did walk around Notre Dame and tour the inside. We didn't find the hunchback for some reason, but we did look! We decided to hold off on the Eiffel tower in hopes of a clearer day and once again that decision paid off in the end!

My bunk on the train

Notre Dame

A statue outside of Notre Dame

The front of Notre Dame

Day 15: Rome

2009-03-25T21:57:00.001-07:00

For our last day in Rome we had a lot planned. We really wanted to explore the catacombs but these were a ways out of the city. However, we managed to find the right bus and rode about 45 minutes to the catacombs of St. Sabastian. We were given a tour through endless mazes of tunnels underground. The early Christians used these Roman burial grounds as meeting places during the persecutions. This particular catacomb had over 10 miles of underground tunnels. The length of all the catacombs combined is just huge. The catacombs are along the Appian way which is an ancient road built to connect cities in the Roman empire. Peter and Paul probably walked these ancient roads.

Once we returned to the city we tried the Vatican once again. This time, the line to get in St. Peter's Basilica was non-existent! We walked right in and straight up to Michealangelo's famous Pieta (Mary and the crucified Jesus). The church is just enormous. Even after being in lots of churches the previous weeks, this one still had the "wow" effect. It is the biggest church in the world. After the Vatican we walked around the Forum area once more and did a little shopping. We had to catch our night train to Paris, so we bought some groceries for dinnerto take on the train with us . This time our night train was more pleasant. We met our fellow roommates...a non-English speaking Japanese girl, a Georgian (as in Russia) biochemist, and a couple from the UK just finishing a 5 month bike tour through Australia, New Zealand, parts of Asia, and Europe. A very interesting mix! The train ended up being about 14 hours long, but we got an adequate amount of sleep and ended up in Paris!

The courtyard in the Vatican

Pieta

St. Peter's Basilica

The Appian Way

Area above the catacombs

Day 14: Rome

2009-03-25T21:32:00.001-07:00

Day 2 in Rome was another clear, beautiful sunny day. We planned our day with an early start from the hostel. We headed for downtown to stop at the Trevi Fountain. From there we stopped at the Pantheon. This building was originally a temple to the pagen gods, but a Roman King turned it into a Christian temple. Artist Rapheal is buried in this perfectly built Dome. We then headed to the Vatican. However, the lines to get into St. Peter's Basilica stretched around the entire courtyard of the Vatican. We decided to start with the Vatican Museum. The line wasn't too long so we wandered around this huge museum and ended in the Sistene Chapel. I thought it was going to be a lot bigger, but nontheless it was still impressive and Michealangelo's paintings amazing. We decided to leave the Basilica and try get in the next day (a wise choise we found later!). We had to go back to the hostel and gather our bags since that evening we had booked a very nice hotel onto of Rome. We used Nate's hotel points to stay here, thinking a break would be nice 2/3 through the trip.

We took a shuttle to the hotel from downtown. The other people on the shuttle probably turned up their noses at these bedraggled kids getting on. However, at check-in Nate was brought to a VIP room since he had a dimond-VIP status with Hilton. (all the consecutive stays at a hotel while working in Florida paid off!) We snickered as we walked past those people to our private check-in. The hotel was gorgeous. We had a view of the entire city of Rome. We also had access to the Imperial Lounge with unlimited food and drinks all day. (We made this our dinner and breakfast during our stay.) The hotel also had a pool/fitness center, so we enjoyed relaxing that night. So we went from rags to riches in one day...from a lowly hostel "PopIn" to the "Waldorf Astoria Rome Calvilieri"!

Trevi Fountain

Pantheon

Our view from our room overlooking Rome

Our view at night: The Vatican

Day 13: Rome

2009-03-22T14:39:00.000-07:00

From Sienna Nate and I took an approximate 2 1/2 hour train ride to Rome. We arrived before check-in at the hostel but they allowed us to just leave our bags there. We grabbed a map and headed out to check out the city. Rome ended up being one of my favorite places. Sure we had to be on high alert for pickpocketing, but as long as you are cautious and smart with your stuff it wasn't a problem. Our first stop was the Colosseum. We had purchased the Roma pass which included unlimited public transportation and free admission to a couple museums. We used our pass to cut to the front of the line and walked around the ancient building. It was amazing to stand inside this history-filled place.

From the Colosseum we walked around the Forum, or the ancient downtown which basically consists of ruins now. We did a LOT of walking in the three days spent in Rome. But every street has tons of history and we didn't want to miss anything. That night we went to Hard Rock Cafe Rome. We waited a long time but it was worth it. The food was delicious...a type we hadn't eaten in a long time (good ole' American!?) When we returned to the hostel all of our roommates were already sleeping, so we awkwardly got ready for bed as quietly as we could to ready for another fun-filled day!

Day 12: Pisa/Sienna

2009-03-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

Our time in Florence came to an end, and we continued on toward Pisa. We did not have a lot of time but we wanted to see the famous tower. So our visit of Pisa included running around and trying to find the right bus. Once we finally found it our 1 hour bus pass started. So we rode 15 minutes to the tower, got out, took the pictures, then got back to the bus just before our time ran out. It was cool to see the tower and yes...it is still leaning.

