it's the holiday season....

Once again, I am about to come home for the holidays and have not written about a ton of stuff that has gone on since november, so i will try to make it quick...

So right after Halloween, tony and i went to Florida for Brandy and Anthony;s wedding. We left California right after our first earthquake and got the tail end of our first tropical storm... well not really, it was pretty much gone when we got there, although it was still pretty damn windy. We got in, got our car and headed to Melbourne, where our hotel was. Once we got there, the guy at the desk informed us that all the rooms had flooded during the storm. I guess the rain blows sideways during tropical storms and it rained through the air conditioner. I called brandy and she helped us find another one right down the street.

I wish i could say that did and saw all kinds of touristy florida stuff, but we had a busy weekend of wedding thing to do ( which, i think, was much more fun than a gator farm :) ) although i really wanted to see one.

So the next day we had lunch with anthony and then met the whole family for rehearsal dinner. They have fantastic friends and family. Tony and i felt right at home there. After dinner, the boys went to one of ant's friend's houses and the girls went to the bar! I haven't had a girl bar night in so long! We made it an early night though, because the wedding was the next afternoon.

It was a beautiful, and fast ceremony...on a perfect day too, no rain, not too hot, or windy...and i have to say that Brandy looked amazing!!!! not like she isn't already adorable, but really model-in-a-bridal-boutique amazing!!! i wish i was at home so i could put a photo on here. The reception was small, but didn't feel like it at all...It seemed like there were people everywhere. and no lack of booze :) ask tony about it...
after the wedding, a group of peopel went back to the hotel where the bride and groom were staying fo rmore drinks...we went, but made it a bit of an early night thanks to the open bar at the wedding...
our friend kelly stayed with us at our hotel that night and we laid around watching tv until we fell asleep. When we woke up, much later than we thought we would, we decided that we could go for a run on the beach or go site seeing, but instead we sent tony out for breakfast and then laid around watching alfred hitchcock movies :) she loves classic movies too!

when we finally arose from our tv comas we headed over to anthony's parents house for a HUGE Italian meal. We were fed like royalty, or like going to my mom's house... food everywhere. It was really nice, when we left, we all said that it felt like we were at our own homes, very cozy!!!
The next day tony and i had to go back to cali, and on the way to the airport WE SAW AN ALLIGATOR!!! i was so excited that i called my mom to let her know about it! ( i know, i am a nerd)

shortly after we got back in town, eric and maria came to visit- like right before thanksgiving. Tony and I had to work a lot, so i gave him some city passes and things to do and they did their own thing until we had a day off.
When we finally had a day off, we went to fisherman's wharf, over the golden gate bridge and to muir woods, which is a redwood forrest.
the next day that we had off we took them to a haunted restaurant. It was really overpriced, but we did see some crazy stuff... eric thinks it was all fake, but maria, tony, and i saw it!!! there were tiffany lights over the bar, about 5 of them, that all started moving at different times and in different directions... at one point i looked at the curtain separating the two rooms and it looked like a kid was playing behind it, maria can attest to it, but there was no one there! it was weird.

After they left came Thanksgiving. Tony, myself and our good friend kelly all had to work on the holiday, so the next day we had a misfit thanksgiving sleepover, but there were some rules...
1. no make-up
2. no jeans, only sweats or sleep pants
3. no beig embarrassed to eat until you need a nap
and it all went swimmingly!!! We watched White Christmas, elf and The Women...
we all slept in late and then took the leftovers to work the next day.

And now back to the most recent news....
tony and i got new assignments in seattle and we will be heading there after the holidays.
BUT, first we are coming home on sunday for 18 days to see our friends and family and celebrate the holidays together!!!
i can say in advance that this year my new year's res is to write this bad boy on time and not a month later...we shall see how it goes.. see you all soon!

Momma's here

So a few short days after tony and i got in from hawaii, my mom came in to visit us again! Unfortunately I am posting this from work, so i will have to add some great photos later on.

She got in on Saturday and since tony and i had to work, she took the train in and called when she got to the door. We took her out for dinner and then left her at home with silence and some good books ( that is really my kind of vacation!!!) the next day while tony and i did some napping, mom went to the farmer's market and got us some delicious fruit and veggies so we could make a veggie pot pie. I can't remember what we did that night, but i am sure that it was fun: )

The next three nights tony and i had to work so we left her with a good bottle of wine and some more books!!!

