Every day's a sunny day

A Saturday in January

2012-01-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

A fun Saturday hike...in 75 degree weather.
I love California.

A perfect Sunday morning

2011-10-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

The weather here in our little paradise has been full of sunshine and warm weather.

When we woke up this Sunday morning we were going to make crepes, and then threw that plan out the window when we were hanging out with our doggies on our front porch.

It was a beautiful day.

So we jumped in the car, (without our precious doggies because it was a "date"), and grabbed us some coffee and went to get cinnamon rolls. However, the donuts called our name louder, haha. So we grabbed our empty calories and headed to the beach.

We thought we would hang out for a hour or so, well as it happens, we stayed all the way till lunch time, laughing and cuddling, and eating our donuts.

It was a perfect Sunday morning.

Sunny Day

2011-10-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a lovely day.

We woke up late, ate a yummy breakfast, and grabbed our bikes and headed to the beach.

We rode down the trail in the sunshine and finally came to the beach, where we strolled hand in hand up the pier and along the sand.

We rode our bikes back down the trail to where our truck was waiting to take us into town to eat a fantastic lunch with two of our favorite people, Josh & Beth.

Lunch was AMAZING!

We then walked around downtown stopping to drool over the mac book pro that we so desperately want, and we even got us some frozen treats.

When we got home we played with our neglected dogies and then jumped on our bikes again and headed to the Morro Bay Harbor Festival. We drank a few beers and enjoyed some live music before heading home to our dogs once again.

We started up the fire pit, grabbed another beer, and threw our hamburgers on the BBQ. We relaxed and laughed soaking up the remaining rays of sunshine before the sun sunk beneath the horizon.

Our hamburgers, (although veggie), were amazing and we finished it off with some fresh peach cobbler, really does it get any better??

Anyone who has visited us here in Morro Bay know that during the summer we are blessed with a marine layer that keeps the place surrounded by fog, however, during the fall the sun comes out and the temps rise.

It was so warm all weekend and the sun shined all day, putting a huge smile on our faces, and a little color on our skin!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!!

Conquering the Sierra Nevadas- Part One

2011-08-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago Aaron and I, along with two of our friends set off on an adventure.

This adventure was unlike any that i had gone on in the past.

We hiked from one side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the other.

It took us five days and was a total of fifty miles with over seven thousand feet of incline!

I have been on plenty of backpacking trips, but not one for five days.

It was AMAZING!

I enjoined it very much and am ensured by my hubs that we will do this many more times, trying all possible routes to get across.

I took something like 300 photos, and will spare you all the delirious hiking ones, ha ha.

But i thought it would be best if i broke it up into two posts.

So here is the first half of our trip in photos...

Here we are all fresh and ready to head out over Bishop Pass! (We went up and over what you see in the background behind us)

So this is Palisade Creek, and we were the first ones to make it across this year!! The day before 4 rangers attempted to cross, and they sternly informed us that, "they aborted the mission", and that it was a very advanced crossing! Ha ha, then us four stupid kids did it!!

It may not look that scary, but it is pretty deep, and moving incredibly fast!

Well we made it to the place where we set up camp for the second night! That day a ranger did make it past the creek right after we crossed, he was out scoping out the trail before it opens soon. He was impressed that we made it, ha ha. He told us the rangers told him to keep an eye on the river in case he found us floating, ha ha!!

Our 14 mile day ended wonderfully with chairs and good company!

I will post the photos of the next three days soon, but that's all for now.

Have a great weekend!

Swap meet finds!!

2011-08-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

I found some treasures this morning for sure,

and the best part is...

i spent 12 bucks!!!

Now that's MY kind of decorating!

This green lamp is quite possibly the coolest lamp ever. You can't see in the photo, but the inside area lights up also!!

It was $8, but my hubs got it down to $6. SWEET!

And i got a bunch of really cool old books...

yea for old books!!!

i kinda LOVE old things, and there is just something about these old books that i think is awesome

this scale is a bit beat up...but you can't complain for 2 bucks, ha ha

So if you are broke like us, you NEED to get out and find your nearest swap meet and pay pennies for treasures!!

special moments

2011-08-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

Being one who does not have any children, its easy to miss the simple and subtle ways a child can brighten your day.

