Weekend Wonderland

Jason and I spent the weekend with our friends Don and Tiffany near Jenner. Some friends of theirs have a beach house, and invited Don and Tiffany to stay the weekend there. Don and Tiffany then invited us. (Whew!)

We had a great time. Tiffany is a fantastic cook, and she brought all the ingredients for homemade lasagna, cheese platters, and lots more delicious things. We pretty much spent the weekend eating.

On Sunday morning, Jason and I dashed home to make it to church so we could teach Sunday School, but Jason kept saying "There's something we were supposed to remember to do today...", but neither of us could figure out what it was. It turns out that "something" was Stake Conference, a meeting of all the congregations in the area, which meant that instead of our church meetings being held at their usual 1:00, they began at 10:00 instead. In other words, we missed church completely. Our one consolation was that at least we didn't leave our Sunday School class teacher-less, because Stake Conference doesn't have separate meetings for children. OOPS!

Also, we recently put in a bid for another house--this one is much more a fixer-upper, but again has a great, spacious lot. It's a probate sale, so it'll be a while before we hear back on our offer.

Here is the location and you can click on street view to see it. (Hint: rotate to the left a few times and you will see it.)

Vacation in Mexico

After completing a suicidal six-week "Intro to Chemistry" class, Jason and I decided that we both deserved a break (the class was stressful for him too, I'm sure, because he had to pick up all the slack when my life was solely about chemistry.)
We decided to drive down to Ensenada, so we started packing and getting ready for the trip. This included digging out our passports, and buying car insurance to drive in Mexico. I went to get my oil changed the night before we had planned to leave, and was told (unexpectedly) that I needed a new radiator. I didn't believe the first shop, so I took my car to the local Big O Tires, who I've had good experiences with. They concurred with the first mechanic, and strongly tried to discourage me from driving my car to Ensenada. I stubbornly didn't want to listen, because taking a different car would mean buying new Mexican car insurance, and who knew whether we would be credited for the original policy?
But eventually the mechanics prevailed, and convinced me that topping off the radiator every few miles and driving with my fingers crossed was no way to vacation. (They were right, and we were reimbursed by the insurance company for the amount of our original policy.)
Not only that, our wonderful friend Dan Lynch offered to order the parts and replace both the radiator and a cracked fan belt while Jason and I were on vacation. What a guy, huh?
So Jason and I took off down South. We had a an uneventful trip---at least I think so, I slept through most of it. (Sorry honey!) We left at 6 am, and by 7 pm, we were pitching a tent outside of Ensenada.
Jason and I had a glorious week of doing nearly nothing--just lounging at our campsite overlooking the ocean, reading Clive Cussler novels and other books that disresemble college texts, taking walks, eating at our favorite taco stand in San Miguel, "El Trailero" (it means "The Truck Driver"), and wandering around in Ensenada.

Allison's 26th Birthday

Boy, am I behind.
Okay, for my birthday this year, instead of having a traditional birthday party, I went backpacking. This was in part because the first date I could get reservations for Point Reyes was the week of my birthday. It was also because I signed up for a 6 week summer chemistry course. What a mistake that was. The class almost killed me! I studied night and day the entire 6 weeks, and barely passed the class. But I did pass, and that's the most important part of the whole fiasco. But anyway, it meant that I did not have time to plan a get together aside from the trip I had already scheduled.
On the backpacking trip were 3 good friends of mine: my mom, Janet Nelson, and Whitney Peterson Lynch. We had a blast, and my mom and Janet somehow sneaked a cake up too, so they all sang to me and had me blow out the candles on the cake---the whole nine yards. It was a blast.
I don't have any pictures myself, but I'm hoping to be given copies by my fellow hikers. Anyone hear that?

