After the wedding, everyone needed a little of a breather. We had driven to Cali, helped as much as we good, rehearsed, and celebrated. It was such a wonderful time, but we decided to "escape" for a little bit to Balboa Park // The San Diego Zoo.





Michael kept asking to see the elephants, so that's the corner of the zoo we decided to do. It was HUGE, but so worth the time we took to walk around. As you can see, we didn't even reach the "end" of our corner and Michael passed out in the stroller.

I can't wait until we find a time to go back again.

Last week we ventured to San Diego, CA for Clark's brother's wedding. We had such a wonderful time. It was mine and Michael's first time to California, and it's definitely not going to be our last. I may have fallen in love with it. The longer we're here, the more I'm loving the West Coast in general.

Don't quote me on that just yet, though.





Our first full day there was the wedding rehearsal, but that was in the evening. Most of the day we were able to spend it in the sunshine. These pictures were taken at the pier on Pacific Beach, San Diego.

One more installment of this mini-vacation to come.

This is more than a little delayed. At this point Easter was two weeks ago... oops.Needless to say time sometimes slips away from me all of us.



Easter


We really kept his Easter basket simple *although the Easter basket itself came from his grandparents, Marmee and Papa!*. Bubbles, two Easter books, a balloon, two activity packets (restaurant friendly), and a few plastic eggs with goldfish or puffs in them.


We had an Easter egg hunt at Michael's favorite friends' house... Clark and I think they're pretty great, too ;).


We tried to take a family picture and came out with this personality-focused beauty.


Our friends with their beautiful daughter Makenzie, who is two months younger than Michael.

The Zoo


Michael got the most excited about the giraffes. Nevermind that he was "hissing" for ten minutes after the snakes or making monkey voices the entire time we passed by a primate, Michael would not let us leave the giraffes. We stood there for countless minutes as he pointed and shrieked and laughed and "danced" in excitement.


Michael checking out the lions.


"People of the Forest". My fave picture of the boys from the day.


Successful family picture!

Hiking


Hydrating while riding with style. Michael thought it was extra funny to spit water all over the back of Dada's head/neck/back.


Enjoying the view. We live in such a beautiful area. I feel so blessed that Michael gets to experience nature and its finest. He kept saying, "bubbles!"


The best family shot from the day... never mind that Michael isn't even looking.


Explorers.

As Clark prepared to head off to Boot Camp, things got a little tricky. Preparing for my spouse to be gone for thirteen weeks would be difficult alone, but taking into account that I really wouldn't have access to him for that long (communication wise) was definitely trying on my nerves.

I wanted to spend as much time as possible with him. I think we had about ten days, maybe it was a little longer than that, in between the time he told me when he was going, and when he was going.

Clark realized (a bit late) that he was going to be gone for my birthday. He decided he wanted to take me to the zoo as an early birthday trip. The problem was the only day we could go was a required sorority function. I don't remember at this point if it was a fundraiser, meeting, or what, but it was required.

Initially I did have to work that day. So I sent e-mails to the appropriate people and was excused from the event. However, I then got out of work. I may have neglected to tell the appropriate sorority people because I wanted to go to the zoo with my husband. If I had been extra sneaky, I could have withheld the information entirely. Oh, but Facebook. I mean, how could I resist posting pictures of going to the zoo?

(March 2009)

(Elephants are my absolute favorite.)

Sorority sisters got mad. Some didn't understand why I was excused to go to the zoo with my husband and they weren't excused for other things.

This was the first thing that started the "sorority blues."

Looking back, I totally understand why many of them were upset. I was excused from an event to go have fun, and shouldn't have been an exception-- even if my husband was shipping off to bootcamp for thirteen weeks. I still think it should have been somewhat understandable, but like with many other corporations and such, there can't be special circumstances all the time simply because of your marital status (or what have you).

Next was a mixer. I had volunteered to "tap" for this big party/dance/mixer because I didn't want to at formal. The only problem was, this was the last mixer before Clark left. Suddenly I didn't want to be required to stick around ALL night just to make sure other sisters didn't get out of control with their drinking. I wanted to be home, cuddling with the hubs. So, I went, I got the low-down of what I was supposed to do... and I left early.

Technically, I was never told I had to stay all night. Technically, I never signed the paper agreeing to "tap" at a function, or what it entailed. Technically, no one cared.

So, the next day I was called to meet our VP, which happened to be one of my semi-decent friends, and was handed a letter for "J-Board" (Judicial Board). AKA, I had to meet with the pres, vp, and someone else and explain myself and possibly face consequences.

To me, it was pretty laughable. Of course, I didn't tell them that. Sisters had been "J-Boarded" for much worse than leaving a party early.

Here's the thing, though. Other sisters were not happy. After all, I wasn't living up to my sorority duties. I was fully focused on my marriage and spending time with my husband before he left. I didn't care what the sorority expected of me, I only cared about my marriage. This should be somewhat understandable, right? Maybe. I do know it was somewhat immature, and that I should have tried to balance. But, honestly, what's more important? A sorority, or a marriage?

Marriage. Duh.

So, when I met with the "J-Board", I explained that I did have to initially work but then got out of it and went to the zoo, forgetting the duty to the sorority. When it came to "tapping", I stated that I didn't have any documents that told me what I was required to do, and I'm pretty sure I never signed one. However, I offered to "tap" at formal, since Clark wasn't going to be able to be there, anyway.

That seemed to work.

The thing that bugged me the most? Technically the "J-Board" was just for the tapping, but they brought up the zoo incident as well. On top of that, apparently a fellow sister had accused Clark of using a fake ID at one of the functions he was at.

I. Was. Livid.

Clark using a fake ID meant I could get kicked out. That's not what bothered me. What bothered me is that someone actually suggested that Clark did such a thing. More than once I considered demanding who said it, but I knew they wouldn't tell me... so it didn't matter. I just couldn't believe someone in the sorority would do such a thing.

And then I thought about how much I hadn't been doing with/for the sorority... and part of me believed it. I started wondering if the sorority really was the right place for me. After all, most of the girls were interested in three things:

1. Boys
2. Getting Drunk
3. Getting Drunk with Boys

I'm not saying that all sororities are like this, at all. Or that all the girls in that sorority were, either. There just really was no structure to our sorority, and we had a severe lack of adult supervision within the Greek system as it was at my college.

What I am saying, is that the sorority wasn't starting to look as glamorous as it did to begin with to this married-young-college-student. I was realizing that it was leading me farther away from things that were important (God, my marriage, school) and trying to get me to focus on other things instead.