Happy Birthday!

(image by Justin Hackworth)

Happy Birthday to my beautiful baby sister Branae.

Its fun to laugh now about those times when we shared a bedroom. You were 3 and I was 5. Your nightly ritual included "singing" me to sleep. Which I didn't appreciate or enjoy, infact it drove me crazy.

Or the time when we were teenagers and we stayed up into the night filming ourselves while we sang and danced to the radio.

For a while there it was rough, you wanted my clothes but I didn't want to share them. You were the "annoying" little sister and I was the "mean" big sister.

Then something changed, we shared. We became friends and life got 100 million times better because of it. Now, even though we live miles and miles away we can finish each others sentences and chat for hours about this and that. If someone turns on any kind of music with a beat you better believe we will both be dancing.

Thank you for always being my best friend. Even when I didn't realize it.
Love you sister! Happy 22! Can't wait to see you so soon.

Hint or no hint?

I couldn't resist posting this picture from ohdeedoh because I think it is the perfect nursery (go check out the rest of the pictures here). I love the gray and white combination that feels so clean, calm and gender neutral. You could easily accent with mustard yellow or a soft pink for a girl. And in case you were wondering, this is NOT a hint. :)

ps. Adele is releasing her new album today. You better believe I'm over the top with excitement.

Just some facts...

• I love to use the word definitely but I HATE how its spelled. I don't think I've spelled it right once in my life.
• I love Stevie Wonder like no ones business.
• I like to hide and then jump out and scare people. Ask my husband, I got him GOOD yesterday.
• Apparently I have to get a California license. If I don't and I get pulled over they are going to punch a hole in my Idaho license. I don't like that one bit. I don't want to be from California. What happened to respecting peoples roots?
• Red heads are the coolest. period.
• I need some happy tape.
• I may or may not be teaching some classes on understanding your camera and taking better pictures. It may or may not scare me to pieces.

Weekend Getaway pics

We had a fabulous time on our weekend getaway to the city. We stayed in the heart of Union Square at Hotel Union Square, hailed a cab to a delicious French dinner with live jazz at Cafe Claude and shopped around Union Square for the evening.

My absolute FAVORITE part of our getaway was on Saturday when we walked down to the Ferry Building Marketplace and enjoyed delicious food, live music on the pier, and people watching. Thank you Oh Happy Day for this awesome recommendation. I cannot wait to go back!

And thank you to my sweet husband, Alden. I can't think of anyone I would rather spend the weekend with.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day! Here are a few classics that I love:

Movies:
An Affair to Remember (I can't resist anything Cary Grant)
The African Queen (all my Hawaii friends, this one is at the library... go check it out!)

Book:
Jane Eyre

The Look:
It doesn't get more classic romantic than red lipstick and red nails.

Song:
"A kiss to build a dream on" by Louis Armstrong

The Perfect Daddy Daughter Date

What to do for a perfect daddy daughter date:

•Take her somewhere hip like "The cheeseboard" in Berkeley where they serve one kind of pizza a day and play live music during lunch.
•After that take her to get a tasty treat. Gelato will do!
•Next, you go explore cool grocery stores like Trader Joes, Costco and Whole foods.
•Then go up to the Oakland Temple and look at the beautiful view of the city (make sure it is a clear day of course).
•Finally you take lots of pictures together and make jokes.

Thank you dad for the perfect outing! Love you

A little Fresh Air

Alden and I went on a little bike ride on the canal path close to the house. Canals in California are a little bit different than canals in Idaho, they actually have the whole "ditch" cemented out. Maybe that is why its called canal and not a ditch. Nevertheless we had a grand ol time. Got to see the sun go down and take random pictures in shrubbery. Moments that you can't buy, the good stuff.

In other news:

We've been planning everything for our "v-day weekend getaway" and I found the perfect post over at Oh Happy Day full of awesome and great places to eat in SF. Now the trouble will be deciding between them all.

Did you see us on Stephanie Nelson's blog? (NieNie)..... You should check it out. Especially if you are engaged because her and Justin Hackworth are giving away a pretty sweet deal!

Speaking of engagements....Alden and I got engaged a year ago, on a beach. It was magical! Read more about it here on my blog or here where we were featured.

Spring has Sprung

Things are really warming up around here. And I am loving it. It is crazy that living here in the bay area fits me so much more than Hawaii ever did? I know a lot of you will think I am crazy for saying that. Hawaii is a great place to visit but California is a great place to live!

COMING SOON:
Pictures from our bike ride last weekend
and the daddy daughter day I had with my dad yesterday.

ALSO. THIS WEEKEND, A GETAWAY IN THE CITY. ME+HIM.
YES. EXCITEMENT OVER THE TOP.

I've never wanted to live in Texas till now...

How beautiful is this house? DREAM HOUSE? YES.
Go check out the rest of this house (here) along with a house with an orange stripe.
Hello color. Hello love.

Good news... and bad news.

The Good news:
-Disney world really was the happiest place on earth
-I rode the tower of terror, Mt. Everest, Soarin, and rockin roller coaster
just like you told me to. And I screamed THE.WHOLE.TIME. and loved every minute.
-I saw the finding Nemo production and I have been singing, "In a big blue world"
ever since.
-I saw a million little princess girls all dressed up and waved at every one of them
-Mulan, little mermaid, Minnie mouse! My favorites, all spotted in Disney World.

The Bad news:
-I didn't take my camera to the park... I was too nervous that I would scratch/bump/loose or that someone would steal it :(
-The picture above is pretty much the only picture we have. Sorry Friends!