Old Friends in New Places

As many as you know, I was back on the road again recently for work. Aaron was a little worried about me making this trip alone while being pregnant, but I couldn't convince him to go with me. So instead I twisted the arm of my good friend Jennie Arrington. We have known each other since we were eight years old, but haven't spent much time together since her family moved from Texas to Florida and mine to Washington. Atthe last minute she was able to go with me to three of the four cities on my latest recruiting trip and I thought I would share some photos of the places we were able to go when I wasn't running around to all my appointments. This first one is of us at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.



This giant Buddha is at a monastery that is located not too far from where I served my last area of my mission in Kaohsiung, but it was just far enough as a missionary to not have taken the trip to see it. This was only one of thousands and thousands of Buddhas we saw that day, but it was definitely the most impressive!



This is still at the monastery, but we were DYING it was so hot!!! I thought it was hot enough being pregnant in Washington, but those 2.5 weeks in Asia really did me in, I tell you what. Jennie and I had to reward ourselves for our forbearance of the unbearable heat with a little ice cream. From that day on out, ice cream was all I wanted.



From Taiwan we went to Hong Kong and actually had the sunniest weather I have ever seen there. For our first day we were able to take the Ferry across to Hong Kong island before I started working and actually got some nice views.



This one is taken from "The Peak" looking down to the Harbor below. The last time I was in Hong Kong, pretty much all we could see from up here were clouds and smog, so Jennie and I were definitely excited.



This was also my first time to go to the Hong Kong temple. I don't know if you can even tell I am in the picture, but I am that tiny little dot in front. We had enough time on our last day to go through a session and meet a friendly old man afterward. He was so chatty, wanted to tell us his whole life story, and then wouldn't you know it, we ran into him the next day at church too! And I ran into my mission president's wife as I was heading into the ladies' room. It's a small world, I tell you what.



So there we have just a few pictures, though Jennie took about 500 I think. If you want to see a few ore you can check out my Facebook (if you are my Facebook friend, of course!!). Hope it's convincing all of you to want to come on my next trip with me!!

Sharing Time

Hey folks! I know some of you complain that we don't write in here often enough, and it looks like it has been another month!! I figured I ought to come on here though and let everyone know that hasn't already heard or observed my burgeoning size, but I am prengant!! For those of you who haven't heard, I apologize for the impersonal blog, but we just haven't been the best at broadcasting our news. I am 16 weeks along, which gives us a due date of December 16th. In case you are curious, here is an idea of what a 16 week fetus looks like.



I think the worst of my morning sickness has passed and I am starting to feel much better now. Except for the wild hormonal emotional swings that is--thanks Aaron for being so patient with me and such a big help and support!

We are scheduled for our ultrasound on August 1st after I get back from my next trip, so we will be sure to post those pictures and let you know what the sex of the little one is. Hope all is well!

Baria Family Bonding

So for Memorial Day weekend we Barias have a tradition of taking a little family vacation. Okay, so this is only our third time doing it, but we had to come up with new traditions now that most everyone is out of the house, we no longer have the Aerostar, and no longer drive to Utah all together each summer. This time we headed down to Sunriver, OR for the weekend and had a great time. Not great weather, but a great time.

Here is part of the clan going rafting down the Deschutes. It was actually the perfect weather for hitting the water, but that was right before it started hailing!!



Here is a good action shot of us so that you can tell we were really working hard and truly becoming one with nature.



The next day we took a quick jaunt down to the beautiful Crater Lake. Here are Aaron and I at the top of the lake... before it started hailing.




The last day of the trip we came home via Silver Falls State Park. It's this really beautiful park where you can hike to TEN different water falls! The whole clan hiked to the first one.



Here is a great shot of just the two of us.



The end.

Changing your Name

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought it would be fun to do:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 2,034 people with my name in the U.S.A. http://howmanyofme.com">How many have your name?

It actually tells you the statistics of both of your names too! I thought I would do a little comparison with my maiden name since I was always so proud of its uniqueness:

HowManyOfMe.com

There is 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Can you believe I went from the ONLY one in the country with my name to one of 2000?!?! And Aaron wondered why changing my name was so much to swallow at first. I know, I know, it's so hard for me to feel like as much of an individual, but I am doing my best!! I went from having the 75677th most popular last name to the 10th most popular. So in reality I should feel pretty cool!! Let's see how cool Aaron is:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1,145 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Fun Times in Alaska

Hey everyone! So this is my first time on this blog. Hasn't Becca done a great job?! I decided to give her a little break for Mother's Day : ) Anyways, I know you're all dying to hear about our Alaska trip so I'll give you a little run-down and then show some sweet pics of bears and whales and all that cool animal planet stuff. I went up to Juneau, AK last Monday for a convention for work. It was very beautiful (not quite as beautiful as Seattle, but close). I didn't know Juneau was in a rainforest and that the area receives about 150 inches of moisture per year. No more complaining about rain in Seattle! The first couple days were pretty fun. Just worked and ate at local places and chatted with the locals. The coolest part of the first day was going down on the water and seeing a few whales and a beautiful Alaska sunset (I have a picture of it later on in the post)

When Becca arrived we had a lot of fun going around and seeing the sites of Juneau. I think our favorite day was taking the glacier tour to Tracy Arm. The sun was shining and the whales, bears, birds, and mountain goats were out as well. Here are a few pictures:



Becca and I in front of a glacier holding some glacial Ice





In the distance there's a whale spouting...if you squint your eyes hard enough you can see the whale!

Picture of ice calving from the glacier. It makes a huge crashing sound as it falls into the ocean and causes a wake in the icy water.

We saw a few goats, but this one actually posed for us and trimmed up his beard!

Here's the sunset I saw the day before Becca arrived.

This is a video of whales...the boat's a little loud so I apologize...we did see a whale that came right up next to our boat and when I went to take it's picture the battery died. I'm not lying...I promise!


So to sum everything up, Alaska's a beautiful place and full of adventure. We liked the wildlife and the beautiful scenery. However, after a few days we started getting restless and actually decided to come home to good old Washington where it still has ocean water, wildlife, beautiful scenery, civilization, and most importantly our family!

A Quick Florida Getaway

So I am not smart enough to have my slideshow be a part of my post, so I am doing them separately. Hopefully you will be able to see the pics and the message in the same place!! Anyway, Aaron's company is based in Fort Lauderdale so he invited me to go down with him for some good times. I probably had more good times than he did since he had training to go to, but we had great times together after he was finished. We checked out the Everglades, Miami, and Key West. It was a whirlwind trip, but a lot of fun!!

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Hey everyone! I know it has been awhile since I posted anything--I guess you can tell when I have a lot of down time in the hotel room by myself and when I am at home!! Today is Aaron's 30th birthday, so we thought we would share some pictures of our celebration. His sister Meghann had her birthday on Friday, so we had a fun joint party at their Mom's.



Then tonight we had a few friends over for a little sushi party. We got a kit as a wedding present and thought we would finally put it to use. It turns out we are all naturals and are thinking of opening up our own sushi restaurant. Aaron's birthday celebration continues next Sunday combined this time with my sister, so stay tuned for more birthday pics.