Archive for the ‘USA Eastbound’ Category

Family Time

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

If the past 5 months weren’t enough, these past few weeks have been a great reminder of how lucky we are.  For a few days we were living the high life in San Fran at a sweet hotel (all that shopping paid off Ellen–thanks!), complete with leopard print robes.  We had a blast checking out the sights in San Fran, but it was little Timmy, of course, that got most of our attention.  It’s amazing what happens over the course of 7 months in the life of a 13 month old.  We covered a lot of ground in just a few days, but also had time to relax and catch up on the past few months.

San Francisco 07-01-2009 7-54-08 PM San Francisco 06-30-2009 1-56-10 PM

Ken, Ellen and Timmy continued on to LA to visit friends while we headed out to Yosemite with my folks for a few days.  Wow, what a place.  Even though it was Fourth of July weekend and Yosemite Valley was a zoo, it’s still an incredible landscape.  There’s just something special about exposed granite domes that you can’t find in other areas.  And, we didn’t have to go far to avoid the crowds.  We stayed in a cabin near the Hetch Hetchy and went on a beautiful hike while seeing only a handful of people.  There were a number of fires burning in the park which made the air a bit hazy and picture taking a bit difficult.  And, it probably made it a bit harder for Joanie and I to keep up with my parents.  Whew, we put some miles under our feet!  I thought I had stopped growing years ago (at least vertically), but check out these family shots.

Yosemite National Park 07-04-2009 1-09-56 PM Yosemite National Park 07-02-2009 8-04-10 PM

It’s been so fun meeting up with friends and family that we’re feeling an urge to get to Michigan, New York and New Hampshire to see everyone else.  But, we’ve got about 3 or 4 weeks of time to explore Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota and wherever else we decide to go.

We’re Back!

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Back to the USA and back to the blog for a quick update.  We’ve been having so much fun meeting up with friends and family since we arrived in California two weeks ago that there hasn’t been much time for anything else.  We’ve done far too much to capture in one post, but here’s the quick recap.

After 5 months in New Zealand and 30+ hours of traveling, could there be anything more American than going to the San Diego Fair, eating fried oreos, twinkies, apples and avocados,  seeing a Johnny Cash cover band, and trying to win cheap stuffed animals?  Probably not.  We met up with our friends Ryan and Karin in San Diego and had a great couple of days that also included a Swedish Midsummer’s party and a snorkeling adventure in search of sharks (only saw one).

We then zipped up the coast to San Francisco to meet up with the Hipple family and the start of a two week feeding frenzy.  The past week has been a blur of good times, burritos, hills, donuts, surrey rides, burritos, laughter, trips to the playground with the kids and good music.  After a few days in San Fran with Ethan as our tour guide we all drove north to the Kate Wolf Music Festival where spent a few days listening to good music and surviving the 100+ degree heat.

Mt. Tamalpais 06-24-2009 2-22-27 PM

Now we’re back in San Fran in the midst of Albers Fest with Mom, Dad, Ken, Ellen and little Timmy.  I’ll get into all that we’ve done and how awesome it is to have the cutest nephew in the world later.  As hard as it was to leave New Zealand and the dream life we were living there, coming back to our family and friends was just what we needed.  We had been looking forward to these few weeks for a while, and the time that we’ll have with Joanie’s family when we get to Michigan.  There’s still more to come with a quick trip out to Yosemite and then we’re back on the road heading east again.

More pictures will be coming soon…once I find that camera cord.