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The big five year one was a couple weeks ago. I have been a little swamped with work/school/life so it’s taken me a little while to get this up.

We went out to Falling Water museum and the Kentuck Knob house in western PA. It was amazing. We had the best time.

I am the luckiest lady on earth! Does it get any better then this?

FALLING WATER:

Kentuck Knob:

Went down to Sarasota for a long weekend over labor day. It’s always great to get down to the gulf coast and do nothing for a few days. The weather was crazy. We had some serious rain and wind one day from the hurricane - but nothing too crazy. There were even huge waves and tons of people surfing. In the 10 years we’ve been going here, this is the first time I have even seen waves. Can’t wait to go back next year…

It was so much fun out in Portland this year. We did something a little different since Jenna and Evert planned their wedding for the end of July..we skipped our annual forth of July trip and came out at the end of the month for the festivities. If it wasn’t for ridiculous gas prices we def would have gone for both since Chuck was so sad to not have the opportunity to blow shit up this year. Next year will have to be bigger and better to make up for it.

The wedding was amazing! In every single way. Great food, fun dancing, amazing house and most of all the best friends anyone could ask for! Thanks Faz - as always - for being the host with the most and Jenna and E for just being you. Everything was fantastic and perfect and wonderful and…yeah.

It was so great to hang with truly genuine friends and drive go-carts and hit balls in the batting cages and play vibrating video games with everyone. Thanks for making us feel so welcome year after year. It never gets old coming out there…and who knows…maybe if someone comes in as the high bidder we may just make the move back! HA

We went to the roof top Mexican joint one night with the Argentines. The food sucks there, but the drinks and the view are great. We stayed for a few cocktails and head to get some sushi after…

While the cousins were here from Argentina we took them down to Atlantic city to hang out and shop for a day. It was so much fun. We ate at the Continental up on top of the pier and did some pretty serious shopping damage…

Stephen Starr has the perfect taste for decorating restaurants in my opinion…

So we left Philly way before sunrise and made it to DC just in time to watch the sun come up over all the planes.

We got off the smallest plane and went straight to the massage place to loosen up for our 12 hour flight to Beijing. Had one last good ol’ American breakfast and got ready to go.

If you have never been to Dulles then you wouldn’t know about the cool land rovers. They have these cool people movers. Like something out of Star Wars. Fun

INSIDE:

OUTSIDE:

When we landed in Beijing it was unreal how much pollution was in the air. it was like a blanket of smog until we actually hit the ground. Then you couldn’t see very far away at all. These give you a little idea of the mess they are dealing with. The airport is so big it’s really overwhelming.

The airport was like 100 degrees..inside! yikes. Our first little bit of shock to the system. We stripped down a hoodie layer and then cruised around the gigantic airport. I bought an Olympic pin which was cool. I can’t imagine how the athletes are going to perform in this soup.

The we got on our Asiana airlines flight to Seoul. Best airline. Super good service and food. We flew into Korea just as the sun was setting the day after we left home. Crazy!

Ramon and Wendy had just flown in from San Fran and were waiting for us in the airport. No worries with bags or customs at all.

We grabbed some bus tickets and headed to Wendy’s home town of Suwon to check into Wendy’s mom and dad’s apartment. It took about an hour or so to get there. There wasn’t much to see in the dark but tons of neon crosses and crazy Korean neon signs in the distance. The bus was super plush. Almost nicer then the plane!

We made it home last night or early this morning. I am tired. ugh.

10 hours flight from Seoul, South Korea to Vancouver, Canada. 5 hours to DC and 20 minutes to Philly.

Everything went super smooth and we made all our insane connections with a few small sprints with some of them. The trip was beyond amazing. We can’t wait to go back!

I’ll have some work to do with photos this weekend after I figure out what day it is and what time zone my body is on.

Here are a few to get you going…

Today would have been Chuck’s best friend Dave’s 35th birthday. He died a few years ago and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Dave was a navy seal and died in training exercises in Guam.

