Oh What a Wonderful Life...

It is time I start filling everyone in on the most exciting thing to happen to Ryan and me. Many Christmas cards were sent out this year. We wanted to be sure to share with many family and friends, near and far. In order to share with many more, I shall make the official announcement.

Ryan and I are expecting a very special delivery in May 2015. 

Our family will be growing. 

I have much I want to write about, we found out I was pregnant back in September. In blog posts to come, I will share pictures I have been taking, and sharing more news regarding Baby Lang. I will be sure to keep everyone informed along the way. The outpouring support from our family and friends have been wonderful. This baby is loved in an incredible way. 

Let it snow…

I recently learned which XM stations were playing holiday music. Being a lover of everything Christmas, I turned to one particular station and found myself quickly singing along to Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow. As I belted out the tunes in what was definitely a voice that did not resemble anything remotely close to lovely, I glanced at the outside temperature on my car. 80 degrees! The first week of December, Christmas music on the radio, and it was a beautiful 80 degrees! I threw my cares out the window, opened the sunroof and continued to sing along to every Christmas song, it was a beautiful day, not even my awful singing voice could ruin.

I know Christmas Eve and Christmas morning will come, and I will wish, just like every year as a child for a white Christmas. But then December 26th will roll around and I will no longer want snow, but rather bright, sunny, warm days. Thank you Louisiana. I will not hold the lack of Christmas snow against you, but rather appreciate the beautiful weather, and compensate with a bit of artificial snow.

Our house is ready for Christmas. I had a lot of fun (I think Ryan even enjoyed) putting the tree and outside lights up. This is our first Christmas, in our first house!

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree...
Pre-lit trees truly are the best thing, even better than sliced bread. 

Don't ask how I got the star on the top of a 9 foot tree.
I chose to put that up when Ryan was away on a business trip.
And no, I did not use a ladder. Ladders are so awkward to carry, I didn't want to risk hitting a wall. 

A snowy foyer.
Never was a huge fan of building my own snowman.
This works much better for me. Some pretty wooden snowflakes, and snowmen. 

Ryan's words, "Get the camera, take a picture of me way up here hanging these lights."
Thanks, Love! They look great!
Macy was the supervisor. 

It will not snow in 80 degree weather, but we have icicles and snowflakes hanging from our house. 

Only house in the neighborhood with lights hanging from the roofline.
We quickly learned why, not everyone is going to climb on a 22 foot ladder to hang lights.
You never realize how tall something is, until you stand on a 9 foot ladder and realize you are nowhere near the height you need to be at. 

We conquered suburbia life, homeownership, Christmas spirit.
Call it what you want, fellow neighbors, the Lang family is ready for Christmas. 

The Grand Finale...

Our final stop on our Hawaiian islands tour was on the Big Island. Thinking back to my favorite activities during our trip, most of them took place on the Big Island. It was an island with plenty of activity, but it was also an island that made you feel like you were not overrun with tourists. Maybe it was the resort we stayed at, or maybe it was the time of year, but it was the perfect end to our vacation.

The helicopter tour was an amazing experience. If any of you have been following the volcanic events currently taking place in Hawaii, we were able to see the volcano that is currently active. Not much of the lava was visible from the surface, but we were able to see a small bit. Our helicopter tour took us from the fiery hot volcano to the lush, green waterfall side. It was one of those experiences, where if you are going to do it, pick an awesome location. Hawaii was the perfect location for my first helicopter ride. 

We also did a night dive/snorkel with manta rays. This was by far the coolest experience I have had in the water. We had some amazing experiences in the Maldives, but something about having a manta ray with a span of over 8 feet rub belly to belly with you is like no other experience.  Ryan has some amazing video of the experience, but I cannot for the life of me, figure out how to upload the videos and/or turn the videos into pictures in order to post. You all are just going to have to wait until I can get him to sit down, and upload them to the blog.

I think our trip to Hawaii was a great way for us to celebrate living back in America, and taking the opportunity to further explore our country.

