Stanford Football

While I'm still feeling our heartbreaking loss to Michigan State in the 100th Rose Bowl on New Year's Day, I want to remember a couple of my favorite moments from this football season, because it was definitely one to remember!

During our awesome defeat of Oregon, John Elway was recognized on the field at halftime and his number was retired.

Our Big Game victory was the largest in the history of the rivalry game, winning 63-13.  

Also, the trombone section's group costume (each section wears a costume together for the Big Game) made this Big Bang Theory fan happy.

2013 Year in Review

2013 wasn't all roses, but, looking back, there are so many wonderful memories that I kind of forgot the hard parts of it all.  The first half of the year involved many, many physical therapy and doctor appointments for my knee, but the half-marathon I ran in the fall kind of made up for it.

January

2013 literally started out with roses when I traveled to southern California to watch my Stanford Cardinal play in - and win! - the 99th Rose Bowl.  My friend Kyla and I made the trip together, celebrating New Year's at a fabulous mansion party in the Hollywood Hills before watching our team in Pasadena.

At the end of the month, we celebrated Jas's birthday by going to a pop-up black-and-white masquerade ball and dinner party.  Masquerade ball has now been officially checked off of my bucket list!

February

My second knee surgery in six months happened on February 6.  The first surgery wasn't able to heal the whole tear in my meniscus, so they went back in and re-did the surgery to get the second half to heal.  My friends and neighbors were so sweet to bring me care packages.

 March

In March, I flew back home to South Dakota for "spring break" and Easter with my family.  Baby Sister, my cousin Les, and I had fun with the baby lambs, dinking around on the 4-wheeler, and going shooting with a dear friend of mine.  Holidays in South Dakota are definitely one of a kind!

April
April was marked by the start of the season for our garden.  We spent a day planting and setting up the drip irrigation system, and it was all worth it for the months of fresh veggies we got to enjoy!

May

In May, I had my first Bay to Breakers experience - a "run" across San Francisco with thousands of my closest friends, in costumes, with a lot of beer.  It was definitely memorable, and I'm glad I did it with this guy.

June

In June, I was finally able to go back to work with a mostly-recovered knee.  The same week, I also started graduate school!

Earlier in June, Tall Dark and Nerdy had an aunt and uncle come to visit us, so in showing them around, I got to see Yosemite for the first time.

July

I went to a lot of concerts in 2013, but two really stick in my head as representing the year.  Possibly because one was the largest concert I've ever been to - Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z's Legends of the Summer Tour.  Possibly because I planned the best date night ever taking Tall Dark and Nerdy to see Weezer in San Francisco at an incredible temporary venue.  Possibly because I went to these two concerts two nights in a row.  Whatever the reason, they were a couple of really great shows!

August

August brought an incredible vacation to Europe with Tall Dark and Nerdy.  With our time together in Germany, our long weekend with friends in Munich, my day by the lake in Zurich, my time in Scotland with my grandmother, and my days in London with friends, this trip couldn't have gotten much better!

September

I was able to fly home and be a part of when of my oldest friends' special days this fall.  I have known this girl nearly all my life and we have become such close friends since high school, even with me living 2000 miles away.  It was such a wonderful weekend kicking up our heels and celebrating a great couple!  And I got to spend time with Baby Sister, which made it even better!

October

On October 20th I participated in my second Nike Women's Marathon.  This time I did it pretty much on my own, and I ran more of it than I thought possible.  After all my struggles with my knee this past year, this was a huge day for me.  I couldn't run the whole thing, but it will come, maybe in 2014!

Now, as dorky as this sounds, the other highlight of October was getting our wood burning stove installed at the cabin.  Now I can relax by a fire all winter!

November

Every fall, the school I teach at has a wonderful auction to raise money for our scholarship fund.  Tall Dark and Nerdy and I went, talked with wonderful parents, and had a really nice evening (and even took a nice picture!)

At the end of the month, we headed to Cozumel, Mexico for a mini vacation.

