End of Fall Semester 2011

I love the end of the semester. This is the first time I've ever managed through a full semester of school while working full time. I really admire those who do this and have children! I feel like this is this first time since August that I'm actually going to have free time, which is funny because I'm still going to be working full time. I remember when I was in high school and "free time" meant that I literally had NOTHING to do. No school, no work, no chores, just empty time to fill with friends or whatever I wanted to do. Funny how things change. Now I view free time as time to get grocery shopping done, clean my house, contact maintenance about our broken dishwasher, finally get around to all that Christmas shopping I need to do, haha. I can't imagine what free time will feel like someday when we add children into the mix.

Jason and I are going to be heading to Colorado for Christmas this year. We're both beginning to get really excited about it. Jason more so than me because his trip to CO is going to be a few days longer than mine is. I'm not taking extra time off of work for our trip to CO because during the first week of January we are going on a Caribbean cruise with my entire family to celebrate my mom's 60th Birthday! Now I am SUPER excited about that! Although last year when I went to Mexico right around this time in December, it was already SO COLD in Minnesota and there was so much snow that I couldn't wait to get away! But this year it has been really wonderful weather-wise in MN. We have like 1-2 in of snow outside (note to all you Colorado people in case you've forgotten, the 1-2 inches doesn't just melt away like it does in your magical land, it will probably stick around until Feb or Mar), it continues to be sunny even though it is often chilly (below 30), though today it is 35! So I'm not nearly as sick of the cold weather this year as I was last year. This year it seems completely tolerable. Also this year I feel like I've learned how to navigate the downtown skyways so I can just walk all around downtown without having to step foot outside, whereas last year I was standing out in the cold a lot. I've even located a Dairy Queen in the skyways! I was pretty excited about that!

Speaking of DQ, did you know that the DQ headquarters are in MN? Between Target and DQ being headquartered here, Kohls being headquartered in Wisconsin, and Chipotle being headquartered in CO, I feel like I'm associated with some pretty awesome states. What more could you possibly need in your life than those four places?

Moving on. We have a couple of exciting things that have gone on in the past couple of months since I last posted. First, Jason was offered a position for next summer at a law firm here in Minnesota! We are super excited about it. The firm is right in downtown Minneapolis and this means that we're going to be staying in one place for at least a solid year (though we foresee living in this apartment for at least 3 years, this is an AWESOME apartment and neither of us have lived at a place for over a year since high school, so we're feeling very excited). We also found out that Jason was granted in state tuition for his third year of law school! He had to petition for it, but since we foresee living in MN past his graduating from law school we figured it was worth a shot and it worked! The last piece of exciting news is that I got a promotion at my job! I am now the Lead Teacher in the Infant Room. I just love this job so much. I don't ever mind being there. I love spending time with the babies. It isn't all fun and games, obviously in a room full of infants there are moments of complete chaos, but I love the babies, but I've got wonderful co-workers, and it is a great company. I never have a feeling of "I don't want to go to work today", and I love not having that feeling. In fact I don't particularly love the weekends because I start missing all the babies. So needless to say, I hope to stick with this company for a while. I anticipate school taking me a while longer and it's nice to have a great job while I continue to make my way through school.

Anyway, that's all for now. I've posted some pictures from the goings-on in our life from the past two months. Enjoy!

Here we have (from left to right) Aleisha, Kelly, Rachel, Tiffany and  me. We met up with our friend Sam and went out for a girls night! We are all married to or dating a boy in the law school (except Kelly who just got to come along because she's super awesome).

Rachel, Kara and me. This is a picture from Halloween, we were the Three Blind Mice. It was Rachel's idea and she just threw the outfits together really fast. It was amazing. She's my hero. 

We decided that our family room needed a little tweaking so we went to Ikea and found some new stuff. Peter came over and helped us put it all together and now I am so much more in love with my family room!

Rachel, Aleisha and I had a baking day last Saturday. I have really wanted to take the "Pepsi Challenge" for YEARS. When I was little my Dad had a Pepsi Challenge t-shirt and I remember him telling me about him doing it. So us three girls gave it a shot. All three of us succeeded in guessing the correct one. I was even able to tell just by smelling them. I sure LOVE my Pepsi! 

