We got our first trip outside our city limits since mid-January (when the lockdown started). Today was our only chance before the lockdown restarts tomorrow to stop people from doing stupid stuff over Easter. April 6th is when things should start to lighten up after this…

We had a very fun day :). Although I had the worst sunburn I’ve had in 20 years… swollen face and out for four miserable days. It was a good lesson for my son and luckily it was just me and my forehead. I forgot my hat and since it was semi-cold, windy, and early in the year I didn’t think about it. I also have no tan even for me, as I’ve been inside working for the last 4 months…

We landed in Malta last week!

The trip to Malta was a last minute addition to our summer trip to France. We were not sure what to expect and so far it has been a pleasant surprise apart from a lot of traffic and trying to remember how to drive on the left side of the road. Everyone is incredibly nice, incredible history, and the coastline is amazing. We are still exploring and getting settled after a few days in Gozo.

August 23rd was Calico’s first day at the beach! We left our hotel around 5 pm and rode the bus down to the beach from our hotel. The beach was sandy and super shallow which was great for him. We changed him into his awesome little European swim trunks, and he happily held our hands as we splashed our way into the water. He was so excited he was bouncing and laughing non-stop. We got out and he kicked and had so much fun, it was awesome to see :). At first he held onto me pretty tightly but as he got braver he wanted to move and kick and do what the other kids were doing. We stayed until he was a bit cold and then headed to play in the sand. He loved that too and he played with his new sand bucket and shovel with complete concentration for quite some time. He really liked playing with the texture on his skin, between his toes, and squeezed between his fingers. Fun evening :)

He also had fun on our short ferry ride to a smaller island for a few days!

P.S. Malta is my 46th country to visit :)!!!

And, here are a few pics of our apartment in Malta, nice two bedroom place that we are loving.

Lindsey and Calico headed back to Arkansas for 2 weeks to visit family, so I found a cheap ticket to Sint Maarten for some much needed R&R. It was nice to have so much vacation you are ready to go home, and it gave me a ton of time to clear my mind and reset after my exit from Pressed/WWWH.

Apart from my first bad sunburn in like 8 years it was a great trip. I had a couple breaks from my diet, had my first rum in a 1.5 years, and read a ton. I love St. Maartin, it is my 3rd time there, last trips were in 2011 and 2010.

Over Christmas and January my friend Tina visited and we took a big trip around Australia! We started in Melbourne (Kangaroo Christmas), then rented a car and drove around the coast on the Great Ocean Road, eventually ended up in Adelaide, took The Ghan train all the way from Adelaide to Darwin, and then flew to Noosa for a week on the beach. It was an amazing trip and here are a few of the pictures from it! The only bad part was I got a pretty bad cold during Christmas that lasted a week, but managed to loose it somewhere on the great Ocean road.

Great Ocean Road
The most beautiful spot in Australia IMO. I’m heading back with Joel and Nick soon. We did this amazing tree top walk you will see a pictures from too.. And yes dinosaurs are still alive in Australia and we stopped at a big zoo area.

The Gahn & What Australia Looks Like From Adelaide to Darwin…
The Ghan was the highlight of the trip. It was 1,846 mile 3 day train trip with our own cabin and a great way to spend new years. Below are a bunch of pictures of what Australia looks like as we traveled over that 1800+ miles and some of the driving we did on the way to Adelaide from Melbourne. Plus we stopped at Alice Springs & Katherine for day trips. The pictures are in random order unfortunately but you will get the general idea.
*Even a pic so you can see how being stuck in traffic in Melbourne looks…

Darwin & Croc Territory
We ended up in Darwin and stayed there a few days, the town gives off a weird vibe. Kinda like Mad Max combined with alcoholics (lots of drinkers at 10am). Anyway, we went to a great zoo and fed giant crocs, plus got to hold a whole a lizard, and the cutest smallest little turtle I’ve ever seen.

