DECLAN ISSAC OREAR is a stud!

YEAH!!!  I'm an aunt!!!

My sister in law gave birth to my 1st nephew, Declan Isaac Orear, this morning at 1:52 a.m.  He is 20 inches long and ... TAHLI, YOU ROCK!!! ... weighed 9 lbs 12 oz!!! 

Sean, Tahli and Declan are doing fine.  I'm wishing I was there, but I'll have 8 days to love on my new nephew in October ... and 3 months to start buying and making gifts to spoil him. :) Any donations to me will be accepted and appreciated to spoil my 1st nephew. :)

Moons, Banff, Glacier National Park

Now is the time for the release of information on Salmon Arm moons.  Sorry for the delay in blogging.

We had another beautiful day of driving on June 6th.  The views off of Canada Highway 1 is 

breathtaking and worth driving!  We broke the 10 hour drive from Vancouver - Banff by stopping in 

Salmon Arm.  Fletch and I stayed with a friend of m

ine from my DTS in Australia.  Besides GOD, Patti is a HUGE reason why Fletch and I are married. Patti and I were becoming 

tech savy when msn messenger started becoming popular in 2000-2001.  We used to chat online all of the time using msn.  

One day we decided to try out one of those online dating sites, so I googled a good christian site and came across ChristianCafe.com ... to Patti's surprise it was a Canadian site!  We decided to be true to our identities and signed up

 for a 7 day free trial.  I met a few guys, but was hooked on it so much that I paid for another month.  Then you know what happened. :)  If I was to say someone introduced me to my husband, I will always give credit to Patti. :)  Patti and I haven't seen each other since one of our friends' wedding in California June 2001 (right after I met Fletch online).  It was great to see each other and meet her husband and 3 month old baby!!!

  Tom & Heather stayed at the Travelodge. 

 After we all went to dinner, we dropped Tom and Heather back at the hotel which is where I saw a moon I didn't want to see!  Heather was walking up the steps when I thought I saw a guy in his boxers on the balcony she was going to walk on.  I did a double check and noticed this mysterious guy's door was open.  After Heather passed by 

a young man came out and mooned us!!!  I couldn't believe it!  Well, we got them back.  We told the front desk about them (we had the room number) and explained how concerned we were for Fletch's elderly parents. :-)  We don't know what

 happened to them after that, but I'm sure they were regretting it!!!

Banff was incredible!  We haven't had much luck in weather this entire trip, but we didn't let it get the best of us.  Our fireplace loft was very comfort

able and cozy.  We definintely recommend Charlton's Cedar Courts to stay.  It was on the main street and had beautiful trees all around.  Tom & Heather received a nice blessing while at the resort ... they were upgraded to a fireplace loft as well!  We enjoyed a few nights sitting back watching television, but I don't recommend these rooms for more than 3 people ... there weren't enough seats for everyone to sit on to watch t.v.

I have been waiting 6 years to take Fletch to Glacier National Park.  I am so glad we decided to

 go into the east side of the park (thanks, Mom!) because that was the only day of sun we had in Montana. :(  Again I was able to catch up with some friends, Brenda & Eric Hanson.  I met Brenda at Camp Miniwance in 1991 in Michigan!!!  I took a trip to see her in Montana June 2002 with my friend Misty (wish you were here, Misty!) and now this is the 3rd time I've seen her!!!  Brenda and I remained in contact throughout college via letters! Yes, the old fashioned way of long distance communication! :)  In the 6 years since I last saw her, her family doubled in size; and so did mine. :)  I doubled by marrying Fletch; she now has 2 beautiful girls!!!  We had a great time hanging out with them and enjoyed getting to know Emily and Brynn!  At this point of the vacation the rain is starting to get on all of our nerves, but we knew sun is forcasted for the rest of the trip.