I have mentioned before that we nanny for a little kiddo named Hailey.

She is a fun, exhausting, sweet, frustrating and easy to love seven year old.

The other night Aaron and i took her for a short hike where she ran circles around us, giggling the whole time.

I snapped a few photos while we were on our little adventure.

It is nights like these i am incredibly excited to have a munchkin of our very own....maybe in five years!

Garden update!

2011-08-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

Our garden is producing lots and lots of yummy food. So much in fact that we have not had to buy veggies for months!

So far we have tomatos, bell peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, red peppers, corn, multiple summer and winter squash, red potatos, and lots of green beans!!

My hubs loves his butternut squash!

Romancing

2011-07-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

Love is a choice and an action,

romance is then contagious...

Oh the joys of love.... and a trusty tri-pod:)

It's time...

2011-07-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

This old raggy t-shirt has been worn for its last day.

That may not be a big deal to most, however, this shirt has been worn by my hubs regularly since the day we met.

Aaron got this little gem from Costa Rica the first time he went there, and since the fact that his wardrobe consisted of only a handful of shirts, it was warn a ton throughout the last 8 or 9 years.

As of late it has been worn as a work shirt, and every time i see it i get a flood of happy memories.

So here's to a new chapter in our life filled with many more shirts bringing their own fun and happy memories.

Adios!

I tried to find some photos to show you what i mean, but unfortunately we hardly took any photos in high school. But i did find a few...

Don't mind all the unflattering photos, what can i say...it was high school!

Camera Happy

2011-07-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

We were out one day getting batteries and treats and got a bit distracted. We had our tri-pod, cameras and remote in the car, and that is a deadly combination.

Have a super weekend!!

Fun Finds!

2011-07-15T14:40:00.000-07:00

We found a few old windows, aaron is going to have to fix them up a bit, but i love them!

I am always finding use for baskets.

I am not too sure why i love this so much, but i do!

This is a HUGE window that aaron is going to put back together, the photo doesn't do it justice, it is like 4-5 feet tall and still has the glass in tact!

I love retro prints, and these homemade placemats have such a fun print.

We found these little treasures this weekend on a morning walk to a few yard sales.
We feel like we scored, although i didn't take a photo of it we found a nearly new canon camera backpack!!
That made our day!
Alot of these goodies need to be fixed up and need to find their perfect little home, but they make me happy!

25 years old...yikes!

2011-07-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my 25th birthday, and i wasn't too sure how i felt about it.

Not that i feel old, but i am just not ready to be a grown up!

I feel that i am getting to the age where people ask you what you are doing and expect to hear grown-up answers. But that is NOT US!

Our response when people ask us that is, "we have been doing alot of playing", yep that's what we say.

We go on "play-dates" just about every day.

We don't have serious jobs, and we have no clue what we want to do when we "grow up"!

We are content with just being kids who always want to have fun!!

Our goal to to make it through life with this mindset, and we believe we can.

There is a certain amount of responsibility i suppose we will have to gain at some point, but for now, even though i am now 25, i refuse to be a grown-up!

Anyways, i had a great day yesterday.

My best friend/room-mate/sister and I spent the day in the sun.

The best way to spend i day might i add.

We went on a hike, laid out on the beach, had some yummy fries & drinks by the beach and finished it up with dinner and dancing!

Oh, and i almost forgot, my amazing hubs made me some crepes and even let our huge German shepherd wake me up in bed!!!

(I am always asking to let him join us and our beagle in bed, but due to the fact that he is huge & hairy the answer is always no, but not yesterday!!)

So here are a few snapshots of my super fun day!!

We forgot the camera when we went out to dinner, but i had to get at least a few photos of us both dressed up, (because it doesn't happen too often).

So here we are at 2am, yep we were quite the party animals and stayed out pretty late, ha ha!!

I am now 25, and happy!

Sunshine

2011-07-06T18:13:00.000-07:00

Lunch breaks at the beach to soak up some rays....perfect.

4TH OF JULY

2011-07-06T15:37:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend!

Our friends came over on Saturday and stayed until Monday night.

We played TONS of Frisbee golf, had alot of smores & margaritas, and spent lots of time on the beach, and to top it off it was sunny, warm & beautiful.

