more

I was cleaning out my google drive the other day and happened upon this quote that I designed about a year ago. It took me a second to realize that I had made it and remember why I did at the time. Now it feels like such an unexpected present to myself! This little thing came along just when I was feeling in a little bit of self pity fest. It made me think of how life is just full of more. MORE of everything! The good, the bad, the ugly crying faces. But mostly the good!

I in no way feel like I am amazing with this stuff-but it just feels so good to mess around. It's my own little stress reliever and sometimes these little do-daddles act like my journal. I'll find something that inspires me or really speaks to how I'm feeling and then I'll add some 100% me-factor. YAY PRESENTS TO SELF!

santa cruz

Today we went wayyyyyy out of comfort zones in Santa Cruz. First, we drove out to the Mystery Spot because every bumper sticker in the bay area told us to, jumped fences for a beach cliff, and actually shared an entree together without a fork fight (never done!). 

The Mystery Spot was so worth it and a such a trip! There is a random spot in a Santa Cruz forest where everything tilts about 17 degrees for no reason. You feel like you're standing straight up, but you are actually tilting forwards or backwards. We got a bumper sticker so we can now join the bay area club. 

Santa Cruz had the dreamiest weather ever. We've been rained out in Palo Alto for the past couple weeks so a sunny day at the beach was pure gold to us. I got sunburnt and it was a beautiful moment. 

And in other news-I broke my camera in record time. 72 hours! It won't turn on, but I'm thinking it just needs another 2 year break and hopefully it will work once I drag it out of the closet again.

muir woods

We checked off another must-do this weekend for our SF/Palo Alto experiences list. Muir Woods was beautifulllll and very very wet. Like we looked like drowned rats-wet afterwards. Ha. We came unprepared-without food, proper jackets, or shoes-but we made it through. 

I'm not a big hiker, but there is this kind of renewing feeling that comes when you're outside. I hate the entire experience and then I'm really grateful that people literally shove me up mountains (my father in law did it last month-there was a trust-fall exercise involved) because I learn to appreciate what others appreciate. Make sense? I love it because other people love it and I need to learn to love things that I don't love doing. Say that 10x fast. YAY hiking!

work in progress: photography

Loom kit. Quilt. Wave Board. Ukulele. Back flips. Whistling by putting two fingers in my mouth. Wrapping Christmas presents. Photography. That's my running list of things that I've been trying to master since I was a little kid. I think the loom kit was the biggest failure to date. 

I'm currently attempting to learn more about photography since I bought a bright and shiny new camera two years ago and up until last week I had it stuffed in the closet. The camera looks so easy to use and then I'm like a cave man over here rediscovering fire when I figured out that you can turn off and on the flash. Real life. 

So far I've learned that lighting is a crucial thing and that Caleb is a horrible test subject. He intentionally poses like he's in pain for every photo so I can't save any of them. 

^ Foothill Park in Palo Alto is the best scenic drive. It's the only park I've been to where they card to see if you live here (snob to the max) but it's worth it. 

^ Officially my favorite street in P.A. Every house is a classic and has been flipped by some really talented people. Red doors! White picket fences! Boxwood hedges people!

6 months later...

After a 6 month absence-I'm back! I'm kickin'! and I've taken about a million selfies that I know everyone is begging to see! But real talk: one of my goals this year is to document life. Write more, take more photos, and reflect on it all.

We spent another long weekend in Carmel. This photo came from a random lady who I thought pulled up a little too close to our bench in her mini van and watched us for a solid 5 minutes. What. She offered to take our photo and all was forgiven.

I found my dream floors at the Legion of Honor in SF. After thousands of hours on Pinterest the search is over!

Thanksgiving photo 7/10 people not caught off guard is pretty good

Our only photo from New Years. Caleb looks like he just got tasered but it's really just him trying to take down my phone after I took about 6 unplanned photos. 

dating

I look back on Caleb and I meeting, dating, and eventually getting married. I remember avoiding all lounge wear and pajamas for months and months because Caleb would always pop by my apartment without warning and I didn't want to look undone. I remember curling my hair exactly the same way for our first like 7 dates because he casually mentioned that my hair looked nice weeks before. I also remember our first date after we got married and how grown up I felt going to dinner with my husband. Weird! Weird! Weird!

For a while, we kind of got into a date slump and we've been making a better effort to keep that same kind of special anticipation for date night. It's something that we look forward to, plan throughout the week, and try really really hard not to break for our social calendars. Our best recipe for a date is: simple + new + relaxing.

This week we tried a new indian restaurant that turned out to be amazing! You always have this trepidation about restaurants that look semi-empty when you walk in and seem a little too excited to seat you. Soooo good!

We also decided to explore Stanford during sunset and play a little frisbee in some random courtyard. Right outside the main quad is a cast of my favorite sculpture, The Burghers of Calais, by Rodin.

^ To the girl in green: nailed it.

^when you think that your self-timer already went off and you did a High School Musical jumping shot for nothing

4th of july

For the past couple of years, it feels like we've been all over the place for 4th of July. Last year was Texas, before that I was a youth camp leader while Caleb was working in Arizona, and before that was California.

I was so excited to return back to our wonderful Provo and celebrate with family. We also got to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday and visit my sister who just started college. Lot's going on! We had a small family reunion and birthday party up Provo Canyon with lots of food and games. Caleb and I are semi-athletic! Come see us for badminton and a game of pickle.

One of my favorite things about Utah summer is the smell! It's so distinct-warm, soft, and reminds me of grass and the mountains. There are a couple of things that we still miss about being in Utah-mainly being close to family and our friends-but, we feel like we've started a new part of our lives in Palo Alto and I started missing our new "home" a bit towards the end of our trip.

We went to Stadium of Fire with my family to see Journey perform. There were so many fireworks that it started to rain debri!