Next update:  drive to Spokane, an extra night in Spokane, and a visit from the Hansons!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates!!! We've been a bit busy!!!  I'll write about my birthday before the pizza arrives. :)

My birthday was Thursday.  We woke up in Vancouver, British Columbia and ended up in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island.  I was the helmsman for the trip over to the island.  Okay, Dad just told me that was untrue.  I actually drove our vehicle onto the boat;

 Fletch drove it off of the boat. :)  We had a very relaxing afternoon sitting in our rooms until I checked Fletch's phone to see if friends called.  We knew some friends from Church were going to be on the island and sure enough, they left a message for us! :)  We had a lovely time at a restaurant on the resort they were staying at.  Thanks for spending my birthday with us Pastor Mike, Dina, Julian, Jasmine, Dave & Diane!!! :)

Next blog: beautiful Canadian scenery and a visit to see a former YWAMer friend (including a story about the moons in Salmon Arm)!

Oh, Canada!

June 4th: we started the first trek of our roadtrip today driving through the beautiful green tree lined Interstate 5 up into Vancouver.  I was able to take a stab behind the wheel as well hoping it would speed up our time at customs.  It didn't seem to make any differences because we had to sit around for about 20-30 minutes along with all of the other International visitors into Canada. Our hotel for the evening was a Days Inn hotel.  When Tom and I were booking in, the front desk lady told me I had double booked a room for Fletch and I!!!  Thankfully they dropped the charges even though it was after the cancellation time!!! I'll be writing up a good review for the hotel later on.  The gardens in this hotel were spectacular, but I forgot to take a picture. :( Oh well!!!  After checking in and getting ourselves acquainted with the area we took off in search of Capilano Bridge ... a bridge I thought I walked across for free with some friends in June 2002.  Well, after driving through rush hour traffic in downtown Vancouver with blinking green lights (what in the world does that mean?), we found this gorgeous bridge ... but it wasn't the same bridge I crossed 6 years ago!!! There is a $27.95 fee!!! Well, Fletch and I decided to pay the fee and boy are we glad we did!!!  I will put the slideshow pictures up in place of the Washington, DC photos soon so you can tell just how beautiful it was!!!  This park reminded me of why I studied Outdoor Recreation in school.  It was so great to get out of the crazy busyness of traveling and planning straight into such a beautiful God made park!!!  It was a little cold, so I bought my first souvenir on the trip ... a cute pom pom topped knit hat.  I also enjoyed a really nice bowl of minestrone soup while Fletch had frozen yogurt.  Wow ... we are so different.  Well, actually, I have to be honest: I ate some of his frozen yogurt as well.  Along with my soup and hot chocolate. :)  Mum and Dad took the car and spent most of the  2 1/2 hours at a nearby mall.  Dad, Fletch and I dropped Mum back at the hotel and went back into the city to see some sights.  We ended up eating dinner at Cloud 9 which is a revolving restaurant on top of a hotel.  It took our entire dinner for us to revolve 360 degrees!!!  Fletch put a small piece of paper on the window sill and waited to see it again after a full revolution.  It was hilarious!!!  We did check with the waitress to find out how long it takes to make a full revolution ... I can't remember how long it took, but it was definitely over 90 minutes!!!  

We made a change in our itinerary which is really really exciting, personally, for me!  Mum and Dad didn't want to spend another day in Vancouver, but rather broke our 10 hour trip to Banff into 2 days.  I found out that Salmon Arm is in between Vancouver and Banff exactly 5 hours and e-mailed an old friend, Patti.  I met Patti on my DTS in Australia January 2000.  We kept in contact after the DTS and she is the reason Fletch and I met ... in a way.  We were chatting one night and decided to put our profiles on a singles website to see what would happen.  I found a Canadian singles site, ChristianCafe.com, and we signed up for our free trial!!!  If it wasn't for chatting with Patti, who knows how the Lord would've had Fletch and I meet!!!  Patti didn't find her husband then, but was led to him and now has a new born baby! I haven't seen Patti since our friends' wedding (Luke & Angela Haythorpe) June 2001.  The Whipps will be staying in Salmon Arm and I'll get to hang out with a dear friend. :)  YEAH!!!

