February hasn’t been an especially eventful month, but we’ve been able to fit a bit fun into job searching. We’re trying to enjoy the perks of lots of time off while we still can. We’ve been down this road before and it can be hard to savor your free time when you’re stressing about submitted applications and half written cover letters, but I think we’re doing a good job of balancing the two.

Dave planned a great Valentine’s Day chock full of activities.  We had my favorite cuisine, Mexican, for lunch, followed by a matinee of the film, Philomena. From there we drove up to Griffith Observatory to stretch our legs a bit and take in the sunset. We even found the Berlin Forest up there at the Observatory, we were only 5,795 miles from our favorite city❤ Red Lion was up next for dinner- a German style restaurant complete with rear “biergarten”. We finished the night with dessert, champagne and a movie at home. Such a thoughtfully planned day designed just for me by my Valentine:)

In addition to the day of love February also provided some of the most perfect weather days we’ve ever experienced. Warm and dry days with cool and crisp nights. It’s the perfect weather for tennis playing, reading outside and walks through the nearby hills. We’ve fit in a couple beach days too, even making it up to Santa Barbara for a day to visit with Bo who was out in California for a conference. Earlier this month we took advantage of LACMA’s free day (first Tuesday of each month) and my parent’s generously added us to their Huntington Garden membership letting us visit for free whenever we feel the urge. We also found a way to earn a little bit of money when we spent a day pouring wine at the Santa Anita Wine Festival.

We’ve also been lucky enough to spend time with our great friends in the area. We went out in South Pasadena for Robyn’s birthday one weekend and to Old Town for Peter’s birthday a couple weeks later. Our friend Sachi drove up from Orange County to watch the Super Bowl with us and celebrate a Seahawks victory. I’ve also been able to continue my weekly Bachelor nights with the girls and Dave has joined a soccer team that plays on Wednesday nights.

This past weekend we got to celebrate Maddie’s 23rd birthday with the family, a first in many years. She choose her food favorites and activities for the day and we helped make her requests a reality. She picked a food and game filled day that was a lot of fun for the whole family. We’re still eating the delicious leftovers!

It’s hard to believe, but February is winding down and we’ll soon be well into March. We have some fun things planned coming up that we’re pretty excited about. I’m leaving tomorrow for a girl’s getaway in Mexico and next weekend Dave is meeting Alan, Melissa and Jack up in Tahoe for some skiing. We’ll rendezvous in Sierra Madre to celebrate Melissa and Dave’s birthdays and then head right back out for a long weekend in Arizona with my family to catch some spring training games. It’s going to be an action-packed couple of weeks with some much needed travel bugs being zapped! We can’t wait!!