Nature is Pretty Neat

Two years ago, I took my students here. We went with this year's class a few weeks ago and had an amazing trip!

Some of them had never seen the ocean before.

They were all such troopers on the 3 mile hike!

Check out those battle wounds! This may have been an alpha. He was quite large.

Such wonderful kiddos.

Music to My Ears

Jameson tells me I have an uncanny ability remembering words of songs. It's true. Must have been all the love songs I listened to when I was young. :) Tonight we were listening to classical music on Pandora while picking up our apartment and a song came on. No lyrics this time, just instrumental. I knew I knew it! It was a song from my youth--one that I hadn't heard in ages. It was a song that made me think of ice skating with my mom as a young girl. I thought of the Olympics. Initially I thought it was Ekaterina Gordeeva who skated to it. But that wasn't right. Then I found it! The Swan. I was only 9 when my mom and I watched Oksana Baiul transform into the Swan. She was such an inspiration.

Hello Blog!

Have we mentioned we love living in the city?! Here's a recap of the last few months (crossing my fingers that I can keep things in chronological order).

On December 29, Jameson and I celebrated 3 years of marriage! We had really special dinner reservations but, because of an appointment mishap on my end (that's a funny story for another post), we couldn't make the reservation! Come what may and love it! Instead, we went out to one of our favorite sushi restaurants near Jameson's office that had an open table, and had a great time. Because, "It's not where you are, but who you're with that matters most" right? ;) I'm so grateful for Jameson and all we've learned and accomplished together over the past 3 years.

The next day, my sister Jenn came to visit--how I love spontaneous visits from my all time favorite visitor. The 3 of us celebrated New Years Eve in downtown SF (I gave myself a pretty big pat on the back since I managed to stay up so late), ate lots of delicious food, and shopped (of course)!

Jameson and I discovered that we have giant slides pretty much right in our backyard! Whoever knew that SF was the best place to be a big kid?! This is becoming my favorite pastime!

In January, Jameson's mom and youngest brother came to visit! It was so much fun! Highlights from their visit were going to Alcatraz for the first time (definitely going on my top 10 list of things to do when in SF) and visiting the Green Street Lab where Laurie's great uncle invented television. See here for more information. When Jameson and I were dating and he told me that his great great uncle invented TV, and I didn't believe him for a minute! Oops!

For Valentine's Day (my district had the day off for Lincoln's birthday), Jameson planned a weekend getaway in the mountains. He surprised me by taking me to see a dog breeder that we'd met at a dog show a few weeks prior--to take a look at her Bernese Mountain Dogs (we were most interested in the puppies)! Of course we fell in love. We both knew we couldn't take one home because we don't have the space right now, but hopefully sometime in the not too distant future! Then we went to the most adorable Bed & Breakfast I've ever stepped foot in. They delivered fresh scones to our door in the morning, followed by homemade gourmet breakfast an hour later. It was heavenly. I think we'll return every year if I have my way. I was so impressed with the hubby for finding this place!

We spent Valentine's Day skiing/snowboarding on a basically empty mountain which was incredible.

Most recently, we went to Park City to go skiing with all of the Haslams which was a real treat. Jameson is becoming quite the snowboarder with all of these trips to the snow (several of which did not even make it into this blog post!) It was so much fun to be around everyone in Utah!

Needless to say, we are loving life and all of the people we've been able to spend time with of late!