After the last post I figured I owed everyone an explanation, so here it goes. If all goes as planned, Darren and I will be leaving the country on May 14. Where you ask? A little bit of everywhere (well maybe not everywhere but it's a start) . Our travels will begin in Rome, Italy and end near Lima, Peru. I know what you're thinking. Italy? Peru? What in the world? Well...the idea all started one night, blah, blah, blah....too many details. The short version is we are going to spend an amazing 2.5 months trekking through Europe followed by a 6-7 month adventure in South America. We will first spend some time in Italy (Rome, Umbria region (Cortona, Assisi, etc) Tuscany region (Siena, Volterra, etc), Cinque Terre, Florence and Venice), then we will make our way up to Salzburg, Hallstatt, Melk, and Vienna, Austria. From there we will go to Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic and end in Prague. After our final week in Prague we will fly to Buenos Aires, Argentina where we will volunteer with L.I.F.E. Argentina. Click here to read more about it. It's a really cool program and we are so excited to be a part of it. After 2-3 months in Argentina we will make our way to Chile. As of right now we plan on spending a month or so in Chile sightseeing (hopefully not too much has been damaged) and traveling up north to Darren's mission area (Antofagasta). It's going to take us a whole month just to get up there! Man Chile is a long country! We have an opportunity to volunteer with an organization based in Santiago but as of right now we're not sure the timing will work out because after Chile we will be volunteering in Peru! There are two programs we've applied to and they are both so amazing that we haven't decided which one we will do yet. One is in Huaraz, Peru and the other one is in Trujillo. Click on the names to find out more about them. So that's the scoop. We will be gone a total of 9-10 months and maybe longer if any other opportunities arise and out funds hold out. We have already bought our plane tickets and we have had people coming by to pick up stuff we are selling on Craigslist. I can't believe we are actually going to do this. It's crazy!! I have moments of excitement and moments of fear (especially as our house becomes more bare). It is something that Darren and I have always wanted to do and we were just lucky enough to marry someone who had the same dream. So as crazy as it is, here's to making dreams come true :)

This trip definitely deserves an entry in "The Browns Traveler" so unless our converters and adapters don't work and we end up frying our laptop, we will be adding pics and comments as our trip progresses. Stay tuned to see some fun stuff!! :)

So obviously it’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog so listed below are some things we’ve been up to since September.

September 19, 2009
The Phoenix Symphony Oscar Night!! They performed some of the greatest scores from films such as Titanic, The Godfather, Chariots of Fire, Gone with the Wind and The Lord of the Rings, and other classics such as “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and “Lara’s Theme” from Dr. Zhivago. I think one of my favorites was “The Exodus” from Ben-Hur and one of Darren’s was the theme from Rocky. We even had the opportunity to walk the red carpet and have our picture taken by the paparazzi. We’ve could have also posed for a photo with the life-sized Oscar statues but the line was too long. The “statues” were technically two guys painted in gold but they did such a good job at remaining still I couldn’t tell if they were real or not. It’s always fun to get dressed up and go out on the town with my man.



October 24, 2009
Darren surprised me with a day date to Kartchner Caverns, just outside Benson, AZ. He planned it for weeks and wouldn’t give me one single detail. I love surprises but I absolutely cannot help but ask lots of questions in order to try and guess. Since Darren wouldn’t answer any of my logical and rational inquiries, I had to resort to questions like the following:

Me: Fine. Then give me a color.
Darren: A color???
Me: Yeah. A color. (I have no idea why he was so confused. It’s a perfectly logical question) ;o)
Darren: What do you mean a color?
Me: Give me a color that would best describe what we’re going to do?
Darren (with such an unsure and intrigued look on his face): Okaaayyyy. Yellow.
Me: Yellow huh? Soooo….it’s going to be something that requires some energy like hiking, cuz yellow is a bright, hyper-like color. Either that or it’s something outside so it’s going to be hot, like the yellow sun. Am I right? Am I right?
Darren: Ummm. Sure. (This is the point where he starts (at least outwardly) laughing and questioning my sanity)

He even tried to throw me off by getting on the eastbound freeway from Gilbert Rd. Prior to that I thought I had guessed it. But after he finally got off the freeway and turned around to head west, I knew I had it figured out.

It was a perfect surprise. I had never been to Kartchner Caverns before and it was absolutely astounding!! It’s mind boggling to think about how caves are made and how they continue to thrive. We did the Rotunda/Throne Tour which is about .5 mile in length and takes about an hour or so to complete. At the end of the tour they do a light show centered around "Kubla Khan”, the largest column formation in Arizona. It’s really cool to see all the shadows that the lights and formations create. I can’t imagine being one of the first people in search of this cave who crawled on their hands and knees in complete and utter darkness until they ran into this gigantic column. Crazy!! I don’t have any pictures since they weren’t allowed, but you can click here to see some from a website I found.

Darren and I were reminiscing a while back about the different productions/concerts we have been to so I thought it might be fun to list them. One list consists of those we’ve done together and the other is ones we have gone to separately. So here they are:

List of shows we've been to together:
The Lion King
Rascal Flatts
Jack Johnson
Wicked (twice)
Phantom of the Opera
Blue October/Yellowcard
Live
One Republic
Barnum & Bailey Circus
Black Beard the Musical
The Christmas Carol
Andre Rieu
Les Miserables
Transiberian Orchestra
Brad Paisley
The Nutcracker
Warren Miller

Others:
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Light in the Piazza
Little Shop of Horrors
Tim McGraw & Faith Hill
Michelle Branch
Staind
Nickelback
Nora Jones
Allison Krauss
Rick Trevino
Keith Urban
Brian Regan
Joel Osteen

Can you guess which ones I can claim and which ones Darren would deny? :o)


Story: Since we went to Wicked in L.A. the weekend we got engaged, as much as we wanted to see it again, we decided to pass when it came to Tempe in July. So one random Tuesday afternoon, Darren calls me in the middle of the day to see if I want to go to Gammage Auditorium after work and see if we can win some tickets through a raffle. Sounds fun to me! So we go after work, put each of our names on a piece of paper and wait with about 75 other people to see if one of our names will be drawn. After about 10 people we hear, "Darren Brown". We looked at each other astonishingly as Darren walks to the front table to pick up his loot. So for a total of $50, we received two 2nd row, center stage tickets to Wicked. Yay!! Doesn't get better than that :) We even got two of these prized buttons to show off.