It was perfect!

And it had a perfect ending too...

lots of cuddling on the roof watching the fireworks just the two of us!

Hope you guys had a great weekend too!

Daddy's Day

2011-06-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

We had a fun day with both of our dads yesterday.

We spent the day soaking up the sun on the lake with Aaron's dad.

And then finished up the day with a BBQ at my parents house with my dad.

It was a simple & wonderful day.

We always have a great time with Aaron's brother Andrew & his wife Angela!

We finished the night at my parents were we enjoyed sitting by the pool in our tank tops and swim suits.

There is just something about warm summer nights that makes me a happy girl!

And it is not a party without some trampoline time, my mom even got in on the fun!

I hope you all had a wonderful day too!

Summer has begun!!!

2011-06-18T14:46:00.000-07:00

Well our summer has begun!

The snow has melted enough for for us to get to our home for the summer...the mountains.

We started this year off strong with a little get-a-way to Kings Canyon National Park.

We took a really cool 4wheel drive road that crossed two creeks before we got to what we thought was the perfect spot!

We love driving out far way from the world, so campgrounds really don't work so well for us, ha ha.

We love to let our dogs roam all they want, and there are no people there for them to bother.

The canopy of trees there is high above the ground, and so it is easy to hike without trails because there is not a lot of brush to get in your way, so we just wandered all over exploring to our hearts content.

This is the beginning of our summer love affair with the mountains!

Let the summer begin!

The road to our spot, and one of the creeks you have to pass through. This makes the spot all the better,

because most people do not go through all the work to get somewhere where the nearest bathroom is 30 min. away, ha ha.

It is so peaceful being all alone amidst such raw beauty...

This creek was about 20 feet away from our spot, and there were so many neat baby waterfalls:)

And of course lots of campfire fun

my studmuffin:)

our perfect spot!

Aaron set up a slack line that entertained us for HOURS!!

Of course our trip included lots of hiking

And we even took time to do a little fishing

Heres to summer!

finally a garden update!

2011-06-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

Well, it is harvest time in parts of our garden.

Our little red potatoes are all out of the ground and have been baked, put in soups and stews, and in added to yummy casseroles.

They just taste so much better when you have seen them grow outside your front door!

We still have alot of things going strong, like our zucchini,beans, lettus, and peas, but have now we are starting to plant a new wave of things.

We have not had to buy veggies in quite awhile now, it is sooo fun!!

We have more zucchini than we could ever eat, so it has been fun to give to neighbors and family.

However, if you leave for just two days, beware, when you come home these will be waiting for you!!

We have SO MANY green beans!

Our grass in grown in, and we finally found a push lawn mower on craigslist...it is really fun:)

And some summertime colorful flowers that make me smile!

Aaron's cool bench

notice the snapdragon that started growing in the wall, so crazy!

so much yummy lettus!

our crazy herb box

we have been harvesting beets too

and have almost harvested all the carrots, so these are the third wave of carrots growing

We have been eating mostly stuff that we have grown ourselves, it has been so rewarding and fun to grow what you eat!!!!

vegas!

2011-06-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

We went to vegas for the second part of our little anniversary getaway!

It was so much fun!

We spent hours laying out by the lazy river, we wandered around the strip looking through all the cool hotels, and we were even party animals and stayed out till four in the morning!!

We just enjoyed the hours upon hours of hanging out together and having no plans or responsibilities!

staying home sick

2011-06-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

Today Haliey stayed home from school sick, which means that we hung out all day together.

We read books, drew pictures, and watched movies.

It gave me an excuse to make some homemade noodle soup, and fresh wheat bread for lunch, i felt so motherly, ha ha!

Every time i have a day like this i look up to all you real life "mommies" out there. I don't know how you do it 24-7!!

Part one of our little anniversary getaway

2011-06-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

We went camping in the desert! Yep, doesn't that just sound like such a romantic way to celebrate your five year anniversary?

