g u y s

 

abel man is our favorite. we could hang with him all day. in fact, i often ask my sister to drop him off. just him. he loves casey and he loves to laugh. and both of those things make my heart very, very happy.

and bam. little wild man and i hit 29 weeks of growing. we got his car seat last night and casey could not stop laughing that the next time he carries it around, it will be occupied by a mini human. this is life.

kenny.

c e b u p o s t 2 ( a n d l a s t )

i am just going to cram the rest of our cebu trip into one post. if i tried to talk about it all, i could go on for days and i am starting to forget parts of it... which means it must be time to go back. 

the only bad part about going to cebu is that the trip is usually at least 24 hours one way. that means sitting and eating and sitting and sleeping and eating and sitting and walking around the airport posing for weird pictures and eating and more sitting. we typically stop somewhere in california (this time LA), then seoul korea for a few hours, and then finally cebu. on the way home we had to stop in manila this time which was odd, but another adventure. we always take books and casey can somehow play hours of tetris on the plane. i usually watch several movies and make several trips to the back of the plane to stretch my legs. it is really miserable and i hate the smell of traveling so i run to the shower when i get to the hotel. weird, ya i know. oh and the swollen feet.... i could not even get my shoes back on. sick.

true story: on our last trip casey, decided to watch the hangover in the middle of the night. everyone was asleep and there was casey laughing his ass off with his headphones on, literally waking up everyone on the plane. not funny.

 always the same options.. over and over and over

one of our favorite parts of going to cebu is the resort we stay at.  which used to be called imperial palace.. but unfortunately changed it's name to jpark or something boring like that. i did not get to relax much this year because we only went for a week and i worked every night, BUT i did sneak down to the ocean and pool a few times when i should have been sleeping. the resort we go to is amazing!! literally the nicest place i had ever stayed at. there are several pools with bars to eat and drink inside the pool. you don't even have to get out. perfect lazy, american style. ;) casey went scuba diving alone this time since i was working and they offer a ton of activities. in all honesty, it would be the perfect honeymoon destination and probably just as cheap as hawaii... choose CEBU!

the view from our room looked over the ocean and it's neat to watch the fisherman every morning. you wake up to roosters and head down to the buffet to stuff your face. the buffet has every type of breakfast from countries all over the world. sushi, rice, noodles, cereal, fruit, waffles.... you name it, but i gain 10 pounds eating the fresh mango. seriously, nothing better.

 

blue bell!! the texan in me had to take a picture.

and then there is my team- by far the greatest people on the planet! we have a lot of fun. it always involves shoving a van full of people and going to check out cool places. luckily, this year we didn't run over a goat and have to pay the owners so they didn't call the barangay captain... oh always an adventure.

we went to some historical sites, ate lunch, sang and danced our hearts out at redbox (karaoke rooms you can rent out), visited a mall (the malls are like 10 times bigger than anything we have here), and of course.. got a lot of work done. it is my pleasure to work with such awesome people!

barkada: group of friends

 nescafe: the only thing to keep me awake during the night shift and the tastiest thing on the planet

the APAC team, but we still love them ;)

 my team threw me a party my last day!

 

dave- the company driver and our really good friend. last time he drove us all over cebu. he is such an awesome guy!

and then more airport food (seoul, south korea)

s p i r a l j e t t y

near the beginning of summer, casey and i needed a break from grown-up-life. one morning, we dropped everything we were supposed to do that day and headed out on an adventure. neither of us had been to the spiral jetty (an art piece from the 70's made of rock, salt, and mud in the great salt lake)- so we decided to make that our destination. we slowly made our way north, blasting music and caring less how long it took us. we stopped to check for asparagus along the road in corinne and ordered the largest burger at golden spike burgers. we then headed out past the golden spike itself where we stopped along the road to take pictures of an owl waiting for us on a fence post (didn't turn out.. bummer). after a few hours in the car, we finally saw the sign "spiral jetty 1 mile" and turned around... the gas light was on!! i wanted to cry; it was over 20 miles back to the gas station. long story short >> our car died pulling into the gas station, we filled up gas, grabbed energy drinks, and an hour later- we were back to the sign.

the spiral jetty was breathtaking but not what i thought it would be. it was strange, but wonderful. out of place, but right where it should be. we had the place pretty much to ourselves, but we watched this older couple sun bath on the rocks above. it was rather hot and as we walked around contemplating what robert smithson must have been thinking- the salt burned my feet. we took turns carrying june so her paws wouldn't burn raw. we walked around the spiral and then headed out to touch the lake water (sometimes the jetty is under water).

while i washed june's feet off to get into the car, casey was trying to hide a rock in his pocket and secretly taking pictures of the man and the woman. we were convinced he was a geologist probably going to yell at us for trying to take a rock. as we were getting in the car to leave, they stopped us, but only to invite us over for coffee that they were brewing on a portable stove. this began one of the most fascinating conversations i have ever had.

she> a traveling nurse living out east, and him> a carpenter and radio host in california. they had traveled all over and we were just another stop along the way home from a three week long road-trip. we found common ground having both lived for a short time in alaska, loved to travel, and enjoyed the simple things in life. we sipped instant coffee out of mugs and pots, ate pretzels, and talked for almost an hour. although they had no set plans for their trip, they had some fascinating stories. like photographing the night sky in arches or stopping to drive a train in eli, nevada- just because he loved trains. or their story of hiking to delicate arch at midnight, getting lost because there was no moon, and deciding to sleep among the rocks on the trail instead of getting "more lost." we hardly asked the typical first-meet questions like how long have you been married or what do you do for a living. it was as if we were old-time friends meeting up and didn't even have to first get to know one-another. we came to understand and know them through their stories. it was neat to experience. they were staying at a motel in brigham city and this was the last "big thing" before heading home.

before parting ways, casey helped him get ready for sunset. he had built a 50 foot stand for his camera and needed to assemble it to catch the spiral jetty at sunset. they had carried it the entire road-trip to catch an hour of pictures on film. it was beautiful.

i will never forget those two. casey and i talked the entire way home how we dream of being full of stories as they were. it was just the experience i needed to put my soul back in place and my life headed in the right direction.

i almost didn't post several of these pictures, but there is just something about that place.

happy trails.