The Trip

Yes, it really has been quite a while since I posted anything on this blog! Life is just crazy right now, what with moving in and then going on a trip. And I think it's safe to say that everyone knows how difficult it is to come back from a vacation and start your life over again. Needless to say, we've been very busy, but our vacation was absolutely amazing. It's been way too long since I've been able to relax that much, and it was very much needed. Here are some pictures from the trip and a (quasi) brief summary of our time there!
Nate underwater at The Baths!

Us with the view of the port from Mafolie's!
The view from the courtyard of the Sunset House...I do really miss that!
A night shot of the view from Mafolie's
Devil's Bay....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh, so relaxing!
My yummy jumbo shrimp dinner at Mafolie's!
Us in the courtyard overlooking Long's Bay
Random/amazing shot Nate took...not real sure where though!This is the shot of most of the Sunset House from the pool area!

Our trip started early early early on Thursday, May 21 at the Denver International Airport. We first had to fly into Dallas (to meet up with Nate's dad Jack, Linda, and her son Brandon and his girlfriend Liz). From there we flew to Miami International (definitely NOT a favorite in the airport world), and from Miami we flew into St. Thomas. One of the best things about that airport was the shot of Guava Rum that we got as we walked outside. Our taxi driver, George Sebastian, picked us up and drove us to an old Holiday Inn (I can't remember the name of the actual hotel), where we checked in and had our first sampling of Rum Punch at the bar. Needless to say, with the incredibly busy day, the humidity, and the Rum Punch it was very easy for us to fall asleep that night!

The next day (May 22) we took a ferry over to Tortola, which is in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). It's about a 45 minute ride, but so scenic that it feels like 5 minutes! When we got there, we had to go through customs (hurray, our first time to ever use a passport!), and waited on Nate and Jack to go get the rental car. Well, 45 minutes later they pulled up in 2 rental cars (shouldn't be a surprise for anyone who's ever rented a car before though). The funny thing is that in Tortola, the driver's side is still on the lefthand side of the car, but you drive on the lefthand side of the road. We went and got some groceries and headed up to the Sunset House, our mansion for the week! That day we got to visit 2 different beaches, Cane Garden Bay (which was being set up for the BVI Music Fest) and Brewer's Bay (which was completely empty but absolutely beautiful!) After a couple of hours we had to head back to the house and get ready for dinner, which was at Pusser's, a restaurant known for their rum. Afterwards we headed back to the house and watched part of the NBA playoffs before hitting the sack!

On May 23, we got to take a ferry over to Virgin Gorda, another island in the BVI. There we rented a car and drove over to The Baths, an amazing beach where there are massive boulders jutting out of the water and some of the best snorkeling I've ever seen. We ate at a sweet restaurant overlooking the water, and it had a pool right by our table to swim in as we waited for our food. We snorkeled around The Baths for a bit, then took a truly amazing hike through the boulders and water caves until we came out on a practically empty beach, Devil's Bay. This place was perfect, with shallow water about 20 yards out, great snorkeling, boulders to climb on, and the water was so gentle and clear. Everyone else snorkeled, but I just floated on my back for who knows how long. We drove over to Little Dix Bay Resort (very swanky!) and walked through the resort grounds for a few minutes before catching the ferry back to Tortola. That night we enjoyed a dinner with salmon, 3 different kinds of rice, corn on the cob, and our own homemade Rum Punch. We watched another NBA Playoff game, and got ready for one last full day on Tortola!

Sunday, May 24 we woke up to another gorgeous day on the island. We wanted to get some pictures of the house we were staying in, so we drove down to Long Bay Resort and took some pictures of the house from the beach. Then we done off-roading in the rental cars down to our favorite beach of the trip, Smuggler's Cove. This place was amazing! It was a 360 degree gorgeous view, a beach bar (card table with liquor on it, fresh fruit, and a blender hooked up to a car battery!), and a small stand with local handmade jewelry and clothes. We spent the entire day there, snorkeling, floating, singing and dancing in the water, and sleeping in the sun. That night we went back to the house and had a great Mexican dinner, complete with Rum Punch and NBA playoffs!

