Livin' the Dream

Livin' in a van, down by the... ocean.

2012-01-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

so the day after christmas, brett and i embarked on our first real road trip.

i highly recommend it (obviously, notice this is by-far my longest blog post ever)

looking for a real good time, a chance to get closer with your friend/spouse/partner, and an opportunity to really appreciate the beautiful world we live in, comfortable beds, and clean bathrooms? try this:

step 1: rent one of these: (like the car version of a mullet - all business/driving in the front; all party in the back)

just make sure you park in a safe, quiet, dark, and inconspicuous neighborhood to sleep - we got better at this as we went along.

step 2: spend 6 days covering what should be just a 7-hour drive. pick a beautiful place. (we drove from san jose to malibu along the coast hwy.)

malibu:
big sur:

step 3: eat like kings! (or pigs)

morro bay sunshine health foods and cafe: (i couldn't stop talking about this place after, and i am now trying to decode their recipes)

pismo beach splash cafe:

santa barbara silvergreens:

step 4: get near the water! (or go ahead and get in it, if you like the ocean more than you like feeling your skin, like brett) we were lucky to be at the beach for most of the day, every day.

swimming at pismo beach:

swinging in cayucos:
sunrise in san simeon:
big sur:

brett body surfing (aka freezing his buns off) in malibu:

more malibu, i think - can't really remember, it's all starting to blur together...
foggy day at zuma beach in malibu:

pismo beach:

step 5: check out the wild life!

birds in malibu:

sea otters in morro bay:

mega-monarch butterflies: (annoying sideways video)

dolphins in malibu:

marley in the van: (okay, he's pretty much the opposite of wild, but he was a great travel companion)

step 6: check out the local scenery:

"the rock" in morro bay:

hiking in big sur:
solvang, the danish capital of america, and the most christmasy place on earth:

more big sur:

step 7: just relax!!

obviously we had a great time, but more importantly it made us really appreciative and grateful for the many things we have, and where we live.

31 in San Diego

2011-11-24T22:13:00.001-08:00

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

2011-10-26T14:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-17T06:24:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-12T10:40:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-12T10:19:00.001-07:00

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

2011-09-29T22:39:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-07T08:02:00.001-07:00

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

2011-08-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

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.

The Fam-Damily

2011-07-27T16:15:00.000-07:00

5 out of my 8 siblings live in rural upstate NY, where I grew up. Went and saw them over 4th of July weekend.

As you can see, I mostly took pics of their crazy adorable lil kids, but I promise most of my time was spent with the big kids. I promise I wasn't following my poor nieces and nephews around begging them to let me take photos. I promise I wasn't the crazy Aunt who kept pleading for a hug every 5 minutes. I promise...

ok... maybe I was all of those things. but I bet when they weren't running away from me, they were loving it as much as I was.

left to right: lil sis Esther, her husband Brian, my oldest niece Anna, and sis-in-law Heather. Just talkin' story under the big tree. love the country.

This was literally my best friend growing up - my big sis Rachel. Love her. Can you believe she has 5 kids? She makes mothering look good!

My #1 role model - mama. one incredible woman. she came to visit me here in california just a couple weeks before I went home. first time I've had her all to myself in my life. Fantastic.

Pretty Darn Great

2011-04-24T20:34:00.001-07:00

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...

2011-04-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

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.

thank you, mom & dad.

2011-03-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

i've been thinking about my childhood a lot lately, I think due to two facts:
1. i'm reading this book "Growing A Farmer" which is a memoir about a guy who leaves his life in the city to become a small time farmer.
2. it's that time in my life where Brett and I are trying to "put down roots" (as they say) and think about what we want for our future lit'luns.

so mom & dad i just wanna say thanks for doing so many things right.
i don't know how you did it, with 9 kids and all.

i am especially grateful for growing up in the country side. even though my dad wasn't a commercial farmer, he is the son of a farmer, and he knows how to garden and make things grow. he grew enough food for 11 people to live off for the entire year. we ate tons of vegetables of all varieties and only ate meat once a week, on sundays. my dad always worked stinkin' hard, and he seemed to love it. he also taught us to work hard.

