sarahmarie0730

11 August 2008 @ 07:28 am

We had a great time in Banff. Such a pretty place!

Thursday:
We arrived in Calgary and took the 1 hour, 45 minute drive to Banff. As most of you know this was a trip Patrick won through work so we were with other people from his company. As we arrived in Banff we were greeted by this:

The castle, I mean resort, was absolutely breathtakingly huge!

( Mroe inside! )

01 August 2008 @ 08:21 am

The Cook Islands - Aitutaki recap and pictures!

As we flew into Aitutaki we were amazed by its beauty! We thought Rarotonga was beautiful - Aitutaki was even better! The lagoon is much larger and the water was way bluer. Unfortunately as we were arriving a huge storm was coming through - which luckily passed within a few hours and then it was pure blue sky and sun for the rest of the Aitutaki trip.

( More inside! )

01 August 2008 @ 07:46 am

The Cook Islands - Rarotonga recap with pictures!

There is so much to share! Like I said before, we had an absolutely amazing time in the Cook Islands. It was definitely a dream vacation - I would highly recommend it to anyone.

The Cook Islands are often compared to Tahiti, before Tahiti became crowded with tourists. The country is owned by New Zealand and is comprised of 15 islands. We spent our time on two of the islands, Rarotonga and Aitutaki. Rarotonga is the biggest (6 miles from end to end) and most populated (10,000 people) island in the Cooks and has the most to offer in terms of restaurants and stores. Aitutaki on the other hand is much smaller, with a population of only 2,000 people!

The majority of the tourists come from New Zealand and Australia. On several occasions Patrick and I were the only people from the US! We were able to meet so many people from all over the world - it was such a neat experience! We became friends with a great couple from Australia, a family from Finland, and believe it or not, a couple from Seattle!

The most dangerous "animals" on the Cook Islands are bees, wasps, and mosquitos:) The only animals that are on the island are obviously cats and dogs and farm animals. Isn't it crazy that no other "wild" animal has been introduced to the islands???

The locals were extremely friendly, open, and willing to share about their culture and their country (especially on Aitutaki). It was hard for Patrick and I to get used to "island time", which is soooooooooooooo slow! They definitely move at their own pace. Going to a restaurant was typically a several hour affair. Often it would take about 30 minutes to get our drink order. It was crazy, especially when we are so used to the fast-paced life. Island time was actually a blessing in disguise (as frustrating as it would be at times!) because it made us totally chill and relax the entire vacation:)

The easiest way to recap our trip is with pictures. With that said, here goes!:)

We left Seattle and had to fly to LA. There is only one flight a week that goes to the Cook Islands and it leaves from LA. If you live in Florida and want to go to the Cooks you would have to fly to LA first. Because of our flight timing we actually had two days to spare in LA. We spent most of the time visiting my family and laying out my pool. These two pictures are of Patrick and I at LAX, before our flight left for the Cooks. We already look so tan in these pictures! It probably helped that we spent most of the day by the pool before our flight left.

( More inside! )

16 March 2008 @ 01:10 pm

A few more Mexico pictures!

Our half-day adventure was through a company called Alltournative. We began the day with a bike ride, where we learned about the farming in Mexico. We did three zip-lines, increasing in length and height. We got to witness a Mayan ritual and ended the day swimming and snorkelling in cenotes (freshwater, amazingly clear pools of water)
Zip-lining:

We bought a CD with all the pictures from the day (a photographer followed our group around the entire time), which included pictures of our group, but also a ton of extra pictures like the one above.

12 March 2008 @ 02:57 pm

Mexico - Part 1

I will be back later with pictures from zip-lining and snorkeling - I forgot the photo CD at school.

However, I have pictures from the resort and Playa Del Carmen! We arrived at the Adventura Spa Palace on Thursday afternoon. We took a shuttle from the airport to the resort, which was about an hour drive but we shared the shuttle with two of Patrick's co-workers and their wives. This was the perfect chance to get to know them before we even got to our resort! Both couples were soooo nice and we ended up spending most of our time with them.

Our room was great! And yes, that is a jacuzzi tub next to the bed. Kinda bizarre, huh?

The resort was an all-inclusive resort, which was a first for me. I was surprised to see this in our room:

With the exception of one shot that Patrick poured when we first got to the resort the bottles stayed full. However, during the duration of our trip we had our fair share of drinks from the bars:)

( Mexico, inside! )

21 February 2008 @ 01:12 pm

Vegas 2008!

