it's been a while...

I know it's been a while since my last post... again! After the last update, Brent and I headed out to the bay area for a wedding, and I got to go on a short road trip to Mendocino with my Mama. We went up from the south by via hwy 1, and stayed at a really amazing b&b in a redwood forest for a night. The next day, we headed back down through the Anderson Valley and into Santa Rosa, where we met up with my bro for dinner. It was so great to get to just relax and spend time with Mama and bro. We get along so well and we're all like best friends now, so we have lots of fun whenever we get to see each other.

The wedding was at Tilden Park in Berkeley, and it was gorgeous. I feel so lucky that the bride let me attend with Brent! They were all in a group of friends together in high school, and I'd heard a lot about her over the years. The ceremony was outdoors, and the reception was in a beautiful gathering hall, complete with tons of delicious food and fun music and a cake that was SO GOOD. Congratulations, Jessie and Rob!!

It was really nice and super fun to get to see old friends (dinner/dessert with Phoebe and Vivian was a blast, and it's nice to know I'm not the only one who gets tired early these days!), meet new people (yay more of Brent's high school friends), and spend time with family (yum, lunch with GMR was great!). I just wish we were there longer, because I missed out on seeing Haleh and other awesome people. Next time, I hope to be able to add relaxation and seeing everyone to the list of things I get to do!

Anyways, here are some fun pictures from the trip. Woot!
The bride and groom's first dance!


The amazing views from hwy 1 on our way to Mendocino.


The main farmhouse part of the b&b.


This barn at the farmhouse has also been converted to guest rooms, and it's surrounded by a garden. You can kind of see the forest in the background.


Our room at the b&b.




The clawfoot tub in our bathroom had painted toenails!


Glass beach... very neat. This town used to dump glass into the ocean here, and over time, the ocean wore it down into soft pebble-sized pieces.


Tired family picture.


Bro and I, goofing around.


GMR and I... we do look related, don't we? I never realized it until this picture!

BurnOut

I think I stopped doing anything interesting, and then I got out of the habit of updating the blog. But last weekend, we did something interesting! And, we're getting ready to do more interesting things!!

SO last weekend, we decided to go to the Taste of Colorado festival... it's in Denver every Labor Day, and lots of restaurants and vendors set up booths for food, games, and freebies. The festival was less awesome than I hoped it would be, but it didn't matter, because we really went out there for the FREE NIGHT RANGER CONCERT!! That's right, Night Ranger, the band that brought us Sister Christian in the 80's. Sister Christian just so happens to be one of my favorite cheesy 80's songs, so we went with 2 other grad students to check it out. Night Ranger definitely did not disappoint! They were really friendly and happy to be there, and they played all of their big hits at the end of the evening. While it left me restless during the early parts of the concert waiting for the good stuff (refer to the video below), we were totally energized and singing when we headed back to get the car. What a fun night!

This weekend, we're going to the wedding of a very good high school friend of Brent's (Yay, Jessie and Rob!), which we will be attending with more of Brent's very good high school friends, and then I get to travel the coast up to Mendocino with my Mama, and THEN I will hopefully get to see my bro. Plus, I will hopefully get some girlfriend time in. I am SO looking forward to everything! I promise to return with more news, more pictures, and more frequent posts in a week. Until then, enjoy this video of Homer Simpson at a concert, which my officemate predicted would be me at Night Ranger!