Whirlwind Travel

John in front of his old grade school in Toulon, IL
Leslie with her sister and mother in Boston on Christmas Day
Leslie & John in NYC on New Year's Eve
Dinner on New Year's Eve

For the holiday's this year, we really go around. First, off to Illinois to visit John's family. On Christmas day, we went to Boston, MA to be with Leslie's family (no one does Christmas like Leslie's mom!). Then, right before New Year's Eve, we are headed to New York to celebrate the new year and then on to San Francisco for a wedding.

Atlantis is real??

For Thanksgiving, John's dad flew his family to the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. We had a great time and really enjoyed the water slides!

MBA Prom

Seriously. Can you believe it? Our good friend, Paddy Shelby spent the weekend with us during the same weekend (alas, he did not attend the prom because he was too busy at a wedding).

Real Men Don't Smile!

In October, we went to Dallas for the UT/OU Red River Shoot Out at the Cotton Bowl. Some guy took our picture in front of the stadium. When John smiled, the guy growled at him 'Hey! Real men don't smile in pictures!' John complied and we have have a great momento from that moment. We had awesome seats--too bad Texas lost by being sounding spanked by OU.

Austin or Bust

We stopped for a day of rest (and a bike ride for John) in Aspen
And in Denver to hang out with old friends...
When we finally made it to Texas, it was late in the evening.

In August left San Francisco and headed to Austin, TX! Although John was excited to be going to graduate school, he was very sad to leave his favorite city. John sold his beautfiul old Victorian house since he wasn't sure if he would be working in the city again once he completed grad school. Leslie was more excited about this new adventure. Leslie was coming right back to San Francisco, though--she promised her company that she would stay through mid-October in order to finish publication on the new guidebook.

Going Away Party

Our friends through us a going-away bash at a bar in downtown San Francisco. We had a huge crowd and it was a fun time.

Looking for Houses in all the Wrong Places

John talking to the philosophers of Zilker Park
The happy couple on the day of the car crash in front of the bed and breakfast.

We headed to Austin over the 4th of July in order to find a place to live for the start of the school year. We stayed in what we believe was a haunted house (did not realize this until we had weird experiences in the attic room). Additionally, the real estate company hooked us up with a country bumpkin who had never lived in Austin....he did not know the neighborhoods and the houses he showed us were dumps (several had plumbing fixtures strewn about the lawn). To top off our stay, John totalled our rental car. It was a rather alarming visit and both of us left Texas afraid to return.