2 years and counting...

On December 16th we celebrated or 2 year anniversary! We've beat over half of Hollywood couples so I would say that we are fairing pretty well! Just kidding, this has been the best two years of my life!

To celebrate we took a day trip down to Monterrey to visit the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, which was amazing. Not only were there incredible fish, but the building itself had quite an interesting history. The entire aquarium is built inside of what used to be a 1930's fish cannery where they killed and packaged millions of sardines and tuna. And, now it is a sanctuary to the little guys set up so that the public can come in, watch them, and learn. I just love how it kind of came full circle!

Below is George with his favorite fish - he tends to like the big ones!

I, on the other hand, was a sucker for the jellyfish! They are so beautiful and mysterious, I could watch them for hours!

After a morning with the fishes, we drove down to Carmel to this little restaurant on the cliff to enjoy some lunch.....which, I'm sad to admit included some fish. It also included the sound of waves crashing up against the rocks below us and the most beautiful view.

It was a magnificent day, topped only by what we were doing two years ago. And, just because I can't help myself, here is a look back....

Happy Anniversary to Us!!!

Much Love, The Peytons

Thanksgiving in Missouri

George and I just got back from a wonderful Thanksgiving week in Missouri. We spent the majority of the time in Columbia, the town where I grew up, with my parents and little brother, Brian. And, as tradition dictates, we spent turkey day and the day before in Kansas City (Parkville) at my Aunt & Uncle's house. Yet this year we were presented with a festive surprise - it snowed!!! The picture above is George and I goofing around in the snow at KC.

Luckily the snow stopped long enough the next day for us to safely run in Parkville's 20th Annual Turkey Trot. The run is an easy 5K hosted in Parkville's quaint downtown, with all the proceeds going to the area's parks. Mom and I started participating in the Turkey Trot along with my aunt Laura and cousin Christopher in 2001 - so, this year marked her 6th year, my 5th (I missed last year, because George and I celebrated the holidays in Texas with his family). Below is the beginning of the race - George and I are somewhere in the middle, so as not to get trambled by the serious runners!

Here's my Mom and Dad being cute!

No Husbands Allowed!

This past weekend two of my dear friends from Fort Worth came to visit for a long weekend! Shown above (left to right) at Pier 39 in San Francisco, Emily, Kara, and me. Our other friend, Jeanette, was also supposed to make the trip, but her sweet little boy got sick and she couldn't leave him. We missed you Jeanette!!!

The highlight of the trip was the day we spent exploring San Francisco. Just picture...3 girls, huge city, wrong directions, and pouring down rain! It definitely made for an exciting trip, even if at a few moments it was a little too much! I have to admit, our saving grace was the fact that my car still has Texas licence plates, so I could at least play the out-of-state card! That, and George's blackberry which we borrowed for the day. Kara, shown below, was my patient and encouraging navigator!

But with wrong directions, we couldn't help but get hopelessly lost! I was the not-so-patient, stressed out driver! :)

Still, we survived and had clam chowder, chocolate strawberry crepes, and bargain sweaters to prove it! But by the end of the day we looked a little like the lazy sea lions we saw at Pier 39.....notice a resemblance?!

Happy (belated) Birthday George!

I know that I'm several weeks late with this post, but I just had to share this cute picture of my husband on his birthday! He didn't ask for much, just his favorite cake for lunch and mexican food for dinner! I did surprise him with decorations and a few little extras though. Happy Birthday George!

Halloween Stanford Style

This past Saturday was Stanford's Halloween party and it was a blast! I was a part of a fantasy football league (child size jersey + 2 toilet paper rolls + black eye stickers = NFL) and George was our referee, although all he did was flag me for excessive celebration.

Above are the other members of our Fantasy Football League - left to right, back row - Pam, me, Heather, and Ellie - front row - Caitlin and Ginny.

Go Frogs!

This past weekend the TCU Horned Frogs played (and whooped) Stanford in football and because of the event, we were lucky enough to have some dear friends come and stay with us. In the picture above is Brad (George's former roommate), Tom and his wife Jennifer with Tyler (Tim's brother and sister-in-law), Tim and Emily, and then George and I. Tim's parents, "Big" Tom and Mary, also came and treated us to a fabulous dinner, but aren't in the picture.

