2 new loves

During our trip to Maui I came across two things that I now love dearly... Sanuks and Donovan Frankenreiter.

We spent almost every night at Donovan Frankenreiters bar right down the street from our hotel.  I'm not gonna lie... we spent almost every night there and I had never ever heard of Donovan Frankenreiter.  Come to learn he is good friends with Jack Johnson (my second husband) and he is a singer/songwriter/pro-surfer who lives in Hawaii.  Who would have known?!?!

The last day of the trip we headed to the Sanuk store in Old Lahaina Town.  A few of our friends, guys and girls, had purchased some when they were in Oahu before meeting us in Maui.  They were really cute, and looked super comfy.  One quick stop at the Sanuk store on our way to the airport and my life is forever changed.  Okay... that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but these are honestly the most comfortable shoes ever.  Maybe that is because the bottom is made of a yoga mat?!  Both Dustin and I bought a pair, and haven't taken them off since.  On the left is a link to they style that I purchased (and am wearing right at this moment).  Your feet will thank you... I promise!! 

Just to make it all a little sweeter, I learned that Donovan Frankenreiter is an official Sanuk spokesman.  Who would have known that two great things would join forces and become a shoe industry superhero  ;o)

the POINTS paid off!!

For years Dustin has been accumulating points while he travels for his job.... hotel points, airline points, rental car points.  Anything that has points associated with it - he has been earning it!!  It seems like we have been waiting forever to reap the benefits of his travel (selfishly I have been waiting for the day when I would benefit from it).  And just recently it seems like we are using them... ALL!!!

This last month has been crazy!!  First, I had the opportunity to join Dustin in Europe for a week.  I was able to fly for free on his United points.  That trip was incredible - far greater than anything we could have imagined.  I know... I know... I still need to blog about it, share some of our favorite stories and pictures.  Believe it or not though, I/we have been so busy since returning from Europe that I haven't even looked at the pictures.  That post will come soon though, I promise!!

Last weekend we traveled to San Diego with some of my family.  Dustin and I stayed in the gaslamp district of SD with my cousin Maile and her husband Jeremy.  The boys combined their Marriott points and we were able to have all of our hotel charges covered!!  The reason for our trip was because my cousin, Zak, proposed to his amazing girlfriend Krystal on the beach in Coronado.  Dustin was the paparazzi that caught the whole thing on our camera, and we were able to celebrate with them the rest of the weekend!!  I had a fun part in the proposal and was able to help Zak make some of his creative ideas come to reality.  It was a really special day.  Zak has always meant so much to me - more than I think he even knows!!  He has been like a brother in every sense that there is!!  He has made fun of me, punched me in the face (literally when I was about 5 and he was 3), stood up for me, included me and loved me!!  I would do anything to see him happy - and I am so happy that I could be a small part of this special day for the two of them.  He found an incredible girl who loves him so much and has the sweetest heart in the entire world.  They are such a fun couple to be around, and I seriously couldn't feel more blessed that she is joining our family!! Here are just a few pictures

In two weeks we leave for Maui with 15 friends!!  Again, we are using Dustin's United points so that both of us can fly for free (which is a good thing since we are broke), and we are staying with friends/family to reduce the hotel costs. We haven't even had time to think about what we are going to do once we are there.  But as long as I can sit on the beach and ride on a catamaran I will be happy!!

It has been an incredible, and extremely tiring, month of travel!!  I am pretty sure we are going to be living off of salads and omelettes for the rest of the year just to save money - but we know it will be worth it!!

Outside of travel we have both been very busy.  Dustin is taking two classes towards his Masters in Material Science Engineering at ASU while finishing up his classes in real estate.  Don't worry, he won't be quitting his day job - this is just something that he has always wanted to pursue.  I have been busy as wedding season starts to gear up again.  I have a few post-processing jobs that I am working on.  I am also teaching a Freshman Seminar class at ASU this semester every Wednesday.  My Bible Babes group is meeting again every Tuesday, and every other Wednesday evening Dustin and I go to a small group bible study for newly married couples.  Some days I'm not even sure how we fit it all in... but we do, and thankfully our relationship isn't suffering because of it.

Hopefully my next post won't be too far from now  :o)

How I almost didn't make it to Europe

Here is an email I sent to Dustin while in DC waiting to get to Europe...

To say that this morning was stressful is the biggest understatement I've made in years!! I only slept for a few hours last night. I was up the majority of the night worrying about the flight from DC to Geneva. Praying that God would give my heart peace and not be worried. I was frazzled this morning, my heart in constant prayer. But I got up and checked things off my list. Passport - check. Marriage license - check. Camera - check. All the chargers - check. I even made a list for Joni of all our credit important numbers and contact phone numbers, and I gave her all the info on my passport. We even made a copy for me to take and her to have. Get in the car, say a prayer together and head to the airport. We get there with lots of time to share. Joni said I should get my passport and license out. Passport... Passport... Passport! Where the heck is my passport. Minor panic, but its gotta be somewhere. Joni goes to look in the car and I start going through everything. NOTHING!! We change roles... I go to look in the car and Joni calls Robin to have him check the copy machine, the bedroom, the garage, the kitchen counter. NOTHING!! Major Panic!! I can't find it, Joni can't find it, Robin can't find it. The agent can't check me in without my passport and says they only have about 25 more minutes to check me in, in order to get my bags on the flight. Now I am starting to wonder if God doesn't want me to go - maybe its a sign. But how will I get a hold of you?!?! Almost tears, but I'm fighting them. Then.. Robin calls, he found it. He looked in the wrong copier. But now we are racing the clock, he has to get to the airport. Now I am crying. The agent is asking where he is coming from wondering if he will make it. They say he won't, but I know he will. Robin shows up with about 5 minutes to spare to get my bags checked. He said he broke almost every traffic law to get there - and he almost ran out of the house naked. Drove in the carpool lane when he couldn't and went 70-75mph. But he got there. Huge relief and even more tears of relief. Now my emotions are running really high, and saying goodbye to Joni is even more hard! But... I made it. I'm on the plane as I speak. I will hopefully be able to get a hold of you when I am in DC. I love you so much and I can't wait to see you!!
Praying your travel experience has been less eventful than mine.
Leah
 
This was just the beginning of my eventful day!!  So much more happened.  Thankfully I made it to Geneva so now it is all just a funny memory!!

