Summer Officially Over

Well summer has officially come to an end in the Wood household. Ross started school today which also meant starting his externship at the Orange County District Attorney's Office. Even though today was his first day there, he didn't get to do too much except watch a 3 hour video they make all new hires start. So the last hour of his day wasn't filled with much work. So we will have to wait until his first week is over to get a better idea of what goes on there. He will be working there every Mon and Wed for 4 hours and then Friday for 8 hours. All that on top of taking 5 classes and doing Law Review (more details in a bit). So this semester is going to be more hectic than last semester.

So...back to Law Review. Law Review is like a "magazine" the school publishes. The only way you can get on Law Review is by invitation only which is based on grades and class ranking from the previous year (which is why Ross was invited). So, with this magazine, lawyers, judges, and legal scholars write articles and submit them to the school. Then the students on Law Review review the articles, edit them, and site check them. Once that is done, the articles are published in this "magazine". In addition to the articles from lawyers, judges, and legal scholars, every edition of the magazine includes an article written by one of the Law Review students. This magazine is a national magazine and once the student's article is published, all lawyers, judges, and legal scholars have access to it. The big thing about Law Review articles is that they can be used as legal sources for trials thus adding an additional level of publishing or notoriety to the writer. So the hope is that the article that Ross has to write is published before he graduates.

Another sign that summer is over is that our vacation to Las Vegas has come and gone. It seemed like Vegas weekend was never going to come and before we knew it, we were back home and Vegas week was over. Even though it was only about 3 and half days long, it was a very nice vacation. To help celebrate Dad's 60th birthday, Ross and I surprised him with his favorite cake (German chocolate), homemade of course. We enjoyed 3 nights in one of the suites and free tickets to the hotel's Cirque de Soleil type show called La Reve. Talk about amazing!! It involved live music, dance, acrobats, and synchronized swimming.

After our trip to Vegas, Ross' mom came out to visit us for a few days before Ross had to go back to school. She got into town last Wednesday and headed home this past Saturday. Unfortunately I had to work but we were still able to go out and do things in the evening. We enjoyed some delicious sushi and a walk through the canals in Naples, fireworks at Disneyland, and some yummy Mexican food and a beautiful sunset on the beach. Good way to end the summer.

Below are some pictures from our trip to Vegas and Margo's visit to California. You can view new pictures from the World of Color at Disneyland via the slide show. Hope you enjoy!

Ross and Mom showing their excitement to be in Las Vegas!

Behind us is the view from our hotel room

Behind us is the view from Mom & Dad's room (much better than ours)

The La Reve theatre

As seen on "Pawn Stars" on the History Channel

Ross doing his yoga on the beach

Downward dog pose

Anniversaries!

Last week was a week of anniversaries for us. A year ago August 1st was the last day we lived in our house back in Colorado. It was also the day we finished packing up everything and started our move to California. A year ago August 3rd was the day we arrived in Costa Mesa and moved into our new home. And 4 years ago August 5th was the day I became a Wood. To celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary, we had an amazing steak dinner at Morton's Steakhouse. Talk about the best steak I have ever eaten!! It was so delicious and the service was fantastic. After dinner we enjoyed a nice walk along the beach and watched the waves crash on the sand in the moon light. After the beach we headed back home to change into some stretchy comfy clothes and enjoyed a movie.

I guess you could say that we celebrated our 1 year anniversary of living in Costa Mesa by signing a new lease on our favorite apartment (not really). Or we decided to stay put mainly because of the hassle of having to locate a new place and move everything all over again. So we are stuck in our place until next December.

Another anniversary that took place last week was my 90 days at my new job. With the completion of my first 90 days, I now get benefits, paid vacation and paid holidays. I also had a 90 day review which went very well and I got a raise and a job title change. So now I just have to make it 9 more months and then I will have my one year review which has the possibility of a second raise.

With all these anniversaries going on, it only seemed right to celebrate everything with a trip to Las Vegas! So that is exactly what we are doing this weekend. Actually the trip was planned back in April to celebrate our wedding anniversary and my dad's birthday. But we can celebrate everything else at the same time. Ross and I are leaving this Friday morning and will pick up my parents from the airport in Las Vegas that evening. We are staying 3 nights in a suite at the Encore Hotel and Resort and are going to the Le Reve show on Saturday night! Should be a pretty fun time. Ross and I have been looking forward to this vacation for months and are so excited that it is finally here! The only disappointing part of the trip is that Shaun and Amanda won't be joining us...they decided a music festival would be more fun than Vegas (or it was just bad timing and they had already bought their tickets). I guess that means we just have to plan another trip, which is something I'm OK with.


Picture of the hotel we are staying in