School - still in a holding pattern. This weekend I'm going to start mailing schools my rejections (Davis, American, Santa Clara, Arizona, Loyola). I'm really hoping to get a answer on Stanford soon.
D.C. trip - Curtis and I are going to D.C. next week! We will be there from Thursday April 3 until Monday April 7th. The official reason we're going is so that I can attend Preview Day at George Washington Law School, and make an appearance in the Georgetown Admissions office to ask about my chances of getting in off the Priority Wait list. But the unofficial reason is to go on a little vacation, which is something we haven't ever really done before, at least on this large of scale. And Curtis has never been to D.C. (or anywhere on the east coast for that matter) so he's really excited. We're thrilled that we're going to be there during the height of the Cherry Blossom season, and I'll make sure to post pictures from our trip. Plus, one of my really good friends from my church is in seminary in D.C. so I'll be able to see her for the first time in years. I have to do a lot of shopping this weekend to prepare - new tennis shoes, jeans that fit, etc.
Easter - My weekend at home for Easter was great, my cousin Shaq was in town to visit so I was able to spend a lot of time with him. And for Easter my grandparents, my aunt and her 3 kids and my uncle with his two visited and we had a lot of fun just hanging out and catching up. I was able to show my aunt and my grandma my wedding binder which had a picture of my dress.
Stanford Basketball!!! - So as you already know, I went to the Stanford-Marquette 2nd round NCAA game on Saturday with Curtis, my dad and my cousin Shaq (we also saw the UCLA-Texas A&M game) where we won on a last shot by Brook Lopez (pictured in my last post). It was so much fun, but also very tiring, because it was so much basketball and both games were stressful to watch.
After we got our tickets and free parking pass from a local hotel (the Stub Hub last minute HQ) we arrived at the Honda Center, we took pictures a few pictures outside:
That's my cousin, Shaq. We took that last picture while we were waiting for the Stanford game to start. 
A few personal highlights from the Stanford game:- feeling about ready to cry after Trent was ejected
- yelling at UCLA fans who were rooting against Stanford "YOU'RE UCLA FANS, WHY ARE YOU CHEERING FOR MARQUETTE? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO SUPPORT YOUR CONFERENCE!!!!!" the people sitting above me were commenting on it and probably thought I was crazy.
- Having an utterly surreal moment when Brook made that shot at the end, and hearing the entire arena cheer for Stanford even though they were dressed in blue and gold.
After the game we had to take pictures to capture our excitement that Stanford won.
When the game ended, I ran to the bathroom and then put on my UCLA jersey.
The guy we were talking to for the bulk of the game came over to give me a high five and was like, "wait a minute, why are you wearing that?" My dad goes "her fiance is a UCLA alum" and this guy goes "so?" and this RANDOM other guy who was listening to this goes "do you have a problem with that?!" It was pretty amusing.
After the UCLA game started Dad and I headed to concessions. We bought tourney t-shirts for everyone and then got some food. When we finally made it back to the game UCLA was down and the refs were calling it tight. The game was boring, but a few exciting things happened. First, the Stanford team walked out and met up with their happy families during a timeout, which was so cool to see, and the entire arena applauded them. Second, during halftime, both the Texas A&M and the UCLA dancers danced to the same song, one after another, and you could hear everyone in the arena cracking up. UCLA, shockingly (lol) was much better. The game itself didn't get exciting until the last 10 minutes, and fortunately, thanks to a great half by Kevin Love and Collison's 2 consecutive layups while Love was executing an (illegal) moving screen, they pulled it out in the end.
They really only won by 2 points, but Westbrook had to be a jerk and end the game with an unnecessary dunk. I don't understand why they older players call him out for his grandstanding because it's stupid and makes teams want to beat them even more.
As with the Stanford game we took a few celebratory photos: 
Then we got in the car, and drove home, exhausted but elated. Now I'm sad that I can't go to Houston for the regional but Curtis and I are talking about trying to get Final Four tickets if both teams make it there.
So, that was our great adventure, it was totally worth the money and I'm so happy both teams won. On to the regional semifinals in Houston on Friday!
First we went to a very small vineyard that actually hasn't started selling wine yet, and we tried some very young wine out of the barrel (and it was pretty good). The grounds of the estate were beautiful, and it was so quiet and peaceful. But we were on a tight schedule so unfortunately we couldn't relax there for very long. Here's a picture from our first stop, Boeschen Vineyards: 
Then we had lunch at a boat launching place off of Lake Hennessey, which was beautiful - I wish we had pictures because it was quite pleasant. After lunch we headed to the Mumm Vineyard, where we had a glass of champagne and walked around a photography gallery which featured the work of Ansel Adams.
At this point we were getting antsy for more wine to try (we had only had a small tasting of wine and a glass of champagne) and we were bummed that we didn't have enough time to get a second glass at Mumm. But, the guy in charge of the trip told us that there would be plenty of wine to taste at our next stop, the Hendry Vineyard. 
Let me first say, we had the perfect weather for our tour. It was so warm I was thankful that I was able to take off my sweater and just have a tank on as we walked through the grape vines. We learned a lot about the upkeep of the wines, including the ways in which they use grafting to protect the vines from diseases, or change the type of grape that is grown (these chardonnay vines pictured above actually have zinfandel roots). After showing us the vineyard, our guide took us inside the barn to show us the process from which the grapes become vine.
(This room smelled really good) We learned a lot about the barrelling process - how different types of barrels are used for different wines, and how much of the price is determined by the cost of the barrel. Some wines only sit for a year, while others are for multiple years. You can tell that a lot of hard work goes into making a bottle of wine, and I think I will appreciate anything I drink from here on out, because of how elaborate the process is.
