The Laughlins

This is just a quick entry to let you know that I took Mark to the prom he never had. My school had a prom for our juniors and seniors on a yacht in Marina Del Rey. It was a big two-story boat called "Dream On." Overall, we didn't really do too much: drank about two Roy Rogers, two Shirley Temples, a cranberry juice, and a coffee each, hung out with my three students that came to prom, and danced (sort of) to one song. Here are some pictures. I did not take my camera to the actual prom, but these were all taken right before the students boarded the charter bus.

Finally (and most fun of all), last Saturday, we went on a hike to the waterfall in Tujunga Canyon, which is about 30 minutes from our apartment. Despite common belief, there are some pretty beautiful places in Southern California. As you can see in the pictures and videos below, we had a lot of fun, and it was very picturesque. Some fun quirks about this trip included: not getting a "Forest Adventure Pass" before we drove out there (so we had to drive back out to the 7-11 and get one), Mark trying the double-diamond crossing section of the stream and falling in right as I happened to be taking a picture of him (he really just lost his balance), Nate thinking that the dried-up "waterfall" we passed partway up was the actual waterfall we were heading to...good thing we kept going just for fun, all of Nate's personal effects falling out of his pocket into the stream as we were trying to dry off (Mark got hero of the day for chasing and rescuing a couple of paper objects that happened to be his Metro Pass!), etc. It was great fun all-in-all :)
A Video Clip of the Tujunga Canyon Falls (.mov)
Mark Getting Wet at Tujunga Canyon Falls (.mov)

The next few weeks, I will still be able to update the website, but we will have to see how the whole Internet thing works once we reach Israel (June 16th).

We have gone on some great hikes lately! Last week, Geoff, Leah, Mark and I hiked to the waterfall at the Placerita Nature Center, which is only about ten minutes from our apartment. I saw two owls that I took pictures of, but it was getting dark, and you can't see him too well. There are only a few pictures of this hike:
Evening Frogs at Placerita Nature Center (.mov)




















We also went to Leah's graduation on Friday night. She finished her M.A. in Biblical Counseling at The Master's College:

Mark and I have been emailing with Crystal (my second cousin once removed...or something close to that) on my mom's side and Seth Adcock, a guy that used to go to our church down here who is finishing up his M.A. at Hebrew U. We have been asking their advice on two apartments we are looking at in Israel. We are thinking that we will be going for the smaller, cheaper one, but I will let you know. We got Mark's financial aid letter this weekend, and he got a nice grant. However, we will still be looking to take out an educational loan for the time being. The hope is still that I will be able to work, but we want to be covered either way. Pending an apartment commitment and a loan, we are pretty set to go.

We hit REI's anniversary sale on Sunday and got some luggage straps, bandanas, and sunglasses for Mark. He bought me a Prana t-shirt as part of the "date" because he wanted to get me something. I love Prana. If I had an unlimited budget for clothing, I would buy Prana all the time. That brand epitomizes me...see the link on our link bar. Also, Mark and I had purchased Outdoor brand water bladders for hiking/being outdoors. We tried them in Yosemite for the first time, and they leaked and tasted (awfully) of plastic. We ended up buying two Camelbak 3.0 liter Mule backpacks/bladders for a grand total of less than $70 with shipping, so we are anxiously awaiting those :) In addition to all of this outdoorsy stuff, we went on two hikes in the last week: one to the waterfall at the Placerita Nature Center with Geoff and Leah and one to the AWESOME 30' waterfall in Tujunga Canyon with the Murrays, Leah, and Min. I will be posting pictures very soon, so look out for them!

This past weekend, Mark and I went to Yosemite with: Mom, Dad, Kyle, Charlie, Jake, Sheri, Zach, Vic, Ben, April, Amy, Jonathan, and Boulder (the dog). We had tons of fun!! It was run, run, run from the time we got there. Mark and I arrived on Thursday around 11:45am, but no one was at camp, so we drove to Bridalveil Falls and went to the lookout point (which is really a very wet, thick rain zone). We then hiked along a trail towards El Capitan. We drove back to camp where we found signs of life, and Dad, Charlie, Mark and I went on a bike ride in a loop that ended up in Curry Village. We had reservations at the Awahnee Hotel restaurant, where we found out (unbenownst to us) that they had a dress code. Oops. We're camping here, folks!! Anyways, we had a lovely (but late) dinner and went to bed. On Friday, we went rock climbing at Camp Four for most of the afternoon; we rode our bikes there. Jonathan was good enough to belay us all day...thanks, John...you're a trooper. We had pizza at Curry Village for lunch, took short naps, and then headed for Vernal Falls. The boys hiked/ran to the top, and Sheri and I went to the base and took pictures. It was great fun :) Back at camp, we made foil dinners (yum, yum) and sat around the campfire talking about The Best of Will Farrell and other such things. We mostly laughed at Jake, Ben, and April's impersonations. On Saturday, we packed up camp, went to breakfast at Curry Village, and then Amy, Jonathan, and Vic took off. The rest of us spent the afternoon walking around the Yosemite Valley. We walked to the bottom of Lower Yosemite Falls and wandered around the meadows. There was SO MUCH water everywhere! Everything was gushing with life, and the weather was beautiful!! There are LOTS of pictures below as well as two funny :) videos to watch. Enjoy!

April's Version of Veggie Tales Over a Grill (.mov)
Mark and Jake Show Steve Zissou How to Really Warm-up Before a Run(.mov)

I am finally getting the website instruction I need to make my site awesome!!! As a result, YOU WILL SOON BE SEEING SOME MAJOR CHANGES TO THE SITE. DO NOT BE AFRAID! Just click on the link that says "Blog."

Well, at least an Israeli visa is everywhere we are going. We got our visas this week. It was a bit of an adventure (at the consulate), what with the consulate being on the top floor (requiring security entrance), a maze of blank hallways and extra thick doors, metal detectors, intercoms at doors, and many games of 20+ questions. We managed to get what we needed though (after their "Now Serving Number ___" got stuck on 06 forever). The other good news is that I got accepted to the summer ulpan program as well, so Mark and I will both be doing language school together. The bad news is that our second apartment that we had lined up (and committed to), fell through the day we committed (just like the last one). I guess there is some other great place out there for us...we just need to locate it. We have been packing a lot and trying to go through all of our stuff. I am also working on (and hoping) that we sell some of our furniture. That is about it for now. We will be camping this coming Thursday-Saturday with my fam in Yosemite. That will be fun, and I'll have more pictures up when we get back. In the meantime, here are some pictures of our staff bowling day about a week ago. It was going to be a student event, but then the students didn't show up, so we had fun anyways. I bowled 102 (YES!!), which is good seeing my goal was just to break 100.