The Austin Trip, Part I

The title is actually a bit misleading, as none of the pictures on this page actually took place in Austin. Nonetheless, a couple weeks ago, we headed down to Austin during my Spring Break to hang out with some friends!

It was our first trip down there in quite a while. School keeps me busy, and we generally don't get out much, and when we do, it's usually not much farther than Tyler (although our previous trip to Marshall during the first weekend of Spring Break was really great - see previous post).

We stayed at Emily & Charlie Rajeh's house. Jed and Christine were in town, visiting from Germany. We even saw our friend Brooke, also visiting from Nashville. It was a really fun time. The weather was awful - in the 40s-50s and drizzling almost the entire time. We really didn't have much of a schedule at all. We didn't check email for four days. We hung out and ate good food with good friends.

This is a pic from inside the van on a day trip to Temple to have dinner with Jed's older sister Sarah. Jed and Christine were in the front.



We were in the back - making faces at the camera and watching the I-35 scenery.



The four of us also took a day trip (the next day - I guess you can't technically have more than one day trip on any one particular day - unless you're just really efficient, I suppose) to San Antonio. Stephany was last there about five years ago with her friend Alysia, but we had never been there together. I spent a week there for a tradeshow during my time with MIOX, shortly before Steph and I were married. I took everyone to the Fairmount Hotel on the Riverwalk, where I stayed that week - it's a really cool, old hotel. It holds the Guinness World Book record for heaviest building ever moved on wheels - back in 1985, they actually moved it (a 3-story hotel) something like six blocks to a different location. It's a neat place. We stopped in and took pictures.







Then we walked through a park with strange Mexican statues.





The park was near the Convention Center (also, where I spent a good part of that week in August 2006). We caught the Riverwalk there - after stopping for a few more pics.





Pictures of us with an old church in the background.





We stepped very briefly into the Rainforest Cafe to check it out. Stephany orchestrated a quick photo shoot of Jed and Christine at the bar.



And later at a gift shop I snapped a pic of my honey in a blue cowgirl hat. Oh yeah.



What trip to San Antonio would be complete without a stop at the Alamo? Stephany had never been, so we stopped there to check it out. She was a bit disappointed that it wasn't in a more sparse area, set out on acres of land (it's surrounded by hotels, streets, and a Ripley's Believe It or Not). I guess it just shows the way the city has grown up around it. It's cool that it's so accessible though (and free to the public).





We ended our San Antonio trip with a visit to the local Rivercenter Starbucks. This photo just makes me think that German girls know when they're hearing B.S.



My sweetheart and me.



More photos soon - and some that actually took place in Austin.

Nathan

The Marshall Trip

Last week was Spring Break for us! We were really glad to have some time off and do a bit of traveling. We really enjoy living where we do near SMU and how convenient it is for us with school and work, but it's good to get out of our area sometimes ("the bubble" as we call it).

We started off with a trip to Tyler and Marshall two weekends ago. We were able to meet my step-sister Natasha, in town from Russia with her daughter Katya ("Kate") visiting her mother Nina. We also stayed the night with my mom and enjoyed a long walk around her neighborhood near the lake. It's always great seeing my mom. She cooked us a nice breakfast (and lunch!), and then we were on our way to Marshall, where we stayed the night with my sister's family. It had been a while since we'd been to Marshall (about three hours east of Dallas), so it was good to be there. Mostly, we played with the kids, which was a lot of fun! Sophie even brought us breakfast in bed (Owen supervised), which was fantastic. Quite the treat.

Here are some pics of our time in Marshall. We played.

Here is the youngest one, Hart. He's a cutie. The boy eats like I do, gets into everything, and just wants to have a good time. He's a cool little guy.





Here's Sophie and Steph playing on some...crazy swing thing.



And here is the little Owen-man ("Jo-wen," as my aunt calls him, since he looks so much like Joey). He has quite the grin. And he's definitely growing up - it was fun playing with him.







The beautiful ladies of our group. My sister Tish is on the left.





Me shocking the heck out of Sophie after she slid down the plastic slide on a static-y day.



And all of us riding the back of a giant giraffe. Just kidding. We're looking over the side of a bridge at sticks the kids had thrown from the other side.





