Hiking in the Park with Two Names

About a month ago Brandon and I decided we wanted to take a low key hike in the late afternoon. We decided on heading to Peña Adobe (less commonly referred to as Lagoon Valley) Park in Vacaville. Both of us grew up near the park, but I hadn't spent very much time there, so luckily it's kept its novelty.

We originally planned to climb to the highest hill and watch the sunset, but we totally overestimated how long it would take us to get up there, so we chose to take our time, enjoy our little hike and not put too much pressure on our fun.

We stopped to take a water break and soak in some of the views.

I enjoyed my view...

...while Brandon enjoyed his!

I saw this enormous oak tree and had a need to see it up close, so we ventured off the main path for a bit.

The tree and I quickly became best friends.

Brandon got in on the fun, too!

My very fancy hiking equipment.

A cool almost optical illusion photo for kicks

And a couple selfie with personality.

We walked until we didn't feel like it anymore. Then we turned around to head back home. But being me, I tried to make another friend on the way down.

I tried crouching down to get a better angle of her but she freaked out and ran away. Either she thought I was a mountain lion or she sensed my friendship with the tree. Regardless, my friendship with the cow worked out just as well as Cady Heron's first crush...which is to say it didn't (10 points if you got my obscure Mean Girls reference).

Spending the afternoon outside with my favorite person in the world was wonderful. It gave me wiiiiiings!

♥  A

Birthdays Are Perfect

Except this one.

I've spent next to no time exploring the Napa Valley. I have a business relationship with it. I commute 50 miles to get there, spend eight hours or more making sure employees get whatever they need, and head the 50 miles back home at the end of the day.

I wanted to do something special for Brandon's 25th birthday. I requested a night at the resort and luckily enough got approved! This was Napa's opportunity to show off. I wanted a speed date with it, and I fully expected it to leave a life changing impression on me.

The weather had other plans...

We began the day by grabbing lunch at Boudin, as requested by Brandon. The inside was packed so we sat outside...in the rain...and cold...Brandon had no jacket on.

Little did I know Brandon was coming down with a cold/flu thing.

I'd done a bit of research of possible cool places to visit. One of them was the Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park. I looked at the photos and thought it would be such a nice place to explore. Plus, it happened to be en route to the castle we planned on exploring! But when we got there -- and by there I mean the gate -- we realized the mill was not open at all. We were trying to play tourist in the middle of slow season, so I wasn't entirely shocked, though I was disappointed.

Then we set off to visit the Castello di Amorosa. It's a castle built using traditional methods of medieval architecture, even though the structure itself is relatively new. The owner has an extensive history of the project listed on his website. Pretty cool thing to nerd out over.

Anyway, I chose it because I knew Brandon would enjoy it. We pulled into the parking lot and the sprinkle of rain that had been trailing us turned into true rainfall. We sat in the car for a minute trying to decide if we should even get out. I was determined to (read: stubborn) have something to show for our drive out there, so we braved the rain. We walked up the steps and were quickly topped by a woman who ushered us into what I guess is the lobby to purchase our wine tasting passes. Uninterested in a tasting, we walked back into the rain to try and explore the grounds. We were unsuccessful, so we walked back down to the mini stables. The rain refused to let up and Brandon was feeling progressively worse, so we gave up on the outdoor activities for the day.

We still had a bit of time to kill before check in and were both pretty cold, so we headed to Bouchon Bakery in Yountville to get some pick-me-ups. We patiently waited in line outside under the awning until we could fit into the small bakery. We picked up some warm drinks (coffee for me, tea for B) and each got a large macaron to enjoy for dessert later that night. There's no indoor seating and it was still raining outside, so we huddled back to the car. At this point, Brandon was out of it. He was not feeling well and it was clear he needed to sleep. So I took the wheel...and the scenic route to the hotel.

Check in was a surreal experience for me. As someone who regularly interacts with all departments on property, I've come to know nearly everyone by name and face. So it was a little strange to have employees wait on me the way I usually wait on them. I have to give it up to my colleagues and superiors: they really treated me as a guest and not as their co-worker who was using her free night at a luxury resort. The reception agent that checked us in gave us a cottage in a "desirable neighborhood" (yeah, there are neighborhoods) with the most requested layout. I was thrilled even though I had no idea what it meant.

