Australia/New Zealand

This is our adopted son, Hogan.  We let him stay in Kuranda because he likes it there. :-)

The sexiest man in snorkeling gear ever. :-) The Aviator got to see some fantastic fishies and reef!!

In a semi submersible something or other at the Reef.  This made me sea sick for the third time that day. Lame.  :-)

Day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef on a day with high sea and severe wind warnings= Caitlin throwing up 3 times!!! :-(

On our way out to the Reef, our boat stopped at Green Island.  Usually it's a beautiful, tropical oasis. The day we were there, it was rainy, windy, and coldy.  :-)

While we were in Cairns, we went horseback riding.  It was FANTASTIC!  I was glad to get to ride one more time before the baby comes in the Spring.  The Aviator is a natural!

Breakfast in the Southern Hemisphere made me SO happy! This was the Aviator's brekky before horseback riding.  This has followed us home as we now grill/roast a tomato and have beans and poached eggs with brekky! SO good!

First train ride in Sydney Australia.  We are so used to how clean the trains are in Japan, that we were really disappointed when the seat we chose had McDonald's trash and a banana peel on the floor underneath. :-( You might even be able to see the tasteful glass etching done on the window there.

Coffee.  Espresso.  What more can I say?  This presentation is the norm in Australia and New Zealand from what we experienced.  As you know, the Aviator and I are rather excitable when it comes to coffee so this was quite a treat! :-)

After a VERY long day of walking all around Sydney, I needed to take a break.  We plopped down on a park bench right across from the Sydney Opera House in the middle of a beautiful park.  That 20 minute rest saved my life, I think...

We took lots and lots of 'long arms' on this trip so it was nice when we could find a stranger with a nice camera of their own to snap a photo for us on our camera.  You'd be very amused by what some people think is a good picture! Ha ha!

The sun FINALLY came out while we were in Sydney so we took the opportunity to hit Bondi beach! It was so beautiful! The water was nice and cold.  :-) Look at how clear it is though!!!

Nothing like a rejuvenating day at the beach with the love of your life! :-)

In one of the many public parks, we stumbled upon this HUGE chess game in the middle of the park! The Aviator kicked my butt once and then this kind old man offered to give the Aviator a taste of that medicine! It was awesome!  The Aviator definitely met his match that day!

After spending one week in Australia, we hopped on over to Auckland, New Zealand.  Our first stop while in Auckland was Waiheke Island.  It was beautiful!  They have a Live Music Museum that we were both really excited to visit!  The piano pictured above belonged to a famous pianist and was left in Auckland by him when he had to leave on short notice a while ago.  It's VERY old and VERY beautiful!  The best part about this museum is that you are allowed to play the instruments! 

After the museum and lunch, we headed down to the beach.  While we were there, this dog adopted us to play with her! I was trying to just take a picture of the Aviator with the water in front of him but this mutt had other  plans! 

After visiting Auckland we hopped down to the South island and visited Nelson where my lovely cousin and her adorable family live!  This is the view from the cottage we stayed in at Harris Hill Cottages.  Sue and Mike Harris are absolute sweet hearts! 

Tom.  We love this dog. :-)

Tallest rosemary plant I've ever seen in my life!! It smelled AMAZING! ;-)

How would you like to wake up to this face every morning? Beautiful!

The Aviator and I really wanted to get in to the skies, for different reasons of course!  His reason was for fun and my reason was for reliving one of my favorite memories together! This is a panoramic view from the cockpit.  We were able to have my fantastic cousin Meghan join us for the flight! It was breathtaking! 

Boulder Lake

Coastal cliffs.  

The Centre of New Zealand! :-)

3+ years, 5 addresses, 3 states, 2 countries...

Three years ago, I had just arrived back in Phoenix with the Aviator and we had decided, only hours earlier, that we would be married.  The picture below was taken in Penticton, B.C. Canada.  At this point in our Canada adventure, neither one of us noticed the tugging on our hearts that would eventually become so strong they would be impossible to ignore.  At the time of this picture, we had flown 11.4 hours with 2 stops in between, from Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix.  We knew one thing at this point.  TIRED.  :-)

As time passed on this adventure, things became very clear to both of us.  We are Soul Mates.  I don't know how many people even believe in such a thing.  I do believe that this man was created to be my husband and that's that!

So fast forward three years.  What an adventure we've been on!  The trip to Canada was just the start!  The following photo is from our latest vacation to Australia and New Zealand.  This was from the New Zealand-half of the trip.  It was so fun to have the Aviator flying in a little plane again!  My wonderful cousin, Meghan, was able to join us.  It was fantastic!