After leaving Pisa Nate and I headed to Sienna. This small town was highly recommended and listed as a favorite for many. When we arrived by train no town was in sight. The road went uphill in 3 different directions. We had no map, so we randomly chose one road. After walking about 10 minutes uphill we merged onto a highway headed to Rome, so we realized this was the wrong way. We turned around and trudged up the other hill. Fortunately, this lead us into the old downtown. Our hostel that night was nice and it had an incredibly view. We walked around the town square that night. It was Valentine's Day so we decided on a nice dinner. However, most places were full or by reservation only. So we settled on a Chinese restaurant (very Italian! hahaha). It was actually pretty good. The place was also packed, but we got in right before the rush.

Sienna

Day 10/11: Florence

2009-03-09T22:55:00.001-07:00

For the first time since leaving Goes Nate and I spent 2 days in one location. We enjoyed strolling the streets of old Florence and taking in all the history. The first day in Florence involved the Uffizi Museum (the offices of the powerful Medici family). The museum held art from Michelangelo, Rafael, daVinci, and many other famous artists. We walked up a hill to enjoy the view of the entire city and waited for sunset. That evening we had another typical Italian dinner…pasta.

The next day was did some more touring of downtown. We went inside the Duomo which was one of the first domes built. We climbed the 466 stairs to the top for a breathtaking view of the city. Even my knees were a little shaky by the time we ascended the narrow windy stairs to the top! One lady ahead of us got too scared and had to turn around. Another highlight was visiting Academia which held Michelangelo’s status of David. One great perk of traveling in wintertime is that the legendary 3-hour lines to see the statue were non-existent and we walked right in! We almost missed David since the previous day there was a strike at the museum and we had to wait until the morning before we left.

The view from the Duomo

The Medici Bridge (The family used a private
passageway to get to their offices across the bridge)

The Duomo

Day 9: Venice

2009-03-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

We made it! An awkward night train and little sleep couldn’t keep us from enjoying Venice. We arrived in the intriguing city and started with a Grand Canal tour. There literally are no cars in the city, only every imaginable king of boat. We saw garbage boats, refrigerated boats, and even a DHL boat. Nate and I toured the Basilica San Marco and the Doge’s Palace. We also went through a couple museums. We went to the top of the bell tower for an incredible view of the city. Many gondoliers tried to sell us a ride in a gondola, but we were not interested due to the high cost. From there we wound our way through narrow pedestrian-only streets of Venice. Following a map would have been impossible, so we relied on random signs pointing to major landmarks. We stopped at the Rialto bridge…the famous grand bridge spanning the width of the canal. That evening we browsed the streets of Venice and got some local food. Yup…you guessed it…pizza! The most common pizza there is the margharita (basically cheese, sauce, and oregano) named after queen Margherita.

Taken from the top of the bell tower

In front of the Basilica San Marco

Sunset in Venice

Day 8: Lucerne

2009-03-09T20:06:00.000-07:00

Our day in Lucerne started with a walk around the old city walls. We walked along Lake Lucerne and across the famous old wooden bridges. It was a cool and very windy day, so we didn’t linger too long by the lake. Nate and I spent some time looking in the stores and stopped in a café for some coffee and croissant. We headed to Interlaken from Lucerne and did some more window shopping and taking in the sights. We walked a long way with our backpacks still with us. When we got to the other side of town we found another train station! Imagine that. So we could have just taken the train to downtown. Oh well…at least we didn’t have to walk all the way back! We then took another train to Spiez. At that point it was dark and snowing hard so by the time we got to Spiez we just hunkered down in a café to wait for our night train to Venice. Our couchette included 4 other travelers in a small room. We boarded the train 2 hours after it started so those people were already sleeping. We fumbled around in the dark trying to get ourselves situated on our bunks and eventually got a little sleep on the way to Bologna.

Lucerne

Day 7: Fussen

2009-03-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Fussen in the dark and had to walk over 45 minutes to our hostel. We found out the address we had was for a different house and there was one only about 5 minutes from the train. Fortunately the manager drove us back in his van. When we arrived he could not open the door. Apparently one of the guests had dead bolted it from the inside. So he was running around the house, yelling and throwing snowballs at the windows to get the attention of people inside. Nate and I just stood there waiting to get in, laughing at the whole situation.

The next morning we took a bus to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. The fresh layer of snow made this already fairy-tale like castle even more gorgeous. This castle was built by a young king in the 1800’s but he died shortly after it was built. (legend has his death suicidal, but recently many think it was murder). The castle is extravagantly decorated and furnished. We weren’t allowed pictures inside, so we can only show the outside. It was beautiful inside though!

Our trip from Fussen to Lucerne involved over 7 trains and six connections. However, we made it with no missed trains and arrived in Lucerne in the evening. We checked in at our hostel and went out in search of fondue (Switzerland is known for their fondue). We found a fondue house and ordered some cheese. It was very expensive, so we opted out of chocolate for dessert. The dinner was delicious though!

Hohenschwangau Castle

A snow-covered bridge

Neuschwanstein Castle

Day 6: Dachau

2009-03-07T13:16:00.000-08:00

After a good evening in Rothenberg we headed towards Munich. We stopped just about 15 miles from Munich to visit the Dachau concentration camp. This was one of the first concentration camps built and served as a model for others. Most of the buildings had been destroyed but 2 of the barracks were reconstructed for visitors to see. The crematorium/gas chambers still stood as well as the prison. We walked through the museum and watched a documentary about Dachau. It was a very somber experience. Just as we arrived it started to snow which only added to the overall atmosphere. It made it a lot easier to imagine what the prisoners went through as they lived in those freezing conditions. Here we were dressed in our warm clothes wtih gloves/hats etc and we were still cold. Those people only had thin prison clothes, were malnourished, sick, and forced to work outside. Awful! After leaving Dachau we spent the rest of the day traveling to Fussen, stopping briefly in Munich for some lunch.

