Happy Holidays

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and santa was good to you :)

Monroe Cheesemakers

It was another fun filled family weekend for the Smith/Sharkey clan! We spent the weekend up in snowy icey cold Wisconsin. Upon our arrival into Milwaukee Friday morning, the high temperature was 12 (yes, you read that right)!!! We got to Grandma's with just enough time to have peanut M&Ms and a mini beer (Grandma buys the 4 oz cans!) before we needed to change for dinner at the club.

For those of you who have never been to Monroe Wisconsin, (and I highly doubt that because 75% of you that read this blog are from there!) it is a small midwestern town where time stops. They still have a town square lined with little shops that have been in the family since the 1920s, with the courthouse in the middle. The parking meters take pennies...not kidding! You can walk anywhere in this town in about 30 minutes...when its snowing! And it constantly smells like cows (my mother calls it fresh air). It's great - even Tim likes to visit.

Friday nights ALWAYS include cocktails and dinner at the Monroe Country Club, where the average age is probably over 70. The reason why I say this is because everytime we go, there is the same table of about 15 senior citizens, the majority probably use walkers, but still have the brandy old fashion in front of them! On a normal Friday night my Grandma is usually part of this group. Once we arrived they promptly start singing her "Happy Birthday" (she turned 83 on the 8th). It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen.

Saturday morning we woke up and it was SIX degrees out. Tim, Becky & Dad went for a walk to the Square (they are crazy!), while the rest of us stayed back at the hotel and made waffles :) After that, we went to Baumgartner's for lunch...the famous Limburger place. Tim might be one of ten people in this whole world that will eat that stuff. If you don't know what it is, the limburger slogan is "Don't eat it with your nose", and that is the truth! I got tricked into trying it one time and its tastes like what I can imagine an inside of a port-o-potty would taste like...if that gives you any idea of how bad this stuff is. They serve it on a cracker, with onions chased down with a mint. It's soooooo gross!!! (hence the picture)

Once we left Baumgartner's, we did some Monroe shopping, stopping at the Shopko so Tim could by a toboggan. After that we showed Aunt Debbie the wedding video and then headed over to Uncle Ron and Aunt Rhondi's for a visit and then headed out for Grandma's birthday dinner. It snowed another few inches Saturday night, which made for a really pretty morning.

Sunday morning we had breakfast with Aunt Debbie and Grandma then headed to Aunt Peg & Uncle Rob's. The Packer game was on at noon - SUPER FUN! Another good meal by Peggy the Chef...the only person I know that would think to use pomegranates in a salad.

It was a great weekend and so wonderful to see everyone again! Going up to Wisconsin always makes it feel more like Christmas! I will post more pictures later - the cold weather killed my battery so they are all on mom's camera :)

Hawaii Pictures

How many pictures can one take of the sunset?

...I think about two rolls of film, not kidding! As you all may have guessed, our trip to Hawaii was WONDERFUL! We had such an amazing time - it was the first vacation that I came home kicking and screaming.
It took us a total of 13 hours to get in Honolulu with one layover in Salt Lake City. We had left for the Atlanta airport at 6:00AM and didn't arrive in Honolulu until 4:00PM...needless to say it was a long day so we were both VERY tired. But we made the best of our jetlag and headed straight to the bar for a cocktail! First on the agenda: EAT SUSHI! Check!
We woke up bright and early Sunday morning and headed off to Pearl Harbor. What a powerful experience that was! Standing in line by 6:45AM, our digital camera decides to break! Of all vacations, why this one?! Stupid Sony. (Note this is why are pictures are not very good - they don't do Hawaii justice!) We made the best of it and bought a disposable camera in the gift shop. Off to see the Memorial of the USS Arizona...now that was a bit creepy. You can actually see the sunken ship and there are buoys on either side showing the length of the boat. What a day that must have been...
In and out of Pearl Harbor in under two hours I had to laugh. We are such Chevy Chase tourists. Not that we don't take in the whole experience, we just don't stand around reading every plaque and taking a millions pictures :)
We then started our driving tour of O'hau. What a beautiful country side with the Dole pineapple plantations. Once we hit the North Shore we stopped for lunch and to watch the surfers. You have to have guts to participate in that sport! WOW! Making our way back down to Waikiki Beach, we decided to stop at Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. The colors of the fish were amazing! After a little beach time, we headed back to the hotel to watch the sunset and get ready for dinner...sushi again ;)