Last but certainly not least, you get a picture of Rachel and me (or at least our legs) in our University of MN Law School sweat pants that our husbands bought for us. Lovely :)

Back in MN

Well, we've actually been back in Minnesota for about two months now but it has been a crazy busy two months. The only reason I'm able to update at the moment is because I am home sick from work and thought this an ideal time.

I'll recap a bit on our last two months and then update with some pictures :o)

We got back to Minn and quickly moved into our new place (which we LOVE). I started school and a new job and Jason dove straight into job interviews and then shortly after started classes. I started a job at a local daycare center. I am an Assistant Teacher in the Young Infant room. We look after 12 babies ages 6 weeks to 8-ish months (then they move up to the Older Infant room). This job is going so well and I am just really enjoying it. It is such a great fit for me. If only I weren't sick and could be there today.

As for school, this semester I am taking Spanish 2 and Intermediate Algebra. Next semester I only need one more math class and then I will be able to get my Associates Degree! It's about time. Shortly here I need to start working out where I will be going to school next year to get working on my Bachelors Degree. It feels so great to be moving along with this school stuff. I finally feel like I'm accomplishing something. I likely won't be in school full time much after this semester (and this semester I'm not actually full time, but I figure 10 credits is pretty close). I anticipate the next "2 years" of school taking me 4-5 years. But I figure that is okay as long as I continue chipping away at it.

Things are going well for Jason. Law school is certainly keeping him busy. He is very involved in a number of different things. I don't even know what to call them, they aren't clubs... he's writing for a journal, he has an externship with (for?) a judge, and he's on some sort of committee. I don't know, I'm probably a bad wife because I don't know all the correct terms and because I don't know exactly what he's doing, but he's doing a lot! It's hard to keep it all straight, haha. His birthday was last week. We had a fun outing with friends.

Things are going so wonderfully here in Minnesota that I can't help but feel that it was absolutely the right thing for us to move out here. It was difficult adjusting in the beginning of last year, but in the second half of the year things improved and after spending the summer in California and then getting back out here to the Midwest, it is clear that this place is a wonderful fit for us. We have a wonderful group of friends, we are both enjoying the work and school that we're a part of. To put it simply, we just feel like we're heading in the right direction.

At Peter and Rachel's wedding. Here are some of the "Law Boys" before the wedding.

The Guys with the Groom

Jason and Peter at the tailgate before a Gopher's Football game.

Me with my cousin Kelly and her husband Nate at a Gopher's game.

At Jason's Birthday Celebration

Two of my favorite girls, Rachel and Tiffany

"Jason's friend" Heather (from CO, though now she lives in DC) came out for a work conference and met up with us for Jason's bday celebration!

SeaWorld!

This weekend my mom came to visit us in California. She had mentioned that she loves SeaWorld so we decided we would plan to go when she came. It was a fast visit, her flight got in late Friday night and she left fairly early Sunday so basically the majority of quality time we spent together was at SeaWorld on Saturday - but it was definitely quality time!!

We had been told to arrive at the park as early as possible because then you have a chance of feeding the animals. And that is exactly what happened. We headed first to the Sea Lion area and within minutes a man came out and handed fish to both my mom and Jason. I got a video of them tossing in fish. It's short, but fun. The Sea Lions were just so cute and excited! It really made me think of that Mickey Mouse episode when Mickey takes a baby Sea Lion home.

Next we went into Turtle Reef, completely unaware that it was it's grand opening day! It was very cool and now I feel somewhat honored that we were some of the first people to see it :-)

Mom in turtle reef

Me in turtle reef

We saw basically all the shows that they put on in a day. The only one we didn't go to was the "House Pets" one. The Sea Lion and Otter shows were hilarious! The odd thing was that all the shows are like plays now. I've only been to Sea World once but when I went I recall that it was just a person talking and asking/telling the animals what to do. Now it's all music and water shooting up all over the place and big screened TV's. Don't get me wrong, it was still very cool, but I feel like it was less about the animals.

The only ride we went on was the Bayside Skyride, which is just a gondola ride. It was nice and peaceful for sure!

At one point Jason decided that I really missed out in the whole feeding the Sea Lion experience and suggested that we go back and pay for me to have my chance to feed the Sea Lions. I was excited to have my chance to do it. It made me surprisingly nervous - but more because there were all these crazy birds around taking the fish right out of peoples' fingers and I didn't want the birds attacking me. The first fish I threw I bird snatched right out of the air which was unfortunate, but the rest made it into sealions' mouths.