Well part one of our trip was camping in the desert, BUT part two was relaxing sipping margaritas, poolside in vegas:)

If you know us you know that it is not our style to go on a relaxing vacation, so we had to throw some camping and hiking in there too. We had so much fun, even thought the night that we camped it was super windy, but it made for TONS of games of speed in our cozy tent!

i have the coolest husband ever...he got these chacos for me for our anniversary!!

can you

coolest place ever, we are going to be coming back here to climb SOON!!

we hiked up this valley

Part one of our trip was a blast, and i will post a few photos from part two shortly:)

Have a great day!

still going strong

2011-06-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

Yes it has been five years since we got hitched...go us!!

The truth is that sometimes we don't even feel like we are married, because people always said that it wasn't easy....but it has been.

These last five years have been the best years of my life, filled with love, adventure, excitement, and most importantly friendship.

He truly is my best bud...

Chris & Katie

2011-05-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

And what is a wedding without cute kiddos!

A glance at a weekend...

2011-05-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful weekend, filled with yummy food and lots of hard work.

We worked on our garden at my parents house this weekend, and spent some time with the fam!

I managed to snap just a few photos throughout the weekend........

Some photos of our garden's progress, yea!!!

we added more rows of beans

our corn!

We planted a few rows of potatos this time!

baby butternut squash

baby zuccinni

Boys shall be boys!

We also spent some time at Aaron's moms house too!

Hope you had a great weekend too!

Now i should get back to studing for my final in three hours:)

never growing up

2011-05-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

Do you ever wish you were not a "grown up" anymore, and just live your life playing every day like you did when you were a kid?

Just about every weekend Aaron and i get to escape the fact that we are 25 & 24, and feel like we are 16 again with no responsibilities! Yep, about a year ago Aaron and i built a room out by the garage at my parents house, a room that houses our most prized possessions...our toys!

We have our snowboards and snowshoes for winter mountain fun, and our climbing/backpacking stuff for the summertime. There is just something so fun about seeing all your toys hanging on the wall, like they are just begging for you to use them!

And we do!

We love the mountains, and all that goes with them. Backpacking/camping is on top of our list! It is just so peaceful to hike way back and know that there might not be another person for miles and miles.
I can't even describe it:)
This year we were even camping in the snow, which is really fun, i encourage you all to try it sometime!

We also hung all our old photos from high school on the wall! It is so fun, because it reminds us that above all we are best friends and have been for years now!!

This may sound crazy, but the next place we want to live is right here in this room. Yes, we want to live at my parents house in our twenty-somethings, and married!

But hey, if we can prolong growing up a few more years...why not!

So here is a glimpse into our haven...

Aaron built us an awesome queen sized loft! SOOO cool!

Maps, Maps, and Maps!

However, the majority of our maps are in our hallway at home!

This is Ezekiel's favorite spot!!

BLAST FROM THE PAST!!!!

So there you have it....our messy, cluttered, tacky, and totally awesome den!!!!

Gardens are cool!

2011-05-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

Well, what do you do when you run out of room for your garden at your house????

You plant one at your parents!!!!!

We began what looks like a BIG project at my parents house. It is really exciting because the climate at our house is so different than theirs we can grow a bunch of different things!

So we planted some rows of corn, lots of beans, lots of tomatoes, eggplant, a TON of zucchini and butternut squash, bell peppers, and all sorts of fresh herbs!!

Here are some photos of the project!

We brought a bunch of our starters from home...

Pretty Pictures

2011-05-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

Ok...i have totally been slacking on posting, however, i do have an excuse!

We were first out of town most of last week, then i had to work hard to make up for that, and then we were out of town all weekend!

We had a wonderful weekend though, we Planted a rad garden at my parents house, ate pizza for just about every meal, and then we took "newlywed photos" for my brother and sister-in-laws!!!

It may be a bit obnoxious, but i might be posting a few post today of what has been going on these last few days, oh well!

Soooo, here are some of the photos that i have spent most of the last two days working on.

We had so much fun taking them, they are such a great couple:)

OK...for all of my amazing photographer followers out there, any feedback or advice would be awesome!

We are just starting to turn this hobby into a little business and we could use all the advice we can get!

So thanks a billion for just stopping by a checking these out:)

Hope you have a wonderful day!!

Love on the Beach

2011-04-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

Aaron and I took our doggies and spent the first part of the week camping

on hwy 1 in Southern Big Sur.

We had so much fun, and took WAY too many photos to post!