Vegas was a blast! We had so much fun. I am happy to be home though, especially since I have only slept about 8 hours in the last two days. So without further ado here is Vegas 2008:

Our plane left at 12:00pm on Monday, which worked out well because Patrick and I got home late Sunday afternoon from Vancouver, BC. This gave me time on Monday morning to pack and hang out with Patrick before heading to the airport. The flight was fairly uneventful - we were all so excited and couldn't wait to get to Vegas. Here is a picture I took of Mt. Rainier - I love this picture!

We (me, Martha, Megan, and Brysann) arrived in Vegas and checked into our hotel, Paris. We were offered an upgrade to a $500.00/night suite for just $80.00! Of course we said yes! Our room was amazing! It was gigantic, with two bathrooms which worked out well since there were 4 of us.

The double doors into our Imperial Suite:

Bedroom:

Living room area:

( More Vegas inside! )

02 January 2008 @ 09:58 am

Happy 2008

Our New Years Eve party was a blast! A blast that lasted until 4am! The night was filled with yummy food, good drinks, many games of Catch Phase, some karaoke, some bowling on the Wii, good conversation, and of course a toast at midnight!

We have celebrated the New Year with this group of friends for the last several years and we plan on doing it for many years to come. How funny though that several of us commented on the fact that next year we may not all be drinking:)

Everyone stayed the night and we woke up and had coffee in the morning and everyone left by 11am. Patrick and I spent the day relaxing, playing tennis, and hanging with Roary and Ramona. Patrick left at 3am this morning for Toronto (business trip) and won't be back until Saturday night:( Boo! But then again I go back to school tomorrow (boo!) so this will give me a chance to get some things done tonight.

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year!

Martha, Megan, me, and Brysann on New Years Eve

It's 2008!

And last but not least I want to share this picture with you. You don't realize how happy this picture makes me!

Happy 2008 Roary - want to be my friend?

01 December 2007 @ 09:42 pm

Amazing Race audition!

Just wanted to post really quick and let you know about our audition last night. Patrick and I had planned to meet at 6, but because traffic was so awful we didn't end up meeting until close to 7. When we arrived in Tacoma we were given number 401 and told that our chances were pretty slim in terms of auditioning (they were on number 275 when we arrived). Long story short a really sweet woman approached us and offered us her number, which was 350. We were the last group called to audition!

We were so extremely nervous and became even more nervous when we discovered that we only had one minute to audition. We thought we would have three minutes and we wrote a really great song and ended up having to cut it down:( Regardless we introduced ourselves and sang three verses and the chorus to our song. I must admit we were the only couple that was there with a guitar - we definitely stood out in comparison to most of the other people.

Right before we auditioned we noticed a few important looking people sitting near the registration table who were just observing everyone, one of which was an older man dressed in a really nice suit. He kept looking at us and seemed to be listening to our conversation. After our audition we walked past him and he called us back and asked if we were able to perform our song. We told hime we sang as much of it as we could and he said that he hoped we were chosen. Perhaps that was a good sign - cross your fingers for us!:)

Here was the song that we wrote:

I sell software, I'm a teacher
We'd like to see how sweet it'd taste
To live our dreams of wild adventure
By joining the Amazing Race

The only place we've been together
Are the Western States and Idaho
Spent some time up in Vancouver
Hawaii once and Mexico

(Chorus) Amazing Race, Amazing Race
Our last last big go-round
Before the babies start a-poppin'
And we decide to settle down

Roadblock
You've got some difficult choices
Gotta find some Uchinnas and Joyces
Or maybe some lesbian preachers
Or how about this first grade teacher

Chorus

You could use a happy couple
Casted on your casting sheet
A happy couple from Seattle
To make your casting list complete

We're pretty good communicators
We thrive on positivity
We like to hike and jump from airplanes
Drink cheap wine and watch TV

Chorus

Roadblock
Amazing Race (sang to the tune of Amazing Grace)
How sweet the sound
When you call us on the phone
Pack your bags and hit the road
As you travel 'round the world
It's your choice
Don't make us stay at home.

Of course it sounds much better with the guitar, but you get the point:) Wouldn't it be so awesome if we even made it to the next round? We realize that competition is tough, but we are staying pretty optimistic:)

And a quick sidenote:
CONGRATULATIONS to Tara and Jess! I can't wait to meet your bundles of joy!

14 November 2007 @ 05:12 pm

A new addition to our family!