Tim had to officially work on Monday so I spent the morning laying on the beach reading. Once he got back to the hotel we decided to head off on another adventure...this time we hiked to see a waterfall. I couldn't get over how one minute you could be on the beach then two miles down the road you'll be in a rain forest. The orchids were so colorful. After watching the sunset, we headed off to a cool restaurant where you cook your own food. It was an open air place with a grill line, you order your entree and it comes raw! It made for a really fun night.

Tuesday was all work and no play for Tim. The only downfall of Honolulu is that its crowded!!! Especially Waikiki Beach and the Hilton Hawaiian Village. So I had figured out how to get into the private pool to avoid the large beach crowd :) I spent the day on a chaise that had enough cushioning to pass as a bed! Once Tim got back from work, we had more beach time, watched another amazing sunset and headed out for our last dinner in Honolulu...this time we decided to switch it up a bit and had Japanese hibachi!

We were up bright and early Wednesday morning to head off to the Big Island. When we landed I thought we were on another planet with all the hardened lava. What a change this island was from O'Hau! It was so desolate which was a nice change from being in the middle of all the hustle and bustle in Honolulu. When we arrived at our resort (Mauni Lani Bay Resort & Bungalows...I HIGHLY recommend it for your next vacation!) we were promptly greeted with lei's...FINALLY! I was beginning to think that was a Hawaiian myth! This resort was so cool! It was all open air (love that about Hawaii) and had a Japanese theme going. All the doors in our room were sliding bamboo doors that went from floor to ceiling. It was really neat.

Tim had to work Thursday morning, so I spent the day in a hammock and finished book #2. He got back to the hotel around 2:00 so we decided to go snorkeling again. Another good thing about the resort...free snorkeling equipment. I thought the snorkeling that we did in Honolulu couldn't be beat...I was WRONG! I bought an underwater camera because I didn't think anyone would believe what we saw!! It was like swimming in an aquarium!! I've never seen anything like it! The yellow tangs would come right up to you-it made me scream like a 12 year old! Hopefully the pictures will turn out so you all can see what I'm talking about. Oh and the sea turtles...YIKES!!! We had too much fun!
Thursday night we went to dinner to a place in our resort called The Canoe House. Upon explaining the specials to us, the waitress tells us that the resort has a farming "pond" which is basically a crate roped off in the ocean...this is where they get their fish for their nightly entrees!!! Talk about fresh!! I had the Opah which is the Hawaiian Moonfish (whatever that means). Another great thing about Hawaii is their assortment of fish...things that I had never heard before that are only available there. It was incredible, especially for two seafood lovers!

Friday was our last day in Hawaii. We made the 2 1/2 hour drive to the other side of the island to see the Volcano National Park. We stood in front of steam vents, steps on hardened lava and walked through a lava tube. It was so neat...it felt like 8th grade science all over again! The top of the volcano was especially neat. It looks like a crater in the desert in my pictures, but it is really all old lava. They had signs up throughout the park that marked what year the lava was from. Looked like 1974 was a big year ;) All in all, it was definitely worth the 5 hour round trip drive. The Big Island was definitely my favorite. It was so secluded and there were so many cool things to see (volcanoes, beaches, black sand, sea turtles, fish, rain forest...)

After some final beach time, we packed up our things and headed for the airport. We had an extremely long trip ahead of us: Kona-Honolulu-Los Angeles-Atlanta. We landed in Atlanta very relaxed (and tired) and excited to see little Bella!
It was a fantastic trip and an amazing experience! I can't WAIT to go back!

