Spring Break-Irvine, CA

As promised, I'm finally writing about the rest of my spring break trip, which is now a month ago--yikes!! Time flies!

Well, after spending quality time with my family in San Diego I went up to Irvine, CA to hang out with Rachel Soo and the Maschkes. Nina joined me, well, technically I joined her because she was in Irvine before me...but anyways, we were both there. I got to spend lots of time catching up with the girls...poor Jed came home one night to four giggly former suitmates and four cameras. He survived though.



Nina and I went to the Ghetty Museum of Art in LA with her youngest brother Brett, his girlfriend and Nina's mom who was also randomly visiting. The architecture was amazing!! The grounds were amazing! I highly recommend visiting it if you're ever within two hours of it. It took us an hour and a half to get there, but two hours to get back to Irvine. That pretty much convinced me to never move to LA...the traffic was a bit too insane for me.



Later that week Nina, Rachel and I met up with Shannon Lavigne, a classmate from CUNE. She graduated in the middle of our sophomore year and was an RA with Nina and I our first year. Shannon was always the one who was up late...I'd go visit her at 2 am...somehow I thought it was normal to be up that late...glad I grew out of that one. Anyways, we met at Laguana Beach and ate lunch with her and her daughter, Zoe, and then walked along the beach. It was great fun!



The rest of the week was catch-up time with old friends from St. Louis. My Jr. High and High School friend, Michelle, moved to Irvine a couple of years ago--we got to spend an evening catching up. The next day I saw Pastor Tim Detviller, otherwise known to me as "Vicar Tim." He took our youth group to the 1995 Youth Gathering in San Antonio--he was the best chaperone in the entire world. Great guy! I also got to see Michelle's parents, the Bordeauxs--Dr. Bordeaux is the Dean of Education at Concordia and Mrs. Bordeaux is the director of a pre-school.

All in all it was a fantastic trip. As usual I tried to jam-pack visiting as many people as possible into my schedule. But I wouldn't be me if I didn't. I loved seeing everyone...loved seeing Anna pregnant!

I pray all of you are doing well!

California Spring Break--San Diego

I finally, finally made it to San Diego to visit my Uncle Dean. He's lived there for eighteen years and I was the LAST family member to make it out there. Even my two younger cousins beat me there by four days. My trip overlapped with the Hellands (MN Aunt, Uncle, and cousins) and my Grandma Sass visiting as well.



The first day we went to Point Loma, where some scenes from Top Gun were shot, and where there is a very nice lighthouse and such to visit. As you'll see it was an incredibly windy day. Much colder than I had hoped it would be. Later that day we made our way to a bar where we could watch the Iowa Hawkeyes play their tournament game. I love that my family loves basketball so much, especially Grandma Sass...we all know better than to call her during a game.

Later that week we went to Corrinado Island, where the Hotel Del is located. The hotel was built in 1850 and is incredibly luxurious. Many, many movies have been filmed there. We spent a lot of time walking on the beach looking for shells and checking out the kelp that washed ashore.



I loved my time there, but it was way too short. I need weeks to immerse myself in the culture and explore the city. I guess I'll just have to go back...sigh...

More to come...

STOCK THE BAR!

I know, it's been awhile...lots has happened and I'll be updating in sections...

At the beginning of March my roommate and I finally had the house ready for a party. We debated about the theme, etc. and finally decided on "Stock the Bar"! Everyone brought their favorite liquor and we provided the mixers and food. My good friend Erin West came over from H-town for the event...Brian had to stay put for a Youth Gathering meeting, which is kind of funny since he's the bartender of the group! It was a great mix of my friends, Bethany's friends, and then those that are friends with both of us.

So when you're in San Antonio and are in need of refreshment, some to our place and we'll hook you up!

More to come...