The entrance all prisoners entered through, seeing the words
"Work shall set you free"

The crematorium

Day 5: Heidelberg/Rothenberg

2009-03-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

We left our ghost town in the morning in search of some more castles. We stopped in Heidelberg, Germany and visited the Heidelberg Castle. The walk up to the castle involved 363 steep stairs but the view up top was amazing. The day was a little cloudy and overcast so the pictures couldn’t quite capture the view. We toured the inside of the castle which included a 50,000 gallon wine vat. If the castle went under siege at least the people would have wine for a while!!! We went on to the town of Rothenberg. I was a little nervous that we would find another ghost town. This Medieval town was also highly recommended by Steves. However, when we arrived we found a moderately active town much to my relief. We walked around a portion of the city walls on the catwalk area. That night we stayed in a quaint little hotel. There was a music festival that night in all the restaurants and most were closed for food so we ended up returning to our hotel for dinner.

The Heidelberg Castle

The huge wine vat!

The walls around Rothenberg

Day 4: Bacharach

2009-03-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

Our first real day of traveling started once we left Maddy’s house. She dropped us off at the train station around 5:30 in the morning so we could get a good start to the day. We had 5 connections and took 4 different trains to get to our final destination…Bacharach, Germany. This town along the Rhine River was highly recommended by travel writer Rick Steves. However, we soon found out that this is an amazing town…but only in the summer. The winter is not quite so impressive. When we got off the train only 2 other people got off with us and quickly disappeared in this ghost town. We wandered the streets for over 20 minutes without seeing anyone else. It was rather eerie. Our accommodations for the night were the saving point…a castle! It involved a steep half hour hike to the top of the hill but offered an amazing view of the town and the river. Fortunately we found a few people at the castle and managed to check in and find our room. We did go back to the train and rode 10 minutes to visit another town with actual residents and some activity. However, our evening in this Medieval castle was pleasant and pretty interesting.

The empty streets of Bacharach

Our accommodations for the night!

Day 3: Goes

2009-03-03T22:00:00.001-08:00

Today Maddy took Nate and I around the Zealand area. She showed us the towns surrounding Goes. We ended at Vlissigen which is right along the water. The town is right along the dikes. Apparently in WWII the dikes were bombed, flooding the entire town and killing many people. We walked around several of the towns and took in the sights. We also went to a huge greenhouse/garden store. The variety of flowers and plants there was incredible. Holland definitely is advanced when it comes to flowers and greenhouses. After returning to Goes we walked around the actual town. She showed us the church my dad was baptized in and the other Reformed/Catholic church in Goes (basically every town in Europe has incredible churches!) We then returned to Maddy’s home in time for the 5:00 milking. She wanted us to see the milking parlor and barn and such. We got there in time to meet her brother and nephew. As we were walking around her brother said a cow was in labor. So we headed to the barn just in time to see the birth of a calf! It was the first for both Nate and I…pretty incredible! They said they planned it just for us. J Their milking parlor was impressive and technologically advanced.

The house my dad lived in

Downtown Goes

Day 2: Amsterdam

2009-03-03T21:32:00.000-08:00

Nate and I took a train from the Schipol airport to the central train station in Amsterdam. We got our Eurail train passes validated and from there they worked great! We started by going to the Anne Frank house, but after a long walk we were told we couldn’t go in with our backpacks. So, we walked back to the central station and took a canal tour instead. The tour took us through the many canals throughout Amsterdam. We then got back on the train and started heading to Goes, the hometown of my dad’s first cousin. On the way we stopped in Dordtrecht (we had to pay respects on behalf of our alma mater!) We finally arrived in Goes around 3:30 and Maddy picked us up at the train station. She first brought us to her house to drop off our bags and have teatime. After resting a bit we walked around the surrounding area. She showed us the farm my grandpa grew up on and the house my dad lived in before his family moved to the States. That was really neat to see. After dinner with Maddy we basically went to bed around 7:30…we were pretty beat since we were going on 36 hours without sleep.

On the canal tour

A bike parking lot...so many bikes!!!

Day 1: The flight

2009-03-03T21:24:00.000-08:00

Our trip started on Tuesday morning when we left Mt. Vernon around 5:30 am. Nate and I caught a ride with Nate’s dad to the airport since he had a flight to the East Coast in the morning. We didn’t leave until 12:30, but we hung out in the Alaska Airlines Lounge until our flight left. We did have one potential disaster...Nate's camera was inadvertently left behind at home. Fortunately we were only 15 minutes down the road when I realized it so my dad met us halfway and brought it to us. Not sure how that happened, but at least we got our travel kinks out right away! :) The flight was long but uneventful. Each seat had its own TV so we watched several movies and played some games. We arrived in Amsterdam around 7:30 on Wednesday morning, consequently missing an entire night of sleep

Ready for adventure!!!

We're Back!!!

2009-02-25T20:32:00.000-08:00

We made it! Nate and I arrived home from our incredible journey yesterday afternoon after a long but uneventful flight from Amsterdam. We thank God for safety in the many miles we traveled yet also pray for those families affected by the plane crash in Amsterdam this morning. It is something that definitely hit close to home since we were just there at the Schipol airport.

