Day Trip to the Mountains

Our poor abandoned blog...I have neglected you for so long!

I suppose it took a while for anything to seem blog-worthy after the Bed Bath & Beyond tornado tried to destroy my Jeep. Nevertheless, we return in full force with a renewed energy and a fun post full of photos!

So, after a crazy summer filled with too much work and not enough fun or relaxation we decided to take a Sunday day-trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park. Even though we really wanted to get out and do something different we were a little hesitant to give up our Sunday, but it turned out to be one of the best Sundays we've had! The drive wasn't too long (just about 2 hours) and we just fell in love with Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park. (It was a free weekend too, so thanks for saving us $20 Secretary Salazar!) We only made it to 2 of must-see sites as directed by our co-workers, so we know we have so much more to go back and see/do. Next time we're looking forward to making up to the top of the mountain at the Alpine Visitors Center, hopefully over to Grand Lake, and I especially want to go horseback riding on the mountain trails. Its great that we have such a national treasure within a couple of hours of us, but I hope we get a chance to spend a couple of days up there soon so we don't have to worry about getting home early and going to work the next morning. Here are the highlights:  Due to the very annoying music that I selected when creating this slideshow and the fact that I don't know how to remove the sound, the slideshow has been removed. Lesson learned! If you'd like to see photos of our trip, just let me know. 

I should mention that I made homemade picnic food on Saturday for our trip (yes, I cooked it all myself!): over-fried chicken, corn bread muffins, pasta salad, and german chocolate cake (served double duty at Greg's birthday cake). It all turned out pretty well. The chicken could use a little tweaking next time, but Greg really loved the pasta salad!

Anyway, It is so beautiful up there, the trip was wonderful! Plus the nice clean crisp air is very refreshing. On the way home we saw so many cute cabins along the river, we can't wait to get the whole family down here for an adventure!

Tornado in Colorado!!

I have fabulous bathroom photos I need to post, but I haven't quite gotten around to it. This however, can't wait...

Check out this news story... http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/19683459/detail.html. The "mall" was Southlands mall, about 4 miles from our house. We were there. We had lunch, then stopped by a few stores. It started pouring down rain while we were in Wal-mart, but had actually let up a bit when we left. Then we stopped by Bed, Bath & Beyond in search of a soap holder for the new shower (more about that soon!)....We weren't in the store for 5 minutes when the tornado sirens went off and they started making announcements for us to go into the "shelters" aka bathrooms & storage closet. Of course we kept looking around as we slowly made our way up towards the front.

Fifteen minutes later the back window was shattered out of my Jeep, a huge piece of metal from the roof scratched the side & hail pounded down relentlessly. As soon as they would let us out of the back room we decided to brave it and head home. Thank goodness! Shortly afterwards the Police & Fire departments had the whole area blocked off (we passed them on our way out of there!). Based on the news, we're convinced even more damage happened after we left. The place was just a disaster. The shopping cart corrals were thrown all over the place. Some cars had literally been moved or even flipped over. Metal roofing was wrapped around light poles like paper ( I thought it was at first!). The ride home was super loud with all the hail, but we were so glad to get out of there and finally get home. Luckily the hail at home had not been nearly as severe and the tornado never made it that far.

Although my precious Jeep baby did get slammed in that parking lot, we know the damage could have been sooooo much worse! This is what we have to deal with:

May Bathroom Update

Its been over a month since the last update on our bathroom....I was waiting for the "Its finished, look how great it is!" post, but...still not done! Ugh. We do have progress though. Its so close.

Yep, we've got a ways to go!


Paige & Dakota inspect for quality control.


Those are starting to look like walls...


A floor, yey!


We're assured it will be all finished "this week." Why does that sound so familiar??? Probably because that's what he said last week too!

Spring Snow!

What had been about 24 hours worth of rain has turned to a full out snow storm in about the last 4 hours....with no end in sight! Oh well, we're just hoping it helps the grass turn nice and green.




Bathroom Update:


As is expected with contractors, we haven't seen him quite as much as we would like this week. Shocking right? We do have a little progress to report: the old shower head and faucet have been capped off and the walls of the closet are basically built. The new shower walls are barely beginning to make their appearance, but we should see a shower floor in the next couple of days. We've also decided to take on some painting projects ourselves, starting with the bathroom! The painting is planned to begin Sunday, so that should prove to have a few fun stories for posting!

