The One where Gordon & Morgan got Married

Maybe this should be titled "The One where Gordon and Morgan had a Wedding."  They actually got married about a month after Justin and I but Gordon is in the Navy and got transferred from San Diego to North Carolina and then deployed to Afghanistan.  Gotta hand it to Morgan for waiting so long to wear her wedding dress!  Now that he's been back for a little while they were finally able to have a real wedding and reception.  It was beautiful!

Justin and I drove (again!  People need to help me out and convince Justin that air travel is much faster and will make his wife less upset with him.) to San Diego a mere 8 days after I got back from the ACS conference.  Crazy!  Thankfully we split it up and drove to Las Vegas first to crash at Uncle Don and Aunt Wendi's house.  They weren't there because they were visiting their newest grandson in Idaho (congratulations to Christie and Spencer!!) but Evie and Rachel were home.  I haven't seen Rachel's daughter Avery since before Justin and I got married so I was amazed at how tall and grown up she is.  She entertained me and Justin with this poem from "Ride a Purple Pelican."

Justin Austin

skipped to Boston,

dressed in dusty jeans,

he sipped a drop

of ginger pop

and ate a pot of beans.

Soooo cute!!  Wish I'd recorded it.  I think she could have stayed up all night reciting poems to us but eventually we all did go to bed.  Justin and I left for San Diego pretty early and met up with Jared, Gordon and Gordon's little brother, Chris.  We ate some pretty tasty Mexican food (yum, I miss good Mexican food) at Lucha Libre and then Gordon showed us the way to the San Diego temple.

  This is what it looks like from the freeway... (that's Gordon in his red convertible rental)

And then suddenly the trees get out of the way and BAM!  Gorgeous!!

Justin and I took a prom picture in front.  Too funny!

And then Jared posed as well.  (Andrea, I'm adding all the pictures I have of Jared for you :)

Afterward we went to pick up the boys' tuxes.  Thankfully the tux store was right by our hotel so we checked in and then all piled into Gordon's convertible (I had to sit on the hump in the backseat) to go on a tour of SD.  He showed us Balboa park which is the largest square area park in the country.  Seriously, it is huge, but not just grass.  I really liked the architecture of this museum.

By the way, I took that picture as we drove by.  Turned out pretty nice :)  The San Diego Zoo is also in this park but we really didn't have much time to go in.  Next time for sure!

Next, Gordon took us to the Naval base.  We got to see some aircraft carriers and navy fighter jets and helicopters.  I have to admit it was pretty cool.  We got out for a little bit to check out the beach.

Chris, Jared, Justin & Gordon.

It was a little chilly and we were getting hungry so we went back downtown to eat at Spaghetteria!  I was so excited to eat there again.  Mmmm.  

The next morning the boys abducted Gordon for his "bachelor party."  They hiked up Cowles Mountain where they encountered a rattlesnake.  Gordon thought it would be funny to text Morgan a very close up picture of it and tell her that he had been bitten but was ok.  How do men come up with these ideas?  Good thing she's a sweetheart and forgave him.  Justin might have been in a little more trouble if he pulled that the day before our wedding!

San Di-ah-go.  If you don't get the quote from that, you wouldn't get it anyway.

Ah, Justin's favorite pose.  We need to learn some new ones.  I love that Jared's head is poking out between Gordon's legs.  You guys are so weird!!!

So glad Justin had our camera :)

With the boys gone I took the opportunity to go to the temple.  That is such a beautiful temple!!  And the women inside were so fun.  I know that's a funny thing to say but it was pretty slow at 11am on a Friday so I got to talk to them more than usual.

The next day was the ceremony.  It was held on a different naval base than the one we toured with Gordon because this one had a view of the city across the bay.  What a beautiful backdrop!  The only problem was the birds.  These adorable ducks tried to crash the party and walked down the aisle before the bride and groom could.

I caught this picture of Gordon as soon as Morgan stepped out.  So cute!  Hmm maybe I should have edited a little- don't mind the photographer!

Handsome men!  Gordon, Chris, Justin, Reggie, Jared & Mike.
That's Gordon's mom (Mama Gordo! center) with his aunt and cousin.

Bridesmaids: Megan, Emily, Apryl & Ashley

Something happened with the music and Morgan had to wait a few minutes to make her dramatic entrance but it had a happy ending :)

There were only 4 bridesmaids and 5 groomsmen so Megan had 2 escorts walking down the aisle.  Lucky lady!

I mentioned the crazy birds.  These seagulls kept trying to steal the appetizers.  At one point this guy actually tried to divebomb the tray from the air!  Pretty sure I looked hilarious trying to stop this in heels.  Reggie's girlfriend Kara (who is also a grad student) helped me protect the food.  I was glad there was someone else to talk to during pictures as Jared's wife Andrea wasn't able to make it :(  Missed you!!

