tripleversary beach trip.

quirky alter outside of restaurant

The theme of the weekend was ANNIVERSARY.

For my parents anniversary this year my Dad gave my momma a surprise trip. Little did she know we were all coming along. Courtney, Tara, PG, me, Kelly, Robert, Kevin and Grace.

Over the weekend we toasted two more anniversaries: Saturday the 26th, Kelly and Robert celebrated their anniversary of 17 years of marriage (toast!). Sunday the 27th PG and I celebrated our 12 months of matrimony (toast!).

We spent the weekend down in Santa Cruz riding the giant dipper, swimming in the warm as bath water pool, and enjoying the great blue sea.

Here we are basking en el sole! 

one.

1

...

year of learning.

year of loving. 

year of laughing.

Phil and I have been married one year. Does every year go by this quickly? As short as  one year has been, it also has been rich. 

Rich with growth. 

We are two strong minded, passionate people. We are both simultaneously very playful and very serious in nature. We are in many ways different and in many more ways quite the same. We have learned so much.

I know we have miles to go before we are sage and old and wise, but I am so proud that our steps, for the most part, are upward. We help each other make those steps. 

We have many treasured memories from this first year of marriage. We have moved, and traveled, and met wonderful friends along the way. We have become our own little family of two. We have established traditions, we have gone on a trillion afternoon walks, we have talked incessantly as two talkers do.

I am so grateful to have a husband who is loving, genuine, steady, honest, trustworthy, hilarious, faithful, intelligent, and truly more handsome every day. 

I thank him for marrying me often, especially on this June 27th.

Tomorrow I'll tell you how we celebrated!

canary yellow.

Today I read this, and wanted to share. It's inspiring.

"Nearly 60 years ago, while I was serving as a young bishop, Kathleen McKee, a widow in my ward, passed away. Among her things were three pet canaries. Two, with perfect yellow coloring, were to be given to her friends. The third, Billie, had yellow coloring marred by gray on his wings. Sister McKee had written in a note to me: “Will you and your family make a home for him? He isn’t the prettiest, but his song is the best.”

Sister McKee was much like her yellow canary with gray on its wings. She was not blessed with beauty, gifted with poise, or honored by posterity. Yet her song helped others to more willingly bear their burdens and more ably shoulder their tasks.

The world is filled with yellow canaries with gray on their wings. The pity is that so precious few have learned to sing. Some are young people who don’t know who they are, what they can be or even want to be; all they want is to be somebody. Others are stooped with age, burdened with care, or filled with doubt—living lives far below the level of their capabilities." President Thomas S. Monson

 Read the rest here.

why not a windbreaker.

Donning Dad's windbreakers at a fabulous barbeque to celebrate cousin Brianna's recent graduation!

I think we should bring windbreakers back. 

So light

So easily folded into a small handful of fabric

So warm

So.................

swishy. 

court.

Courtney Lynn, my little sis, is now a college graduate!

Courtney studied Child Development, worked as a resident assistant in freshman housing for 3 years, interned at a charter school, and now she's getting ready to get start a masters-credential program at UC Davis! She is also incredibly kind, incredibly loyal, and incredibly wonderful. We are all SO proud of her and we also love her very much!

This weekend we got a chance to drive down to Cal Poly to celebrate the occasion.

We drove down in the company of Katie B who told us all about her adventures in Europe, of which we are very very jealous.
We listened to the speakers do their speeching and played spot court in the sea of robes.
We took lots of cap and gown pictures.
We saw a bump-it I will forever regret not photographing.
We enjoyed the ocean-breezy-warm weather.
We went down to Avila Beach and watched the dolphin pods play.
We followed court on a historic nighttime tour of downtown San Luis Obispo.

As always we ate too much at too many places (including more and better clam chowder... I'm a junky lately)

Then we packed up the cars to the brim and drove up through the golden hills back to the 'ville. P.S. May I just mention how much I love long road trips where P.G. and I can talk for hours on end? (Thought you didn't need your read-along-barf-bags anymore?! Thought wrong!)

A BIG congrats to cousins Kristen and Brianna who also got their diplomas this spring!

bucket list.

Did you know there's a California Poppy Reserve?!

 I must go there. 

this is what happy looks like.

This is what happy looks like. 

Nephew Griffin after...

1 A's game

1 karate fight with Uncle Phil

1 root beer

6  fables from Aunt Aubrey about Griffin as a bazooka wielding army hero with an RV made of lava-slash-ice...

1 hefty plate of nachos

many many questions about dinosaurs and saber-tooth cats

infinite handfuls of popcorn

1 story about Grandpa riding the SF city bus at age 8

1 late-night mango and chocolate ice cream cone at the offices of Dreyer's Inc.

pier 39.

This Saturday I wanted clam chowder.

So we went to a place that has really really good clam chowder.

It's called San Francisco.

Heard of it?

We started with a street fair on Embarcadero, where we both bought rings made of quarters. They say "Liberty" across the front which I really like. 

Then we walked down the Piers to 39. We ate some chowder in sourdough bowls, watched the sailboats and the seals, and took in some local street performer entertainment.

I love San Francisco. The bay was bright and full of life. The cliffs sloped around us like a modern day Atlantis. I've lived in the East, and the South, and the Mid West now... funny to think about... and this city is still quite simply the best!