I'd made our dinner reservations for closer to 7:00 than 4:00pm, so we threw on the fireplace and the warmest robes and Brandon crashed while I relaxed.

Can you blame him? He was such a trooper.

♥ A

Miserable, Magical Monday

1. I was going through the photos on my phone after my nap on Sunday (first nap in a looong while) and could not remember when or where I got this photo. After a bit of recall, I remembered I took this one morning pre-coffee. The sunrise was particularly vibrant that morning as I walked to my car to grab my shoes. Yeah, my shoes. Sometimes my feet get really claustrophobic while driving home. And then I also get too lazy to just pick up my shoes and bring them inside. It makes no sense, but hey! At least my neurotic tendencies got me this shot!

2. I can't remember the last time I took a nap but man are they wonderful things. I slept so well I even did that thing where you wake up all disoriented and forget what day it is. I thought I'd woken up late for Monday morning work! Silly me. On a sort of sweet note, having Brandon back has done wonders for my sleep. I really missed having his obscenely warm body in bed with me. I bet you it's his heat that lulls me to sleep half the time.

3. So I had five whole days to myself last week. And I did maybe 30% of what I said I was going to do to fill my time. I bought avocados but saved my nacho night dinner idea for Friday once Brandon was home. I did not paint my nails or have my spa night like I planned because I did laundry instead. But I did do some writing and uploaded my photos from Costa Rica onto my cloud and computer, so I guess I was sort of productive. I didn't even bake Thursday night because I got caught up in picking up after myself. Confession: I am a messy person. I never think to put my clothes away after I take them off in general, and the fact that my dresser is in the spare bedroom  doesn't help. I leave my shoes everywhere. I have a shoe basket at the front of our apartment so I have no excuse to leave my shoes anywhere else, but of course I still do. I'm looking down at a pair I wore to work just chilling in the dining room right now. All of that to say that baking took a backseat to my annoyance with myself Thursday night. Apologies to anyone who has ever lived with me ever for being the roommate that leaves her crap everywhere.

4. Saturday was a blast. I should warn you I did nothing spectacular or mildly interesting but vegging out with Brandon after several busy weekends was exactly what we needed. I woke up around 10:30am and just chilled with my coffee until Brandon got up. He then played his video games while I finished writing my second post on Arenal. After that we watched New Girl all.day.long. We munched on chips and salsa/homemade guac and had a CPK frozen pizza for lunch (at 3:00pm). After finishing season 2, we decided we wanted macaroni and cheese for dinner and walked over to Safeway. We picked up some Golden Grahams and Fruit Loops and juice while we were there. Seriously, we looked like we were buying food for a kid. By the time we got back and sat down to eat dinner it was somewhere around 9:30pm. That didn't stop us from watching Magic Mike.

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For the record, it was Brandon who brought it up. Also, yes, there was so much male body rolling in this movie and  I kind of loved it.

5. As if sitting through the sausage fest and male thong-ridden movie wasn't enough, Brandon even sat through the pilot of Sex and the City with me since the whole show is on HBO Go. What a trooper, right? I don't plan on making him watch that with me, mostly because I don't want to force him to sit through the "girl talk" dynamic. I, as a woman, love that dynamic and understand it fully. I think he'd get over it quick. Besides, I'd rather use my political spousal capital on getting him to watch West Wing with me.

Thank you, Leo.
//

6. To make up for the non-existence of baked goods welcoming Brandon home from a week at camp, I decided to bake some blondies while he was still snoozing. I've never made them before so I was a little nervous to taste them. The recipe I used called for tons of M&Ms, of which I had none. What I did have were white chocolate chips, so I tossed about a cup into the batter and called it day. Honestly, they don't compare to my chocolate chip cookies, but Brandon seems to like them enough even if they are rich.

7. Sprout update! A while ago, I told you guys that I planted some of the wedding favor seeds. I was ecstatic when I saw them sprout up. Good news: I've actually been consistent with watering the plant! Go me. Anyway, the sprout (is that still what it's called? I'm such an amateur at growing things) has grown a little bit and I took a semi-artsy photo of it...so I obviously have to share.