If you want to view more pictures from our helicopter tour, and a few pictures from our other activities while on the Big Island, click on our Big Island, Hawaii photo album below.

The Big Island, Hawaii

The Drunken Mountain Goat...

Our adventure in Hawaii continued on the island of Maui, our hiking also continued. It was during one particular hike that Ryan finally identified what my hiking reminded him of, a drunken mountain goat. Instead of staying on what appears to be the trail, I find the most obscure path, with the most difficult, uneven terrain. I then decide it's the best path to take, and mountain goat through, stumbling, but miraculously not falling. Have no fear, this drunken mountain goat is a hiking queen.

I believe it was during this picture I earned the title "Drunken Mountain Goat." 

Before I start rambling about our time in Maui, I wanted to post a couple pictures I forgot to post on the previous Lanai post.

Boarding the plane from Honolulu to Lanai. 

Arrival at the resort. 

Maui has plenty of waterfalls, so waterfalls were our main focus. Ryan also did some diving during this island visit, but I am waiting for him to identify his favorite photos, and I will post those at a later date. Our main hike on the island took us to a giant waterfall. The hike was not too bad, it was longer, but mostly shaded during our path through the bamboo forest. After finding the big waterfall, we made our way back to the tide pools.

Perfect place for lunch. 

Entering the bamboo forest. 

I decided all hikes should have these awesome boardwalks. 

Made it to the waterfall. 

It's always hard to portray true size in pictures, but hopefully you get the idea, Ryan is on the rocks, compare his size to the size of the waterfall. 

The famous, Hana Highway is on Maui. If it's famous, then we must take it. Part of the road was under construction and our resort informed us that we had to leave very early in order to get through the construction before they completely closed the road. We saw on the map the highway was not too long, so we could not possibly figure out why the resort told us it would take 3 hours to drive. Yes, we did see the little curves on the map, but nothing prepared us for this road. It was basically one lane with 90 degree turns every few hundred feet. Factor in the need to hurry, and you can imagine how out of control my car sickness was. We successfully made it through the highway with only two pictures, when Ryan felt it was safe to stop, and we vowed never to take that road again.

Just like with Lanai we were surprised at the vast difference the terrain was from one side on the island to the other. One side was lush, green forest, drive around to the other side and you have sandy, rocky cliffs. We were very happy in our choice not to take the Hana Highway back to our resort, because otherwise we would not have seen this other area of the island. We even saw goats!

Ryan heard from a fellow diver about an area known as Black Rock. Apparently all the locals go to this area to jump off the cliffs. Local spot? Cliff jumping? Mr. Adventure was hooked, we had to go find it. I was instructed to not skimp on the pictures. I turned my camera to sport mode, and held down the button. He got every second of his jump. I picked just two to post here, but you can see them all in our photo album.

A few pictures to end this post:

A view from the plane during our flight from Lanai to Maui. This was our resort on Lanai. 

Dinner. 

True story, this photo proves it. When we went to board our flight from Lanai to Maui, the woman asked me to step on the scale. They weigh your luggage, you, and all our carry on items. Really keeps your vacation eating in check when we have to jump on the scale every few days.
Obviously my backpack was gaining weight at each island. :)

If you want to see more pictures from our time on Maui you can find them in our photo album, click on the link below.  Check out more hiking pictures, the goats, and the rest of Ryan's cliff jumping.

Maui Photo Album

Next and final Hawaiian stop, The Big Island. 

Happy Halloween...

It's our first Halloween in our house, and I am pretty excited for trick or treaters! I may turn into the coolest neighbor in the neighborhood because I have every intention of handing out handfuls of candy. I must give away the candy so I stop eating it! Note to self for next year, don't open the bags of candy until the trick or treaters start arriving.

