Babymoon

There's not a lot to recap about this trip to Pismo Beach - there was a lot of walking, beaching and relaxing to be had. It was a nice little getaway and I'm glad we did something fun and new together before we become a family of three.

Pismo Beach

Morro Bay

We also drove up to Hearst Castle, which was cool. We took the "Grand Rooms" tour, and I wish they weren't $25 each because it would have been great to take another tour of different parts of the estate.

On the way out we got to see the wild zebras on the property!

In the past month...

1. James' sister and nieces came to visit from Washington. We had a lot of family visiting time with them and others from our area - very fun!

2. We had new counters installed in our kitchen and both bathrooms! I really, really need to get around to doing an updated house tour.

3. We went to two Giants games - one with my family and one with my coworkers.

4. I finally completed our wedding album and ordered it from Shutterfly, just in time for our anniversary! I'm a little disappointed in the quality, but not sure that I care enough to do anything about it.

5. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary in Santa Cruz. It was lovely - the best part was our sailing trip on the Chardonnay II. We saw a whale and dolphins, drank wine (chardonnay, naturally) and met another couple that was also celebrating their anniversary and also got married at Lighthouse Point - just a year earlier than us! I told the captain my name and he said I was the first passenger named Chardonnay that he'd had :)

Free anniversary cake from Hoffman's Bakery

The view from our private balcony at the Babbling Brook Inn

6. I've been busy planning our housewarming party, which is October 2. Should be a good time!

7. Finally, BIG NEWS: I quit my job!! This was a huge decision and something I had never done... I quit without having another job lined up (Other than the time I quit my high school job to move away to college, of course). I had not been unemployed for a single day since the age of 18. I'm lucky to have a husband with a job, so I was able to do this. It was the best decision for me. I didn't like the work, I didn't like the way I was treated, so what's the point? It's a strange position for me to be in - one that I'm not used to. But I know that it was the best decision for me.

I'm going to try to get a house tour put together in the near future, and pick up blogging in general. Trouble is that lately I do NOT feel like sitting in front of a computer, and have no motivation to blog about life... I hope I get inspired soon!

Anniversary plans

We're coming up on one year of marriage - wow! A lot has happened and on one hand it flew by, but on the other hand 9/18/10 seems like so long ago. We've been planning a weekend back in Santa Cruz for a few months and we're so excited to go back and celebrate one year of wedded bliss ♥

Our weekend getaway plans include...

Staying at the Babbling Brook Inn, where we have a room with a fireplace, private deck and hot tub (We've never been to this inn before. It's pricey but this is the perfect excuse!)

A picnic at Lighthouse Point, the beautiful location where we said our vows last year.

Heading to Hoffman's Bakery - the bakery that provided our wedding cake - for our free anniversary cake. Oh heck yes we're cashing in on that!

A lunch or dinner at Kianti's, which catered our rehearsal dinner.

Sailing on the Chardonnay charter sailboat - we planned to do this on our honeymoon last year but they cancelled it last minute. I'm super excited to step foot on my namesake boat, haha.

Dinner at Michael's on Main, the restaurant that hosted our reception (Hopefully we can eat on the back deck where our party was held).

Hmmm most of these seem to revolve around eating :P Our vacations are often go-go-go, see everything and walk many miles. For this trip we're going to try and take it easy and relax! Can't wait!

P.S. If you want to see lots and lots of photos from our wedding weekend, check out the "Our Wedding" tab at the top of the page.

San Francisco and Napa

This weekend Mom and I drove to San Francisco to meet my sister and her roomie Lisa (visiting for the summer from Ireland!) for some Napa wine tasting!

Check out the girls' street in the Castro - amazing view but can you say steep?! Oy.

In Napa, we checked out (I think) four wineries.

Hagafen Cellars



Whitehall Lane



V. Sattui





We had a little picnic lunch at V. Sattui

Not pictured: Sutter Home (Yeah the $5 wine. Haha, tasting is free there!)

After relaxing at the girls' apartment, we drove to Twin Peaks once it was dark to check out the beautiful city view!



Oh those blankies were so necessary!

Sunday we went on a little hike that starts just down the block from their house. So pretty.

Thanks Rose and Lisa for the awesome weekend!

Videos of Dublin & Venice

This is way overdue, but I finally uploaded some videos that I took in Europe last summer. You'll notice [if you watch it, that is. I hardly ever watch other bloggers' videos, so my feelings won't be hurt if you politely move along] that we can't stop talking for even one minute for a good video! That's always how it is...

This first one is from the first day of my trip when I arrived in Dublin. It's a live Irish band performing at Temple Bar - Irish music is so fun!

Here's one from the same day. We were outside of Dublin Castle and this group of people was singing. I creepily recorded them because they were so good [The images are capturing the buildings so that I wasn't just pointing my camera at them. You really only need to listen to the audio.]

And finally, one from Venice, Italy of the gondolas floating down the canal. Isn't it so beautiful?! I think it's probably the prettiest city I've ever been to. It doesn't even seem real.

If you're interested in reading all the posts about my 2-week European adventure last summer, click here!

Weekend in Washington

Last night, James and I returned from a 3-day weekend visiting family in Washington. His sister, brother in law, nieces and nephews live there and one of the nieces got married on Saturday.

I just love my new family! They're so much fun to spend time with. We spent the Friday through Sunday hanging out... I wish I had taken more pictures, but I have several from the wedding. It was a beautiful event and a ton of fun!

Me & my niece!

James & his brother in law

James & the bride

James, brother in law, niece, nephew's girlfriend, nephew

Niece Linae

Great nephew (the bride's son) and nephew

Our niece the flower girl and her dad

The worst part of the weekend? I got sick :( I'm home from work today because I feel so weak - it seems like everyone else in the world has had this cold, so it's about time (unfortunately).