This morning I took Nate to the airport to catch his flight to a blueberry meeting in Mississippi. He will be gone until Sunday and then possibly head to Florida for some interviews. In the meantime, I plan to work for my dad and get this blog updated!!! It was too difficult to post while we were gone since we had inconsistent Internet access. So I plan on gradually updating the blog with the events of each day. So bear with me and I will eventually have our adventures posted!

Whistler

2009-01-25T19:45:00.000-08:00

Nate and I joined his family for a weekend trip to Whistler. We spent a couple days boarding and enjoying the beautiful weather. We did not have new snow, but the skies were clear and the sun shone brightly. We even shed layers to just sweatshirts because we were so hot.

We have one more week of work and then we are moving away from Olympia. Nate is gone all of this week to MI, so that means I am packing all week. We are leaving for Europe on Feb. 3...it is coming very fast and we have lots to do!

Changes

2009-01-12T20:20:00.000-08:00

After vacationing for a couple of weeks, Nate and I returned to an interesting work situation. We both work for a fruit marketing company. Nate is the Director of Food Safety and I am in sales/accounting. The downturn of the economy has lead to cost cutting measures and consolidations. The owners decided to close the Olympia office and do all of their sales through their Michigan office. That means that as of Jan. 31, Nate and I are on the job hunt!

We are very sad to leave Olympia and all the awesome friends we have made here. We were very fortunate to have met some great people our first few weeks here. We will really miss everyone and wish we could stay in this area. However, the blueberry industry is not thriving in Olympia so we will most likely be looking elsewhere.

What this means for us is that on Jan. 31 we are moving out of our apartment in Olympia and storing our earthly belongings in Mt. Vernon. We then will...drum roll please...spend 3 weeks traveling in Europe!!! Nate and I figured this would be a great opportunity to travel. So we used Nate's airline miles and booked 2 flights to Amsterdam. Our itinerary is still to be determined, but we are having fun researching all different places to see. We leave Feb. 3 and return Feb. 24. More details to follow!

Christmas in Sioux Falls

2009-01-10T18:00:00.001-08:00

48 hours after arriving home from Hawaii, Nate and I headed off on another trip. However, we spent New Year's Day traveling apart. Nate went to Florida for a roommate's wedding and Lisa went to Sioux Falls to join in her family Christmas. Her sister Sheri had twin boys in the beginning of December so the family decided to gather at their home to celebrate this year. The count is now to 7 for Lisa's nieces and nephews...4 girls and 3 boys with another little one on the way in March.

I loved spending time with my family and meeting Caleb and Joel. They are such good babies and so adorable. Their cousins and sister Kiera loved holding and kissing them, though we had to keep touching to a minimum due to colds. Raya especially loved to kiss and hold the little boys.

It was a shock to go from Hawaii to SD...one morning we awoke to -7 degrees! We mainly stayed home except for a few outings to the store or to have lunch out somewhere. It's always hard to say good-bye to everyone. Those little ones grow up so fast and change quickly. The twins will have lost their goat cries and frog legs when I see them again. It's exciting though to see them grow and be part of their lives.

Christmas in Hawaii

2009-01-08T20:14:00.001-08:00

Nate and I had the opportunity to spend Christmas in Hawaii this year. We went with Nate's parents and 4 brothers and sisters. We barely made it out of Seattle due to snow and ice...Seatac airport is not prepared for winter weather. Most airlines ran out of de-icer and had to cancel all their flights. We were fortunate enough to take off only 5 hours after sitting on the plane. So we exchanged coats for swimsuits, boots for flipflops, and blankets for beach towels.

We stayed in condos in Kihei on Maui. We spent our week snorkeling, surfing, playing frisbee/beach volleyball, and sightseeing. It did not quite feel like Christmas in that climate, but we thoroughly enjoyed 80 degree weather in lieu of snow and ice.

On Christmas Day we took the road to Hana, which is a long windy road with hundreds of tight turns and about 50 one way bridges. The views are spectacular and well worth the drive. We hiked to a waterfall at the end of the trip. The hike involved several smaller waterfalls, a bamboo forest, and fun to climb rubber trees.

No trip to Maui would be complete with out watching the sunrise at Haleakala. We all piled into the cars early one morning to make the 2 1/2 hour drive to the 10,000 foot sumit of the crater Haleakala. Our view was slightly affected by a high cloud cover, but the clouds were beautiful. The morning was bitterly cold so we were more than ready to head back and spend our day on the beach!

We arrived back to rain in Seattle around 6 am, but Nate and I headed straight into work that day. We were quite tired and ready for bed that night but were preparing for another trip...one to Sioux Falls and one to Florida.

Tea in Las Vegas

2008-06-04T20:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Nate and I attended the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas. We spent most of our time in the convention, but we were able to do some sightseeing. It definitely is a unique city...not my first choice for a vacation destination. But there were some interesting things to see. At the convention we learned a lot about tea. We attended classes in the morning and walked around the trade show in the afternoons. Nate's family farm is experimenting with growing tea, and we went there to learn about the processing and packaging process. We got some great ideas, and everyone left pretty excited about the opportunities. We also got lots of samples...tea anyone? Our flight home left around 9:30 pm Sunday night, but we sat in the plane on ground for about an hour because the pilot's oxygen supply needed maintenance. So, we didn't get home until about 2:30 am...that made for a long day at work the next day!

The New York Hotel across from our hotel

Our hotel...the Excalibar

The Venetian: This is all inside

The Eiffel Tower!

Umm...not sure where his head went

A 3-D movie at M&M World

M&M World and The Coke Store was right next
to each other...my favorites!

