arizona

We spent our Spring Break {which we are thankful to still have at 27 years of age} in Arizona visiting Lynley and Shawn. Since Shawn is part of the Dodgers organization, he and Lyn are lucky to spend a few months out of the year in AZ and we were even luckier to visit for a week! They have this little program during this time of the year called, "Spring Training," so most of our time was spent at baseball games good restaurants. I think we ate our way through Scottsdale. No surprise there, our vacations kind of revolve around food. But, besides good food, we also got to do some other exciting things too, including watching some baseball games, which is what most people actually travel to Spring Training in search of.

Baseballin'...

We went spent some time at Camelback Ranch, which is where the Dodgers and White Sox have their training facilities and share a field. We got to cheer on the Dodgers in three games, but got especially excited when Shawn came into pitch! Go #38! We saw him throw 4 pitches. Batter out. Inning over. Job well done!

{Camelback Ranch}

{The only game we had to have blankets. Cheering on the Dodgers!}

{Go Shawn!! Strike him out!}

Runnin/Hikin'...

We also so did some outdoorsey things. I know, giving up precious time by the pool to hike and stuff...who are we? I'm not sure either. We did the 4 mile Peoria Run the first full day we were there. Which, may I add, was the furthest Lynley and I have ever ran in our lives, but was a nice "light day" for Dad and Tate. Later that week, we hiked Squaw Peak. It was a really pretty hike and hard work too. We washed our hard workout down with a Smash Burger and milkshake. What a day! 

 {Peoria 4 mile run}

 {Tate and I pre hike}

 {Lyn and Dad at the bottom of Squaw Peak}

{The crew at the top taking in the view}

Wigwamin'...

Life at the Wigam is nice. This is the hotel, built in the 1920's mind you, that my parents stayed at for the week. Tate and I stayed with Lynley and Shawn, but were sure to reap the many benefits of the Wigwam which included but were not limited to: the best breakfast burrito I've ever had, heated pool, bonfire surrounded by rocking chairs, and endless supply of cold oranges. Oh, and how could I forget bocce ball! Oh, bocce ball, how we love you. This became a fam favorite as we had a little tourney going on all weekend. Tate, Mom and Lynley vs. Dad, Shawn and me. After our lives have been changed at the Wig, we are now crossing our fingers for a bocce ball court to appear at our parents' new house when it gets built. 

 {Welcome to the Wigwam} 

{Built in 1929, served as quarters for cotton farmers' and a vacation home for families of Good Year executives. Now serves as quarters for vacationers and Samantha the cat}

{Bocce-ing is serious business}

{Tourney finished. I think you can tell who won and who is looking on jealously.}

Grubbin'...

If there are two things Arizona is not short on it's cactus and good restaurants. And I am not complaining. Lynley and Shawn had done their research before we came out and already had a long list of restaurants they wanted to take us to. I think we actually had more restaurants than number of meals to eat. Not only was everything delicious, all the ingredients were so local and fresh. It was great! I literally was full for 2 days after I got back home. 

 {At Arrowhead Grille celebrating Tate's birthday}

 {"Hey, everybody look at me...it's my birthday!"}

 {Lunch at Olive & Ivy, maybe my favorite place, before a quick shopping trip and a baseball game. This place has the most interesting and delicious stuff! Bacon wrapped dates and Sweet Potato Cannelloni. Yum!} 

{Last supper at Chelsea's Kitchen minus Tate since he had to get back to Waco run some samples, or check some carbon or save the earth or something.} 

{We took a food tour of Phoenix was was...um...interesting to say the least. This one deserves it's very OWN blog post, so more on that later...}

It was such a great trip and a wonderful way to spend Spring Break! The week flew by. No regrets, except I wish we could have stayed longer. Thanks Lyn and Shawn for showing us the ropes in AZ. Can't wait until next year! 

texoma christmas y'all

So many places, so little time. This Christmas we took a little tour of the greater Texoma area.  From Waco to Oklahoma to Amarillo to Allen back to Waco to New Braunfels. Whhhew! We are beyond blessed to have lots of wonderful, crazy, loving family. We did our best to see as much fam as we could over the break, and we got a lot of QT in the car...like a LOT. Let's start at the beginning of our journey...

