Our date in LA

 It has been a few months since I have updated the blog, so there's a lot of catch up to do.


Nicholas and I made our drive back up to Santa Barbara from San Diego
after Christmas into a date extravaganza.
It was really wonderful!
First we stopped for some yummy kabobs at a little restaurant off santa monica blvd.

Then we went to the Getty Center, which I had never been to.
If you are ever in the LA area you have to go it is amazing!

view of LA from one of the decks at the Getty.

although I posted a lot of pictures of the grounds, we did see a lot of gorgeous artwork, this was one of my favorites.

We left the Getty when it closed and found ourselves in major traffic on the 405

But our night ended with a drive on the 10 to Venice Beach 

where we got Intelligentsia coffee. 

The picture above is of the outside of the shop, 

it was a really unique coffee shop. 

In my opinion, the best coffee there is, but the most uncomfortable seating imaginable (inside there were just concrete slabs in rows to sit on).

Awesomeness.

Maybe your tired of looking at them but I'm not... He's just so dang HOT!!

Geri put up more of our 

Apple Picking-Spider Dodging-Bumble-Bee Swatting-Adventure Photo Shoot

up on her website here.

Currently.

Seen this on a few of my favorite blogs and thought it was fun.

Obsessing over: TJ's peppermint hot chocolate with whipped cream, all the beautiful brown boots this season, white Christmas twinkle lights, fried egg and cheese sandwiches.

Working on: our Christmas card, my last two finals for Fall quarter, a few crafts for this event!

Thinking about: my dreams for next year, Nicholas, where we will live when I graduate, when we will have little ones.

Anticipating: wintery date nights, giving meaningful gifts, more quality time with our families!

 Listening to: Hotel Cafe (so good).

Drinking: coffee.

Wishing: I was better at slowing down, I had more time to experiment with meals, we had more to give to others, next quarter wont be as busy as I think it will, Nicholas was not so tired when he comes home from work. 

Fall Photos by Geri!!

I have no words.

...

....

.....

We had so much fun taking these photos up in Solvang with Geri, she was a riot!
If you remember, I won a giveaway photo shoot on her blog me and him a few months back.

Between trying to avoid the bees in the apples and the spiders in the trees,

she captured quiet a few special moments!

Thank you sweet friend! You are seriously gifted.

Her lovely website can be found here.

Joy ride.

California coastline. Beautiful!

I love this guy.

It's gonna be a beautiful weekend :)

Goleta Lemon Festival

A few weekends ago, Nick and I walked over the the Lemon Festival with some friends after church. It was really silly, haha, small and pretty barren-- we didn't see any lemons, but we did find amazing lemon ice cream!

Awesomeness!

Nick played this fishing game and he won me a frog!

=)

just a few projects.

Although we have been very busy over here at the Pope's place- with work and school and teaching and a weekend trip to Minneapolis [pictures to come...] ! -- I have found a few moments here and there to work on a couple projects...

What do you think?
I made a couple new headband.. yippee!

And, Nicholas helped me spray paint some glass bottles I had been collecting from our after church taco dates to Lily's. Pretty right?

Peace.

ramblings.

There is so much for me to write in order to keep the blog world caught up on the haps of the Pope family... instead of rambling for the next 4 hours here's my week in a brief 7 bullet points!

-last Friday I took my last final (aced it!) and then slept for 2 days so I could go to work on monday and not feel like death.
-Sunday hubs and I had a very romantic date night! He made bacon wrapped filet mignon and grilled veggies while I worked on roasted potatoes and roasted apple and vanilla bean souffle yum! (Aran knows what shes doing over at Cannelle et Vanille!!)

-Monday I went back to work and felt like death... lame! I taught all my little kiddos about how God made them beautifully unique--which was a great reminder for myself...
-Tuesday, we celebrated a good friend's birthday by going to see Josh Garrels play here in town. You can take a listen here, his album is free to download =)

-Wednesday- work, then came home and made progress on the baby blanket I started back here... at this post... which  I'm knitting for a special little girl! pictures to come...
-Thursday I had a doctors appointment and then we had dinner with some of Nicholas' friends from work. Amazing taco bar! My love made award winning homemade corn tortillas... all night people raved about them! Recipe found on the back of the masa bag-- 1. add water. (haha)
-Friday night Nicholas worked so I did laundry, and worked on the blanket...
-Today we slept in and then went on a walk to grab coffee, had dinner with some pals and now im catching up on my real simple mag.

How was your week?

Drive in.

[we got really creative at the drive in and created a really comfy bed on top of the 'green chicken']

[doesn't he look cozy?]

 Have you ever been to a drive-in theater? We have one in our town and we love it not only is it way more fun to watch a movie under the stars but it is so much more affordable! ($6 something!)

memory lane. part 2.

In November 2007 I took a whirlwind trip to visit Nick for Thanksgiving in England.

I wouldn't generally suggest a trip to England for an American holiday like Thanksgiving considering no one celebrates Thanksgiving in England. Trust me, you can't find a pub in the whole city that will serve you a decent turkey meal! Haha, we ordered a "bacon" cheese burger and fries, what they served us was an unseasoned hamburger patty on toast with a piece of deli meat ham on it...

I had less than a week off from teaching for the holiday but didn't mind that it would be a short trip;

I just missed him so much!  

So here are a few of my favorite places and memories from that trip.

I took this picture of Hertford College (Thomas Hobbes and Jonathon Swifts alma mater) from a building across from the Bodleian Library (they, the library police, wouldn't let me in the "Bod" because I wasn't a student at Oxford-pretentious book snobs). Anyway, we didn't let that ruin our afternoon, (ya think I'm still bitter?) Back to the point, I thought the Church was so beautiful that later that night Nicholas took me to evensong at Christ Church which if you can believe it is even more magnificent!

Aren't those flats adorable? I love the yellow one! These are the spires of Oxford... simply gorgeous! (Did you know, Oxford is called the "city of dreaming spires", I didn't, but Nicholas did, he knows everything!)

To make the last night that I was in Oxford really special we went to The Trout which is a swanky pub way outside of the main city area. It was ridiculous trying to get to it--we literally took at least 3 buses and walked a mile through someones pasture (yes there were cows) to get to it--not atypical, I'm learning, for the way we generally find ourselves traveling (more about this later).

The night before I flew home we took a bus to London, so that years later I would have fun touristy picture like this one of us with Big Ben to show all of you!

 

We walked and walk and walked up and down the Thames River ("note to self: if i ever move to England I need to find boots that are cute AND practical for cobblestone roads").

Not only were we both really relieved to see each other that week, 

but while I was there we got a call from Nicholas' parents that his grandfather had passed away, which of course was devastating. 

I think we can only thank our Lord for his timing, 

he knew how difficult receiving that news would be and was so kind to provide a support to Nicholas while he was away from the rest of his family through me. 

When I got home, I started counting down the days until he would be back. My students and co-teachers even made me a paper link chain for each day and we hung it up in the classroom.
I couldn't wait until I would only have a 3 1/2 hour drive to see him as opposed to a 11 hour flight! Its funny how our perspectives change...