So this is Christmas...

Well, let's get down to it -- starting with Christmas Eve.  The highlight of the night was Dad getting Rock Band and Beatles Rock Band, allowing Tricia (drums), Kevin (vocals), and I (guitar) to spend until midnight going through the career of the Beatles (with Mom, Dad, and Tieryn singing along beside us).  Fun times.

Besides that, the big gift for Tricia and myself was cash towards a new camera -- we'd like one that has a better zoom and can take HD video as well, for obvious reasons. 

At the end of the night, everyone took their picture with Madelyn, who did quite well in the gift department.

Speaking of Madelyn, she did quite well for her first Christmas, getting a Richard Scarry book (my personal favorite as a kid) and some cool CD's of kids music, Chinese lullabies, and Chinese spoken language from Kevin and Tieryn. My parents got her an extremely cute dress and two new friends -- a green monkey (her third monkey now) and a dog, the proceeds of which went to St. Jude's Childrens Hospital in her name, which is very cool.

For fun, I have a picture of all of her friends she has thus far

I hope that all those stuffed friends don't overwhelm her :)

Next up, on Christmas morning we opened presents. Tricia and I decided to get a new mattress for our present this year, but we still did get a smaller gift for each other -- I got Tricia a trendy diaper bag (well, I did the research on them and am letting her pick one -- I'd be dumb to not let her pick it out) and Tricia getting me the latest Mystery Science Theater 3000, with Tom Servo action figure!

He goes great with last year's Crow T. Robot figure (and like Madelyn, I also have many friends to keep me company).

Santa also brought gifts for Madelyn, much to our surprise (we don't have a chimney, so I still haven't figured how he got into our house. Plus, he must have known the alarm code!).

Since she wasn't in our house to enjoy, mom and dad decided to open her gifts for her.

What a shock it was to see that she got two new outfits, a Little People Happy Sounds Home (it makes a toilet, phone, bath, and doorbell sound), and an Imaginarium 5-Way Giant Bead maze.

Of course, I had to take them out of the box and set them up (my favorite part of getting gifts on Christmas).

Here are pictures of the clothes Madelyn got from Santa -- that hooded fur vest is the best!

Next, it was out to McMinnville to see Gregg, Kerrie, and Tim. Santa also visted there and brought Madelyn yet another outfit, including some sweet sunglasses...

Tricia and I got more money to go towards our camera (I'm hoping we get it sometime next week!) and thanks to Tim, who managed to do all the Christmas shopping for everyone(!), everyone was very happy with their gifts (especially Tim -- since he also got to buy his own :P ).

Madelyn added to her massive haul, getting some monkey footie pajamas, pink boots and earmuffs, a book, a puzzle, a pack of onesies, another great little outfit, and a Jackie O style jacket, that is really, really cute.

After eating some breakfast, it was on to the Carlisle Christmas. We tried a different idea, doing a gift exchange this year, and it was really fun. Through a bit of collusion and bartering, Tricia and I both ended up with two movie passes each, so it looks like we'll get a chance to actually go watch some movies in the theater for once!

Madelyn wasn't forgotten, as she got a doll and another cute outfit from her Great-Grandma!

The night ended with Gregg, Tim, Geoff, and Taylor coming back to our house to watch the Blazers against the Nuggets (and what an awesome game that was). We took that chance to get their picture with Madelyn in front of our tree. Kerrie stopped by also, but, in a shocking development, didn't want to watch the game with us, while Tricia proceeded to read her latest book from Kevin (Ian McEwan's Amsterdam)

After the Blazer game (Brandon Roy -- 41 points!), we played a little Guitar Hero and found out my microphone doesn't work. Lame.

Our Christmas experience didn't end there, though, as today, where we got to go over to the Kahler's house and eat breakfast and see friends Kyle and Joylyn again for the first time in a long time! It was a great time and especially fun to be able to play some football with Zac and Andrew (well, except for all the cat poop I got on my shoes -- they still are stinky in the garage). No pictures as of yet, but I'll post them as soon as I get them :)

And so ended our Christmas weekend. It was fun for all and made us even more excited with anticipation for when Madelyn is here to celebrate with us next year!

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Merrrrrry Christmas

(Yes, I already posted this at my personal blog, but I thought it deserved to be on both sites!)

Tricia and I have watched Muppet Christmas Carol twice in the last two days (the second time was because she fell asleep during the first viewing) and we both enjoyed watching it so much, I thought a screencap from it would appropriately convey the spirit of the season :)

Merry Christmas!

