travelin' north

time with Joani and Mark in Albany, OR


Allison (Joani's little girl)


Ed and Becky Hultgren (my aunt and uncle)


Erick and Jennifer Hultgren (my cousins)


Bart and Amy Horton helped us finish packing and loading the Uhaul Monday afternoon

We're on our way back to Alaska and have enjoyed staying with friends and family along the way. Monday night we crashed at Becky and Ed's house in Walnut Creek, CA (my aunt and uncle). Tuesday, after a 12 hour day of driving we crashed at Mark and Joani Curtis' house for dinner a quick catch up on life and good night's sleep and now we are in WA with Ben's family for four days before we hit it hard through Cananda. Above are some highlights of our first great road trip adventure together. :) Thanks to everyone for your awesome hospitality! It's been great to visit along the way.

Branson, MO

Ladies day out shopping


Aimy, Brittany, Allison


Jennifer, me and Beth


Silver Dollar City Amusement Park. . . can you tell we're together??











Girls G3 lunch, we made 7 different kinds of panini a little time intensive but DELICIOUS!





Guys G2 lunch, BBQ on the grill

This past week was the 10th triennial Burdine family reunion. The "Burdine family" is my mom's side of the family. This year we met up in Branson, Missouri for the week. Reunions vary on location being that everybody lives across the country from Washington DC and North Carolina to Ohio, North and South Dakota, California and Alaska. My grandparents started the tradition the summer of 1980 when I was two in hopes that our family would commit to meeting once every three years and stay close despite the distance we've always had. Thirty years later and years after both grandparents have passed away we are still going strong with the Burdine family reunion tradition. It is something we all look forward to and enjoy.

wAteR tiMe!!

. . . and there were cannon ball, diving and belly flop competitions


Jim's Chou mien noodle pose


Aimy and Allison


Jennifer the toughest jet skier, she flipped off hers had a bloody nose and got back on the rest of the afternoon!


Ben and I

One "stipulation" to hosting reunion is to always have it near a body of water, an ocean, lake or river. This year in Branson we had it on a huge lake that was WARM. We soaked up every minute of water time we had! Two days we rented a pontoon boat to see sections of the lake and one afternoon we rented 3 jet skis to play around on. We had a BLAST!! It was super refreshing and relaxing!

Burdine Family

Ed, Becky, Erick, Beth and Jennifer Hultgren (Becky is the oldest Burdine sibling)


Jim, Lynda, David and Aimy Eller, Ben and Anita Mosier (Lynda is the 2nd Burdine sibling)


Jim, Lynn, Allison, Katherine and Frederick Burdine (Jim is the 3rd Burdine sibling)


John, Tammi, Alex and Brittany Burdine (John is the youngest of the four siblings)


Burdine G-2 (four siblings)


Burdine G-3ers (generation 3) grandkids

anniversary get away . . .

Last night I planned an early 1st anniversary get away for Ben and I since we will be on the Alaska Highway driving during our real anniversary (June 27th). It was SO fun, so relaxing and the perfect break in a crazy busy end of the year with work and moving. We went to Santa Barbara to a quaint B & B a little over an hour from our place in Castaic. Some ladies I asked from church recommended this place the Tiffany Country House Inn and it was wonderful!

The B & B we were in had 8 room inside and then a few cottages out in the back yard. The house was built in the late 1800s and had lots of character. It reminded me of a house from Anne of Green Gables (that's for all the ladies reading this that know exactly what I am talking about). To top off the character guess the title of the room we stayed in . . . "The Darcy Room" yes just like Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. It was one of two rooms that had a KING size bed, private patio, and huge jacuzzi tub all to ourselves!

We spent the night Friday night, toured around town a little and spent the afternoon today at the beach one last time before we leave So Cal. Sunshine, warm weather, and beaches have been some of the perks to being in California. This morning after an amazing breakfast we spent an hour or so out on our private patio in the sun journalling.

Mark and Merry Doner gave us journals last year as a wedding gift to use to document each year of marriage. Merry shared this with me years ago and I always loved the idea. Each year for 25+ years now they go away for a night or two right around their anniversary and journal to each other highlights, events, and prayers answered throughout that past year of marriage. After they finish journalling they read what they wrote to each other. And so Ben and I have started, what I hope to continue for decades to come, a tradition of getting away for our anniversary and remembering all we have learned, laughed about, loved, and grown through each year we are together. Thanks for the great idea Mark and Merry!

All in all it was a memorable and perfect weekend together reminiscing about our last year together. We've had a GREAT first year!

P.S. I added a picture of a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu sign b/c it is one of the actual training gyms that Gracie Barra coaches at. Weird I know but Gracie Barra is knows for dominating the sport (the whole family does) in MMA and all over the world. No I am not an MMA fan club member but I know a little about it.