Oh Spring Break... how I miss you!

South Texas

Alec and I took a trip to South Texas for New Years. We watched a beautiful sunset on the way down.



My hiking goal was to "see" Mexico. The river behind us is the Rio Grande and Mexico is just beyond. The khaki pants are supposed to help the mosquitoes leave you alone. I'm told they are attracted to darker colors. They were definitely attacking Alec's arms more than mine so maybe there is something to that.



Border Patrol!


Isn't this an amazing storm front?

I've just returned from Nashville!

Lovely flight there:


Stayed in a crazy hotel that had a whole city underneath the large roof. When I say stayed in, I mean I never went outside!




Learned a TON. So exciting!



Spent time with awesome people (only some of which are pictured here):


Had an awesome flight home:

I love the lake house!

This weekend was wonderfully relaxing and awesome. I got to spend it with some awesome girlfriends at one of their lake houses. I love the girls. I love the lake! I love paddle boating and eating oreo truffles!

Colorado!

Here are some pictures of this last lovely week in Colorado, where we thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to wear jackets. We were sad to return home to not only 108 degree weather, but a broken air conditioner. Thank goodness we got it fixed that same day! Anyway, Colorado is awesome. Maybe we'll move there someday.

Colorado, originally uploaded by joygoldplanet.

Yeah, we climbed to the top of that rock. It was about 7,000 feet above sea level. We started our hike about 5,000 feet. We're hard core.




This is Alec with his aunt and uncle, Suzie and Gary. They took us through the Rocky Mountain National Park. This spot is near the origination of the Colorado River.


Behind us you can see Horsetooth Reservoir. We went boating there the first night we arrived in town. What a way to welcome us to town!

West Texas - Big Bend, Terlingua, Lajitas, Guadalupe State Park

I studied for 11 hours straight today. You may begin to notice that my escape from school overload is to plan real-life escapes that we hope to take sometime soon. We're shooting to spend New Years with just us under the beautiful stars of West Texas. For those that don't know, Fort Davis, Texas has the best vantage point in all of North America to see stars. Here are some landscapes from West Texas that are calling my name:









McDonald Observatory:

...which is incidentally where we fell in love. Awwwww.

Nashville!

Well it looks like I might get to attend my first work-related trip in my new career field later this year! The annual conference is being held in Nashville, Tennessee this Fall and I super duper hope I get to go! The learning seminars look awesome and I'm sure I'll meet lots of future colleagues, which is always a plus when you start looking for a new job. Look how huge the hotel is:




The hotel is adjacent to this!





Maybe I'll get lucky and get to see Dolly Parton, George Jones, or Waylon Jennings doing normal things like walking their dogs or driving their cars just like the stalker trash magazines swear celebrities do!

I Feel Dizzy... My Head Is Spinning...

Ever since we got back from the trip to San Francisco I have been mercilessly dizzy! I'll feel ok for a little while and then all of the sudden it hits me and I'm on the floor. I have slept SO much in the last week that the days have run together in my mind. I'm on day 7 of dizzy now, so I'm starting to accept it as nearly normal and adjusting into doing activities while holding onto the wall without even thinking about it. I'm eating Bonine like candy and taking decongestants but so far it isn't really any better. Anyway here is one picture of the walk down to Baker Beach in San Francisco:






...and two pictures of the next trip we're planning on taking. I'm excited!





I LOVE PORTLAND!

Photobooth Success and Simultaneous Failure

I had a goal that we would hit every photo booth in San Francisco while we were there, the old school kind. Well, we did not hit a single old school style photo booth, but we happened upon a whole STORE full of Japanese new school ones that take your picture in front of a greeen screen and then you can draw on them or add backgrounds. They're totally ridiculous, but very very funny.

http://www.pikapikasf.com/welcome.asp

Ipod cozy

You can see that I am on a last minute San Francisco crafting mission. I'm trying to get felt cases made for all the electronic gizmos and sunglasses that will be bumping into each other in my travel bag. This one is for the ipod that we plan to use to listen to episodes of the "This American Life" podcast while we're on the plane. We're going to be so romantic using one ipod and a headphone splitter on our honeymoon. Neither one of us has ever wanted to listen to the same thing as another person before. Awwwww. We may also download an entire audio book, but haven't come to a consensus on which one. I'm so excited! Can't you tell?!

I used a button for this case that makes me so happy. It was my grandmother's and when I was about 8 years old I remember digging through her button box and wondering what each button would end up on. I'm so lucky I inherited that box. This particular button always reminded me of a bowl of mac-n-cheese and I couldn't imagine what kind of clothes would look good with a mac-n-cheese button. It makes me happy to be sewing and thinking of my grandmother while I sew on my mother's borrowed sewing machine. Happy Mothers' Day!

Scarf made out of old T-shirts

This is another Red Velvet Art class project that I'm about 3 months late on. I never intended to be on time though. I used two old t-shirts I had in my closet but couldn't wear anymore. One was too big and one too small so I had some trimming to do! The black shirt had this cool pattern at the bottom that fell in a very unattractive place on the shirt but I think totally makes the scarf. I can't wait to wear it in San Francisco later this week!