Rouse Family Adventures

My work requested I travel over Thanksgiving week.  I reluctantly agreed, "If no one else can go I guess I can jump on this grenade for the team, but you'll owe me."  So they flew me to Hawaii.  Brandon and Annabelle joined me after I was done with my work project and we turned it into a vacation.  The first half of the trip we stayed on the 15th floor of a posh hotel in Waikiki. It had a neat glass balcony that not only over looked the ocean but also a  parking garage littered in lost fallen shoes. I've never stayed in a place so luxurious- and was informed (in the parking garage) that I wasn't allowed to even park my own car-that was the valets job.  The second half of the trip we camped on the beach at a state park. There were 25 foot waves breaking off shore- it was mesmerizing to watch. At 4 am, the tides came in and we woke up in the salt water- floating on thermarests.  Locals told us the  next morning they've never seen anything like that ...

In 2013 we moved to Washington state. My mom's uncle and his family lived here but I had only previously met them a handful of times. They are super nice and invited us over for our first Washington Christmas and we also got invited to Annelisa and Brent's wedding.  The resort was pretty swanky and their gig was to rent artistic cabin suits made from old railroad box cars. Anyways, we didn't stay there, we found an over grown volley ball court and setup our tent.  For some reason we didn't hear much from Annalisa and Brent for awhile after their wedding. We like to think its because they were busy making two kids, and we were just really busy walking to top of mountains (and then walking back down).  That's why we didn't re-connect.  Fast forward a few years, two summers ago we met up with Annelisa and Brent via sail boating in the San Juans and had an excellent time. Their kids are super fun and energetic and they are raising their family in a free spirited way...