Noosa & The Beach
Beautiful beautiful area, although quite a few jelly fish :). Some pictures of some amazing Bulgarian food that Tina made, a ginger hiding in his tent, something you don’t want to step on, beach I ran on almost every day, and our beach house + view where we spent a lot of time!

I flew out of DC Dec 15th after a hectic last week of errands and some hard goodbyes! I’m on the road and ill do a big post with more details soon! Right now i’m hanging out with my dad and stepmom in Panama (Volcan) for Christmas! A few pictures below…

I had a great vacation on St. Maartin, it was the first time in maybe 6 or 7 years I’ve gone a long period with no internet (10 days). It wasn’t hard at all which was surprising too.

I went snorkeling every day, swam for hours, and just read under a nice awning right on the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen (mostly because I think the water is an amazing color). Plus enjoyed some rum, got a zillion new freckles, rented a jeep for a few days and drove all around the island to try other beaches, sampled a lot of french bakeries, ate a lot of fish, etc. And I read 21 books while on break, so I’ve hit my goal for this year with having read 124 books so far!

We survived our first game which was Cameroon versus the Netherlands. We pre gamed a little too hard but were none the worst for wear. And I will say in our defense it is a long walk to the stadium and really really fun to walk all the way with tons of cheering fans moving from bar to crazy dance thing to bar to live music on the street to bar. And apart from getting pretty lost leaving the stadium it was an awesome experience! Our next game is pretty far away and requires a 12 hour bus ride, but we got really lucky and are seeing England versus Germany which hopefully is one of the most brutal soccer games seen yet. And hopefully the USA beats Ghana so we can party with everyone once they get to the semis!

Click the first image as its a big panoramic of the stadium and really really cool to see what a monster it is. I was really impressed as you have a great view of the players and everything from everywhere!

I’ve decided to stay in Denver for another year, so I’ll be here through June 2011 it sounds like. We are going to find a new place to live in April/May, hopefully closer to a neighborhood we like a little better. Next week I’m heading to Vegas for a big ultimate frisbee tournament plus it is going to be Dmarsh, BBustin, and my brother’s birthday. Should be fun. And then when I get back from that Rose and Steve will be here and going to spend a lot of that week skiing with them! And hopefully I’ll be going skiing during the week a few times after that, and working on cross country skiing as I would like to be good at that.

Work is going well, and just got really busy as we took on some additional business which is quite fun!

Travel wise the year is looking awesome. In a few months I’m taking a few weeks vacation to explore Japan! Then in April I’m going to Italy for a short weekend trip as Iris got a bid to Paganello (massive ultimate beach tournament), and I’m going to play with her mixed team. Extra fun as it should be a lot of Arkansas people and hopefully Daniel and Joel go. And then me and a friend scored tickets to the World Cup in South Africa which I will be going too in early July. South Africa is being nuts on airfare pricing but its a once in a life time opportunity, so worth it.

Oh, and I’m trying to complete the 100 Book Challenge for 2010, which means I’m trying to read 100 books in 2010. So roughly 9 books a month, so far I’m almost done with my 4th and almost on track. I’m posting mini reviews as I go too.

Also, here is an interview we did a few months ago for Work, I’m pretty proud of it as we don’t sound like idiots. Although I did repeat a lot of words over and over and over, oh well, she was really nice and it was fun!

We had a great week of 70 degree weather and now it is snowing again. Very odd considering it was 60 degrees today and somehow down to snow temp by midnight. Very pretty outside though and supposed to be back up to 70 very soon.

I’m heading back to Fayetteville this week to see my little sister with her debut performance in Foot Loose the play. I hear she is amazing :)! And then for Lizzie’s graduation, and then me and Lizzie are going to Tybee Island for a few weeks to relax on a beach. Then we are driving back to Fayetteville, packing up, and driving back to Denver. And by then there should be no occurrences of snow.

If the University of Arkansas is listening you suck, I can’t wait for you to call me to try to dig some money out of me, you will never get it and I will tell you flat out the bureaucratic idiots you have at that school need to be flushed. Universities are supposed to help people graduate, not make their lives living hell.