(Hopefully, either later tonight or tomorrow I should have an Olson Christmas recap up -- Madelyn did very, very well for herself!).

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Hello to all new readers (and past ones too)!

For those of you who received a Christmas card and are just stumbling onto our blog for the first time, thanks for taking the time to come by and have a look.  For those who've been here before, thanks for continuing to come back.

I figure now is as good a time as any to show you around the blog...

1. First off, as fascinating as Tricia and I surely are, I'm going to guess there's one little person who really interests most of the visitors to this site, that being Madelyn.  To make things easier, I've put a picture of her over on the sidebar.  Anytime you want to see all the post written about her, just click that picture and it will go to everything I've written that has been tagged with her name.  Going forward, I'd wager to guess that she will be involved in most of the stories you'll see me reporting here.
   
   
2. For those who want to see an example what you can expect here, I'll lead you to the trip reports of our vacation to Italy.  I may have written typed these up, but Tricia provided 95% of the information, so I think it really is a good example of our combined mindset that can expect when you read the posts here :)  I've linked to all of them here.
   
   
3. If you want to make sure you get updates, there are several ways.  Again, go to the sidebar and at the very top I've put subscription links.  If you like RSS and know how to use it, then go that route.  If you'd rather get a daily email digest of all the posts for the day, then click the email link and sign-up for the updates.  The other ways to get updated are by becoming a "follower" of the blog on Facebook or Google.  Those links are to your right as well -- if you are a member of either system, click the appropriate button and follow along.
   
   
4. Oh, and some shameful self-promotion.  I don't waste any of your time here with non-family related stuff, so if you want to read Troy's personal musings on sports, movies, and other pop-cultural goings on, you can head over to my other blog and do so.  It's not for everyone, so if you don't like it or think what I write about isn't that interesting, I won't have my feelings hurt :)
   

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Italy 2009 Daily Trip Reports and Picasa Album

Click on the picture above to go the Picasa album for the trip.

Here are the links to the each daily trip report of our Italian vacation!

Day 1 (Florence)
Day 2 (Florence)
Day 3 (Florence)
Day 4 (Siena)
Day 5 (Pisa and Vernazza)
Day 6 (Vernazza)
Day 7 (Positano)
Day 8 (Positano)
Day 9 (Positano)
Day 10 (Venice)
Day 11 (Venice)
Day 12 (Venice)
Day 13 (Venice)
Day 14 (Travel Day and Unplanned Hotel In Amsterdam)
Day 15 (Bonus Travel Day)

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Italy Trip Report - Day 15 (Bonus Travel Day)

To see all the pictures from the trip, you can view the album on Picasa here)

Previous posts:
Day 1 (Florence)
Day 2 (Florence)
Day 3 (Florence)
Day 4 (Siena)
Day 5 (Pisa and Vernazza)
Day 6 (Vernazza)
Day 7 (Positano)
Day 8 (Positano)
Day 9 (Positano)
Day 10 (Venice)
Day 11 (Venice)
Day 12 (Venice)
Day 13 (Venice)
Day 14 (Travel Day and Unplanned Hotel In Amsterdam)

DAY 15
BONUS TRAVEL DAY

Our plane was leaving at 7 AM, so we still had to wake up at 5 AM in order to have time to eat. I hurriedly got all of my stuff together, assuming I had everything I'd need for the flight home and we left the room to go eat. Everyone spoke in hushed tones on that bus ride to the airport. "Would the plane get fuel today?" "Will we get home?" For some, this was their second straight day in Amsterdam, due to plane issues and delays, so there was a justifiable restlessness amongst everyone.

Once we were at the airport, we all moved through security like a herd of cattle (we were kind of known as "The KLM Flight" throughout the airport). Tricia and I used our 7 euro vouchers from the day before on some snacks we could take on the plane with us. While all this was going on, it turned to 7 AM and we hadn't even begun the process of boarding. Then it was 7:15 and still no KLM employees were at our gate. The restlessness began once again and people were getting pretty chippy (Tricia and I just sat down and watched CNN, in lieu of standing in a line for absolutely no reason).