Finally we had some time off! tony had homework to do, so mom and i went to santa cruz to kick around town. We saw a good amount of dodgy, cracked out kids that she wanted to take photos of but i wouldn't let her- for her safety.

The next day Tony was all done with his homework and we had tickets to go to alcatraz. So once again, we got up early and got ourselves to the pier so we could go to the rock.

I really wished i was at home so that i could put some photos up because it was impressive. If we still had prison's like this one, i doubt that people would be so lax with the law. We took a tour that was actually headphones and an audio tour told by ex prisoners, wardens, and other people that lived on the island. it was a little spooky, especially the solitary rooms and the place where a group of cons tried to escape and killed a lot of people.

After the tour we decided to take the rest of the afternoon to enjoy the brighter parts of the city. So tony and i took her to upper haight, also known by where haight and ashbury meet and all the hippie kids hung out back in the day-including janis joplin and jerry garcia.

We did some window shopping and then around dinner time headed to north beach where there are more than enough italian restaurants to choose from. Lucky for us we had reservations at our favorite place. Although to get there we had to go up and down a few streets that were so steep that i couldn't see the street until the nose of my car was at the edge of the hill, it freaked me out. i hate driving on them.

After dinner we went home and had to go to bed early because she had an early flight.

In the morning, before we took her to the airport, we went to our favorite breakfast place for a quick breakfast. Since i overestimated how long breakfast would take us, we had a litle extra time to go to the japanese housewares store ( it also a dollar store, but everything in there is not a dollar)

after some browsing we headed to airport, kissed my mommy and went home to take a nap .

aloha

Well, it seems that October has come and gone and once again, i sit a month later to put it all in words...
The first week of Oct. was our first anniversary. Not because we think one year is a huge feat ( i recently met a couple in the er who were married for 65 years) but because we live so much closer to it and the flights are cheaper, Tony and i decided to spend out 1 year in hawaii. Maui to be exact.
Our flight left right after work so the train trip to the airport was exhausting and we both slept the entire flight. Luckily 'maui time' is another 3 hours behind, so we left at 9ish in the morning and got there by noonish .
we checked into our hotel, which was really a condo, and made ourselves comfortable.
The first night we took it easy since we were a bit sleep deprived. We did walk around town and check out the beach.
Our second day on the island we drove to hana. I only knew about this because a friend of ours told us about taking the ' road to hana.' Hana itself isn't really an exciting town, but the drive there is astounding. It is something around 50 miles to get there from where we were, but it took well over 4 hours to get there. The road is pretty rustic. Most of it is narrow lanes and some Indiana jones-esque one lane bridges. We also stopped oftne along the way because the road to hana is mostly about the road and less about hana.
We stopped at a few waterfalls, and arb and anytime we saw a view that was breathtaking.
Once we got to hana, we put our feet in the water, took some photos and then headed right back home. Which took much less time because we didn't need to stop off and hike anywhere, since we did it on the way there.
on saturday, we explored the rest of the island including some little beach towns and one beach that would soon have humback and grey whales migrating to it- unfortunately we were a month too early.
Sunday was our anniversary and we celebrated it by getting up at the crack of dawn so we could get on a boat and go snorkeling with sea turtles and other marine life.
It was incredible... We got to snorkel at two different sites. At the first one, we saw a shark, some eels and random tropical fish. The second site was the coolest, we were swimming with giant sea turtles. We saw two or three of them while we were in the water, and then on the way back to shore we watched as a few of them resurfaced for air.
As if that wasn't enough celebrating, that night we went to a luau. It was really fascinating. There was a lot of Hawaii history told by dance and music and then, of course, a lot of food.
Monday we decided to take it easy and visit a winery, where we purchased enough wine to last us for the next year, well maybe not that much, but a lot of pineapple wine. Then we watched the sunset on the beach and got ready to say aloha to hawaii.

But as soon as we said goodbye to hawaii, we got to say hello to my mommy who came to visit us right when we got home!!! see next post for highlights from her visit: )

i feel the earth move under my feet..

i felt my first earthquake last night at work, 5.6 it was weird. Gotta go pack for florida- more to come next week on hawaii, and mom's visit.