No, I am not pregnant:) We have decided to adopt this little girl. Her name will be Ramona and she will come home in December. Isn't she cute?!

02 January 2007 @ 08:54 am

2006 - review in pictures

Happy 2007 to all my LJ friends! Hope this year brings you all much happiness, continued love, and new adventures!

I thought I would take some time this morning to reflect on 2006. It was a great year for us, filled with many changes and fun.

( 2006 inside! )

27 September 2006 @ 07:56 pm

Farewell house

Although we still have a few more days in the house I wanted to do this before we packed up the computer. I figure after the move I will be crazy busy for a few weeks.

For those of you who know me well you know that I am an incredibly sentimental person. I am the person that insisted that my husband take a picture of me posing in front of my 1988 piece of work Ford Escort before it was driven away by its' new owner. I am the person who still has books from when I was 5-years old. So naturally I am the one to document and get sentimental over our home.

Becoming homeowners was a gift in itself and one that I was always remember. When we decided that we were finally ready to buy, I remember walking into the the model home and thinking, "wow, this is a big house". I remember moving into our house, late October last year, and thinking, "oh my gosh, this is really our house!" We were truly blessed. We had lived in small apartments or houses as renters for the last seven years of our life - to actually own a home was a great feeling.

As it was being built, amidst planning a wedding and getting married, we drove down to the house almost every weekend to check its' status - every weekend we would notice a few things that had been done during the week.

We moved in a few months after we were married and I chose to save all our wedding gifts for the new house. It was definitely like Christmas unpacking all our new dishes, kitchen utensils, bathroom towels and rugs:) More exciting was just making the house "ours".

Over the last year we have learned a ton about being homeowners. We picked paint colors and took on the daunting task of painting almost our entire house. We installed sprinklers (not fun!) and landscaped the yard. We made a few big purchases: my favorite being our huge dining room table.

We hosted our first Thanksgiving - which was a great success. It was so much fun planning Thanksgiving dinner and enjoying it with family.

We adopted a kitty, which has made our house filled with even more love!

We had family and friends visit from the Seattle area: Patricks' parents, my parents, Brandon and Deanna (my brother and sister in-law), my brother Brent, Trudy and Scott, Martha and Tim, Erik and Denise, Megan and Mike.

We had countless get togethers with friends which usually involved eating dinner, drinking good wine and beer, and playing board games.

I love this house so much and am surprised at how emotional I have been in the last few days. Maybe it is because it is our first house together and holds many memories or maybe it is the fact that it is the first house that has been my own or maybe it is just a combination of both. Either way, I look forward to the next place that we can call "ours". Thank you for bearing with my sentimental emotions:)

( House pictures... )

21 August 2006 @ 08:03 pm

Skydiving pictures!

It was like Christmas when I opened up my mailbox today and lying there waiting for me was my skydiving pictures and DVD! What a perfect ending to a pretty boring day. We already watched the DVD, which is great except that I look like a dork:) I never like watching myself on video. In all seriousness the video is actually really awesome and something that I will treasure along with our beloved wedding DVD. Just a teaser and one of my favorite pictures first:

( More pictures inside... )

12 August 2006 @ 06:34 pm

At 12,000 ft. in the air....

I jumped out of an airplane! Patrick and I went skydiving this afternoon. It was amazing! It is really hard to describe exactly how it felt or what it was like, but it was worth every single penny. I must say that I was feeling pretty excited and not a bit afraid or nervous until the second before I jumped out of the airplane...and then it all went away the second I jumped. I didn't realize that I was freefalling for 50 seconds or that the cold wind was making my throat so incredibly dry because I was in complete awe with the fact that *I* was flying through the air. My teacher (because it was of course a tandem jump) was a strange man, but he took good care of me:) We did a bunch of fun spins in the air and took our time getting down to the ground so as to take in all the scenery. The landing was perfect and in those first few seconds I was speechless. That was by far the coolest thing I have ever done in my life! Everyone should do that before they die!

Getting my gear on...as you can tell I was paying very, very close attention to what each thing on my suit was responsible for. I drove my teacher (in the picture) crazy with all of my paranoid questions:)

Oh, and I chose to have my jump videotaped...I am so excited to see what it will look like.