Monday, May 25 we left the island of Tortola, taking a ferry back over to St. Thomas (the US Virgin Islands), where we had to go through customs again. We took a taxi over to the Marriott Frenchman's Inn, an incredible resort on the island. We had lunch at the restaurant there, and went back to the rooms to unpack and rest for a little bit. We ended up taking a nap (all that relaxation wears you out!), and then went down to the hotel pool for an hour or so. That night we went to Mafolie's, which has the best view on the island and some of the best food too! It was an incredible view, and the food was perfect. That night we went back to the hotel and crashed!

Our last full day, May 26, was spent on St. John. Nate and I decided that should we ever decide to move to an island in the Caribbean, St. John would be it. It's still part of the USVI so we could work there, it's slightly tourist-y so there's a lot of different people all over the island, but most of the island is a national park, so it's not overwhelmingly crowded. We snorkeled at 3 different beaches that day: Frances Bay, Cinnamon Bay, and Trunk Bay, all of which were just amazing. We got to eat really great Mexican food at Margarita Phil's, and spent some time in a spice shop that had a great selection of spices, rubs, coffee, and tea. Finally, we hopped back on the ferry to St. Thomas, and decided to spend an hour at a little place called Duffy's Love Shack. This place was so much fun! They had great drinks that all came in custom glasses that you could take home with you! Nate got some drink in a parrot glass, and I had mine in a pirate mug. I still drink out of mine every day at work now! That night we all hung out in Brandon and Liz's room, watching some more basketball and just enjoying the last day.

Wednesday, May 27 we got to the St. Thomas airport bright and early. After saying goodbye to Jack and Linda, us kids sat down and started pouring through the 800+ pictures we took on the trip! Our plane left shortly after that, so we settled in for the flight to Miami. Brandon and Liz had a short layover there, so Nate and I said goodbye to them. We had a 6 hour layover, and decided to rent a car and drive to South Beach and see what all the fuss is about. I gotta say, I'm still not sure what all the fuss is about, other than mostly-naked people running around everywhere. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I found this annoying more than anything. The best part about South Beach was the delicious crab shack we ate at on Ocean Drive. The food was amazing, and a great deal in comparison to the rest of the restaurants there! Shortly after that we drove back to the airport and just rested by the gate. The flight wasn't amazing, but I guess it's hard to complain after having such a great time.

Told you it would be long! We loved being able to get away and explore a new place together. I'll try to get some more photos up soon, but don't want to make any promises!

For All You Dog Owners Out There!

HOLY COW!!!!! This could not have been a better investment....if you own a dog (or even a cat for that matter), you need to get the FURminator (and yes, that video is actually very accurate as far as the actual brushing outcome). I got one at PetsMart last night, and Bunker has never lost so much hair in one 5 minute brushing session. Not to advertise for them or anything, but this brush (albeit expensive) was definitely worth the money.

On another note, we have officially started the photography website and blog. We'd love for you all to go check it out, and pass it on to anyone you know who might be looking for a photographer for any reason (we're willing to travel pretty much anywhere if we need to)! You can either click on the links above, or just go to www.natedisarrophoto.com and/or www.natedisarro.blogspot.com. We would really love to get more involved in the photography world, so any help would be great!

Otherwise, we have officially moved in to the new house, and are about halfway through the unpacking process. Hopefully when it's all done we will post some pictures, but at the moment there are still boxes everywhere. The hot tub is great, and we're just plugging through the week so we can finish the unpacking on Saturday!

That's about it for now, but go check out the website soon, and be on the lookout for the pictures from Landon and Sara's wedding that we did a couple weeks ago!

On Another Note

Well hello again, feelin' a little blog-happy today! Just wanted to give a little heads up:

Nate and I, as most of you know, have been blessed with photography equipment and a passion to record special moments in time. We are looking to take this love a little bit further and start doing more weddings, portraits, dog photography (for me!), maternity, engagement, and family portraits as a side business and just see where the Lord takes it. I am posting this for two reasons: to ask for prayer in this endeavor and to let you know that we will (in the near-ish future) be creating a new blog to share our adventures in photography as well as our adventures in life. I'll keep you all updated, but just wanted to post this as a head's up!

P.S. We are going here in May. A little excited? I think so!

A Late One.....

Cheesin' it up for the camera!

Seriously, how adorable are our parents?

Yep, still in love! He's so cute!

