31 in San Diego

turned 31 and brett flew us to san diego for the weekend to celebrate. he even got us a little place right on pacific beach. am i the luckiest lady, or what.

ok, yeah, bad photo, but brett said no way to taking another one. this was our first time bowling together, so it was a photo worthy moment.
rented cruisers and rode down the beach to the ocean beach roller coaster. riding a roller coaster is a definite remedy for feeling old.
we watched the sunset on the beach every night.
and even though it was mostly a rainy weekend, we got just enough beach time. yes...

visiting my lil bro

went to visit my little brother who is in the Army in Fort Bragg, NC.

i took family pics for them while i was there (seth, his beautiful wife alexandra, and their bundle of joy, jayden):
we went to a haunted airplane one night.
i got to watch jayden while her parents entered the haunted dungeons...

the lil nugget of love slept! while goblins and ghouls howled around us...
(here's the haunted "hercules" which also happens to be the type of plane my bro jumps out of (he's airborne)
me trying on his ridiculously heavy "body armor" - seriously like 3 inches thick of metal - what i wish i had when my my dad used to spank me...

The new mid-october

As a kid growing up in upstate ny, mid-october always meant things like hot-spiced cider, raking leaves & jumping in them, grape-picking, apple-picking & going to the cider press, and maybe, if i was real lucky, my mom's home-made potato donuts. but not-no-more. (for more details on mid-october activities in upstate, check-out my sister's blog, where she's doing such a fine job keeping these traditions alive, i feel home-sick every time i read her blog)

this is california. i miss the old mid-october, but it's also pretty nice going to beach in swimwear rather than donning a scarf and gloves.

this is what we did this past weekend to ring-in the autumn season:

santa cruz...
rode our bikes along west cliff drive...
took-in the seascape...

definitely not better than eating fresh-grown concord grapes, wrapping my lil fingers around a mug of hot fresh-pressed cider, and sinking my teeth into a just-made donut, but it was calorie-free, and pretty amazing to let my skin feel the hot sun in mid-october.

Goodbye Garden

one of our favorite things about this new apartment we moved into is that we have a (small but much appreciated) back patio/garden area. we pulled up some of the ground bricks and built two small gardens:

we planted mostly seedlings
and they grew! this is our first tomato, which we gave to marley because squirrels had taken a big bite out of it.
the squash plants (yellow crookneck and zucchini) produced more flowers than anything else.
i used them to make a salad. delicious, delicate flavor. yum.

it was a learning experience. here were our results:

7 cucumber plants from seed - yield: 1 cucumber (total)

10 pepper plants from seedling - yield: about 3 small shriveled peppers

4 zucchini plants from seedling - yield: about 5 zucchini.

4 yellow squash from seedling - yield: about 3 small squash.

2 basil plants from seedling - yield: 2 off-the-hook basil plants that are still producing (despite a recent bug infestation)

4 tomato plants from young plant - yield: dozens of juicy delicious tomatoes.

10 attempted chard plants from seed - yield: 3 resurrected chard plants that have just begun to really grow

so far, we would only do basil and tomatoes again. we think we packed the garden way too much, and the plants choked each other out. next time we will try the less-is-more approach.

this morning i planted more chard, to see if we can get it going this time. we'll see!

Left Coast Live

Last year we went to this concert, which is hosted in downtown San Jo. It only cost $15 and we got to see The Neon Trees and Ok Go. And since it was pretty poorly attended, we were about 3 feet from the stage. It was also just a few blocks from our apartment at that time. It was awesome.