09 July 2006 @ 01:00 pm

From 25 years old to 26...a year in review

July 1st was my birthday - I turned 26. We were in Sacramento, CA for my birthday as a good friend was also getting married on that day. That morning Patrick took me out to breakfast. He had every intention to take me out to a nice breakfast, but I chose Noahs Bagels and Starbucks. We don't have a Noah's Bagel in Spokane so it was truly a treat for me. He gave me a cute little gift bag filled with Jergens Natural Glow body lotion and face lotion, which by the way, I love! I had also asked for perfume. I have worn two kinds of perfume for as long as I can remember - Clinique Happy and Ralph Lauren Romance. I love both of them, but felt like I was in need of a change. Previously Patrick took me to Nordstrom and I went from counter to counter sniffing perfumes, none of which I loved, but mostly because I am so used to what I have always worn. So I assumed I would receive one of the two for my birthday. Well, my wonderful husband spent about two hours at Nordstrom a few days before my birthday working with two women and surprised me with this:

Calvin Klein 'Euphoria'

Euphoria is about sexiness, fantasy, and being captivating. Sexy and sensual, Euphoria speaks to the woman who has the urge to break free from everyday life - to provocatively be part of an exciting world filled with pleasure, surprise, and temptation. Her fragrance is a contrast between exotic fruits and seductive florals, for a rich, creamy, seductive signature.

Notes:
Pomegranate, Persimmon, Green Notes, Black Orchid, Lotus Blossom, Champacca Flower, Liquid Amber, Mahogany Wood, Black Violet, Cream Accord.
Style:
Confident. Sexy. Chic.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! He did such a wonderful job. It reminds me a lot of Happy, but its' different. Also in my gift bag were two tickets to Six Flags Marine World in San Francisco. I am a huge roller coaster fan and love amusement parks. One thing to note is that Patrick hates amusement parks because they are always so crowded so it was a sweet gesture to give me tickets for the both of us. We had a great time and amazingly enough it wasn't crowded at all which could have been because it was July 5th the day after the 4th of July . We never had to wait more than 5 minutes to get on a ride. It was awesome!

For the last few years we have gone to Silverwood, which is a smaller amusement park located in Idaho. Each year we buy a picture of us while on a roller coaster. Here is last years picture:

And this years' picture on Medusa, at Six Flags:

One more thing to note about my birthday this year. Like breakfast, Patrick had really wanted to take me out to a nice dinner. At this point we had gone to the wedding and after the wedding we continued our roadtrip down south and planned on staying the night in Bakersfield. There were a bunch of restaurants to choose from and I HAD to have In-and-Out Burger. Definitely not glamorous, but very good.

Okay, so onto the year in review. This year has definitely been the biggest and greatest year of my life. I never want to forget anything that happened this year because it was all so wonderful.

The most significant and happiest event that occured this year was definitely my marriage to Patrick. We got married on July 30, 2005. It was the most perfect day of my life.

This year Patrick and I took our first plane ride together to Cabo San Lucas for our honeymoon. We stayed in an amazing resort and it was truly one of the most relaxing times of my life.

In October we adopted a baby kitten. His name is Roary (most of you know him already). He brought a tremendous amount of joy and laughter to our home.

We had a house built and we moved into our new home in October. It was such a blessing to get married and then to be able to move into a place that is our own. This is the only picture I could find and it is during the building process.

Oh, I found a more recent house picture. Although we do have grass now...woo-hoo!

I always looked forward to the day when I would be able to host a holiday at my house. This year I hosted Thanksgiving which was a lot of work, but so fun! Oh, and I cooked my very first turkey.

I took my first trip to Hawaii a few months ago and fell in love with the place.

Last week we returned home from a road trip to CA, which we began one day before I turned 26 so it still counts, right?!

This year I have seen several friends get married - one of my very best friends Martha and her husband Tim, Matt and Abbey, Brent and Cori.
I have made a few new friends this year - Abbey and Denise.
I reconnected with my best friend from elementary school, Shannon.

Overall, it has been an amazing year. Thankfully it has been a year filled with much happiness. I anticipate other years won't go quite as well and that is natural. But I must say that 25 was a good year!:)

31 March 2006 @ 09:11 am

Some more Hawaii...

I scrapbook everything Including our vacations. I love to include in my scrapbook every little detail. I remember the details by keeping a journal. Much of my journal is just a recollection of everything we did in Hawaii so that I don't forget anything. I am still waiting on a few rolls of film to be developed so I am skipping over to Sunday.

