Celebrating Two Wonderful Years!

Alex and I have been married for two years now, the best two years of my life. It really does feel like yesterday that we said our "I do"s and started our lives together.

After signing the papers in Monterey, CA. July 6th, 2009.

To celebrate this year we decided we would take a trip down to the Dole Plantation and have a look around. When we got there we decided to do the train and garden tours but we had to pass on the maze due to the rain but we plan on going back!

The train tour was very informative. It was an automated tour that explained the history of the pineapple business in Hawaii as well as how and when the pineapples are harvested.

After the train tour we just had to get our pictures taken as well...pineapples!

Next we went and did a walk through the plantation garden. This garden was full of beautiful plants and flowers. There was an audio tour that we could have gotten to go with the garden but we decided to just walk on our own and chat. In the garden there was a pond in the very center that was filled with huge koi! We were able to feed the fish and watch them go nuts over the food.

In the garden was Alex's new favorite tree. He likes this tree so much because if you didn't know better you would say it is fake, it looks hand painted.

 After strolling around the garden for a bit we went inside to get a little lunch. After lunch we walked around the gift shops looking at all to cool little nick-nacks they had for sale. We did end up getting a fresh pineapple which I can't wait to get into! To top off our outing to the west side of the island we drove up along Kamehameha Highway which runs along the shore all across the north end of the island. It was a beautiful drive and we plan on doing it again!

I am so blessed to have Alex as my husband, he is my best friend. And I am looking forward to spend many more years with this man. I love you Alex and thank you for two amazing years!

On the Home Stretch!

We are officially four days from when the packers will come and pack up the whole house and six days till we are all in Hawaii together! Plane reservations have been made, all vet visits are finally over, and now all the cleaning starts! It has been quite a wild ride for the past seven months with Alex being gone for six of those seven months and getting four pets through quarantine. But now all of our hard work and time apart will pay off. All the critters got their last shots this past Wednesday and are finally ready to go. It may have been rough getting all the paper work done and getting all the right tests and shots for them but they are worth it. So now I am cleaning day and night getting things packed and ready for the movers. On Monday, the same day the movers come, my father and Michelle will be arriving to send me off and I can't wait to see them! We will all drive up to San Francisco Tuesday and stay the night and then on Wednesday morning the animals and I will be on our way to Hawaii to see Alex!

Its hard to believe that just a year and a half ago we were moving into our first home. It feels like just yesterday my mother and I were driving out here to California to my new house and new life with Alex. Where does the time go? I will miss this house and all the wonderful memories that Alex and I made here but we have many more memories to make in Hawaii. And we can't wait!

Start at the Very Begining...

I guess this wonderful adventure of mine started when I met my Alex. It all started with Ms. Richards ( our lit teacher) yelling at him to stop flirting with me in class followed by a fellow classmate yelling out for him to get my number (he already did )! That year we went to prom together and hung out all the time, becoming best friends. It was love from there on out, though we didn't start dating till he had graduated from Marine Corps boot camp!

It wasn't a day too soon that he proposed! I have to say my husband is quite the romantic! He was home on leave and it was Christmas time. He surprised me by coming home from a family trip to the mountains. He picked me up and took me to Cherry Creek State Park. He kept telling me he was taking me to his favorite spot, his secret spot. We drove through the park for some time and he finally pulled over in a little clearing. He had me get out of the car and close my eyes (oh and I forgot to mention it was -15 degrees outside). He had me walk with my eyes closed into a small little alcove of trees right next to the water, it was beautiful! He had me open my eyes and there he was kneeling in the snow with a ring in one hand and a flashlight in the other pointed at the snow. In the snow he had written "Will you marry me?" and I just about died. I said yes and he slipped the ring on my finger. He then asked if he could stand because he could no longer feel his knee. He walked me back to the car where he has a beautiful bouquet of red roses. He rushed me home to show my family (and get warm) and then off to dinner. It was the best Christmas ever!

 December 14th, 2008

All too soon he had to leave to go back to training. He eventually ended up in Monterey, CA studying at DLI. I took a few weekend trips out there to see him, but my favorite one was on July 6th 2009. We got married! We signed the papers at a little chapel in Monterey.

It was just a month later that I moved out to California to be with him! During our almost two year stay in Monterey a lot happened. Alex graduated with honors from DLI, I graduated from my certification program, He got two adorable puppies: Hercules and Taquito (now my cats, Babaeal and Cassondra, had brothers).

 Taquito asleep with his toy

 Hercules cuddling Cassondra

Babaela looking sassy

In December of 2009 we were able to go back to our home town in Colorado to see family and....have our wedding! It was my dream wedding! I was so blessed to have family from all corners of the US attend the wedding. It was a night I will never forget.



Alex was lucky enough to travel to South Korea for a month and then he spent more time training in Texas. I did some traveling myself, I went to Montana to see my mom and to Big Bason in Santa Cruz. But now we will be traveling again. Alex is currently not at home but at our new duty station in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii! And I will be joining him and just 16 short days! We don't now what Hawaii has in store of us yet but we are looking forward to every bit of it!