The weather here in Davis is so weird. It looks super stormy and the wind has kicked up. I guess we've even had a teensy bit of rainfall. The temperature has come down to a comfortable high 70/low 80 which I'm loving, but the clouds make me want to pull out all of my autumn sweaters and never get out of bed.

Arenal part II will for sure be up tomorrow.

Happy Monday, friends.

♥ A

Miserable, Magical Monday

Deciding to do a weekly post on one of my busiest days of the week was definitely an idiotic decision, but damn if I don't love the title too much to change the day to something less packed. Also, I apologize in advance for the lack of Costa Rica stories in this post, but I'll be writing about the adventures (of which there were many) at length in the coming weeks.

1. Vacation Bible school (VBS) was a hit and a blast. I really, really enjoyed getting the chance to act alongside my sister again. She is one of those people who's "on" like 95% of the time and her stage presence is unmatched. She completely brings out my secretly big personality. Also, VBS is basically my dream excuse to draw freckles on my face and literally jump around during music. People totally eat it up when you're pretending to be a kid, but if anyone saw me rocking out like that in a different context (like, say, my car), I'm sure I'd get a Regina George eyebrow look.

//

YOU KNOW I'M RIGHT.

2. My body is going through actual Costa Rican withdrawals. I held my office at a toasty 80 degrees all day (while in pants!) and still had to go out to my car to fetch a cardigan because I was freezing. My hot tropical blood misses the homeland.

3. Have you ever looked back at your last four weeks only to realize that you've been too busy to notice you've been so busy? That's sort of what June and July is for me. They're always a blur. A stressful, surreal blur. Ok enough with the Mean Girls references (for now). Two weeks ago, I was busy doing VBS from Sunday to Thursday. Thursday to Saturday night/Sunday morning I was traveling around Costa Rica. I've got this work week at home before heading down to San Diego for a wedding on Friday. Then Sunday when we get back form our tiny road trip, Brandon heads off to Kid's Camp for five days. Okay, that last part doesn't really involve me, but it feels like so much! To be real, I'm sad I have to miss camp this year. I've been a counselor for five years or so and planning my wedding didn't stop me from going last year, but my full time job (and international vacation) did. Remember that time I said I hate full time work in the summer? Yeah, now I hate it even more.

//

4. In order to distract myself from the fact that Brandon and I will end up spending almost half of July apart, or the fact that I won't even have a dog to come home to and snuggle during the five days he's gone, I'm already thinking of ways to spend my time while alone. Right now the list includes blogging, catching up on one or two of my 12 Things, watching lots of chick flicks and West Wing (and Veep!) while painting my nails, yoga, tanning by the pool and baking. You'd think I was planning for another week off, huh?

5. My serious excitement over celebrating a whole wonderful year of marriage with Brandon has me planning our festive outing already. It's kind of working out since we both have procrastinator tendencies. The general idea is to do something special but modest somewhere within two hours from home. It's hard to believe that time has gone by so quickly! Since we'd been dating for seven years, one more year of being together (just married) didn't really strike me as the sort of thing that I'd want to make a big deal. But I guess marriage and the public commitment we made to each other is a big deal. Either way, I'm looking forward to spending a weekend away from home and responsibilities with just Brandon.

6. Great news! I finally got Brandon to watch New Girl with me! I'd gently asked him to watch it with me for months but he was never really interested. But since we caught up with House of Cards and Sherlock and Game of Thrones ended for the year, it was time to pick another show. I basically begged the guy to watch it with me and he eventually gave in. Now he loves it, just like I thought he would.

A relatively decent representation of my victory dance.
//

Keep checking back because I've got so much to share about my trip! My sister and I already started working on post titles...and they're good.

♥ A

The Move

Brandon and I moved last weekend. It was definitely an exciting experience for me since this was the first legitimate time he and I moved somewhere together.