We had such a sweet time reconnecting and sharing 3 months worth of experiences and laughs with good friends. It was such a treat and we can't thank them enough for making the effort to visit! Ok, enough mushy stuff, because the weekend was definitly more about laughs! Below is Brad wearing as much Stanford garb as he could find in George's closet. He went to class with George on Friday pretending to be a student and it was early enough in the year that people actually bought it!

Here's Emily and I on Stanford's campus - she was just as captivated by the beauty of this tree lined path as much as I was.

Below is Brad, Tim, and George standing in front of George's locker in the business school. I know, leave it to George to be a grown man with a locker! Aside from that, we felt quite out of place walking around Stanford's business buildings on game day in all purple. It was Stanford's homecoming so there were tons of alumni walking around and on several occasions I felt so out of place that I wanted to scream that George was in fact a student and we weren't just snooping around! Don't worry, I didn't.

Love you all! - Johanna & George

Welcome to Fall

Fall is absolutely my favorite time of year! The leaf change isn't quite as significant here as compared to Missouri or the east coast, but I'll take what I can get. Every now and then I get lucky and catch a random tree covering in vibrant red....and it just takes my breath away! The picture above is on Stanford's campus as you are walking up to the business school.

Speaking of Stanford - they have stolen my husband and won't give him back! Above is how he spends the majority of his evenings, with me in the background watching TV with headphones and trying not to interject comments. He swears that he's working hard, but then I see pictures like the one below from his leadership team and I have to question what he's working hard on. :) (George is the second from the right.)

As for me, after much soul searching, prayer, and encouragement from George and my family, I have decided to go back to school for a degree in Nutritional Science on the path of becoming a Registered Dietitian. I'm doing a distance program (because who knows where we will end up living) from the University of Northern Colorado. The program will be part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer. I'll potentially graduate in 2010. At which, my end goal is to work in or with school districts in the area of nutrition education and community nutrition policy reform. Proper nutrition in schools and childhood obesity is such a "hot button" right now, but once I started doing researching I was horrified at how great the need actually is......and it is one of those things that I can't turn my back on.

Right now I'm also volunteering with several non-profits to get as involved as I can at this point. On a grass roots level, I just started with Collective Roots, http://www.collectiveroots.org/, helping them in their Garden Club and on some marketing/donor relations activities. Then in a broader scope I have been given the opportunity to learn from and work with the American Cancer Society as they lobby for nutrition policy reform in Bay Area schools. I also hope to at some point become involved with Revolution Foods, http://www.revfoods.com/, which through their partnership with Whole Foods has made huge strides in providing healthy, quality, fresh lunches to several northern Bay Area schools.

Oh - I have such a passion for this and could go on and on......but I'll be respectful of your time and end it here....or at least for now. But expect updates! :)

Love you all!!! - Johanna

Catch Up

Ok, a few things have happened since our last post and I'm going to attempt to catch everyone up in one quick swoop!

First, yesterday was George's first official day as a Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) student. And, being the adoring wife I am, I was sure to capture a picture of him the moment he walked out the door. The acceptance rate this year was 7% - one of the lowest it's been - so, I'm super proud! I'm sure he'll post later with more details about his classes and such.

Then, this past Sunday was my 25th birthday and George, being the adoring husband he is, custom ordered one of my favorite cakes - Tiramisu!! The day was made extra special by everyone who called, sent sweet emails, and mailed beautiful cards - Thank you!

The following week (Sept. 10th - Sept. 12th) George went on an Outward Bound trip with several other first year Stanford GSB students. They camped, hiked, and got to know each other at Point Reyes which is a national seashore perserve. George said it was beautiful and promises to take me back.

And last, but certainly not least, on September 2nd in Salinas, CA Kelli - one of my best friends and college roommates - got married to the man of her dreams. The wedding was held outdoors at her grandparents ranch and was so unique and heartfelt!

We love you all! - Johanna & George

Windy Hill

Here's the view from the hike up Windy Hill....which honesty felt more like a small mountain than a hill. The ~5 mile hike up more than 1,000 feet in the sun at noonish left us pretty exhausted, but the view at the top was well worth it! You can't tell from the picture, but you could see the red roof-tops of Stanford's campus and the bay. It was beautiful!

