bungeeeee

the quality of this video isnt the best... i had to do some tweeking with it so that i could load it onto the blog. since it was not shot in the traditional landscape view (thanks hannah) i had to rotate it, thus making the video about half the size of the window... oh well, you get the idea. this is apparently the first commercial bungee site in the world. 150+ feet in about 8 or so seconds plus a little dip into the river... they put two bungee cords on me just to be on the safe side :) sweet az!

snowed in...

anything the mcdowell's do, we can do better...we can do anything better than them...HA! just kidding :) the mcdowell's reported a nor'easter a couple weeks ago, here in spokane when something like that happens...we just call it a storm :) when we got back from 95 degree weather in Fiji, there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground. since then we have accumulated well over a foot! aaron had to work when about 8 inches of that came down on saturday & sunday... to document this eventful occasion, we got bundled up for a ten minute walk out and around the park to take some pic pics... another blog update successfully made... yessss!








p.s.
megan just informed me that i forgot to update the halo score... here it is to the best of my recollection.

Team Gibbs | "a lot"
Team McD's | "not so much"

study...study...study...

my life the past couple of weeks, and for the next couple of weeks, has been taken over by NCLEX review books!

the big test is scheduled for february 9th. who ever heard of studying for 5+ hours a day AFTER you graduate from school? such a strange concept. it's been hard to get back into the study mode, but i'm looking forward to becoming a real registered nurse after passing the NCLEX and getting my license. i start general hospital orientation at holy family here in spokane on february 4th, and after passing the test, get to start orientation the following week in the ER :) 

all i can think about while studying diabetic ketoacidosis, post-op care of a tracheostomy, signs of addisonian crisis, and the thousands of side effects and nursing considerations of meds (just to name a few) is wanting to be here...along the west coast of the south island of new zealand...

new zealand part 6

we are home... we are actually in bellevue right now. i fly back to spokane tomorrow, and megan on saturday. i go back to work on friday, and megan begins studying for the nclex. stepping off the plane in seattle was just as shocking as fiji. in fiji the sweat starts dripping from your nose within minutes, and in seattle you are shivering within minutes :) here are a few pictures from the trip. there are many more from ryan that we are going to rely on with a few of ours thrown in... we will probably make a link an album within the next couple of weeks. cheers


after the wedding adam joined us for a little road trip to the north point of the south island. we camped, it rained, we got wet. it was sweet as cramming all of us and our luggage into the station wagon... here's a picture of the guys.


here is ryan doing his thing.


this was the most frightening part of the trip... sadly we dropped adam off after two days back in nelson so that he could make his return flight to auckland... (good times adam, good times) the rest of us headed down the west coast and then cut across to wanaka and queenstown then shot up the middle through christchurch. in queenstown ryan and i went bungy jumping... pics and video pending...


we had a real fiji experience when we went in to the town in nadi... this guy found us outside the grocery and told us that we needed to go and experience real fiji... "go down the road turn left, go straight and turn right, and there you will find real fiji experience..." so we found a food market and then headed to the bus when this guy shows up again... he says no you must come this way... he leads us down a couple of streets to this ally while talking to us about his shop and how its authentic fiji etc. megan and i begin to have second thoughts but this guy insisted... on the balcony there were three locals there to greet us, waving us up to their shop. it was very very sketch, but turned out alright. we had traditional drink called "kava" (blessing/chant/clapping and the whole bit), we chatted and bartered, and then hurried to our bus... the bus is a whole other story. there are many more stories we could share, too many stories to blog about, (im no steve allen), you will just have to ask about them in person or skype :)


this is at the hostel/resort that we stayed at in fiji... we all got a little burned in different places, continuous sweating was unavoidable...


the shitty weather (apparently this word is better received then 'crap' in kiwi land) on the west coast in NZ put a damper on our hopes for some sweet as sunsets... we lucked out on the last night of our holiday... this photo is mint!

oh, the guy in fji told us to make sure an tell all our friends and family that it is safe to visit fiji again... "there are no more cannibals... come have holiday here in beautiful fiji... peace, joy, love, harmony..." so there ya go.

new zealand part 5

i guess the title of this post should actually be fiji... oh well. we are just about to head into nadi for wee bit, and then come back to the hostel for dinner. then its off to the airport where a 10+ hour flight takes us into LA. we are actually going back in time... we leave fiji at 10 pm on january 15th and get back to the states at 2pm on january 15th... crazy! the southern hemisphere was nice, but i am actually looking forward to seeing snow again, megan is not :)

new zealand part 4

we are in the auckland airport, heading to nadi, fiji... its 85 degrees (feels like 95) and raining. but we got a sweet hostel right on the beach, should be nice and relaxing.

here is a picture taken on the west coast of the south island, we will back home driving on the RIGHT side of the road before ya know it!

new zealand part 3

how awesome is technology... right now im sitting in an internet cafe watching the seahawks game on my laptop... brilliant!

new zealand part 2

im sitting in a McDonalds while i wait for the rental car place to open... i cant tell you enough how much i appreciate high speed internet! it took me what seemed half an hour to check three emails the other day at hannah's parents house (ippy's in-laws), steve, i feel for you bro... it is the ultimate test of patience.

nick and hannah got married off, and it was oowesome (thats kiwi for awesome... two o's for double oowesome!) we had heaps of fun already (heaps is my new favorite word). we are picking up our rental car this morning and are heading up to golden bay to camp for a couple of days. then we drop off adam back in nelson and head down the west coast, through the glaciers and then to queenstown for a couple of days and then jet back up the east coast to fly out of nelson on the 13th.

the hardest part about driving on the wrong side of the road is getting in and out of the car, at least for me it is really awkward :) when we told folks here that on our first day in auckland we got a rental and were driving around in the city we got laughed out of the kitchen! they couldnt believe they give foreigners cars for hire just like that... it was quite mad, we only got honked at 3 times and drove towards oncoming traffic once (that was me). the other thing you have to get use to is that the turn signal is on the right side of the stirring wheel... we often had the wind shield wipers declaring our turning intentions while figuring out which land to go into (the wipers are where we would normally use the turn signal).

no pictures yet, i couldnt get on the wireless with the laptop... but ryan has got... heaps of oowesome photos that im sure will be on here when we get back to the states if not sooner.

we are safe and having a grand old time with our tans/sun burn (pray for ryans melon, it doesnt like the lack of o-zone layer here in the southern hemisphere :)

cheers