I was beyond overjoyed a couple weeks ago when Ryan came inside carrying a small pumpkin bag. His words, "I found this on the front porch, I think you are going to enjoy this more than me." Of course! I love surprises, and gifts. Someone left us something on our front porch?!?! I start removing the contents of the bag, and I come across a paper that says, You've been Booed! What?!?! I had never heard of such a thing. The paper contained instructions:

You've Been Booed

Hope you enjoy your special treats!

To keep the fun going:

*Place your "We've Been Booed" sign on your front door or window.

*Within two days, make two copies of these instructions 

and the "We've Been Booed" sign and gather two special treats.

*Deliver the treats and papers to two other houses in your neighborhood who haven't been booed yet. Don't let them see you! Guessing who booed you is part of the fun!

I think I may have let out a squeal of excitement! This is so much fun! Who Booed us?!?! People really like us?!?! Ryan was not as excited, but it was ok, I had enough excitement to divide among the two of us.

The next day, I was off to hunt for Boo treats. I went to my most reliable place, Target. I figured it would not take long to gather an array of treats, but surprise, surprise, the teacher and planner came out in me. I developed a plan, a theme, and made some cute little treat buckets. I came up with these:

I did not want to do strictly candy, but a variety of items. I had some pumpkin garland in the bottom with a layer of candy, the ghostly greetings sign, some window clings, a glow in the dark pumpkin (which would come in handy when it came time for us to Boo others), and of course the signs. I also added some Halloween themed pencils to one of the buckets when we decided on a house that had a little girl. We all know the cool kids have holiday themed pencils (sorry teachers, I know how much we love children arguing over special pencils). 

The pumpkins were ready, now we just had to Boo people. I thought the buying and creating was fun, I had NO IDEA the amount of fun that would take place handing out the treats. Our treat had been left sometime in the afternoon, after I got home from the gym, and before Ryan got home from work. I decided, in order to involve Ryan, we would hand out the treats in the dark, after dinner, but before it got too late. I creepily drove through the neighborhood as I went to the gym and spied on front doors, seeing which houses had not been Booed yet. The houses were chosen. We would take one pumpkin to another Chevron house (Ryan knows the guy from work), and since we are such awesome people, not wanting to show favoritism, we would take the other pumpkin to a Shell house. Yes, I just referred to houses in reference to which oil company the household works for. Our first day in the neighborhood, a kind neighbor took the time to tell us which houses Shell people lived in and which houses Chevron people lived in. If they didn't work for either Shell or Chevron, I do not know what their profession is. Welcome to Southern Oil Country. :)

I would be the driver, Ryan would be the runner. We had Macy jump in the back of my car so she could join in the fun, I guess you could say she was the lookout. Let me say this now, I would be the worst get away driver, or home invader/burglar in the world! I failed miserably at my job. We drove to the first house, I turned on the glowing pumpkin, and sent Ryan off. Ryan's asking, what do I do? I told him, just take the pumpkin up the front door, don't sit it too close to the door, so they can see it when they look out, ring the doorbell, then run! Picture it, Ryan running up to a house with a glowing pumpkin, pajama pants on. I, the failing driver, drive down the road, turn around, turn off my lights, and sit in the road. Ryan is hiding behind a vehicle, I am snorting my head off laughing at the scene. We wait a minute, I drive up to pick up Ryan, and fail, the pumpkin is still there. Ryan mentioned he heard people in the garage as he was running away. Ok, well we will go to the next house, then come back to check on this one. I really wanted to make sure people got their pumpkins. 

The second house, closer to our own house, we knew what to do this time. Ryan gave me instructions on how to be a better "sneaky driver" (don't just sit in the middle of the road like a creeper, people can see you) which I listened to, but failed to put into action. Pumpkin was lit, Ryan takes off running, I pull away. I got to our driveway to turn around. I see Ryan running away from the front door and hiding behind a vehicle. Commence the laughing and snorting again. Macy, our lookout is helpless in the back, she can't figure out what's wrong with me. I wish I had video of these events. Ryan gives me the sign to come pick him up, I drive up, he jumps in, we look, and the pumpkin is gone! Yay, success they got their pumpkin! Now it was back to the first house.

