Merry Christmas!

Bobby shoveled us out of our house in time to make our flight back home to MN, where we were walloped again with another snowstorm of historic proportions. We've visited Bobby's family in Perham, are now visiting my family in Mankato, and are planning to see friends later tonight before heading back to DC on Tuesday evening. Right now Mom is teaching me the art of lefse rolling so I may try to make some myself.

We'll post more later after we get home. Merry Christmas everybody!

-Laurie

Stir Crazy

We headed to the grocery store around 10pm on Friday night, expecting few shoppers at that time of night. The store was packed with people stocking up for the big snowstorm. You would think people were preparing for the Apocalypse!

Upon entering the store, we were lucky to find any food left to purchase. All of the primary staples were all snapped up. It was a good thing we didn't need any bottled water!

Fortunately our fridge was already well stocked with lunch meat!

If we had wanted to purchase Raman noodles, no dice!

But the aftermath of the snowstorm turned out to be no laughing matter - 2 feet of powder later, we were stuck for the entire day on Saturday. From our windows we obseved many strange behaviors of the locals who are not used to this amount of snow. We observed a couple taking their baby out for a walk in the middle of the storm, and they seemed surprised that their stroller didn't roll easily through the snow. We also observed other brave souls shoveling in the middle of the storm, with plastic bags wrapped over their shoes.

It is Sunday at noon and the plows still have not arrived. The Metro is closed so we really can't go anywhere! First Bobby tried shoveling us out and then our measly shovel, left here by previous owners, broke with the weight of the snow.

Faced with spending another entire potential Christmas shopping day stuck at home, Bobby has banded together with the neighbors to shovel us all out! They are shoveling as we speak, while I'm blogging and sipping my coffee :) Hopefully we will get out soon!

- Laurie

Snowed In? No Fear!

The hot news today is the big winter storm brewing for tonight and lasting through the weekend. I've heard anywhere from 12 to 24 inches??? This is supposed to be the most snow in DC in the past seven years, and one of the top five biggest storms in DC history. Since when did they start keeping track of history, anyway???


We'll report back later this weekend with our Minnesota take on East Coast snowstorms. First we'll be heading to the grocery store tonight to observe local residents stocking up on canned goods. Then we'll head out tomorrow (hopefully the stores will actually be open) to finish our Christmas shopping and see if the other drivers can handle it!

-Laurie

Pura Vida

Our 1 yr anniversary trip to Costa Rica was short and sweet, but in the spirit of the Costa Rican phrase "Pura Vida" we simply enjoyed life. It is easy to say that Costa Rica is the most naturally beautiful place we have visited, and it is considered the world's happiest nation.


The Hilton resort is on the Pacific Ocean side of Costa Rica, sprawled out across several acres of oceanfront land shielded within a black sand bay. We were excited to find our room ideally situated at the highest point of the resort, meaning we had breathtaking views but had to make many long hikes up to our room at the end of the day. But we were rewarded again by waking up to panoramic views of the ocean from our bed.

We saw lots of critters but luckily none in our room!

One of our excursions was a trip to a nearby fisherman's village called Playas del Coco for some shopping and cervezas. Our favorites were Imperial and Bavaria Light.

Our favorite meals were traditional Costa Rican Casados. Casado means 'married' so a person who eats Casados is said to eat well, like a married man, versus a single man who eats bread and rice. An example of a Casado we tried was a one plate meal consisting of bite sized chicken chunks mixed with rice, beans, vegetables, and served with tortillas and fried plantains.

Breakfast at this resort was also delicious because of the endless supply of fresh local fruit. Costa Rica is known especially for mango, papaya, pineapple and watermelon.

The most memorable part of our trip was our two hour jet-ski tour of the bay and ocean. We were expecting a leisurely tour at a slow pace around the bay. We knew it would be quite the opposite when our tour guide floored it away from the resort and didn't look back as he traveled at top speed across the bay. Luckily the water was very calm, but not for long! Next we headed towards open ocean to see the "Monkey Head" rock, named for obvious reasons.

Then our tour guide told us to get ready for some rough water, which was an understatement. He gunned it out into the open ocean and north towards Nicaragua. I hung on for dear life because the waves in the ocean were huge and we were getting major air. I didn't want to be that girl to fall off, so I resolved to hang on no matter what. Thank God Bobby has grown up with jetskis, even through the MN lake surf does not compare. After what seemed like hours, we finally made it to our resting place, a secluded beach only accessible by boat. Here we are grateful for our lives:

We checked out some nearby caves, and then our guide has us hike up this giant hill. My legs were already wobbly, I could not go on! But then we were rewarded with a fantastic view. I considered jumping instead of climbing back down until our guide told us this was a popular spot for octopus fishing. Scratch that!

