Memorial Activities and Vacations
These are sort of divided into two categories: pre-kids and post-kids. Mainly it's a place for us to stroll down memory lane and share some moments captured on digital film with our friends and family.
Hawaii - Aloha & Mahalo
November 2004 we were lucky enough to be invited to and able to attend the wedding of dear friends of ours in Kailua-Kona, HI on the Big Island. The Big Island is considerably larger than all other Hawaiian islands and is still growing as two of the five volcanoes that formed the island, Mauna Loa and Kilauea, are still active. The most notable difference between the Big Island and other Hawaiian islands I've been to was the amount of lava rock. This was the first visit to Hawaii for Doug, second for me. Hawaii is truly the paradise it is depicted to be. Not only were the views, beaches and flora spectular but the people were unbelievably welcoming; Hawaii is a place that we will definitely visit in the future. We like to tell people that we took our son to Hawaii for his first birthday because he turned one on the return flight.
Wedding Bells
June 29, 2002, our wedding day. We wed at a church in a coastal town in Oregon. The weather in late June is still 
somewhat unpredictable which is why we opted for an indoor wedding and an indoor/outdoor reception. The eve of our wedding day, however, was pretty ominous and seemed a strong sign of how the weather would be the following day. The weather was a strong wind with heavy rains that seemed to appear out of nowhere. We were pretty dismayed by the sudden change in the weather and resigned to the fact that our wedding day would be dripping wet and unseasonably cold, something we weren't looking forward to as we intentionally chose the Oregon coast in summer so that our guests could enjoy the beauty of the Oregon coast. The morning of our wedding the sun shone brightly with no sign of the previous night's unrest. It seemed like the rains were meant to clean the earth so our guests could enjoy the beauty of the coast. After the ceremony, we hosted our reception at Salishan resort in Lincoln City, Oregon. After an intoxicating ceremony and reception, we honeymooned on Vancouver Island, B.C.