So here we are, after landing on the grass.  It was a cool feeling standing next to that airplane with my husband.  And now my hair is longer than his! Ha ha! :-)

LIT-SEA Roadtrip

That's right.  We drove from Little Rock, AR to Seattle, WA in a short 5 days.  I will never forget that roadtrip.  The Aviator and I rented a mini-van so that we could fit both dog kennels and our 4 suitcases without being too cramped.  It was worth every dime!   Usually being 'stuck' in a car for 63 hours/6 days with a person is considered a bad thing.  Not for us!  I am positive that my husband is the best roadtrip buddy in the world! AND I married him! Score!! :-)

Dax and Penny did very well with their crates and we rewarded them by letting them get out once settled in, to take a nap on the passenger's lap or the back seat.  This was a treasured time for them as well!  I'm sure they realize how cool it was to see Yosemite and Crater Lake, or to enjoy an occassional meat patty from In N Out... They are very grateful. I'm sure. Dax proved it by peeing in our new apartment within hours of moving in.  I know, right? What a guy! :-P

So we left Little Rock in the afternoon on June 28th.  Then we drove right on through to Phoenix.  We were on a mission.  

Mission: LIT-SEA in 6 days

Objective: Eat In N Out as many times as possible(Check), arrive at SEA-TAC in time to make our flight to YOKOTA (Check).

Mission Accomplished.

In N Out #177.  Where it all started. :-)
PS. I could really go for some INO right about now... 

Great gathering of friends at Oregano's in Phoenix! Delicious!! 

And a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house is never complete without some pool time, right?  Dax and Penny half-loved and half-hated this pool experience.  They enjoyed staying on that shelf that I'm sitting on and that was about it!  :-)

The next part of our journey began on July 1st.  We left Phoenix bright and early.  On our way out of town we stopped for coffee and pottied the dogs.  I can't tell you how surprised I was when we actually finished off a poo-poo bag roll... I never would've imagined actually using all of them! It does happen people... Especially on road trips... With two dogs...

We drove to California next.  We stopped in Palm Springs to visit my Aunt and Uncle and their 5 wonderful kids!  It was so great to see the Aviator meet some more of my family!  My little cousins are not so little anymore and that made me feel like an old-fart.  Then my Uncle gave us a tour of his Police Department.  It was fantastic!

We met up with my sister's family in LA a bit after lunch time.   Of course, we had In N Out for lunch on the road... Duh! :-)

For dinner we had Mexican food and after living in the South for as long as we have, I'd say we've earned it... :-)  My Daddy, Michell, Dave, Hunter, and My Love.  What a treasured group. :-)

My Bestie! Miss you B!!!

Kind of an awkward picture of me but my sister and niece look fabulous! :-)

We stayed the night at my Dad's house and then continued on up the 5 enroute to Yosemite.  

It was a beautiful, clear day! 

The Valley

Aviator and Penny-Dog

We drove through the valley from the West end and exited the East end.  It took a while but the drive was absolutely stunning!  We took the 395 up to Reno to visit my other sister and her hubby.  We stayed one night there and continued North through Nevada and back in to California into Oregon.  Our next destination was Crater Lake. 

Family portrait

Dinner on July 2nd was a MRE!  We split the last MRE from Aviator's SERE training.    It was the best dinner ever!    We heated it up on the battery of the car while we walked around at the top of Crater Lake.  We were SO cold, that even being able to have a mostly, warm dinner that evening was a huge blessing.  It was very tasty!

That oughta do it... We didn't have the heating element that typically comes with these meals.

Checking for doneness after about 20 minutes under the hood... Almost there!

Perfect!! We also enjoyed ozmotic cranberries and whole wheat crackers with cheese sauce.  Thank you, Hubby for our wonderful dinner!  It was SO good!

Beautiful sunset, right before leaving Crater Lake.

Very cool Panaramic of Crater Lake.  The sun was starting to go down.  It was perfect.  I can honestly say that this was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life.  It was so quiet and huge.  It was 40 Degrees up there in July and there were still roads closed due to several feet of snow blocking the way.   We stuck around until after dark.  It was hard to drive away from this place!

