Feliz Navidad

Our family just got back from a week in Mexico over Christmas - 21 people in all! It was great to be together and enjoy the beach and sun while Denver was covered in snow.

We had some pretty sweet accommodations thanks to Russ and Vicki:

We both had a great time the first day on our Canopy Tour in the jungle just outside of Puerto Vallarta. 400 ft zip lines from treetop to treetop was a fantastic thrill.

Shannon had a chance to do one of her life-long dreams: swim with dolphins. She got to spend an hour in the water with a baby dolphin - doing tricks, feeding it, riding on it, etc. It was everything she had hoped it would be.

Meanwhile, David spent some time on the golf course perfecting his slice and hook.

The sun was bright and Shannon is soooo tan now...we almost left her there to be with her peeps. It was another great Christmas in Mexico!

A great view from the hotel balcony.

SOLD!!

That didn't take long! After exactly three weeks to the day, an amazing offer came in on our house! The only catch was that we had to be out of it in exactly 10 days. WOW. So, the last few days have been crazy with packing up our lives into boxes and making plans to move in with the fam. Hopefully we'll find our next home in just a few weeks, but in the mean time we'll have some good quality time with families as the tentative plan is to stay three weeks with Shannon's parents and then several more with my parents (if needed). How great is it to have two sets of loving families to take care of us when needed!

We are just so blessed to have sold our house so quickly and for such a great price in this buyers market. We now have a great opportunity to get a lot of value with the next place we move into. God is good!

Since college, Shannon's fashion sense has slipped a bit...

Actually, tomorrow is Pioneer day for the 2nd graders her school.

On the Market

We've decided it's finally time to put our first little townhouse on the market and find something bigger to move into. Here in Denver (as with much of the rest of the country), the sub prime crunch has forced a lot of people out of the homes they are in to either downsize or file for bankruptcy. That's where I like to step in and take advantage!! Not really, but this is a great time to buy as there is so much inventory out there and the prices are dropping every day. If we are lucky enough to get out of our house at a decent price, we'll be able to upgrade fairly easily....at least that is our thought process.

So, we officially put our house on the market on Monday, but the websites didn't have our house up until Wednesday/Thursday. Some person took a look at our place when it first hit the market on Monday -- I'm thinking it was some savvy investor wanting first dibs on everything that comes out. Anyway, in about 2 hours we'll have our first "real" showing and I need to get out and clear the leaves from my lawn before they get here. Pray for us!

Here are the links to our Visual Tour and some pics:
Visual Tour
Realtor.com

World Series!

I can't believe the Rockies finally made it to the World Series! What's even more crazy is that I was able to go to Game 3 here in Denver. This was the first World Series game to ever come to the city of Denver, and I was fortunate enough to be there. The stadium was electric and it was an amazing experience...one that I will never forget.

I owe this entire experience to my best buddy Toobie. The guy has connections to very important people and scored the tickets to this awesome event. His wife is even more awesome for letting me go in her place. Thanks Emily...I owe you big time!

It's too bad we lost the series, but it was very exciting and it's hard to be critical of what this team has done this season.

Summer 2007

Summer is officially over. Shannon's back to school, I'm in my 4 Fantasy Football leagues, the Broncos won their first game, and all is well.

BUT, before we start blogging about recent events, we must recap our fantastic Summer Europe Trip '07!

So, Shannon finished her first year of teaching 2nd grade, and a week later was on a flight to Scotland. I couldn't take a full month off work, so Shannon ditched me and left a week before I did to get some good time in with her sister Holly, brother-in-law Luke, and our beautiful new nephew Isaiah, who live in St. Andrews, Scotland. I arrived a week later and we all had an amazing time.

Luke even hooked me up with 18 holes of a golfer's dream:

When then said our goodbyes and hopped a flight to Paris for three nights. The people weren't the friendliest, but we had a great time seeing the sights.

While in Paris, we got to spend some time with our friends, Eric and Meredith.

After eating too many croissants, we made our way to Venice, Italy.

Then, it was off to Florence by train to meet up with our friends: Toobie (Dave) and Emily.

Then a quick stop in Pisa:

And then off to Cinqueterra - absolutely amazing. I can't believe this place truly exists. The hike between the 5 towns took all day and was very intense...but incredible:

We then made our way south to visit Pompei at the bottom of the famous volcano: Mt. Vesuvious.

Rome was our final stop with the Machts before saying our goodbyes.

Shannon and I hopped a small flight to Athens...

...and then to the island of Santorini a few days later - where we finally found some time to relax.

Our trip ended back in London for 3 days, where we enjoyed speaking English, seeing Mary Poppins the musical, and all the fish and chips we could eat!

After it all, we were excited to get back home to our normal routine, which is exactly what every good vacation should accomplish.

I realize I way over-did this first major post...but I had to get it all out. Our life is now back to normal!

Drumroll Please...

Thanks to the peer pressure from our dear friends, Jeremy and Amber Johnson, us we are beginning a blog! We originally thought that we didn't really have any reason to blog. We don't have any kids, we aren't living in a foreign country, and life is pretty normal. However, after realizing that we both can get stuck for hours at the computer blog hopping and getting the most up-to-date news on our friends around the country and the world, we decided it is a fun way to stay connected to everyone. So, here we go!

So, here's a quick overview of our lives these days. David is working as a bank manager at a very busy, active downtown bank. Overall he enjoys his job even though he works quite long hours. I (Shannon) am in my second year of teaching second grade. Besides getting sick constantly, the job is great. The kids keep me constantly entertained, and there is never a dull day! We are lucky to be living near both of our families, and so we are able to spend quite a bit of time with them. Both of us are really active in our church, which we love. I actually am the worship leader, and David is the sound guy. It's really a blessing to be able to work side-by-side at church together. We love it!

So, that's our lives in a nutshell. We do have a dog named Bella. She is our sweet little girl, except for days like today when she eats a little bit of drywall! Anyway, thanks for reading. Thanks, Jeremy and Amber, for thinking we are interesting enough to have a blog! We love you guys!