Brianne and Garett

So it is that time of the year when Brianne and I are getting ready to head off for the holidays, which means it’s also time for our travel adventures to continue. Brianne thinks I’m the most pessimistic person in the world, and she might be a little right, but let’s chronicle the record.

March 2007: We take a trip to New York and the first night a big snow storm hits the area. Flights not effected but freakish weather occurs wherever we go.

June 2007: We fly up to Washington for Brianne’s friend’s wedding. Twenty minutes into the flight they turn around because of a fuel gauge issue. We get put on another flight that arrives in Seattle at 2am and we have to sleep in the terminal until our flight at 8am. By the way Sea-Tac, more comfortable seats and less announcements in the middle of the night, the only people there are trying to sleep.

Christmas 2007: We fly into Seattle and our connection gets cancelled, so they send us to Portland because all the direct flights are booked for the next few days and we arrive after midnight, and our new flight doesn’t leave until 6am, but they put us up in a hotel for 4 hours and my bag is MIA until we get to our destination.

Christmas 2008: We decide to fly to Portland because we have a companion pass and it’s a cheaper option and then drive the rest of the way. Portland gets hit with the biggest snow storm in over 50 years and they shut down the interstate we need to drive on. Thankfully the roads open by the time we arrive and it only cost us a rental upgrade that could handle the snow covered roads.

November 2009: We head to Cozumel for my friend’s wedding. Then the latest seasoned hurricane in like 35 years for the area, Ida, forms and heads right for Cozumel. Thankfully our travel plans have little impact, just an aborted landing on the way in and a delayed flight on the way out, but it rains most of the trip and we miss some fun in the sun.

I feel like I’m forgetting some here, but these are the ones that stick out the most. Keep in mind we only fly a couple times a year and we have a Christmas streak going here.

So here I am looking at the weather for this week and we have chances of rain and snow at the different airports we are traveling through and we have short layover times.

All I want for Christmas is no traveling issues… And if snow causes us issues and the airline is playing “Let It Snow” on the hold music, I’m going to lose it.

We are a little behind on our posting, but two weeks ago we participated in the LIVESTRONG Challenge in Austin. We raised $620 towards the Lance Armstrong Foundation. On Saturday we both participated in the 5K run/walk and on Sunday I participated in the bike ride. I was suppose to do 65 miles, but had to change plans halfway through after the hills proved to much. My spin classes have improved my strength, but did not do enough for my endurance. One positive of doing the shorter route was I got a quick glimpse of Lance Armstrong while out on the road. With about 10-12 miles left, I was cruising down a long hill at around 32mph and I was hearing some siren bleeps a ways behind me and thinking it must be an ambulance trying to get through, and all the sudden I heard “ON YOUR LEFT!” and all the sudden 6 guys flew past me and then a police escort behind them. Lance had just passed me. I shifted up a few gears to see if I could keep up with them and hung on for about 15 seconds. So I have been telling everyone that Lance spoke with me since I think it was him that was informing me he was approaching on my left.

On a side note, I have also signed up for the BP MS 150 again this coming year, so if you would like to support me, please make a donation at my page at http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/garettgowens.

Boooo, the Seahawks let me down again this year in Dallas. This is the second year in a row that I’ve had to watch my team get creamed by Garett’s Cowboys. Regardless of the outcome, it was great to see our favorite teams play each other in the awesome Cowboy’s Stadium.

After the game we searched the stadium for Garett’s brick and we finally got to see it right there outside of the stadium!

Today Garett and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary-my how time flies. As you can see from the pictures in this post, I couldn’t help taking the opportunity to try on my dress again and prove to Garett that it still fits!

As an anniversary gift Garett took me to the Coach store and let me pick out any purse I wanted. I have been wanting a real coach purse for about 3 years now, so this was a pretty exciting event for me. The one I picked out is absolutely beautiful!

Garett also got me a beautiful pot of flowers that have the same color scheme as our wedding did and he took me out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. He also went out this morning and got me a few of my favorite things for breakfast: a maple bar doughnut from one place, a blueberry glaze doughnut from a different place, a Starbucks carmel machiatto from a third place and a crunchy hashbrown from McDonalds.

For his gift I scheduled an appointment for both of us to get relaxing massages. Unfortunately the massages we received ended up being the kind that make you sore the next day, so we’ve both been suffering from some stiff necks today. Once again, he trumped me with the gift selection. In addition to the gifts we got each other, my Mom and Dad sent us a really sweet card and some cash for an extravagant date night sometime in the near future.

Every year with Garett is the best year of my life and our first year of marriage was certainly no exception.