About

Hello everyone and welcome to Haley and Jim’s weblog! The purpose of this little site is pretty simple – to help our family and friends (and whoever else stumbles across the site) keep track of us while we take a little break from reality and travel around the world.  While we can’t promise the most elegant, witty or even grammatically correct posts, we will try our best to write as often as possible and for Jim to do what he does best – post an annoyingly large amount of photos.  We hope you enjoy!

 

For those of you who don’t know the Haley and Jim story, here are the highlights:

 

We both grew up in the somewhat sleepy town of Port Orchard, WA – about an hour ferry ride west of Seattle. We were both the youngest of two and had a pretty darn good upbringing thanks to our honest, hard-working and just downright awesome parents.

 

Our first encounter was waaaay back in seventh grade at a ripe old age of 12.  After a brief fling that school year, we decided to take a little break…you know…see what else was out there…play the field a little bit.  Well, we ended up back together when we were 15, and it’s been that way ever since. 

 

Once the carefree days of high school were behind us, we decide to head off in separate directions for college. Jim went south to Linfield College (Oregon) while Haley went east to Boise State (Idaho).  Though the seven hour drive between us was a little rough, we both were able to enjoy our college experiences as individuals – meeting great new friends, learning a few things and having more fun than we probably should have. 

 

After receiving our shiny new diplomas, we decided to put them to the test in the Big Apple – New York City.  In June ‘03, we packed as much as we could into Haley’s ‘89 Honda Accord, and headed east.  It wasn’t long before a few employers felt sorry for us poor kids who went to no-name schools out west (“is that the school with the blue turf?”, “Ore-e-gone?, isn’t that below Seattle?”).  Jim got to see the subprime mortgage melt-down first hand while analyzing CDOs and subprime mortgages for a couple different firms, and Haley worked a heck of a lot more than your average HR professional at a big huge investment bank.  

 

In December ’06, after being together for a little over ten years, we finally got around to tying the knot.  We opted for the destination beach style wedding at the Ritz in Cancun, Mexico (…which I highly recommend for those of you considering).  Aside from unexpectedly having to come up with heart-felt marriage vows mid-ceremony, it was relatively quick and painless.  We can proudly say that the ceremony only kept our thirteen guests away from food or beverage for only fifteen minutes.

 

After nearly five years in NYC, we decided it was time to change things up once again – which brings us to where we are today.  In the beginning of July ’08, we will be returning to where it all started, Port Orchard, WA, to begin a new and exciting chapter in our lives.  The plan is to hang out and relax in the Northwest for about three weeks before setting off on a five month round the world journey… and then who knows what after that.  Stay tuned…