Quiz Night Champs!

The Graduate Student Programming Board has a quiz night that they try to do monthly for the grad students at Stanford.. We've been to it before and did a decent job. Brian rounded us up to give it another go. I am personally terrible at trivia but luckily we had a few all stars who carried us in for the win. We were supposed to have won a tab from the restaurant that is in building we were at but all we got were a few t-shirts. It was still fun though.

This is a terrible picture. It is slightly blurry and there is a strange white spot on my face. (I'm not savvy enough with my limited photo editing tools to know how to fix it)

Champions!

Our Last Big Game

After Stanford's devastating loss to Oregon we were ready for a win against Cal in the 114th Big Game! It had been raining the day before and was rather chilly outside and damp everywhere. The forecast, however, indicated that it wasn't going to rain the rest of the day so we were pretty relieved.

James was back in town so our assistance wasn't needed for this tailgate. Although we are always happy to help we were still exhausted from the weekend before and more than willing to just show up. (Tailgates are a lot of work!)

Kevin, Ryan, James,and Daryl

It is so strange knowing that next fall we won't be at every tailgate and home game cheering on our Cardinal.

I was determined to make treats for at least one football game this year. I'd bought the supplies at the start of the season and needed to use it up. The Big Game seemed like the perfect game.

Football Rice Krispie Treats

As soon as we walked into the stadium it began raining. It rained and didn't stop for the rest of the game. So much for the forecast...

 One pregame highlight was the army guys parachuting in. Watching them enter the stadium in the rain did look really cool even though I couldn't really capture it in photo.

Beat Cal!

We were sort of hoping for a blowout so we could get out of the cold and go home. It wasn't though so we stayed and tried to keep warm by moving around and cheering like crazy.

James, Kevin, and Miguel

Stanford did end up winning even if it wasn't pretty. They slipped back up one spot to number 6 in the BCS rankings. One more game left against Notre Dame!

Dennis and Cara

We're moving to....

Michigan!

Last week Kevin accepted a position as Senior Chemist at Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan! It is such an exciting time and I couldn't be happier for Kevin.  After nearly 5 1/2 years out here in California we will be making the move to Michigan. There are so many things we have grown to love out here in Cali that we will miss dearly but we look forward to this new adventure and a new state to explore.

Kevin is finishing up his written thesis and training people in his lab on various things as his writing quarter comes to a close. My notice at work has been put in and it is crazy that in just a few short weeks I'll be unemployed. We hope to fly out to Michigan before Christmas to find a house or an apartment and the we expect that the moving company will pack up our stuff at the end of December or beginning of January. We feel grateful that we'll be able to spend some of the holidays with our families back in Topeka before getting settled in our new home. 

There will be more details to come after we know a little more and after I get a few more posts up. The last two weeks have been chock-full of activity and I don't expect that to change in at least the next week. I'll do my best to get updated though.

Those Darn Ducks

The last Stanford game was one of the biggest games in a long time for Stanford. Cardinal went into the game going for an 18 game winning streak with their last loss to this same team last year. A Pac-12 Championship game was on the line as well as any hope (even if small) for a National Championship. To add to it, Game Day was being held at Stanford for the first time ever. 

Dennis and Daryl asked for help for this game so we came out of retirement to assist. After driving to Oregon last year, waking up early for GameDay, and then watching us lose at Autzen Stadium...how could we not be there for this face off?

Once the cars and coolers were loaded up we walked over to the oval to get in on some of the action. I was pretty impressed by the turnout. Stanford only has about 7,000 undergrad students making up around 40% of the student population. It may not have been as impressive as some other schools but it looked full on T.V.

Not only was a tree hat put on this year instead of that hideous duck hat, but we actually got a picture with Jim Plunkett....a legendary Stanford quarterback, winner of the 1970 Heisman award, and two Super Bowl championships with the Raiders. It was a brief run in and we didn't really get to talk to him much but it was still exciting.

At 9:30am we were set up and ready for a tailgate. Dennis and Daryl were prepared and brought eggs, bacon, and orange juice so we could enjoy a lovely breakfast instead of just eating burgers all day long.

Scotty made it....yippee!

As usual we had games to add a little friendly competition to the tailgate. We had a relatively small group for quite awhile. (Understandably....the game wasn't until 5pm. Only a crazy person would be up since 6am for a night football game)

One of the best things I saw all day was the burning of an Oregon shirt. Normally I probably would shake my head at such nonsense but I was able to make an exception pretty easily for the Ducks. I became the official photographer.

There were a few kid's playing football in the field behind this who had Oregon shirts on so I felt a little bad for a second. Then they started laughing so I got over it and enjoyed myself.

The way it burned was really cool leaving just the 'OREGON' and the 'O'. The smoke coming off of it made for a pretty awesome picture.

We didn't seek out any Oregon fans to play 'Lance Armstrong' against. We kept it friendly and just had an inner tailgate competition. Our team did win though...it was awesome because we hand picked the team and had a few people who had never played before!

Colin, Dennis, Andi, Cara, Kevin, Moria, Brian

Finally it was time to head in for the game! Spirits were high and the energy in the stadium was amazing!

It was great seeing full stands!

This is one of the last pictures taken while we were still happy and excited.

The game took a turn for the worst and it was not a great showing by Andrew Luck and our Cardinal. He threw 2 interceptions (one off the chest of a receiver) and had a fumble. It was a sad day and we lost :( Pac-12 championship...over. Number 4 ranking....over. A sure bet for a Heisman winner...over. Maybe it was just too much.