Sunday morning we woke up to pouring rain. I swear it rained harder than I have ever seen it rain. It felt like we were in the middle of a monsoon. A monsoon in Hawaii...okay, whatever. Hawaii isn't prepared for these types of things....I don't know that they have a very good drainage system in their city, but thats beside the point. We had plans to go snorkeling in Hanuama Bay. We had already rented our gear and we were not going to let the rain stop us. Discourage us, maybe a little. Hanuama Bay is a very popular snorkeling destination, but of course we were only competing with about 20 other very brave people out there in the water. I love snorkeling! It always scares me at first and takes a few minutes to get the breathing down, but once I am comfortable I just love it! We saw many fish of different colors and sizes. It was so fun snorkeling through the reefs. We only lasted about an hour because with the rain pouring down on us, it was quite cold. It was still very fun and we got some great pictures. Unfortunately, the camera was in our suitcase and supposedly the security screening at the airport damages undeveloped film so we are still waiting to see if our pictures turned out. Keeping my fingers crossed.

After snorkeling we were craving a nice, warm cup of coffee. We were in luck because we found The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. If I remember correctly, we don't have these in Seattle or Spokane. I have always gone to them in California. I love their coffee sooo much! So I was feeling happy after my vanilla latte'.

We went back to the hotel, showered, and got ready for our extravagent brunch. *Thanks Kaycee for the recommendation! * We had reservations at the Halekulani Hotel at the Orchids Restaurant. At $42.00 a person we were expecting a wonderful meal, which was definitely the case.

( Read more... )

29 March 2006 @ 10:12 pm

Hawaii!

*I can't figure out how to use the LJ cut so I apologize for the really long journal entry*

I am in love with this place! It is absolutely beautiful! As we flew into Honolulu I was staring out the window in awe. When we landed and stepped off the plane we were greeted with warmth. Oh, how I have missed 80 degree weather! Oahu is such a pretty place. I love the trees and the flowers. I love the ocean and the sand and the sun and the surfers. I love the city and all the neat shops. I love how people seem so energetic and active which I haven't seen anywhere in a really long time, but this feeling completely inspires me.

Once we picked up our luggage we took the shuttle to the car rental place where we were surprised with a CONVERTIBLE Chrysler Sebring. Now, the Chrysler itself isn't anything special, but the fact that we got to drive with the top down was so exhilarating.

Here is Patrick...this picture cracks me up because driving the Sebring was such a continuous joke for us throughout the trip.

We arrived at our hotel and were greeted with fresh orchid lais. The hotel itself was very nice. It was about a 10 minute walk into downtown Honolulu and situated right by the harbor. From our balcony we had a great shot of the city. The room was very impressive and had a full kitchenette (which we never actually used, but was cool nonetheless).

This was the view from our balcony. Honolulu is gigantic!

This was inside our room. I only put this picture on here because that bed was seriously the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in!

After getting settled we headed into downtown to explore Waikiki Beach. Honolulu is filled with such a wide variety of stores. It ranges from Coach and Prada to the International Marketplace which is filled with tons of local vendors selling their specialties. We ended up at Dukes, which is a very popular and hip place to hang in Waikiki. We enjoyed a pretty decent dinner and I had my official Hawaiian drink, a mai tai. After dinner we headed to the beach and walked in the sand all the way back to our hotel.

This is Waikiki Beach. Off to the far right is Diamond Head (an inactive volcano).

This trip was a complete vacation for me, but our main reason for going was for my husband. He was presenting at an academic conference. The conference began on Thursday and he was the first to present. It was his first big presentation so we spent much of Tuesday night practicing after getting back from the beach. And of course he needed a good nights rest so we ended up in bed pretty early.

Early Wednesday morning Patrick was up and practicing and preparing for his presentation. He presented for about an hour to 100 people. I decided to explore a bit myself and find us some breakfast. So I headed out on my own which was really exciting. I am not typically one to explore by myself, but it was a really fun time for me. I ended up finding a McDonalds and a Starbucks and surprised Patrick with breakfast.

After breakfast he had his presentation which was AWESOME!! Lots of hugs and congrats to my husband here!!! I am so very proud of him! He seriously rocked that place. After his presentation he had to stick around for other sessions so I headed to the pool. For anyone that has been watching the news, Hawaii has been experiencing an abnormal amount of rain and clouds. Even though it was about 80 degrees out, it was completely overcast. So I figured I could go without the sunscreen and put on my swimsuit and grabbed a good book and sat by the pool for a few hours. I enjoyed a really yummy lunch at Canoes (a restaurant attached to the hotel) where I had a pork sandwich and a strawberry daiquiri. It wasn't until much later that I discovered the really bad burn I had gotten in the sun (which has now turned into a really great tan...woo-hoo!)

