return from the south

our trip to austin was loads of fun and chock full of activities. we spent LOTS of time with the overstreet family, hiked to the top of enchantment rock, partook of deepfried pickles (which are gluten-full if you were wondering), biked, drank purple margaritas, kayaked, took pictures, shopped, and...ATE. oh did we eat! food is such a splendid thing that brings families together.

we spent the first few days there in austin, eating turkey with the family. then on friday we took off for port aransas/corpus christi. it was very cold and spit rain for most of the time, but we still had a great time on our "vacation within a vacation"! rob, justin, court, brandon, and i spent friday night bait fishing off the pier. it was raining so hard that within 5 minutes each of us were thoroughly soaked.

we are exhausted now and happy to be home, although our systems had to do a rapid adjustment from the warm sun we enjoyed yesterday to the fluffy snow we found on the ground today. here are just a few photos...the rest are on our flickr site

travels and tales to come

i've spent the day doing the wash and trying to narrow down my list of items to take to austin. i am horrible at packing, truly awful. to top it off i always end up wearing the same thing over and over so i could just bring one outfit and be golden. anyhow, the progress is slow, but measurable.

we take off tomorrow to spend some time with erik and kayla, which i am thrilled we can fit in. i am also grateful for their willingness to cart us out to the airport.

our flight takes off monday for the lone star state and we are very much looking forward to being warm(er). it should be an interesting adventure trying to eat gluten free in the airports, but i am coming prepared with backup items if needed. sadly however, one cannot live on larabars alone.

hopefully we can get some GRE studying in during our flights and layovers, but we shall see how well our attention span holds out. i so want to do well and know that studying will help but pulling that huge book open feels like an insurmountable task!

meeting rowan

we think he is just the best!

we took off a couple days of work and school to hang out with our godson, rowan. he is incredible and perfect, and looks just like his daddy. we are pretty stoked on him!

here he is with his daddy, being chill.

he is thinking who the heck is this lady? yep, that would be his godmum!

logan and alyssa have one great little dude: he takes being mellow seriously and only cries when he needs a diaper change or to eat. what a way to be! it was hard to say goodbye, but we are looking forward to holding him again soon.

here's The Godfather

we also went to seattle to hang out with kemi & sara, which was loads of fun. they drove us around and put up with getting our city fixes (REI, asian food, freemont market, etc.). all i could think the whole time was how lucky i am to have such awesome girlfriends! sadly, we didn't get any photos.

then i met with a couple of my professors and asked them to write letters of recommendation for graduate school. both of them said they would have no trouble writing me positive letters, so that was a huge burden lifted. now the onus is just on me to get my statement of purpose put together....

our friend, the little guy

this is our newest friend, rowan. although brandon and i have not yet met the little guy, we are already enamored by him. we are quite possibly the most proud godparents in the world. what an honor! thank you logan and alyssa for choosing us!

we get the joy of meeting our godson this friday. we are going to awake early and head west so we can see him firsthand.

i must confess, i "stole" this photo from his momma's page, but i promise to have some original photos after our visit this weekend.

we can't wait to meet you rowan!

(doesn't he look just like logan?)

fall favorites

i think that my favorite fall day has always been daylight savings.
it is wonderful to be able to sleep in late and then to be able to shake off those feelings of guilt for your laziness--because really you aren't sleeping in that late. i, being the lover of sleep that i am, revel in that bonus hour of shuteye.
as the day goes on you keep thinking that surely it is later, then you look at the clock and remember "oh yeah, we set our clocks back." sweet, more bonus time!
because it gets darker earlier you begin to prepare to get into bed, with your body telling you that the time to sleep is drawing near. then suddenly you realize that you are in bed at 9:30!
daylight savings seems like the one day of the year when you aren't racing against the clock and i like that feeling.
to top off the beauty of daylight savings we had delightful, warm fall weather . although this photo is one i took a couple of weeks ago, it captures the feel of our day.