Hawaii Continued...

When we went in to town, we made a point to Peal Harbor.  It was absolutely amazing.  They took us out on boats to the actual memorial where the U.S.S. Arizona still lies today.  There is still oil that comes up out of the water (you could see it in the rainbow reflection on the next page).  It was such a awesome experience.

After our visit, we decided to take the scenic route back to our hotel, which was about 45 minutes away. It was a bit longer, but it was absolutely beautiful...

We also wanted to make sure we could make it to a lou out, so that night we decided to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  It was a great experience, and we even picked a pearl out of a oyster :)  I think that’s actually one of the only souvenirs I brought back...

Golf (Hawaiian Style)....

One thing we wanted to make sure we could check off of our list was having Chris play golf.  There’s just something about playing around of golf with the ocean in the background.  He even had a good game, shooting a 92.  While he golfed, I kept myself busy courtesy of the nice Hawaiian drinks!

Hawaii 2010

To celebrate Chris’s new job, we decided to take a pretty last minute trip to Hawaii!  This was probably one of the most random things we have ever done (and one of the last times we will probably ever do something this random).  We traveled the 6 hour flight to Oahu and once we arrived, rented a car to drive up to turtle bay.  Couple of things about the car.  Chris was not yet “old enough” to drive, so I had the privilege of driving he entire trip in our blue VW Beetle.... True island style.  All we needed to make it picture perfect would have been the surf board on top!

We stayed at the Turtle Bay Resort.  Chris was mostly excited because this is where they filmed “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.  It was in a secluded area, which is what we wanted.... My husband hates people :)

We took it easy the first night, but the next day we were ready to just lay on the beach.  We literally had made no plans and just did whatever we want, whenever we wanted to do it... a rare treat for us!

First Solar

I just wanted to document Mr. Husbands huge accomplishment.  After weeks o anticipation, we found out that he was going to be offered a position at First Solar.  It was almost surreal, because he had talked about wanting a position like this for quite a while.  I was so unbelievably proud of him.  We had taken a drive down to his building one day so I could play around with the new camera... it really is one of the prettiest buildings in Tempe.  His official start date is May 2nd.

So what better way to celebrate, than taking a trip to Hawaii (Post to Follow)!!

First Comes Love... Then Comes Marriage... Then Comes Mr. Bingley!!

February was a very very very exciting month.  After lots and lots of persuasion, I finally talked Mr. Schulman in to a new car.  I had had my eye on the Lexus IS250 for a couple of years and was ridiculously excited when he gave me the okay to start looking.  

After working with our dealership, It turns out that the exact car I wanted was already on a boat from Japan getting delivered to the dealership in the next couple of weeks.  Sold!!! For the record, I basically handled the negotiating from beginning to end, and Mr. Husband finished with a nod and a handshake : )  And that is how we got Mr. Bingley : )

Christmas, Atlanta

Even though the trip to Atlanta was a bit stressful, we managed to take the red eye flight and arrive bright and early Christmas morning.  Atlanta must have known we needed some excitement and boy did it deliver!  For the first time in 128 years (since 1882), Atlanta had a white Christmas!  I of course was ridiculously excited and it was all around such a fun experience.  It snowed for a majority of the time we were there.

Chris’s brother had just recently bought a house, so it was only fitting that we all spent Christmas cozied up by the fire in the new home (which was to die for by the way).  We spent the day and night opening presents, eating wonderful food, and playing games... and of course, making sure we took the perfect picture for next years Christmas cards!And for the record... I do not like to play games with people that cheat.  Enough said :)

Whenever we see Chris's family, I always manage to take pictures of his mom's recipes.... This is one of his favorites :)

The night turned out to be bittersweet though, as we went back to his parents house and found his puppy Cody laying down by their front door.  We knew it was time to say goodbye, and I couldn't have been more grateful that Chris was there for him. We love you Cody!!!

Fast forward to the next day.... 

While we were in Atlanta, I had always wanted to visit the World of Coke.  I had been there a few times already, but had never been so I was super excited when I found out we were making the trip.  I LOVED how it was decorated for Christmas with bright red everywhere.  They had so many exhibits and all in all, it was a super fun trip :)

So, in the end... all though it was a stressful trip to get there, it was definitely worth it!

Christmas, Arizona

So....

Chris and I have never spent a Christmas together, so were both so excited (me a bit more than him) to finally see each other on Christmas day. I think we were both worried which family we were going to see on Christmas (again, me a bit more worried than him) because of course we didn’t want anyone’s feelings to get hurt...

Well, little did we know that Delta was going to decide that for us. I HATE DELTA AND WILL NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER FLY WITH THEM AGAIN. The original plan was to spend Christmas with my family in the morning, and then fly to Georgia and be there in time for Christmas dinner. Two days before, Chris had gotten a automated message from Delta saying our flight was going to be delayed, and that we were now going to fly through Ohio to get to Atlanta (at the time there were several storms going through the East, and Atlanta was getting ready to receive their fair share). But really Delta?!?!?! Fly us through Ohio where the weather was already worse?!?!?!?! Needless to say, the automated message called us back the next day to tell us that flight had been canceled as well.

So now we were not going to get in to Georgia until the Monday after Christmas. Thank goodness I had planned for this by monitoring other airlines and their flights. AirTran saved the day, and we were able to book our last minute tickets with them to arrive early in the morning on Christmas. ***And as a side note... AirTran did not cancel any of their flights.....

Okay, I’m ready to stop ranting now.

So we cued the Video Camera (Aspeitia Tradition), the Mariah Carey Christmas music (another Aspetia Tradition), and the Santa Hat. It was still as much fun as it has always been every Christmas before, and my anxiety went away when Santa dropped of my new Ipad... Thanks Santa!

Everything worked out perfect and it was a nice start to our first Christmas :)