geoALOHA

Here's the third of "geocache in 5 new states or countries" (#16). I hate to rub it in again that I went to Hawaii, but, well, i did! And you know one of my top priorities was dropping off a couple travel bugs. :]

Here's Mr. Springy.
He got put in a cache on a trail off of Tantalus road.
The winding drive took us to an amazing view of the south side of Oahu.

This picture was taken after our first Hawaiian find at a bridge.

Also, it was fun to formally introduce caching to Kate and Adam (and Lana :)

aloha hawaii!

The past two years, Brian and I have wanted to go visit his friends in Honolulu. Free place to stay? In paradise? How could we not?! This year we finally made it happen. We needed to go to Phoenix to do some wedding planning, so we thought it would be perfect to go to Hawaii and then stop in AZ on the way back.

What an amazing place! I can't believe we waited so long to go!

Brian on a big 'ol lava rock

Taking it all in

Amazing scenery

Awesome food, too! Highlights were pork/pineapple tacos and mango shaved ice

Brian's friends, Kate and Adam. Excellent hosts!

Lana, their super cute puppy dog

Did I mention great scenery?

Happy Camper!

coaching hoop

Wow, it's been two months since I've last posted, that's bad! Chels reminded me yesterday that I need to get on the ball! I got into wedding planning mode and neglected the blog, sorry.

#22 was to get into some sort of regular volunteering. I kind of knew I wanted to try coaching, but I was scared of it at the same time. Well, the opportunity presented itself when I saw that my church, St. John's, was starting up some basketball leagues. I called the director to see if they needed any help, and it turns out that they did for the 11th and 12th grade girls' team! I would be co-coaching with a guy named Ray. Perfect! I could get my coaching feet wet, but have some pressure taken off by sharing the responsibility.

We started in mid-November and it's been fun! Only one practice a week on Wednesday and games on Saturday. It's really laid back, and pretty fundamental. These are the girls that didn't want to play on their high school teams, but still wanted some exercise. We focus on the basics and get really excited when they make a free throw, sooo you imagine my delight when at one of our games last month every single girl scored!!

This also was our first win, so it was kind of a big deal. :] I can definitely see myself doing more of this in the future.

my new cam cam

As you all know, one of my silly little hobbies is to make "movies." Recently, I'd been wanting to step up my game by bringing a better camera into the equation. At first I thought I wanted a strictly video camera, but after some research and especially after having used Lexi's swanky Mark II for "Rain is a Good Thing," I realized that the DSLRs with video are just as good quality, but with the benefit of obviously being able to shoot stills as well.

I had been eyeing the Nikon D700 for quite awhile, which is on my list as #59. Unfortunately, it doesn't have video, so I found the next best camera that does in the D7000. Costco had a bundle special, so I went for it. I've been quite pleased! I'm still working on figuring out how to best control focus especially on moving objects.  I practiced on my pups (which move like crazy), and the below is the result of that exercise. Still need a lot more practice, but it's fun!

a little bit of cheating?

So, two items on my list I didn't do, but they still got done. This past week when I was back home for Thanksmas, Mom fixed the button on my jeans (#31). I didn't help at all, not even give moral support because she did it while I was sleeping. What a gem.

Also, back when I was just getting into the list, Brian solved the mystery of the rattling noise in my trunk (#39). It was just a stinking baseball! Somehow it had gotten into the spare tire storage area, and any time I would break hard, for instance, it would make a noise like something important was loose. Such a good boyfraaaand.

Maybe I'll come up with two bonus goals to do, since I didn't really have a hand in these. Until then, thanks guys!!

JnJnWaldo

2 for 1 tonight folks, aren't you lucky! This one is a recurring goal, which is to keep in touch with/visit Joe and Jannell who are our dear friends (do only grandmas say 'dear'?)...who are our awesome friends that moved to Louisville. Brian, Storm, Turkey, and I went to see them over halloween weekend, and it was a blasty blast. We wore our Waldo costumes to a Mighty Kindness festival, did some serious geocaching, ate a burrito as big as your head, ran the dogs around the park, and devoured some otherworldly icecream and Cuban tapas. The trip, though fast, was simply delightful!

Where is Waldo?!?

Gosh, there he is!

Still don't totally know what this fest was all about, but it was undeniably mighty and kind.

Did you know that Jannell plays the fiddle? She's freaking awesome at it. 

Here's one of her solos with her band Keltricity (rad, right?) at the fest:

We even dressed up the dogs in Louisville.

I didn't get a picture there, but here they are in Jackson.

See, I wouldn't lie to you

and this one just plain cracks me up. :]

golf with dad

oh man, it's almost been a month since I've posted anything! sorry to all of my (three) loyal readers. :]  I have quite a few goals to catch up on that I've accomplished here recently, but first we go back to Arizona...

So, my dad has been taking a little early retirement. He seems to be loving it, and one of the biggest benefits is the time for golf. I knew he liked to play, but I didn't realize how much I guess...he's been playing nonstop!  It's very cool to see him so into it. I also have caught a bit of the golf bug here recently (heck, I was even on the winning team of Hunter's scramble this year, check me out. ;), sooo I thought it would be fun for he and I to play a round together. (#82)

And play we did! We went to Mountain Shadows mainly because it was practically the only course in the whole valley that was open. (Everyone and their mother was seeding the grass.) It's a super short course, but we still had fun. By "we" I mean Dad and I of course, but also Mom and Steve (Lexi's bf) came along. There was some good boys vs girls smack talk going on, but the boys def came out on top. Here are the pics!...

Stevie and Camelback

Get it Gurrrl. She got a golf ball stuck in a palm tree; that takes skill.

Ahhhh, to be in shorts right now! It's freaking 43 degrees here!

the winners

While taking this picture, Dad shouted, "It's a hole-in-one!"  I had to look; what a sucker. :]