Babies and More...

No, I am not about to announce we are expecting.  That would be crazy.  I do have several friends who are pregnant, which is very fun and exciting.  My best friend, who we just recently went to see in Hawaii is preggers.  The last time Michael and I went to see them she was also preggers.  I think it is a theme.  Right now she is about a month away from having her second baby.  A BOY!!  I am super excited, because that means I get to be an Auntie again.  Her little girl is so fun and adorable and really is one of the closest kiddos to Michael and I.  Even thought she lives halfway across the world/country, I still refer to her as my niece.  Trust me when I say that little girl knows who her Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Michael are and she definitely took a liking to her Uncle Michael while in Hawaii.  So of course, when I learned of this baby and learned it was a BOY I got very excited.  I think boys are so much fun.  Girls are fun too, but boys are just super fun.  I grew up in a family of all boys, so I am a lot bias.  I was a tom boy, so I know how to deal with boys better than little girls.  I have improved on my girliness over the years, so I am not as bad as I once was, but I still enjoy sports and don't mind getting dirty.


Enough about me...back to my wonderful friend.  When we were in Hawaii she asked that I take some maternity pictures for her.  I am by no means an expert photographer, but I do know how to take pictures.  One morning, we got up early and went out to snap some pictures for her and baby boy.  She has a name picked out, but I am not sure if she has fully revealed the name, so I will just refer to him as Baby Boy.  It was a lot of fun taking pictures for her.  She does some photography herself, and I know it isn't fun being on the other side of the camera, so we just tried to have fun with it.  My broken computer is being shipped off...stupid computers...but I did get some pictures done for her before it left.  Let me know what you think of her maternity pictures.  I took several belly pictures, but I feel those are personal and have decided not to share them.

           

Virginia

Last week, I spend 4 days in Virginia.  Not the DC area of Virginia, but middle of no where, two hours to any airport, middle of no where.  The hotel/resort I stay at was very nice.  Getting to the hotel and flying into the area, not so much fun. 


Since, I travel a good amount, I am used to problems along the way.  Last week, I left on a Tuesday.  Whenever I woke up Tuesday it was raining.  Not a whole lot but it was still raining.  I grabbed my suitcase and drove the 30 minutes from my house to the airport.  At about the halfway point to the airport the rain started coming down really hard and I started to notice lightning.  I don’t mind flying when it is raining.  Rain doesn’t normally delay flights.  Lightning on the other hand delays flights.  I was a little worried because my connection was only 40 minutes.  Yikes!  But, at the airport my flight was showing on time.  I never believe this, mainly because sometimes they don’t show a delay until it is already past delayed.  Sitting in the airport, the flight next to me got canceled.  Great, I was thinking, we are next.  The gate agent told everyone the plane had be struck by lightning not once but twice while landing and now could not be used.  Awesome!  At that point I started my please don’t be delayed please don’t be canceled speech.  I was flying into an airport that has two flights a day from Chicago, and the last one arrives at midnight.  (plus two hour drive=no fun).  My flight ended up delayed, of course!!! While in the air all I could think about is how I am wet, because of the downpour in Arkansas and the three inches of water in the parking lot, and how I am going to miss my connection and be stuck in Chicago. 


If you ever fly then you know that they usually come on closer to your arrival city and tell you your connecting gate information.  Our arrival gate was G18 and my departing gate was G17.  All I could think was this is a miracle.  I literally got off my flight and walked straight into the boarding line of my next flight.  Of course, at this point, all I could think about was my luggage is not going to make this flight.  The connection is too tight.  Even though the planes were next to each other, I just knew.  So, when I landed in Charlottesville, Virginia I was was not surprised one bit to not see my luggage.  The only problem was now I have to drive to this hotel two hours away with no clothes or anything.  This was the worst trip for the airline to have delayed my bag.  The hotel I was staying at has a dress code for dinner.  Ladies in dresses or suit, and men must wear ties and jackets.  Great.  I am in jeans and tennis shoes.  When I got to the hotel I spoke with American Airlines about my lost bag, which at this point they didn’t know where it was at in Chicago.  How do you not know?  Well, I explained my situation to the nice lady and she allotted me some money to go make a few purchases.  Great new stuff.  The only problem I had with this, was that I was at least an hour from any store, Wal-mart, Target, department stores…NOTHING.  So I went to the shops in the resort, which scared me a little because I am a picky shopper.  But, they had some actually really cute clothes.  I was able to get a few items to help me survive until my bag arrive the next day.


