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.

The Fam-Damily

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

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.