Close up of the family!!!

A little more scenery in this one!

True, this post is a little late, but better late than never! My parents and sister came to visit us about a month ago, and we had so much fun showing them around our new home. They came in on a Saturday, and we just hung out and had a yummy salmon dinner. I got introduce them to making risotto, which is SO GOOD and super versatile! Only problem: it makes a ridiculous amount of food, which is good when you're feeding a lot of people but can lead to overeating if there's just two of you....not that I know from experience or anything!

Sunday we went and hiked the First Flatiron at Chautauqua Park in Boulder. It was a great hike, probably one of my favorite easier ones. Then we went back home, hung out and napped a little, and then went to church. Afterwards, we ate at CB&Potts, a brewery that's close to where we live, and had a good burger dinner!

Monday, my family and I got to go visit our new house! They got to check out the inside and see where we'll be living for the next couple of years (that is so weird to say! Who knew we would ever be grown-ups with a mortgage?) We went down to Cherry Creek in Denver, a fun little area with some great shopping and cool restaurants. That afternoon, Salah and I took the bikes out and rode to Standley Lake, about 2 minutes from where we'll soon be living, and rode back....something like 25 miles or so! We were pretty hungry after that, so we all ate a great dinner and relaxed the rest of the night.

Tuesday (their last day...sad!) we drove out to Estes Park, which is where all of these pictures are from. We went all the way up to Bear Lake, which apparently is just a beautiful, easy hike in the Spring/Summer/Fall, but it was REALLY cold and windy. We really didn't dress for that weather, but Mom and Dad had their jogging clothes in the trunk of the car, so we all threw the clothes on and just went with it. We walked around on the frozen lake, took pictures, and just enjoyed eachother. Then we drove back down to the town and ate lunch, walked up and down the main street. That night we had an AWESOME dinner because it was Daddy's birthday, with strawberry shortcake parfait things...so good!

Wednesday they had to leave, I'll admit I definitely cried a lot when they drove off. I am so so glad that they all had the chance to come up and visit, I miss them so much it made me so happy to see them! To my family, I love you guys!

New Home - We're growing up

Nate here - I figured its been a long time since either one of us have written anything on here so maybe its time I write something for once. 2009 has been a great year so far... a little different that how we started things off in 2008. Just to recap, we ended 2007 with my grandfather having a heart attack, our apartment getting broken in to a week later and all of our "stuff" was stolen, and then another week later I busted my nose at work and thought I broke it. Oh yeah, and Bunker broke his tooth in there somewhere and had to have it extracted. Needless to say that left us feeling slightly defeated going into 2008. However, knowing that we didn't want to stay in the circumstances that we had been handed we decided to make the big decision to more to north Denver for a chance to get some fresh air... fast forward to 2009

So, now that we are already half way through March, this year has been pretty sweet. In just a few short months I have doubled my number of ski days for all the years combined that I have previously skied and Heather, in her first season of skiing, has successfully skied a "black" and she did an amazing job. It has been a lot of fun getting to go to the mountains and see her get exponentially better each time off the lift. If I'm not careful she will be beating me down the mountain.

Something else that has really been a blast for us this year is the continuation of serving with Watermark Church. That is one of the main reasons we chose to move to the exact location that we did in CO and we are really glad that we are able to be a part of something like this church plant. If you are ever up in the Denver area come hang out with us. We have seen a lot of different people come through the doors and its really cool to see how people are learning how to live in a community that doesn't judge you for your past or present situation and just wants to see you know Christ more. Way cool.

Probably the biggest news for now though is that we are in the process of purchasing our first home! We are really excited to finally have a place that will feel like a permanent home for the first time since before college. Its weird to think that I have moved at least once a year for the last 8 years and now we will finally be in one place for at least a few years, hopefully longer. So, about the house. It is 2 streets away from a straight shot to the mountains which is kind of crazy. For those who don't know, Colorado owns a lot of land still that is called "open space" that can never be built on. Basically it is a state park that preserves the land so that CO will never be a congested mess all the way to the mountains. There is open space basically all the way from our house to the mountains which means that no one will ever be able to block our view. SWEET!

Also, there is a massive dog park about 2 blocks over that will be a great place for Bunker to go release all of his crazy energy.