Finally, at around 7:45, KLM employees arrived and we went through the process of passport and bag checks to be able to board. Tricia and I decided to use the restroom before we boarded. While I watched our bags and waited for Tricia, I decided to get my Ipod out of the back pocket of my messenger bag and move it to the main pocket for when we were on the plane. At that point I noticed that the back pocket of the bag was unzipped. Hmm. I opened it...no Ipod. Surely I already put it in the front pocket. Not there either. By this point Tricia was standing with me and I was having an internal apoplectic fit, looking like I was in the movie Scanners. Tricia said she would check through the bag -- maybe I just missed it (I WAS tired, after all). I used the restroom, yelling to myself quietly all the while, and came out to Tricia with the sad look on her face (and the look of "Please don't ruin the vacation by being mad") -- my Ipod was gone.

I traced my steps, thinking I MUST have left it on the plane the day before, since it never came out while at the hotel. We asked the people at the desk if one had been turned in. Nope. Next up, we hoped it might have been left in my seat. Nope. It was gone, gone forever. We never did figure out at what point in that 24-hour period it was lost/stolen, but we are sticking to the story that I left it in the seat pocket the day before and someone took it while cleaning/securing the plane.

As sad as it was to lose a $200 electronic gadget, the worst thing was that I now had no entertainment for the long flight home. I might end up being stuck watching Land of the Lost! I wrote a quick eulogy to my Ipod in order to stop fuming and not let it ruin my entire vacation, and became determine to just laugh it off.

Happily, the captain came over the intercom right away to tell us we DID have fuel in the plane and we WOULD be going home. Yayyy. We took off shortly thereafter and again, Tricia read one of her books, while I occupied myself with the KLM Magazine crossword puzzle (which was, shockingly, extremely difficult), along with several easy crosswords from Tricia's crossword book, perusing through Sky Mall, and watch State of Play.

Other than that, no issues on the flight, we made it to Portland, were picked up by my parents and whisked back to Salem to sleep in our own bed.

For as eventful as these last 48-hours were, it didn't take anything away from the fact that this was one incredible vacation!

I leave you with a series of pictures I like to call "Troy's random photos of animals and inanimate objects." Thanks to everyone for following along!

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Italy Trip Report - Day 14 (Travel Day and Unplanned Hotel In Amsterdam)

Don't worry, we are nearing the end here :)

(To see all the pictures from the trip, you can view the album on Picasa here)

Previous posts:
Day 1 (Florence)
Day 2 (Florence)
Day 3 (Florence)
Day 4 (Siena)
Day 5 (Pisa and Vernazza)
Day 6 (Vernazza)
Day 7 (Positano)
Day 8 (Positano)
Day 9 (Positano)
Day 10 (Venice)
Day 11 (Venice)
Day 12 (Venice)
Day 13 (Venice)

DAY 14
TRAVEL DAY + SUPER, SPECIAL UNPLANNED DAY AT A HOTEL IN AMSTERDAM

 

Now you will see how the sign above haunted us on what was supposed to be our very last day in Europe.

First off, you'll have to excuse me on the lack of skill in this write-up. The hand written notes of Tricia's that I've been using thus far to type this entire trip report end on this day. So all of this is off the top of my head. Needless to say, the 48 hours that ensued are still quite a blur in my head, all of it seemingly running together into one hazy experience. So bare with me.

The morning started alright, although waking up at 4 AM is never fun. Still, we had everything packed from the night before and made our way down to the breakfast room to grab a reasonably large breakfast. There were some shenanigans involving Tricia not being able to find the breakfast room and the people at the front desk being really grumpy and generally annoyed at us, but we arrived at the airport without much issue.

We had intended on checking my bag and carrying on Tricia's, as we put our souvenirs in her bag. However, the carry-on criteria is extremely strict in Europe and they made us check her bag. My bag, by the way, contained all of our leftover clean clothes, as well as all of our toiletries. This will be relevant later.

Also, while standing in line and waiting for boarding, we both becoming moderately annoyed at one busybody, know-it-all mom, who felt the need to keep telling everyone what line they had to be in and whatnot, when she really had no actual authority to tell anyone anything. It was really obnoxious and another example of the Ugly American syndrome, that we had, thankfully, mostly avoided. I think her kids were kind of embarrassed of her too.

So we were off -- Venice to Amsterdam, at which point we had a two-hour layover and then non-stop from Amsterdam to Portland. We were already getting excited about being able to be back in our house at this point.

After grabbing a bite to eat and some reading material, we boarded the plane for Amsterdam. I got out my Ipod, ready to start watching some movies (It had almost exactly enough battery to watch three movies, which would take up about 75% of the time we were on the plane), while Tricia started on one of her books. After sitting down for quite a while, perhaps 20 minutes, without moving, we were told that there may be a slight delay and that they couldn't get fuel onto the plane. We would be delayed for 1 hour. A collective sigh rang throughout the cabin and Tricia and I decided to read the newspaper we had purchased.