We love you guys!!! -George and Johanna

Not Everything's Bigger in Texas

Yesterday George and I hiked parts of Big Basin Redwood State Park in the Santa Cruiz mountains and had our first taste of the some of the area's old growth redwood trees. The old growth trees are redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens, to be exact) that survived the mass logging in the early 1900's. These trees are more than 1500 years old and have an indescribable majestic peace to them. We also saw several examples of the 2nd growth trees, which are younger (only 100 years!) and represent the forest regrowing after being harvested.

Here I am at the base of a redwood tree whose truck was hollowed out by a fire. To recover, the trees base will gradually fill in with living bark. We're told the trees are even larger further north, but this is hard to believe.

Other pictures from the hike.

Assessors and job searching....

Even though my classes won't start until mid-September, I have quite a bit of pre-class studying to do. It seems like every time I visit the GSB website there's something else I need to do, some other book to read, some other assessor to take, some other survey to do. So I've been trying to get those things done recently. We have three assessors (read tests without grades) we have to complete by Aug. 15 - one in accounting, one over Microsoft Excel, and one over math. I've finished the ones in accounting and Excel, and now I'm working on the math assessor.

I would say my math skills are mediocre. I mean, I can add and subtract and even do a little algebra or geometry, but when it comes to calculus things start looking a little fuzzy. You're probably thinking, "Well nobody knows calculus that well." And you're more than likely right. But I've taken a lot of math classes over the years (I was about 6 hrs from a math minor in college), so you would think I would know calculus by now. Nope.

-

Anyway, the point is that I'm re-learning calculus right now. It's kinda difficult....and I'm even using the Calculus for Dummies book.

While I've been studying, Johanna has been job searching. In fact she went to visit the GSB career management center this morning and met with an advisor. Stanford is very cool in the fact that significant others (the PC term for wives/husbands and such) have access to most of the services that the students do. I'll let her write a post on the pros and cons of job searching in the Bay Area while trying to maintain the flexibility that I'll have as a student.

-George

Home Sweet California Home

So, we've officially been Californians for 2 weeks now....well, sorta, we still have Texas license plates and speak with a little twang, but other than that, we blend right in! Above we are sitting in front of our apartment. It is hard to tell from the picture, but there are 4 units and ours is the upper left. It is on a quiet residential street surrounded by trees, has just enough space, and a great back deck.

Below is a picture of Alcatraz, which sits in the San Francisco bay. We took a ferry over to the island and then went on an audio tour about the history of this former prison. It was so eerie and fascinating.

Here I am walking through the prison corridors. George must have snapped this one when I wasn't paying attention.

We have been trying to explore all the green space we can out here before George has to start school. There is just so much and it is all so beautiful! Below are some pictures from a recent hike around the Purisima Creek Nature Reserve.

And of course, my trusty guide!

We have also had the opportunity to explore wine country a bit with some friends we met at admit weekend who live in the area. Here is Tom and Pam and us at a winery in Sonoma. They scheduled a day full of great wine and great food and we had a blast!

All roads lead to...

ROME!!! As most of you know, we're back in the states now, but by request we've posted a few more things about the rest of our Europe trip.

The hustle and bustle of Rome was sort of an abrupt awakening from Venice's lazy canals, still the city's fascinating and abundant history made up for it. It was amazing to us that even with as many ruins as there currently are, still to this day Rome's growth is often stunted by the uncovering of more unknown remains of previous cultures. It is just mind-blowing.

Obviously, above is the great Roman Colosseum which is huge in person! Below is us at the Palatine Hill which according to legends is where Rome began.

Below are pictures of us at the Roman Forum, which used to be the political and commercial area of the Roman Empire. Now it lays in ruins which really got to George, especially when he saw people tying their shoes on pieces of thousand year old columns.

Here is Saint Peter's Basilica which was built on top of Saint Peter's remains. The interior of the church is literally covered from top to bottom with marble, gold, and brilliant paintings. It is incredible.

One of the things that added a more intimate feel to our visit to Rome was getting to spend time with George's uncle, Randy. He was generous enough to show us around, teach us Italian customs, and to invite us into his home for dinner. Ching, Ching to ya, Randy!