my mom grew up in the suburbs of oregon, and i don't know how she transitioned to the country life, but she did it with grace. she learned to skin/pluck animals and butcher them. she canned so much food she had to get reparative surgery on both of her wrists. she used only cloth diapers with 9 kids. enough said.
my mom is really the best woman i know. she is completely selfless, and gave us so much room to become whoever we wanted to be. she gave up so much of herself in order to raise 9 kids. i can't imagine how she felt much of the time. but i only remember her happy.

this is the valley i grew up in:

the white house & shed with brown roof is the house i grew up in. the barns around it belong to our neighbor, but his farm was my playland as a kid.
This was my neighbor's barn inside. we loved to climb on all the hay and jump from level to level. we knew where all the holes were, and rarely fell through.
my favorite was milking time, when all the cows would come in to the lower level to milk. i loved the energy inside the room, the mooing of the impatient cows walking in, and the smell of their sweat. i loved running down and watching them methodically go through their routine. the cows knew exactly what to do.

here's the swimming hole where we would run to when the weather was finally warm enough to swim! a few too many water snakes here, but all my siblings got in any way, so i did too. i think just 2 bites happened, and neither were me.

my dad taught us to work hard (aka: he required us to work hard or we had no privileges), and now i am grateful for it.
every summer, we had to chop and haul enough firewood to heat our house through the long cold winters. We climbed my grandpa's hill and my dad cut down trees. then we kids had to run the wood splitter and haul all the wood down the hill. my dad rented a u-haul to get the wood to our house. and we would make trip after trip every saturday til we had enough wood.

i know i won't be raising my kids in the country-country like i grew up with, and a big piece of me is really sad about that. i have good memories from that time. but it was a hard life, and my parents had to sacrifice so much. at the time, lack of money made our lifestyle necessary. i guess i'm grateful that i have more options than my parents did, but i think they are stronger people than i am because i have grown into a "cushier" life.
i guess what i want to take away from my childhood and provide for my own children is:
- room to run free and wild. even if it's not the entire countryside. maybe just an adequate yard.
- opportunities to sacrifice and work hard
- learn to grow a garden and eat what we grow
- love being outside, and seeing the beauty in nature

back on our bikes

2011-03-15T21:10:00.001-07:00

this was our view last saturday - hard to get depth perception with our mediocre camera, but from the northern santa cruz mtns where we were, you can see all the way from san jose to the city of san francisco and out to the ocean.
this was just unloading the bikes. i wish i could bring my camera on our rides. we should probably get a smaller camera so we can just stow it in our camelback or something.
the ride was gorgeous! single-track cutting through lush bright green grass-covered steep hills and valleys. Russian Ridge was the place. wish we could have stayed longer, but my hands were freezing & numb!

heading to... san diego?

2011-02-24T10:13:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-02-17T19:35:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

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!!

santa cruz weekend

2010-11-14T21:08:00.000-08:00

we recently went to this park:
Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz.
(a town we totally wish we could afford to live in, but probably never will)

we walked down this boardwalk in a eucalyptus grove...

and we saw these:

it's monarch butterfly migration time. it was neat to see. they fluttered above us in the trees and we pointed and whispered.

can't wait to take my bro ben here when he comes to visit for christmas.

BIG sur

2010-10-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

we drove down the big sur coast a couple weekends ago.
our intent was to camp at kirk creek campground - right on the ocean side. it was packed by the time we got down there, so we ended up 12 miles inland at a plain but nice campground called ponderosa.
it was fun, besides the fact that brett was certain that the old man camping next to us was going to murder us in our sleep. we lived, but brett kept tossing and turning all night listening for him.

go giants!

2010-10-08T17:50:00.001-07:00

we had the chance to go to a giants game a couple weekends ago.
brett's become quite a fan since we moved here...
now they're in the playoffs, and brett's anxiously watching their every move.

Tahoe...

2010-09-06T21:49:00.001-07:00

Just got back from our non-labor-labor-day-weekend trip to tahoe.
No wonder people talk so highly about this place. It was beautiful.
We did all our favorite things: hiking, mountain biking (at a ski-resort that took us up on chair lifts, which was a-mazing), and paddle-boarding.
Oh, yeah, and we ate all kinds of horrible-for-you food all weekend. it was awesome!

3 years and still kickin'

2010-07-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

June 8, 2007 - June 8, 2010.
We returned to the place where we found each other.

Our new Bikes. Yay.

2010-05-30T19:11:00.001-07:00

So some of you heard about how both of our mountain bikes were stolen within a month of moving to our new place. We love our apt, but it must be said that our new neighborhood is a bit sketchy.