The conference was supposed to go until 4, but at about 3 Patrick came out to the pool to let me know that it was now offically time to play! We headed back to to the beach and headed into the ocean. Being a true Californian girl I headed straight for the waves. I am not a huge surfer, but I love jumping waves. It was so much fun! After the beach we headed back to the hotel and to get ready for dinner. Because it was pouring down rain at this point we decided to stay at the hotel to enjoy dinner at Serrentos (on the 30th floor of our hotel). The food was really good. I had a creamy pasta and Patrick had ahi tuna. The coolest thing about our dinner was the lightning show we experienced. I have never been that high up in the sky during a storm. It was really cool to see, but scary. We also had the chance to look into a few of the penthouses in the area, which looked amazing.

Friday morning we woke up very early and headed back to the beach. Before leaving on our trip I was checking the weather at least 20 times a day and up until the day we left the forecast called for rain and clouds our entire trip. So anytime we noticed sun, we took full advantage of it. Friday ended up being a beautiful day. At the beach Patrick rented a surfboard. He took it out and was able to ride about 10 waves...I wasn't really feeling up to it, especially when I saw how bruised up he was. So I layed out on the beach and worked on my tan:)

Friday afternoon we headed to the North Shore to the Polynesian Cultural Center.

This was a very full day, but was such a great learning experience. Basically, there are presentations and demonstrations for each of the countries in Polynesia (Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji, etc.) There is so much to see and not enough time. We ended up at the Samoan demo which was so awesome. We got to see a guy climb a palm tree with his bare feet in order to retrieve a coconut.

I learned how to crack open a coconut. I learned that the liquid inside the coconut is actually the coconut juice and until you shave the actual coconut fruit and strain that then you have coconut milk. Very interesting and something that I didn't know.

We also went to the demo on New Zealand which was cool, but not quite as impressive.

I tasted poi which was yucky! I also very briefly learned the hula:) After the demos we attended a luau. We saw the pig (which is called Kalua Pua'a) cooking in the ground and saw them actually take it out and serve it up for dinner. The luau had a variety of different Hawaiian foods and desserts. We tried haupia, which is like a coconut custard which was interesting. Also, had their sweet potatoes which are purple...very pretty:)

During the luau, there was a great performance. We were introduced to the Hawaiian royal court and watched them sing and dance about the ages and the islands.

This little girl was so cute! Patrick and I were in the very front during the luau and she was just smiling and smiling at my husband:) And she kept doing all these cute poses whenever she saw him with the camera.

More to come! More pictures and a recap of what we did Saturday-Monday! This entry is just getting really, really long!

30 November 2005 @ 07:43 pm

Wedding Pictures....

I realized that I have yet to post wedding pictures in my journal...and since I spent a huge amount of time over the weekend designing our wedding album it is fresh on my mind:)

The Details

( More pictures inside.... )

29 August 2005 @ 02:51 pm

Our Backpacking Trip!

I finally got to go on my first backpacking trip of the season! Patrick and I love to be outdoors, usually hiking and backpacking. With the wedding this summer, I was never able to find the time to go until this weekend. We woke up very early on Friday to finish packing, bought some doughnuts for breakfast, and headed for Idaho. About 4 hours later we made it to the trailhead. The trail we took was beautiful! It mostly followed the St. Joe River, which is a very popular river for fly-fishing. Patrick is a huge fly-fisherman so I knew he was going to have lots of fun.

The hike in was fairly easy....mostly flat with a few bigger hills. We only hiked about 3 miles and found an awesome campsite right along the river. We set up camp and Patrick went fishing for a few hours. I bought a new book, 'The Kite Runner' which I began reading on our trip.

For dinner we cooked up some soup and played Yahtzee. After dinner we built a campfire and Patrick said he had a surprise...he brought a bottle of wine out of his backpack! We typically don't bring along wine only because it is added weight in the backpack so it was a nice touch. So we drank our wine by the campfire and looked at the stars which were amazing!

On Saturday we woke up early...Patrick did more fishing..

Look what I found...remember those books, Where's Waldo...that is what this reminds me of...Where's the Frog?:)

Here are a few more pics of us goofing around...

We hung out in the sun until about 2 and hiked back to the car. We had a long drive ahead of us and wanted to get home in time for dinner. It was a very fun trip...and it is worth mentioning that I have no blisters! (I am famous for getting at least one huge blister every time I go hiking)

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