Catching Up and a Bit of Safety Talk

Nick and I ventured to Iowa last weekend for my baby sister's wedding. It went off without a hitch (or with a hitch if you consider that they "got hitched"). There were many recurring comments, questions, etc. but the top 2 were: 1) How's California? 2) Why don't you update the blog anymore? So...back by popular demand...the blog!!! Actually, I didn't quit intentionally, I just forgot to sit down and write it.

In mid-September, Nick and I trekked to Iowa for my sister's 21st birthday. The Iowa v Iowa State football game was this same weekend, so we did it up right. We didn't sleep much. Friday night we went out to buy Nikki her first legal beer, where Mom was sneakily waiting to surprise her. She flew in from Virginia without telling her. We then met Mom for breakfast at Perkins before heading up to Ames for the game. We hung out all day at the tail-gating lots, playing games and eating food. I've been in the city that hosted the Iowa v Iowa State game every year for 5 years now, and keeping with tradition of past years, we slept through the 2nd half of the game. It's more about the tail-gating before and the celebrating/mourning after. Overall, I think we showed Nikki a good 21st birthday.

Back in Cali, we went to Monterey Bay Aquarium. This is one of the top aquariums in the country, and it lived up to the name. I thought it had more than Shedd. My favorite part was that I got to touch a sting ray! They had several areas of "petting zoo" type things, and one was a tank with sting rays. They don't always want to be touched, and I was lucky enough to get one before they all laid out of reach in hiding. I also loved the jellyfish room and the hammer head sharks! Another cool bit of the aquarium is that it's on the bay. So when we stood on the balcony of the aquarium, and looked on the bay, we saw wild animals, too! There were two river otters swimming around trying to avoid the kayakers.

Nathan (Rachel's brother), Rachel, Emily, Amanda, and Nick

I believe I've mentioned how the weather here is backwards. The summer months are our worst: heavy fog, chilled air, very windy. Late September through November are the best months: Indian Summer, warm, clear days. We're enjoying every second of the warm weather, especially now that Fort Funston isn't terribly foggy anymore! Here is a picture of Echo in the ocean at Fort Funston a couple weeks ago.
                               

Every couple weekends we spend half the weekend down in Santa Cruz with our friends Emily and Rachel (the friends from Iowa who moved to Santa Cruz). They are renting an awesome house with a backyard. They have 2 dogs, that Echo loves forming a pack with. There is also a beautiful off-leash dog park near their house, and we visited on an amazingly nice day. We got these great pictures of the sea life.

The weekend before we came to Iowa in October, Emily and Rachel  came to the city for the weekend. We went to a fun bar in the city with more outdoor space than indoor. It was seating like a beer garden would be. We had a great time playing Big Buck Hunter and meeting new people. The next day, we went back to the city to find hidden stairs and explore Chinatown. Rachel hadn't been to Chinatown, yet, and she wanted to eat there. These stairs aren't really hidden, but they're in a completely residential area, so if you don't live there,  or know to look for them, you would never happen upon them. They've been decorated in mosaics, and they're awesome to see. The bottom is under the sea, and as you go up the theme goes to ground level, sky and then space. Awesome! The chinese food we had in Chinatown was very good. All the hole in the wall places in Chinatown look even more "hole-in-the-wall" than elsewhere, so I was apprehensive, but it turned out great.

 

Here are a few wedding pictures:

Some of the "Gaul" cousins.

 
Planning for Halloween. Nick and I were trying to decide what to be for Halloween this year. I wanted to be something that incorporated Echo. For instance, I saw a picture of a German Shepherd in a mane, looking very similar to a lion, so I wanted to be Wizard of Oz characters. Nick hated the idea. So I said we could be SWAT team members with our K9 unit...Nick hated it. Nick suggested that I be Little Red Riding Hood, he be the real grandma, and we dress Echo as grandma and she would be the Wolf dressed as Gma. I think this is hilarious, but without Echo it would make less sense. So, I think Echo is out. Stay tuned for pictures of our costumes. We're not celebrating until the weekend after the 31st, so be patient (and then remind me to blog if I forget). In the meantime, we dressed Echo up as a 49ers Fan!

Our pretty girl:

Safety plan: At work today we had one of our All-Hands Safety meetings, at which we discussed earthquake safety. We talked about a lot, like making plans with your neighbors to check on each other, to create survival packs, and communication plans. When large earthquakes happen, it's impossible to make cell phone calls because the lines are jammed. For each other, Nick and I will send a text, an email and a private facebook message to make sure we're both ok. Since the cell reception in the areas are jammed, but not out of the area, there was a recommendation that you set-up one or two  points of contacts out of the bay area. So immediately after contacting each other in the case of an earthquake, Nick and I will find a way to contact our parents (congrats parents, you've won this awarding position!!) with our status. Please look to them for our status, as we may not have cell reception or the time to communicate to everyone. After contacting our parents, I can't promise anything, but if we are able to, we will post messages to facebook and/or update the blog with a quick note. So, if an earthquake happens in the Bay Area and you are worried about us, please reference this plan.

And just because I can't get enough of this one:
 Good night!