12.20.12 Waco, Texas

Tate and I started off Christmas together by cooking dinner and opening one present each. The gift-giver gets to choose your gift. Being only married for a few years, we don't have many traditions of our own, so maybe this will catch on. We were going to watch a Christmas movie, but packing for our long trip took priority. Boo. I will be looking stylin' in my new J Crew blazer {that Tate picked out and thought of all on his own} and he will be looking good as always in his new watch. Wrigley was a little less grateful as she stuck her nose up at her candy cane bone and didn't even bother glancing at her new toy. Only children.

12.21.12 Edmond, Oklahoma

We enjoyed spending time with family and puppies, lots and lots of puppies! My aunt has 6 dogs so there is always a cuddle buddy. We made our traditional King Christmas meal, of course, of fried shrimp, steak, mac and cheese, homemade fries, coleslaw, and featured newer additions such as chicken and baked mac and cheese. We opened {what verb do you use here} stockings, which is my favorite tradition of all! Everyone has their different stocking method, but most of us prefer to pull one item out at a time and announce it to the entire group. It takes a while, but we don't mind. We like to really draw out the stocking opening process. Later, we opened presents, and did our Dirty Santa gift exchange. We also played Bunko, thanks to Jan the game organizer {one of her many titles}, which I think may be turning into a new tradition. Us kids all thought Bunko was just for old ladies, but that is certainly not the truth. It's a good time! And the iTunes gift cards are a good encouragement to participate too.

12.23.12 Amarillo, Texas

"Amarillo By Morning" was the song of the day. Well, actually we got there around noon to just in time to miss church {awww, durn our timing} and met up with Robby and LaVon for some lunch. Although we were only in town for a few days, we managed to find time to make a shopping trip or two {shopping is a Barrett spiritual gift}. It was the first time I had actually bought a gift on Christmas Eve, but I was peered pressured by the other gifted shoppers. But when in Rome Amarillo... We went to church Christmas Eve and had a wonderful meal with family, friends and the cutest 2 year olds on the planet. I gladly sacrificed my new mint green cords I got at Aunt Kelly's to tiny red jello covered hands as one of those cuties crawled in my lap during dinner. We woke up to lots of snow Christmas morning! We ended up getting snowed in and weren't able to make it to Lubbock to see Tate's Grandmother. But Plan B was nice too. We ended up hanging around the house for a relaxing morning of reading the Christmas story and opening presents around the cozy fire. It was the year of the foot! I think we opened 8 pairs of shoes, lots of socks, and a shoe shine kit {dad presents...glad I'm not one}. We wished we could have seen family in Lubbock since we don't get there often, but had a nice day, lounging around in pajama pants, watching Robby wreck his new remote control helicopter into the wall...and coffee table...and chandelier.

                                                                                                                                                         

12.26.12 Allen, Texas

5 1/2 more hours of quality time in the car...we ran out of things to talk about around hour 1, so thinks got a little awkward {not really}. We attempted to listen to my first book on tape, but I nixed that idea on CD 2. Bru-tal. The 27th was Nicholson Christmas!  We ate lunch together at my parents' house and then opened presents around the Christmas tree. This year I was really excited for some reason to see everyone open gifts from us. We normally know what we are getting, but this year there were lots of fun surprises! Mom acted surprised when she opened her iPhone 5 she bought herself, Lynley took pics on her new "mom quality camera," Shawn got extra awkward when we opened underwear, and Wrigley avoided all eye-contact with all boxes out of fear for her own life. In true celebration of 'the year of the foot,' we collectively got 9 pairs of shoes. That night all the besties and husbands met at the Ringlers for Friendsmas. So far it's gotten better with each year...can't wait to see what next year holds! We had lots of food at our little Mexican potluck. Then in true fashion we played games, lots of games! Some planned and some improvised. Then we did our gift exchange. But, the night wouldn't have been complete without making the guys take lots of pics of us...so we did and they complained. All was normal in the world. Before we left town we were able to meet up with my grandparents for lunch. It was great to catch up a bit since we didn't see them for Christmas Eve.