We finished up with some swimming, we didn't want to leave!

This place was heaven! Sadly we had to leave and tackled the waves again on the way home, this time into the wind and the saltwater spraying into our faces.

We would love to visit Costa Rica again, since we have only scratched the surface of what there is to see. We hope that when we do make it back there, it has remained unspoiled by tourism as so many other destinations are becoming.

1 Year Later

On December 13 it will be our first wedding anniversary! I can't believe how many changes there have been in the past year. New babies, new homes & jobs & states & countries (for our family members down under)!

The most exciting was arrival of Max, our new nephew! If you haven't been following, you can read all about him here. It has been so fun following Keri through her whole pregnancy, the looong delivery process, and watching her instantly be such a great mom. Max sure is lucky!! He is just about four months old now and it is fun to follow along how quickly he grows and changes.

The other big change was our move. Looking back it is funny how quickly it happened. I remember our one and only house-hunting trip being a bit stressful knowing we had to make a decision that day, but we made it and never looked back!

Looking back at our wedding pictures, it seems like just yesterday that we got married. It is this time of year when everyone really gets into the holiday spirit, which ended up being one of the themes for our wedding day. Of course the snow/ice storm the following day helped too!

Here is a mini-photo montage of some of our favorite pictures:

Yes, there was snow on the ground, and yes, we went outside!!

I miss all of these girls terribly!

We loved our reception in the library:

Tammy did an amazing job with the decorations, although we got in trouble - apparently glitter wasn't allowed in this historical building?

Our Norwegian ice candles:

Well, enough reminiscing! I've got to go paint my toenails in preparation for our anniversary trip tomorrow to Costa Rica! We'll be thinking of everyone in MN enjoying the 10+ inches of snow they received!

-Laurie

The Beast

Today our walk to the White House was disrupted by the Presidential Motorcade. Obama was headed home after his visit to the Hill, with the purpose of encouraging Senate Democrats to finish his health care bill by Christmas. The entire road was blocked off by police at every intersection, and a group of 25-30 vehicles flew by us, including the 2009 Cadillac Presidential Limosine (car with US flag) which is referred to as "The Beast" by the Secret Service.

While most of the details of the $300k vehicle are confidential for security purposes, it is apparently equipped with 5-inch thick military grade armor and run flat tires. Bringing up the rear of the motorcade are vans carrying White House staff members & select members of the press, communications vehicles, ambulances, and additional law enforcement vehicles. I suppose DC residents are so accustomed to seeing Presidential Motorcades, but to us it was really exciting!

We headed to the White House to see the National Christmas tree on the front lawn. The tree has been a tradition since 1923 during the Coolidge Presidency.

In other news, we are so happy to report we finally found someone to take over our lease for our old apartment in St. Paul. While we can no longer brag about having a second home in MN, we are happy to no longer be responsible for two rent payments per month. Looks like Bobby can finally starting working on his man-cave in the basement!

Finally, look at this giant bug we saw on the walk to the Metro from our house - ick, a praying mantis!

- Laurie

Dining Room Redesign

As much as I (Laurie) wish this blog could be a home improvement/decor blog, I'll have to settle for posting occasionally about our decorating (mis)adventures. After all, we only want to show you the rooms that actually look put together, right?

After a few months of eating dinner sitting on the floor at our coffee table, we decided to do our rears a favor and get our dining room whipped into shape. Here is the clean slate bursting full of potential:

Drumroll.......

Inspired after a recent Napa Valley trip, here is our new dining room:

After seeing the room in a picture I can tell how glaringly black our wine rack is, which is a piece I had previously. Perhaps a future project will be to prime and stain it brown. Or just throw a sheet over it. Ugh - details!

To assemble this room we made the circuit multiple times between World Market, Ikea, and HomeGoods. I think the employees know us by name. The biggest purchase was the table/chairs/bench/buffet from World Market. After patiently waiting for the sale price combined with our 10% off coupon, triumphantly U-Hauling the gigantic heavy boxes out of the store and into our house, and spending several hours getting our assembly on, we found a 25% off all furniture coupon in our e-mail inbox. Drats!

My favorite piece is the buffet where all of our wedding china is finally safely tucked away instead of sitting on the floor in boxes. Sitting on top are all of the sad empty wine bottles from our trip. The winery art was a $30 steal from Homegoods as were those metal candle sconce-dealies for $12 a pop.

Here are a few place settings on display - I just love the creamy shimmery taupe banding and how great it looks with warm tones. The centerpiece is a momento from our wedding centerpieces, courtesy of Bobby's sister Tammy.

Now we can actually sit down together and eat a meal. It is even inspiring us to bust out some more of those wedding gifts and cook! Prime example: cheeseboard & matching cheese knives!


- Laurie