Family Updates

A few new important developments:

- Curtis is taking a GMAT class! He and our friend Louis are preparing to take the GMAT sometime in April. Which means, he will likely apply for Business School this year, to start Fall 2011 (yes, the same year Christine finishes law school... the education, and student debt... never ends!). Anyway, this was a last minute decision and he has been really busy and tired trying to catch up on all of the homework he has, but is nevertheless excited for his future prospects.

- What does the first point mean for our long-term future? Well, Curtis would like to go to school in California or somewhere close, and Christine will probably work in the bay area starting fall 2011. However, there is also the slim chance that Christine will be working for a judge during the year after graduation, anywhere in the country. So, it's a slim possibility that we will go back to our long-distance roots for a year (or two). As much as we would prefer that to NOT happen, we both feel very strongly that we should not use distance to stop us from going after significant opportunities, especially during this time before we start having kids. So, in short, we will be making some major decisions in the next year .

- On a lighter note, we now have 4 weddings on the calendar this year! Our first is May 1, for Curtis' roommate from college. The last is on July 31's, Christine's cousin Molly's wedding in Oregon. So, this summer will clearly be busy with weddings, work, and assorted social events.

Anyway, that's what we've got. As our life gets more exciting we will post more :-).

Honeymooning

It is March 3rd. We came back from our honeymoon on January 11th. So this post is late. But, here we go, here are the highlights. At some point I'll figure out how to post a link so a slideshow.









Activities included (from what I remember):
- Body Surfing
- Laying by the infinity pool
- playing cards
- Doing half of the Road to Hana, including a stop at the Twin Falls and an afternoon in Kaanapali (the other side of the island)
- Watching bowl games
- Watching NBA games
- Watching NFL playoff games
(Yes we watched a lot of sports, an ideal vacay!)
- Luau
- Lots of eating (breakfast was included with our hotel, which is key to any trip to Hawaii)
- Lots of drinks with umbrellas :-)
- Lots of trips to Cheeseburger, our local cheap hangout where we got to know the staff and had some of the best beef we had ever had.
- Watching Season 2 of the Tudors on the laptop
- Having little to no connection with the outside world
- Had a spa day where we had a couples massage, bath, and facial
- went to the gym, where they had apples you could eat on your walk back to your room
- Sat by the ocean and watched the waves and the whales
- Watched sunsets
- Sat in a hammock watching the waves and listening to Pandora
- got really good tans
- bought our share of souvenirs at the ABC Store!
- had a fabulous last night at the Grand Wailea where Curtis had the best lobster ever and the whales were particularly active
- watched Top Chef on the plane coming back, one of our favorite shows

Anyway, we had an amazing time, and are looking forward to our next trip to Hawaii - possibly this next Christmas break. Let us know if you want to come too!

Impromtu Beach Trip

After we dropped our friends Juls & Andy off at the airport, we realized that were only about 10 minutes away from the ocean. If you know anything about LA, you know that it takes forever to get anywhere, so we decided to take advantage and head to the beach.

It was perfect beach conditions. There was plenty of street parking, and it was sunny and 70 degrees. We stayed to take a few pics and enjoy the view.




We both felt really fortunate to be living in Southern California during this time of year. =)

Stanford vs. USC 11/14

This weekend we were so excited to have our friend Juls in LA for the weekend with her boyfriend Andy to come to the USC game with us! We had such a good time. It was a 12:30 kickoff so we had an early morning. Juls & Andy arrived at LAX at 8:15 AM, and we got to USC around 9:30. Luckily we were able to use Christine's parking pass to park right by the Coliseum for free.

We signed up for the tailgate put on by Stanford, which was a delicious brunch (buffet breakfast burritos with an excellent spread of fruit, bagels and muffins!).

Had to be silly:

The group:
I wish I had pictures, but Christine's brother and parents were also at the game with us, so we had a great cheering section. As you probably heard, Stanford "trounced" USC, 55-21, so we had a pretty good time :-). Most of the USC fans had left the stadium by the time the game ended and the Stanford team came over to wave to the fans at the end of the game.

After the game we went to Wood Ranch at the Grove, and then went home and crashed. Juls and Andy treated us to brunch in the morning before we dropped them off at the airport, and so we had to take them to Toast! It was delicious, as always, and all in all, it was a fantastic weekend.

Halloween

For Halloween we decided to go to our local pumpkin patch at Fairfax & Third and pick out a pumpkin. It was surprisingly cool outside, and pretty deserted, but we had fun picking out a pumpkin.

And then we went to Dupar's in the Farmers' Market for dinner and had pumpkin pie :-)

We carved the pumpkin in Mission Viejo on the night before Halloween. Curtis was responsible for the design and most of the execution, while Christine baked the seeds.



Cute pumpkin, right?

House Divided: UCLA vs. Stanford Football 10/3

This past weekend was our first trip to the Bay Area together since we got married: we went to the Stanford-UCLA football game.

We were somewhat weary of making the trip because neither of us are in perfect health right now and had a tough week. But, we already booked the hotel and bought the tickets and it's hard to turn down a game at Stanford stadium (at least for Christine it is) so we went.

The game was at 12:30 on Saturday, so we went to Stacks for breakfast (one of Curtis' favorite places to eat) and headed to the stadium to tailgate with our friends. Stanford dominated the game, but UCLA made a significant comeback at the end and got the Stanford fans on their feet, cheering for the Defense. Final score was 24-16, a Stanford win. Christine was thrilled, Curtis was bummed, but happy for Christine. We went to the bookstore and stocked up on gear for the family, met up with friends, and then headed back to LA. We'll be back in the Bay on October 24 for Stanford Homecoming vs. Arizona State.

Our Honeymoon Plans

We are going to Maui January 2-11! We are staying at the Wailea Beach Marriott Resort and Spa.

We chose this area of the island because it is a lot less busy as compared with other locations, and there isn't too much to do. We are very excited about relaxing, singing, maybe taking in a few sights, and celebrating our life together.