The hotel was beautiful and the grounds of the resort were wonderful.  They had horseback riding and fishing and apparently even have a ski slope.  Michael will be going to this conference with me next year.  It snowed there the last night and I woke up to a little blanket of snow, it was more like a sheet than a blanket, but it was still nice.  I have to thank American Airlines for always taking good care of me and ensuring I have something to wear.  This is why I only fly American and no other airline.  We have a wonderful relationship!        

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!!

Today is my Dad’s birthday!! He is officially getting old…haha! Not really! I used to say old was however old my Grandparents were, and since I unfortunately don’t have any of those anymore I guess I will have to say old is some number beyond my parents age.  My Dad is a great man and I am definitely my father’s daughter and a daddy’s little girl.  Forever and always.  So HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Hope next year is just as good as this year if not better.

Hawaii Day 1 & 2

Sorry for this major delay…work traveling and hard drive problems has delayed these, but hopefully I will be sharing more over the next two weeks.

Our first day in Hawaii was also our travel day.  Traveling to Hawaii requires an 8 hour flight from Dallas to Honolulu.  Traveling with 5 people takes a little more time than traveling alone.  Once we finally arrived after our long long flight, it was around dinnertime.  My very gracious friend and her husband picked us up at the airport with the traditional lei greeting.  Then we drove to Waikiki, where my parents and brother were staying at the Outrigger Waikiki.  The Outrigger has a wonderful little restaurant with a beach patio that has a wonderful view.  We went there to eat and watch the sunset.  Since it was Saturday night they had live music playing, which just made my parents and brother’s first impression perfect.  After dinner we all crashed.  The 5 hour time difference, along with a long day of planes, makes for an exhausted family.

Here are my wonderful parents, enjoying the new Hawaiian view.Michael and I happy to finally arrive!!My friend and her family…Schuylia is noticing the airplanes and telling us.

Sunday was our first real day of fun.  Michael, Shane, and my brother Eric got up early Sunday to go swim with sharks.  YIKES!!  They went with the North Shore Shark Adventures tour group.  It was a big group of people.  They went to the North Shore Harbor and then the boat took them out a couple of miles, not so far that they couldn’t see the shore.  The boys said the water were so rough people were getting sick.  They felt a little green but none of them got sick.  They got to go into a cage for 20 minutes while sharks swam all around them.  When the second group got into the water and they didn’t get near the amount of time the boys did because the water was so rough the cage broke off.  They brought everyone back to the harbor.  I think the boys were grateful, since it was so rough, but it was still a blast!!

While the boys were out enjoying shark time.  Veronica and I had girlfriend time in bed talking and laughing.  I snuck into her room after the boys left and we got to hang out.  It was extra fun because she is 7 months pregnant and I got to talk and feel the new little man.  After a little friend time, we got up and went to pick up my parents in Waikiki.  We drove out to meet the boys on the North Shore for a beach day.  I love the North Shore beaches.  It is so beautiful just to drive the coast along the North Shore and watch the surfers.  We hung out on the beach for a few hours before heading to lunch at Breakers.  It is a little bar and grill in Haleiwa.  You can find it in a little shopping area, which also has a great coffee house.  They make an ice cream mocha drink that we all enjoyed for dessert.   

My Dad testing out the waters, and Skye in the background.The view off the North Shore.My little buddy ready to swim…she has NO fear.Michael here enjoying our beach day.

After lunch we decided to drive up the coast of the North Shore and stopped to take in the view and get some wonderful photos.  We stopped at a beach that is very popular for snorkeling.  We didn’t snorkel but we definitely did some exploring.  This was a lot of fun for my parents to see the most beautiful side of Oahu.  The pictures speak for themselves.

