So Much for Warm and Sunny here in Cali!!!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
What'd you do this weekend? Oh, nothing, just jumped out of a plane....
Happy Weekend before Nick's birthday! Woo!
Considering Hannah had a 4 day weekend, this was prime time to do all of our birthday celebrations. On Friday we had planned to go to the Fresno Fair (an annual event that they've been advertising a lot lately), but once we drove to it, we quickly realized why Hannah's co-workers advised us to only go during daylight hours. Fresno's fairgrounds are conveniently located smack dab in the center of the ghetto. The local community -eager to make a few bucks - was quick to offer "easy pull in and out" parking on the front lawns of their homes. Not feeling the safest, we decided against the fair and chose to spend the money on pizza, beer, and a good movie at home! Money and time better spent without fear of a good mugging.
If you haven't heard/guessed by now, Nick's big birthday gift from Hannah was a trip skydiving!!!!! It was in one word - awesome. We both went tandem - so nothing like being strapped to a complete stranger plummeting 120mph from 10,500ft. Hannah learned that she is no more graceful in the air than she is on the ground and had a much rougher landing than Nick (but for what it's worth, her tandem instructor did say that that was the fastest he's approached the ground in a landing in a while, so it's ok that it wasn't completely smooth...and the grass stains washed out just fine.) The plane in the picture is the one we jumped from! It was so tiny I didn't think we'd all fit, but we did (A total of 5 people!) When asked if we would do it again - that is an unquestionable YES. We recommend it to all our family and friends (it's not as scary as you might think and TOTALLY worth it! You only live once!)
Our jumpsuits look so good, we think we might wear them all the time!
And what's a birthday without cake!? Here's our annual Nick and his b-day cake photo! (his cupcakes say Happy Birthday Moose! :) )
Sunday wasn't nearly as exciting as Saturday (but can you really top freefalling?) but it was still fun. We went for a hike through one of the many trails at the Sierra National Forest , just outside Yosemite (about 1hr away). Geo didn't come along for this one, but we learned that all the trails that are a part of this system are dog friendly - so hopefully he'll be able to join us. We'd bring Echo, but he seems to have an aversion to leash walking :). The trail was beautiful with a lot of little waterfalls and hardly any people. We'll probably be back!
On our way back home we stopped in the cute mountain town of Oakhurst (Geo's hometown) to see the famed Talking Bear. Unfortunately, the bear had a frog in his throat - so we may never know what he actually says. It's a bummer Oakhurst is a little too far from the Children's Hospital - otherwise we'd definitely prefer to live there over Fresno!
Monday was just an all around crappy day. No sunshine at all and it cooled down to the 60's. One of those days to just veg out - which is what we did! Oh we did have our first experience recycling cans/bottles here though. Quite possibly the most inefficient process EVER! There are no machines you just plop the cans in.... oh no, that's too easy. You have to drive to designated recycle areas (the one we went to was the size of a large hot dog stand, maybe), wait in line, separate all your cans/plastics/light glass/dark glass into separate dirty disgusting trash can things, wait for a guy to weigh them all, and get piddly change for at least a good half hour spent doing this (we got $2.44 for a lot of stuff). And Fresno is California's leader in recycling. Don't know how that works. We miss Meijers.
That is about it for now - We'll leave you with a few quotes we're sicking of hearing in Fresno!
- "Fresno must be a lot smaller than what you're used to, huh?" (Why people assume that Fresno's population of .5 million is small is beyond us - I guess when you're comparing it to LA, but to Grand Rapids....not really.)
- "It's a lot different here than it was when you lived in Minnesota, right?" (Good question, I'll let you know as soon as we move to Minnesota. You'd be amazed how many times people have asked us this.)
- "Fresno's a great place to live and there's a ton to do! You just have to drive 3 hours and you're lots of places!" (We don't consider driving 3 hours to get somewhere still doing something in Fresno. That's like driving from GR to Chicago EVERY weekend. Gas prices don't phase Californians apparently. No ones Dutch here. So as far as staying in Fresno goes....we don't see ourselves here for long.)