Erin Sighting!

It was a fun filled weekend in Statesboro...its been SO long since I've been down there and so much has changed! Mom & Dad picked me up at 8AM Saturday morning to make the dreaded drive down I-16. With Bella in tow, we toured the campus stopping at the new library and RAC (Recreational Activity Center). We definitely got some stares when people noticed we had a dog in our bag ;) Both of these buildings have DOUBLED in size since I was a student there. It was really neat to see all of the improvements they have made to the campus. It has grown so much since my freshman year (99'). It is definitely a school to be reckoned with!
After our hike of GSU, we headed back to Erin's to get ready for our dinner in Savannah. I absolutely love everything about Savannah, expecially the Spanish Moss ;) We had a fabulous Italian dinner complete with chocolate ice cream for dessert!
We stopped in Macon on our way back Sunday afternoon to say hello to Aunt Jeanie, Aunt Lauren and cousin Megan. This was the first time they got to meet Bella ;) We actually made it out of Aunt Jeanie's without any accidents (phew!).
It was good to see everyone this weekend, I had a blast!

Trick or Treat!!

This was our first Halloween in our new house so we weren't sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised when the turn out was more than we expected. The doorbell started ringing at 6:15 and was steady until 8:30. Tim answered the door to the one 16 year old that was still trick or treating, complete with a Grim Reaper costume with fake blood :)

Our busy lives prevented us from dressing up in halloween costumes this year but we didn't forget about little Bella! The only costume she could fit in was a T-shirt that said "Trick or Treat" in glow-in-the-dark! The lady at the pet store suggested that we look at ferret clothes...I maybe clothes shopping for my dog, but i have limits!!

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Our big day

The videographer from our wedding has been gracious enough to post an overview of our big day on her blog. If you're interested in watching it, here is the link:

http://everwordmedia.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html

Feel free to post comments on her page...she loves that! She did a wonderful job with our wedding video, we can't wait to see how Leanne & Jonny's turns out!

It's great to be a Gator Hater!!

Yesterday was a GREAT day to be a Georgia Bulldawg! With the win over Florida (UGA 42 UF 30) we were all in great spirits. I don't think I've seen Tim that happy since the day we got married! Brian, Freddie, Kevin, Brea, Matt and Becky all came over to watch the big showdown, needless to say we had our own Cocktail Party :)

We grilled burgers (Boca burger for Becky!), played power hour (don't ask) and played a game of touch football in the backyard. After a few too many falls into the Charlie Brown tree, we called a quits on the whole football idea, but not after Tim's team claimed the victory!

We are all noticing that the older we get, watching the game in the comfort of your own home is not so bad. Cold beer, clean bathrooms, no crowds, big screen that shows instant replays...what more could you ask for? GO DAWGS!!

Bella Bing Bella Boom!

So we are new parents...do not get ahead of yourselves, we just got a puppy (ok it was two months ago), but we are still learning the ins and outs of "parenthood". The good news is, I think we're doing pretty good, with the exception of the occassional "opps" on the kitchen floor :)

Bella is a Yorkie Maltese mix, hence the nickname "Morkie". As of today, she weights 3 pounds and 7 ounces. She's sweet when she wants to be, but HATES to be left alone! She will sit and cry her eyes out as soon as we leave the kitchen (where she stays all day). We have just figured out that letting her sleep in our room (in her crate of course) is the best way to go for everyone, we are all much more rested :)

Today she has discovered the bark in the backyard. This must be a dog thing. She has quickly figured out that chewing bark is not something we like her to do. So what does she do? Runs around the entire backyard, bark in mouth, letting us chase her like idiots! Our next door neighbor came out just to watch the show!!

What is a Blog?

We're new at this so please bare with us...

We've decided to start a blog because life is getting busy, more interesting things are happening and it will be fun to have our family and friends read it. Mainly we've created a blog to post pictures and document our many adventures. So look forward for what comes next :)