Anyways, with summer upon us, Brett and I have been researching and shopping for our new bikes. Finally, we have made our purchases. I just finished putting mine together yesterday. I'm pretty excited to try them out on the Santa Cruz mountains when Brett's bike arrives, in a couple weeks.

Here's Mine:

Here's Brett's:

Is it just me or are these bikes twinners? That was not on purpose, but I love it.
Pretty much awesome. I'm excited to see what we can do when we take them out. Pretty sure I'm preparing for some cuts and bruises. I love mountain biking, but I'm pretty weak.

4 eyes

2010-04-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

i remember when i was 10 i wanted glasses more than anything in the world.
what was i thinking? my wish was granted, finally. boo.

A Living Teddy Bear

2010-04-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

So we got a dog. Marley.
And he's pretty awesome.
His perfect day = walk, cuddle, walk, cuddle, walk, cuddle, walk...

He's not a barker, a scratcher, or a chewer.
We rescued him from a shelter in Sacramento. He loves us. But he also loves any human who will pet him, so let's be real... he would leave us tomorrow if someone gave him a treat and scratched his head.

And, now here's what he looks like after we got his hair cut. A different dog.

the ultimate weekend

2010-02-17T12:54:00.000-08:00

this past weekend brett took monday off and we packed in as many fun events as possible for the ultimate valentine's weekend. first:
we went to maverick's surf competition - if you didn't already hear, the waves were so big this year that they swept spectators off the beachside with broken bones, so we had to watch from afar...
so, this is what we actually saw (through binoculars we could see the surfers)

this is what we wish we saw:

then:
we finally found a new apartment! We like it a lot, it's way cheaper, and we are moving in 1 1/2 weeks!
this is the place:

that night, we planned to do a fancy-pants valentine's dinner, but we were so pooped we just had pizza and watched the olympics, cozy style.

next: we went to our favorite fruit & vegetable stand in watsonville, ca and bought like 20 lbs of produce:

finally, we relaxed on the beach in santa cruz. aaahhhhhhh...

we love california... way more than i thought we ever would. we are surrounded by amazing beauty on all sides!

Outrageous.

2010-02-03T21:51:00.000-08:00

I remember once in Haleiwa, HI when Brett & I got pulled over for not having a seatbelt on, not having registration, and not having current insurance. The cop joked with us for a bit, asked us if we were employed, and said he would flip a coin to decide to give us a ticket or not. We lost the coin toss, and he still let us off with a warning.

But in the last few weeks Brett has been trying to find out what he can get away with in CA. Turns out when they get ya, they get ya hard.
Speeding Ticket - 71 in a 55: $300. Yikes.
Not coming to a complete stop before turning right on red: $500.

Turns out ya can't get away with much here. Another reason to miss the land of Aloha...

finally blogging again

2010-02-02T21:47:00.002-08:00

so now that brett is working crazy late hours i am finally getting back to blogging and looking at all your blogs, while i wait for him to get home...
these pics are actually from our halloween trip to yosemite. we traded in costumes and candy for hiking this year, and it was lovely.

music we're lovin...

2009-10-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

a couple weeks ago brett surprised me by picking me up early from work, and then he drove me to santa cruz and we went to a mason jennings concert.
i used to be enamored by mason jennings' music a few years ago in college, and after that concert, he's back on my top list of good listens. folky, earthy, and just plain good.

Family Visit Time!

2009-10-23T19:27:00.000-07:00

Brett's fam came to visit for conference wkend. It was fun, did a lot of hiking & exploring in san francisco.

more pics from our trip...

2009-08-04T16:41:00.001-07:00

friggin awesome tree, huh. this was actually the exact landmark where rachel, josh, and i ended our bike tour down the oregon & cali coast 10 years ago! (that makes me realize i'm really getting old)

it doesn't look like it, but this was a really warm day, and we both jumped into the ocean. this was our own little private beach, accessed by a rickety stairway down a cliff edge. finding this secluded beach was my favorite part of the entire trip. it was hidden from view, and separate from any beach. lovely sand too.

that's me on the sand... soakin up the sun.

this was the seal rock at yaquina head. check out that seal on the left, just chillin and doin a horizontal stunt on the rock. cutie

Oregon was Amazing!

2009-08-04T16:29:00.001-07:00

Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Newport. We climbed all the way to the top!