Considering Hannah had a 4 day weekend, this was prime time to do all of our birthday celebrations. On Friday we had planned to go to the Fresno Fair (an annual event that they've been advertising a lot lately), but once we drove to it, we quickly realized why Hannah's co-workers advised us to only go during daylight hours. Fresno's fairgrounds are conveniently located smack dab in the center of the ghetto. The local community -eager to make a few bucks - was quick to offer "easy pull in and out" parking on the front lawns of their homes. Not feeling the safest, we decided against the fair and chose to spend the money on pizza, beer, and a good movie at home! Money and time better spent without fear of a good mugging.
If you haven't heard/guessed by now, Nick's big birthday gift from Hannah was a trip skydiving!!!!! It was in one word - awesome. We both went tandem - so nothing like being strapped to a complete stranger plummeting 120mph from 10,500ft. Hannah learned that she is no more graceful in the air than she is on the ground and had a much rougher landing than Nick (but for what it's worth, her tandem instructor did say that that was the fastest he's approached the ground in a landing in a while, so it's ok that it wasn't completely smooth...and the grass stains washed out just fine.) The plane in the picture is the one we jumped from! It was so tiny I didn't think we'd all fit, but we did (A total of 5 people!) When asked if we would do it again - that is an unquestionable YES. We recommend it to all our family and friends (it's not as scary as you might think and TOTALLY worth it! You only live once!)
Our jumpsuits look so good, we think we might wear them all the time!
Sunday wasn't nearly as exciting as Saturday (but can you really top freefalling?) but it was still fun. We went for a hike through one of the many trails at the Sierra National Forest , just outside Yosemite (about 1hr away). Geo didn't come along for this one, but we learned that all the trails that are a part of this system are dog friendly - so hopefully he'll be able to join us. We'd bring Echo, but he seems to have an aversion to leash walking :). The trail was beautiful with a lot of little waterfalls and hardly any people. We'll probably be back!
On our way back home we stopped in the cute mountain town of Oakhurst (Geo's hometown) to see the famed Talking Bear. Unfortunately, the bear had a frog in his throat - so we may never know what he actually says. It's a bummer Oakhurst is a little too far from the Children's Hospital - otherwise we'd definitely prefer to live there over Fresno!
Monday was just an all around crappy day. No sunshine at all and it cooled down to the 60's. One of those days to just veg out - which is what we did! Oh we did have our first experience recycling cans/bottles here though. Quite possibly the most inefficient process EVER! There are no machines you just plop the cans in.... oh no, that's too easy. You have to drive to designated recycle areas (the one we went to was the size of a large hot dog stand, maybe), wait in line, separate all your cans/plastics/light glass/dark glass into separate dirty disgusting trash can things, wait for a guy to weigh them all, and get piddly change for at least a good half hour spent doing this (we got $2.44 for a lot of stuff). And Fresno is California's leader in recycling. Don't know how that works. We miss Meijers.
That is about it for now - We'll leave you with a few quotes we're sicking of hearing in Fresno!
- "Fresno must be a lot smaller than what you're used to, huh?" (Why people assume that Fresno's population of .5 million is small is beyond us - I guess when you're comparing it to LA, but to Grand Rapids....not really.)
- "It's a lot different here than it was when you lived in Minnesota, right?" (Good question, I'll let you know as soon as we move to Minnesota. You'd be amazed how many times people have asked us this.)
- "Fresno's a great place to live and there's a ton to do! You just have to drive 3 hours and you're lots of places!" (We don't consider driving 3 hours to get somewhere still doing something in Fresno. That's like driving from GR to Chicago EVERY weekend. Gas prices don't phase Californians apparently. No ones Dutch here. So as far as staying in Fresno goes....we don't see ourselves here for long.)
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Ahh, nothing like a good war reenactment to wind up your weekend.
Hello once again! This past weekend was probably one of our busiest yet! So here we go.....
