Trip to Kansas

My Mom and I took a trip to see Jenny and Blake in Kansas a couple of weeks ago. It was so fun that I couldn't stop thinking about how much I missed my Mom and the Hansen's for a week straight after I got back. We did a lot of fun things like visit the Russell Stover Chocolate store, the Brown Vs. Board of Education schoolhouse, the Hallmark Museum, and a recreation of "The Land of Oz". We also saw downtown Kansas City and Lawrence. My favorite thing about the trip (which may really surprise Jenny since I was tricked into going there) was eating those tasty fries from the BBQ place inside the gas station. I overcame some of my greatest fears from this trip...eating food from a gas station and being able to survive in Jenny's house. This is not because Jenny's house is gross or scary. It is really nice and clean. She just scared me with all her horror stories on her blog about brown recluse spiders. Especially after I had that nightmare about them attaching their fangs into my arms with their beady red eyes looking at me. You'd be scared too. Anyway, thanks for the good times Hansens! I want to come visit again soon!
This is us just outside where we went to lunch. Hallie insisted her hood should be on everytime we went outside because it was "too windy." :)




Here is Mom in front of the Kansas City Library. They had books all lined up the size of the building. It was pretty cool.

Brown Vs. Board of Education schoolhouse

Here is proof that we ate at a gas station.


And for my personal favorite...the munchkin pictures at the "Land of Oz. "

Charleston, South Carolina

Mark and I decided to take advantage of the long weekend during the Martin Luther King holiday so we flew to Charleston, South Carolina. We visited the Charleston museum where we saw artifacts from the American Revolution and the Civil War. We also walked the streets in downtown Charleston and saw the amazing houses by the beach dating back to the late 1700s. My favorite part was visiting the oldest preserved plantation in America which was built in 1738. It was so neat to think about all the history. We stayed in the cutest bed and breakfast place in downtown Charleston that was built in the 1800s. It was so fun! I only wish Mark had more breaks from school and of course more money so we could do this every weekend!

Drayton Plantation


House in Downtown Charleston

View of Chaleston Bay

Sugarbowl

I must have started working at the airport at the perfect time because Mark told me "that game was something that we will be telling our grandkids about. " I don't know if he should really use "we" in that statement but I am glad he loved it so much. My brother-in-law, Cory, used to work for Delta and still has flying benefits so he, my Dad, and Mark flew out to New Orleans on New Year's Eve for the game. I can honestly say that there have been few moments that I have actually seen Mark as happy as he was after that game.

Christmas Visit

We had so much fun visiting Utah for Christmas. It was great to see the snow again and drink hot chocolate when you really wanted it because it was actually cold outside. I had forgotten how beautiful snow is. Here are some of our favorite parts (in no particular order):
1. Staying with Julie and Cory and waking up to Mollie's cute voice every morning. We are still saying one of her favorite phrases, "okay spider" around our house because we still think it is so funny.
2. Playing Catch Phrase with actions on New Year's Eve because every second of that was enough to make me laugh for days
3. Christmas Outburst with "the Happy Elves", "the Eggnogs" and the "Yulelogs"
4. The Baker White Elephant party where we got those salt and pepper shakers that we are now using. Thanks Margaret!
5. The Caldwell date night which included the never-ending voting rounds for where we wanted to go for dinner, the Human Body exhibit, and the actual dinner at Biaggi's
6. Emily's wedding, reception, and wedding shower
7. Snowshoeing with Mark's brothers (from Mark)
8. Girl only movie nights (obviously not from Mark)
9. Hearing Jenny sing the Muppet's "Saying Goodbye"song to me at the airport as I was riding up the escalator
10. And of course...seeing all of our wonderful family and friends again!
Here are some pictures of our trip. I wish we had taken more of all the fun things we did.:

Chocolate Orange Yulelog I made for Christmas Eve

Christmas Day












Emily's Wedding


Snowshoeing

Caldwell Datenight

Fort Lauderdale Boat Show

We did one of the funnest things yet in Fort Lauderdale. Downtown has canals running all through it so every year they decorate boats and put on a Christmas parade. We really lucked out this year because instead of having to search for a spot and watch it with hundreds of people we had front row seats, lots of food, friends, and plenty of space. My friend, Melanie is renting a house right on the canal so she invited Mark and me to watch it from her backyard. She and her husband got invited to two different parties (which meant we did too) that had tons of food. One was the owner's that she is renting from and the other was the Mayor of Fort Lauderdale's party, who lives next door to her. It was so much fun! We ate cookies, food, drank hot chocolate and egg nog and hung out.

A Favorite Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving turned out to be one of our favorites. It was so nice to spend time with Mark and just hang out all day. We had planned on having Thanksgiving with a group of friends but things changed when the hosting family got sick and canceled the night before. So we decided to go to the beach in the morning and then come back and have our own dinner. We were so excited!
We spent about 4 hours at a beach called Red Reef Park that had great snorkeling. It was the most perfect day with water about 78 degrees. Mark mostly did the snorkeling while I laid in the sun. I was afraid of getting stung by the many jellyfish.
We saw tons of these little ones washed up on the shore.





Here is a picture of our Thanksgiving dinner. We chose to do a little chicken since there was no way of eating a whole turkey with just Mark and I. We were so proud of ourselves, we made the whole thing including a banana cream pie in only 2 hours.


I had to post this next picture since I thought it was hilarious. I got up to get something that we forgot in the kitchen and the view I had of Mark when I was coming back in was so funny. We had this huge table of food with only Mark sitting at it wearing a napkin tucked into his shirt. I should never underestimate how much Mark can eat. Besides one square, he ate the whole pan of Jello just so we wouldn't have to put it away in our fridge. That's what I call taking it for the team! After the dinner we finished the night watching Christmas movies. It was so much fun!!

Kids, you've got to love 'em

One of the perks about being a violin teacher is that you get little random gifts from your students. I love seeing the excitement in their little faces when they give them to me. Sometimes I have no idea what the gifts are but I still think they are so cute!

These are two things I got a couple of weeks ago. One student brought me a miniature pineapple from a plant in her garden. I told her I was going to take it home for my husband to see and the whole week after she kept asking if I had brought it home yet. It was pretty cute. The other is the red feather my 5 year old student made for me. She is a little Korean girl who doesn't know much English but laughs at everything I say even if I am not trying to be funny. For example, one of the pieces I taught her started with the note c and was played 3x in row. She thought it was the funniest thing. Since then she always goes back to that song during the lesson and points to the notes saying "C,C,C" and then laughs really hard. She is my favorite because she is always so happy and funny.
This past Wednesday she brought me another present. This time it was a note folded up into a distorted square with a picture of me and her with a little message she had written. It was the cutest thing!



On the back she told me this picture was of me. Isn't there a striking resemblance?