This was one of my fav parts of the trip - deep sea fishing! this is brett right after he caught a big shiny salmon. then we ate it for dinner. yum-nummers.

THIS was our condo. nice view, huh.

we did a bonfire on the beach one night. we roasted marshies too. the beach is in the background, but it was really foggy, which kinda added to the fun.

tide-pooling one morning there were loads of star fish.

oregon or bust!

2009-07-22T12:18:00.000-07:00

in about 2 days we are taking our first official "ROAD TRIP!"
all the way from san jo to lincoln city, or. the best part is we will be driving along the coast for most of the way, right on highway 101. stoked!
any advice for passing the time on road trips? we are armed with tons of music, books on tape, and of course we can fall back on annoying sing-along songs if we're real desperate.

we will be staying right on the beach in lincoln city, which is what i'm looking forward to most. falling asleep to the sound of waves on sand. yes!

Brett's Big 26th

2009-06-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Birthday Time!
for Brett's b-day, we went to monterey. it was a beautiful, warm! weekend there, and we had a hotel right on the warf. niiiiice...
that night, we had a bunch of our friends from byuh over (who are all in the accounting profession as well --- oh, gotta love san jo.) and they celebrated with us.
some of them are moving away now. bye april & jay-hawk! we will miss them...

brett gets excited every time we see seals. there are tons in monterey - and they're cute and little.

i think this was brett's favorite part - we saw sea otters! this one is feasting on a crab.

the awesome monterey bay aquarium.

brett agreed to trade birthdays with me this year, so he is turning 29, and i am going to turn 26 in nov. hey, a girl can dream, right?

Last day o' school!

2009-06-15T08:43:00.001-07:00

It's party time! Last friday was our official last day of school. These are a bunch of my students, playing during lunch. This is their favorite hobby - soccer! They're pretty dang good too!

Above is one of the students that I met with regularly after school. I was determined to make sure she passed, and she did! I love this girl.
These are some of my wonderful students. I'm going to miss them. It took so long to be at a point where we could trust each other and learn together, and now they're moving on! I'm sad to start all over again next year with a new bunch of 9th graders...

2 YEARS

2009-06-10T21:43:00.000-07:00

Monday was our 2 Year Anniversary.
This was my gift to Brett - one of my students did it for us.

Ever since Brett lived in Brooklyn, he has really loved the art of graffiti.
This piece is a canvas, 2ft by 3 ft.
It looks great in our house. One big bonus of teaching city kids.

Big Sur Weekend

2009-05-10T18:38:00.001-07:00

big sur is amazing. we spent our day yesterday exploring its amazing coast line. dang, the ocean is so beautiful here, but nothing like hawaii... in hawaii, the water beckons you to come and play. here, it says "respect me, or die"

this has got to be the ultimate playland... it's too bad this beach is restricted from public access. brett and i were almost drooling as we looked at it from above:

isn't this an awesome shot? brett's masterwork:

it is also SO COLD at the california coast!

looking through a new lense

2009-05-03T09:11:00.000-07:00

we got a new camera! we decided since we are visiting so many beautiful places here in cali, we need to have a camera that will at least give them some justice for their natural beauty...
this is us at the rose garden, located just outside of downtown san jose:

Spring Breaaaaaaak!

2009-04-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

tomorrow... back to school. spring break was great, especially since it started with a fun trip with the tolleys! they visited us and we road tripped to monterey... so beautiful. brett and i are now trying to find a way to live there.

the beach south of monterey:

digging around in the rocks:

i love this picture of mom:

it was such a nice break, but since brett didn't get any time off anyways, i guess it's only fair for me to be going back to work. ahhh... it pays to be a teacher.

And we were attacked by a swarm of... butterflies!

2009-03-29T21:53:00.001-07:00

this weekend: we took a mountain-biking/camping trip to the near-by joseph d. grant county park. beautiful. this was our first real mountain biking trip with our new bikes. we love them. it was fun, and we are grateful for every inch of travel on the forks.

the craziest thing about this park was the huge number of butterflies - unlike anything i've ever seen - there were swarms of them - and they just blew in the wind like dry leaves - twice while we were biking they flew right into my face! it was amazing.

