Drumroll Please...

I have been waiting on our wedding photos to arrive from Bolivia so I could post those babies and THEN share some honeymoon pictures...chronological order. Sounds good, right?

However, since our "fb wedding album" has seemingly be viewed by ALL of my blog audience and then some, I figured I'd jump right to the honeymoon!
**Probably at some point I'll pick my favorite wedding pics and post my own collage of that great day. But until then...enjoy our photographer's choices......I know we have:).

So.
Hawaii.
It was awesome.
It was beautiful.
It was romantic.
And, yes, it was filled with typical "megan" luck!

Some flight complications....some rental car problems....some getting-lost-on-the-way-to-the- airport-and-having-to-ask-for-directions-from-people-who-only-use-the-NUMBER OF-STOPLIGHTS-when-giving-directions problems....

Dang....I guess we're a package deal. Me and my traveling luck, we come together.
Poor Esteban.

However, Esteban brought some of his own bad luck into the marriage as well...

Snorkeling turns into protect-your-body-from-the-jagged-reefs.....boogie boarding turns into sea urchin attack..

Esteban reaped the benefits of that one.
Poor guy..thankfully he's the stronger of the 2 of us so we didn't have to spend 1/2 of our time in the hospital as we probably would have had to do it I were the one that had both heels filled with sea urchin spines!

Honestly, it was this on-going process of first being poisoned...then being slightly crippled...then pulling out the spines one by one until September 15th, when the LAST spine was removed! Thank you Lord both heels are looking normal again:)!

So all of that to say, we're basically even.

And now it's picture time....
Kaui....soo beautiful.
We loved just enjoying the great outdoors on this island.

"Looking Hawaiin" in our Hawaiian shirts!

No underwater camera at this point...but we wanted proof that we were actually SWIMMING with a sea turtle close enough to touch!!! I felt like I was Nemo lost in Australia!

Kayaking! River...hear us ROAR!
Yeah....these pictures are pretty priceless when you hear the story of that day!

Long story short....we started off the trip like this...feeling like Kayak CHAMPS ready to cream all of the "older" couples on the river! About 5 mins. after these pictures were taken we started questioning our kayaking ability due to the HORDES of petty tourists that seemed to have NEVER kayaked before PASSING us with such ease while we were zig-zagging our way into the bushes and boat path! Needless to say, after the first trip of complete humiliation, we were informed by a kind gentleman that our kayak was backwards! After our waterfall hike, we were finally able to regain some of our pride and therefore post these pictures with a bit more confidence than we thought we would!

Some "treats" in Hawaii were.......our FREE upgrade because were honeymooners!

....a YUMMY meal right on the water.
As always, I think Esteban ordered better than I did. That's one reason why I married him...he's got good taste!
And then.... MAUI.
Also pretty but definitely more of the "tourist trap" idea.
So we enjoyed that part too:)!

Of course...a luau! (We intentionally dressed for the occasion:)!!)Our 2nd car upgrade of the trip...better than the first!

That's right...Volvo C70.

One day we were CRAZY ambitious and woke up WAY TOO EARLY and drove to the Haleakala Crater to see the sun rise...
...with EVERYBODY and their cousin!
Then took the road to Hana.....

If you're unfamiliar with this road...this IS IT! Crazy windy but right on the water and simply GORGEOUS!


We were EXHAUSTED by the end. But it was definitely our favorite day!

To end this random collection of our honeymoon, we want to leave you with some favorites of our trip!

No caption necessary...

We just LOVED the sunsets....

and fresh seafood..

Choco fell in love with "Sharkie"....

....and I fell in love with Maui potato chips and onion dip!

Thank you Gramie for this wonderful gift!

It was all so surreal, we felt like we were in newly weds...

Oh wait....we were!

Good-bye Hawaii...until next time!

Loved and Missed

As my Aunt and Dad said, Heaven has a new member!

My Nana passed away this week.
Sad and happy at the same time.


She was truly one-of-a-kind!

One special memory I have of her is when I was working in Charlotte, some of my friends and I spent our Spring Break in Arizona. My grandparents were living in Tuscon at the time so I decided to go visit them for a day.My Nana, Grandpa and I had lunch together and then just sat on their porch and they shared story after story. I loved hearing about how my Nana and Grandpa met, what life was like during the war and more.

Nana,
Thanks for your genuine love for me and for your joy!
You were loved and now you will be missed.
Thankfully I know that I get to see you again in Heaven!

Love,
Megan

HERE!

Since "here" means a place in Maryland and a job in Virgnia, there will be another set of pics featuring the "School of Smiles" (for REAL my school's nickname is that!). But for now....HERE'S OUR CUTIE PLACE IN GAITHERSBURG, MD (below Marcelo, Sarah and Elianna)!

Welcome!
Walk in our front door...


..look at our FURNITURE that arrived from Idaho! We are so thankful for it:).

*We did however purchase the table for a GREAT price that only "required" me to paint the black part.....which possibly made me question the "great" price at the end of the whole project!

Here's the view...
.....from our bed!
Here's the hallway to the bathroom and our....
..kitchen!

La Paz in DC

Esteban and I miss La Paz.
It's true.
We are really happy to be living here (I'll share and show more of "here" later) but we miss the sights, sounds, food, and, most importantly, the people of La Paz.

HOWEVER, God has been so kind to give us bits of La Paz over the past few months.

- We live DIRECTLY BELOW Esteban's brother Marcelo, his sweet wife Sarah and joyous daughter Elianna. It's been such a blessing to be here, to have them so close and we thank the Lord every day for them. We enjoy being able to pop in and say hi, talk about the crazy weather lately (seriously....it started with an earthquake, then we had a hurricane, then we had more rain that caused a flash flood, and I'm just bracing myself for the winter to really start!) or other life topics, to share meals together and just to be a part of each other's lives!

Our little welcoming committee (she likes to look out the glass door and smile at us as we walk by to go to our place on the lower level)

- Not only do we have Sarah and Marcelo to keep us connected to life in La Paz, but we also have mini-Bolvia here! In this little group, every man is Bolivian but only 2 women are....guess those Bolivian guys have a way with the American girls:)! One of the families in this "group" was actually Eseteban's youth pastor in La Paz. He and his wife and 2 girls are here for the pastor's college through Sovereign Grace Ministries. We are thankful for this opportunity to see Oscar, Prisci and their precious girls, Abigail and Bianca, on the other side of the equator!

- As I mentioned, the food of Bolivia has been missed by the 2 of us...especially my husband. However, last weekend we stumbled upon a Latino Mercado full of treasures! We bought some choclo (big-kernel corn), queso fresco (fresh cheese) and yucca. So...Sunday night we decided to celebrate el Dia de Santa Cruz with Sarah and Marcelo and enjoyed some chorizos (from Trader Joes....not so authentic but still good) and zonzo! We had this dish at our wedding and just love the yucca-cheesy-yumminess!

We also were able to enjoy some tuna, compliments of Marcelo and Sarah....yum!

- Our most recent gift Paceño was last night when we were able to meet up with 5 other people "from" La Paz that are in the area!
The Kolar family was a sweet gift to my Highlands Community and they left last December. Kathy was my neighbor in La Paz! She is still living in La Paz but is just in the states for a quick month furlough to be with her family. And, Sheldon and Amber both worked with Samaritan's Purse down there and now Sheldon is getting a master's degree in International Development.

Amy and Amber

Kathy and Abby enjoying.....

...this sweet treat of Fall in the U.S. with friends from Bolivia.

Sufficed to say, it was so *sweet* to see everyone and to be together again!

(I LOVE this girl!)