Sorry I've been AWOL so long from the blogging world... we've been busy!
First of all, I was gone over Memorial Day weekend to visit one of my best friends in MD. While I was there, I also got to visit with some other friends, including the moms and boys that I used to take care of while I lived there. It was a great weekend, and I'm so thankful that my hubby was so thoughtful to allow me to go!
I worked the following week, and then D - the little one that I take care of - had surgery on June 4th. He had his tonsils/adenoids removed, plus eye surgery. I didn't get to see him before we left on vacation, but he did really well, I guess.
Since D was in the hospital, I took the opportunity to go up to our camp (an hour away) and work in the kitchen on Wed/Thurs. I haven't worked that hard since the LAST time I worked at camp, I think! It was a lot of fun, though my ankles were very swollen from standing for almost 2 days straight. It didn't help that I only got about 2 hours sleep... maybe! I stayed in the cabin with the girls from our church - I know, I'm a glutton for punishment!
June 6th, we left for our big vacation. Most of you know that we are trying to get to all the MLB ballparks, so this vacation included four of them! Anyway, we got to the airport to find that our flight had been cancelled one hour prior to our arrival at the airport, and they initially told us that we would have to fly out the next day. Chris was adamant that they find something for that night, and we ended up getting the last seats on a Frontier flight that ended up getting us to Las Vegas at the same time the other flight would have arrived (Thank you, God!) We flew into Denver on the way, and now Chris can add another state to his list of states that he's visited.
We got in late Friday night, and spent Sat. with Chris' family. We got to play with his niece, Korissa, who is 16 months old. Last time we saw her, she was 3 months old! She's adorable, of course! Sat. night we went out to eat at the Claim Jumper restaurant. It is SOO good, and the portions are huge! I'll have to post pics of their chocolate layer cake called the "Mother lode!" It's HUGE! Anyway, we had a good time with all of the family out there. Check out the pictures of family
here.
Sun. am, we went to Chris' family's church, and then headed out to LA with Chris' youngest brother, Jon. He's 10 years younger than Chris, so it was fun for Chris to get some time with him, too. They are such goofballs together! Jon volunteered to drive his car on the trip, so we didn't have to rent one, which was a blessing. Anyway, Sun. night we went to an LA Dodgers game. I wasn't impressed with Dodgers Stadium at all! It just seemed really old, with nothing to distinguish it. But the game was fun, anyhow! :-) To see pics from the Dodgers game,
click here.
Monday, we went to Disneyland. We had a great, relaxing time there. I'm sorry to say that I don't have any pics of that time at Disney... between Jon's computer and my camera, we somehow lost them. Monday night, we went to an Anaheim Angels game (or whatever the name of that team is now!) I am thankful, however, that we do have MOST of the pics from the Angels game... at least I have some to scrapbook (someday when I get around to it... I'd like to do a scrapbook of just our baseball stadium tour.) I did lose pictures of the outside of the stadium, though... they have 2 GIANT baseball hats made of metal... size 694 & 1/2!!! Also, in the entrance area outside the stadium, they actually have a baseball diamond embedded in the brick work. It was pretty cool!! While at the game, the guy sitting next to Chris was from Dublin, Ireland. Of course, Chris has never met a stranger, so we started talking to him. He was on a 3 week "holiday" from Ireland, and was here in the U.S. taking a bus tour and visiting as many baseball stadiums as he could. He told us that 60% of his yearly salary is spent traveling all over the world! It was really neat to talk with him! Oh, yeah, we also got John Lackey bobbleheads... wooo hooo! :-) I kept one, and Jon and I gave the others to a couple that was sitting behind us. They took them home to their kids.
PICTURESTuesday, we slept in, then went to the beach there in LA. We had a great time, and there literally was maybe 3 other people at the beach! It was really nice. The funniest thing that happened there came at the end of the day... we had put our towels down on dry sand probably 30 feet from the nearest wet sand. We had gone on a walk down the beach and come back, and were laying in the sun for a little while before we had to leave. We started to feel the mist from the waves getting closer. My towel was first, then Chris, then Jon's. Well, all of the sudden, this wave comes up and goes about a third of the way up onto my towel, but totally soaks Chris and Jon! I haven't seen them move so fast in a LONG time! It was hilarious. Chris jumped up and threw his towel so fast! The funniest part of the whole thing was that we turned around to wash the sand off of us, and Jon ended up walking probably another 50 feet toward the ocean to get the next wave! We called it the "rogue wave!" It just kind of came out of nowhere, and the water wasn't anywhere CLOSE to us after that! Chris ended up getting a new phone out of the deal, since his got sand and water-logged. It actually worked, but wouldn't vibrate on incoming calls, which is imperative to his line of work. pictures... click
here and
hereTuesday night, we got what will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime event for us. Of course, you know Chris grew up just outside of Boston, moving to NH when he was 12. That said, he is a DIE-HARD Celtics/Red Sox/Patriots fan... I think it's in his blood! Well, that Tuesday night the Celtics were playing the Lakers in the NBA Finals game #3 at the Staples Center. We ended up getting tickets and went to the game. It was so much fun, in spite of the fact that Chris almost got into 2 or 3 fights while defending me from drunk guys! I had never been to a sports venue that sold hard liquor in the stadium before I went to California! Anyway, I won't bore you with all the details of the situation, but thank God we didn't get shot or beat up or something! :-) Unfortunately, the Celtics lost that game, but it was fun to be there anyway!