Weekend Adventures

2009-03-26T21:51:00.001-07:00

This is the County Park we hiked at last weekend. Probably the prettiest of the local ones we've gone to so far - tons of waterfalls! (Yuvas County Park)

School this week

2009-01-26T13:23:00.001-08:00

This week the school I teach at is doing "Intersession," which means all the teachers teach different classes - and the kids get to take a break from their regular schedule and take classes just for fun. So, my teaching day consists of teaching flag football, watching "love flicks," and teaching algebra review. It is quite a change from teaching English and Reading all day. And I love it!!

As for Brett, he's just started the accounting "busy season," so I don't see him til btwn 9:30 and 10 pm. It's pretty rough, but hopefully it will be over by mid-March. We hope.

What have you been up to lately?

P.S. It's sunny and "warm" in San Jose today!!!

City Life Blues...

2008-11-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm back. Finally. This city life thing has been quite an adjustment. Hence the fact that I haven't written on this blog in months and months.
Well anyways, I am teaching at a high school in downtown San Jose. I knew that teaching inner-city kids would be quite different from teaching kids on the North Shore of Oahu. But still, it has been, in many ways, much more difficult than I had tried to imagine.
Oh well... I'm just taking one day at a time basically. And trying to focus on the few hours of my life that I enjoy = getting home. making dinner. sitting down. seeing brett (after he gets home, usually around 8:30pm)

anyways, i have this terrible habit of whining about this new city life, so i'll stop right now.
to celebrate my birthday, i am taking this friday off, and looking forward to that is making this week look much brighter.

thanks to lanell, allyson, mikila, nancy, and friends who have called me out of my hole and asked me to be responsive and human again. i am coming back!

and guess what: thanksgiving is coming soon. i'm sure you're looking forward to it as much as i am. ben, esther, and her husband brian are coming to san jose to celebrate! yeah, that should be nice.

Less than 2 months Left in Paradise!

2008-05-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

yikes! we are leaving hawaii in less than 2 months.
so we're trying to just enjoy our last few weeks as much as possible, which has become more difficult because we are now without any vehicle. our beloved "eve" died, and we are now on foot, so it has become difficult to explore as much as we used to.
we now mostly go to hukilau beach (pictured above, on our blog title) which is great too. hey, we can't complain - we live within walking distance of a tropical beach, right?

Camping on the Ridge in Sunset, HI

2008-03-04T00:17:00.001-08:00

Last week we went camping in the mountain ridges on North Shore. It turned out to be quite the adventure, complete with a mysterious hovering helecopter, strange sounds in the night, and ground too hard to sleep much. (at least for Brett - turns out I can sleep anywhere)
I can't wait to go again!

brett's bodacious burn

2008-02-17T14:32:00.000-08:00

here is what happens when you go to the beach 2 days in a row - after not going to the beach for 3 weeks.

turns out you get to have a new sleeping partner - a fan. (this is in addition to the 3 fans that regularly blow on our bed)

A Night Out on the Town

2007-12-10T22:28:00.000-08:00

On December 1st, Brett and I went to see The Lion King in Honolulu. The tickets were a christmas gift from Andrea, who I teach with at Kahuku.
It was amazing! That night, we stayed downtown for the annual Honolulu City Lights festival and night parade. fun times.

Grocery Shopping Blues

2007-10-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

We were reminded the other day of why money seems to flow out of our pockets so quickly here in Hawaii. The food here just costs too much and we find ourselves making the same recipes all the time. We have already looked into the shopping and farmers markets in San Jose, and its looking promising. Bring on the good deals!!!

"Free from Labor" Day

2007-09-04T16:32:00.001-07:00

We had a great Labor Day, and played all day in the sun at Lani Kai Beach in Kailua.

work life, school life...

2007-09-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

"The Bubble," as my classroom is called.
This is where I teach, at Kahuku High. So far, the kids haven't hassled me too bad, and the administration has been supportive. I am really enjoying teaching Reading Workshop.

Brett has just started fall semester - our last fall semester!!
We have accepted the accounting job Brett was offered by Deloitte in San Jose, California, so that's where we'll be headed next summer.

Graduation Celebration! Finally.

2007-07-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

Finally graduated, and it only took me 5 1/2 years. For a bachelors.
One more year and we'll celebrate again - for Brett this time.

Newly Wedded

2007-06-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

June 8, 2007 ~ A day of miracles, blessings, fun, and craziness.
We love every moment of married life - and are constantly remarking about how much more fun life is, being married.
We are truly livin the dream.