We decided to go again this year, and it was fun, but not nearly as good as last year. First, freezing cold. Second, not as good of bands. The Postelles were good even though the sound system was pretty messed-up, and The Limousines were good, but we decided they're a little too techno for us (though brett does love their song "internet killed the video star" - it is pretty good).

the limousines:

brett was approached by some guys during the concert and asked for some joint-rolling paper. this is not the first time this has happened. lil do those poor boys know how ironic that is...

anyway, i still love going to concerts with brett. i think it makes us feel like there's still a lil bit of teen punk lingering inside us. church-going, law-abiding, boring teen punks. but still punk-rock...

tahoe

aaahhhhh... this was it. just what you need to really get away...

some earth:

fire:
air:
and killer clear water.


just got back from tahoe - we met up with brett's ole buddy Cameron and his wife Nicoleen and camped for 3 glorious days. they were so much fun to travel with! (this was our first "friendcation" so we weren't sure how it would be, but it was awesome) thanks cam & nic!

summer visitors

this summer we have been the lucky hosts to many of our favorite people!

most recently (as in, this past week), brett's sister alissa and her hubby tanner came to visit.

we made and ate lots of this: (3x to be exact)
we did a lil of this: (too cold!)
a bit of city-discovering in san fran:
and one fun night of camping:

brett's bro ryan came in july, for one short weekend. but we made the most of it by taking him straight to a giants game when he got off the plane:

we think he enjoyed it, even though he spent most of the game doing this:

my mom came in june:

we hit up san fran with my aunt -

did lots of beach time (my mom's an oregonian, so this was her fave part)

by the end of her trip, lil marley was ready to be adopted again, by her.

brett's fam (well, just mom, dad, lil sis susan and lil bro jesse) came in may and we stayed with them in monterey and spent most of the time hiking in big sur. of course, i didn't bring my camera for any of that, but this is what i got:

we celebrated susan's bday with a delicious cheese-cake made by her mom:

and we played settlers til the cows came home.

we would be excited to see any of you too! if you can stand sleeping on a slightly deflated air mattress in our tiny living room... but we'll do our best to make it worth your while!

when half is better

i have always abided by the belief that if something is good, more is better. frozen yogurt for example, or chubby cheeks on babies, or anything on food network, or cute puppies. but this weekend i found a definite exception to this rule.

case in point: the 1/2 marathon. compared to it's big brother, the full marathon, the 1/2 is a comfortable, attainable race that doesn't leave you apologizing to your joints.

this was a fun one too, because it is the "Giants Race" in San Francisco - runs along the embarcadero up to the golden gate bridge, and ends on the SF giants baseball stadium field.

pre-race line-up:

also, we got to see 2 of the Giants pitchers!!

Brett saw Matt Cain as he was starting the 5K:

and then around mile 6, I looked up and saw Brian Wilson, just standing alone on the side of the course! so i went and high-fived him. no big deal. and he winked at me... i'm pretty sure. or maybe i imagined that.

after the race i met up with brett

unfortunately, just like the full version, the 1/2 marathon does a number on my toes. boo. but i really enjoyed this run, and think i could keep doing 1/2s for quite a while. i think i am perfectly happy to now say that i will probably never run a full 26.2 again.

Bear Lake w/ my awesome inlaws

and why are they so awesome, you ask? see below:

a couple weeks ago, brett and i returned from visiting his family in utah. for most of the time, we stayed at this cabin in bear lake. brett's fam is awesome because they know how to have a good time together, for example:

1. They aren't afraid to go to maverick at a late hour, just for a $1 frozen yogurt.

( incidentally this trip ended with my yogurt in some strange girl's hair, a stubbed toe, and no yogurt for anyone, but that is for another day; another blog. oh, and yes, that's my lil bro ben on the far left)

2. they follow my own family's belief that all-you-can-eat is always-the-best. and they can eat with the best of them.
3. family game: poker. nuff said.
4. they like mountain biking!! my favorite!
5. they are competitive, but not annoying about it. we played lots of ladder ball and ultimate frisbee.

6. they love love hiking.

7. they play! like, old fashioned playing. and that really evidenced itself when we were in the water together. somehow, they managed to merge kayaking, frisbee, and swimming all in one.

anyway... i guess i'm just feeling lucky to have such great inlaws. i always grew up hearing horror stories about "The In-Laws". but haven't had any of my own, thank heavens.