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.

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!

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.

Our new maid got delivered by FedEx this afternoon. We are calling her “Berta” (from Two and a Half Men).

We took advantage of Garett’s rare three-day weekend and we planned a road trip to Dallas. We packed a few things in our spacious new car and we enjoyed a smooth, comfy four-hour ride to the big city. On our way, we stopped in Garett’s old college stomping ground, Huntsville, TX, to have lunch with some of friends of his that he hadn’t seen in a while. Although they are frequent visitors to our website and Facebook pages, I hadn’t actually met them face to face before, so it was great to finally talk to everyone and meet them “officially!”

For the most part, we spent our weekend relaxing in the beautiful Omni hotel and enjoying some of the local Dallas restaurants. We did take a few field trips, one of which was to the brand new Dallas Cowboy’s Stadium. Wow, it was amazing! The pictures really don’t do this place justice; it seems so luxurious for a sports stadium. We entered the stadium through the Dallas Cowboys Pro Shop, where we had to buy our tickets and wait for the tour to begin. The Pro Shop itself was really something to be impressed with. There were beautiful historic photos of previous and current players lining the walls, there was a huge auto zone, a huge kids zone and a huge ladies zone, filled with specialty items you’d never find anywhere else. There was even a second story to the Pro Shop, which was filled with additional fan gear and sports memorabilia.

After the Pro Shop, we got to sit in some stadium seats on the first level and marvel at the two largest HD video screens in the world. It’s hard to explain the size of these things, but let’s just say that the tiny letters on the bottom of the screen spelling “Mitsubishi” are taller than my mom!!! After sitting in the seats for a while, we walked around the concession area, visited the suites, sat in the press box’s and even toured the Cowboy’s locker room. Please check out my Flickr page on the right hand side of our page for pictures of our tour to see me standing where many future naked Cowboy’s players will be showering!

A couple of interesting facts we heard on our tour:
- Jerry Jones searched throughout the country to find the granite tiling found throughout the stadium. He demanded that each granite piece have a hint of “Cowboy blue” in it.
- This is the only stadium that offers additional suites at field level. These suites start at 2 million dollars a year.
- Every Cowboy player will have a personal computer mounted within their lockers so he can play xbox, browse Facebook, check out twitter, etc in his downtime
- There are 180 ft x 120 ft high glass doors at each end zone that fully open up to let the breeze flow through the stadium when the weather will allow
-You will find nearly 3,000 flat screen TVs spread all over the stadium because Jerry Jones believes that fans shouldn’t be punished for leaving their seats.

This could go on forever, so I’ll just stop myself now! We had a nice mini-vacation, but we missed spending the holiday without families and friends. We hope you all had an amazing 4th-we missed you.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the pics on flickr and don’t forget that I’m always a SEATTLE SEAHAWKS fan first!

Yesterday was my birthday (you can figure out which one on your own) and we had friends over to the house to enjoy some pizza, drinks, and a baseball game. Last week we attended an engagement party of one of our friends and then with my birthday this week, it was the first time in a very long time that we have had everyone gathered together in such a short time frame. Being that we are spread across the greater Houston area and some even further, its difficult to get more then 3 or 4 people together.

I made out pretty well this year on gifts. Brianne got me a Canon Digital Rebel XS with lens kit (she shouldn’t have spent so much on me), some cycling gear, and some snack treats to enjoy. My parents and brother got me another lens to go with my camera. Brianne folks got me the latest Simpsons season on DVD and a FM modulator for my car that works with my iPhone and Karlee got me a T-shirt and the upcoming soon to be released Simpsons season on DVD (figured out any TV shows I like?). I also received some assorted gift cards from friends which will be put to good use.

Thank you to everyone for the gifts and the birthday wishes, it helped to forget the milestone that I reached this year. Well all I can say about entering a new decade is that I came into this one in better shape and a little less weight then I entered the last one and a whole lot less then I was at just last year. Once again thanks everybody for everything!

So on Sunday the ride kicked off from downtown La Grange and the routes for day 2 were basically what they would have been had the first day not be cancelled. My original plan was to take the express route which is about 65 miles, but since I was bummed about missing the first day, I decide to push myself and take the challenge route which is close to 80 miles part of which is through the Bastrop State Park and it’s many hills. I also figured the park and its ample trees would give some relief from the 20+ mph head winds that plagued riders all day. I got started around 8:15 am in La Grange and only stopped once for a quick bite and fluid before reaching the lunch stop in Bastrop which I reached at 11 am. From there it was into the wind the rest of the way into Austin. I stopped one more time about 17 miles before Austin and crossed the finish line right at 2 pm where I was met with cheers from Brianne, my parents and my brother.

Training for the ride was difficult and time consuming and until the ride I was thinking this might be my only time, but after participating and not getting the full experience, I think I will do it again next year. Seeing all the people along the route cheering everyone along and seeing the people that benefit from this fundraiser cheering also is just that much more of motivation to participate.

Thank you to everyone who made contributions to my fundraising and I hope you will all support me again next year. Also thank you to Brianne for putting up with me being gone for hours on end on the weekends while I was pedaling around town and for taking care of things around the house and making sure I had something to eat when I was done.

Remember that both Brianne and I are participating in the LIVESTRONG Challenge in Austin this coming October so we will be fundraising together. Brianne and I are both doing the 5K run on Saturday October 24 and then on Sunday October 25 I will be doing the 65 mile bike ride, where I will probably get dropped by Lance Armstrong himself. Please make a donation to us at our fundraising webpage and we will be sure to send you one of those little nifty yellow bracelets.