Apple Hill

I know it has been a long time since our last post.... but we've been busy painting our entire house, putting in new carpet, moving, and trying to get the house together. Now that moving is over, there should be more blogs in the future!

At the beginning of November,Patrick and I went up to Apple Hill. Apple Hill is a fun area near us that has lots of apple farms with yummy things to eat. So we decided to take my brothers, Caleb and Clint, up to Apple Hill to help us cut down a Christmas tree from one of the Christmas tree farms. After hiking around for a while, we finally spotted the perfect tree! Patrick cut it down and Clint helped him carry it out to the truck. We were hoping for a tree that was around 10 feet tall, but the tree ended up being more around 14 feet tall! Luckily it fit in our new living room. Patrick loves having such a big tree in the house. This weekend we will get to decorate the house for Christmas!!

We Bought a House!!

After over a year of looking for a house in El Dorado Hills, we bought a house! Escrow should close August 15th. The house is a bank owned home that needs some TLC. We will be painting the inside ourselves and putting in new carpet. So if anyone wants to help paint, feel free to join us!! It is a large house with plenty of room for us to grow into. We are hoping that we won't have to move again for a very long time. The house is in an established neighborhood of El Dorado Hills, it is on a 1/3 of an acre and has established oak trees in the backyard. The house has 5 bedrooms, so if anyone wants to come visit you are always welcome!!

We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we are so excited to get established in Northern California. The house is about two minutes from my school and about 10 minutes from Patrick's school. So it's pretty much the perfect location for us.

Two Years

On 8/6 we celebrated our two year anniversary. Patrick planned the whole thing and surprised me with a trip to Napa Valley. He didn't tell me where we were going until we pulled onto the highway for Napa Valley/Sonoma. He then told me that we were going to be spending the night in Calistoga. We checked into our hotel and then went and drove around. The vineyards were so beautiful! I loved it! We went out to a nice dinner in St. Helena where Patrick said he had the best pizza in his entire life - that is quite a compliment coming from him! Patrick then told me that early the next morning we would be going for a ride in a hot air balloon! I was so excited!!

We had to meet at 5:30 am to go up in the hot air balloon, so it was an early morning, but worth it. We met at a restaurant then they drove us to the launch site. There were a total of 3 balloons and each one held 10-12 people. We had so much fun. You just feel like you are floating. The pilot actually took us down to this little stream and barely touched the basket in the water and took us up again.

They took us back to the restaurant and served us bruch. After that we went to the Napa Valley farmers market where we got to taste the best fruit. It is all organic and yummy!! It was amazing and truly a memorable anniversary. I have the best husband in the world!! =)

South Lake Tahoe Backpacking

Colleen and I wanted to get away for a few days beofre going back to school. We decided to go backpacking in an area just south of Lake Tahoe. Living in Folsom, the area was only 90 minutes away which made it an easy drive.


We were a bit concerned that there would be a lot of smoke in the air from all of the California wildfires. Descending down the grade into the Lake Tahoe area from highway 50, there was a visible haze over the lake. It was a 5 minute drive south on Highway 89 to the the trail.

After beginning our journey from the trailhead, there was a half-mile climb to reach Big Meadow. At the meadow we were excited to see smoke free blue skies as we hiked further south.

After a good 3 mile trek, we arrived at our destination for the evening, Round Lake. We walked around the lake for quite some time trying to find a good campsite. I think Colleen was ready to kill me after we passed ten perfectly good campsites and had to do some boulder hopping to reach the inviting area on the southwest side of the lake. The campsite did give us a nice view of the unique "dardanelle" rock formations surrounding the lake.

Colleen and I had a wonderful time at Round Lake and we hiked out after only one night. We hope to go back to the area on a longer trip to visit some of the other lakes in the area (Dardanelles Lake, Meiss Lake, Showers Lake). Next time I'll be sure to bring a fishing pole as we watched a father and son catch a nice brook trout on a fly rod.

Nanny's Surprise Birthday!

Earlier this year, my family (Colleen's) threw Nanny, my grandmother, a surprise birthday party. She was definitely surprised and a little shocked that she didn't know there was a party planned in her honor. It was a festive evening filled with fun, laughter, dancing and of course, singing!

Cruise to Mexico

We went on a cruise to Mexico in June. We had a great time on the boat and in Cabo San Lucas. When we were in Cabo, we rented a car with another couple and had quite an adventure. We went to a glass-blowing factory and a great beach. It was a little scary driving around in Mexico but we made it back to the boat safely! It was a great time to rest and relax, and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Weekend in San Diego

I've been down in San Diego since last Sunday attending an intense training program for the Aerospace Engineering course I will teach in the fall. The training itself has been extremely enjoyable as the curriculum has been extremely hands-on. We've had a chance to build many projects (rockets, gliders, etc.) and have been able to use a windtunnel to test the aerodynamics of some of our designs. On Wednesday, we were even able to take a field trip to the Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park.

Two full weeks apart from Colleen would have been next to impossible. Colleen graciously offered to drive down to San Diego to spend the weekend with me. We were able to get a nice hotel in the Gas Lamp District of San Diego and take in what the city had to offer.

On Saturday morning we left the hotel for Balboa Park, the home of the San Diego Zoo and countless museums. Our first big stop were the Botanical Gardens. Due to the temperate climate in San Diege, they are able to grow just about anything. The gardens were filled with an array of flowers, particularly orchids. We spent about 30 minutes here just taking pictures of the beautiful flowers. Colleen's pictures all turned out beautifully while mine were mostly out of focus. :)

We spent most of Saturday at the Zoo where we were able to see some amazing animals up-close. The Pandas and the Polar Bears were my favorite, but the Austrailian animals were quite fun too. They had a great variety of Kangaroos, Koalas, and Wallabies.

Sunday was another day of adventure at Sea World. Colleen absolutely loved the dolphins and we spent most of the day watching the trainers work with them. The dolphins seemed to be having so much fun playing and seem naturally friendly and curious towards people. Sea World wouldn't be complete without seeing Shamu, so we watched the Orcas before we left the park. They've definitely geared the entire park for kids so we'll have to make a return trip when we have children of our own.

It was hard to see Colleen leave tonight. I've got one more week of training and will fly back to Sacramento on Friday. I'm used to being able to spend every minute together with Colleen. During a trip like this it makes me realize how much I enjoy being around her. I can't help but smile as I look forward to the future.