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!!

santa cruz weekend

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

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!

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.