Back from Vacation

So we got back last night from vacation and we had a great time relaxing and eating some good food! Down in LA we got to go to Seal Beach and enjoy the ocean a little bit. We also went to Knotts Berry Farm, which is a theme park down in Orange County. I think I still have a headache from the rollar coasters. The highlight of LA was being able to see the The Huntington Library, Estate, and Gardens It was such an amazing place to visit.



This was one of my favorite pictures of the "desert" part of the gardens. Aren't those cacti cool-looking?



This was part of the Japanese garden that was also just so amazing.



This was a tree called a "Wisteria Tree." The tree only blooms for 2 weeks out of the year!



The center also had an entire bonsai garden which was really cool to see the different types of bonsai.



A Picture of Lauren and I along with her parents in the Japanese gardens...



This is a picture of the Guttenburg Bible. It was one of the first things ever printed by Guttenburg, who invented the priniting press. The Library was pretty amazing itself...it had over 4 million books; 2.5 million of them were rare. The library also contained letters signed by Abraham Lincoln and stuff from Shakespeare. It was all pretty amazing to see.

Huntington was a huge collector and he left everything to the state of California because he wanted it all turned into a museum. His uncle was one of the "Big Four" of California who established the Pacific Railroad and eventually began the government of CA. It was a lot of fun being there!

Vacation!

We are now on vacation...which is very nice! Lauren has been sick the past 3 weeks which has not been very fun for her. She is starting to get better, so hopefully she'll fully recover soon! We are down here in the "Real OC" (Orange County, CA) for a week and then off to Yosemite for a few days. It is nice to sleep and see my wife! With our crazy schedules and sicknesses, we have not had a lot of time together lately.

Lauren is currently shopping right now and I am typing up a 17 page paper that is due on Monday...by email. I am trying to get it out of the way with so I can enjoy some fun in the sun down here. We have a few fun things planned, but besides that...just hanging out and relaxing. There will be lots of pictures to post once we come back home....

NCAA Tournament

Last night was rough. Duke, the team I had winning the entire tounrament, lost in a very big way to LSU. Then Gonzaga, another team I had going far in the tournament lost as well! I am not doing so good in my brackets anymore. Oh well, now it's time to cheer for UCLA. Go Bruins!

finals....are over!

So, finals are finally over. I don't really get a spring break because of my internship though. I am currently interning as a Speech Language Pathologist at San Ramon Valley High School. It is a lot of fun and I am hoping that the district will hire me for this fall. I only have 3 more weeks of this internship and then I start my second one...which I just got confirmed this past week! I am going to be interning at the Aphasia Center of California I will be working with adults who have had strokes and helping them to rehabilitate their speech and langauge skills. It is definitely going to be a lot of work, but I think it will be fun.

So, the end of school is finally in sight. I am graduating on June 8th...if I pass everything. There is one more big exam I have to pass in May called the "comps" which are about 7 hours long! Not looking forward to that.

Besides that, I am taking a few days off for 2 of my favorite days of the year: the NCAA basketball tournament. So far there have been a few upsets including Oklahoma who I predicted to go to the "Elite Eight." Ouch...that one is going to hurt me in the tournament pool. There have been some exciting games so far; I guess that's why they call it "March Madness."

finals...

...are not fun. only a few more grueling days!

Snow!!!

Yesterday and today have brought some strange weather here to the Bay Area. It has been really cold and yesterday there was snow a few miles from where we live! I journeyed up to the hills to walk around in the snow and it was really cool. It reminded me of when I use to live in Chicago and Boston. Here are some pictures I captured while out this morning.



It was really neat to see some kids and parents out there who had never seen snow before in their lives. Hopefully it will start to warm up soon though. Last weekend it was 75 degrees out!?!?!

3 year anniversary

So this past weekend Lauren and I got to celebrate our 3 year anniversary! We traveled on up to Cloverdale, CA which is a little town up in wine country in the northern part of Sonoma County. We stayed at the Old Crocker Inn which was a great bed and breakfast. It was the same place that we stayed at last year and it was very relaxing. The weather couldn't have been better as it was about 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky...pretty good for February!

