The Natural History Museum

Since I was shopping for my wedding dress over Valentine's Day weekend, Owen and I had to postpone our day date that we had planned to the Natural History Museum.  The great thing about LA is that you can watch a documentary on TV and then go to the museum or science center the next day and learn more about it.  In keeping with our Netflix trend, we opted for the museum, followed by watching Monuments Men and meeting up with our friends Holli and Rory for dinner. 

Every Friday, Owen and I have "Taco Friday" where we, obviously, eat tacos and watch "Gold Rush" on the Discovery Channel, followed by Bearing Sea Gold. This season, not only are the miners digging for gold in Alaska, but also diamonds in the jungle of Guyana.  We love this stuff.  The mineral exhibit at the museum was right up our ally. They even had a HUGE exhibit about the California Gold Rush with tons of nuggets the size of your fist, but I was so distracted- it was like the first time in my entire life that I didn't get a picture of something that I wanted to.

There were rows and rows of beautiful rocks and mineral deposits.  I kept thinking that my mom, who is a notorious rock collector, would just love all the different colors, shapes, and sizes.

 The dinosaurs were ahhhmazing!  Literally, 90% of the specimens at the museum came from Eastern Montana, followed up by Wyoming and North Dakota.

Race on The Base

This past weekend a few coworkers and I ran the Race on the Base 5K!

I knew the race was coming up, but I didn't necessarily "prepare" in the traditional sense of, you know, running.  I mostly prayed that I wouldn't die and wouldn't get embarrassed from all of the little kids passing me effortlessly...but mostly that I wouldn't die.

We made it out alive and were very proud to show off our medals!

The To Do List: The Griffith Observatory

Owen and I have been watching a lot of Netflix documentaries about space, the universe, stars, planets, etc.  We brushed up on our vocabulary and headed to the Griffith Observatory with our friends Emily, Rudy, Brian, and Steven.

Ah...Albert.  I had to wait to get a picture with him, so I wasn't going to waste my time!

Silver City, NM!

Owen and I took a long weekend to go see his mom who lives in Silver City, NM.  It is only about a 10 hour drive so we thought we might as well go for an adventure and get out of the city.  He did most of the driving and I did most of the bossing around/sleeping-it was a perfect arrangement. 

Silver City is actually famous- it's the hometown of Billy the Kid, who went by "William Bonney" back in the day. The town itself has a lot of character from both Native American and Mexican influences. 

Ellen met us right outside of town because she was certain that GPS wouldn't be able to find her house...she was right!

Ellen knew that  I loved mining and mining culture and took us to see a very large, active, open mine. This is the Santa Rita Mine.  The colors were amazing- the picture doesn't do it justice, as it is both beautiful and devastating at the same time.

Billy the Kid's replica cabbin

Ellen took us hiking to show us the landscape, which is very different from CA and from MT.  

Big Cholla Cactus

Juan Pablo,  the Cholla  we brought home from NM, is sprouting new arms!

The mountains in the far back are mountains in Mexico!

While we were there, the Broncos were playing and Owen decided that he had to do all think is groups of 18, since 18 is Payton Manning's number.  So, he ate 18 pieces of toast and cleaned out a jar of peanut butter.

The next morning we had to leave very early, so Ellen cut his toast in to 18 pieces...so much more practical :)