Sometime in May

When you are married to a podiatry student strange things can happen. I give you example a.

I woke up one morning and this is how I found my foot:

Example b. When your daddy is a pod student and has pod student friends:

Things got really busy for Nate as he finished up his first year and we planned for our trip to the Dominican Republic. We chose our adventure on a whim, as we usually do, and bought the tickets before I had a passport and crossed our fingers that it would arrive in time.

The beginning of May was wild for us. Nate was finishing up his first year and in an effort to keep himself sane tried to sneak in some long runs. He completely won my little heart all over again when he came through the door covered in sweat and mud with a bouquet of flowers in one hand and ice cream in the other. I was just beaming imagining him running the last two miles through the streets of Oakland bearing gifts for his little wifey. What a man. 

Once finals were over we had a bbq with Nate's class in celebration. We were all more than ready for our summer off from the madness (oh, the madness!). Nate and I crammed that week preceding our trip to the D.R. up to the very last minute. We BBQed, did a maternity photo session, threw a carnival style baby shower, prepared a Mother's Day breakfast for 40 women, said hello to our tiny new (and prettiest I might add) neighbor, and then finally slung on our backpacking packs and set off for our 9hr flight to 16 glorious days in the Caribbean. 

Summer! Yes...summer.

With Nate's classmate and our neighbor Roberto (or Birdie, as I like to call him). And, grill master  & classmate Justin.

Classmate Jon and his wife Rachel. 

Nate and Athen throwing rocks  while I photographed momma Corene and the bump.

 The carnival style shower I threw for Corene.

 Nate holding sweet little Maggie for the first time (after me, of course!).  

The Blog That Wouldn't Die

No time for cuteness. I've got the past six (six!) months worth of our life's story untold, and I'm holding myself to the goal of printing a book each year from our blogging. Get going, woman.

Life after the White Coat Ceremony...

Nate and I had a weekend to ourselves. No work. No school. It was well spent flirting (perhaps more appropriately called "nerding" since our idea of a good romancing is mercilessly getting the other to laugh) across the table over one of our favorite meals, hiding from a rainstorm, mountain biking in Santa Cruz, eating lots of ice cream, and camping out in the living room. 

Turns out mtn biking in Santa Cruz is a lot like hacking the bushes and tromping through the mud in Vietnam. It was all sorts of new fun and crazy. I've seen enough movies to know what I'm talking about. Trust me, okay? Just trust me. 

Wrapping up April. Nate was busy with practicals and finals. Angel was busy growing a baby so us girls made a night of it and threw a shower. Girls nights are always good, but this one stands out to me as a particular gem. Dearest Janelle brought a wii and convinced us that busting out our dance moves was a good idea. That is debatable as Angel secretly recorded us. A bit worrisome, but nonetheless it was all very amusing, as you may be able to tell. 

 

Tourists in Our City {Part Two}

Monday:

• We drove south to Santa Cruz. My new favorite day vaca. Places like this always remind me of my Dad in his surfing, leather pant wearing, blonde hair, beach bumming days. Things slow down and get a little groovy if you know what I mean. 

Mom Deb enjoying the sun...with the rest of Santa Cruz.

This needs a theme song. Learning to skim board.

Beautiful beach North of SC.

Utahans are WHITE. Me and D.

 

 An unscheduled nap. Amazing.

We finally found Tree 9 on the UCSC campus only to be shut down by cut branches.

Turns out there are tons of epic climbing worthy trees. We got over 100ft out of this one.

Tuesday:

• The total San Francisco experience...almost. 
• Golden Gate Park. I think park is perhaps too mild of a word. 
• Haight St (Grateful Dead neighborhood). Danica, Nate and I could have spent a day here. The seediest vintage shops you've ever seen. This area of the City is a completely different animal than the rest. As for Dale and Deb they ventured into a Whole Foods and that was more than enough to satisfy their curiosity about hippies. 
• Lombard St (of course). 
• Coit Tower.
• Ferry Buildings.
• Little Italy. Found an authentic Italian cafe. It was very memorable watching little D's face when the waiter told her they didn't offer ranch as a dressing. 

Snazzy little couple. 

Nate (with the map, of course) and what looks to be his angry teenage hipster wife. 

Wednesday:

• Nate took off and ran the equivalent of a marathon (no big thing). We met him at Lake Chabot. 
• I did a senior style portrait session of Danica. I am pretty excited about the results. Adding a few to my website portfolio.
• The fun comes to an end. I am the biggest boob when it comes to good-byes, but I stayed strong and managed to hold things together (might just be a first). 

It was SO nice having family visit. We're back to missing them. We had an awesome time being tourons with them and we're crossing our fingers that they haven't got their fill of us for the year. 

Tourists in Our City {Part One}

The best thing about March: family visitors & the white coat ceremony. I remember when we first moved to Oakland and the first time I heard about the ceremony. I wasn't sure if time passed the same in the ghetto or not, but as far as I was concerned it was a lifetime away. Well, we made it. And when I say "we" I mean I was there to witness the every-other-month-self-induced-torture-fest when Nate just couldn't help himself and he'd spend the evening reading Mountain Project, revisiting Jeremy Koons' blog, watching ski videos and reminiscing about all of the awesome stuff we "used" to do (his way of telling me how lame we've become). Those were the nights, let me tell you. My combat generally entailed giant symphony bars and tough love. Anyways, I'm so proud of all of the hard work he's done. I'm a lucky girl. "We" made it (1/7 that is) and Nate still has all of his hair. 

Nate & the Hansen Fam. They flew in from Utah for a wonderful 6 day visit.

With Stan. 

Looking forward to seeing more of my fine husband in his new coat.

Celebrating with some Icii's. Dear, wonderful Icii's.

Since we had the fam in town for a week we made a Hansen style agenda of all things amazing to do in the Bay. Unless you've ever experienced a Hansen family Christmas you just can't grasp what I mean when I say "Hansen agenda". At the end of my first Hansen Christmas I remember asking Nate "Did you grow up doing this every year? I feel like I just participated in a 48 hr relay". These people know how to get down and maximize time. So that's what we did, and it's a good thing too because before I could finish cooking breakfast on the first morning Danica was about to crawl the walls.

Saturday:

• Had a gorgeous drive on the coast.
• Bouldered at Stinson Beach.
• Explored some army forts near the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Girls went to SF for some shopping. Oh, yes we did. 

Can't wait to go back at low tide for a bouldering session.

  

I don't remember the last time someone said "Let's do a silly face". It shows.

Waiting for Bart. Best people watching to be had.

Sunday:

At the ruins of what used to be large community pools/baths on the beach in SF.

He came up with this pose all on his own. Saucy casual, I say.

This is all Nate here. It was quite the series.

That's the beginning of our spring break. I'm just warming up.