I will post some of the photos from our trip a little bit later, and tell you all about our crazy adventures, but for now i will just leave you will a sequence of shots on the beach.

We have a remote controlled trigger, so once the camera is on a tri-pod, the rest is history! Even the dogs were getting excited and having a good time!!

Hope you all are having a great day!

Fun Weekend with the fam!!

2011-04-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

Most people celebrate Easter on Sunday...

but we had a whole weekend of fun!

My family came over to our casa on Friday night, and left last night. Aaron's dad also joined us on Saturday too.
We had such a fun time, filled with patio camp fires, ping pong, the beach, lots of food, golfing, games, and even wine tasting on Sunday!!

Yep, you heard right, it is not the usual thing to do on Easter Sunday, but you would be surprised to find that there were a bunch of people with the same idea as us! We had a great time and went to two of our favorite wineries in the area.

All in all it was a great weekend spent with great people, the only bummer was that my sister Courtney was working and could not join:(

Here are some photos of our weekend!

Aaron and his Dad

My Dad

My Mother

Me & Ezekiel

Riley Girl loves her grandpa!

The game of the night!!

GOLFING!!

Sunday Morning Crepes!

Now off to go wine tasting!

Back to the Beach for Dinner at Schooners! YuM!

By this point i thought they would hit me if i took another photo, so i snuck this one in, and everybody looks mad, ha ha!

All the kids minus Courtney:(

I hope you had an amazing weekend too!

Old Photos

2011-04-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

So, we had a friend, (actually my hubby's cousin), ask us to dig through and find a few photos for a powerpoint that she was going to be doing in their church for Easter Sunday.

It was kinda fun to dig through old photos, and it has made me want to post so many from our many fun filled adventures!!!
I just LOVE how photos can bring smiles and giggles years after they were taken. They can bring you right back to that special moment that they have captured within the frame. And that is why i think that taking a gazillion photos rocks, even when your friends and family HATE you for doing so, ha ha!

But for today i thought i would just post the ones that we gave her for this Sunday.

They are nothing special, but some of them make me smile:)

Hope your having a great Thursday!!

Camping at home

2011-04-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went camping!

It was super fun, and the funny thing was that we were still only about five minutes from our house!

Yep, a five minute drive equals a mini vacation!

Andrew and Angie joined us for Andrew's birthday.

We camped on the beach, made crepes at our house in the morning, explored the tidepools in the state park by our house, and then finished up with some burgers at Sylvesters!

Over all it was a GREAT time!

And we can't wait for next week, BIG SUR here we come!!!

Happy Monday!

Spring is in the air!

2011-04-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

It is so magical to see new life take root and sprout, and that is what we come out to find every morning in our quaint little garden. There is such a simple and elegant peace in that no matter how hectic and confusing this modern world is, nature still functions the same way it has for ages. The soil still has it magical powers, it is still alive and functioning like it should, which keeps us alive!

Aaron and i have been learning what a wonder dirt is, yep, the dirt we walk on every day and continually abuse with our chemicals and destructive habits. So we have decided to learn how to take care of and nurture our dirt, i mean, it is what is putting food on the table, its the least we can do, right?

There are many books out there on how to "give back", and take care of your dirt, and it really isn't that hard!

I decided to include this in today's garden progress report, because it means a lot to us, and we are so thankful to have something as great as dirt to provide us with such amazing food!! (Not to mention the beauty of the flowers)!

There was a lot of excitement going on in our yard yesterday, we planted some grass! I have always wanted some, however, we didn't like the idea of watering it every day, (when we get our water piped in from who knows where). But, we came up with a solution!! About half a year ago we bought a hand pump, and put a HUGE container outside our shower window. So all our shower water gets pumped into it and sits in there until its time to water our plants. You would be amazed to see how much water really does just go down the drain when you take a shower! So once we got the water problem fixed it was the matter of the actual cost of the grass. Well that was easy, it was about 15 bucks for it all!

So yesterday we worked outside all day, and it was GREAT! We implemented a lot of the things we have been learning about dirt into our work, it was fun and rewarding!!!

Here are some photos of our day. Some photos are of the garden progress i took in the morning, and others are of our new grass!

new sprouts

older sprouts ready to be transplanted

Green beans

One more step closer to completion, now we are going to build a lattice for it to climb up.

our 3 dollar purchase before...

and after:)

yes, i know our fire pit is kinda nerdy, but oh well!