He's getting closer...

Darn it.

Gordon bought the groomsmen "pimp canes" for their gifts.  At least it made for a good photo opp :)

Justin makes me laugh!

This photo is possibly even better!

Silly boys!

 Of course the groom's cake is Albert!

A few weeks ago Morgan posted a picture on Facebook of a 6 ft. chicken pinata.  I didn't really get it until the Chicken Dance song started.  This was hilarious!!

The chicken was a nice addition to the photo booth.  We had a lot of fun with the props :)

After the sun set we took some really nice pictures of the skyline.

The next day Justin and I had to make the whole drive in one day.  We stopped at Tia Auri and Tio Pompo's house on our way through LA.  They are Justin's great aunt and uncle who helped take care of him until his family moved to Florida when he was 5.  They took us out for an Easter lunch and then we drove around looking at Justin's old apartment and school.  Apparently when Justin was little he memorized his address, "Tres tres tres San Marcos."  We found it!

This was the alley behind Justin's apartment where he would look out as a little boy and watch the garbage man.  When he was little, this was his career aspiration.  I find it extremely funny!  And I'm glad he changed his mind :)

If this picture looks familiar that's because it was in our wedding video.  It's Justin learning to swim in Tia Auri's pool.

 

It was surreal seeing the pool in real life.  Justin said it's smaller than he remembered- more like he's just bigger.

Tio Pompo, Justin & Tia Auri.

The One with the Train

One of the coolest things about being a grad student is the opportunity to travel for free (tangent- London in 22 days!!).  My project is part of a collaboration with other research groups at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and most importantly, the University of California- Irvine.  I say most importantly because UCI is the center (or headquarters) of the collaboration and consequently where I get to fly to a few times a year now.  If you're not familiar with California, Irvine is south of LA in Orange County.  That's right, the OC.  Which means that the salaries are huge and the houses are bigger.  I don't know how any of the grad students afford to live there but it is a beautiful area.  And now that I've been a few times I have some friends that I look forward to seeing every time.

A few weeks ago I flew to Irvine for a workshop and then had to get down to San Diego for the spring ACS meeting.  How should I get from Irvine to SD?  A train!!  Justin was soooo jealous.  He loves trains and talks about taking a trip on one all the time.  Sometimes he randomly blurts out "I like trains."  Seriously.  I have to admit it was more exciting than I thought it would be.  The scenery outside the window was beautiful.  At one point we were just a few hundred yards from the ocean.  It was awesome!  I did try to take a few pictures but I was on the wrong side of the train and looked like an idiot taking pictures that didn't turn out.  Oh well.  I took some of the actual train and station for my hubby.

This is actually the train and bus station which is why it's so big but I think it looks really neat.  Speaking of buses I had to take 2 to get to the station itself.  Ask Justin how much I like public transportation.  He was trying to help me figure out the best route to take the night before and I started crying.  For real.  Afterward I felt really stupid though because it wasn't that bad.  Ok, it sucked a little.  I had luggage!

Train tracks!

I got to the station over an hour early so I just hang out in this little courtyard until my train came.  Isn't it pretty?  It was a really nice day and gave me an opportunity to catch up with Mom on the phone.

 Here it comes!

 This is the station in San Diego.  A little bigger and more like what I expected to see.  It's apparently the original (i.e. really old) station because inside there was a separate room labeled "Women's Waiting Room."  I couldn't help thinking of "The Chase" by Clive Cussler.  It's a really good book involving, you guessed it, trains.
 

Because I had luggage I was really excited my hotel was only 2 blocks from the station and I could just walk there.  The bad thing was my hotel was only 2 blocks from the station and I heard trains all night.  After the conference started I was usually so tired by the time I got to bed that I could sleep through it.  Not only was our hotel close to train tracks but it was really close to Little Italy.  Mamma mia, that was some good Italian food!  If you're ever in SD check out the Spaghetteria.  I thought the name was a little cheesy but the food more than made up for it.  Our last day there we also found a little Thai food restaurant called Mint.  I recommend that one as well.  So much delicious food for $7!!

The conference itself was really good.  I was the first presenter of the first session (for my division) on the first day so I wasn't expecting a very big crowd but the room was almost completely full and the audience had a number of questions.  That sounds bad but when presenting at a science conference, getting questions afterward is a really good thing.  It means people were listening and interested.  The more the merrier in this case so I felt really good about my presentation.  And it was nice to get my talk over with early so I could focus on the other talks I attended.