We're Home

2008-02-21T08:41:00.001-08:00

After over 24 hours of traveling, we finally made it home. Our trip was long but uneventful. Because of a headwind, the flight from Santiago to Dallas ended up being about an hour late, so it turned into a 10.5 hour flight. It was wonderful to be back our apartment and sleep in our own bed. However, Nate will be off and traveling again soon. He is flying to San Diego on Sunday for some meetings on Monday and Tuesday, then back on Tuesday only to drive up to Vancouver BC for a convention. That means that I am going to spend next week up with my family. No rest for the weary!

Well, thanks for joining us on our journey! Our trip was a whirlwind adventure, and we packed as much into a month as possible. We have lots of great memories and many pictures to help record all the adventures.

Canopy Tour

2008-02-17T13:08:00.000-08:00

Nate and I went on an awesome canopy tour up in the mountains. We caught a bus heading about an hour and a half east to the lodge where the tour started. When we signed up for the tour, they said that there was not room in the company vehicle, so we had to find our own way up. We took the public bus to the small town of Ensenada. But no one there knew where we were supposed to meet. After wandering down the road for a while, we eventully found the spot. From there, the company picked us and we drove up the mountain to the lodge. They gave us a safety lesson on how to use the hand brake. After getting roped in, we went up to the first platform. From there, we flew around the trees, somestimes over than 150 meters above the ground, over canyons, and through fields. It was incredible!

Ready to fly!

Canyon Zip-Line

Another canyon...over 150 m high, about 1.2 km long!

Here is a video of Lisa going down the zip-line through the canyon. It was recorded sideways, so you will just have to turn your head (or your computer).

Isla de Chiloe

2008-02-16T14:23:00.000-08:00

Penguins! We found penguins! Nate and I drove down south a few hours with another couple in search of penguins. We started on the interstate, but that ended in Puerto Montt and turned into a two-lane highway. Eventually, that ran into the ocean and we had to take a ferry (not quite like WA ferries...basically just a barge) to the Island of Chiloe. From there, we took a slow, windy road around the island. Finally, we turned onto a gravel road and traveled about 15 bumpy kilometers to the beach. We felt like we were going to the middle of nowhere, but when we reached the beach we found a tour company. We paid them to take us out in a small boat to look at the penguins. This spot is the only place in the world where the two kinds of penguins cohabit. The Humbolt penguins come down from Peru and the Magellan ones come up from the southern tip of South America. We rode in the boat through the very choppy sea to the different islands where the penguins were living. It was awesome! The company provided waders for us since we had to walk through the water to get to the boat and because it was wet inside the boat from the waves. Of course...Nate was wearing flip-flops and didn't have socks so he just had to get wet! In addition to the penguins, we saw lots of other marine life such as porpoises, sea otters, and many different kinds of birds.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T19:01:00.000-08:00

We have spent this week touring farms all the way from Santiago to Osorno, which is down south. 4 more have joined Nate and I for the tours, so we have traveled together the many hours down south. They are all leaving Saturday, but Nate and I don't fly back until Tuesday night. He has a couple meetings yet back north, so we are taking the bus back to Santiago. It is probably about a 12 hour bus ride, so we decided to take an overnight bus. The seats are said to be reclining, but we'll see! Nate was not feeling well yesterday and today . He and another guy in the group both started feeling sick yesterday. They think it was from lasagna, the only thing the two of them ate the no one else had. He was pretty feverish, achy, and nauseous last night, but fortunately he felt better this morning. I can't say we had the most exciting V-day. We just looked at blueberry fields and drove! For dinner we met a big group of top execs from this company for dinner. Nate told me that I kissed more guys today than I kissed him!!! Well...let me explain. In Chile, it is tradition to greet one another with a kiss on the cheek. So, when greeting all these men and when leaving, you give a lot of kisses on the cheek! I guess I'll just have to make it up to him! :)

Cajon del Maipo

2008-02-11T18:32:00.001-08:00

We went for a drive the other day to the hills surrounding Santiago. The road we drove along led us through small, quaint villages. We stopped at one restaraunt for lunch that was like a hobbit house (there is a picture below). The inside was beautiful, with gnarly, knobby tree trunks from floor to ceiling decorating the inside. It was a beautiful drive and we were able to enjoy another part of Chile's diverse landscape.

The Hobbit House

The hills of Cajon del Maipo (like a river basin area)

Here and There

2008-02-08T17:47:00.000-08:00

We had an interesting week here in Los Angeles. Nate worked at the processing facility the whole week so I found ways to keep myself occupied in this great town. I got a surprise on Wednesday...the owner of one of the companies Nate is working for invited us to ride horses on his ranch. So while Nate worked, another couple from a partner company in WA and I rode horses on a gorgeous preserve. We had a great time enjoying the beauty of the untouched land.

We also drove east into the mountains. Ty and his wife wanted to do some fishing while Nate and I rode along for fun. Nate fished a little, but we mainly enjoyed hiking around the rivers and relaxing by the water. We are now back in Santiago until Monday, and then we will join up with another group and head south to visit some more farms.

Keri, Ty, and Lisa

Nate found a great spot to relax!!!

It had rained up in the mountains the night before, so here you can see the muddy rivers of the hills merge with the clean river further down.

Such a huge, beautiful waterfall!

