Yost, my dorm, doesn't serve food during the weekend. So I'm here at CoHo, waiting for my pasta and wishing it was next year. Then Andrew and I would be cooking the pasta together.

Normally I love the rain. And thunderstorms. But not when I have to bike through it. My attire today: long-sleeved shirt, fleece jacket, rain coat, ski socks, jeans, snow pants, and rain boots. I was particularly proud of the ski pants -- there's nothing worse than wet jeans. At least it's not freezing cold, right?

Usually my Saturdays here at Stanford consist of sleeping in a bit, having brunch, and hitting the library. Because of the holiday on Monday, I decided that the library could wait. I called my awesome cousin, Mary, who lives in the area, to see if she and her son, Sam, wanted to hang out. I took the Caltrain and met them in San Francisco. From there, they took me to see the beautiful Sutro Baths (check out the link to see what it's all about).

We walked along the ruins, enjoying the gorgeous green cliffs and swirling grey water.
Sam and I had fun climbing around some of the ruins, and we all enjoyed pointing out interesting birds.
After wandering and climbing around a bit, we headed up to the resort restaurant, the Cliff House. The food was delicious -- instead of a bread basket, they served hot pop-overs that we ate with butter and marmalade. We all drank Shirley Temples (Sam's great idea) and I had a scrumptious crab sandwich.
It was rejuvenating to take a day trip off campus, and I was so happy to hang out with Mary and Sam! I'm excited for a lot more Saturday adventures once Andrew moves out here.

Over the break, Andrew and I took engagement pictures with the amazing Rebecca and Chad Hansen. We absolutely loved how the pictures turned out. Here are some of our favorites:

Although I'm sure this isn't news to anyone who's reading this, I decided it was time to finally write about it. Andrew proposed over Thanksgiving break. It was wonderful, and so happy. He'd been acting suspicious all day -- we were in the library studying and my sister called him. He stepped out of the room to take the call, and when he came back in he was evasive about why my sister was calling. He came up with the answer, "Because they're planning a surprise dinner for you. We need to be back to your house by exactly 6:15". I thought it was odd he would tell me they were throwing a surprise dinner, but I didn't say anything. When we got back to my house shortly before 6:15, my mom and Kellie were in the kitchen in their pajamas. When I asked what they were planning on for dinner, they said, "We'll probably just order a pizza or something." Haha. Afterward, Andrew asked if I wanted to go on a walk with him, saying he was feeling antsy and wanted to get some fresh air. Of course I said yes. We went on our usual route, talking about old times. When we got back to my street, Andrew said we should go just one block further because he wasn't quite ready to go back. I was tempted to mess with him and tell him I was too cold or something, but I decided against it :) We got to the street near Lundstrom park between the Huppi's and the Lester's house. As I looked through the Lester's backyard to our deck, I saw in huge Christmas light Letters "HWYMM". I'd been looking forward to that moment for so long, and it was perfect. Andrew got down on one knee (after being reminded to do so) and asked me to marry him. I said, "OF COURSE!!". We stayed outside for awhile, looking at the lights and talking about the future. Then we walked inside, and SURPRISE!! Joanna, Ray, Tia, and all of Andrew's family were there. There were pictures of Andrew and me throughout the years set out on the table with candles. We had sparkling cider and pizza and celebrated the sheer joy of it all. I get to marry Andrew!!!