12.29.12 New Braunfels, Texas

On to New Braunfels to see Tate's grandparents, aunt, and uncle! We there a few hours before Grandma came home from the hospital. She had been the hospital for a little over a week after having lung surgery due to cancer. It was such a blessing to have her home in time for our Barrett-Vanstory Christmas! Perhaps the best Christmas present of all- she is now "cancer free," thank you Lord! PaPa cooked us a yummy meal of chicken fried venison, mashed potatoes and corn. I tried to divert my attention as Uncle Randy showed pics of the deer he shot WHILE eating fresh venison. Nice! Later we opened presents. We were extra thankful this year, being all together and having Grandma home too. I'm sure she was exhausted and a bit on sensory overload with all of us crowding around her asking her questions. We spent the night at Aunt Roxi and Uncle Randy's beautiful new house. The next day a few of us kicked it "out-of-town-LaVon" style, skipping church and hitting up the outlet mall {but I guess if your spiritual gift is shopping then you can worship at the outlet mall too}. Later, we met up with the others for Uncle Randy's homemade stew and then hit the road for home sweet Waco!

12.30.12 Waco, Texas

Hello house, do you remember us? It was such a nice trip, but we were also thankful to be home...ahh, home...it is still so nice to say that {we've only been in our new house for 5 months}. Wrigley and I were reunited with our lonely couch and didn't move for a few hours. The unpacking can wait since I don't have to work for a week. The joys of working for a school district are sinking in...just...about...now...zzzz

MERRY Christmas and HAPPY everything to you! 

on top of the world...literally

This week Tate added "guest lecturer" to his ongoing resume of:

-Full-time Ph. D. student

-Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor

-Ironman

-Designated roach killer 

-Featured gas pumper

-Strict budget enforcer 

-Skilled taco maker

Ok, maybe that is not his "official resume" but they are all equally important titles around this household. Actually, to be completely honest with you, I hold the later titles in much higher esteem than the others. Without him I'd have to squash bugs, pump my own gas in shady neighborhoods, and work off my potential unending debt to Target.

Anyway, I digress...

After word got out of his summer Arctic adventure, a world renown environmentalist  {a.k.a. his advisor} at a prestigious university {a.k.a. Baylor} asked him {or told him} to lecture {well, more like show a power point} to her class. He amazed them...no duh. He told them of how Baylor sent him on a grant to magical place called Barrow, Alaska. He spent his summer at the tip top of the Arctic Circle, the most northern North American city to be exact, in order to set up and run an air sampler for a research project. This sampler will measure carbon aerosols in the air {yuck}as well as serve as the hot topic of his dissertation. Now, I know what you are thinking, and yes, Barrow is the same city that is in that movie 'Big Miracle,' where Drew Barrymore and Jim, from The Office, save those three precious whales. Tate didn't save any whales, but he eat some. Here, I'll just let him tell you about it...

Barrow is unlike anywhere I have ever been in my life!  I guess you could draw some sort of comparison to Barrow and Amarillo, where I grew up, because they are both flat and in the middle of nowhere, but that is where the similarities end.  I left DFW and the 100 degree heat, and arrived in sunny Barrow, AK, which was 30 degrees.  I was the only person on the plane with a big jacket!

 The first stop for any visitor in Barrow is the local AC grocery store.  This is just like any other grocery store you have been to, other than the fact that a bag of Lay's potato chips is $11 and Tropicana OJ is a measly $18!  They also sell 4-wheelers and snowmobiles! Everything is so expensive because no roads lead in or out of Barrow, and everything must be brought in by plane.

Many atmospheric researchers flock to Barrow because it offers a place to study the atmosphere in an environment that is pristine and should be free of human impacts.  I went to Barrow to kick off a year-long sampling campaign trying to quantify the effects of black carbon on snow albedo and climate change.  We are taking week long air samples for an entire year, as well as collecting various snow samples for analysis back at Baylor.  I know this seems pretty boring to most of you, but these are very exciting and important things to people interested in trying to assess human impacts on the environment and climate change.  

There are only a handful of restaurants in Barrow, and the most famous is Pepe's, the northernmost mexican food restaurant in the world.  My favorite was the "Polar Haven" of Osaka's!  I ate there several times while in Barrow and became pretty good friends with the wait staff, which isn't very hard when you are the only person wearing a coat and beanie in the restaurant.  One of the best things I ate was reindeer sausage, that's right, Santa sure knows how to make a sausage link!  However, the reindeer sausage wasn't the most interesting thing I had in Barrow, more on that later...