Finally, the hour was up and another announcement came from the cockpit. This time we were informed that for some reason the plane was not "accepting" the fuel and that they were going to try an alternate method to get the fuel onto the plane. An even bigger sigh went out this time, followed by many groans, as conspiracy theories and wild explanations began circulating the plane. I started on the newspaper crossword, followed by the jumble, and every other puzzle that was available. Tricia continued reading her book. Oh, and they started the onboard movie to keep us occupied, which was Land of the Lost.

One more hour passes and we anxiously await word that we will be going home. Instead, we find out that they still can't get fuel onto the plane and the pilot explains that he has absolutely no idea why, but that the airport isn't allowing them any fuel. He sounded as confused as we were. He also said the words we were hoping to NOT hear -- we'd be stranded for the day and that we would have to try again...tomorrow. On the bright side, this meant that I no longer had to see Land of the Lost -- it ended as Will Ferrell was doing something stupid. Shocking, I know.

At that point we were told to de-board the plane and go to the KLM service desk for further instructions and hotel arrangements for the night. We were not allowed to get our checked luggage and after asking, we found out (along with plenty of other angry and frustrated fliers) that there really weren't any other planes available to connect us to the States. I felt sorry for those who were going on vacation to the US from Europe, as they were about to lose a whole day of that vacation (along with all the issues that arise from that).

As we left the terminal, we were handed vouchers which were good for 7 euros of food in the airport. At first, everyone thought that THIS was all we got and the anger began to rise from many people. The poor employees were obviously as confused as we were and simply tried to guide us to the KLM service desk. We ignored these angry people and followed the large swath of folks who were headed back through immigration (yes, we got stamped in Amsterdam 2 times in less than 12 hours...I hope that isn't an issue when we head to China).

As we went through the immigration line we must have had the saddest/most exhausted looks on our faces (I know for certain that Tricia looked like she was about to cry), because the immigration agent nicely told us that the line at the main KLM desk will be extremely busy (at least 100 people had got to this point ahead of us), so that what we should do is bypass that line, walk down to the baggage claim area, and that there would be ANOTHER KLM desk there that shouldn't have anyone in line. We took this information and went on our way.

We saw the 100's of people lining up at the main KLM desk and decided that it was worth the shot to try what the agent had suggested. Well, there was ONE thing that went nicely for us that day, as we made our way to the other desk, to see absolutely no line. We walked up, got our hotel voucher and instructions on where to catch the bus to get there, along with two overnight toiletry bags (hooray -- we had NONE on us), and a phone card so we could call home. We marched right out and got on the bus to the hotel with others that we recognized from the first class section of the plane (a sure sign that we essentially moved to the front of the line!!).

Once at the hotel (which looked a bit scary from the outside, but was actually quite nice on the inside), they had lunch all ready for us, which was great as we all were famished. We were then able to check-in and then we were going to call home. My parents were supposed to be picking us up, so I was going to call them. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember their phone number. I knew it was programmed in my cell phone, so I went to turn that on to get it. Well, my cell phone was dead. Fortunately I brought my phone charger. But then I noticed that my phone charger was in our checked baggage. Argh. Well, it's a good thing that Tricia has phone numbers memorized, because she called her parents, who called my parents and in the end we were able to get things figured out.

We watched some TV -- they had the BBC, so I got to watch a cool documentary on Seve Ballesteros, along with an episode of Murder She Wrote -- and I went and emailed and blogged really quickly on the internet. It was at that point that I noticed a lot of the people I saw from our section of the plane were JUST arriving at the hotel (over four hours after we had gotten there). I said thank you to the immigration employee at that moment! Dinner came along soon enough and after eating our meal (and swapping stories with all the other stranded travelers) we went back, took our showers (sleeping in our awesome free t-shirts we were given), and went to bed (although I watched some Dutch TV to end the night).

Will we ever make it home? Will Troy inevitable do something incredibly stupid that leads to him having a fit of anger before boarding the plane? Will we get to see the entirety of Land of the Lost? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

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Our Letter of Acceptance from China is on its way!

We just got the exciting news that our Letter of Acceptance from China was received by our adoption agency!

We can now file for US Immigration approval and also get our travel visas for China. After the US Immigration approval, a travel date will be set for us. We are still expecting this travel to be done in late April/early May.

This puts us one step closer to having Madelyn here with us :D

I'll have more details as they arrive -- feel free to ask questions in the comment section.

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