Summer, 2008. Stopped in Sequoia National park for some pooping (according to Zac). Maddalena's version is that we were on the way to Sacramento, where she had a job for the summer (bothering the National Weather Service with technical questions).
Trees make Maddalena huggy, and she mistook Zac for a tree. He didn't seem to mind.
May, 2016. We use a lot of lotion so you don't notice the carapaces normally
Thanksgiving, 2013. There is in Red Rocks in California, so we went to explore it! Nobody around, and lots of cool wrinkly formations. Luckily the only picture we took together turned out nice! :D
This is us celebrating the fact that we decided that we'd go see star wars after our hike! After ~8.5 years together we finally got to see a new star wars movie. Celebrations were in order!
And, before you email us with helpful advice, we realized fairly quickly which hand the titanium finger-protector is actually supposed to go on. Some of you might call it a "ring" but that would be imprecise.
Big Sky, Montana, March 2016! We put frighteningly slippery things on our feet and slid with complete lack of control down inadvisably steep trajectories.
Incidentally, this was also an engineering conference.
May, 2008. Maddalena did in fact graduate from college. It is not a hoax! So we got all fancy and went to gnaw things that happened to be sushi.
March, 2008. Heading back from New Mexico, stopped in Joshua Tree to inspect some cactuses.
May, 2008. Found some attractive waterfall in Sequoia or Kings Canyon!
2011, maybe? Top of Echo Mountain (named for its fancy echo-ma-phone). Used to be a hotel/resort, but it burned down. Then the forest service blew it up by dropping explosives on it from helicopters. I'm not kidding. Then they realized that was a terrible idea, and dragged some of the machinery back up and put up some plaques. Behind us, you can see the foundations (not blown up).
You've been warned! Cover your eyes! Cover the eyes of your children! Auggghhhhhh!
(White Sands, some time after 2007) (Very descriptive, I know!)
Forgot what year. Gaviota State Park (since closed, boooo). We originally went to camp for our anniversary, but due to hilarious levels of wind and flying sand, decided that it was instead a test of willpower and endurance. But we found some wind caves on a hike the next day! The wall was covered with *charcoal* drawings (of the modern kind) that easily wash off. Happy little friends!
Summer, 2007. That kind of totally genuine sleeping moment where you are also definitely not taking a highly contrived selfie. 100% candid, yep!
Echo mountain, maybe 2011. Laughing from being silly.
One time we fell into a rift and merged a bit. It's was definitely a good thing for our relationship, literally becoming one for a little while! Whew.
So this one time we were driving around in the desert with Zac's dad, and the desert fought back and slashed one of his tires. And if I recall correctly, a desert tortoise ate the spare tire or something, and we were stuck.
So we made a fire and had some tea while waiting for a friend to come bring repair stuff.
March, 2016. The happy face of a human adult who has finished giving her conference presentations and gets to see some snow with her favorite manbeasty! :)
Botanical Garden near Ft. Bragg (Mendocino, CA). This was some time after 2009 (yes I know, very specific). We did some quality lurking in the trees, someone put a nice bench there for lurkers like us.
I lurked here by myself in 2008 while working at a newspaper in Sacramento (I came out here for a couple days for a story that, among other things, featured wave energy), and it was pretty awesome to come back later with Zackypede and my parents under the MUCH less awkward situation of being a properly antisocial engineer. Whew!
According to Zac. None of this Disneyland garbage, Chilitos is where it's at! Also, do you notice it was snowing? In Las Cruces? After this we went to the most AMAZING bookstore, complete with a Fantasy Alcove (a tunnel with a cozy room at the end completely lined with fantasy books. It was freaking amazing.)
December, 2015
Summer, 2007. We were having a lot of fun yelling at the clouds, for reasons that have probably been lost to time.
Canyon de Chelly, December, 2015. Aww, little did we know our lives would change in no discernible way in a matter of days!! Awww, nostalgia. We took a ton of pictures with me attempting to look like a vaguely attractive human, but this is the closest I got. Zac looks super nice though, just look at him in his sweet hat. Ignore me. IGNORE ME! Oh well!
Nothing interesting happened here December 31, 2015. Shhh move along nothing to see here.
Brood brood brood smirk brood! This broody-faced picture was taken some time before 2011, presumably when Zac was in grad school in Boulder, CO. We went on this sweet snowy hike in front of the flatirons. We have tons of pictures, but most don't feature us glaring at the wildlife and local nature. Such brooding stares! Auuugghhh!
So I don't know what it is about this picture but we look like we were photoshopped in. We were really there. I am like 98% certain, because it was Caitlin & Greg's wedding. But the focus/lighting is just slightly weird! Still, it's not every day we try to pass as normal adult humans allowed at weddings and stuff!
San Francisco, a couple years ago! Look at us, outside in the sunlight. Hissss! It burned our delicate skins!
Luckily there's only one of each of us in this picture. It's a real risk when hiking Verdugo Peak. You replicate a little (and no, not like that, what's wrong with you)
I really like these pictures. Probably because a certain Zacky looks so nice. <3
We had a lot of fun confusing the panorama mode on the phone. This was accidentally a decent picture... Somehow.
It's pretty terrifying that the everything is that hot in the winter. Ugh! But creepy supervolcanoes sure are pretty.
Yellowstone, March 2016.