Next up:  My birthday on Vancouver Island

Wednesday in Seattle

We all had a great night of sleep after the afternoon and evening of traveling we had! Our breakfast was quick and continental and we were ready to head off into separate locations of the city for some fun!!!  Fletch and I walked (in the Seattle rain) about 15 blocks to get to the Experience Music Project (EMP).  Wow ... I highly recommend this museum to EVERYONE who has ever enjoyed a rock-n-roll song in their entire lifetime!  The first exhibit we saw was a huge scuplture towering about 50 feet high of 700 guitars!!! In the next room we were able to sit down and listen to musicians tell their stories of their influences, roots, touring stories plus many more! Across the hall was an entire exhibit of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia and sorts.  For lunch we enjoyed a nice and relaxing meal at the Revolution Bar & Grill in the museum.  Another exciting part of the museum was the sound studio, but since we have our own recording studio we didn't feel the need to stay in that part of the museum too long.  I did get to play a bass guitar while Fletch was playing an electric guitar ... until he kicked me out of his band. :(  I guess I need to take some lessons from him!!!

Admission to the EMP also included entrance into Science Fiction Museum (SFM).  There were a ton of items from every Science Fiction movie ever made ... and an interesting exhibit on robots!!!  The architecture of the museums were phenomenal!!!  As we were walking around the buildings we were caught gazing at it by a teenage girl who was interviewing people for a school project.  Yes, I said a school project! These poor kids (and teachers) still have 3 weeks of school left in their regular public school year!!! YIKES!  Anyway, it was nice to be asked the questions from her and we enjoyed being a part of her study. :)

Tom & Heather spent some time at a shopping mall called Westlake.  They also raved about having lunch on top of the Space Needle ... it was a revolving restaurant!!! The observatory on top was a little cool for them, but they felt they got their money's worth in the restaurant ... nice meal and heated. :) After their lunch they went back to the shopping mall before retiring for the evening in the hotel room.

When we all met back up in the hotel, we started watching television together.  Mum & Dad have missed having television because we choose not to have cable at our house to encourage conversation and relationships.  We all enjoyed watching insane Japanese extreme sports and Mum was getting caught up on the weather via the weather channel.  After about 90 minutes of television watching, the boys and I went out on the town.  We passed by Safeco field at least 10 times and were caught in traffic from the baseball game once as well!!!  After eating dinner at Denny's we called it a night and got some rest.

Next up:  drive to Vancouver; Capilano Bridge; dinner on Cloud 9 (hopefully I have free internet again tomorrow!!!)

Summer break has officially begun!

I love being a teacher for many reasons ... yes, one is I have the next 7 weeks off of school. :)  Tom & Fletch made it back to the U.S. okay with some minor glitches, but the Lord's grace was definitely upon them. :)  The four of us are all on vacation now and are looking forward to seeing some of GOD's beauty in the Pacific Northwest area into Canada, down through Glacier and back over to Seattle.  We arrived in Seattle last night after flying for the first time on Alaska Air.  It was a lovely trip, but we were delayed 40 minutes due to an electrical storm above Denver.  Once we arrive in Seattle, Fletch and I needed to race to the shuttles to be picked up by Enterprise before they closed (Tom & Heather stayed back to collect the baggage).  We were greeted by the Manager 10 minutes after closing time and were so relieved they were able to stay open for us, even though customer service told me earlier that morning that I would be out of luck if the plane was late!!!  Anyway, we were almost finished with our rental until they told us we couldn't drive into Alberta and Montana!!! They claimed they couldn't do anything about it, so we didn't rent there ... they took us back to the airport and lost out on a 12 day rental from us!  Luckily, I had another car reserved (no deposit needed) at Alamo and we were able to get out of the airport by 1:00 a.m.  We are still in awe with Mandy, our GPS, who got us to our hotel without hassle and we were all in our rooms asleep by 2:00 a.m.  

I will try to send out regular posts as often as I can!!!  Stay tuned for today's fun hopefully sometime tomorrow!