See, I'd moved to San Diego and back three times before we got married. After graduation, I scoured for apartments we could probably afford (he was working part time and I was barely about to start working a temp job). We found one that wasn't in the most glamorous part of town but that fit our maybe-budget and Brandon moved in last July. His parents, some friends and I helped him move in. He lived there alone until September, when I rapidly shoved my things wherever I could. It was not fabulous.

To tell the truth, that apartment didn't feel like home. Something about not living there from the get-go made it feel like the place wasn't fully mine even after the wedding. Just to be clear, Brandon never once did anything to make me feel like that apartment wasn't mine, I'm just an odd bird who thinks about those kind of things. So you can imagine my delight at getting to be so invested in the packing and organization and directing and all the other hustle and bustle that comes with moving.

Until it came to actually packing. That is seriously the worst.

Anyway, I promised you all the story. So here it is.

FRIDAY

Brandon had his parents (who had just come back from a vacation in Hawaii), his boss/friend and our friend come over to load up the trailer. I left work early, presumably to have time to finish packing, and came home to my kitchen and bedroom practically empty. All I had to pack away were my clothes hanging in my closet. And I used that Pinterest hack of just putting it all in trash bags, so that took almost no time. It was really trippy to see the place I'd lived in for eight months so empty.

//

Brandon and I had also been trying to get our nightmare Jetta sold and towed away for about a week. Friday was the day they were supposed to come pick it up. The pick up was supposed ot happen sometime between 8 am and noon, but by 4:30pm, we'd still heard nothing about a pick up. Of course, half an hour later, we got a call from the tow truck. Right as we were sitting down for a greasy delicious pizza dinner. Luckily, the towing guys were friendly enough and waited for us. Before I knew it, the demon car was gone.

We had some friends over to enjoy one last night in the apartment later on. We sat on the floor and caught up on our weeks and weekend, like always. One of my buds is graduating in two weeks with a freaking math degree! As someone who has known this guy since high school, it's been pretty cool to see his knowledge deepen and his ability to crush my math spirits grow.

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SATURDAY

Cleaning day. I woke up around 6am and could not fall back asleep. But I was not about to start cleaning at 6am. That's just too much. So I did about an hour of yoga because it had been days since I'd had any time to think about something other than cleaning and packing and schedules. Plus in my brain, moving is always supposed to be a big dramatic, exciting but sad moment in your life like it is on TV. You have good times but then you move on. I don't know. I like to linger in those moments when life feels a little like a movie.

I cleaned that apartment basically by myself in something like five hours while the guys moved the last of the boxes. Who knows if we'll get the deposit back (I'm praying we do, we need it) but either way, I left that place in great condition.

weirdly empty

Ready for that moment when things go horribly wrong for me? It's coming.

Things you need to know:

• I was solely responsible for watching my (parents') dogs while the family was at a cabin for the weekend

Saturday evening, Brandon and I headed out to Vacaville to celebrate an old (debate) teammate's birthday...after having some grilled tri-tip, chicken, corn and fruit salad as an extremely overdue lunch/early dinner. Of course I knew the food would be delicious at Josh's house, so summoned my rarely used hobbit tendencies and prepared for second dinner. Josh's family eats clean and local. His mom was completely into what is now-trendy food (seasonal, local, organic, natural) wayyy before us commoners had any clue that kale existed. Seriously! I tried kale for the first time at Josh's house. His mom had made some kale chips and I tried one to be polite. A year ago I didn't really like kale all that much, but something tells me I would feel super cool eating them now (pathetic, I know). Anyway, after the delicious dinner I got to try the national Australian dessert, pavlova (I forgot to mention, Josh's mom is Australian). It's a meringue "crust" covered in whipped cream and strawberries. I guess usually there's passion fruit drizzled over it, but Josh's mom said that the passion fruit at the market (or farm or wherever she sources her food) was overpriced. I don't know what passion fruit tastes like, anyway, so I didn't miss it. But good grief that pavlova was so good. Even picky-eater-Brandon devoured it!

Not the one we ate, but close!
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After lots of laughter and fabulous TV/movie/superhero conversation, it was time for Brandon and I to call it a night and go let my pups in from the backyard of my parent's house. I had had such a great day thus far and I was pretty excited to catch up on Game of Thrones since I was two weeks behind.