pics of the gameTuesday night after the game, we headed down to San Diego. Wednesday, we went to the San Diego Zoo, which was pretty cool! We saved ourselves a lot of time by getting the guided bus tour at the beginning, so we pretty much saw ALL of the animals in 35 minutes, and then we went back and spent more time seeing only the animals that we WANTED to see. They had baby panda bears, and we learned that the San Diego Zoo basically grows their own food for their animals and many others right there on the Zoo property. I thought that was amazing.
Goofy pics of us and vegetation;
pics of animalsFrom there, we went to tour the USS Midway... an aircraft carrier there in the harbor. It was HUGE, and Jon was showing us the planes he plans to fly someday, Lord willing! Also, I found out that the USS Midway is the same size as the USS Ariskeny, which is the aircraft carrier that my dad sailed on while he was in the Navy. It was really neat. (pics to come later... I'll come back and post links when I get them all posted on Facebook!)
USS Midway picsWednesday night, we went to a Padres game. We didn't realize that the wind off the ocean would be SO COLD down there! We ended up buying sweatshirts for twice what we should have paid, but we would have FROZEN if we hadn't... well, Chris and I would have frozen (I was cold WITH a sweatshirt on!) Jon was Macho Man, and didn't need a sweatshirt! :-) The Padres stadium was probably added to our top ten as far as stadiums go... we thought it was pretty cool how they built the stadium to incorporate an old brick building on the left field side. They did a great job of joining modern conveniences with the nostalgic feel. It was nice.
We were going to go to Sea World on Thursday, then head back to Las Vegas. However, we called to check on prices, and it was $60/person, and they told us that they didn't have any Shamu shows until 7pm. We decided to just sleep in and then head back to Vegas on Thursday. We got back in time to eat supper with Chris' family, and then watch the Celtics/Lakers game... and the Celtics win! :-) Chris was glad to be able to spend the time with his family, and watch the game with them, too.
Friday, we basically just relaxed with the family. We went to brunch with Chris' sister, Kim, and her husband, David. That afternoon, Chris' sister, Julianne and I took our niece, Korissa into the pool and played with her for a while. After supper that night, Chris and I, Jon, Tiffany, and Julianne went over to see Kim's house, then we went down to "the strip" to watch the Fountains of Bellagio. If you don't know what that is, it's a huge fountain that does shows every 15 minutes with the water choreographed to music. It is SOOOO awesome! I am mesmerized by it, and would have probably stood there all night watching it. It's about the only part of "the strip" that I like - well, that and the Coke and M&M stores! :-)
Sat. morning early we flew out to Phoenix, AZ. It was 108 degrees at 5 pm that night, so when we got to our hotel, we just relaxed and spent some time together there. I took a much needed nap!!! At 5 pm, we headed out and got some dinner, then went to the Diamondbacks game. I couldn't believe how empty the streets were! I guess no one else wanted to be out in that heat, either! Thankfully, the D-backs stadium has a retractable roof, which they had closed, so it was a nice 80 degrees at the game. Chase Field, we decided, is in the top 10 of stadiums that we've visited. It was VERY nice! The only down side to that game was that we didn't actually get to see much of it until after the 7th inning stretch because there were so many people walking up and down from their seats. It was rather frustrating! We can say we've been there, though, so it's all good!
Sunday morning we got up early and flew home. It was Father's Day, and Chris and I didn't really "celebrate," though I did get him a card. I told him that his new phone and the Celtics/Lakers tickets were his Father's Day present. It was a pretty hard weekend for us to not have a baby to hold here on earth. However, God knows best, and He has a reason for everything. Unfortunately, though, sometimes we know that in our HEADS, but our HEARTS don't want to listen so well! Just because we know that doesn't mean that we don't struggle with wanting it our way!
Well, this is a VERY long post, so I'll put the rest of catch-up on another post. I'm still working on posting pics, but I'm putting links on here to my Facebook albums so that you can see pictures if you want. It's much easier than trying to post a bunch of pics on here!
Our Wedding Day - July 22, 2000
Celebrating by going out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse Sat. night
Flowers Chris brought home for me on Sat. (they were actually from a friend/co-worker's wedding reception, but hey - I'll take flowers however I can get them!) :-)
At a Louisville Bats (baseball) game on our actual anniversary (not the greatest pic!)
