Our 2nd Anniversary

Today is a big day!  It marks two years of marriage for Scott and I.  It also marks our induction into the world of HOMEOWNERS to this house:

After a whirlwind 48 hours we never could have foreseen, the offer was accepted this morning for us to buy this house - three doors down from where we live now.  We never dreamed this moment would come so quickly or abruptly, but we are riding the waves of enthusiasm, shock, awe, and God's hand in it all.  We are taking on a huge project as this place needs to be completely renovated, but we will now have the funds to do it (pending the construction loan going through) as we have been blessed to get this house at much less than we thought possible.  We are wandering around our current house not quite sure what to do with ourselves, but so happy!

We are in San Pedro, on Lake Atitlan and this is the view from our balcony this morning.  

We spent two nights in Santa Cruz and then came here by boat yesterday morning.  We love this city.  It is quiet, and everyone is friendly, and we have discovered a pool (the water in the lake is preeeeetty cold (Approx 72F) making it a little uncomfortable to swim in - although the kids around here could care less).  There are plenty of little bakeries and shops and restaurants and everything is cheap, which seems to make all things more fun.  We are enjoying our usual traveling activities which include, but are not limited to, lots of reading, buying fresh fruit and avacados and treats off of as many little street vendors as possible, laying around and talking for hours, people watching, applying and reapplying sunscreen of the lowest SPF we think we can stand so we will still tan through it, living in our swim suits, sipping smoothies, and pestering each other.  Only two days left of complete relaxation and then we have to head home.

Finally made a decision...

and the country isssss.....Guatemala!!!

We arrived in Guatemala City after dark last night and got a shuttle to Antigua.  We had no guidebook for this country (although we had one for three other countries we had thought of as possibilities), but found a great little hostel (Hostel Cinco), got some dinner, and passed out in our bunk beds.  Today at breakfast we met a woman who is leaving and bought her Lonely Planet book right off of her and are so happy to have it to scour over for wonderful little places to explore.

First on the list seems to be Lake Atitlan, which is in the middle of a mountain that was once volcanic.  It is supposed to be stunning and we are excited!  For now though, this is the view just outside our door, off the roof of our hostel.

The mountain to the right still erupts "about every other day", but apparently we missed it as it happened two days ago.  

Adventure

Today we are acting as indecisively and freely as we can.  We are leaving the country and still literally have NO idea where we are going.  We met our friends Ben and Abby in Dallas last night, spent the night here, and today we are basically frolicking off to the airport and randomly picking a country to disappear to for the next 5 days.  The only requirements are sun, a beach, and a chill atmosphere.  It's going to be epic.

A week late....

Congratulations to Beau and Rachel Admire!  

They had a fabulous wedding at Latrobe's - a gorgeous, historic building in the French Quarter.  Every one of the second year residents Scott works with were granted the weekend off and we all had a blast!   Rachel was stunning, and everyone else cleaned up to look pretty smokin' hot as well.

Almost all the residents in Scott's class

All the ladies - doctors, wifeys, and girlfriends

Hope you two are having a great honeymoon!  And are blessed with a wonderful marriage!

P.S.  Here's the lovely Croquembouche, which is how Scott's messy shirt came about, after it was disassembled and drizzled with chocolately goodness.  Sweet heaven, it was sooo good though!  I'm needing some just thinking about it again!

I think we had a good time?

Today I have discovered little tiny drips of chocolate sauce scattered and smudged here and there, all over the shirt my husband wore to the wedding we went to on Saturday night.  Part of this, I believe, is due to the fact that my husband is clumsy, excitable eater and will drip on his shirts without fail, unless wearing a bib (I am often tempted to carry an adult size one in my purse, but resist and instead turn to my best friend Oxyclean).  The smudges on his back must be from others - and by others, I mean there is only a small chance they could be from me.  I have decided this means the Croquembouche was just so entirely tastey we felt the need to bring a memory of it home with us.  Makes for a crappy Tuesday morning though, trying to get it all out.

Snow Days

We are back from another great get-away!  We were able to sneak away to New Mexico to see our good friends, the Youngs.  It's been almost six months since we last saw them and we were finally able to meet Hudson!  Who is the cutest, happiest, chubbiest little bear ever.  As you can see here:

They drove in from Texas and met us in Santa Fe at the airport before we all drove up to Taos.  We rented an amazing house off of VRBO and set up camp with a glorious view of the mountains out of all our windows.  The boys spent as much time snowboarding as they could, while we girls shopped and explored the village of Arroyo Seco and a few fun little places in Taos, with Hudson.

When we first arrived, we were surprised by the balmy 70 degree, sun shiney weather, but that quickly changed after about a day and we got 8-9inches of powder dumped on us - the boys were in heaven.

Jess and I got out and skiied for one day while the boys were on baby duty....

It was a MUCH better experience than the other time I tried skiing when I was 13 (which may or may not have involved numerous incidences of sliding backwards and sideways down all hills into the nearest solid object, several awkward displays of the splits, a fight with the orange snow fence that grabbed me and tangled my skis & poles up, and falling off the J-bar lift only to get knocked in the back of the head by the next J-bar that snuck up behind me).  This time I took an actual lesson and can now stay in the upright position and turn and stop when on a mountain and strapped into those long, skinny, slippery buggers!!  I only had one major incident that involved me "stopping" while Stuart, the instructor, was yelling at me from the base of the hill.  It all ended with me skiing right into a building and knocking the wind out of myself, along with a movable panel on the building, much to everyone's horror.  The bruise on my ribs is turning a lovely purple today, but I'm fine other than that.  

All in all the time flew and nobody was quite ready for vacation to be over Wednesday.  After 14hrs of travel (due mostly to delays from flights because of the biggest snowstorm America acts like it has ever seen) we finally rolled into our house around 2:30am and were happy to be in our own warm, comfy bed.  I'm now playing catch up with school and Scott's back to saving lives in the ER, but before I leave you, here are a few more pics.

The view from our bed - day one

View from our patio while the mountains were being covered in powder

Scott and Jessica in the snow

The boys in the Hot Tub - where we spent every single evening after dinner.

Lovin' on Hudson