It’s been a busy month and it’s not even half way through. A few weeks ago we heard the red tide had come to San Diego. For those of you who don’t know, the red tide is a natural phenomenon that occurs every 6 or 7 years in San Diego. Algae turns the water red during the day, but at night it glows blue. Last weekend we decided to go on a treasure hunt/wild goose chase. We were unsuccessful. We did bottle some of the water up and try it at home. If you put it a bottle, and shake the bottle in a dark room, you can see the same thing at home. Worked like a charm. We tried to get some pictures but it didn’t work out.

This weekend we went with our nieces to Bates Nut Farm to get the biggest pumpkin Rachel could carry. Once again, we left with a nice small pumpkin.

For those looking closely, that is a look of true terror on Rachel’s face as Colin passes her the pumpkin

We want to congratulate Colin Anderson for becoming a Chief Petty Officer! For those of you that are on the Ellis side, Colin is my sister’s husband. Many of you already know but Colin has been undergoing many, many weeks of grueling training to become a Chief. It is a huge honor to be selected to become Chief and Colin did it is SEVEN years! For those of you who are not familiar with how prestigious this honor is (I am one of those people) I have been told that making Chief is akin to becoming a partner at a law firm. It is a BIG deal! Out of something like 5000 applicants Colin was one on the 27 that were chosen. Congratulations again Colin! We are extremely proud to call you our brother!

Colin recieves his anchors! from Austin Ellis on Vimeo.

Many of you already know but there is a major black out in San Diego. We have been told it may last until tomorrow afternoon.  Boo … until then we are eating cold food and playing card games by candle light.  We are both in good spirits since this may mean we don’t have to go into work tomorrow.  Traffic is a serious issue. It took close to two hours to get home. That is all for now. Hope everyone is doing well!

Enjoying a candlelight dinner

UPDATE (Austin): Power was restored around 10:45. Much quicker than we had hoped, we were both looking forward to not going in to work today. For more details, you can read this article on KPBS. We had a nice night visiting with our neighbors, actually seeing the stars, and watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

We started our weekend with a little get away to France… by France I mean The Bleu Boheme which is this charming French restaurant down the street. Think rustic wood beams, stone walls and candle light. It was Austin’s idea to take me out so I could wear the new dress he bought for me. I have been DYING to wear it! For about a week and a half, I was putting it on everyday after I came home from work just so I could twirl around in it a few times. Yes, I am aware this makes me a bit pathetic… but I digress. The food was delicious except for the shrimp I found staring back at me. Someone please explain to me why the more you pay for food the more difficult it is to eat. Here I am in my new dress prying various types of sea food from their shells. I think the waiter thought I was ridiculous when I started tearing apart my shrimp, which to my dismay still had feelers and eyeballs. It is difficult to act like a lady when you are reduced to tearing, prying, and dismembering your food before you can eat it! Other than that the atmosphere was romantic, the food was delicious, Austin was charming and the dress was beautiful so all in all it was a great night.

Today we continued the fun with an early morning hike/exploration of the Cabrillo National Park. We scampered around the tide pools for a bit then headed up to the light house. Many of the wildflowers are in bloom so the air was full of a sweet floral scent. After our excursion, we had a relaxing lunch on the bay at the restaurant we went to on our first date, The Fish Market. It has been a wonderful weekend together and it isn’t even over! Happy Labor Day Weekend everyone!

Labor Day Weekend from Austin Ellis on Vimeo.

A couple weekends ago, Austin and I played host to our two nieces, Emily (age 4) and Katie (age 1); my younger sister, Martha; and my eldest sister’s dog, Bella. To say the least it was a FULL HOUSE!  Quite a change from the quiet weekends with just Austin and I. My eldest sister, Liz, took a mini vacation with her husband, Colin, for the  weekend so Martha, Austin and I were put in charge of watching the little one’s and their dog.  Adults outnumbered children so we thought it wouldn’t be too tiring… well we were wrong.  By the time the weekend was over we were all ready for another!

Here are some of the highlights from the weekend with the girls. Listening to Emily pray for our meals. She made sure to pray for everyone including Bella and all the animals at the zoo. Watching Katie jump up and down on Martha’s back as she was taking a nap. I have to admit that Austin and I let this go on for a while because it was hilarious! Everyone piling into our bed to watch Planet Earth and to eat popcorn. Snuggling with the girls, which happened randomly through out our days. Seeing Austin’s face when he had to take out the trash with a poopy diaper. And there were so many more!

Katie waking up Martha from Austin Ellis on Vimeo.

We had a great time!  We also decided that we are glad we don’t have to do it full time yet…  Thank you Liz and Colin for letting us have your little rays of sunshine for the weekend!