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.

Back in Taiwan

So I went back to Taiwan for work last week, this time without Aaron. It's funny that all the other times I have been to Taiwan I never had Aaron with me and it seemed just fine. But this time, now that he had set the precedent, it just didn't seem the same. It was still really good to see old friends though and get to do a little exploring. I had one of our former BCC students take me somewhere I had never been (and didn't even know existed), a hot springs museum, so I thought I'd share a couple photos. Here I am in front of the old pool:


Taiwan has hot springs all over the island, but just north of Taipei is where they were first discovered. When the Japanese came to rule over Taiwan, they built this public bathhouse as a way for all people to be able to bathe in the hot springs water and therefore partake of its healing properties.



If you are really interested in reading the full story, you can go to this site: http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/gogo/goen_33.htm. Fascinating, I assure you. Here is another shot of us outside where they tap the water in from:

American Idol Crazy

It's true. I am now a weekly watcher. Aaron's family has sucked me right in--it's family bonding time!! But you really should check out the David Archuleta videos and song on the playlist to the right. He's pretty impressive.