Driving to Arizona

Phew! We got through all the busyness of the last few weeks, and Jason and I have actually had time to talk to one another and eat dinner together again. It's wonderful.
On Easter weekend though, we were in different states. I went to Arizona to visit my grandparents and check out their remodel, but Jason's work schedule wouldn't permit him to come with me, so he went up to Modesto for Easter.
My mom and I drove together to see her parents, and it was a really fun road trip. On the way back, we ate soft-serve ice cream cones in Wasco, a little town that has a bunch of old fashioned hamburger and ice-cream joints, with names like Dari-Freeze and Jolly Kone. Cute, huh?
Lots of other fun stuff happened, but I'll have to tell you about it later, because dinner is done, and I'm starving!

So Sue Me

I admit it. I have been terrible at this blog thing. I started out with the best of intentions, but you know, blogging is really hard. And it's very time-consuming to write an engaging, witty blog. Or at least I would assume so.
I have been looking at some more houses on redfin.com. House-hunting is my new hobby. There are now a lot of cute houses in the $350,000 and $400,000 range here. I can't wait to see how much lower house prices go!
In addition to surfing real estate websites, Jason and I have been traveling quite a bit--to San Diego a few weeks ago, and then to Mt. Hood, Oregon last weekend.
In San Diego, we enjoyed perfect, sunny, warm weather, in the midst of a gloomy Northern California February. I am convinced that San Diego is heaven on earth--how else can you explain buying 20 avocados for only 5 dollars!? We also had a wonderful time with Michael and Lindsay--they were great hosts, and let us relax completely. We enjoyed the weekend Southern California style: on the beach, and watching dolphins. Amazing!
Then last week we went up to Oregon for the wedding of Jason's niece. The ceremony was at the beautiful Timberline Lodge. Jason gave a really eloquent speech during the ceremony that made everyone tear up. During the reception it snowed, and made a perfect background to the stunning decorations. In other news, Justin, Melynda, Judy, Jason and I went to Ikea. I bought some lovely new dishes, a bath mat, and sundry other things. We also went to Multnomah Falls with Jan, our lovely hostess. The Falls are really amazing, and I'd like to go back again sometime.
Once we got back from Oregon, Jason started preparing Credit Line for their move to Pleasanton. This has used up all of Jason's free time this week, but he should be finished moving soon. He is busier than I could ever handle!
Whew! So in a nutshell, that's what we've been up to.

New: A Slideshow!

Jason and I just added a slideshow of pictures from our Italy trip. (If you would like to see the pictures in a larger format, I think you can just click on them, and it will take you to Flickr.) We are planning an evening to remenisce about Italy while Scott and Lesley are here for Christmas, so we are thinking about our memories a lot. It is also almost the time of year that we took our trip. We are so excited--we have set out the tiny nativity set that we bought in Rome, and got out our two little Bufanas (Bufana is the Italian Christmas witch, for those of you who don't know).

Czechoslovakia!

I found a page advertising travel in Prague, and it directed me to this page of hotels, with prices and pictures. I don't know what the exchange rate it (certainly worse than a year ago!) but the prices look pretty good! And even the cheapest hotels look beautiful. http://czechsite.phl.cz/

I also found a page that suggested touring Czechoslovakia by bicycle, and it looked like fun--I really enjoyed biking in Lucca, Italy last year, and wouldn't mind doing it again. But an even better way to taste the flavor of Czechoslovakia would be engaging in the traditional sport of....go-karting? It's number 6 on this site's list. Jason will be all over that. :)http://www.czechsite.com/outdoorform.html

European Dreams

This blog thing is really cool. I stayed up late one night just fooling around with templates to make it look pretty (in an un-girly way, of course. This blog is for Jason too.) The only problem now is what to post in it.
I am lobbying for our Europe group (Mom and Dad Ogden, Lesley and Scott, and Jason and I) to start saving up money to travel again. When Jason and I were over at Mom and Dad's for dinner the other night, we started talking about where to go. I hear that Prague is very cheap right now, with nice amenities, so that gets my vote. I loved the planning part of going to Italy, and it would be so exciting to do it again. :) Our only problem might be whether Lesley and Scott want to go with a small child, although Rick Steves says it's not too bad traveling with a kid, especially if you knock them out with Nyquil or something on the plane ride. Hey, Rick said it, not me! Quit giving your computer screen dirty looks. If you have any travel tips, post them in the comments.