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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Air in April

We have had some incredibly hot weather the past few days. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday all had temps in the mid-90's. Who knew we'd be turning on our air conditioning in April?!?!? Luckily, it's supposed to be cooler for the rest of the week.

On another note, the air quality around here is very poor right now. As we were driving home from the beach on Saturday with Becky and Bryant, Becky asked, "Is that a fire?". Noel and I were both thinking, "No, this isn't fire season....we've never had a fire in the mountains near us....she must be talking about the haze." But, sure enough, as we got closer, we definitely saw the smoke she was talking about in the mountains just Northeast of our home. We turned on the news as soon as we got home, expecting there to be a "breaking news" story about it, but there was nothing. We were a bit concerned that no one knew about it and thought about calling 911, but decided against it. The 6:00 news on Saturday reported that they were hoping to have the fire out by 5:00, which obviously hadn't happened. Then they predicted it would be contained overnight. But, yesterday morning it was still burning like crazy and containment is expected to take 5-7 days. The air was very smokey yesterday morning and there was ash on the cars around here. I hope we don't get to stir crazy being locked inside this week!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

And the decision is...

...NOEL'S GOING TO DO A PHD AT FULLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We made the decision earlier this week; Noel will start the PhD program in the fall (PhD in Practical Theology with an emphasis in Homeletics). We turned in a deposit to Fuller, so it's official! We're excited to pursue this new endeavor, but are still unsure of what the next few years will look like. There are still a lot of unknowns (especially in terms of the cost of the program), but we'll take it one step at a time. We feel confident and excited that this is the right thing for us.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Hiking

It's Emily and Jason's last day here. :( The weather is spectacular (mid to upper 80's and sunny) and we decided to spend the afternoon hiking. This hike is basically just stream hopping with a waterfall at the end. It was a lot of fun and great to spend the afternoon outdoors.


We'll miss you, Jason and Emily!

Sequoia

Emily and Jason arrived last Friday and we headed up to see the big trees. We checked the weather before we left and were expecting temperatures in the upper 60's. Little did we know, the temps predicted were for the entrance to the park, which is at a much different elevation than the part we actually hiked in. The trails were totally snow covered and the high was only around 40. Brrrrrrr!!!!! Luckily Emily had an extra sweatshirt that I could borrow and I layered all the clothes I wore on Friday with all the clothes I packed for Saturday. Despite the shockingly cold temperatures, we had a spectacular time. The park was beautiful and it was a really fun, quick getaway.


This is the biggest tree in the world! It was impossible to capture the whole thing in the picture, but it's height is not what makes it the biggest anyway. The density of the trunk is the determining factor.
Jason and Noel standing on "Beetle Rock". We ended up returning to this rock to eat lunch. What a great view!

Noel and me on "Big Trees Trail"
On the way out of the park, lupine was growing everywhere. It was so beautiful....and so much warmer!