Yea, GRASS!

Just give it a few weeks and it will be picnic ready!

Family Fun

2011-04-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

This weekend was another success! It was a very fun and busy few days filled with more birthday cake, bonfires, lake time, (first time of the year, yea), and of course a hike!

Aaron's mom had a birthday party for both Aaron and his brother Andrew. There birthdays are only about two weeks apart. It was really fun, my family, as well as Angie's, came to help celebrate over a big bonfire!

The next day we took my father-in-law's house boat on the lake, and just enjoyed the sunshine with Aaron's brother Andrew and his wife Angie!

We tied up on the other side of the lake and went on a little hike where i discovered that i didn't like the presence of the grazing cattle, nor the crazy sounds of the crying bulls.

But i am happy to say even though we got some evil looks, we did not get charged, ha ha ha!

And we had a really great time enjoying the green grass, flowers, and sunshine!

the cake

trick candles, ha ha

one of the birthday boys

Winston found a friend, my dad

Aaron and his mom!

both my mom's!!

the parents:)

Angie and I

Lake time!!

Hope your weekend was a success too!

Aarons Birthday weekend

2011-04-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

My hubby turned 25 on Sunday!

His birthday weekend was really fun! The night before the big day we had a little "birthday party" for him with the grand audience of Aaron, myself and our wonderful doggies:) We have so much fun together:)

On Sunday i had to help throw a bridal shower, and left my birthday boy to fend for himself. But he ended up making me jealous when he went on a hike with his bro and sister-in-law!

The next day we went on a hike with our dogs, by far one of our most favorite things to do!

Here are some snapshots of the weekend...

And yes, that is meat!

It is the first time since we started eating vegetarian that we have cooked it! But we thought for such a special occasion we would fire up the grill:)

Now it is hiking time!!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

Good Night

2011-03-31T23:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight is a great night!

For starters, it was 97 degrees here at our house today!!

Our neighbor has a really high tech weather station thing that recorded that, its crazy!! So basically i tried to get by wearing as little clothing as possible, which here in Morro Bay is pretty acceptable, ha ha!! But not so much at work in the salon:)

Anyways, it was still warm when i got home. So warm in fact that we heated up the grill and hung out on the roof and looked at the stars, all in shorts and a tank top!

I had all the basics, my man, a cold beer, some good guacamole/chips, little bit of guitar, my doggies,and some yummy food!!

I am one happy girl!

Closed Road Fun

2011-03-30T18:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Aaron and i were on our way to Costco when the road that we usally take was closed.

We took the road anyway and when we got to where we needed to turn around we realized that it was so beautiful, and unlike the countless other times that we take this road. It was empty, and so peaceful!

So we did what anyone would do, stoped the car in the middle of the road, and hung out for about an hour.

We always keep our camera with us for times like these.

So this is us, when given a camera and the wide open road!

Its about time for a garden update!!

2011-03-29T17:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, i will just warn you now that i got a bit camera happy this morning when i came out to snap a few photos of our garden. It was just such a beautiful morning that i couldn't help myself!!

I must say that this years garden is shaping up to be pretty awesome, and that is totally because of my hubs who makes sure things get water, ha ha.

We have really gotten into it this year, we have just about everything that will grow in our climate. Another really cool thing about this years garden is that we are growing everything "heirloom", or just gmo free!!

Aaron is coming home with different varieties of old heirloom veggies that i haven't even heard of before, it is really fun!

In fact, our "garden area" has expanded to be just about ever free patch of dirt on our property, (seriously)!!! We have green beans or peas growing on almost all of the fence separating our yard from the neighbors, and aaron has built little boxes that go everywhere else. It has been so rewarding to grow our own food!

For those of you that know Aaron and I this may come as a shock, but almost two months ago we stoped eating meat! Yep, i thought that it would be hard, but it really isn't. We still eat it if we are at someones house, or something like that, but at home i have not cooked or eaten it in almost two months!!!

I have had it in mind to write a post where i will give all our reasons for not eating meat, but i will save that for later. But, needless to say, we are really looking forward to growing so much of our own veggies, because we eat SO MANY now!!!

