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.

the city of angels

Stephen and I took a trip to LA at the beginning of May. I have been in and around LA several times, but this was the first time I did some real sight seeing and spent some time in the city. We got an awesome deal at the Westin hotel right in downtown LA.

The day we flew in we went to the Getty Museum near Bel Air. Stephen went there last year with the Architecture program at the U and really liked it so we decided to go again. Almost the entire complex of buildings were covered in travertine imported from italy.

Here is Stephen with the travertine building in the background and one of the beautiful gardens. We were pretty sleepy from our early morning flight so we laid down in the grass and took a nap. The weather was perfect!

Here is the view of downtown LA from one of the balconies.

After the Getty center we drove to Santa Monica for dinner and shopping. We visited Hennesy + Inglass, a bookstore that specializes in Architecture books and had pizza on the boardwalk.

Here we are on the pier.

The next day we walked from our hotel to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, a building designed by Frank Gehry. He isn't one of stephen's favorite architects, but i really like his buildings as well as the line of jewelry he did for tiffany's.

Here i am at across the street from the concert hall.

The courtyard on the 3rd floor was very beautiful.
this fountain was made of delftware, it was a surprise for lillian disney.

we took a self-guided tour.

After the concert hall we drove to chinatown to have dim sum at the empress pavilion.

After lunch we drove to hollywood and went to some of our favorite stores. We visited another Hennesy + Inglass store, jonathan adler, fred segal, and paul smith. We had sushi ad the geisha house for dinner.

The next day we picked up stephen's brother at the airport in Long Beach and went to see the Angels play the Indians. It was a really good game. The angels won in the last inning.

Happy Bananniversary

Stephen and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary on June 4th. It is pretty crazy we have already been married for two years, it has gone by really fast. It has definitely been the best two years.

Stephen surprised me with flowers in two of my favorite colors, purple and pink.
We had dinner at faustina. I had the asiago cheese crusted scallops.
Stephen had the stuffed beef tenderloin.

We went to capital theatre to see Le Mis.

Happy anniversary stev-o. love you lots

dinner amongst friends

Last week Stephen and I had dinner in the lovely home of Richard Bingham. The occasion: Ben and Olivia were visiting from North Carolina. It was nice to spend time with some of Stephen's friends from high school. The last time we were all together was almost exactly a year ago when the Knudsen's moved away. We had delicious burritos, potato salad, italian sodas, and tres leches cake for dessert. Followed by Stephen Groo's rendition of "Street Fighter." Here are some pictures from the occasion, all taken by and stolen from Ren Wightman.

what an amazing film

richard, ren, ben, and stephen

We met baby Cohen for the first time.

Happy times all around.