Peanuts!

Sara and I introduced the Peanuts card game to the Engelmanns and Kytes over our Christmas trip back to Iowa.  The fast paced multi-player card game has long been a Doudt/Brooks staple whenever we get together, but I think the Engelmanns and Kytes could give the Doudts and Brooks a run for their money.  It got competitive and feisty real quick...watch out for Katie's huffing and Amy's quick hands!! 

With all the laughing (and a couple arguments) time flew by quickly.  I'm just surprised we didn't wake up the kids with all our noise.

Taking Flight

Sara hates to fly.  Since we dated long distance for over two years I thought her fear was not that bad because she flew at least once a month to see me.  But I was wrong and I didn't find out just how wrong I was until we started flying together.  She completely freaks out and actually sweats so bad it feels like she wet her pants.  She grabs on to me tightly and her whole body shakes.  Any noise that she deems "unusual" causes alarm and quick looks towards the attendants to see if they are reacting.  According to Sara, flying has always been uncomfortable but it's gotten much worse in the last few years as now she has more to lose...i.e. me.  Awwwwwwwwww. 

So we should just avoid flying, right?  Incorrect.  Sara loves to travel and experience new places and that is way more important to her than the fear of flying.  So in an effort to help ease her fears I've tried different tactics, like showing her a statistic that I got from my cousin Matt (who got it from the History channel...which doesn't lie): To statistically guarantee being involved in a fatal domestic airline crash you'd have to fly once a day for 21,000 years.   Every day for 21,000 years!!  Wow!  But, it didn't help. 

Sara, on the other hand, has her own ideas on how to get past the fear.  Jump out of a plane or go hang gliding (preferably in the Swiss Alps).  I don't see how this would be a good idea, but Sara believes if she can skydive then flying will be a piece of cake.  In my mind skydiving, or hang gliding, is a risk you don't have to take as opposed to flying or driving (driving being way more dangerous than flying) which you have to do if you want to get around.  Plus, I'm too fat to go skydiving or hang gliding with her (seriously, I'm above the weight limit).  So that sucks on a couple different levels. 

While Sara may still pursue skydiving or hang gliding, we have found an alternative in the meantime that we can both do.  We are going to each take an individual private flying lesson which includes 15-20 minutes of hands-on airtime...probably in one of those small Cessna-type single engine planes.  Our friend, Francisco, found a deal on one of the social coupon sites (like Groupon) and we signed up.  We will probably schedule the sessions for later in the spring when the weather's nicer but before our trip to Europe over Memorial Day weekend.  When the time comes we will be sure to post our thoughts and pictures.

Snowy

Outside our condo...

Picture by Sara

Honeymoon

The second big event in 2010 was our honeymoon.  We decided on an epic 12-day Mediterranean cruise.  We ended up visiting Italy, Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Croatia.  We had an amazing time.

Honeymoon

Here are some quick thoughts on our trip:

Italy

            Venice – What a gorgeous city.  Everyone says it’s so beautiful and interesting and they’re right.  We didn’t have much time there, pretty much an evening and a morning but we made the most of it.  The highlight was waking up and walking around the city as the sunrise was peaking over the Adriatic Sea.  So beautiful.  The sidewalks were empty and the shops were all just opening as the Venetians were headed to work or school.  We enjoyed some cappuccino and watched the city wake up. 

Egypt

            Cairo – The pyramids are amazing.  Truly a wonder of the world.  It’s very surprising how close they are to Giza and Cairo.   All the pictures of the pyramids seem to show them out in the middle of nowhere but that’s not the case at all.   And they are so huge.

            Alexandria – Interesting city.  It and Cairo are very similar to what I remember about India.  Very densely populated with a big divide between the rich and poor.  The traffic is crazy!  Our taxi driver got into the mother of all traffic jams.  We had people from off the street trying to direct the cars out of the jam.  Everyone was yelling in Arabic.  It was awesome!  We also got to hear the late afternoon call to prayer for the Muslims that rang through the streets (coming from the mosque nearby).  It was really cool.

Israel

            Jerusalem – The country of Israel is beautiful.  They have mountains, coast line, and fields.  Jerusalem is a very busy city with a ton of tourists, especially within the old city walls.  Also, the building materials all seemed to be white.  Within the city limits are peaks and valleys (Mt. Olive) which I didn’t expect for some reason.  We spent a day there but it felt too short.  The Western Wall or Wailing Wall was very emotional for us…the connection to the past.  Actually, Sara got a great picture of me praying at the Wall although I wasn't aware of it (men and women pray at the wall in separate locations). 

            Haifa – The San Francisco of the Middle East.  A gorgeous, hilly town on the coast.  On this day we also got to visit Nazareth, the Jordan river, and the Sea of Galilee (we were following the life of Jesus).  We didn’t realize how beautiful Israel is…just blown away.  We were also able to spend some time in Haifa enjoying some of the local flavor, wine, and taking some night-time pictures.  This was probably our favorite day of the trip.    

Greece

            Athens – A very congested city.  Since it’s caught between mountains and the sea it can get really hot and the smog is trapped, but it also makes it very picturesque.  The Acropolis is of course really amazing.  Due to some riots the days before we arrived it was closed the morning we arrived but ended up opening later…this meant that the crowds were thinned out considerably.  Sweet!

Croatia

            Split – Another amazing and surprising city.  It is very quaint and easily walkable with an interesting past.  Again we were able to get into town very early and watch the city wake up.  This time it was raining as we walked around providing beautiful rainbows.  We enjoyed some coffee at a local cafe and had a great time exploring the city…very romantic. 

The days at sea cruising from port to port were great too.  Relaxing by the pool, reading (I made it through three books and Sara made it through two), napping, and eating.  Now that is a vacation!  We also made some friends that we shared dinner with almost every evening - Liz and Ben are newlyweds from York, England, and Awie and Lynette are from South Africa.  We had a lot of fun getting to know them and planning our next trips to see each other. 

Our Dominican Wedding

To get everyone caught up on our 2010 we thought we should share some thoughts and pictures of our time in the Dominican Republic and our wedding.

Sara and I arrived in Cabrera, a small town on the Northern coast, on May 5th.  This was one day earlier than the rest of our families so we could enjoy some alone time and finalize the wedding plans.  It also afforded us time to drive around Rio San Juan and Cabrera with our photographers to get some great engagement pictures.

We spent the next couple days in paradise swimming, eating, and relaxing with our families building up to our big day on May 8th.  It was a very relaxing day for a wedding.  The weather was beautiful and warm with a slight breeze.  Our officiant, Victoria, delivered a wonderful ceremony that was over before we knew it.  After an amazing dinner we all danced to a meringue band with the villa staff leading the way (and teaching us).  It was so much fun and the perfect wedding for us.

Welcome To Our Blog

Should we blog?  It's not a very interesting question, but one that we were thinking about recently.  With email, Facebook, Twitter, texting, and calling is blogging really necessary?  Plus, do we have anything to say that's worth sharing?  All good questions - man, we are smart and introspective.  As not everyone is on Facebook and it's not the best place for expansive writing, a blog seems to actually be a good option to keep everyone updated with minimal amount of duplicated effort from us.  So the answer, as usual, is based in laziness.  Done and done.

So if you follow our blog we'll promise to post some pictures of our adventures from time to time and be very interesting people...although maybe not every week.  Also, for those of you on Facebook you may see some duplication, but we hope to be more detailed here.