A Walk through the Rainforest
Just like the ride at Disneyland-- only REAL. 

One of our favorite activities in Puerto Rico was renting a car and exploring the Rainforest. The road through the rainforest was a fun curvy mountain road... the little Hyundai managed the road well but Tom's BMW on those roads would have been better :) It was so exciting to explore and be adventurers. There were lots of people on the mountain, its a lot cooler up there so that's probably why-- Lots of locals around.

We got caught in a big rain storm... some people might get upset about that, but we kept saying " Well, when you're in a Rainforest, it RAINS" haha. So we just went with it and waited 10 minutes and then it stopped raining. Magical.  :)

Pretty flower.

Heart Shaped Leaf.

Check out those roots!!

We went on a really cool hike to a waterfall. It was just amazing to walk through such a dense community of plants and animals. We loved it!! I took lots of photos of plants...so I'll let our pictures show you what we experienced.

Love these Palm trees.

Love the Sun Beaming through the Forrest.

La Mina Falls.

Replica of a tower that was built in the Rain Forrest 300 Years ago.

Overlook from the Tower to the ocean over the Rain Forrest.

Window from the Tower.

Using my zoom feature on my camera to capture these flowers :)

My treat after a day of hiking ... pina colada!!

Puerto Rico 
A much-needed vacation for these two little love-birds. 

Traveling has been part of our relationship from the beginning. Ryan often tells people one our first dates was going to St. George to visit my grandma. And then a couple weeks later he came to CA with me...and after that our long-distance relationship began. So, when Ryan surprised me and took me on my DREAM honeymoon to Tahiti, I knew that vacations would be a part of our lives. We had always planned on taking a One-Year Anniversary trip---until Uncle CAG (ConAgra) decided to move us out of Minnesota, force us to sell our dream home, and move to Chicago (don't get me wrong, we love Chicago but it wasn't in our plans!!). Needless to say, we were selling our house and moving up until our 1-Year Anniversary last summer.

We decided that as we are now Mid-Westerners, we should post-pone our 1-Year Anniversary plans to the middle of winter--- we both knew we would want to get out of town QUICK when the negative degree temperatures hit. We couldn't have been more right. So we saved our monies and when we saw a good deal for a Caribbean Vacation in Puerto Rico, we jumped at the chance.

I didn't know too much about Puerto Rico at the time, but after a quick Google search I learned that it had cool history, great beaches, the US's only Rain Forrest, and the Bio Bays. SOLD.

Puerto Rico exceeded our expectations and it was an incredible 4 days on a warm sunny island.

Snowmageddon
Also known as: Blizzard of the decade.


While I was in San Francisco, I heard about a big storm hitting Chicago, and the rest of the country. At first I wasn't too worried about it ... and then I realized, hello your flight is cancelled. The crazy thing is that I had to put two and two together. You would think that American Airlines would at least LET YOU KNOW that your flight was cancelled... not so. I had to call multiple times to figure out what was going on, and then pick a new date/time that would hopefully not also be cancelled.

I watched the news and hear reports of Lake Shore Drive being completely shut down-- with hundreds of cars and people stranded (yikes). I talked to Ryan, who sent me this picture of the view out our window:

Yikes!! We actually had a friend in town, who decided to stay in the subarbs, and take the train in to meet Ryan for dinner that night. He was stranded on the train for an hour before he was able to get into the train station and meet up with Ryan. After dinner he attempted to make it back to his hotel. Key word: Attempted. He ended up driving all the way back to the city because the off ramps on the free way were blocked with stranded cars!! Crazy! The bottom line was that I was JEALOUS that he got to spend a snow day in our condo with Ryan and not me.

I know, this sounds crazy, but I was really sad to not be in Chicago for the big storm. I had been asking for a snow day all year long and was jealous of all the snow NYC was getting. Chicago doesn't seem to get nearly as much snow, and I was missing it. So of course it would happen that I would be in Sunny gorgoues San Francisco, and be wishing I were back at home in Chicago, snuggling up with my hunny and watching the storm take the city. I missed it. Oh well.