Fishing

2008-02-04T18:45:00.001-08:00

Well, back to work in Los Angeles after another fun weekend of adventures. Nate is spending most of this week at a packing facility here. We are learning to pack as much as we can into a short weekend! We had a fun day fishing on a beautiful river. It was great to relax, reflect, and enjoy God´s creation. The actual fishing was not great...it was hot so the fish were lazy and not biting much. However, we both caught several fish. I (Lisa) caught my first ever...this was my first time fishing! Nate really enjoyed learning how to fly fish and had fun practicing his cast.

Lisa in front of the rafts we used to drift down the river

Nate practicing his fly fishing technique

Lisa on our pontoon raft with the guide

A slippery fish!!!

I caught Nate on video while he was pulling out in our tiny car. He was not quite as amused as me.

A day in Puerto Varas

2008-02-02T13:51:00.000-08:00

This one's for you, dad!

Kayaking on the lake

It was really windy and the kayak was very tippy!!!

Our friend Ty in front of Volcano Osorno

Admiring the work of a local artist

Puerto Varas

2008-02-01T18:33:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Puerto Varas! This beautiful southern town is about 6 hours from Los Angeles. Along the way, we took a small detour to the town of Villarrica. Both these towns have beautiful volcanoes, as you will see in the pictures. We had a delightful ride down in our tiny rented Kia. We quickly discovered it is not air conditioned, so we got to make the long journey in 90-something degree weather with no air.

Another bonus of our trip was that we got to meet a member of the Chilean law enforcement. We were driving along in our automobile when all of a sudden we saw a cop motioning to a bunch of cars ahead of us to pull over. (They don't chase cars down here, they just walk out into the middle of the highway and flag you over). We thought we were fine, but he motioned us to pull over too. We stopped, and after a few stressful minutes of waiting the cop came up to us. He started talking, but we said we didn't understand (we really didn't understand most of it). He left, then after a while came back and said that our lights weren't on. Apparently it is a law here to drive with your lights on even in the day. We played dumb Americans and said we didn't know that; it is not illegal in the states. Thankfully, he let us go without any problems and we continued our trip...with our lights on. :) Phew!

Enjoying the view of Volcano Villarrica

Volcano Villarrica

Puerto Varas

Volcano Osorno at dusk

Enjoy a view of the Volcano Villarrica!

If at first you don't succeed...try, try again!

2008-01-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

We had quite the time getting back to Santiago today! Young had purchased tickets for the 3 of us to take the bus back to Santiago; it is about a 90 minute drive. We were scheduled to leave at 6:40 pm. Well, we somehow managed to miss the bus. It should not have been a big deal since there are lots of buses leaving for Santiago. Yet because of the busyness with everyone on vacation, we were not able to get tickets until 11 pm. Ok...no problem. So we all go back to the truck, load all our luggage, drive back to his friends apartment, unload everything and take it inside. We walked around Vina for a while until it was time for us to leave again.

Take 2

We reload, drive to the station, unload, and walk to the bus. After waiting quite a while for the bus, the guys asked where the Santiago bus was. They said it had left. The drive has put the wrong city on the front and had not bothered to change it. He just left, and we were stuck! The next bus was not leaving until 5:40 am. So...we walk back to the truck, reload, drive to the apartment, unload, and bring our stuff back upstairs. Young's friend mom and sister were blowing up air mattresses in the parking lot for everyone to sleep on when we returned. We had to then carry them upstairs. I'm not sure if we were just tired or what but trying to get the air mattresses, our luggage, and all the people in the elevator turned out to be one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen. Oh...the poor lady in the elevator with us.

Take 3

After sleeping a couple hours, we reloaded our luggage and headed for the bus. And...we made it! Yeah! Only 11 hours after our first attempt. :) We slept pretty much the whole way home, then got off the bus and headed for the Metro to make the final leg to Young's apartment. Well, 7 am is prime rush hour in the subway! It was quite a chore to get our luggage and stuff on the train with increasingly more people getting on. But we eventually made it and gratefully arrived at Young's apartment.

A funicular
The beach at Renaca

Valparaiso, Renaca, and ConCon

2008-01-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

We had a great weekend in Vina. On Saturday Nate and I wandered around alone. We walked through some more stores and small markets. We found a really neat palace that had been turned into a museum. We think (after reading the history in Spanish) the palace belonged to the daughter of the founder of Vina del Mar. Inside the museum there were mainly paintings but also some old furniture and statues. We discovered a path outside the palace and started taking it up, thinking it would go somewhere neat. But at the top we realized it was just a path from the houses on the top of the hill to the town on the bottom. Oh well...at least there was a really good view of Vina and we got a small workout in! :)

Our friend Young arrived later on Sat. afternoon with his friend who lives in Vina. They picked us up in his friend's truck and drove us up the coast to Renaca, kind of like a suburb of Vina. The place was extremely crowded since it is a very popular summer vacation spot for Chileans. We then drove to Valparaiso. Valparaiso used to be the biggest port in Chile. The city is not near as nice as Vina. The people who live there are primarily the working class. People say that Vina del Mar looks down its nose at old, run down poor Valparaiso. However, the town is very unique and has neat buildings. The streets are very narrow and windy as the homes are all built on the side of a hill. Funiculars are very common there. These are like trams or railcars that bring people from their homes on the hill down into the city. It was awesome to have our own personal tour guides. We definitely would have gotten lost in Valparaiso, and there was no way we could have seen everything by walking.

The next day we spent a couple hours on the beach in Renaca. The water was very cold, but Nate and the guys went in for a few minutes. After relaxing in the beach, we headed up to ConCon, another town north of Vina. They took us to a typical seafood restaurant and ordered lots of different kinds of seafood. We were very greatful for Young and his friends. We got a premium personalized tour of the towns, thanks to their knowledge!

