HarshSilk

30 April 2009

Arizona in Spring, 2009

We were fortunate enough to have had many, many visitors this Spring
-Matt's parents, Mary and Roy
-our friends Andy & Jenny (also visited the Grand Cayon)
-Matt's brother, Mike, and his wife, Jeannine (no pics but great mountain biking)
-My mom, Kristine
-a lunch visit from our friends Dave and Clover and their baby
-my Uncle Don for dinner visits
-Matt's 2 best friends Nick and Dave

Southwest visits:
-visits with my Aunt Maggie and Uncle Ted at their place in New Mexico
- my brother Christian and his wife Natasha in Las Vegas

How awesome! It's the greatest thing about being back in the states--makes living in Phoenix more tolerable:) We'll let the pics tell the stories.

29 April 2009

Celebrating in London, January 2009

A trip to London has been on our calendar since we had decided to leave the UK. We used our frequent flyer miles to get tickets to London for our friends' wedding, Sam & Kristin. Not only was this trip a celebration of their marriage but it was also a celebration of reuniting--with friends and with the UK!! This was just the greatest trip! There were 6 of us--me, Matt, Claire, Matt Risdale, Judi and Linda, all packed into Linda's studio flat in Nottinghill. It sounds like a potential nightmare but it was SO much fun! And there were all of our other great friends from Edinburgh--so good to see old faces!! On the first night we all met up in a pub and then the second day Matt and I spent time walking around London with our friend Heather who came over from Bristol. Saturday was the ladies lunch at a very swanky restaurant in Islington and then Saturday was a great mingling night in a traditional British pub. There was a fun pub quiz and drinks to be had. And the Sunday wedding was lovely and the dancing included Hava Nagila, ceilidh and disco/booty shakin'. It was so hard to leave the UK. But harder to leave all of our good friends. I think the time and distance between the our last time together and the wedding made us realize how much we all get along and love each other---and now miss each other. We feel so lucky to know such wonderful people--even if they are miles away.

New Mexico, Thanksgiving 2008

My brothers and their wives came down to Phoenix for Thanksgiving this past year. We all piled into a mini-van, with Syd, and headed over to Mule Creek, New Mexico where my Uncle Ted and Aunt Maggie have built a beautiful home. We had a wonderful time relaxing and enjoying the countryside. Of course there was loads of Thanksgiving food! And there was a lot of work on Ted's wood burning hot tub which we later tried out:)

Our puppy, Syd

We moved to Phoenix at the very end of September and just a few weeks later we brought a puppy home. We decided we'd name him Sydney in honor of the cool Australian city--we call him Syd for short. And our 90 year old neighbor thinks it's 'very dignified'. He's a dood, that is a goldendoodle. His mom was a golden retriever and his dad was a white poodle. Syd is such a great dog that we often forget he's a puppy. He's grown over 40 pounds in the last six months and we have no idea how big he'll get. We're hoping he won't be pony size, but we'll love him just the same. Please, meet Syd.

28 April 2009

Australia!! Sept 2008 (Engagement:))

Australia!! Sept 2008

After our time in New Zealand we headed to Australia. We wanted to go to New Zealand and Australia from all of the great travel stories we heard from friends and family. And we really wanted to visit our friend Liz. She was in my Public Health Masters program. We flew into Brisbane where Liz lives and spent over a week with her. She was one of the absolute greatest hosts! We saw and pet kangaroos and even held koalas! We went to see a cool Picasso exhibit, we saw an American singer from CA (Brent Dennon), we ate so much good food! We also headed to Byron Bay for a few nights of camping and the best was the surfing lessons! There were 2 instructors and 4 of us! The boards were beginner boards but we all got up and Matt reallyy had a knack for it! SOOO much fun! We also saw whales of the coast near the easterly most point of Australia...it was amazing!! We hated saying good bye to Liz:(
We then headed up to the North of Australia to Cairns where the Great Barrier Reef is. We stayed north of Cairns in a small, quiet beach town called Yorkey's Knob. We saw dolphins swimming and playing in a bay at our beach--so amazing! And this is where Matt and I got engaged! Years ago we went snorkeling in the South China Sea and it was one of favorite times together. Basically it's like exploring a new world! So we got engaged while snorkeling on the Reef! Of course, my motion sickness dotted the occasion which potentially made it more memorable:)
We then headed down to Sydney for the last few days of our trip and this is where we went ring shopping! We bought the engagement ring in an Old Victorian Arcade mall at an Antique jewelry shop. It was perfect!
We loved Sydney with its cool neighborhoods, beaches and surfing right in the city, urban downtown, great Asian food---we wished it was in North America. Instead in tribute to this great city, we named our dog after it.
All in all our trip to this part of the world was so fabulous--we can't wait to go again:)

New Zealand!! Aug 2008

Before officially coming back the US, we wanted to go on a long trip before we came back to the few days of vacation in the US:) Matt had a wild trip since he traveled to the Netherlands for a conference before we headed down under. He flew back through the US and we met in the San Francisco airport. We were overjoyed when we heard that the flight to Auckland was only a 12 hour flight--we thought it'd be 19 or more! The flight from Seattle to Edinburgh is about 10 hours so this was nearly the same:) We spent all of our time on the south island. The first day we felt as though we just flew to Scotland because we arrived on a rainy, cloudy day and drove around the part of the island with rolling hills and sheep. The next day we awoke to huge mountains, which certainly do not exist in Scotland. Overall the south island of New Zealand is a gorgeous and rural. You are either mesmerized by ocean or mountains. We stopped in Queensland near the Remarkable Mountains and did a luge ride down the mountain (courtesy of my brother Christian). We then headed down to Milford Sound which was a wild trip since there is one road in and you end up driving into a mountain tunnel that looks like a mouse hole when you approach it. The hills and mountains look very tropical but are covered with snow--it's amazing! We spent our time driving around and checking it all out and we just loved it. Our favorite was a little ski town called Wanaka, they had great beer and wild pizza (venison and crainberry sauce) and amazing hiking. New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places on earth and we hope to go back again.

22 April 2009

Christian & Natasha's wedding, August 2008

Christian and Natasha celebrated their wedding at in August 2008. They had a small celebration of about 50 people in the mountains near Seattle. We spent 2 nights in cabins with no electricity or heat. It sounds more rustic than it felt since there was a wood burning hot tub and sauna! They had a sweet celebration on a sunny day and we celebrated into the night. It was a very memorable weekend!