Hello Summer!

It was a gorgeous day in San Diego today and Noah and I took advantage by enjoying some outdoor activities. First, we had a picnic lunch at Seaport Village with Jack in tow. Next, we made an excursion to the dog beach in Coronado. This was Jack's second trip to the beach and we can now say without a doubt that he does not like water! He walked along the wet sand just fine, but as soon as the water started to roll in, he quickly dashed toward the dry sand. Noah is also not fond of wet sticky sand between his toes, so I'm sure he was quite happy that Jack was the cleanest and driest dog among the bunch when we left the beach this afternoon. :)

Jack hiding behind Noah (avoiding the water)

View of dog beach (with the Hotel Del in the background)

Inseparable

Just chillin'

Cheeeese!

Five Years of Wedded Bliss

Okay, so maybe 'wedded bliss' isn't the most fitting description of our five years of marriage...we have definitely had our ups and downs and plenty of challenges on this journey of merging our two lives into one. Thankfully, we have had many wonderful (and wise!) mentors and friends along the way who've encouraged us through much prayer, counsel, friendship, and fun. Thanks so much to all of you who have supported us on this journey!

Over the course of our years together, Noah and I have learned a lot about each other and we've grown in our care and love for one another (and we hope to continue to grow lots more in these areas in the coming years!). We've discovered that we're actually quite different in some of our interests--Noah enjoys rigorous physical activity in the outdoors, such as backpacking, running, and mountain biking, whereas I prefer a quiet afternoon with a good book as a way to feel refreshed and relaxed. Despite our differences though, we are also similar in a lot of ways. We both enjoy making a yummy breakfast together on a lazy Saturday morning, we love visiting the many fun sites around San Diego such as the zoo, Wild Animal Park, and Balboa Park. And, of course, we love taking our dog, Jack, to the dog park!

One fun thing about our anniversary is that we love to reflect on our wedding day and try to remember what we were feeling that day. This year, we watched our wedding video and giggled as we watched ourselves gaze into each other's eyes and share our first kiss. It was so much fun and a great reminder of the vows we made to each other and the wonderful blessing it is to be married to each other. We are truly blessed and look forward to many more wonderful years together!

We treated ourselves to a Padres game on Saturday night!

Noah, ready to catch a foul ball.

The happy couple, 6-21-08

The happy couple, 6-22-03

A Father's Day Tribute

Since our fathers are no longer with us, we'd like to take this opportunity to honor their memory this Father's Day.


Gary Horton
February 12, 1950-January 6, 1998







































I (Allison) have many fond memories of my dad. He had a quiet and gentle spirit and he had a great sense of humor and loved to joke around. My dad loved music and played the guitar. Some of my favorite memories of my dad include listening & playing music together, the fishing trips we took, learning to ride a bike with my dad's help, and my first trip to Disneyland.


Nathan John Wardrip
December 29, 1954-April 29, 1994

Noah also has many fond memories of his dad. His dad was gentle and caring, intelligent, athletic, and he enjoyed being with his family. Noah remembers playing baseball while his dad coached his Little League team. He also went on a memorable father-son backpacking trip to Bullfrog Lake with his dad. Noah also has fond memories of being his dad's right-hand-man during their home remodeling project.
























Although we both feel a void in our lives without our dads here, we are confident that we'll see them again one day in heaven. Until then, we will continue to honor their memories and think of them with great fondness.


Happy Father's Day to our dads! We miss you both!

Recent happenings...

It's hard to believe a month has already gone by since I've updated the blog. Although, on the other hand, not much has been happening on the Wardrip front, so a blog update didn't really seem necessary.

Noah's life has been filled with studying, homework assignments, more studying, work, school projects, more studying, and now finals. This quarter he has been taking an algorithms class, which has been challenging to say the least. The picture below gives a glimpse of just what I mean--two weeks ago we drove up to NorCal to visit family and Noah studied most of the way up and down California (while Jack snoozed on his lap!).

Needless to say, we'll both be ecstatic when he finishes the quarter this Thursday! We're looking forward to spending time together this summer enjoying the many fun things San Diego has to offer!

This last weekend, I flew up to Davis for a solo weekend with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law. My mother-in-law treated me to "The Phantom of the Opera" which was such a blast. I had never seen the show before, so it was great to see all the stage effects, costumes, and of course, the music and singing was phenomenal.

Til next time,

Allison