We went down to DC this weekend for a wine tasting and realized on the way down that it was ironically his birthday weekend. We decided to spend the morning there hanging out with him and watching the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Arlington is a very humbling place and if you have never been it should be on the top of your short list of places to visit. It is 624 acres of hollowed ground that can’t be compared to any where else in the world. I get the chills the moment we step out of the car and onto the grass near Dave’s head stone. He was a really special guy and I just wanted him to know that he is still really missed in this family…

Yesterday was one of the worst in a really long time. Insane.

Patients were super sick/ not enough time to eat/ not enough time to get half my paperwork done/ projectile vomiting patients in your general direction/ using way too many curse words in one sentence/stupid people in my way constantly/ traffic going in to the city/ traffic coming home from the city/ ugh. Glad I woke up today and have the next 4 days off. I don’t think I could have gone back today.

On a brighter note…I am thankful for my wonderful hubby who makes coming home amazing. I broke my phone and he got me a new one and loaded all my old contacts and everything into it and even stopped by the hospital to drop it off to me on his way out. PLUS- he lent me his beloved iphone for the time that i was out of mine. Chuck rules. But I already new that.

So here’s to starting this mini-vacation off right and leaving all that crap behind. Going to the gym to take out anything left on the treadmill.

blah blah blah.

Bird circa 2007

As always we had some of our good friends over to the White house for Easter lunch. This year was very mellow. No big problems or accidents which is wonderful!

Hope everyone had a nice easter!

My Hubby and my favorite mommma-in-law

Me and my buddy Warren

Chuck and Ralph and their matching ties

Pam looking fancy in her dress

Everyone loaded back in the bus, with full belly’s ready for a nap

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!

For those of you that don’t speak German - my grandma turned 85 today. She rules! We took her to Atlantic city to gamble and hang out at the beach. She didn’t win anything but we had a blast watching her pull those slot machine handles. Hilarious.

So I took chuck to NYC to go to the John Stewart show for his real birthday. Being a leap year baby - it is very exciting when he actually has a day to celebrate on. We started off the trip in Soho shopping and enjoying some good street art and store art…

This is a barber shop: do you look like this when you are all finished? yikes

This cat sculpture was random

It was a cat themed day

My favorite giraffes

We hung out in time square and drank cider and chai tea for an hour to just warm up.

I took Chuck to Ideya which is the best Cuban restaurant in town. 349 W. Broadway if you are ever in Soho and need a good place to eat.

Before we were popsicles:

Standing in line at the show. It was soooo cold and we had to wait 2 hours to get in. It was worth it though. Brian Williams was on the show and he was hilarious:

Chuck’s mom had everyone over for Pizza/Sushi and some pretty insane desserts. Chuck’s favorite Oreoscope.

Crazy homemade peanut butter cups

Oreoscope

ONE…

TWO…

Thank You - Thank You:

An actual real birthday…. It only happens every 4 years and when it does we go all out!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO the best husband in the whole world!!!!

more to come….

Taking Chuck to the John Stewart Show and for some shopping in NYC for his pre-birthday celebration. Psyched. Should be a blast. They don’t show the audience much but maybe just maybe…

Between being super sick and out of work for a week and studying - I somehow forgot a huge thing..Sorry Ry. I never forget stuff like this, but I guess I’m getting old like you. HA

HAPPY BELATED B-DAY BUDDY!!!!

oh yeah and check out the jade tree I got for my birthday from my mom..HUGE.

I am finally feeling a little bit better. I can sit up for more then a few minutes which is a major improvement. Thanks to Chuck that is. He stayed home and took care of me yesterday which made all the difference!! thanks babe! Best husband in the world!!

