A Fish Tale

My brother and sister-in-law are in town for the week and I was able to take a day off work to spend some quality time with the two of them. We headed down to Monterey to the Aquarium. The freshwater otters are the current special exhibit, but I must admit I'm a sucker for the jellies. I can't get enough of them!! It was a perfect day along the Monterey Peninsula. I couldn't have asked for a better visit. The rest of our aquarium pictures are here.

Life is Rough

Especially when you are our cat. It's soooo tiring spending days basking in the sun by the window. But isn't he cute? If only my life could be so easy!

Cute as a ......

Oh I do love buttons. They are so perfect, symetrical and functional, cute and adorable, perfect in every way My mom gave me a huge box of old buttons to use in my scrapbooking. I'm in heaven. So I had to go out and pick up some containers (one of my other favorite things in the world!). I got a 6 pack of embelishment containers from Making Memories. And they are already almost full!

Flower Power

We finally got around to sprucing up the patio this weekend. For my birthday Kyle helped me replant the "front yard". It has been in a state of flux for the last 5 weeks as we've been waiting for them to replace the fence for our unit. They finally finished last week, almost a month behind schedule and after leaving ours wide open for several days. It's so nice to have a clean beautified patio again!! :)

Beautifying a Port-a-Potty

This is much better ;) In my parents neighborhood they've implemented a building regulation that forces people to beautify the port-o-potties on sight during construction. Any version seems to work, this is a nice example of a lattice enclosure, but straw (think big grass skirt for the toilet) among others have been sighted. I love the matching lattice garbage can (overflowing of course.) Perhaps it's my sick sense of humor but each time I see one of these decorated potties it makes me giggle.

Wedding Weekend

May 12 finally came, and one of my best friends said "I Do" to Alison. Here I am before the ceremony. I was honored to be one of the groomsmen. The pictures from the big day are here. It was such a beautiful wedding.

Kyle in front of Morro Rock

For Kyle's birthday we took a long weekend down in the Pismo Beach / San Luis Obispo area. Here's a pictures I took while we were wondering around Morro Bay with Morro Rock in the background. We spend the weekend at The Cottage Inn by the Sea, ate at F. McLintocks for a huge meal but so good, and spent time wandering around SLO, Morro Bay and Pismo. More pictures can be found here.

Sister in Law in NY Times

When the horrific events took place in Virgina it hit a little too close to home. My brother and sister-in-law are living back there as my brother pursues his PhD at Virginia Tech. As part of the grieving/healing process the knitting community has come together to create squares that will become blankets for the victims families as a show of support. The NY times covered the story here:


Torn by University Shootings, Virginia Town Turns Inward to Mend - New York Times

Bachelor Party - Catalina Island

Here we all are in front of the "Casino" on Catalina Island. It was a great weekend with all the guys celebrating Scott's last weeks of bachelorhood.

Purse Gift Bag

I made this gift bag for a friends birthday. I absolutely love how it turned out and it was so much fun!! I have a feeling I'll be making many more of these.

Inked Up

Kyle got his second tattoo over this holiday weekend to commemorate the nine years of service he'd put in on the Ben Lomond Fire Department. Those days are behind him, but he wanted a tattoo in honor of his time there. I think it's become a bit of an addiction, getting tattoos, so who knows how many more there will be.

Wii-tastic

Over the holidays we managed to snag a Wii (thanks to Nintendo Finder, and an early morning hunch) Ours arrived the Wednesday after Christmas and it's AWESOME. While my brother and sister-in-law were in town we all had fun playing.

Holiday Photo

 

Weekend in Monterey

 

In need of a little time away we took off for an overnighter to Monterey and a trip to the aquarium. A nice couple from SF was kind enough to take our picture for us.

Out Little Monster - Pixelstein

 

Flat Stanley Takes on Downtown San Jose

"Flat Stanley Takes on Downtown San Jose"

As part of a school project for our nephew we took flat stanley around the sites and sounds of downtown San Jose. Here he is in front of the Knight Ridder building. Flat Stanley Pictures

Elvis is in the House

We spend this last weekend in Tahoe to attend a friends wedding and over the last year these artistic bears have found their way throughout the town. There are supposed to be nearly 50 of the scattered about. It was like a big scavenger hunt . We only found about 20 and never went to the visitor center to get the map, but we had fun anyway. This one was one of our favorite, it might not be Vegas, but Elvis was still in the house. (or on the street)

Hula Wine Bottle

We saw these wine bottle hula packages while we were in Hawaii and thought they were really cute so I decided to try to make our own when we got back. Here's our version of the Hula Wine Bottle Cosy on one of the Byington wines from our wedding. 

Touch with Celebrity

This weekend we went to the Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway for the 33rd Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races. Where Jay Leno also happened to be with his McLaren (us with our Mini Cooper S) hehe ok not in even close to the same league. Here Kyle captured our entire meeting. What a nice guy though, how annoying it must be to always be asked for photos and autographs but he was so gracious. 

Maui

Here we are at the Four Seasons enjoying our one of our last days in paradise. We had an amazing time on Maui. We took a helicopter tour, snorkled, did the road to hana, got massages and relaxed by the pool, went to the Maui Ocean center, went shopping in Lahaina and relaxed a little more. More pictures at Honeymoon Pictures. 

We're Married

July 22 finally arrived and it was the hotest day of the year. Here we are just after taking our vows. After a day in the scorching heat well into the hundreds we were certainly ready to be off on our honeymoon in more tollerable weather. 

Mini Run Video - Soquel/Lost in Soquel

Gloves & Clover - Soquel/Lost in Soquel We participated in the first half the a mini run to santa cruz and back. Someone put together a video of the days adventures and here it is.

Snow in Aptos

Snow near the ocean in Aptos at my parents house. Looks a little icy but there is no denying it's snow!! 

Caricature from Holiday Party

This years holiday party offered caricature portraits. Here is ours. 

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival

This year we took a trip up to half moon bay to see the Big Pumpkin for this years festival. The winning pumpkin was 1229lbs!!! Wow that's one BIG pumpkin. s 

Awww a beautiful sunset along the California coast at Pismo Beach. This wrapped up a hecked end to our trip to LA to pick up the RAV4. The flight was cancelled, insane traffic (4hrs to Santa Barbara), where the Inn Keeper was drunk and we discovered ants had found the candy we'd purchased the night before the next morning *sigh*. Only to arrive in the hotel in Pismo where our reservation had been "misplaced". Once that was resolved we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and stroll around San Luis Obispo, and ended the evening with the sunset you see here. We were so glad to get home the following day, more than enough excitement for one weekend.

We're engaged!!! Kyle proposed on a scenic overlook on at hike at Rancho San Antonio over the weekend :) So exciting.