Down the street about 1/2 a mile (literally) is one of the few lakes in CO too. Its not a huge lake but definitely big enough to go for a nice boat ride on or do some fishing, or just go hang out at the lake and look at the mountains.

So all of those things are great and all, but there is one other thing that makes this house really cool. It has a hot tub. I know, I was excited too. The cool thing about hot tubs in CO is that you can use them year round. If we had a hot tub in TX we would have probably used it for a month in the "winter" and then it would be too hot to use it anymore. In CO though, it stays cool enough at night through the summer to be able to take advantage of a nice warm tub of water after a long day hiking in the mountains.

Check out the pics below (click for larger version) and you can get an idea of what the house looks like. We close on April 15 and move in on the 20th. WOOHOO!

So, new home, relocating to a place we weren't familiar with, all after have a chain of crappy events... I think we are growing up. I'll let you know what I think about that soon.

Randoms

Beautiful flowers in San Fran....look at that amazing color! Makes me SO excited about Farmer's Market coming up in the Spring! Even if we can't afford to pay the crazy prices, it's still so much fun!

Another pic from beautiful California...can you count how many different shades of blue are in this picture?

My first "Big Mountain" (not sure if it really needs to be capitalized, but better safe than sorry) experience! We finally got there after 3 hours driving in zero visibility. Makes Dallas winters feel like the stinkin' summer!

Nate and I before we started skiing Winter Park.

Winter is turning out to be a lot of fun...I'm not horrible at skiing anymore, I'm getting used to the snow, and I've recently discovered a love of running in the snow (who knew?) Nate and I went and looked a house the other day...didn't really turn out to be ideal (i.e. structural issues) but it was such a surreal experience in and of itself. We've discovered that it might actually be less expensive to buy a home here, so we've started looking around just to figure out if there's a place that meets our stringent guidelines. Hey, not just any house can be a Disarro house.

It's become very normal/still weird to think about grown-up things like buying a house and mortgages and interest rates (still sounds like a foreign language). I guess it's got to happen sometime, but I feel kind of funny even typing it out!

Bunker has been having SO MUCH FUN in the snow! He loves running in it, and it's hilarious when it makes him all frisky. He hops around a lot when it gets cold out, so we have a great time taking him on walks and everything.

I think that's about all...we're kind of boring other than the growing up stuff, but will definitely continue to try to keep this updated more often!

2 Years

Tuesday of this week marked our 2 year anniversary! And what an interesting two years it's been. I think that Nate and I can both truly say that we have never had so much fun and we've never undergone so much hurt, selfishness, loneliness, and just overall instability. Super fun, right?

We were told when we were getting married that marriage is like a mirror that you see the "real" you reflected in. At first I thought that was really dumb, and like all engaged couples (I'm sure), I thought that surely MY husband and I would never have that experience. That we were open and honest and truly capable to enter into marriage and not have a flaw. I'll tell you though, marriage and love in general truly is a mirror, and it makes you see some of the best and some of the worst you have to offer.

I've learned that no matter how much you plan and how many precautions you take, the Lord's plan for you will probably not match up to everything you plan for. For example, we live in Colorado now, and for the longest time I was sure I would be a Texan for life. With such a great state (and I still truly believe that) why would you ever want to leave? But after two years in Dallas I started to feel trapped and completely unlearned in the ways of other people, even in our own country. Nate and I both felt called to leave, and not knowing what would happen, we up and moved to Colorado. I think that the drive to leave and start something new is what led us on our road to discovering what marriage is about.

Once in Colorado we were truly alone (not as in there are no people around us, but just without people we had really known before). Helping to start Watermark in Denver helped us to become less selfish because there were needs outside of our marriage to fulfill. The Lord began to show each of us how selfish we were being with one another, and began to help us communicate our needs and wants in much more mature ways. Not to say that everything is perfect, because I think that is an improbability in this world, but we have realized how truly and amazingly blessed we are in our marriage. We love one another so much, and can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together (cheesy but oh so true!!!)
On another note, our sweet sweet Bunker turned 2 years old on the same day! This is one of the first pictures we took of him, circa 8 weeks old and 9 lbs. To this day, he doesn't realize he's not 9 lbs. anymore (he's about 100 now). That's one big baby boy!