Like I said earlier, Barrow is in the middle of nowhere, literally.  It is surrounded by the Chukchi and Beaufort seas on either side.  It is as far north as you can travel before falling into the Arctic ocean.  The picture above is a sign on the road to the research station where we set up our samplers.  

I was greeted at the airport by scientists who live in New Mexico but work in Barrow for a few months out of the year.  They told me that we were heading out to the research site because they don't like to stop working until the sun went down, the only problem is that during the summer, the sun never sets, it stays about 40 degrees all day.  The pictures above were taken outside of my apartment at midnight!  No wonder Alaska is know as the "Land of the Midnight Sun."

Danielle referenced the "Big Miracle" that took place years ago in Barrow, and the people of Barrow truly do care about their whales.  They, just like the rest of Americans, want to save the whales...they just want to save them for dinner.

The local Barrow culture revolves around the bowhead whale and the locals still use traditional methods to hunt the bowhead.  Wooden frame boats are covered in skins from seals and then taken out past the ice to the open waters.  Following a successful whale hunt, a festival is held and people from all over northern Alaska come to celebrate the hunt.  This festival is know as a Nalukataq and was going on while I was in Barrow!

The blanket toss is the main attraction.  The seal skin coverings from the whaling boats are held like a parachute and a person is tossed in the air, while doing flips and throwing candy to the kids.  The blanket toss is an homage to the traditional hunting ritual of throwing a person up in the air to spot whales out past the ice.  Once a whale was spotted, the whalers would travel out to the edge of the ice and the hunt was on.  I asked if I could take a turn, but for some reason they wouldn't let me.  The Nalukataq is also where whale delicacies are given out to the community. Luckily, I escaped having to eat them  at the festival, but I couldn't hide forever.  On the plane ride out of Barrow, I was surrounded by locals and offered, muktuk, which is a thin piece of whale skin an blubber.  To make it even more appealing, it was pickled in some various spices and vinegar.  I had no other choice but to pretend it was a big gummy bear, and choke it down.  I only gagged once, and promptly asked the flight attendant for a glass of water while all of the eskimos enjoyed their free entertainment!

I will be returning to Barrow later this year to collect some snow samples and to continue our air sampling campaign.  We are also working on a proposal to extend our campaign to coincide with the new drilling operations in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, so I may be spending a substantial amount of time in Barrow.  I will have to have Danielle come with me so she can write the next blog!

guat's up?

Hola! Como estas? Su nombre? Cuantos anos tienes? That's the extent of my Spanish and every conversation I had last week. I had the pleasure of going on a week long mission trip with FBC Allen in beautiful Guatemala. It was a great trip filled with humbling experiences, gracious people and thousands of fresh, homemade tortillas!

{the group on our first day}

{mi familia en Guatemala} 

A few people on the trip had been before, but it was my first experience. We worked with a small {very small, 5 people to be exact} organization based out of Guatemala City called Church on the March. COTHM works with local Baptist pastors and churches in Guatemala. Through this organization, we met Carlos, Jaime and Jennifer {our bus...all the buses have names} who took us a few hours to work with Pastor Benedicto, the pastor of a church in Santa Barbara.

{playing games at one of the schools}

{Jennifer and me...we spent a LOT of time together}

This church and it's outreach was absolutely inspiring. Although it's congregation consisted of only 80 members, they fully supported a handful of missions, pastor's family, and the school ministry, which is where we spent most of our time. The school ministry aims to change it's neighborhood from the inside out by teaching Godly values and Jesus' teachings to school aged kids. This team is lead by Pastor Benedicto, the composed pastor, Jaime, the young mentee/translator, and dear Ernesto {or Neto}, the most energetic, animated man I have ever met. In the words of Carlos, "he can move 200 kids like they are 1." The school program goes something like this: enter {or sometimes hike to} the school, high-five every kid in sight, sing/dance to songs like "The Lord's Army" and "If You're Happy And You Know It" in espanol, do a brief Bible story or devotional, play games and make a craft. Basically, its VBS...condensed into a hour...in Spanish...with kids who have never been to church. Mind you these are Baptist leaders going into very Catholic "public" schools so it could present a challenge. Despite the challenge, God is faithful to provide more and more schools each week. It has taken a big investment of both time and work on Pastor Benedicto and Neto's part to get their foot in the door, and after they are in, they are able to share with these kids on a weekly basis. Although some teachers are very hesitant about the message being shard, they are desperate to receive help with their students. Many schools struggle with the same things we do here- bullying, teen pregnancy, and violence. Unfortunately, the difference is in Guatemala they are allowed to share God's word in the schools to provide guidance in these situations.

