An anniversary getaway to the Poconos!

Our lives are busy - busy enough that Tim and I both forgot that it was our anniversary this year! And not just any anniversary, but our first anniversary. I was on call the weekend before our anniversary, we planned a meeting at our house the night of our anniversary, and I was on call the Friday after our anniversary. Eek! We were able to laugh off our forgetfulness (chalking it up to wedded bliss), feeling like every day is like our anniversary.

So, even though it was a bit of a challange to get everything coordinated, we were bound and determined to get out of town and do something fun, just the two of us, to celebrate our 1st anniversary. We packed up the camping gear (leaving only a few important things behind, like the sleeping mats and the camping coffee percolator), put our bikes on the bike rack, and headed to the Poconos. It took us forever to get there on Saturday, because we kept stopping about every 15-20 minutes to check on the bikes, since it seemed that our bike rack wasn't holding them quite tight enough - and after all that trouble, we ended up never riding them while were on the trip! We arrived to Hickory Run State Park, where we set up camp. It's a large State Park with lots of things to see and do. We had a little rain (but not enough to ruin our time), some great food cooked on the grill, wonderful camp fires, a trip to a boulder field, some noisy camping neighbors heading out to the races at 4 am, and a little excursion down the Lehigh Gorge on whitewater rafts on Sunday.

I thought a rafting trip in the Poconos would be somewhat reminiscent of our honeymoon, whitewater rafting in Costa Rica, but we quickly learned that we were a far way away from the class 4+ rapids of the Pacuare River. First, we arrived to this huge operation with people scattered everywhere, then we went to get our life vests. When I asked where our helmets were (coming from the experience of nearly losing my husband on day three of our marriage in the middle of a ginormous rapid in Costa Rica), we were told that we wouldn't need them; only the folks who traveled alone in kayaks used them. Huh? No helmets? Then we got paired up with a family from eastern Europe, who said they had done this before. They all wanted to be in charge, at the same time, and didn't have the commands down to guide the team of rowers. Previously, I had only rafted with a professional guide in each boat. This outfitter had four "guides" on kayaks corraling the herds of rafters - there were probably 40 or more rafts in our group. Again, a very different experience from rafting in Central America. After running into several rocks and losing two of our fellow rafters to the river, Tim finally took the guide's seat in our boat, and the rest of the ride was smooth sailing. All in all, we had a fun time, had nice weather, and got out on the water. We had several things to laugh about during the day, and we dreamed of being back in Costa Rica, at our favorite honeymoon spot.

It was a short, but much needed, getaway, and we came home with sore bodies, but refreshed minds and spirits. One year down, and a gazillion more to go.

Our engagement story made the "news" on the Liz Hess webpage!

I was just browsing around the web site of the wonderful artist Liz Hess, and happened across a little piece about our engagement, which took place in her gallery on First Friday, January 2007. My, what a year it has been since then!

Check out the piece: A Couple is Engaged.

Thanks, Liz, for sharing our joy on your website!

The things we did in Colorado...

Here is a list of things we did in Colorado while we were on vacation:
1. Played with Manning (4 1/2 yrs old) & Ruby (2 1/2 yrs old) a lot, taking lots of pictures of their precious little faces.
2. Checked out Ann's new Angora bunnies
3. Down hill skied - I actually took a lesson, and while Tim & Ann skied the 'real' hills, I stayed on Panda Peak. My instructor, Jim, was very thorough and patient, and re-taught me skiing through the principles of physics (my least favorite subject EVER!). No broken bones to report! It was a lot of fun after I got over my anxiety of having not skied in 15 years!
4. Watched Manning graduate from Powder Pandas Ski School - down the mountain he zipped!
5. Visited some hot springs alongside the road in Carbondale - delightful! Underneath the brilliant stars with bubbly hot water that must have been near 110 degrees.
6. Sunday Mass at the Monastery at Snow Mass and some time chatting with Father Joseph, the Abbot at the Monastery. Beautiful service, til I started to get sick. :(
7. Altitude sickness - ICK! After skiing in Aspen all day Saturday, I developed a headache, which didn't go away, and only worsened, after a full night's rest. I still had a headache on Sunday morning, and while at the Monastery started to feel very hot and lightheaded. The nausea then struck me with a vengeance. I was able to make it home to Ann's house before my modest breakfast of earlier in the morning was no longer with me. A little bit of naprosyn, LOTS of water and a 3 hour nap cured me of my illness, which I hope to never have again!
8. Dinner at a Nepalese restaurant to celebrate Ann's birthday
9. Several walks into the town of Basalt, a quaint mountain-side town in the Rockies
10. More hot springs! This time at Glenwood Springs, which was also relaxing and lovely. I especially liked the water jet chairs in the therapy pool at 104 degrees.
11. Cross Country skiing - this was a first for both Tim and me, and we loved it! It was great. Ann's friend was very kind to lend us her family's skis and we all had a wonderful time, the kids included. We were feeling some muscles that we hadn't been acquainted with recently on the flight on the way home.
12. A ride up the mountain past Neil Diamond's house to a fresh spring, where we filled up on wonderful, mountainside, ice-cold water.
13. Dinner and a movie with Ann - our last night in Colorado. We had delicious food at Phat Thai in Carbondale with green papaya salad, curry, drunken noodle - YUM! Then we went to the Crystal Theater (an old fashioned single theater establishment) to see The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman - a good flick and a tear jerker - who knew Jack Nicholson would make us cry?