The inn bed and breakfast itself is very historic. The founder of the Central Pacific Railroad was John Crocker and this was his ranch where him and his family would come for vacation. He ended being one of the "big four" that established California's government.



The inn has a very rustic feel to it...but it still has many modern amenities cause it was remodeled in 2003. It has wireless internet, DVD players with flat screen TV's, jacuzzi tub, and so on. It was hard to leave...



We had a good time shopping, relaxing, and eating good food. The last three years have gone by really fast for us...they have been the best three years of our lives!

Huh? I can't hear you...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20060202/bs_nf/41385

Check out the link above about a lawsuit that was just filed by a man in Louisiana against Apple for hearing loss related to using his iPod. Guess I'll have to turn down the volume!! Personally, i think it's rediculous because there are many technology items that can cause hearing loss and it's up to the person how they decide to use them. How about hair blow dryers? tv's? car stereo? going to a loud sporting event? electric screwdriver? What do you think?

Video iPod

So I finally broke down and purchased an iPod. I have to say that they are pretty sweet! It is probably the coolest gadget/electronic device that I have ever owned. I was deciding between the nano and the video iPod and decided to go with the 30GB video iPod. It holds up to 7,500 songs...which is a ton! It is taking forever to transfer all of my music from CD's to my iPod; but it is cool to have all my music on such a small device. It is great for when I work out at the gym and for in the car. iPods are awesome!

sold my memories

This past Sunday was a sad day for me as I sold my 1967 Mustang! It needed a lot of work done (mostly engine) and I couldn't afford to fix it or store it since Lauren and I live in a apartment with no garage. I had this great car throughout high school and college. Lauren and I had many dates driving around Northern CA in this car before we were married. It also got me into a lot of trouble when I was in high school! I got 3 tickets in the car: 2 for speeding and 1 for racing. All in all it was a great car and I hope to have another one someday to pass onto my kids.

Family picture

So yesterday we had a Christmas concert with our church which was very exciting! Afterwards, we took a family picture with my side of the family, which is always interesting trying to round everyone up on one spot, then finding someone to take the picture. Anyways, it all worked out and we finally got it taken. It was a lot better than last year when we all went to the mall and got one taken with Santa!

Lauren and I are both looking forward to next week when she has four days off for Christmas. We are going to San Jose for two and then to Orange County, CA for two days. It should be a lot of fun. Oh yeah, I just finished finals too! Woohoo!! Now I've just got to study for the licensing exam in January...

Putting up our Christmas tree

So this year we got a slightly bigger tree than last year. We decided to go with a fake tree so that our cat wouldn't drink the water! As usual, we had a lot of fun with our tradition of putting up the ornaments, drinking hot chocolate, eating popcorn, and listening to Christmas music. Here is the finished product of the tree with some presents already underneath! Below are some pictures of the evening...

curious cat

So one of the small branches fell off of our fake tree and Casey was just loving it. He was going nuts throwing it all around.

putting up ornaments

Here is a few pictures of us putting up some ornaments on our tree. Last year our tree was about 2 feet tall and this year it's 6.5 feet tall!

enjoying hot chocolate

Since our cat can't take pictures of us (yet), we had to take separate pictures of us...

casey sniffing around our tree...

Santa Cruz, CA

This past weekend Lauren and I got to go to Santa Cruz, CA. We had a great time there. Our Church had a retreat for all the marrieds to just "get-away" and spend some time getting some "r & r." We had a great time hanging out with some friends, ate some good food, and got to hear some inspiring lessons on how to remain close in your marriage. It was a lot of fun to getaway from the busy life!

In memory of...

On Friday September 16, 2005, Dorothy Comeau (Lauren's grandmother) passed away. This picture is from last Christmas and she was always smiling and cheerful. Please keep us and Lauren's family in your prayers as we leave here in a few hours to Chicago for the memorial and celebration of life.

more from Hawaii

Up close and personal shot of us...taken by us...as the sun was going down.

This is Lauren and I, our last night there at a fabluous restaraunt named Roy's. If you ever get to Maui, it's a must!

flowers in Hawaii

While we were there, Lauren absolutely loved the colors of the flowers. Here are a few pictures of the amazing colors the of flowers we took.