The pumpkin was still there. Since Ryan knows the guy, I told him just to text him. I know that's cheating since you are not suppose to reveal who you are, but who cares, they are guys. Ryan thought it was a bad idea, he thought it would be better to put the pumpkin in front of the garage door, knock on the garage door, and run. I look at Ryan, "Really? Are you serious? Who in their right mind, is going to hear a knock on their garage door, at night, and decide, hmmm, let me just open the garage door and see who is there?" Personally, you would find me pushing every panic button connected to our security system if that happened it me. Ryan's response, "Have you seen this guy, he's 6'4", and huge, who does he have to be afraid of?" Ryan had a point. This time I did not drive away, I was going to stay there, Ryan was going to move the pumpkin, knock on the garage door, and jump back in the car. Ready, set go. Move pumpkin, knock, jump in, drive off. I did a lap around the neighborhood, and we drove by the house. I almost ran off the road as we drove by the house (Ryan coaching me to drive straight and not look at the house). The garage door is open, and the guy is standing there holding the pumpkin!!! Seriously!?! Who opens their garage door to a random knocking in the dark?!?! At least it worked, both pumpkins were now in their recipients possession. 

We made our way back to our house. I cannot believe the knocking on the garage door worked. Ryan keeps telling me what a horrible getaway driver I am. Macy is wagging her tail in excitement, but thankful to be home. My stomach was a bit sore from all the laughing. All in all, it was a successful first Booing on our part. 

Happy Halloween everyone! 

P.S. Has anyone else ever heard of this? Do you do this in your neighborhood? If not, I recommend it, I look forward to next year. 

Let's go hiking...

Once again, I can't go an entire month without blogging, I can come very close, but I can't let October feel left out. October has proven to be a very busy month for us. We spent part of the the last week of September in Houston, then on the 27th of September we boarded a plane for Hawaii! This trip started originally with a long weekend trip to California to visit friends, but Ryan wanted to extend the trip. He began researching places we could fly to directly from LAX. We decided that since we were living in America again, we should explore America. We decided to start our exploration with the furthest State (is Hawaii further away than Alaska?). Hawaii it was.

We visited three different islands, but our first island was Lanai. We spent four days on Lanai, and I believe each day began with Ryan saying, "let's go hiking." I was thinking more along the lines of "let's go to the pool" but not one to pass on an adventure, I went hiking. Lanai was a very quiet island, not many people, and only two resorts. It proved to be the best start to our vacation. It gave us the time to unwind, relax, and enjoy the slower, island pace.

Ryan enjoyed his off-roading in a Jeep. 

Beautiful beaches. 

Last thing I expected to see in Hawaii, tons of wild turkeys. The residents of Lanai are going to be eating very well this Thanksgiving. 

Rule number one of hiking. Must get photo documentation I actually went hiking. I even have a hiking stick. 

The weather was great during our hike to the top, overcast, but cool. The clouds rolled in and the skies opened up during our hike back to the resort. I earned the hot chocolate we ordered after we returned cold, and drenched. 

Checked the mountain hike off the list, then it was time to do the beach hike. 

If you want to see the muddy puddle Ryan found with the Jeep, or more hiking pictures, you can see them in our Lanai photo album.

Lanai Photo Album

Next stop, Maui. 

Professional…..

I am so proud of Ryan. The pergola is done. It looks amazing! I am glad I took pictures to document the process because people may not believe it was a DIY project. Believe it. Ryan's a professional.

Living and learning...

As we enter our fourth month in Louisiana, Ryan and I are adapting to our new surroundings. We are living and learning the ways of Louisiana. In case you are planning a visit,

Buggy. If you are in a store and someone offers you a buggy, it is not for a baby, it is what others refer to as shopping carts. Buggy=shopping cart. Cart=motorized machine, go-cart.

Ma'am, Sweetie, Honey, Miss. All terms I am called on any given day. I think I may have even had a Sugar Pie one day.

