Sunday Funday

Every sunday since we moved here we have gone on day trips in the bay area after church. there are so many places that have been preserved for us to explore. here are some pictures.

This past sunday we went to Point Reyes National Seashore, the area is known for its wildflowers, ranches, seals and as a great place to whale watch.

Plants + The Beach

Big Slug + 1 Dollar Bill

lighthouse

beautiful seashore

our first visitors!!

This weekend Stephen's Mom and Sister came to visit. We had only been gone 2 weeks but we were very excited to have our first visitors! Here are some of the things we did....

Visited the beach on the west coast of san francisco.
saw the picasso exhibit at the de young museum.
drove across the bay bridge in fog.
took a walk at muir woods.
had lunch at alice water's restaurant chez panisse.
visited a cathedral in san francisco
had breakfast in the ferry building at fisherman's warf
grocery shopping at the farmer's market.

it was lots of fun and we were sad to see them leave.

Unpacking

We made it to California Tuesday afternoon. It was a loooonng drive. I have driven to California before, but not for a few years. The drive was pretty boring from SLC to Reno, mostly just ranges and basins. Driving through the Truckee/Tahoe area was the most beautiful. We rolled down the windows so we could smell the pine trees.

Most of our things didn't arrive until Wednesday. Although our apartment is almost twice the size of our last one, there is a lot less storage space.

Here is our new couch and some of our things waiting to be unpacked.

Here is our kitchen with a ton of boxes.

The hallway leading to our bedrooms, bathroom, and study area

Stephen has his priorities for unpacking.

On Thursday we went to the DMV to get our Drivers Licenses and new plates. Look how gross the front of our car is from all the bugs we hit on the way.

After running errands and unpacking we decided to head into San Francisco for Dinner. We are only about 15 min away.

Our drive across the Bay Bridge

Our first stop in San Francisco was to the store of one of Stephen's favorite designers, Paul Smith. We have been to 8 of his stores in 5 different cities here and in Japan.

After Paul Smith we went to Pizzeria Delfina, a delicious pizza place we went to during our first trip to San Francisco for our Honeymoon. The wait was long, but it was worth it.

Fourth of July Fun

We had a bitter-sweet Fourth of July this year. We woke up early in the morning to finish some last minute packing then went over to my brother's in-laws for a BBQ. It was nice of them to invite us. After that I said goodbye to my family and we headed over to Stephen's brother David's house for swimming and another BBQ.

Most of Stephen's family came and a few other relatives. After dinner we lit fireworks in front of David's house. It is nice that they changed the firework law this year. We could see fireworks across the valley and it also saved David a trip to Wyoming.

Here are Olivia and Jon Jon covering their ears. during the fireworks.

Cute Penelope was scared.

She wasn't scared after she got a cupcake

The goods.

We spent some good quality time with our newest nephew Joseph.

Joseph is a little big for his age.

We ended the night by saying goodbye to all of Stephen's family. I have moved a few times before this, but not for longer than the summer so it was a lot harder saying goodbye this time.

Sayonara Utah

Our last three weeks in Utah were crazy! We had to find a place to live, find a new job, sell our car, pack, say goodbye to friends and family, and drive out to Utah. We started packing really early, anticipating we would be busy with other things during our last week here, but we ended up barely getting everything done in time. We used U-Pack through ABF and packed all of our things nicely into a small cube that was transported from Salt Lake to our new home in Albany. We are living in the Student Housing for UC Berkeley which is much better than the 70 yr old buildings at the U. I will put some pictures up later.

We were very fortunate to get to say bye to most of our friends and family, although we did miss a few people. Here are some pictures from our last couple of weeks in Utah.

We made s'mores in Richard's lovely backyard with Ren, Shauna, and their two cute kids.

It was really hard to say bye to these cute kids.

Farewell dinner with Evelyn and Todd at Ichiban. I will miss you friend.

Dinner at Setebello with work friends. I had the best co-workers. Seeing this picture reminds me never to wear that skirt again.

Bye-bye Byu Bowling with Eve P(G), Alex, and Kamalei.

Bye kamalei.

And to all the friends I did not get to say bye to. I will miss you, and come visit me soon!

Disneyland

I am really late in posting this, but the picture is so terrible I couldn't resist. This was taken during our trip to Disneyland in the spring. It seems that everyone knew where the camera was except for me.