The palace we toured

Renaca

The hills of ValpariasoYoung, Nate, and Lisa

Vina de Mar

2008-01-25T14:15:00.000-08:00

We have spent a great day wandering around the streets of Vina del Mar. It is very pretty here. I think this place is supposed to have one of the best beaches in Chile, so there are lots of Chileans here on summer vacations. There are lot of old buildings and very expensive homes on the hills by the water. We went past one castle and thought we might be able to look around...until we saw a sign for the President's Palace! Must be her summer home (Chile elected a woman president, the first in South America). I'm sure there is a lot of history in the old, impressive buldings we passed.

We spent the later part of the afternoon walking around the beach and perusing the market along the boardwalk. I am realizing that things aren't quite the same down here. We went into a grocery store to grab food for lunch and got some Cheetos. We thought they sounded really good. We opened the bag , and they tasted completely different. I guess we got the wrong kind. Then I got an ice cream come on the beach and thought I got vanilla and chocolate chip. It turned out to be raisins and some other different flavored ice cream. Needless to say I was quite surprised when I took my first bite! :)

Overlooking the Pacific

An old castle

A sample of the many interesting neighborhoods

On the go!

2008-01-24T04:27:00.000-08:00

We stayed in Los Angeles for 2 nights. I (Lisa) was able spend a day relaxing and catching up on some much needed sleep while Nate worked at the facilities. The hotel was beautiful, with a lovely pool and modern accomadations. I am definitely getting spoiled!

I said earlier that eating around 8 is normal. Well, apparently eating around 9 is even considered early! When Nate returned from work on Wednesday, he said that the plans were to meet for dinner at 9! So we were not back at our rooms until after midnight! We walked past lots of restaurants around 6:30, and they were completely empty! Imagine Olive Garden in the States at six...quite a difference!

We arrived in Vina del Mar last night around 10...then ate supper around 11. The town was still hopping, with families, kids, grandparents, and teens all out eating, walking, etc. We have a free weekend to explore and do our own things which will be very fun. We are in a very nice hotel. It is tiny yet modern. It even has a big flat screen TV! Not even American hotels have those. :) I am suprised at the number of TV stations in English with Spanish subtitles.

Sam Pablo: A vineyard on the way to LA. It is the second largest vineyard in Chile.

The location of Lisa's day of relaxation

Cow Crossing

Los Angeles

2008-01-23T03:56:00.002-08:00

No...we are not in California. But we are in Los Angeles, Chile. Jorge from Hortifruit, one company Nate is visiting, picked us up from Young's apartment Tuesday morning. We then drove about 3.5 hours south to this city. We stopped at a processing facility and spent several hours at the plant.

People definitely move at a slower pace here. Dinner time is typically aound 8 or 9 pm. It was just so strange leaving for dinner at 8:45 and returning at 11! We went to a very small restaurant to eat and it had the most delicious food. I think I had the best salmon I had ever had! Seafood is typical here. You know...Chile is a pretty big coastal country! :)

So it sounds like we may not be going to Argentina. However, I am actually not overally disappointed about that. Jorge said that is would not be worth visiting the facility there since it is about 900 km north of the airport and they aren't running much right now. It would have been a LOT of driving and not much else. So instead, it sounds like we may spend the weekend at the beach. Bummer, huh?

Santiago

2008-01-23T03:30:00.000-08:00

After many longs hours of traveling, we finally arrived in Santiago. It took us about an hour to get our Visas and go through immigration and customs, but we did not have any problems. Our taxi driver was waiting for us at the airport and drove us to our friend Young's house in downtown Santiago. The area here reminds me of Southern California. It is very dry, hot, and the city is surrounded by hills. We could not see the Andes because it is so smoggy.

When we arrived at Young's, we were greeted by his friend, Timo. Young had arranged for him to be our tour guide for the day, which was just awesome. We would not have had any idea of where to go. He took us all around the city (well, a small portion of it...the city is huge!). We walked downtown and went through several areas, such as the site of the capital and other governement buildings.

After lunch in a typical Chilean restaurant, we headed for a park. (I quickly found out the difference of agua sin gas and agua con gas...which is carbonated water. Not a big fan!) At the park, we took a tram straight up to the top of a large hill in the middle of the the city. At the top, we had an amazing view of the whole city of Santiago. We then took a cable car down the other side. It was a little hairy...our doors didn't completely close and we hit branches and trees on the way down, but it was fun. :)

We walked back to Young's apartment and relaxed until Young got home from work. We were very grateful for Timo's tour! We are also blessed to have a friend like Young; he is so incredibly gracious and hospitable.

Santiago's Capital Building

Interesting contrast between old and new

Our ride up the hill...it was very steep, but you can't really see that from this angle.

Nate and Lisa overlooking Santiago

Our ride down in the telefricos (cable cars). Look closely and you should see them.

Snowboarding at Snoqualmie

2008-01-19T22:03:00.000-08:00

On Saturday morning Nate and I left bright and early for fun on the slopes. We met a group of friends, loaded our gear, and headed for the mountains. I think everyone had a great time...even those just learning! We both have a few bruises to show for our adventures, but nothing more. Now we must dry our cold weather gear, put it away, and take out our swimming suits for a new adventure starting tomorrow!

We're Back!