Here is Steph and me enjoying a little play-time ourselves. You can't really see it, but I have quite the sheepish look on my face after almost catapulting my sweet wife over my head on that thing. I think there's just something about playgrounds that makes guys forget that women are a bit more delicate than when we were kids (when the girls developed faster than we did). Thankfully, she held on, and we managed to have fun.



The Austin trip is next.

Peace out,
Nathan

Nathan's Birthday

We wanted to share some pics from my birthday earlier this month. I turned 28. Since school started back up in early January, I have been really busy working on a big research paper, one of my obligations for SMU's Law Review. Stephany threw me a really great party at our apartment. It was a great time to take a break and have some fun with friends for a change!

First of all, Steph baked a cookie cake (my favorite) for me! This was her third year to do so, and she is definitely perfecting the process. She even decorated it with a robot (I love robots - they're just so enjoyable) holding balloons!



Two good friends of mine: Paul and Don. I have known Paul since I was 14 (wow, that's half my life). We met in ninth grade of high school. We also went to UT Austin together, and Paul was in my wedding - a long-time friend, for sure. Don was the first SMU law student in my class that I met prior to school starting, and he has become a good friend of mine. He has shown up on some previous postings.



Steph cooked some fantastic chicken quesadillas and taquitos and made her becoming-famous black bean dip (with garlic and green chile!). She also baked some really amazing mint chocolate cupcakes - they were so tasty! She actually baked chopped up Andes mints into the chocolate batter and sprinkled mint pieces on top. Yeah, I'm gonna be requesting that one again. Sadly, there were no pictures of the cupcakes. But here are some pics of friends!





Here is me with my friends Josh and Cade from our home group - Josh recently became engaged to Kathryn, and Cade is married to Megan. They both do counseling/life support for people struggling with substance abuse. Good friends.



Paul and me.



Don and me.



And here is Stephany with Megan, Cade's wife.



And, of course, Steph and me. It was a really fun night, and my honey treated me right. She's a real sweetheart!



I worked on my paper for more than six weeks and turned it in a week ago (48 pages, double-spaced). Completing it has been a relief and has given us at least a little bit of time to recover from the events of the past few months. It was a study on the history of the legal entity of marriage in the U.S. since the founding of the nation, with an emphasis on the same-sex marriage debate and the role "direct democracy" plays in it (a la California's Proposition 8). I was glad to be able to pick the topic myself and really have a chance to involve myself with such an important issue affecting us all these days. Lots to consider.

Hope all is well (but I'm a realist, so I know it's not, but in the alternative, I hope for grace to abound all the more).

Nathan

Nathan and Stephen Go Skiing

So, getting back to the blog, I thought I'd post some pics back from our Christmas trip to Albuquerque when Stephen and I went skiing for a day in Santa Fe. It snowed like crazy that day - actually, it sleeted pretty hard first, and then it snowed like crazy. So, there was a lot of good weather going on (good, hard, and cold).

This was the day after Christmas. By the time we got back to the car, we were lucky to be able to get down the mountain, because people were getting stuck (at least one vehicle actually went off the mountain, but they only went about five feet because they landed in a huge snow drift - still a bit freaky to see).

Here's Stephen and me on the lift. You can probably tell that it was cold. It actually got progressively colder throughout the day.



Here's me. That may look like a bit o' sparkle in my teeth, but it's really just snow.



And here's Stephen. Here, he's trying to stay out of the frigid precipitation. There was a lot of it.



Here's me from the side. I'm looking at something.



Here's a look at Stephen that not too many people get. Although, I admit I've only been to work with him a few times, so I'm not sure if his patients often get this or not.



So beautiful. I love skiing.



Visibility was fairly low. Snow was everywhere.



When Stephen and I ski, we usually try to find places where we can go into the trees - there's usually good powder, it's a bit technical, it's quiet, and there's usually no one else there. We found a good place here. When I was living in Albuquerque, one of my favorite hobbies was photographing nature and urban areas with culture - the mesa, the desert, the forests, the old architecture, the native colors of New Mexico. In Dallas, I just haven't found anything yet that really moves me to photography. So, it was a treat being back here, in the beautiful snowy forest. I took quite a few pictures - here are a couple.





And here is Stephen waiting patiently for me (for about two more seconds). I took a picture of him too.



This gives you a bigger picture of what the day was like.



