Hawaii

Dave and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on June 19th. I can't believe that is has already been 2 years! We decided to use the Delta benefits and take a little weekend trip to Hawaii.

When we picked up our rental car they upgraded us to a Mustang convertible. Pretty snazzy eh?



We thought we were pretty awesome cruising around in this until we got to our hotel. We walked in to see this... no bed. What good is a hotel if there is no bed? There has to be one somewhere...



Now a bed takes up a decent amount of space in a room so you think it would be simple to find... still couldn't find the bed.



So we decided to open the "wardrobe" to see if maybe there was a bed in there and to our surprise... there was!



It just needed to fold out!



I was honestly laughing too hard to think clearly but Dave was super skeptical. I wish I would have gotten a picture of his face, he was so disgusted. He was gathering our bags when we came across this sign in the kitchenette. Who knows what else they don't wash themselves...



We grabbed our bags and headed out in search of a new hotel. The place we ended up staying wasn't the nicest by any means but it was the Taj Mahal compared to the last place. (Ah, the joys of traveling on a budget).

Of all the things there is to do in Hawaii the number 1 thing on our list is always Cheeseburger in Paradise. I don't know what it is about this place but we LOVE it! It is nothing but naughty food and we saved our calories for the whole week just to eat here.



The onion rings are heavenly



And the cheeseburgers are to die for.
(In our humble opinion)



We drove out to the North Shore and saw the Temple in Laie.



I turned around for seriously 2 seconds and Dave was in the tree... what a funny guy!



Dave has a friend at the airport who's mom works at the Polynesian Cultural Center. She hooked us up with free tickets to everything (the center, the buffet and the night show). Thanks Vili's mom!





We went out to Pearl Harbor and saw a few things too.



The USS Arizona.



We went out to the flea market and saw this.



Dave and I didn't say a word to each other. We just stood there and watched it pass...

Until next time Hawaii! We will miss you...

Thanks to Julie, Brett, Nancy and Steve for taking care of our little Bailey so we could go. We really appreciate you guys!

Our Nampa Trip

A couple of weeks ago Dave and I took Bailey up to Nampa, Idaho to meet Grandma and Grandpa Morgan and we had a great time. It was a weekend full of food (the best biscuits and gravy ever) and entertainment (which consisted of joke after joke from my cousin Heath... what a funny kid!).
Another of my cousins came up with his little family. They have a little girl a couple of months older than Bailey. It was fun to watch them play together on Bailey's play mat. (p.s. this playmat is the greatest babysitter, Bailey loves it and usually plays under it for an hour at a time!)



Bailey and I with my Grandpa and Grandma Morgan.

Thanks for the great weekend! We will come up and visit again soon!

San Francisco; Dave's Birthday

Dave turned 30 this year so we decided to celebrate in San Francisco. We only had about a day in the city so Dave did a lot of research so we could see everything we wanted to. Since we are both children of the 80's we loved Full House. We thought it would be fun to try and find the house featured in the opening credits of the show. With a little research and a lot of Youtube we think we found it (although now the front door is a different color).



The lady that lives here came home while I was on the front steps... kind of embarrassing.


The Painted Ladies.


Chinatown


The Golden Gate Bridge


Alcatraz


Dave in a cell at Alcatraz.


We had a great time but we sure missed this little face the whole time we were gone.


Thanks for watching Bailey for us Steve and Nancy!
Dave had a fun birthday but it wouldn't be the same without his favorite dessert. When we came home I made Dave his favorite cake, a boxed yellow cake with canned chocolate frosting. Happy Birthday Dave! I love you!

France

The last leg of our trip... France!
We started out by renting our car and heading straight to Normandy. Dave and I are both big fans of the show Band of Brothers so we thought we would take ourselves on a little tour. Dave had been there before but since I hadn't it was a must for this trip.

Dave and I at Utah Beach



Me standing in a big crater left by a bomb. They were huge and all over the place!

Dave and I sitting on top of this giant tanker/gun thing. It was pretty impressive.

This is where we want to build our home in France... talk about beach front property! This place was gorgeous!

The next day we dropped off our car and headed into Paris. Everyone in Paris was so dang nice to us! When we got off the metro and into our map this cute old man, who didn't speak a word of English, was right there wanting to direct us where to go. Completely exhausted, we were so excited to finally get to our hotel only to realize that there was no elevator and we had to drag our suitcases up this... oh well. We needed it after all those crepes!


Dave and I with Ms. Mona Lisa

In the courtyard of the Louvre.

As we were walking toward Notre Dame we came across a street performer that Dave remembered from a previous trip. It's just my luck to get pulled into the act.

Outside of Notre Dame.

A trip to Notre Dame wouldn't be the same without taking a hunchback picture outside of the belltower.

Doing what couples do best at the Eiffle Tower.

We could have stayed here all night. We went back the next morning to go up the tower. Word to the wise, "escalator" does not mean the same thing in French that it does in English. That's right, we walked our tired legs up the first 2 flights... good thing we bought a ticket and rode the elevator up to the top! The view was gorgeous!

Our final stop was to the Moulin Rouge. This was a dirty little place in a dirty section of town but we couldn't resist seeing it. A little part of me was hoping to see a giant elephant outside of it with Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor singing... Oh well.


That was a pretty fast version of our trip but we had a blast and we look forward to going again. There were just too many things to see and not enough time. Good bye for now Europe but you can bet that we will be back!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Part III

Amsterdam

We spent Dave's birthday in Amsterdam. Since we only had the one day there we didn't get to do very much but one of the highlights was definitely the Corrie Ten Boom Museum. If anyone has read The Hiding Place you know what I'm talking about. In a nutshell, during WWII Corrie hid Jewish people in a hidden room built into her bedroom, was caught, sent to a prison camp and survived. She was a remarkable lady! Anyway, here is the house in Haarlem.

This is the hiding place. The entrance is a little hidden door at the bottom of the closet. I got to crawl through it and stand in the little room. They cut a hole in the wall so people could peek in and see just how tiny this room is.

We didnt' get to go inside the Anne Frank house but we at least walked by.


Our hostel was on The Ship Avanti and was really cool. We were not so sure about it at first but it had rave reviews and once we were there we loved it! The rooms were tiny but the rest of the boat was surprisingly roomy and the lady who runs it is awesome!

Our room, we couldn't get ready for bed at the same time because just wasn't enough room!


Amsterdam was pretty fun. Next time we go back we will have to spend some more time. We didn't get a chance to see the tulips... oh well. Happy Birthday Dave!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Part II

The next few days of our trip we spent on Pisa, Florence and Rome. Here are a few highlights:

Pisa

The Leaning Tower


Dave holding the tower

Florence

The museum where the David statue is had just closed when we got there so we went to see the replica.

My David impersonating Michaelangelo's David...

Some delicious pasteries that I want to make some day...

Rome

The Vatican

The Vatican Museum

Trevi Fountain


The Colosseum

The Pantheon

Our top two favorite dishes:

Lasagna (James and Cindy's recommendation) it literally melted in your mouth


Margarita Pizza - this baby was gooood!

We ate enough gelato in Italy to fill our ice cream quota for a year but it still wasn't enough... it was that good! I can't find the picture of our favorite flavors but mine was Pistachio and Dave's was Nutella. Mmmm it makes me hungry just thinking about it!