California and sun

So it's April, and it's supposed to rain today in Salt Lake City. It's been cold lately (50's)! It's days like today where I feel like the winter is dragging on a little too long, and I can't wait for sun and summer. That of course starts me thinking back to growing up in California, and how warm the weather probably is there today. I'm so ready for sun already! I just talked to my mom this morning, who was on her way to yoga (how cute is that). So I thought I'd write a post about my thoughts on the matter, and post some pictures that make me happy. Mike + beach + sun = the happiest Erin in the world. Hopefully we'll get back to CA soon. We'll definately go for a week or so before school starts. Yey for surfing and sunsets! And summer...

Weekend Trips

CORTEZ, CO: 4/27-29


I know we mentioned before that we would be going to run the SL Half Marathon in April. We've been training hard for it, and were really getting excited. Well, it turns out, Admit weekend is the SAME WEEKEND! (Chuckle) Of course that would only happen to us. So we decided we still need to run a half-marathon so we found a half marathon the next weekend in Cortez, CO. Yeah, I know. I hadn't ever heard of Cortez before either. It turns out, Cortez is an hour or two south of Moab, so we're going to make a trip out of it. The race is called "Pueblo to Pueblo" and we run through Anasazi ruins. It should be pretty cool. You're all welcome to join us!

CHICAGO 4/19-22

It's official, we're heading to Chicago for admit weekend. Although we haven't made a decision on schools yet, Mike is more and more leaning toward Chicago. We've been doing our homework, comparing schools, etc., and what we're finding is that the quality of education at Chicago is pretty stellar. Plus, it certainly helps that we started researching all the high-profile Chicago GSB alum... I'm still not super excited about Chicago (the city itself) but Mike assures me that's because I've never spent time there, and I would really like it. So he thinks taking me out to Chicago in two weeks will change my mind about the whole thing. Chicago, here we come...!

Georgetown news

Wow this has been a crazy week. Mike and I have been having many long conversations about B-schools, where to go, and when we need to make decisions. The hardest thing is the hard realization we'll be leaving--Mike's boss has asked for his last day, so picking a last day makes us realize it's really happening. It's all very overwhelming.

So yesterday Georgetown contacted Mike with a big yes, they want to interview him. Sadly, Mike turned them down. Since Georgetown was the safety school, and Mike already heard from Chicago, we both agreed it would be more considerate not to waste their time.

Since I've spent over a year in D.C. living next to Georgetown, I know how cool the area is, but I also think it would be fun to get to know a new city. Man, Georgetown is seriously cool. The campus is out of this world, and I love fall evenings walking through the red and orange leaves and stacked row houses.

Any closer to a decision? Well, since we haven't heard from INSEAD or Columbia yet, we decided to chose between Chicago and LBS for now. After doing lots of research, Mike is leaning toward Chicago, but we'll keep you updated on our final decision. We're heading out to Chicago in April for "Admit Weekend."

Chicago, Chicago

Mike just got a phone call today...

"Hi Mike, I wanted to start your week off well and let you know you're accepted to Chicago's Graduate School of Business..."

Congratulations to Mike! We're going to celebrate tonight with a 3 mile run (sigh). Here's a bit of trivia for those who know nothing about Chicago (like Erin a few months ago): Chicago was rated #1 B-School this year (Business Week) followed by Wharton. One thing Erin found while researching the school she knew relatively nothing about was that that their staff has 70 Nobel Prizes; 23 Nobel Prizes in Economics--Mike's favorite subject. Mike's brothers would say... "Nerd." (chuckle)

Two down, three to go.

London Calling

Congratulations to Mike...

Mike just found out today that he was accepted at the London Business School. One down, four to go!

Here are some details about the school we'd love to go to...LBS ranks fifth in the world for Global MBAs, just under Stanford. The LBS campus is in Regent's Park in London (NW1) and many students find themselves living on flats on Abbey Road. The have partnerships with Columbia, MIT, and Hong Kong University. Cool! Good work Mike...

Erin Go Braugh! (Ireland Forever!)

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! We had a bunch of people over for the holiday and had such a blast. Thanks to all our friends who joined us. We were worried we wouldn't have enough room for everyone but we moved the furniture around and somehow everyone fit...

Friends

We love the Quinns, and we love the Wests! We are all counting every minute we get to spend together before the Wests head back to San Francisco and we go back to MBA school. We love our fabulous little 18th Ward. Okay, so it's not so little.

Trip to Alaska

Create Your Own

Our trip to Alaska was cool, and a bunch of people haven't seen these pics yet, so we thought we'd post them. We went to Alaska last summer for Mike's birthday (and to waste a bunch of extra frequent flyer miles). Little known fact about AK: it is a tad cold even in the summer.

Running our hearts out

We just started training for a half marathon--ah! That is going to require some major dedication on our part...much more than our attempt last year! If you'll be in the area in April, come join us...

Last week we suceeded in finishing our training schedule, and fitting in a day of killer snowboarding. The snow at Snowbird was awesome. And let's just say, boarding with the Featherstone brothers Mike and Luke definately stretches my limits...picture me following them down a 45 degree slope in powder at Mineral Basin. Now that's scary!

Erin's trip to CA (while Mike was in NYC)

Here are the pictures from my recent CA trip! Mike had to go to New York for work, so I headed home to hang out in the sun.