Switzerland/Germany Day 1

Hi family!!! Just a quick hello from Switzerland.  Thought I would post on the blog since it is a good way of keeping a journal of our travels!!  After quite the day of traveling mishaps and adventures (I will post an email I sent to Dustin about my morning adventure - because it is really funny in retrospect!!)  we have had quite the incredible day here. Once we got in we went straight to the hotel and checked in and took about a 4 hour nap. Thanks to the xanax, half ambien, and wine I had in DC (not to mention the time change) I was really tired.


After the nap we did lots of exploring since we had absolutely no idea of what to do. We are staying at the cutest hotel just a block from the beach - huge thanks to my mom who found the place for us!! We have learned that Geneva is known to be one of the most expensive cities in Europe. Dustin's salad at a little bistro was $21. In the evening we went to the beautiful St Pierre cathedral. We couldn't go in since it closed early, but maybe tomorrow. Apparently it was John Calvins home church during the time of the protestant reformation. Tonight we had an incredible dinner of the lake where we could watch the fireworks for the Geneva Festival. Another little jewel we just stumbled upon.

Tomorrow we are going to do a walking tour of Geneva and go to the United Nations building, then head to Zermatt. Zermatt is a small little town that is home to the Matterhorn! Being that I love Disneyland more than anything else, we figured that we couldn't miss this! As you probably figured, the Disneyland Matterhorn is a small scale replica of the actual mountain. In Zermatt they don't allow cars, so we have to leave our car in a structure about 30 miles away in Tasch and take a train in. I can't wait!!
 
I am posting pics on facebook as our day goes by, so if you have an account you can see pictures there!!  Love you all!!!

Little Rock

Dustin and I have been so busy these last few weeks - so I am going to backdate a lot of these posts, so that they will fall in place where they truly deserve. And I will start with our trip to Little Rock.

In the middle of May, Dustin and I went to Little Rock to celebrate my cousin Josh's graduation. He graduated with degrees in Spanish and International Studies. He has one more class to go this summer that he will complete in Taiwan - taking a class in Mandarin. After that the world is his oyster... or something like that?!?!?! We know that he will be going on for his Masters degree - the complicated issue of where he will get his Masters is the question. Complicated because we all think he should come back home to AZ - and he thinks differently. He is throwing around the idea of going to school in Colorado, which would be absolutely fine by me. So much closer than Arkansas!!

We enjoyed our time in Little Rock much more than we ever expected. It is a beautiful city with a lot to do - and a lot of history!! Our weekend started out by visiting the state capital.






As you can see Dustin was not so thrilled that I made him take a picture next to President Bill Clinton's portrait. He was positive that I would post it on Facebook and make it his profile picture!! I am sticking to my promise that it would not go on Facebook and utterly embarrass him in front of all his conservative friends ;o)






The next day was Josh's graduation ceremony. I love the picture directly above.  This picture is of my dad, his brother bill, and Josh and KC (my dad's sisters boys).  This picture just makes me smile so much  :o)

I didn't get any pictures from the bbq that happened that evening at Josh's house - but the memory will never leave me. After all of Josh's friends had left, it was just the "McFarland family". My parents, my dads brother and his wife, KC and Shannon, Josh, Dustin and I. We sat around telling stories of my Poppy and Nonny (my dad's parents) and my aunt Judy. We laughed so hard at times I was sure that I was going to pee my pants, and there were moments when I really wanted to cry because I missed all of them so much! But having such a wonderful family to share stories with made their memory even brighter. As the night grew on and we were all exchanging hugs and getting ready to go, the song El Paso by Marty Robbins came on. This was my Nonny's favorite song, and all of us knew every single word. We sat on the porch and sang together. It was as if they were sending us a sign from heaven that they had been watching us all evening long and were laughing and crying along with the stories too. Such a perfect ending to a wonderful day!!

The next day before we left back to AZ we did some sight seeing. Our first stop was to Little Rock Central High School. This is where the story of the Little Rock Nine unfolded during the civil rights movement. Stepping foot directly into such an amazing piece of history was almost surreal. We thought it was incredible that the high school is still an operating high school that is attended by more than 2,000 students.








We went to downtown Little Rock and attempted to see the "little rock". But apparently it had been moved as they were re-doing the area for tourists. I'm not completely sure I got that one right - but regardless downtown Little Rock was pretty cool. After that it was back to AZ!!

Greece

Dustin and I just booked our 2010 trip to Greece!! He has about a bazillion frequent flyer miles, so we were able to get our tickets for almost nothing. Finding the dates we wanted was a little more challenging, but it all worked out!! We are headed to Greece on Wednesday, Sept 29th and return late Tuesday, October 12th. Our goal is to spend some time in Athens but spend A LOT of time on the Greek Islands!! I am so excited I keep giggling!!! YAYYYY!!!