Our Hawaii Babymoon

The doctor said we could only travel until the 28th week, so we packed our bags and headed to Hawaii for some R&R at the end of September. The timing was perfect, Christie had just finished her busy time at work with the successful completion of another year-end audit and Shaun was about to begin another quarter-end reporting time. You can see some pictures from our trip by clicking on the picture to the right.



We spent 3 wonderful nights at the Maui Westin Spa & Resort on Kaanapali Beach. We enjoyed laying out by the pools and going for dips in the pool and ocean to cool off. We did leave the resort a few times, venturing in to Lahaina for lunch at the Hard Rock and some shopping, a drive towards Hana to experience some waterfalls (which were mostly non-existent due to the drought), and dinner at Duke's.



From Maui, we flew to Oahu to experience a different island. We stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki which was right on the water and had a great view of Diamond Head. We rented a car for 1 day and drove all around the island. We checked out Pearl Harbor, the Dole Pineapple Plantation, the North Shore, the blow hole on the east coast, and of course, the Hard Rock Cafe. We got to see some cool sea turtles up close on the North Shore. Then we went snorkeling at Hanama Bay early the next morning and Christie got to swim with a sea turtle. It was so peaceful...we still haven't gotten the underwater camera pictures developed, but we're hoping there are some good pics of the turtle.



It was an absolutely amazing vacation. We have been so fortunate to be able to travel the world and experience so many different places. Hawaii is definitely a place we will go back to. We even talked about going back with our little one in the very near future. Only time will tell if we do, but Hawaii definitely seemed like a family-friendly place. We do realize that our travel will be reduced over the next few months especially once this little one arrives, but we are super excited about our new adventure.

Who said Baby?

We did! Yep, that's right...we are turning our family of 2 in to a family of 3 (well 4 if you count the Tiki Man)! Right before we left on our Europe trip, we found out that Christie was pregnant!! After only three months of trying (TMI, we know), the stars aligned and well...you can see the little peanut below at our 10 week ultrasound. When we got back from our vacation we scheduled a doctor appointment for the 8 week mark to get everything we already knew confirmed which meant we could share our exciting news with the family.

After the 10 week ultrasound we got to see the little one and hear it's heart beat for the very first time. WOW, that was truly an amazing moment for us first time parents. With that milestone behind us, it was soon time to share the news with the rest of the world! Many of you probably heard the news either via email from one of us or by looking on facebook.

Good news spreads fast and before we knew it, it was already time to have another ultrasound at 12 weeks. This picture is quite a bit more blurry compared with the first picture but you can certainly see how much the baby has grown in just 2 weeks.

We are so excited to be starting this new adventure and can't wait to share the new FAMILY adventures with you via this blog (if we can just stay on top of it). Thanks for your love and support!

Not again?

I have found that I am not a good blogger. I can't really promise that I will get better at updating this, but hopefully I will.


We do continue to have adventures. To celebrate our third anniversary, we had a wonderful vacation in Europe this past May. We flew to London where we spent 3 amazing days exploring the city. We then flew from London to Copenhagen where we spent 1 day before boarding our ship and cruising to Stockholm Sweden (actually dropped anchor off Nynashamn), Helsinki Finland, St. Petersburg Russia, Tallinn Estonia, Gdansk Poland, and Oslo Norway before heading back to Copenhagen. It was an amazing trip and we loved seeing all the different ports. You can see some of our pictures by clicking on the Europe 2010 slideshow to the right.

Where has the time gone?

I swear we've done stuff since our Italy trip in May...my goodness I'm bad at updating this blog. Sorry, if there is anyone who actually counts on getting updates this way. Well, better late than never I guess.

We obviously had a wonderful time in Italy. But since that last update, here is a list of some of the things that kept us busy and entertained:

• Trip to Napa for some wine tasting and hot air balloon adventures
• Two weddings - congrats to Karen & Omar and Chitra & Sunil
• Camping with friends at Dogwood
• Multiple Angel and Dodger games (you do remember how we spent the evening before our wedding....right?)
• Explored the San Diego Wild Animal Park with the Millers
• Saw a few concerts including Toby Keith, Trace Adkins, Brad Paisley, and Joe Perry (but not all at the same time - although that would have been a GREAT concert)
• Enjoyed the 2009 UCLA football season from the shady side of the Rose Bowl
• Saw Spamalot and Rent (we needed a little culture)
• Spent a long weekend in Yosemite and hiked to the top of Nevada Falls
• Welcomed two beautiful nieces in to the world
• Went on a wonderful cruise to Mexico over Thanksgiving week
• Saw UCLA basketball at the Wooden Classic held at the Honda Ponda
• Trekked around Disneyland and California Adventure
• Celebrated Christmas with both families, and
• Welcomed in 2010 with a yummy fondue dinner in the comfort of our own home

Whew...was that all?? I guess when you start looking over your calendar from the past 8 months, you sure can come up with a list of things you've done. We have obviously been enjoying life and seeing and doing all that we can. I'll try to get some pictures posted here soon, so you can see some of the sights we saw.

Hopefully in 2010 I will be better at updating this blog.

Ciao Bella! We loved Italy!

We recently celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary by spending 10 fabulous days in Italy! We had such an amazing time enjoying the sights, the food, and the gelato!

We started our trip in Rome and visited most of the "must-see" places there. We walked the city and saw Piazza del Popolo, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Colosseum, Forum and everything in between. We spent quite a bit of time in Vatican City checking out the museum, St. Peter's Basilica, and climbing the Dome.

Here we are at the Colosseum

The next stop was Florence. We took in most of the sites in town including the Ponte Vechio, Academia with The David, Uffizi, the Duomo where we climbed all 430 something stairs to the top, and all the magnificent piazzas and pizzas! While in Florence, we took a bike ride through the Chianti/Tuscan countryside and enjoyed some wine tasting at Castello Popiano and a lovely Italian lunch.

Sunset over the Arno (behind us is the Ponte Vecchio)

Our last stop was Venice. We decided this was a perfect last stop to our Italian adventure since it seemed to be a slower paced city. We enjoyed St. Mark's square, our Grand Canal cruise, visiting Murano, riding the vaporetto, the peaceful gondola ride, canal side dining, and just strolling down small streets and finding little canals everywhere.

Standing on the Rialto bridge overlooking the Grand Canal

We posted a ton more pictures on our picasa website. We have separate albums for our time in Rome, Florence, and Venice. We hope you enjoy!