So Chuck and I spent a long weekend riding at keystone. It was amazing. My first time riding there and I wasn’t disappointed! It was fun. Not super hard at all, but the trails were wide open and super fun to go fast on. The trees were tight and crusty and bumpy but beautiful to look at. Lift tickets are way over priced for what you get - but that’s life now. You get to ride keystone, A-basin and Breckenridge with a single ticket for 83 bucks but the reality is you really never leave one mountain once you get there. A-basin is only like $42 for a single day and we never made it over there. Maybe next time. Looked super cool from a far. The altitude was a little crazy at first. It felt funny when we went up a single flight of stairs and we were totally out of breath. Bending over to strap in was a challenge. It was hilarious for sure. Didn’t really slow us down though. We went cat riding which was really cool. Only $5 per ride! Super fun and super cheap. Can’t beat that. I highly recommend that you do it if you make it to keystone…I had a little hitch on my flight home (14 hours in the airport) but nothing was going to ruin my perfect weekend with my hubby! The funniest thing was that we lucked out and had a hummer for a rental car. A red one. So stylish. It made me miss my FJ though because there were so many dump things about that car…ugh. It got us up through the pass and back safely though and that’s all that matters! You def need 4 wheel drive for that drive. It is a super crazy road!

here are some of the cool shots:

BLUE bird

Fresh turns in the morning

Cat riding

The drop off ridge view. No more sunshine.

I would work here for sure!!

Pretty:

Breckenridge in the background:

Hope everyone is having an amazing day with their families and friends! We had a great Christmas this year. Nice and mellow. No snow. It was close to 50 here today. We’ll get our share of snow in VT soon.

oh yeah and santa was real good to me this year and hooked the FJ up with some new all black rims. They are SICK! More photos to come as soon as Pete puts them on…

HUGS to everyone.

The amazing Food:

It didn’t get crazy - but towards the end it loosened up just a little once all the relatives left:

Shots..no really…

Art shots:

Party boy taking a nap. awesome:

Webster:

My boy and my Oma:

we have never had our house this clean…man it’s nice. my mom helped me decorate it and she should be an interior designer. So good. Here are just a couple pre-party shots:

Our 13 foot perfect tree. This year was an amazing one:

The living room:

The mini gallery in the hallway:

The office gallery:

The bedroom:

The outside looked just as amazing!!

Our new advent calendar from a few years ago. He’s Swedish..his name is Sven:

Stocking were hung by the gas fireplace with care..ha

One last tree shot because I am so proud:

So excited. Just got back from the hospital visiting with Keith and Andrea and their new baby girl.

Andrea is a total rockstar. Pretty much all natural.

Baby weighed in at an incredible 9 lbs 12oz. WHOA Baby!!

I picked Bennito up and Keith’s mom and brought them in. All he talked about the whole ride in was how excited he was to meet his little sister…He is going to be an amazing big brother.

What an amazing family. I feel so lucky to have been part of both the B man and the soon to be name new little lady in their first days on earth. Thanks K & A for including me. You guys are the greatest.

Oh yeah and…..CONGRATULATIONS!!

Best night of the year to go out by far. We met up with Bird, Josh, Mary, Jill and Bobby and his lady in Manyunk. It was ugly..lots of headaches the next morning.

Me and Bird

Bird dressed like Josh to be funny. Ironed button down shirt and creased khaki’s. The standard Josh uniform. He even pulled off the loafers on his feet. Impressive…very impressive.

Bobby cut a rug hard. Spilled drinks all over him and almost got in no less then 5 fights. awesome.

Bird got real real drunk. The progression was epic. Most of it with the quotes…”I’m not even close to being drunk” It concluded with some up close views with the trash can. Infamous!

my mother-in-law and father-in-law always have some good friends over for thanksgiving. We didn’t make it this year but they still had a party and they took some great shots. Brother Ralph’s wheel chair didn’t fit through the door this year but Kevin sprung into action and took the door off the hinges. Warren and Missy seemed like they were having a blast.

My mother-in-law is an amazing lady. She does this every year. Loads them all up onto the bus, brings them over to the house, cooks dinner, serves dinner, loads them back on the bus and brings them back to the center. It’s a lot of work - but worth every minute when you get smiles like the ones below…

be thankful for everything you have.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Things I’m thankful for list:
Chuck
My Family and Friends
My Health
My Amazing job
My Education
The Troops
My House
My Fish
My FJ

you can send a message to our troops by clicking here…just takes a second…

SEND LOVE TO OUR TROOPS IN IRAQ