First post of 2012!! I know, I know...almost 3 months into the year...pathetic. We haven't done a lot since our last big trip to the Grand Canyon/Vegas late last year, but I'm sure when I start typing, it will seem like much more. For starters, we got to go home for both Thanksgiving AND Christmas last year, which was fantastic. We spent Thanksgiving '11 with the Bordsen clan in Asheville. After a late arrival into Raleigh (almost midnight), then driving to Asheville (3ish hours) the same night, we didn't get much sleep, but it was worth it. We had the opportunity to spend time with most of my dad's side of the family, which we rarely do given our current residence location. :) I hadn't seen many of them since Cari and I got married! It was a great time, and included beautiful views of the Blue Ridge Mountains, lots of food, family, drinks, bluegrass at a local brewery, and a quick trip to the Biltmore Estates on the way out of town. Again, a great time.
Christmas '11 was spent primarily with Cari's family in Harrisonburg. There was, yet again, lots of eating and hanging out, shopping, reading, relaxing, etc. For Christmas morning, the Nashes hosted a Christmas service (since it was on Sunday) at their townhouse and invited their neighbors. The turnout was great, and it was an excellent opportunity to lead worship with Cari's brothers and listen to her family spread the gospel through preaching and ministering to those they share their lives with daily. What a blessing! We stayed in town for a few more days and then went to stay with my parents for a few days (including New Years Eve, during which we fell asleep at 10!). It was nice to catch up, and enjoy seeing my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. Again, much eating, drinking, and bowl games and movie watching occurred.
After hunkering down for a loooooong winter (okay, only 2.5 months, but it felt long), Cari and I got to take a nice Spring Break vacation of our own. We had contemplated going to Mexico because we had always wanted to do an all-inclusive resort. However, after lots of prayer and consideration, we decided we didn't need to spend that much money and that we wanted to stay stateside. We finally decided on Tucson, AZ since it was probably the warmest place within driving distance that was safe/nice. We stayed at the Westin La Paloma (which I highly recommend) for five days. Besides a 2-3 hr expedition to the zoo one morning (where Cari got to feed a giraffe!), we literally sat by the pool the entire rest of our stay. We enjoyed 80-degree sunshine, poolside service, a swim-up bar, amazing food, and LOTS of reading. The resort was incredibly accommodating, and everyone was very nice. We also knew a few folks who had been/lived in Tucson before, so we got some great recommendations for restaurants that we could venture to in the evening. Other than getting trapped in Demming, NM for 3 hours on the way home due to wind conditions/brown out, it was a phenomenal and incredibly relaxing trip!
We have a quick trip to Breckenridge in May to look forward to (including seeing The Fray in concert at Red Rocks Ampitheater outside of Denver), and then the next adventure will be our 2-week road trip around the northwestern U.S early this summer. I'll likely have to write individual daily blog posts for that trip given all that we're trying to pack in, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. That's it for now - Happy 2012 everyone. Talk to you all soon!
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