{Pastor Benedicto sharing and keeping it weird}

{Ernesto and friends singing and dancing}

One of the schools we visited originally said "no" to the program, but after they saw kids' attitudes changing at another school that Benedicto and Neto go to, they called back and asked for them to come. To be completely honest, the first day or two into the trip I thought, "It sounds like they have it covered, why are we here?" I soon learned the main three reasons were: #1. Support: The local pastors in their work. Most of the time these men are doing this work alone, which I am sure can be discouraging. Teams like us bring a fresh of breath air and encouragement in their ministry. #2. Resources: We have far more resources in the U.S. than these little towns do and many of the things we offer are an answer to months and of prayer. On this trip in particular we were able to bring New Testaments to hand out to kids and make salvation bookmarks which were much appreciated. And lastly #3. Attraction: People in these little towns, especially the remote ones, will line up to get a peek at the crazy Americans. And hey- the more people that come to see the entertainment {or us with our thick accents and mysterious backpacks packed down with sunscreen, bug spray and snacks}, the more people that get a chance to hear God's word. As strange as it was, we drew people to the program...or maybe we were the program?

{pumped up about singing at the all girls school}

{finished bookmarks in one of the classrooms}

Every school we went to, parents and small children lined up around the school yard or poked their heads over the fence to see what was going on. At the end of the week we saw anywhere from 2,000-3,000 kids. Seeds were planted. That is 2,000 families that received Spanish Bibles maybe for the first time ever. One of the things I learned while in Guatemala- Americans love to plan and love to follow schedules. Carlos continually told us, "flexible" or in his Spanish accent it was more like "flex-ee-ball." This became a running joke all week and was a tough lesson for some of us.

{hiking to one of the more remote schools}

{chicas with their New Testaments we provided}

The one day our "plans" were completely thrown off was the day more kids than ever were reached. We woke up on day with news of a bus driver strike taking place on our route to the school. Plan B consisted of us going to a different school, one that had never been seen by the ministry team while Pastor Benedicto and Neto saw the school that was on our original schedule. It was one of the best programs we had that week, visiting with the kids and hanging out. All in all, we ended up seeing around 500 extra kids! Good things come to those who are "flex-ee-ball."

{playing a game with Amanda}

{ladies cooking mosh at the school}

So many inspiring things happened over the week we were in Guatemala. I relearned the power of prayer. My dad planned on going on the trip, then had to cancel. Pastor Benedicto told us when they found out Brother Bill {or "Brother Beell"}couldn't come, they began praying everyday that we would make it to Guatemala. Some very unfortunate events occurred in order for that to be the case, but he ended up leading the trip. These men not only asked, but asked and expected God to do great things. I also learned  what it looked like to take delight in spiritual responsibility. Carlos referred to working in the schools as "a privilege to be doing the work of angels." A church of merely 80 members outreaches to over 3,000 kids weekly! In the states a church of 1,000 outreaches to 1,000 kids in a summer. Not only is it my responsibility as a believer to share the Good News, it is a privilege.

{Guatemalan women know how to mulitask} 

{missionary Ted at one of the new churches}

And lastly I learned to be "flex-ee-ball."  It is evident God is working in Guatemala and in the heart of us Americans as well. As we left, Carlos told us now that we have seen the work with our own eyes and directly taken part in the ministry there, it was now our responsibility to pray daily for Guatemala. I will continue to pray for the work of Church on the March, Pastor Benedicto and Ernesto, and I hope you will too. Adios mi amigo! Thanks for stopping by.

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!