We still have a couple football games left against Cal "Beat Cal"! and Notre Dame. After taking a few days to be depressed we're ready to cheer on our Stanford Cardinal this Saturday!

More Kansas!

While the wedding and meeting Adell were the main reasons for this trip we managed to fit in quite a bit more stuff. After cleaning up the reception hall on Sunday we headed out to Auburn for several birthday celebrations. It has been a few trips since both of us have been able to make it out to see the Copp family.

I enjoyed meeting another adorable baby. This is Kieryn, my cousin Steven and Melissa's four month old  baby girl. It felt strange (in a good way) holding an older baby after two week old Adell. 

Great Grandmom, Kieryn, and Hailie

Kevin and I watched Hailie and Seth while my parents were at a concert. Seth has been wanting to unlock Toadette on the Wii MarioKart for ages and we finally did...along with several other characters. Once Toadette was unlocked we all looked at him and you could tell he was trying to hide his excitement and smile. Eventually he couldn't hold it in any more. It was pretty cute!

Hailie isn't much into racing on the Wii so she and I started being commentators for the race. Whenever it was Hailie's turn she ended up just singing for all of us.

The kid's had school so we didn't have a ton of time together. Mom and I did manage to get a few things done. We went through a few boxes of Grandma Koch's dishes so we could decide what was worth keeping /had memories attached. Besides getting rid of several boxes of stuff we also donated at least one box of other old coffee mugs Mom had in the basement from over the years. 

Much too quickly it was time for me to head back to the airport. Mom and I picked up Hailie and Seth a few minutes early from school so I could get there in time. 

Goodbyes are never easy but hopefully we'll be back soon and get to stay a little longer.

Carli's Wedding

The reason for this particular trip to Kansas was a wedding! The Watkins family are extremely close to the Kent family making Carli practically a cousin. Kevin had made arrangements to come back a while back but I only recently procured the time off to attend. (Serena was going to induced early the next week so we were hoping to meet Adell but since she was early that wasn't a problem! :)

The Kent's spent most of the day Friday helping out with set up for the wedding. I didn't make it to Holton until late Friday night but when I got there they were still at it blowing up balloons. 

After a little more work Saturday morning the boys had to go and get ready. All of the Kent brother's were usher's for the wedding and they had quite the job (Fitting double the occupancy into the church with people not always cooperating). They did a great job though and looked great doing it.

Serena, Patti, Adell, and Kevin. Patti bought Adell the cutest dress and she looked absolutely adorable in it. 

I told you there would be a few more pictures of Adell in here. I just loved meeting her for the first time. I'm looking forward to seeing her again hopefully soon. Hopefully she'll be awake more since she'll be older...I didn't get to see her eyes open much.

I really liked this picture of the married kid's with Adell. Serena was very generous to let me hog her for so long but I eventually gave her back :)

This is another favorite picture of mine. You can just tell how much fun everyone was having and how wonderful it was for Patti and Kevin to have their entire clan together. With us in the Bay area and Joseph in Austin that happens less and less often now so we have to cherish every moment.

One more picture of the baby. Adell is not short of uncle love. When she gets older she is going to have a lot to deal with! :)

There was no shortage of people willing to dance at this reception. From little kid's to older folks...there were always people dancing away.

We were definitely exhausted by the end of the night but it was worth it. I wish I'd gotten better pictures of Carli and Trevor but they looked incredible. I watched them take a moment to stand together on the balcony watching everyone celebrating their big day and I was so happy to see it. Things can get so hectic on your wedding day and them stealing a second away from all of it was awesome.

Quick job hunt update. Kevin currently has a couple of job offers that we are discussing and pondering. Hopefully we'll have some official news by the end of the week. Things are about to get crazy though!

Baby Adell

I feel like I haven't posted in ages...probably because I haven't. October was an insane month between working and football games. November hasn't slowed down much so far but I do have lots of pictures and material to blog about not. (A trip to Kansas always yields plenty of blog worthy material). It's late and I'm tired but I wanted to at least get one post in because I'm not sure if I'll have time before the weekend and we are going to be very busy. Therefore, this post is going to focus on our niece Adell whom we met for this first time last week. Probably few words and lots of pictures because lets face it...everyone loves looking at babies.

In Grandma Patti's arms at Carli's Wedding!

I had a few brief moments with Adell the morning of the wedding at the hotel but then I had to go help with wedding set up. We finally got our quality time in together at the reception and it was wonderful to finally meet her. (I definitely hogged her for a solid 30 minutes...maybe more)

  I wanted to get a picture of Kevin and me with Seth, Hailie, and Adell but it never happened. I was happy to get this picture with my girls.

Me with my beautiful nieces!

Patti encouraged us to have Adell lay on our chests on the couch. Definitely a wonderful moment.

Adell loves Uncle Kevin!

Laying like this with a baby is as good as they say.

I love this picture with Adell's hand under her chin. She loves having her hands on her face while she's sleeping and it is incredibly cute.

Grandma sure loves baby!

Grandpa is pretty fond of Adell too!

I loved the time we had with Adell even though we'd have loved to have more. It will be fun to see her in the next month or two and see how much she changes.

I'll try to get a post for the wedding we went to up soon but I can't make any promises. I also can't guarantee that there won't be more pictures of Adell in that post.