my week in pictures 35

monday 12/9 - monday 12/16

This one isn't going to be terribly exciting, but I still have a few pics to post... The week was pretty busy at work since we are finishing things up for the holidays.

On Saturday we went out and did a ton of Christmas shopping, and afterwards we headed to GoodLife where there was a winter ale fest. going on featuring most of the local breweries. My favorite was definitely the mint stout from Riverbend, which I guess is local, but we had never heard of before. 

Pat had agreed to let some friends stay at our house for the weekend so that they could go boarding on Bachelor, so they met up with us at the festival and then we hung at the house for the night. The next day we took things super easy, and then headed to Brother John's for dinner, but for once I was too hungry to take any pictures of my food. 

After work on Monday (yes, I am including Monday for once), we headed over to Crux for a taco tasting event they were having featuring various tacos from restaurants around town paired with local brews. There was even a "bacon cheeseburger taco" made by Crux, which was literally beef, lettuce, tomato, and cheese wrapped up in a woven shell made completely out of bacon. I tried it... It was messy, and that was way too much meat, but I liked the bacon part.

[[ beautiful sunset on my drive home from work. blacksmith. mural at the gym. cold days call for thick sweaters and antlers. reflections/the living room. some of our favorite ornaments. crux taco night. winter ale fest at goodlife. ]]

my week in pictures 34

monday 12/2 - sunday 12/8

First of all, I can't believe its already December!
Last week was super cold and full of snow and Christmasy things. Hooray! The whole -15 degrees thing Saturday night was a bit alarming though... I had never experienced such cold weather before! Good thing I have been stocking up on warm clothing since we moved here for such an occasion. I also worked from home a lot since my coworkers were all gone, it was so icy out, and I had never really driven in the snow before, so the week seemed to go by really quickly.

A few more things of note:
First of all, the Central Oregon snow is weird. Super powdery and dry to be more specific. In fact, so powdery and dry that you can't make a snowball, let alone a snow man with it! We were both very surprised.

Second, over here there are really no Christmas tree farms! Something I guess we were totally taking advantage of in the valley without even knowing it. Instead there are little stands set up ALL over town. Since it was so cold out on Saturday, when we went to get our tree they were all frozen with their needles tucked in, so we literally had to pick one hoping it would look good and let it unthaw in our living room over night. Luckily we ended up with a pretty much perfect, symmetrical, and full seven footer.

Third, the cold. Oh man was it cold!! The picture of our temperature gage on the Subaru was taken at around 8pm, so imagine how much colder it got throughout the night! In fact it was so cold outside, that as we were driving, ice was forming on the inside of the car windows. I have definitely never experienced such intense weather before (and I know that my friends from Montana will laugh at me for saying that). Sunday was no longer in the negatives, but it was still cold as hell when me and Pat decided to put up our Christmas lights, which took about two hours. I was completely frozen by the time we got back inside, but the house looks great... I should probably take a picture of it one of these nights...

[[ our street with a little bit of snow at the beginning of the week. i stole pat's beanie for work. the initial forecast. our street at the end of the week with a lot more snow. listening to christmas music. going through decorations. work work working at home. our cute snowy little house. snow snow snow! a friday afternoon walk to the park. pat shoveling the driveway saturday morning (don't worry, i helped too). picking out a christmas tree! the temp on saturday around 8pm. my favorite ornaments. getting ready to trim the tree! christmas cookies. our pretty tree! me frozen from putting up christmas lights sunday evening in the ice. ]]

my week in pictures 33 :: thanksgiving

monday 11/25 - sunday 12/1

I love weeks where my days off exceed my actual work week, and Thanksgiving is very helpful for this. Since everyone at the office was gone for one reason or another I worked from home Monday-Wednesday (and got a TON of stuff done I might add). It was nice being at the house with Pat, but I can see how he gets a bit stir crazy by the middle of the week. We spent Thanksgiving at his dad's place and watched Civil war at his mom's, which was a lot of fun. It was nice being able to visit with everyone on his side since we are going to be with mine for Christmas. I also had a a lot of fun visiting with his adorable grandparents. And, as expected, the food was delicious, although I was a little jealous of my little sister for getting my mom's mashed potatoes.

[[ my work week set up in the kitchen. lucy. failed puppy picture attempts (they don't like posing). thankful. really really good wine. playing with my food. thanksgiving dinner. homemade pumpkin pie! we busted out our onesies at the end of the night to crack up pat's step mom. watching the civil war with pats grandparents. osu'd out. i made her try on my hat, isn't she the cutest?! ]]

san jose part 3

sunday (9/15) :: day 4 :: santa cruz
I would be lying if I said that I wasn't feeling a bit exhausted and sluggish on Sunday morning, but everyone had made plans to grab brunch in Santa Cruz at the hotel where my dad and step mom got married several years ago, so we had no choice but to get going to meet everyone there. The setting was beautiful and it was nice to enjoy one final meal with everyone.

[[ brunch where my dad and step mom got married in santa cruz. ]]

One of the main things I had been looking forward to during this trip was to take Pat to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, where I spent a tremendous amount of my time when I was growing up. He has been able to show me so many of the things he did as a kid throughout the years, and I was happy to be able to do the same for once. My family decided that they would like to come along as well, so we made our way to the coast, bought our unlimited ride passes, and before I knew it we were in line for the first roller coaster I ever went on, The Giant Dipper. Now, if you aren't familiar with this particular attraction, it is a wooden coaster than was built in the 20's and has remained on the boardwalk ever since (with a few safety alterations I would assume/hope). Anyway, although still a ton of fun, it was definitely a bit more creaky/jerky/holdonforyourlifeoryourhandsmightgetchoppedoff than I remembered, and we were all a little sore afterwards. I still maintain that it was worth it. No regrets. After that we just wandered around and went on whatever caught our eyes, including the classic Pirate Ship ride, which is something I have always been afraid of, and as it turns out, I still am. I did not enjoy that ride one bit, and it wasn't solely because I was a bit hungover. For the record, I am also afraid of the swings, and ferris wheels.