Drive thru Daiquiris. They really do exist. When I asked how drive thru alcoholic beverages are allowed, I was told that they don't put the straw in the drink (they hand it to you), so it keeps you from drinking it while you drive. Now, I don't frequent fast food restaurants often, but I am pretty sure McDonald's does not put your straw in your drink, but they know you are going to pop open that paper wrapper before you even pull out of the drive thru lane. Another note, the daiquiris are super strong. It took me a weekend of sipping to finish it.

Nothing beats the heat while mowing the lawn like drinking your drive thru daiquiri. 

Yield Signs and Merging. I learned that yield does not mean stop, but here a yield sign means slam on the brakes and make sure no car is coming. I learned merging onto a highway from an on ramp should be at approximately the speed the other cars are traveling on the highway. The on ramp is long enough for you to gain speed, and successfully merge into the traffic flow. Here on ramps are for driving as slow as you possibly can, waiting for someone on the highway to slow down and wave you on before you merge. One day, I even watched a vehicle run off the road when they ran out of the merging on ramp lane because they had yet to merge. This results in back up and traffic jams at every on ramp. Vehicles travel on the highways at below the posted speed limit a majority of the time.

Hurricane season. A good friend gave me some advice on what to stock up on, and how to prepare myself for any possible hurricanes. Fingers crossed, it looks like this year is going to be a good year. We still have another month or so of hurricane season, but we have passed the peak time. But, one thing I learned, preparing for a hurricane is similar to preparing for a snowstorm up North. Stock up on non perishable foods, have some extra bottled water on hand, and keep your gas tank full. Major difference, the precipitation comes in a different form.

Fall. Does not exist here. I see pictures posted on Facebook, people are wearing jeans, long shirts, maybe even a sweatshirt. Not here. Sundresses and flip flops. We are still reaching mid to upper 80s each day. Throw all rules of fall clothing out the window. It's still hot, it's still appropriate to wear summer clothing. Do not get me wrong, I am not complaining at all. I love the warm weather!

Fried food. It is not just Louisiana that loves fried food, pretty much every state has a plethora of fried food. I would say, if the people of Louisiana could alter the government food pyramid (I believe it may be a plate now) they would add fried food as an additional food group, and most likely largest food group on the pyramid.

This guy was hanging out near the restaurant. 

Where I ordered fried pickles. Absolutely delicious! May even compete with french fries. 

I offered one to the restaurant's mascot, but he was not interested. 

Saints. If the Saints are playing, don't even bother hosting a party, asking friends if they want to get together, or suggest any activity other than watching the game. Prior to football season we received multiple flyers, refrigerator magnets, and cards listing the football schedule. Same can be said for LSU. If the Saints are playing everyone is dressed in black and gold, if LSU is playing, everyone is dressed in purple and gold. Know the teams, know their schedule, know the final score.

Another race. This time it was only a 5K, and began at 7:30 a.m. much earlier than the last.
The Saints 5K in New Orleans, the race ends on the field in the Superdome. 

North Shore vs South Shore. People quickly know, or assume they know a lot about you when you say you either live on the North Shore or the South Shore, separated by Lake Pontchartrain. I am very thankful Chevron's office is on the North Shore. I love living on the North Shore, and visiting the South Shore. Good thing I am not afraid of bridges.

Our friends Patrick and Kaity came to visit over Labor Day weekend.
Of course we had to head to New Orleans. 

When you forget the heat, humidity, and smells of New Orleans, it really is a great city.
The buildings are beautiful. 

The street bands provide entertainment. 

I am in love with all the balconies. 

With all this said, the people of Louisiana are probably the nicest people I have ever met. Our neighbors are beyond the sweetest people. People are always smiling, and enjoying life. You can strike up a conversation with nearly anyone, and leave feeling like you have known them your entire life. We are learning why people love living in Louisiana.

And because what is a post without a picture of Macy?

Such a good girl, she waited until Ryan said it was ok to eat them.