Geo finally got enough of his boosters that we felt safe to bring him out around other dogs. Translation: DOG PARK, WOOO! Geo was like the popular kid on the playground - everyone wanted to be around him/pet him/ pick him up etc etc which he just eats up. He couls care less about us petting him, but as soon as a complete stranger comes up to him - he turns into a total ham. So much for "stranger danger." As for the other dogs, he was very skiddish. Granted most of the other dogs were twice his size, but still - grow some cahones Geo (even though we had them surgically removed earlier....)
Geo struggles with the concept of Fetch as Nick demonstrates here.
Here's Geo with a scary German Shepherd.
Saturday Evening there was a very nice work event that was to benefit the heart center at Children's hospital. Ironically, the event is called "Evening Under the Stars" and is held in a completely enclosed tent. But it was at a golf course in the very very very very ritzy part of town (multi-million dollar homes we're talking about here). Nick and I fancied ourselves up and went to hob nob with the doctors (can you say free dinner!) It was a very nice night although we were the youngest people there so felt mildly out of place - especially when the music/dancing started. There was a 10 person cover band cleverly named Run4Cover, who, to the best of our knowledge, decided that they were going to start a band one day when they didn't get booed off a karaoke stage. It was unique to say the least. And, an apology to our parents reading this, but somewhere between having children and hitting your 40's, the ability to have any cool dance moves just flies right out the window.
Aren't we cute!
Sunday was a hoot. Fresno happens to hold the largest Civil war reenactment in the western US. To honor all of our k-12 history teachers - we had to go! We even got in for half off - due to the fact we didn't have enough cash on us for 2 tickets and the women at the gate didn't want to turn us away. It pays to never carry cash ( though not so cool when you have to use credit to buy a $.99 burger at Wendy's)! We saw President Lincoln (who, like Elvis, is still very much alive), Sojourner Truth, and Walt Whitman. It was entertaining enough - but we don't think we have to go to another one anytime soon. In case you were wondering, in the battle we watched, the Confederates one.
Geo finally got enough of his boosters that we felt safe to bring him out around other dogs. Translation: DOG PARK, WOOO! Geo was like the popular kid on the playground - everyone wanted to be around him/pet him/ pick him up etc etc which he just eats up. He couls care less about us petting him, but as soon as a complete stranger comes up to him - he turns into a total ham. So much for "stranger danger." As for the other dogs, he was very skiddish. Granted most of the other dogs were twice his size, but still - grow some cahones Geo (even though we had them surgically removed earlier....)
Geo struggles with the concept of Fetch as Nick demonstrates here.
Here's Geo with a scary German Shepherd.
Saturday Evening there was a very nice work event that was to benefit the heart center at Children's hospital. Ironically, the event is called "Evening Under the Stars" and is held in a completely enclosed tent. But it was at a golf course in the very very very very ritzy part of town (multi-million dollar homes we're talking about here). Nick and I fancied ourselves up and went to hob nob with the doctors (can you say free dinner!) It was a very nice night although we were the youngest people there so felt mildly out of place - especially when the music/dancing started. There was a 10 person cover band cleverly named Run4Cover, who, to the best of our knowledge, decided that they were going to start a band one day when they didn't get booed off a karaoke stage. It was unique to say the least. And, an apology to our parents reading this, but somewhere between having children and hitting your 40's, the ability to have any cool dance moves just flies right out the window.
Aren't we cute!Sunday was a hoot. Fresno happens to hold the largest Civil war reenactment in the western US. To honor all of our k-12 history teachers - we had to go! We even got in for half off - due to the fact we didn't have enough cash on us for 2 tickets and the women at the gate didn't want to turn us away. It pays to never carry cash ( though not so cool when you have to use credit to buy a $.99 burger at Wendy's)! We saw President Lincoln (who, like Elvis, is still very much alive), Sojourner Truth, and Walt Whitman. It was entertaining enough - but we don't think we have to go to another one anytime soon. In case you were wondering, in the battle we watched, the Confederates one.
That's about it for now! We'll definitely have more to update very soon! We miss you all! We'll leave you with a lovely photo of Nick and his new friends!
Fresno, CA - where else can you find hooker statues?
Fresno, CA - where else can you find hooker statues?
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