14. Saw lots and lots of wildlife - elk, mule deer, big horn sheep, cows, horses, rabbits, and little girls with elk-style face painting!

15. Got in some rest, relaxation, reading time and exercise.

16. I cut back to one cup of coffee a day! This is a huge feat, and I'm happy to say that I'm not sick, although the craving lingers on.

17. Did some second-hand shopping, and we each came home with an article or two of clothing.

Vacation in Colorado

Here's a first glimpse of our trip out west to visit friends (Ann, John, Manning & Ruby) in Colorado. We just got home late last night, so we're trying to recover from vacation and get back into the swing of things. Check out the slide show, with more details to come. :)

13 days before the wedding...

A glimpse into our lives! Could it really be true? This turned out to be one of those events that "made us stronger," but in the midst of all that was going on, a BURGLARY at Tim's house just 13 days before the wedding was not really what we had been hoping for!
Yes, it's true... the story goes like this: We had been celebrating a birthday with our nephew, Tristen, and I decided to return to Tim's house to help him load some bricks into his car to take to his brother (Doug, a general contractor) the next day. It was late... about 11 o'clock at night.
When we first arrived, we noticed that the gate (which Tim and his family had just installed months prior when off street parking was added to the property) had a broken latch. At first we thought some neighborhood boys might have been messing around and kicked in the gate door, but as we approached the house, things seemed more odd by the minute.
We entered through the back door and noticed there were gloves on the floor (in July?!?). As we walked further into the house, it was clear that someone had been inside, having left items that they couldn't carry, or got too scared to come back for - such as the TV in the middle of the living room floor. Tim heard water running and ran into the basement. He said "don't move!" Just as soon as I was able to blink my eyes, he was back upstairs and dropping his pants in front of me. I had no idea what was going on, but didn't think things were right, since my ever-so-modest husband-to-be was now in his unders in front of me! He told me to call the police, tell them that someone had broken in, and to stay put where I was. I did as requested and could all the while hear Timothy schlopping around in knee-deep water in the basement. I wasn't sure if I thought he'd get jungle-rot or electrocuted first, but both possibilities came to my mind. 911 was activated and the police arrived very promptly. The summoned the fire company, who spent the next several hours pumping gallons and gallons of water out of the basement!
Turns out some thieves had entered to steal copper pipes. They cut out all of the pipes in the basement and managed to break the main water line in the process. The next 48 hours were a total whirlwind - we contacted our parents, followed by the prayer chain at church, the insurance company, a restoration company, plumbers, carpenters, etc. Multiple family members and friends converged on the house the next day to begin the clean up process. After it was all said and done, and we added up the stolen items (MANY power tools, Tim's laptop, stereo, other odd items and his PASSPORT - yes, 13 days before our honeymoon to Central America!) and damage done, it seems like about $10,000 in expenses were accrued. We're thankful for homeowner's insurance, but our hearts were heavy, not only for our own misfortune, but also for the lost souls who had committed such a terrible act.
Hours on end were spent "cleaning up" after the event, and Tim's passport was replaced after standing on Chestnut Street in Philly for 8 hours on a hot, summer day (just 4 days before the wedding), but the devastation and discouragement lingered on.
We found out months later that the thieves actually entered into 14! houses and performed similar, horrible acts of destruction... all for about $3/lb in scrap metal for copper pipes!
Tim has spent several days missing work to take care of details related to the robbery and going to court, etc., and even though we've now sold this house, he still may be called back to court to testify.
In the midst of the dirt and damp boxes, we were able to muster up a smile, rejoicing in the fact that no one had been home at the time of the robbery, no one was hurt, we had each other, and we had a large group of family & friends joining with us to get the work done, bring us meals, pray for us and love & support us. The photo here was taken the day after the robbery, when we were in the thick of the clean up!

For all those who've been waiting...

People have been asking for ages about pictures from the wedding. Now since we've been married for exactly 5 months and 2 days, and the new year is about to begin, we thought we better get the ball rolling. We'd like to share some photos with you all! They will come soon, but we'll start with just one - it's one of our favorites from the wedding... the happiest day in my life thus far!

Our wedding website will soon be extinct, so we decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon and do this instead.

The past five months have been very full, yet we have enjoyed newlywed bliss and are blessed daily with goodness and happiness. We hope to provide a snapshot of what we've experienced as a newly married couple -- once owning three homes, now down to just one, both with new jobs or job responsibilities, status post two robberies, a wedding, honeymoon, moving about three times, our first Thanksgiving & Christmas as "one" and many other daily ins and outs of life as we know it being hitched. We love married life and highly recommend it (taking that quote from our friends Jonathan & Jennie Groff). We're thankful for each other and thankful for all of you - our family & friends who daily pray for us, encourage us, love us and live life with us!

We have a lot of catching up to do, so we'll likely post several entries from the past several months - they have been eventful, to say the least! and then we'll get started on the present. We look forward to 2008 with much anticipation. We are anxious for some more relaxed, restful times, as well as many new experiences as "partners for life!"

Blessings to all on your new year! May it be one where peace in our world may become more of a reality, and may you experience joy and happiness for you and yours.

Love, Kirsten (for both of us!)