I also got to meet some of the bigger names in my field.  Some unintentionally and probably not how I would have envisioned an introduction going.  During a talk that I was really interested in there were 2 women talking just outside the room.  I wasn't the only one who could hear them better than the speaker and since I'm working on being more assertive in situations like this I took it upon myself to ask them to be quieter.  I should have kept my mouth shut.  Right after I informed them we could all hear their conversation I realized one of the ladies was Naomi Halas!  The only way to describe it is like shushing an A list chemist.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  I couldn't listen to the rest of the talk now anyway, I was so embarrassed!  But after both women came back in, she came over, touched my shoulder and apologized.  So maybe it wasn't a big deal and she's grateful someone informed her they were being disruptive.  Yeah, at least that's how it happened in my mind.

The One with All the Blankets

**I started this post months ago, probably before Christmas and was waiting to finish one final project.  It is nearing completion but I figured I could just post that one by itself.  And Mom reminded me that I haven't posted in a while so for now this is what you get :)

Justin recently told me that I have been crocheting for six months straight.  And I'm definitely not showing signs of slowing down.  I love being crafty and making blankets gives me something to do while we're driving to the next trail/campsite/Arizona.  Of course this recent spurt of craftiness was inspired by all the babies born this (last) year, but I've actually made quite a few blankets in my lifetime.  I always forgot to take pictures but thankfully everyone still seems to have their homemade afghans and were nice enough to send me some.

Anistyn's blankie

 Seth's blankie.  I've wanted to make this Wee Irish Chain for a while now.  Love how it turned out :)\

Hunter's blankie.  This is the second time I've used this pattern because I love it.

 Skye's blankie (my friend Erin's daughter)

Back in college I made matching blankets for my friends Tyler and Dallin.  They shared a bunk bed so Tyler's blanket was blue and Dallin's was green.  They fully cover a twin bed which means they took for-e-ver.

I usually make blankets but when I moved to Utah I was inspired to branch out and make some cold weather gear.  This is a scarf and beanie I made for Makayla for Christmas.  Trevy has a matching beanie.  Yay for cousins!

What a cute girl!!

 I also made this headband for Makayla although Callie is modeling it for me :)

 

This set was my first attempt at making my own pattern.  I made it for some friends in the ward who had a baby girl almost 6 months ago.  I think it turned out pretty well :)  And I loved this yarn!

Now I've picked up knitting (which I'm sure I will never do to make a full blanket).  I'm so glad I started with just this simple headwrap (also for Makayla- I'm seeing a trend here.  Apologies to all other girl cousins.).  Knitting definitely looks better if you're making clothing.

Models Callie and Ahne.

This is just a select few.  Now that I've seen all the pictures I feel like a crafting machine!

The One with Crappy Pictures

Thanks to Wendy I have read a few posts (ok, all of them now.  Hi, my name is Cindy and I'm a blog stalker.) from the hilarious blog Parenting: Illustrated with Crappy Pictures.  Even though I'm not a parent (yet, we'll throw that in for Mom), I love how she can take an everyday event and make it real and stinkin' funny at the same time.  It made me think of the things Justin and I do that drive each other crazy but I'm sure happen to every single other married couple; Marriage: Illustrated with Crappy Pictures.  For example, sleeping (and cleaning, there's a fair amount of that in this story too).

When Justin and I got married he had a twin(!) bed and I (thankfully) had a queen.  Guess whose bed we sleep in?  I warned him from the start that since I'd been sleeping in a queen all by myself for so long I was used to taking up a lot of space but I'd try my best to stick to my half.  I'll be honest, most of the time that does not happen.  This is what it looks like on the surface when we go to bed:

 And this is what it really looks like:

No, my right leg isn't really that long but I'm sure this is how Justin feels most of the time.  That's ok though because that's just how the night starts.  This is how it ends:

Yep, I'm the one not smiling in my sleep anymore because I'm not asleep.  I've woken up at 4:30 in the morning because it's winter in Utah and I'm cold.  I could be warm, but somehow 98% of the blankets are now covering Justin.  I steal enough back to tuck around my body but there is still a huge pile draped off Justin's side of the bed.  I don't care though because it's 4:30.  AM.

Before we got married I would wake up in the morning and immediately make my bed.  It didn't take long.  I don't really move in my sleep so all I had to do was flip up the corner of the sheets and rearrange my pillows.  It looked like this every day:

You could bounce a quarter off those sheets.

I usually wake up about half an hour before Justin because girls take longer to get ready (stupid makeup).  But mostly because I hate hitting the snooze button over and over.  I set my alarm for the latest time possible to begin with.  Justin does not subscribe to this method.  Which means he gets up last.  Which means the bed now looks like this every day:

I miss bouncing quarters.

Update:  I showed Justin this post and he almost peed his pants laughing so hard- must mean it's true.  He also mentioned that the drawings are not only crappy but slightly inaccurate, we do wear pajamas to bed!