When I flew in from SF the next day, I got a beautiful view of the city covered in a blanket of snow.

Once I was home, I had a few errands to run. I know, not ideal to be running errands the day after a huge storm that shut down the city, but we were leaving for Puerto Rico the NEXT MORNING so what's a girl to do? After driving around for 20 minutes looking for parking, I finally had to illegally park and wish the Chicago Police would be kind to me on a day like this. It was crazy out there! The craziest thing was climbing over 2 feet of snow to get to where I needed to go...

Can you see my footprints? I climbed over this!

Needless to say I still got to see the aftermath of the storm, but am still a little sad I didn't get to experience the "snow thunder" and everything else the storm had to offer. Come again, please!! :)

San Francisco

I love that my office is headquartered in San Francisco, because it means I get to spend a few days there a few times each year. I love San Francisco and seem to be enchanted with it every time I visit. I used to head into the City and stay with my dad from time to time when he would go for work. We'd catch a ball game, or an all-men's version of Swan Lake (classic!!), dinner at Scomas or just walking around Union Square. Lots of great memories. Now I am grown up and heading into the city on my own for work... funny how life works out, huh?

San Francisco

My little sister Ashley came to SF with me a lot with dad as well, so when the opportunity came to invite her to come with me, I jumped at it! We had a fun little road trip, stopped at the Oakland Temple on the way and then shared a hotel room with King-sized bed. Good times. She even got to come to our Executive Networks Meetings and experience a few new things for her (she's working part time for my company right now so she was a welcome addition to the meetings!)

We had some time to do a little shopping, eat at E & O Trading Co, and of course stop at Specialtys to pick up our favorite sweets for the team. I also got to meet up with some of my favorite BYU Alumni classmates and catch up on work, life and laughter.

Britex Fabrics, one of our favorite stores! This one's for you, mom!

 

While I was there-- Chicago got blasted with "Snowmagedden" --one of the largest snow storms to hit the area and the country! I got snowed out of my flight back home, and because of it got to spend some quality time with a great friend in Walnut Creek & her new fiance (Linds, we gotta get better at taking pictures when we are together!!) Thanks for the pedi, great dinner, and tour of your wedding site!!

Luckily I made it back to Chicago in time to catch my next flight a few hours later to Puerto Rico with Ryan.

Until next time San Francisco...

Sweet Baby Sawyer &
A few days with my favorite nieces and nephews.  
 
 My older sister Tarin had Sawyer on December 4--a long 9 days after her due date, and 5 days after I left Bakersfield from Thanksgiving. I was so sad we weren't there to meet my sweet new nephew, so I decided I had to figure out a way to make it back to Bakersfield ASAP to meet him.

My work travels left a few days open for me to hop over to Bakersfield and spend a few days with Tarin and her super fun kids. I slept at Tarin's house on Friday night (after my flight to Bakersfield had been re-routed to Burbank due to the Fog... I ended up catching a ride back to Bakersfield with some fellow stranded strangers) and woke up to the kids playing in their room. Pretty soon we were having tea parties, playing with toy soldiers and snuggling on the couch watching Batman Cartoons. Does life get any better than that??

Tea Party!!

Posing for the tea party picture.

Our little cowboy.

Lots of Tea Parties. Another favorite moment of the day was when I was getting ready and Charlotte and Caidence sat on the bathroom counter and asked for make-up too! For each thing I used they asked "What is that?" and then "Me next!"

The only thing that would have made my trip better was if Sawyer wasn't so sick-- poor Sawyer had bronchitis, an ear infection and RSV. The poor lil babe could hardly breath. I decided to only take a couple photos of him because I just didn't want to bother his sleep with too many pictures.

I loved seeing Grandma with him.

Part of their routine-- go to dad to get your teeth flossed.

My FAVORITE photo of the weekend.

Story time!