Next Stop: Eugene, OR.  We stopped in Eugene for sleep.  We pulled in to our hotel at around 11:00 PM, as tired as we could possibly be.  It was even more tiring to unload dogs, acclimate/potty dogs, and drag our suitcases up the stairs of the hotel.  To make it all worth it, we asked for a hot tub... And we got it!  They had a HUGE hot-tub suite at an amazing price!! So relaxing!  The dogs settled in eventually and everyone got a nice full night of rest.

We were off again early in the morning.  We weren't quite sure what our plans were for the evening.  It was now the 4th of July.  We decided to just go ahead and drive to the coast and try to get in touch with a good friend in Portland.  We were still pretty tired from the day before so we took it easy, stopping when we pleased to take a few worthwhile pictures of course.

Yup.  You're reading that right!  This was West of Corvallis, where there is a whole lot of not much until you get to Newport, on the coast.  We stopped in Lincoln Beach  for lunch and were too hungry to take pictures... 2 starving Copelands=an ugly mess.  :-)

We did hear from our friend in Portland, so that solidified our decision to not try and push it too much tonight.  We stopped in to visit her and saw this GIANT test rose garden.  It was one of the most beautiful things I've seen as far as roses go...  Growing up, my Mom always had several rose bushes in our yard.  One of the houses we lived in had over 40 of them!  So they definitely hold a special place in my heart!

We had some espresso and crepes at a very cool shop in Portland with our friend Launa.  It was AMAZING! :-)

Pikes Place.  Love it! This was the day that we left the country.  We had crumpets and coffee for breakfast and then took our picture in front of the first Starbucks.  Then we headed to Oak Harbor to visit some very good friends for lunch/dinner and then drove back to Seattle to catch our flight.  

Once we got to the airport, we had to unload the car and return the rental.  Jeff took care of returning the rental and I decided to try to get in to the airport with 2 crates and 4 suitcases, 1 pillow and 2 backpacks. So I ended up staying put. Right there on the curb.  That's when it hit me.  My eyes welled up with tears and I choked them back thinking about what an awesome adventure this was going to be.  Two seconds later, I was fine and 100% excited about our new adventure!

We got checked in for our flight and then got the dogs out and walked them around as much as possible before making them endure more of their crates.  We waited around with them until 11:00 PM and then  turned them over to the Air Crew.   We headed to the USO to have some soup and soda.  It was nice to just have a place to sit down and feel like you belonged there!  It was my first experience with  a USO and this one was complete with sleeping quarters, showers, couches, TVs, gaming systems and fresh food in the fridge.  They had all sorts of goodies laid out for the military members and their families to enjoy! What a neat thing!

Then the time came.  We walked up to the gate where everyone was laying on the floor or on a bench, completely asleep.  Our flight didn't actually leave until 1:30 AM, so after checking in at 10:00, people got pretty tired and just crashed, right there on the floor in the middle of the airport.  The Aviator and I were too anxious to sleep just then. Once we boarded the plane, we were glad to know that we actually got to sit together!  They played a few movies and had breakfast/snack served up almost within the hour.  We landed in Alaska and then were stranded for 4 hours, delaying our flight about 2 hours.  The poor dogs were stuck on the plane the entire time.  We felt really bad for them.  The annoying part of all of this was that there was NOWHERE to get food or drink.  We were like partitioned off in a tiny little corridor of the entire airport and then left there with nobody there to answer questions.  Lots of people left all of their belongings on the plane because it was supposed to be a quick refueling stop.  

Finally, we boarded the plane around 8:00 AM.  This was going to be the last leg of the trip.   Yokota here we come.   We fell asleep on this part of the trip and slept the entire time.  We woke up just as we began the decsent into Tokyo airspace.  It was very cool to look out the window to see all of the rolling hills and farm land.  It was beautiful!  AND we got the equivalent of a full night's sleep! So when we got off of the plane at 9:00 AM, we felt pretty rested!  Just stinky.  I couldn't wait for a shower. :-)

Our sweet friends, George and Chelsea picked us up with both of their cars so that we could fit the kennels and the luggage in one trip.  The dogs went straight to the boarding place and then we went straight to George and Chelsea's house to get a shower and then some coffee! Much needed at that point!  

The overall experience was pretty positive.   I would say that being stuck in Alaska was the most annoying part of the trip.  Once we got on the ground in Yokota, we just flew through customs and since the paper work was so good for the dogs, they didn't need to be in quarantine!  Huge bonus! :-)

We're all settled in to our new house now.  We just got our furniture after living here more than a month... So it's great to have our bed and couches back after almost 10 months.   I will post more pictures of Japan in the next update! For now, keep us in your prayers! :-)

Sayonara!