a frantastic spring break

Last week was spent Spring Breakin' in San Francisco. I'm still enjoying the fact that we both have a Spring Break this...ahhh the cush lives we lead as a school district employee and graduate student. Tate didn't know it when we planned this trip, but he is supposed to work in the research lab over the breaks...oopsie. Might as well live it up since this will most likely be our only shared Spring Break. And that we did.

It was a great trip! We saw new sights, ate great food, never set our alarms, met up with old friends,  and got rained on...a lot. However, that didn't slow us down a bit! 

The first, and most important stop for this environmental scientist was The Muir Woods. We saw the GINORMOUS redwood trees. Magical. This place was absolutely breathtaking! Also breathtaking {and budget taking} was the $9 pair of bear socks I bought in the gift shop to appease my soaking wet feet. Oh well, at least I will always have something to remember those redwoods by. I need socks, but Tate will forever hold those precious tree memories in his heart. He really loved it. Really. 

Next up- wine tasting in Sonoma. I know, we are classy people, so don't be surprised. We thought we knew very little about wine, then we went on this wine tour, and we realized we knew nothing. The best part of the tour was watching the "wooly weeders" {a.k.a. sheep} eating the grass in the vineyards. They bring in sheep because it is cheaper than lawn mowers. The sheep eat and the ground is fertilized, so everyone wins! 

We ended the night having dinner with Allison and Chris. Allison and I were neighbors growing up and now she is livin' the life in SF. We caught up over fried chicken and deviled eggs at Wayfare Tavern. It was so good to see y'all! Come to Texas sometime and we can take you to a local, little dive called 

Chick-fil-a.

We had to stop by Boudin's Sourdough Bread Factory for their famous clam chowder in a bread bowl. It hit the spot on this particular rainy, drab day. The interesting thing about Boudin is one side of the building is a bakery and the other is a store. The bakery is constantly pumping out hot, fresh, perfect sourdough rolls, then piling them in baskets and sending them over to the store on a little ceiling conveyer belt contraption. So, my bread bowl was potentially made like 5 minutes before I ate it. So fresh! 

We visited the sea lions a few times at Pier 39. They were pretty awesome, and knew it.  I wouldn't let Tate go to the aquarium so this was as close as he got to the wildlife. Soak it up. 

Nothing tops off a visit with the sea lions like a little afternoon delight at Ghirardelli Square. Get your head out of the gutter, I'm talking about ice cream here. We split a GIANT cookie sundae while  dark chocolate was being made right there in the store.

Woah, here we are up close and personal at Alcatraz. I did my research and heard good things about the Alcatraz night tour. So, we took a chance and booked it...scarrrrrry or so I thought. But actually, it was just a little eerie and a lotta interesting. We highly recommend the night tour. It was awesome! It got dark by the time we entered the prison and we saw a spectacular view of SF at night all lit up. This was my favorite stop on the trip.

We stopped by Lombard St., the curviest street in the world {I think}. We just stopped here literally long  enough to snap this picture. It was cold. The street is really curvy. That is all you need to know about that. 

Oh, hello sun! The shy guy finally came out on our last day of vacation. It was nice to walk along the bay in the sun and finally get a clear shot of the Golden Gate Bridge before we headed back home. It was a FRANtastic {see what I did there} way to spend our last day in San Fran! 

outstanding

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! I have an announcement:

On this day, Baylor University awarded yours truly, Mr. Tate, as the OUTSTANDING Graduate Student Instructor of 2011! Way to go! Nominations were based off of course evaluations filled out at the end of last semester by his students. He taught {and is currently teaching} three Intro to Environmental Science labs and is apparently awesome OUTSTANDING at it. We didn't want the excitement to end there, so we kept the ball rolling...

First things first, we took a trip to the bank where we received an OUTSTANDING amount of $32. Not that it needs an explanation- but it is the end of the month, and we are low on cash, so it was a priority to make a stop by the bank for me to cash my Waco ISD mileage reimbursement. A girl's gotta take her OUTSTANDING man out on the town!

Next, we hit up the OUTSTANDING dog park...it really is. 

Wrigley was OUTSTANDINGly submissive, as usual. Ridiculous. 

Still being OUTSTANDING.

Then we dropped off the baby and headed to a celebratory dinner at Carino's for some OUTSTANDING bread...the pasta was good too, but let's be honest we all know who the real star is here. 

Call us crazy, I know, but we topped the night off with some OUTSTANDING dessert at USwirl. I had birthday cake {I got overwhelmed and made the wrong choice} while T stuck to what he knew and got Cookies and Cream.