It was a great day of skiing. Cold, and lots of weather, but great. Stephen and I didn't make it out last year, so it was nice getting back on some slopes together. Good brother time.

Okay, so that's the new post. I'm working on another one which will be up soon.

Love to you all,
Nathan

Christmas 2008

Our trip back to Albuquerque for Christmas was really good. Initially, we weren't sure if we would be able to make our trip as planned. When my dad became sick so suddenly, everything was up in the air for us. My dad passed away right after my Fall exams began. I had taken one exam, and then we were in Tyler for about four days to be with family and for the funeral. We came back on a Saturday, and I took an exam that Monday and another one that Wednesday. After the Wednesday morning exam, we hit the road and made it into Albuquerque around midnight local time. I had one make-up exam after Christmas, so it was good getting that one out of the way. I am now "officially" done with this past semester.

During our time in Albuquerque, we attended the Christmas party for the law firm where I'll be working this summer. The party was good: classical guitarist and Santa for the kiddos, catered Italian food, and we got to meet quite a few people who work there - plus, Stephany got to see the place, and she liked it. After the party, we went out to a favorite place of ours downtown, checked out Christmas lights in our old neighborhood, and had dessert at Flying Star - a very nice evening.



We also got to see our friends Marc & Alysia Benjamin. They previously lived in Albuquerque. Alysia was in our wedding, and she and Marc were married a few months before us. They now live in Sorth Carolina, so it was good catching up with them while we were all in town.



We also took my mom for a short hike in the Sandia foothills (one of our favorite activites, obviously, for those who follow our blog!).



Steph's parents organized a poker night while we were there. Here's me taking some chips from my mother-in-law! (who I love very much.) :)



It was my mom's first time to play poker. I ended up taking her out, but she still loves me. And to her credit, she beat out everyone else except me!



Here is our combined family Christmas photo at church on Christmas Eve. We are so fortunate to have had our families get together for almost every major holiday since we've been married! It has been such a blessing to us, and it is so great to have such fellowship and togetherness.





Christmas day at the Sheltons' home: Malory, my mom (Marla), Steph, and Diane.



Stephany and Jamie.



Marla ("Gran") and James, who recently became Stephen & Jamie's middle child!



Stephen, our mom, and me.


Nathan

Day One

We are glad to welcome in a new year. It's a fairly arbitrary thing, but I think it helps (us all) to sort of mentally re-set, as far as the events making up a year. After all, we each see the world differently, and the events of a year of our life will affect how we each remember that year. I woke up yesterday morning thinking, "How strange time is. No one can move it foward or delay it by a second." It carries us all along through the miracle and mystery of life. Do people ever really stop and think about what we actually are and how life exists in these bodies of ours?

I don't think it's a bad thing to ponder some of these things. 2008 was a big year for us, and it has left us with a lot to consider. This past year was our first full year in Dallas, having moved here in mid-2007. 2008 will always be for us the year that my dad died. By the end of the year, I had officially made it through half of my law school career. A lot of big things - events forever sealed in time for us. And we are content knowing that most days we feel that we live reaching for the most life has to offer us. We hope that's the case for you too - and if not, that you would become sufficiently agitated by the happenings of life this year that you would ask yourself why that's not your position. There is life, and there is abundant life: we have set our hopes upon the latter.

We are optimistic that 2009 will be a good year. Although the passing of my dad has brought sadness and difficulties, it also begins a new chapter for my family's life. My sister Tish's youngest son Hart just turned one late last month. Stephen & Jamie also brought their third child, little Macy Louise, into the world this past November. On Stephany's side of the family in California, her cousin Brian and his wife Valerie recently welcomed their second child (after Ashley), little Adam Joseph ("A.J."), and her cousin Kevin and his wife Jennifer brought young Ryan into the world. The love is definitely going around, as we keep getting word of new births and announcements of pregnancies by quite a few of our friends. Today, this is what our fridge looks like:

It's so great. And it's an encouraging reminder for us of the goodness of life.

Another thing we're looking forward to is being in Albuquerque this summer. In early November, I accepted a clerkship for this coming summer with a law firm in downtown Albuquerque called Keleher & McLeod. I'll be working there for 12 weeks, and I expect to get some great experience and meet a lot of people. We will be staying with Stephany's parents Bob and Diane, which will be great, as well.

We'll post some pictures soon. Our love to you all.

Nathan