2008-01-17T11:43:00.001-08:00

Hello all! Well, we are unearthing our blog after a long time away. We figured that since we are going to be in Chile, there may be a few interesting things to post! So...stay tuned for an exciting adventure starting Sunday, Jan. 21! We are flying to Santiago, Chile and will be traveling around the country for about a month. Nate is going for business, and Lisa is just tagging along for the adventure! We will start with some pictures of our lovely apartment in Olympia, WA. We moved here in October and have enjoyed settling into our new home.

Our Apartment: Sioux Center, IA

2006-09-10T18:18:00.000-07:00

Museum of Science and Industry

2005-11-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

Here are your two newest astronauts!!! Hahaha. Yeah, this is our visit to the museum of science and industry. It was a fun experience...lots to see and do. Here are just a few pictures of the museum. Of course we had to take a picture of miniaturized Seattle (even though it wasn't very representational).

Food, food, and more food

2005-10-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

Yummm.....this is our Mexican Barbeque. We got two of these mini barbeques, full of all different kinds of meat...pork, beef, chicken, shrimp, sausage, plus rice, tortillas, and beans. We went here after going to the Mexican Fine Arts Museum, so I guess it was pretty fitting....and fillling!!! The best part--the food was paid for by Chicago Semester.

Bulls Game

2005-10-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

Yeah for free Big Mac's! The Bulls won by 1 point and got over 100 points, so everyone got a free Big Mac. They won in overtime though...it was 99-99 by the end of the 4th quarter. A nailbiter!!! Below is Lisa's 2 roommates. Amber is on the left and Sarah is on the right.

Sox Fever!!!

2005-10-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

As we all know, the Chicago White Sox have been in the World Series. And we have been in Chicago. It has been CRAZY in the city these past few weeks and tonight just got ten times crazier. When the Sox won tonight, the city went wild. We looked outside our window, which overlooks bar alley right outside our apartment. People were running outside the bars, cheering, screaming, yelling, jumping, etc. The police had actually blocked the entire street earlier this evening in case the Sox won. It was a good thing since there now is a mob down there. Now, at least 45 minutes after the Sox' victory, there is still cheering and shouting. People are honking their car horns; there are sirens, cops everywhere, and I repeat...tons of honking. I don't know if I will be able to sleep in this noise! I even hear helicopters circling overhead. We saw newsreporters and cameramen down with the mobs, so all these bars with their drunk, ecstatic people will probably be on TV. It is so crazy, yet kind of exciting to be in the city for this event.

Our TV Debut!

2005-10-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

So here we are, with the two hosts of TLC's "What Not to Wear". How cool is that!!! It was so fun to participate and watch in the filming of a new episide. Hopefully they don't look at us and decide we need to be a nominee. A lot of stuff sure goes into the production of an show, and especially for the 15 minute segment it will be! Craziness. Anyway, the evening was really fun and interesting, and it was so cool to meet these guys.

The Merchant of Venice

2005-10-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

This is the theatre at Navy Pier where we saw the Merchant of Venice. It was a cool play and very well done. We sat on the very top section, but we had a good view cause there was only one row of seats. They didn't use many props, but they acted so well we could imagine what was going on. It was definitely a fun evening.

Shedd Aquarium

2005-10-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the Shedd Aquarium on Columbus Day. That fish behind us is real. Isn't he big? I bet you fishermen boys would like to get ahold of that. There definitely were some HUGE creatures at the place. I would not like to run across them in the wild (like the giant eel and enormous spider crabs). One picture is a view of the aquarium...a very pretty area. The last picture is at the dolphin tank. Behind us is Lake Michigan. The playful little animals put on quite a show for us! It was a fun afternoon at the aquarium. We've seen a lot of different animals in the past few weeks! And the best part...it was mostly free.

The Zoo!

2005-10-08T07:29:00.000-07:00

Today we went on our second trip to Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a fun afternoon on a really nice, warm day. Isn't that baby gorilla tiny? It was only about a month old. I love how the mom holds her baby...it's rather humorous! Finally, there is Nate and me by the giraffe

Lisa's Apartment

2005-10-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

What you will find here is a walking tour of my huge apartment. I don't have any pictures of Nate's apartment on this one. I hope you have time...it will take a while to get through all the rooms. But hey...at least we are getting free cable and internet (for who knows how long?) Hope you enjoy these pics. If you want any other angles shown like kitchen right and center, please let me know. I tried to cover the basics. :) The only part of the apartment I didn't get a picture of are my little ant friends. Maybe if you look closely enough on the bathroom floor you will see a few.

Our living room view from the corner bed

(see the kitchen behind Nate?)

Living room view from hall

The bedroom. This is taken from the bathroom. (My bed is on the far side)

The bathroom, connected to the bedroom

And last but not least, our spacious kitchen!!!
(That's a fridge on the left)

What we call home

2005-09-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

The view from the Chicago Semester 12th floor over Lake Michigan

Our lovely home for the next 3 1/2 months...Canturbery Court!!!

Chicago Skyline

2005-09-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

This is Lisa overlooking the Chicago River. We are on Michigan Ave.

getting ready to go on a boat tour.

This is the view from our boat tour the first week. It was a beautiful night. The Chicago skyline is gorgeous! The boat tour was really interesting. We went down the Chicago River into Lake Michigan. We then went up and down the shoreline before heading back through the locks into the city.

Our blog

2005-09-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Nathan and Lisa's blog! We are here in the great city of Chicago, ready to experience a lot of awesome stuff. We hope you enjoy reading about our latest endeavers and life's adventures.