Bathroom Remodel Project

Bathroom Remodel: Day 1, Demo Day

Our bathroom remodel has officially begun! Today was the first day and it was quite productive. (Just to clarify for those of you who only really know one of us or in case you thought we had some hidden construction talent we'd been hiding all these years, no we are not doing the work ourselves, none of it.) Nevertheless, its still a home improvement project and the most exciting thing going on in our world for the moment.

As a reminder, here are the obligatory "before" photos:





Basically it was a small 3x3 stall shower stuck behind the bathroom door and a plain garden tub which has never even been turned on in the 11 months that I've lived here (and really what matters before then?!).

So, the progress achieved in one day of demo:


Guess there's no turning back now!


How sad is that poor faucet? You can see where the bathtub obviously was, and also the shower drain.

That's what's going on at the Jones'. Wish us luck! I'll post updated photos as this project continues....

Friday Night....

Its Friday. Just like the end of every other work week I have great intentions for the weekend. This is going to be the weekend I organize the office, clean out my closet, get in a vigorous workout, finish that scrapbook I started...when was that???? Yeah, THAT is going happen! This is more like it...

www.annetaintor.com 

Have a great weekend!

Celebrity Gossip

This is a little random compared to the usual what have we been up to posts but I love the crazy things celebrities do. And when I say celebrities, I of course mean real celebrities, not these fly-by-night teeny boppers that make me feel like an old timer.

So, congrats to Bruce Willis who married his lovely girlfriend Emma over the weekend. God knows he deserves a pretty little thing for himself after having to endure Ashton Kutcher for all these years. Nevertheless, take a look at the newlyweds below.



Now, is it me, or does she look exactly like a sweeter-younger-girlier-Demi Moore? Seriously, this chick could be Mini-Me-Demi. Not that Demi doesn't look fabulous, but she's obviously the more masculine of the Moore-Kutcher duo.



Updates on the bathroom renovation soon. We're hoping to begin demolition in a couple of weeks! Can't wait for the new "party shower" as the contractor calls it!

New Toy!

I'm excited to announce that we have a new addition to the Jones' house....our new iMac! While I used to post from work (shhh!), now I have internet & a new computer to use at home. Its really quite exciting! It wasn't easy getting all connected and we still have an issue with the satellite, but at least we are up and running and in touch with the online world. Now all I have to to is learn how to use this thing. Its been really easy so far, but I know it can do so many cool things, I can't wait to figure them all out!

Thanks to my fabulous husband for this awesome surprise! Love you honey!!!

Weekend Update

What a weekend! I spent most of the day Saturday cleaning up the house, doing laundry, all the usuals that pile up during the work week. Of course, I was also supposed to be waiting for Comcast to show up, but I assure you, you don't want to hear about how that turned out! Like I was saying, most of Saturday was cleaning and chores around the house. The kitties, as always, were so helpful...

For some unknown reason, they get very excited when I change the sheets on the bed (which is every Saturday, mind you). Out of no where they get a crazy burst of energy and run all over the bed, hide in the sheets, and dig on the mattress pad. Then of course, when the sheets are fresh out of the dryer, they refuse to get off the bed for me to make it up.





Once "their" bed was all made up they spent the rest of the day (literally 5+ hours) sleeping on it. We might as well call it their bed, they sleep there all night and apparently most of the day!





And several hours later...



Silly kitties, they were so tired!!

Sunday was much more exciting, we met with a contractor to see about remodeling our bathroom.





As you can see (its impossible to get a good angle!), we have a small shower in the corner (behind the door) and a huge tub we never use. So, we want to take both of them out and make a big, nice shower, with a linen closet for extra storage. Doesn't that sound nice!?! Hopefully the estimates are reasonable and soon these will be the "before" photos!

Soaking up the Sun

Lounging on Waikiki Beach, Enjoying the Sunshine





The view from our spot in the sand....



The beach was great, but we also loved the hotel pools. The one closest to our room was a little more secluded so there was less wind, fewer kids, free lounge chairs, and cool drinks!