[[ pure childhood nostalgia at the santa cruz beach boardwalk. ]]

Several hours went by fairly quickly, and after a good chunk of rides, an ice cream cone for me, a slushy for Pat, a trip to the gift shop for some souvenirs, and a walk on the beach, we were ready to call it a day.

My aunt and uncle (Ashley's parents) wanted to grab dinner with us before we took off for good, so we rushed back to the hotel to change quickly and wash our feet, and then met up with them for dinner, which was delicious since we were all starving!


monday (9/16) :: day 5
My parents flight home was in the afternoon, so we all met up one more time to grab breakfast at a diner in Campbell my grandparents recommended called Stacks. Since it was my last day of vacation, I decided to splurge and went for the blueberry pancakes, which were huge and extremely tasty. Afterward we all headed to my grandmother's bridal store, Trudy's, to say goodbye. I hadn't been to the store since I was a little girl, at which point in time I used to run around with my cousins trying on flower girl dresses and looking at all of the pretty things. It was interesting to revisit from the perspective of being an adult who will soon be going there to try on her own wedding dress. Since the store was not very busy, people were trying to convince me that I should try something on. I declined.

[[ breakfast at stacks. a quick visit to trudy's brides, my grandmother's bridal store. a little shopping. ]]

Eventually we all said goodbye, my parents headed for a airport, and me and Pat took off for Santana Row which was recommended to us since we had a few hours to kill. It was an amazing outdoor shopping center, with so many great shops and restaurants. Very swanky. After wandering around for a while, we found a little wine bar in the center and decided to do some tasting and relax for an hour before our flight. The front of the building was transformed to look like an old church, and there was even giant chess outside that I absolutely would have gotten a picture with if it was not in use at the time. I had a flight of delicious whites and Pat went red.

[[ window shopping at santana row. his & hers wine flights at vintage wine bar. ]]

Finally we made our way to the airport where we grabbed some lunch and a bit more wine before boarding and heading to PDX for our final layover of the trip. Once in Portland we grabbed a quick beer at Laurelwood Brewery near our gate, and before we knew it we were home.

[[ enjoying a little more california wine in the airport before our flight. goodbye for now san jose. ]]

san jose :: part 2 :: the wedding

saturday (9/14) :: day 3 :: the wedding
The ceremony was not until 4pm so we had quite a bit of time to kill during the day. My parents were heading over to my uncle's house so that they could swim for a bit and me and Pat decided that we would meet them after grabbing some breakfast. We quickly got ready and then started hunting around for a place to eat along the way. Pat read good reviews for a place called Scramblz, so we decided to take our chances. From the outside it looked a bit like an iHop, and I was not impressed. Inside, I don't even really know how to describe the inside, sensory overload! It was like Red Robin, Chuck-E-Cheese, and Elmer's mixed together, but it smelled delicious, and their portions looked huge, so we decided to stick around. Among other things, we ordered the 49ers French Toast (when in the Bay Area, right?) and everything was delicious, extremely inexpensive, and very sharable. After breakfast we headed to my uncle's place briefly and soaked up some sun before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

[[ breakfast of champions. lounging in my uncle's backyard. ]]

I was totally convinced that I was going to wear a different dress, but for once I listened to Pat and went with the blue one. He of course looked very dapper in his get up as well.

The wedding ceremony and reception took place at the Eagle Ridge Golf Club in Gilroy. Me and Pat headed over to my grandparent's home to grab my little sisters and meet up with everyone before making our way to the venue. Once we arrived we caught a sneak peak of the bride a groom finishing up their pictures and grabbed some hugs before wandering around for a bit, and then eventually making our way to our seats. It was such a gorgeous day and a beautiful venue with rolling hills in the background.

Ashley looked extremely beautiful and during the ceremony I couldn't even look at my cousin Nicole (Ashley, the bride's older sister) because she was tearing up and I seem to always cry at weddings now. After the photographers took a group photo of everyone from up above, and then we all made our way in to the club house to grab a cocktail and find our seats. There was also a photobooth set up that my entire family made several visits too. I wish I got to keep all of our silly snapshots, but they were used in place of a guest book, which I thought was a really cute idea. Of course me and Pat took some extremely cheesy pictures to contribute.

Dinner was great, the speeches were full of emotion, the dance floor was full, you know, the usual. I even convinced my dads cousin Noah to come dance with me, haha. One funny thing about the wedding is that my little sisters (who are 19 and 20) were seated at the children's table. Poor Meagan and Jenna, we were all extremely entertained by this at their expense.

After everything was wrapped up, the wedding party and close friends headed to a hotel near by to continue the festivities. Me and Pat went along to spend a little more time with my cousins and Jake, which was nice. They totally took over the hotel lobby and threw a dance party, it was pretty awesome. I wish that we could have stayed later, but we had a long drive back to our place, so we eventually took off, although I don't think we actually got to bed until around 3:30. It was definitely a really fun wedding.

[[ me and my handsome wedding date. silly sisters. adorable flower girls. mother walking daughter down the isle.  the ceremony. husband and wife. some of the reception tables: dad/patty, aunts & uncles, great aunts & uncles, cousins. part of the kid's table with meagan and jenna. part of our table. me and the bride. sunsetting over the hills. dance dance. just a couple of our silly photobooth pics. ]]