The Best Laid Plans (AKA at least our luggage had a nice trip)

Many of you have already heard the story of our Honey Moon. But for those of you who have not, you are in for a treat. Also we haven't written it down, so this is mostly for prosperity.

For a wedding gift VaRonica and i received buddy passes to fly somewhere for our honey moon. After listing a few places we wanted to go, we learned that Hawaii was on the top of both of our lists. Knowing that flying with buddy passes puts us on the bottom of the list for flights, we planned the departing and returning flights to be during the week. What we didn't know was that there was a last minute convention in Hawaii. The morning that we left Salt Lake air port we checked our flights and they were not full. But upon arriving at LAX and checking into our flight we quickly learned that the flight was over sold. We were told that we might fit on a flight that was leaving the next morning at around 7 am, and another possible flight that afternoon.

While waiting for the flights, we made friends with a couple who had also been bumped from the flight. Luck was on our side because the wife of this couple received a corporate discount at some hotels, and they offered there price for the hotel. I believe that the price was around $40 for the room, and in my opinion we over paid. There were cigarette burns in the sheets, holes in the carpet, and best of all, a large burn mark up the back side of the toilet where some one had cooked some drugs. One good thing happened this night, my mother called and told us that Jake and Holly announced that they were pregnant with Landen.

The next morning we learned that this flight was over sold even more than the last one. VaRonica and i decided that if we didn't get on the next flight we were going to plan B. Good thing that we had several hours to create a plan B. After some discussion we came up with a basic plan... fly to San Francisco, drive up the coast, visit with Tenell and Greg, and drive home.

We flew into San Fran, rented a car and headed into the city by the bay. Did i tell you that it was already dark out, and we did not have hotel reservations. Believing that we were closer to the city than we were i got off the highway to try and find a hotel outside of the city where i believed it would be cheeper. It just so happened that we got off in an industrial neighborhood, and no luck on the hotel. So i drove north toward the city thinking that we would see one eventually. Basically i got us lost, we couldn't find the highway, or a hotel, but we kept driving north. It was almost midnight when we pulled into a hotel in the center of the city.

The next morning we ran to a Target and bought us a weeks worth of clothing and toiletries. I gave my friend Justin a call (who lives in Sacramento) to see if he wanted to hang out for a bit. Then we hit the town. first a trolly ride to the wharf, a little shopping, check out the old boats, famous clam chowder, a kid who couldn't keep his pants up, stunt plains flying over the bay, China Town, to sum it up great day. Just before getting back to the car, my friend called and said he would love for us to come out, even if we got there late. Which if we left then, which we did, we wouldn't get there until around 11 p.m..

We got to Sacramento, talked about good old times, then went to bed. The next morning Justin and his girl friend took us out for breakfast.

Then we headed north on I-5, our plan was to then take a side highway to the coast where we would go threw the redwood forrest. We had a highway map of California and saw a highway from Redding to Eureka, but once again things didn't work out to the best of plans. Some how we ended up on a parallel highway south of the one we wanted to be on. This highway happened to take us threw a very scenic trip threw the Trinity National Forest. Well at least it started as a highway, then a road, which turned to dirt, and ended up to be a narrow dirt trail that snaked threw the mountains. Has anyone seen the movie Deliverance? For those of you that got post cards from us we sent them from a post box in the middle of no were. Oh, and for anyone who didn't know this, cell phones use lots of battery power and will go dead in minutes when searching for service.

We finally made it to Eureka and decided to stay there for the night and see the Redwoods in the day light. The next morning we got up early and drove up the beautiful highway 101. Got lots of great pictures, and then once again took a side highway from Crescent City to Grants Pass where we rejoined I-5. The next part was simple, go strait north to Portland, and meet up with my sister (and Greg who is now an In-Law, but wasn't then), what could go wrong? Making good time we texted to Tenell to expect us in a few hours. Just south of Eugene Oregon we entered some thick traffic, but being just before 5 p.m. we thought it was normal rush hour traffic. Little did we know that there was a traffic accident which involved several motorcycles and a large tractor trailer. We sat in traffic for over two hours.

Once again we arrived at our destination late. The next morning we did a little sight seeing in Portland. Some of the things we saw were Portlandia (the largest American inland copper statue), the worlds smallest park measuring in at a foot squared, and once again China Town.

The next day we buckled down for a long day of driving by getting a not so early start, maybe because it was Greg birthday. Oh and maybe a late lunch with Jan also contributed to a late start, but anyhow we did get off. We spent that night in Baker City Oregon. And then drove the rest of the way to Salt Lake City. When we returned the rental car to the air port car rental place, the guy who checked in the car was a little surprised at the millage. Not so much that we drove it from San Fran up to Portland and then down to Salt Lake, but that it said we had 5000 less miles than when we started. That was a little funny, but what was not funny is when you ask to pick up your luggage and find out that it is still in Hawaii. We requested that our luggage be sent back, and went home. The next morning at 6 a.m. i received a call that our luggage was back in town. That is right 6 a.m.!!!

So we ran several errands and then went and picked up our luggage. While running the errands, VaRonica was making several calls to find a new puppy. And latter that day we added Sir to our family.