Yes, I was really hot in this photo, about to melt actually! I didn't last much longer out there, I swear my skin is like a thermal blanket... In fact, maybe it is and thats why I'm so hot all the time! I'll have to look into that.

The Luau at Paradise Cove

Many of you may have already heard about our "interesting" experience at the luau. In case you haven't (or you've only heard Greg's version of the story), here it is...

We had originally wanted to do the luau offered by the hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel was changing the location of the luau or something to that effect, so it was not being offered while we were there. As you will remember, the dinner cruise was already booked for Valentine's Day, so we were scheduling the luau in its place (we did the dinner cruise on the 13th). It should have been our first clue that the luau was not what we were expecting since it wasn't sold out for that night.

To make a very long story short, we went to get on the bus for the luau at about 3:45 in the afternoon. After spending the evening waiting in line for drinks, getting rocks in our sandals, and having a very generic buffet dinner with 1,800 strangers (no whole roasted pig in sight), we finally got back to the hotel at 11 pm.

So, live and learn. Here are the photos...

Honolulu Gazette

This is one of the several "professional" photos the tourists destinations take at the beginning of each adventure and then sell to you at the end for $10-$20. Nevertheless, we thought this one was really cool (and the proceeds go to support the memorial). These are supposed to be some of the real headlines from the papers in 1941. It has a back side also with war photos and even a Spam add, for some reason I had trouble scanning that side.



Believe it or not, there are still more photos to post (even of just the good ones, not ALL of the photos we took), so keep checking back, I'm hoping to get them up soon!

Sunset Dinner Cruise

In the evening following our waterfall hike we went on a sunset dinner cruise, which turned out to be great! We were all a little unsure about eating and walking around on a moving boat (and the water was quite choppy!) but we quickly got used to it and had a great time. Bonus, we even got to see a whale! The photo was really dark because it was right at dusk, but Greg worked some magic and lightened it up enough so you can see the flipper splashing. We were so lucky we happened to be standing right there when it appeared.

Still more photos to post tomorrow!

Manoa Falls Waterfall Hike

The first real excursion we did in Hawaii (other than explore our hotel & Waikiki) was to go on a hike to the Manoa Falls - it was amazing! This was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. Although the hike was muddy and little more tricky than I had imagined, it was so beautiful and it felt great to be out walking in the middle of a rainforest!

Doesn't it look amazing?! The photos don't even do it justice. By the way, a countless number of movies and tv shows have filmed in this very place!

Luau

Ok, so our original plan was to do a sunset dinner cruise on Valentine's Day and do the hotel's luau another day. Well, the dinner cruises were all booked for Valentine's evening, and the hotel's luau was temporarily not available either. So, that left us doing the Paradise Cove luau for Valentine's Day, sounded good enough. For reason we both had in mind this intimate luau setting on the beach (thanks to every tv sitcom that has ever done a Hawaii episode), but thats not exactly what was in store. After a delay with the buses and the herding of all the people to travel to a different area of the island, we finally arrived at Paradise Cove with 1,800 of our closest friends. Literally, there were 1,800 people at this thing! There was a lot of waiting around with little games and shows which we weren't really into, but we did get some good photos and the after dinner (no, there was no whole roasted pig in sight) the show was actually pretty entertaining. Overall it was a really long evening that wasn't exactly as we had hoped, but nonethelss now we can officially cross "luau" off of our Hawaiian to-do list.

Even though the luau wasn't exactly what we had expected, we still a wonderful first Valentine's Day together!

Hilton Hawaiian Village

We absolutely loved staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (thanks mom!). The place literally has everything. Let's see, Louis Vuitton, Coach, ABC Store, Benihana, Tori Richard, Na Hoku Jewelry, just to name a few of the retail establishments on site, not to mention the pools, restaurants, flamingos, penguins, activities, and of course, the beach!

Pearl Harbor

We loved our tour of Pearl Harbor. Thanks to our bus driver Julius for the recommendation of submarine tour, it was great. Wow, it sure is small down there! We are convinced they must have chosen the crews based on height, Greg could barely fit down there. Enjoy the slideshow!