I'm not sure that there is a single animal in the whole park that we didn't see. We were really good about getting to everything. We spent 11 hours there. We decided that the best place to take my mom for a California dinner would be In-N-Out Burger (actually she suggested it), so after a day at SeaWorld we ended at In-N-Out then went back to our hotel. It was one of the more perfect days spent in CA for sure!

Happy August!

I can't believe it's already August. Our last day in California is two weeks from today! Our lease ends on August 15th at noon. That day I'll get the car all packed up and hang out in a park (or a library depending on how hot it is that day) until Jason gets out of work and then we're going to hit the road! I'm excited because we will be spending a few days in Colorado and I get to see my friend Kathy who I NEVER get to see anymore now that neither of us actually live in CO. We will get to Minnesota on the 18th or 19th, depending on how fast we feel like moving.

Things around our apartment have gotten a bit easier. We finally got rid of all the ants a few days after my last post. That was such a relief! It has made hanging out in the apartment incredibly more tolerable. In the middle of July I went to Colorado to see my sister Casey's new baby, Jackson. He is such a cutie - much smaller than his brother. Hayden was 8lbs 1oz and Jackson was 6lbs 7oz (these might not be exactly on, but they're close enough). I think Jackson has more of a look like his mommy, too. It'll be fun to watch him grow. I just love being an aunt!

Baby Jackson

Casey and Hayden

Me and Aubrey at WaterWorld

And speaking of being an aunt, I also took Sienna to WaterWorld for our 3rd year in a row as her birthday present, but this year her mom, brother, Aunt Floy, Uncle Drew, and cousin Aubrey decided to join us! It was so much fun getting so spend the day with my siblings, nieces, and nephew. The kids loved waterworld (for Dallen and Aubrey it was their first visit) and it's hard not to love watching children enjoying themselves so much!

Sienna, Lindsay and Dallen at WaterWorld

Luckily for me I was able to time my CO trip with my Grandpa Bruce being in town for a visit. He and I were able to go out just the two of us for lunch - a rare thing to be able to get one-on-one time with a grandparent when you're in a family as big as mine and considering he and I were both just in town for a short visit. I love spending time with him and it was wonderful getting to watch him enjoying his great-grandchildren!

After CO I flew over to UT to visit my Dad. He moved to UT from CO about a year ago and this was my first visit to their new home. It is a beautiful home and they have an amazing view! My dad and Kristyl have done so much work to the house and I just can't wait to see how many changes are made when I manage getting over there to see it again. I was able to visit with a lot of family in UT but I was especially glad that I was able to get over to visit with my Grandpa Ripplinger (I can't believe I got to visit with both of my grandpa's in a matter of 3 days). After his stroke I wasn't really sure how he would be but I am happy to report that I couldn't even tell the difference. He seemed wonderful and as happy as ever.

Side of my dad's yard. They put down all the grass,
planted all their plants and laid each rock with their own two hands. 

I got back to CA just in time for Jason to sit second chair in his first trial! It was a very big deal. It lasted for 3 days and in the end Jason's side won (I'm not sure the "correct" way to word that, I'm sorry). Jason did a lot of work for this trial and it's really exciting that everything turned out so well.

Pacific Coast Highway

We weren't quite sure if we were willing to brave the Pacific Coast Hwy on the 4th of July. It just seemed like a very big question mark. We already knew it was going to be longer. What we didn't know if it could be end up being much longer due to traffic. But we decided that it wasn't an opportunity that we would get again any time soon and that we should just go for it. We're so glad we did! It was a perfect way to spend the 4th of July! Not much story to tell, just a lot of pictures for you to enjoy.

It was REALLY cold up here.

These are elephant seals. They were so ugly, but so fun to watch!

They come to this beach a few months each year to molt.

They were everywhere, and even though they were horribly ugly and made disgusting sounds - they were terribly fascinating animals! It is such a wonderful thing to observe animals in the wild.

This is a real castle that is in CA that I had no idea existed before yesterday.

San Francisco

Our first view of San Francisco.

On Day 2 of our mini vacation we ventured further north to San Francisco. Neither of us really had any idea what to expect - we had suggestions from multiple people on Facebook about what we should do, but we didn't have the slightest idea what it would entail. We arrived and were immediately in awe of the city - I finally understand now that Minneapolis has a fairly small downtown.