And for the OUTSTANDING cherry on top? I guessed the weight of my yogurt {with a little help from Mr. OUTSTANDING} and got it fo free! And if that isn't OUTSTANDING, I don't know what is! Three cheers for Weigh in Wednesdays at USwirl and OUTSTANDING Graduate Student Instructors! I love you both.

rainy day

rain + digging = happy, muddy puppy

It rained all weekend and Wrigley was pumped!  Golden retrievers are known for two things- retrieving and love of water. Wrigs doesn't know how to fetch. Doesn't even care to try. We joke that's what you get when you buy a puppy on sale- a broken retriever. But that's ok, because not only is she cute, she makes up for her lack of retriever skill with her unhealthy obsession with water. You name it- puddles, ice, bathwater, water hose...if it has a drop of H2O on it, she's there. You can also add digging to her list of interests. And, rainy days combine her two passions in life in the messiest of ways. 

We found her nose deep in her personal mud puddle. Straight to the bath she went...and then went again...and again. Three muddy play dates and three baths later she was clean and under control...at least for the rest of the afternoon. 

be mine

It's a fact- the longer you are married, the more low-key Valentine's Day becomes and even more shocking, you're ok with it.

Valentine's Day around here this year was wonderfully lower-key. It was a Tuesday...in case you already forgot. We decided to give back this year, so I volunteered during the day playing with kids while Tate tutored college Freshmen, oh wait those are our actual jobs. Never mind, although sometimes the paycheck does feel a lot like volunteering. After work we surprised each other with gifts. For some reason we've started doing that thing where we say, "Do you want to do gifts? I don't need anything. You don't have to get me something. Really, let's not worry about gifts." And we mean it, but then we end up getting each other something anyway. I told Tate the only thing I wanted was a good meal, and he delivered...but we will get to that later! He also gave me a rose tree! Love it! As he walked into the house he said, "I could have gotten you actual roses, but those would have died. Well, this will probably die too, but at least it will last a little longer." So true, but I am going to try my hardest and channel my inner Martha to keep this thing alive. I got Tate a mechanic's light {he had been eyeing it at The Warehouse for months} and a vintage tool box. Oh, and the cherry on top was that I made him some Oreo Cheesecakes. True story, he saw them while I was on Pintrest and asked me to pin them months ago. Tate's fuel in life is peanut butter, triathlons and Oreos, so I think he was pleased.

We went to dinner at an amazing steakhouse in Temple, Cheeves Bros. This place is dear to our hearts for two reasons. 1. This is the place we celebrated our first V day when I was in grad school and T was living in Longview.  2. This is the place we celebrated our 2nd Anniversary this October. As you can see, we obviously love this place. I wish I could say it's because we are so sentimental, but let's be honest, it's all about the peppercorn steak in the Merlot reduction. Drool. And I know this is weird, but the tea is good, really good. It has mint in it or something.

After dinner, we drove back to Waco and cuddled by the fire while watching The Notebook. Ok, not really- Tate went back to school to work on his 24 hour test {who gives a take home test on Valentine's anyway?! Cupid's arch nemesis that's who}, while I caught up on some quality tv...probably whatever was on Bravo. Flowers, steak dinner, cheesecake, and Bravo tv- Happy Valentine's Day to me! It was a great evening with the perfect Valentine, and I couldn't be any luckier...unless I had a post V day lunch at Cheeves.

xoxo

girls weekend...just like high school, but better

Two weeks ago Kels, Meg, Kendra and I had a long overdue girls weekend. We hadn't all 4 been together since Meg's wedding...which was almost two years ago!  Gasp! It's debatable how long we've been friends. According to me we've been friends since 7th grade, but Kendra informed me  she was unsure of 7th-grade-Danielle's motives when I asked her to sit at our "cool table" for lunch. Therefore, she says we weren't technically until 8th grade. Anywho, we'll split the diff and just say we've known each other a very long time and used to hang out every day until we all got lame, grew up, got jobs, got married and moved. Looking forward to a fun weekend, we all packed up and drove to the enchanting city of...Tulsa! Look out Oklahoma! It was halfway between Dallas and Topeka, so we just met in the middle. 

We had a great time brunching, seeing a movie, shopping but not buying anything {apparently Tulsans? Tulsites? are loaded because Dave Ramsey told me I couldn't afford anything in their cutesie shops}. We had great meals at girly places like Queenies and The Chalkboard Cafe. And let me tell you- Tulsa is icy! Us "from the South," as Kendra refers to us, couldn't believe our eyes as we spotted at least 3 or 4 ice patches over the frigid weekend. I wish I could indulge you with the rest of the juicy details, but hey, you know what they say, "What happens in Tulsa, stays in Tulsa." All in all, it was great weekend catching up, listening to Calvin Harris' song, "Feel So Close" on repeat, and laughing...a lot.

K, M and K- I'm blessed to have you in my life! Thanks for overlooking the ill-intentioned 7th grade Danielle and sticking with me thus far. Where are we goin' for Girls Weekend 2013?