Michael and I with this great miniature tree garden behind us.Preggers!!  Family photo time!Veronica and I self-portrait.  With 6 people to take it we took it upon ourselves to do it.Here is my super cute hubby, exploring the sharp rocks!Siblings…well…kind of.  Veronica, myself, and my brother.Tide pools that are good for snorkeling.

Random iPhone Hawaii

I have a nice camera that I take thousands of pictures on every year.  I am always the one carrying the camera, so Michael has millions of pictures of himself.  This trip he decided he wanted to start using the camera (outside of the automatic mode) scary.  So, I let him play with it some.  But since he had my camera I felt naked without it in my hands every second.  Luckily for me I have an iPhone and captured some fun stuff with it too.  Check out a few random snaps and videos from our trip.

Michael and I on our long flight…bored.My Mom at Pearl Harbor. This one was for my cousin, who was a Navy guy.View from our drive on OahuMichael enjoying our Big Island House View.Our house view from rooftop patio.Random Bamboo (I think) on one of our hikes.Here I am at the bottom of a steaming crater, wearing my Razorback Red Friday before the game.

This video is the view from our patio during the day, the view at night you saw yesterday.

We Are Baaack!!!

Michael and I are back from our vacation!!  It was a much needed vacation and we are slowly getting back into the swing of things.  We will soon do a day by day or activity by activity post soon.  I took over 1000 pictures.  Yikes!! So that will be taking me days to go through.  So, hopefully next week you can see our Hawaii trip.  As a random teaser, I was outside last night and looking at the stars.  I was so disappointed in the night sky here in Fayetteville compared to the view we had on our rooftop deck at our house on the Big Island.  Here is a picture one morning, when I was up before sunrise.  It was common for us to be up before 6:00AM, which is lunchtime our time.  So, just before the sun light peered over the horizon I took a few star pictures on a very long exposure time.  Check it out and be patient Hawaii photos on our their way.

Orlando Trip

I have been traveling for work and I will soon be traveling for personal reasons, which you can expect to see tons from whenever I get home.  I am currently in Orlando for work.  I have been here a few times and I have still never entered a park.  Boring.  Oh well, that's how work goes.  I have to mention a few things from this trip. 


On my way to Orlando, I was delayed and delayed and delayed.  It was awful.  But I did meet some very interesting people.  Two extremely southern women.  100% sweet and wonderful.  My favorite thing about traveling is meeting the people.  The first lady I met in Arkansas at 5:30AM waiting for our delayed flight.  She was super hilarious.  Told me about her kids and husband.  She knew a million other travelers and had something to say about each one.  There was a young man who was friends who her son, and she told me he just broke up with his girlfriend.  Then she told me how sweet and wonderful this young man was and how it is so great that he got away from that crazy snooty girl.  She definitely made my morning.  On my connection I was sitting next to a lovely couple from Tyler, Texas.  They were older and coming to Orlando to meet their children and grandchild for a week at Disney.  Too cute.  She was so excited about spending time with that grandchild, who was 4 years old.  Her husband was also very sweet and he walked with a cane and then had a wheelchair.  Wonderful sweet people, who just made my delays much more doable.  


I have to say one disappointing thing that occur once we landed in Orlando.  The sweet older couple asked if I wanted to get out of my seat and walk in front of them, since he would have to take it slow getting off the plane.  We were in row 8, so really not a big deal.  I was in no hurry, so I told them they go ahead, it wouldn't bother me.  There was a lady who sat two rows behind us, who somehow was right behind the older man.  As they walked up a little I stepped out in front of her to grab my bag and she ran into me.  I gave her this look of you need to slowdown lady.  She made some nasty comment to me about oh I guess you can go in front of me.  You guess???  Seriously have a little respect people.  I was glad I stepped in front of her, because she might have run over the nice older man walking with his canes.  If you fly slowdown, you aren't going to get somewhere any faster than the person in front of you.  Be aware of the people around you, before you run over someone.