We had a little bit of trouble right off the bat and ended up going across a bridge to Oakland, then our GPS told us it was going to take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half to get back to SF. We were really confused why we wouldn't be able to drive back across the bridge we had just been on. Well it turned out that on the way back across the bridge was a toll-way and we have our GPS set to avoid toll-ways. Thankfully it did not take us much time to make it back across.

The bridge that took us to Oakland. I think it was the Bay Bridge.

Once we managed parking it was about 10am. We wandered down to Fisherman's Warf and just walked around the different Pier's looking at all the different things. We ducked into the Mechanical Museum which is essentially filled with old video games. It was really cool, I had my fortune told to me by an old type writer and I watched it type! Spooky! 

The fourtune telling machine.

For lunch we went to lunch at Boudin Bakery, a sourdough bread place that has been open since 1849 - very tasty! Jason got clam-chowder in a bread bowl, and I kept eating his (I got a turkey sandwich on multigrain bread - mine was good, but not as delicious as his), it was so yummy that I wanted to go back there for dinner. 

After lunch we decided to shell out the cash to get on the double decker tour buses in order to see the whole city. It takes 2 hrs and 15 min to go on their entire tour but there are 22 stops on the tour and you can get off and then just hop onto any bus that comes along after you've explored the area. It also takes you across the Golden Gate bridge - it was so completely worth it!

Us on the Golden Gate Bridge (with our automated tour-guide headphones in)

So for most of our riding time on the buses we stayed inside the bus so we were out of the sun. Though when it came time to go across the Golden Gate Bridge we HAD to go up top. It was so intense. Jason turned to me at one point and said, "Who needs an amusement park when you can do this". We probably weren't actually going all that fast, but it was so windy and so COLD. Things were blowing everywhere, everyone's hair was going insane - it was such a fun experience!

My "this is what my hair looks like after going across the golden gate bridge" look.

Lumbard St.

One of the last things we did was to get off the bus at Lumbard Street so we could check out the crooked road. Honestly the most exciting part about this was not the street itself, but the number of cars lined up to go down the street and the ridiculousness of how steep the street was to get to the top of. I have never had my muscles hurt so badly so quickly after a workout as they did after climbing this street. It's been two days and they're still recovering. It was well worth it though!


We ended our time in San Fran with a stop a Ghirardelli Square. It was time for some ice cream! I got a cookie sunday and it was devine!

San Jose: Google, and Stanford

For the fourth of July weekend we decided we would drive north to check out San Jose and San Francisco. We stayed at a Holiday Inn in San Jose and it was so wonderful! There wasn't actually anything particularly special about the hotel, but we were so excited to sleep on a real bed in a room with furniture and a TV! I'm actually surprised we didn't give up on venturing out and opt to stay in the hotel the whole time.

I wasn't entirely sure what we should do in San Jose but Jason had some places in mind that he wanted to check out. First on the agenda: Google headquarters.

I will admit right off the bat, I was not super excited to go to Googleland. But Jason just finished reading "In the Plex" a book about Google and he loves looking at these sorts of places. Plus he goes with me to do things I want to do, therefore I figure it's my job to do the same for him. Luckily for me, I'm generally pleasantly surprised with his ideas and Google was no exception. It is on a huge beautiful campus and was quite the mini-adventure for us.

I can't remember which building this was, but it was fun!

This is a Google bike - they were all over the google campus and people were riding them all around - pretty fun!

 After Google we went to check out Apple's Headquarters - not nearly as exciting, but now we've seen it.

Thought it was pretty funny that this is their address.

Then we went to Stanford. I was again not super excited about going to some college campus just for the point of going, but Jason wanted to and I had nothing else I wanted to do, so off to Stanford we went. It was so impressive! It was just absolutely beautiful. All of a sudden I wanted to go back in time to when I was 14 and convince myself to try harder in high school just so that I could at least apply to Stanford. I had zero motivation as a teen to go to college and perhaps if I had visited some impressive college campuses it would've given me a little motivation - but who knows? Though I was telling Jason I think that as our kids grow up we should make it a point to visit college campuses just in case :o)

Loved this fountain!

Jason in front of Stanford's Law School