California....knows how to party....

WOO HOO we made it out of New England! After weeks (ok, 4 days) of trying Todd and I finally got on an airplane and to our astonishment...it actually left the ground! ::claps:: If there is an award for holiday travel perseverance, I definitely think we should be in the running. ::takes a bow::

We ended up landing in California just around midnight on Christmas Eve and jumped into a week of parties and celebration. We had such a good time. We have so much fun hanging out with my sis, her husband, Adam and my folks and I loved being in a place that didn't have snow!

We are still so bummed that we couldn't make it to Seattle. Todd's family was never far from our thoughts, mother nature just had other plans, I guess. :( We will get there soon!

Cute family on Christmas eve.

Opening our gifts on Christmas morning, we were very spoiled.

The boys playing with their new GPSs

Hanging at Grandma's on Christmas day.

Grandma with all the grandkids

Cute grandma

Off to Disneyland! Its been a tradition for years to go to Disneyland at Christmas. I was such a spoiled kid!

Cheeky hubs on Tarzan's treehouse.

With my moms. Excuse the black teeth we were drinking red wine at the Disney winery.

Aren't they a beautiful couple?

Silly boys at California Adventure. They are too cute.

I wish we could do the whole week again. With all the flights we booked and all the waiting in airports it was so worth it. I would also like to thank the fine crew at Southwest Airlines. You guys seemed to pull off what no other airline was capable of by flying us out of RI. Now if I can just convince United to give us back our miles. ::sighs::

Snow Days!

Since we decided to forgo our daily trip up to Logan Airport we thought we might as well just enjoy the snow!

Hello!

Toddi making a snow angel

Building a snowman

Very handsome hubs

Our snowman

Seattle or Bust

A couple trips to Logan International Airport, a short time relaxing on the runway and we are still in Newport! UGH! I will never ever second guess the weather report again, this is just crazy. We thought we did everything right. We were so nervous about driving in the snow that we left work early on Friday and hurried up to Boston and arrived just a few minutes before the snow stated. Then we checked in for our 6pm flight to Boston and happily hung out in our terminal. 8 hours later we were still in our terminal. At around 10:30 we finally boarded our plane, got settled in, went through the emergency procedures, taxied out to the runway, de-iced the plane and then just after 11pm our flight got cancelled. Apparently our flight crew maxed out the amount of time they were allowed to fly in a 24 hour period. So the pilot turned us around and drove us back to our gate. Annoyed but not beaten, we drove through the snow back to Newport to decide what we should do next.

Flash forward to the next morning. We woke up, grabbed our computer and immediately booked another flight to Seattle. We reloaded the car and headed back to Boston. We were Coyers on a mission. Ten minutes after we got in line to check in, we were alerted that Seattle had closed their airport due to another storm and that our flight was cancelled. No flights were going to Seattle that day. UGH! This time, completely beaten, we gave up. We got back in our car and headed back in the snow to Newport.

We are so bummed. We had so many plans with Todd's family. I guess we will have to wait for another time, it just wasn't meant to be. :( ::sighs::

Very hopeful on the way to Boston

Defeated on the way home. :(

And New England Storm Watch 2008 Continues...

Ok this is getting serious. School has been cancelled, Todd's base has been closed, and my neighbor has wrapped a plastic tent around his porch and I have yet to see a cloud on the horizon. Now I realize I am no meteorologist however I do feel like I 'am smarter than the average bear' and I have no idea what the hoopla is about. We are in the northeast for goodness sakes, aren't we used to snow storms? People are seriously freaking out! Ugh I guess time will tell but I have been checking out the Doppler and so far I'm not seeing any storm.

Do planes take off in the snow?

UPDATE: This storm is definitely on the doppler now. I seriously do not give meteorologists enough credit.

I need a New England Storm manual...Where do we get a porch tent?

Gah!

I love snow and have been hoping for a good dusting for a few weeks now. Well it looks like my prayers have been answered...on the day that we fly home. I'm not concerned that we will miss it but I worry that our travels home may become a bit more difficult to see our families. I really hope this doesn't affect our flights. :( ::keeping fingers crossed::

Maybe this will pass by tomorrow?

And the redhead falls silent....

Dear Vocal cords,

Are you mad at me? Where did you go? I realize that we have been dealing with a cold for the last few weeks but going on strike is by no means the way to deal with this. We are a team. This morning I woke up, went to say good morning to my sweet hubs and nothing. I tried a little harder and just squeaked. No voice what-so-ever. This is totally unacceptable. I have things to say, comments to make. For example, this afternoon Todd did something really funny and when I went to razz him about it absolutely nothing came out...then in return I was razzed for not being able to deliver witty comments...is that what you want? I sincerely hope not. If you can see to it to heal yourself up, I would be most appreciative.

Thanks,
Shan

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

First snow of the season! Yea!

Brrr! I really need to find those gloves. ::smacks head again::

Good Wine and good friends...

I have the coolest coworkers. Every day at work we just laugh and laugh. A few weeks ago, bonded by our love for wine, we decided that we should have a wine tasting party. Due to its proximity to downtown (in case we wanted to take our party on the road) we chose Casa Coyay as our venue. The rules were simple: Grab your hubs, 2 bottles of wine and a dish that paired well with it. We ended up having a ton of food and ton of wine and a ton of fun. I love these ladies!

The set up before all the chaos started

Jess, Brett, Mike, Don, Paul and Todd all demonstrating the proper way of swirling wine before tasting

Todd and Amy

Time to eat

The ladies: Cyndi, Jess, Kathy, Shan and Amy.

We learned here that taking a picture after many glasses of wine is a bit harder to organize.

Cheers!

It's Christmas Time!

We love Christmas and this year we are so excited to spend it with our families. We also could not wait to bust out all the decorations that we had collected this past year. There is just something about a sparkly tree that just gets you into that holiday spirit.

Our pretty home

Merry Christmas!