Pretty Darn Great

first, an update: brett and i recently returned from our trip to san diego, and it was indeed an amazing place. we would really like to live there, and our trip just confirmed that for us.
after returning, we had to choose between 2 job offers brett was given within the week we returned from san diego - one of the jobs was in san diego, and one was here, in san jose. after a lot of stressful talks and laying out the pros and cons so many times i couldn't register the difference, we finally chose the job here, in san jose (well, it's actually like 20 min away, in mountainview).
it is a great job that will offer brett lots of opportunity, and it is exactly what he deserves after working so hard at deloitte.
we're still holding on to our hope of moving to san diego, but probably within the next 3 years, instead of like next month.

in the mean time, i am being reminded that san jose is a pretty darn great place. so stop my whinin' already.
we went camping this weekend, in santa cruz - this was the view from our campground - not too shabby, huh:
marley would sit here all day long like a statue at the hope of getting some sausage from brett:

this morning we went for a walk on the beach. happy easter to us.we tuckered marley out real good.

like a thanksgiving miracle - that keeps giving...

thanks to our awesome friends kyle & mel who are single-handedly keeping the stephen's cocoa business booming, brett became acquainted with this pumpkin spice drink. i don't really care for it, but when we left their house a few weeks ago, he informed me that it was "delicious" and we have to try to get some. he went online when we got home, and found out that shipping basically doubled the price of the stuff. i assured him that we would be able to have a family member send some to us from utah, but he would probably have to wait til thanksgiving, when they could find it on store shelves.

fast forward to yesterday:

we had a pretty rough weekend, and i insisted that brett and i go to safeway to secure for ourselves some treats to help our problems go away. if only for 30 minutes or so.

while cruising down the aisles (we weren't even shopping for hot chocolate), brett must have "felt" the presence of the stephens, because somehow he immediately eyed a single dented can of pumpkin spice that must have been left over from last thanksgiving, stomped on in the stocking shelves outback, and then found and thrown in with the dark chocolate variety on the hot chocolate shelf.

i wish you could have seen brett's face.