Valentines Day

Our first Valentines day

The first year of marriage is so much fun. It is full of firsts all over again. Our first Christmas, Our first trip, Our first movie and our first Valentines day. I would say that we are not the most romantic couple. We prefer wakeboarding and beers to an expensive dinner with champagne. That being said, we are big on milestones and experiences. This is our fifth year of celebrating Valentines day. Our first Vday was spent at the beach, so this year we did the same.

I woke up in the morning to a love letter and red roses. This is the third time I have received flowers from my baby, so flowers are a big deal. The love letter was wonderful and made me cry.

We took our nice camera to the beach to capture the beauty.

Bryan remembered our wedding favors :) It was a nice touch to the evening.

My Vday gift to Bryan was making him pasta salad. I'm trying to get better at cooking more often so I though today would be the best day to make him his first wife 'cooked' meal. It turned out really good! He loved it.

Ice cream, two spoons

Our favorite game, cribbage. I'm not going to say who won.

My sexy husband

After experiencing the beauty of New Zealand it's great to look at our country with fresh eyes. We live in our own beautiful state.

As the sun went down we started the fire for hot dogs

It was a wonderful, peaceful evening.

Our first baby

Now that New Zealand is over, Bryan and I were feeling a bit sad. The past couple of years have been extremely jammed packed with fun. Ever since our engagement we have been now stop. A whole year of planning for the wedding, then another 6 months for New Zealand. This is the first time in a year and half that Bryan and I have had a chance to stand still, and I don't really like it. I love to plan! It's hard to plan for the future when we are at a point in our lives that we can't control. We are still living with Bryan's parents and we still enjoy it. They are wonderful company and we have our own space. It is just time for Bryan and I to get our own place. We have never lived just the two of us. The problem is we really want to buy, not rent. We're saving up for a down payment but it may be a while. This is my last semester of the Masters Program and I can't wait. Although I don't think I will get a full time job in the Fall, I am looking forward to the freedom to work as a sub, and a server, now that I won't have school to worry about.

Since we can't control the job market and buying a house/condo we have switched to focusing on things that do make us happy and things that we can control.

We bought our very first baby together. A baby Hydrangea plant. It's name is Aqua man. Isn't it beautiful!

New Zealand-Last day :(

January 6th 2011

We woke up really early and jumped on the plane to go home. We were so tired and sad about leaving. Mike and Andrea surprised us with upgrading our seats to first class! It was so wonderful. I had never sat in the front row before. All the drinks and food were for free. We had a grade ol' time. The first flight was from Christchurch to Melbourne, Australia. The second flight was from Melbourne to Sydney. Then we got on our last flight that was from Sydney to LA. The last flight wasn't first class but it was an upgrade for sure! We got champagne with take off. I'm not sure how I'll ever go back to coach seats :) The Slattery's spoiled us, we loved it!

Once we landed we meet up with Brooks and Sam. We took them around Hollywood while Sam had a layover. We also got to take them to see ComedySportz. We didn't play but it was great to show them what we do best. We dropped Sam off at LAX and took Brooks back to our house to get some sleep.

The next day, Mike and Andrea flew up to take Ben and Brooks on a ride. After the ride the Slattery's had to go back home before the sunset and the rest of us went out to dinner with Ben's AUnt and Uncle. They were awesome. We had cocktail hour and then went to dinner. It was so much fun. The whole trip was amazing and I couldn't be happier. Thank you for everyone who helped us get there! Thank you to all the amazing people we met! Thank you to our wonderful friends Mike and Andrea for coming with us, you were great company! We love you all.

New Zealand-day 16

January 5th 2011

Today we left Lake Ohua and went back to Christchurch to leave for home. The weather was so bad that we couldn't see the beautiful lake. We were bummed but it was okay. Once back in Christchurch we were able to walk around the town and we really got a chance to experience the damage the earthquake caused...Now that I am writing this journal entry weeks after the second earthquake I am extremely devastated by the damage it has caused. It's strange to see the pictures of Christchurch as we knew it, now it has changed.

This is a picture of me pout about it being our last day. The bruise on my chest is from the zip hitting my chest over and over again while skydiving. When we checked into the hotel at Christchurch I started to cry. I was so sad about leaving New Zealand and all our new friends. Bryan gave me a hug and for the first time told me "I can't wait for you to plan our next vacation." Little did he know, Andrea and I have already started planning :)

Making a wish that we could stay just a little bit longer :)

Some of the damage from the first earthquake... Last night out at the bar.

Bryan 'ice' skating in Christchurch.


When saying good-bye to everyone we started crying all over again. I was so sad. I think I was also really sad because I knew that New Zealand was our big trip of a life time, and it was over. We would love to travel to Europe, Africa and South America...but that isn't really in our budget. This was our big trip...We hope someday we'll be able to go to the other places on our bucket list but at the moment we are more than happy with our choice. New Zealand was amazing. It was better than I could imagine.

New Zealand Day 15!!

January 4th 2011

This morning we woke up in Milford Sound. It was so beautiful. We sailed our way out to the Tasman Sea and then back to the dock. There was about 9 of us that still really wanted to go skydiving...The tour bus was on it's way back to Queenstown to drop some people off and then it was on it's way to Lake Ohua, a lodge about 5 hours away. The 9 of us decided to stay in Queenstown and skydive. Emmo, our wonderful tour manager, set us up with a taxi van to get us back to the tour bus when we were done. We were sold. I have skydived before but not since I was 20 years old. Mike, Andrea and Bryan had not gone before so this was the perfect first jump. The view was beautiful and I couldn't wait to see the view. I was so excited. Enjoy the videos and pictures!

All suited up and ready to go! Bryan and I are so lucky to have friends like the Slattery's. Skydiving was our wedding present from them. It was exactly what we love in a gift, an experience full of wonderful memories.

Check out the view!


Honey Moon!


We made it down safely. It was so wonderful!

We tried so hard to get a good jumping picture...maybe next time :)

Our view in the taxi on the way to lake Ohua. Here was our taxi fare...totally worth it (Emmo worked out a deal so we only had to pay 500 bucks)

When we got to the lodge everyone had just finished dinner and was hanging out in the hot tub or playing games at the bar. It was a quite and relaxing night. It was a bit sad knowing that the trip was almost over. This was the second to last night of the trip. We had made so many wonderful friends that we didn't want to leave...We called it an early night to make sure we were ready for our last night out!

Our Skydiving videos. Enjoy!