So this is what happens when ever i make plans, it never works out quite right. I guess that i could start to make back up plans, but my current non-planning has worked really good for me so far... What do you all think?

Little Tid Bits

Thanks to all of you who helped us in thinking of names for our blog, although we couldn't choose all of them, we will be using them in parts of our blog so stay tuned and look for yours!

I figured that it was about time for me to add some tid bits to our blog. Nathan did a good job of explaining how we met, but not really about who we are, so here is my contribution.

VaRonica, me, is from Utah. I am a pretty typical non typical girl. I love to play a lot and find it hard to be serious most of the time however I can be

serious when needed ( I am going to be a therapist starting in August so I better be able to do this). I enjoy being out and about especially with my girlfriends, going on adventures and I usually need something to do. I love my family very much! This includes both the "original family" (LaDene, Ron and Dalan), my "in-laws" (All of the Littles and new Sellers there are too many to name individually) and especially my "new family" (Nathan and Sir). I have typically been surrounded by boys so I guess it makes sense that in my new family I am the only girl. Don't get me wrong now that I am older I have found the joys of having great girlfriends, and I have some amazing ones! I know that I said that I like to get out but I also love, love, love to read! I am just finishing up my Masters Degree in Social Work, I am done with classes but I still need to take my licensing test in August before I can be a real therapist.

Nathan, my husband and the other blogger on this site, is from Montana. He is a witty, hard working and fun guy. Nathan likes video games and the science in things. He is a loving man who, like most men, have some form of autism (in my mind) and struggles to show many forms of emotion. He is however trying hard to deal with an emotional woman who tends to "show enough emotion for the two of us" (in his mind). He is currently working as a Pharmacy Tech and going to school to eventually become a Pharmacist. This is the perfect future for him, it will make enough money that he can have lots of electronic toys, it is clean and very predictable. Nathan is the artistic one of the family and makes beautiful paintings and drawings. He is so creative and I love that!

Sir Winston, the dog in this life of ours., is from Utah as well. His is one of three brothers in a litter of eight. He is allergic to his vaccinations which makes him something like 1/15,000 pugs in this crazy world. Sir, as we call him, has a ton of personality and typically conforms to who he is around. Example; when Nathan comes home from work, no matter how tired Sir is from playing all day, he jumps up and starts running around in full play mode. When Sir sees that I am reading a book on the couch he will jump up sit on my lap and pretend to read with me or just sleep on my lap until we are ready to move onto the next activity. Sir loves to pretend that he is a wild free animal when we are up at Flat Head Lake, with the Little side of the family. He typically likes to be a home body though and enjoys finding any spot of sun in the house and camping out there. I am sure that a lot of our blogs will include our little puppy (well he is almost 3, but will always be our puppy) because he is the most interesting and fun in our family.

Us together. Nathan and I both love watching movies, I think he does a little more than me but it is something that we enjoy doing together. We go on walks with Sir which we all enjoy. We all enjoy eating, we eat in different ways however. I usually try new things on menu's where Nathan usually sticks to the same things each time we go to a restaurant. At home we both like to keep things pretty clean and we each do our fair share of making messes. We have been married for three years and have been loving every minute, so far hahaha.

Sad but this is the only picture we have where you can see the whole Little Family!

Griz + Ute + Pup = The Little's

I met VaRonica while working at an in patient drug rehab in the Salt Lake area. I worked a few shifts with her and instantly liked her. It took me several months before i gained the courage to ask her out, but the next thing i know we are sharing a salad and bread sticks at Olive Garden.

After dating for about two and a half years, VaRonica (as well as everyone else) was hinting strongly that she was interested in getting married. So i bought a ring, asked her father for permision, and planned the proposal. Only it didn't go exactly as planned. I bought a dozen red roses, and got everything ready. What i didn't realize was that VaRonica had invited her parents over to look at something. So much for planning, it's a good thing that i had a plan B... oh, no wait, no i didn't. Well after a few seconds of greeting her parents, i told VaRonica i had something to show her. Luckily i had purchased two guitar stands to display our guitars.

While VaRonica was looking at the stands, i removed the ring from my pocket, got down on one knee, and it was at that moment that VaRonica turned around. Next came an excited scream, and VaRonica's mother yelled in from the other room, "are you ok?" Before i had a chance to say anything VaRonica was saying "yes, yes!" I had to remind her that i hadn't asked her anything yet. After she had composed herself i proposed, and she said no, just kidding of course she said yes.

Five months after we got married, VaRonica and i went on our honey moon. Once again, my plans didn't work quite the way that we would have liked, and we had to improvise, but that is a story for another time. When we got back, VaRonica started looking for a new addition to our small family. With in a few hours, VaRonica had called several people, and had set up a meet and greet with some pug puppies.

Before i knew it we had driven out to Alpine Utah, and were playing with several tiny pug puppies in a small plastic wading pool. We had already decided that we were going to get a male pug, and one in particular just wanted all the attention we could give him. We picked him up, and drove back into the Salt Lake area. We had to stop at Wal-Mart, the only store that had dog food, bowls and other such things at eleven p.m. Sir slept all the way home, and almost all night long.

And that is how the Little's came to be.