Home again, home again, jiggity-jog

I know I said I'd see you Saturday or Sunday; there's been just a bit too much to do to recover from the trip. I left you doing laundry and I came home doing laundry. It's just neverending.

We had a great trip to Malibu. Traffic was no problem, and we arrived on campus a little after 4pm Tuesday, after not leaving home until 9:30 or so and making a couple of stops for snacks/lunch/drinks. Our first order of business after checking into our dorm was to pick up Jim for dinner. We hit Malibu Canyon Plaza and had a casual dinner at Coogie's. Dinner with Jim turned out to be a nightly tradition and reminded us of old times back in Omaha.

We ran into a few folks we hadn't seen in nearly 20 years as well. One was the preacher and his wife from the church we attended in college. They moved away shortly before or after Brian and I married and we hadn't seen them since. It was amazing they even remembered us. We were also able to spend an hour or so catching up over lunch with John Jones, a former campus ministry friend from our college days in Missouri. He's now teaching at Pepperdine. We had a great time reminiscing about "the old days" and the others we used to work alongside back then.

Our last evening in Malibu, we found a great little restaurant in the Malibu Country Mart shopping center, Tra Di Noi. I think I must have eaten the best meal I've had since we arrived in California. Jim and I both ordered the spaghetti carbonara and were unanimous in our approval. One really nice thing about the restaurant was that it had an outdoor patio dining area, and we were able to sit and watch the kids play at the courtyard play area while waiting for dinner to be prepared. We are definitely planning on going back when we are in Malibu again!

Soon it was back to the real world... school, housework, laundry. Emily met with her counselor at her new school today to pick classes for next year. Later on this week, she is going to shadow some current students to get a feel for what a typical day is like. I can't wait to see what she thinks.