December

The reason we headed to Cozumel was the Tall Dark and Nerdy was competing in an Ironman triathlon.  I'm so proud of him!

My dad came to visit us for Christmas, prompting a trip to Big Sur to see McWay Falls - which Tall Dark and Nerdy has been tempting me with almost since we met!

Wow, 2013 had a lot of memories!  I can't wait to make more in 2014!

#tbt - Medicine ball trouble

Now that my knee is mostly recovered, I have started a new weight lifting program of sorts thanks to Mik, my personal personal trainer :)

 

Any type of weight lifting gives me flashbacks to my time on the Stanford Women's Rowing team.  We were an uncoordinated bunch, and our strength coach tried to fix that by making us throw medicine balls around all the time - at walls, at the floor, at each other.  I'm still a little hesitant to use medicine balls in the gym.

 

Someone snapped this gem during weights my freshman year as I was doing a killer ab exercise with a medicine ball and one of my team captains.

 

I love Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is one of my favorite places.  It's the place in California that makes me feel like I'm back home in some of the ways that I miss.  I absolutely love all the weekends I get to spend there with my Tall Dark and Nerdy, like this one in June. 

We get out of the car when we first arrive on Friday night and I spend my first several minutes in Tahoe just staring at the stars.  I spent countless nights growing up lying in a pasture or yard and staring at the stars, so it's nice to get that feeling again.

 

 I also love being near water.  I think I can blame that on my time rowing for Stanford, and on my water-loving roomie Mik.  Lakes don't get much prettier than Tahoe.  This trip was my first time being in Tahoe in the actual summertime, and it did not disappoint!  The water was cold, but it was beautiful, with three distinct colors of blue in layers.








Something about Tahoe makes me want to be adventurous.  I get there and I want to snowboard, hike, kayak, paddleboard, and do anything else I can try!

TDN also planned for us to watch the sunset at Emerald Bay, which has special sentimental value for me.  I saw a photograph of Emerald Bay last year over graduation weekend when TDN, Grams, baby sister, Papa Rist, and I were looking through a gallery.  I looked at TDN and said I wanted to go there - and had no idea where it was!  Over my birthday weekend (3 months later), he planned for us to spend an afternoon at Emerald Bay, and when I looked confused about what that was, he reminded me of the photograph.  He is so thoughtful.  That makes every visit to Emerald Bay special to me.

Any day that ends in s'mores is a great day for me, and this was no exception!

#tbt - First day at Stanford

Now that I'm a few weeks into graduate school, I have been reflecting a lot on the last time I started school - nearly 5 years ago when I began my freshman year at Stanford University.

 

This photo was taken by one of my roommates' parents, right after we all got there and moved in.  I couldn't have been luckier with the roommates I was given for my freshman year.  We had a wonderful year, and Mik and I essentially lived together all through our undergrad experience and miss her every day now that we live more than a couple feet apart.

 

The cutest karaoke

A few weeks ago, I went to a going-away dinner for a wonderful family.  They were the Resident Fellow family in Murray House at Stanford, where I lived and was on staff my junior and senior year.  They were like my family out here, and I don't know how I could have gotten through some hard times without them.

 

They have three kids, two girls and a boy.  When I first moved into the house, their boy had just turned 2, and we hit it off right away.  For the next two years, he told everyone he was my boyfriend, and it could not have been cuter.  I am also lucky enough to be his teacher, so I've really been able to watch him grow in many ways. 

 

Now that he is about to turn 5, we're "just friends" so that he can have other girlfriends.  Yes, I was friend-zoned by a 4-year-old.

 

Anyway, at the going-away dinner for his family, some old staff members set up karaoke.  Little man got up there and sang "twinkle, twinkle, little star" and it was the cutest thing I've ever seen.  He didn't know the words to the second verse - who does? - and couldn't read them, so his sister helped.

 

I'm sure going to miss him when he heads to kindergarten in the fall!