We got to my parents' house...and I couldn't find the house key.

I'd let Brandon borrow it the day before so he could wait for the Jetta to get picked up. He'd given it back to me and I'd been successful of keeping track of the lose key for a day and a half. I even had it when we left the house. I double checked my pocket. It was there.

Except now it wasn't. And my parents hadn't left a spare with anyone. Mine is was an unofficial spare since I just kept my house key even after moving out. We were stuck. I called Josh to ask him to do a quick sweep of the ground for the key. Nothing. I even hopped the fence into the backyard to see if I could break in to the house. I couldn't. So we headed back to Brandon's parents' house to do our own sweep. Also nothing. The couch was lifted and we walked around outside with flashlights (it was after 10pm by this point), but all we found were two black widows.

I felt so embarrassed and stupid. I had ONE JOB and completely failed at it. Luckily, Brandon's old room is now the guest room and my parents were totally cool about the whole thing. They would be back the next morning, anyway. So really, the only people I harmed were my poor pups. It still makes me sad to think about it.

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SUNDAY

Brandon and I were lucky enough to have several friends help us unload the trailer after church. It literally took less than an hour to get everything we own into the new place. My moms and sister even helped unpack the kitchen! It was a humongous help and seriously the least stressful move I've ever experienced. I'd even say a little anti-climactic after the previous night's escapades.

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MONDAY

I took the day off work to get a solid chunk of unpacking and organizing done. Brandon and I also spontaneously decided to host some friends for a post-dinner game night, which is probably the only reason we actually opened boxes and put things away. Without the pressure, we might still be living out of suitcases! We went to dinner at a place called Jack's Urban Eats, which is legit less than five minutes from our apartment and pretty good. I had chicken fingers because I was dying for some old school chicken fingers like the ones I used to order at Lyons on free kid meal Tuesday with my mom. They did not disappoint. Though next time, I'll make sure to try something I can't also get at Denny's. After some Yogurtland, we all came back to the new place and played a solid, awesome game of Cards Against Humanity. It was a pretty good unofficial housewarming thing.

It's been two days of commuting from Davis to Cordelia and so far I'm loving it. The traffic isn't half bad, but I do miss being able to go home over my lunch break. But hey, whatever. I'll take a quiet apartment where I haven't heard a siren yet to the constant traffic and sirens that would wake me up at the old place.


♥ A

Happy 7th

I'm very intentional about not being what I call a "we" couple. For me, maintaining a sense of individuality within my romantic relationship is really important. I love Brandon so freakin much, but my world doesn't have to revolve around him or vice versa. It's one thing I really cherish about my relationship with him. We have completely separate interests, yet somehow we've been lucky enough not to run out of things to talk about over the last 7 years.

That's what brings me to what I'm about to post. I'm almost nervous to share something that's so personal to me and B because I don't want anyone to think I'm a part of a "we" couple or that I'm being weirdly pushy about my marital status.

Also, I'm not pregnant. I hope you weren't hoping I was.

But enough stalling.

Ever since we were teenagers with raging hormones (as my sister so dully noted in her Maid of Honor speech/song), Brandon and I have avoided saying "happy anniversary" to each other. Instead, we say "happy seventh," because we officially started dating on September 7th, 2006.

Seven years later, we got married. That was eight months ago today. It blows my mind to think I've been with this guy since I was 16. Anyway, I'm in a particularly sharing mood, so I thought I'd post some photos of us through the years. Is that okay? I hope so. You have every right to not read on if you can't handle the romantic indulgence I'm about to embark on.

WE WERE CHILDREN. Homecoming c. 2007/8

2009-ish. On our way to a date at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Hanging out in PB on Brandon's surprise visit to Loma in 2010.

Ocean Beach, San Francisco, September 20

Better together, 2012

Newly engaged.at the movies. December 2012

Proper engagement photos, March 2013 (Thanks, Ryan Doyle)

Graduated and unphotogenic, May 2013

Married and kissing because little kids find wedding bells super amusing.
September 2013. (Thank you, Ryan Doyle)

Thanks for powering through that. 10 points to whatever house you've been sorted into!

♥ A