2008 – Page 4 – Ben and Alonna

Fixing up the house

This Spring Ben and I are fixing up the house and yard. Since we’re trying to move closer to work (Eagle area), we’re planning on either selling or renting out this current house. But there is a decent amount of maintenance that we’ve been opting-out of for the past few years. If you haven’t already learned this lesson – it turns out that if you put off yard work for 3 years, it’s MUCH harder to get it back under control. Especially when it involves rapidly spreading vines…

Here’s a photo from last year of the front of our house. Notice the vines crawling up near the front door – they extend all the way around that nook on the side of the garage.

We cut out all of the vines, dug up an old tree stump, and painstakingly pulled all the vines off of the side of the house, sanded what they left behind, and painted. We also painted the front door, put in an azalea plant and woodchips. Here’s some photos:

We also added knobs and drawer handles in the kitchen:

And here’s a couple random photos – Ben planting peppers in the garden, and a praying mantis we found on our house:

June 25, 2008

Another 1st Place! – Volleyball

I have to say I do enjoy winning 🙂 Last night I won another 1st place victory – this time in a Volleyball Tournament. The tournament was organized by some volleyball players at HP. It’s played on the grass with four people on a team. We played on Wednesday nights for three weeks in a row, and it just finished last night. It was a lot of fun, here’s a photo of the entire group (32 players).

(I’m in the front row, middle-left, light blue shirt)

June 19, 2008

Kim’s Visit

June 13-15
My sister Kim visited with her friend and fellow hat afficionado Marissa
Stopped at the hot springs in Loman, ID
Drove to Stanley, ID
Stayed in Ketchum / Sun Valley, ID
- Hiked to a lookout point at the ski resort
- Kim and Marissa signed up for Paragliding. The wind did not cooperate.
- Unique wildlife seen: one bald eagle, one fox, one elk, and several distinctive birds.
The next day we biked on the Boise greenbelt to Anne Morrison park and played Frisby Golf
- This is the basic concept
- Proper technique
- A scenic picture on the way home

June 16, 2008

Soccer Tournament – 1st Place!

Last weekend I played in a soccer tournament in Boise. My team is the Royal Bombers and we’ve been playing together for about 4 years. We play outdoor soccer in the Fall and Spring, and indoor soccer during the winter. We’re in Division 1 of the Southern Idaho Soccer League (there are 3 divisions, we’re in the middle but are moving up next year). The playoffs for our division ended in a 3-way tie, so to make it to the championship game we had to do a 3-way shoot-out (penalty kicks). We had 6 people take penalty kicks before we won the shoot-out, and I was one of them – and I made it! Then we went on to win the division title in the championship game. It was a fun weekend, but 4 games in 2 days is completely exhausting!

June 12, 2008

Thursday Bike Rides

For the past four or five years, a group of friends at work have gone on weekly mountain bike rides in the summer, usually followed by beer and pizza. Here’s a photo from last week’s bike ride; we did the Corrals trail with a pretty large group.

June 11, 2008

Kitty Hawk, NC

A Bullet-Point Blog by Ben

Weekend of May 9th, 2008
Visit with the Scott family
- 5 siblings (Bonnie, Ben, Jon, Beth, Kim)
- 3 spouses (Jose, Alonna, Amanda)
- 4 children (Joseph, Joshua, Amanda, Alissa)
- 1 grandmother (Robin)
Table tennis, grilling, photo-sharing, balloon-folding, and long walks on the beach
Weather was cold and windy, with a dash of tornado
Photos… (more…)

June 6, 2008

Costa Rica

Machu Picchu

Canyoning in Costa Rica

11 Photos

La Fortuna, Costa Rica

34 Photos

Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica

15 Photos

Monteverde, Costa Rica

28 Photos

January 27, 2008

Back Home

After a full day of traveling, Ben and I are back home safe and sound. Our trip was so much fun, but as always, it’s nice to be home.

Things I like about coming home:

Familiar foods – Ben and I had hamburgers with fries and REAL ketchup in the LAX airport, yum. Today we’re looking forward to hitting Quizno’s.
Sleeping in our own bed
Catching up on my favorite TV shows (Chuck, Best Week Ever, Project Runway, etc). Plus – LOST starts next week!
Thinking about where to take our next trip

Things I dislike about coming home:

Cold weather!
Unpacking
Laundry and other chores
Back to work and normal life

Happy travels,
Alonna

January 27, 2008

Costa Rica Day 5 and 6 – La Fortuna

On Wednesday we hiked to La Fortuna Waterfall. It was very pretty and we had fun climbing around on the rocks and trying not to die (or get soaked). Here’s some photos (we’re in some of these, click on them to see the bigger size).

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the other side of the volcano – driving around on random dirt roads, etc. We found a hotel that has excellent views of the Arenal Volcano and Lake Arenal, so we got a drink and hung out on their balcony for a while. It’s fun to have a car and just explore a place like Costa Rica. We were never sure where we were going or what we’d find, and sometimes that’s when you find the most interesting things!

On Thursday we rented mountain bikes and biked on dirt roads amidst local houses and farms. We were given a map (if you can call it that), with a line on it that was supposed to lead us to a river. We took lots of turns and never did find the river. But it was still pretty and interesting to see how the locals live. We didn’t many pictures, but here’s a good one of Ben.

Later we went to Arenal Volcano National Park, and did a hike near the volcano. The path led us to a large lava rock field from an eruption in 1992. During the hike, we could hear the volcano rumbling and large boulders tumbling down the mountain. Don’t worry, this is always happening. Still, it was a little creepy, and you can’t help but wonder what would happen if there was a large eruption. The signs saying “Enter at your own risk” don’t help either. Here’s some pictures from the hike.

This is what the forests look like here – very green and lush. And here’s Ben swingng on one of the hanging vines.

We saw Tucans!

We’re in San Jose now, and our flight leaves tomorrow. It’s been a really fun trip and we love Costa Rica – I think we’ll have to come back some day.

Thanks for reading!

Alonna

January 25, 2008

Costa Rica Day 3 and 4 – La Fortuna

Yesterday (Monday) we made our way over more rough roads and through more beautiful scenery, to the town of La Fortuna. This area is famous for the Arenal Volcano, which is an active volcano. So far it’s been mostly cloudy around the peak, so we haven’t seen much. But hopefully one night we’re here it will be clear and we can see it spewing red lava.

Here’s some photos from the drive here. The country side was really pretty. We also drove around Lake Arenal, which is popular for wind surfing. Now we know why – it was VERY windy all around the lake.

While driving, we found a bunch of cars stopped to look at these small racoon-like animals. We’re not sure what they’re called, but they were pretty cute and let us get up close to take photos.

Here’s some photos of the volcano and our awesome hotel. The hotel has beautiful landscaping, lots of humming birds, and an amazing view of the volcano from our cabin porch. Also, the maid created an elephant out of our towels today!

Have you ever tried to take a picture of a humming bird? It’s really difficult! The first picture I managed to catch one sitting still, the send is the result of lots of out-of-focus shots.

Today we took a really fun “Canyoning” tour. We hiked and repelled through a small canyon in the jungle. The repells were over waterfalls, two of them were pretty big. We had a blast, and even managed to keep our camera dry.

As you can see, we’re having a great time here. The weather and scenery have been beautiful. The next two days we’re hoping to get in some mountain biking, a hot springs visit, hiking and sightseeing, and hopefully we’ll get to see the lava at night.

Salud! (Cheers)
Alonna

January 22, 2008

Category: 2008