heading to... san diego?

We've talked about Portland, OR and Denver, CO, and Sacramento, and Austin, TX -

but it looks like we might be really close to making our final decision to move to San Diego, California.

Last night we bought our tickets to fly down and do interviews and check out the area - the first week of April. So excited!

Some reasons we hope San Diego will be our next home:

1. Proximity to the OCEAN! (brett's favorite place on the planet)

2. Warm weather. Seriously - it's like 60-80 degrees year round. is that really possible?

3. (a bit) more affordable. (that's compared to the last 2 areas we've lived - Hawaii & Bay Area)

4. a good number of jobs

5. our favorite activities - hiking, biking, camping, swimming, and the weather to enjoy it year-round!!!

6. we will still be able to buy cheap, fresh produce (we love California!)

7. diverse population

Bummers of San Diego:

1. So far from our awesome families.

Boo - maybe we can convince some of you to move closer!!

Any other pros/cons you know about the San Diego area?

V day

Valentine's breakfast. Great way to kick-off a great valentine's weekend. i get really cheezy around valentine's day - maybe because i didn't ever have a valentine before brett (somehow i always seemed to break up right before valentine's day, or let's face it - if you knew me before, you already know that i just didn't have a lot of enduring relationships - make that any)

so, i like to make a fancy dinner and a homemade valentine. brett's not as cheesy, but he got me a mini rose bush and made me a homemade valentine this year, which i thought was pretty adorable. (even though he stole my supplies to make it)

this was the dinner i made - gouda and kale-stuffed herb chicken with roasted asparagus and kamut (my new favorite grain that i found at the japanese store)

anyways, i love celebrating the love of my life. it still seems like a miracle that i found and married brett. and that we still like each other. a lot! the biggest evidence that God does answer my prayers.

livin aloha for new years.

on the last day of 2010, we took yet another trip to hi. we mostly just bummed on the beach again, but this time we also got to see lava up close and personal! which was friggin awesome, btw. that's one of those things that no matter how much it gets hyped up, it's still even more amazing when you see it with your own eyes. (other things in that category: grand canyon, great-wall-of-china, brett tolley)

good thing they had those safety baracades you see above, because i totally turned into an idiot tourist when i saw the lava. i wanted to be as close as i could, and probably would have stepped in it and fried my foot off if they had let me.

this video isn't the best (it was right when the guards were moving us away), but it gives you a basic idea of where we were standing and what it was like to have lava creeping toward you:

outside the lava tube:

inside the lava tube:
outside the volcano crater:
inside the volcano crater:

catchin' up

christmas with (my bro) ben:

christmas eve - eatin fondue til our britches broke at the seams. thanks again kyle & mel for the great idea.

our humble little tree, with even humbler presents underneath:

you may have noticed that ben isn't in any of the photos - dang it!
i actually took a bunch, but can't get them off the camera they are on because i can't find the cord.
we went camping 2 days before christmas at a beach-side campground in santa cruz. we went to visit the huge elephant seals, and got blasted by a sand wind-storm in the process.
we had a horribly rainy day in frisco, which stunk because it was ben's first time there, and it was hard to enjoy with all the stinkin rain. but he got to see the golden gate bridge, and the pier, and china town. we were soaked to the bone by night-time.

anyways, thanks again for coming to see us ben - we loved having you!!