Here are some of the photos i took this moring of some of the things we are growing all over our property!

Right now everything is still really small, but give it a little more time and we will have lots of yummy food!!

Hopefully this inspires you to go and plant your own garden....

First we plant the seeds in these little cups, or reused trays from the nursry.

They are so tiny and fragile, and it is easy to keep them in a homemade "greenhouse", aka a big clear tub with lid.

Then, when they get bigger like some of these we plant them where they are going to be for the duration of their lives.

I had a bit too much fun taking photos of these little cups, but i just thought they were so cool. And i LOVE our amunition box that is being used as a flowerbed right behind them!

Tools of the trade...

The carrots!

The beets!

The onions are doing great!

The potatos are now huge! And they are only going to be getting bigger!!

This is our "out-door" herbs, and they are still just little seedlings!

These are our "in-door" herbs!

Some of our little seedlings that are not started in our started box are kept under plastic.

More lettuce, but this is on the other side of the house....

Next to these.....

and these.

Here is another patch of green beans....

and another patch!

Can you tell that we LOVE green beans!!

These green beans have really taken off, they were the first ones that we planted, and soon they will cover my sign!

Here is the garden that started it all, we very quickly grew out of this one!

And what is a garden without lots of pretty flowers!!!!!

And of course the adopted stray cat...

And you can't forget about the sexy gardener!

And to top it all off, the sound of the waves crashing and the salty air make for a great time working in the garden!!

Hope you all are having a great day!

Snow fun

2011-03-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went snowboard, again!

It was a great day!! It has been dumping up there for the last week, and they got a ton of snow:)

Here are a few photos of our day....

THE ROOMIES!!!

Our new toy!

2011-03-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

Yep, we got a new toy!

BUT, this one is actually a practical and responsible purchase, (unlike almost EVERYTHING else we want to buy, ha ha)!!

We bought a Juicer!!

So now we can enjoy the health benefits of things that we might otherwise not take advantage of, like wheatgrass!

The juicer that we got is the Jack LaLanne Juicer, and the cool thing is that we recently had the honor to be the photographers at Jack Lalanne's memorial service. It was a really great experience, and he truly was an exceptional man!! And it is really fun to know a little bit about the man behind this rad juicer!!

We have only had it for a few days, and have been trying to juice all sorts of stuff. There is soo much to juice, its great! We have already juiced mixtures of, beets, oranges, carrots, cucumbers, kiwi, ginger, asparagus, chard, spinage, and wheat grass!

just a few of the things i remembered to take photos of...

We made some really good orange and carrot juice...

We had already started sprouting our own wheat berries prior to buying the juicer, and we already had our first batch of wheat grass growing.

All you need to start sprouting is some wheat berries, which you can buy usually in bulk from any healthfood store. A jar, and either a piece of netting or a cap to drain the sprouts.

This is what the berries look like un-sprouted...

Steps one, two, and three...

First you sprout the seeds overnight, and then spread them on some soil and wait. After a few days you will start to see the grass grow!

Then you snip off the amount of grass you want to juice!!

One ounce of wheatgrass juice has the vitamin and mineral equivalent of 2 pounds of fresh vegetables. It contains most of the vitamins and minerals needed for human maintenance, including the elusive B12. Many of the benefits of wheatgrass juice stem from the fact that it is a living food, which is a complete protein with about 30 enzymes and is approximately 70% crude chlorophyll.

This is where we are growing our wheat grass...

The best way to extract the juice from wheat grass is not by the juicer that we bought, but it works. If you wrap the grass in chard like this before you put it into the juicer it works better, and then follow it up with a cucumber or something else that has a high juice content.

I forgot to take a photo of the juice, only the empty glass!!

Another thing to consider, that if you have a cat, expect them to LOVE the wheat grass, at least our does!!

I kinda got carried away with taking photos of our Hunter cat!!
Oh well!!

If you don't have a juicer there is still benefits in the sprouts alone!
We have several jars of sprouts going, (broccoli, alfalfa, and bean sprouts), here is our wheat berry sprouts...

Sprouts have enormous benefits for you.
Here are just a few reasons you should totally sprout for yourself!!

During the sprouting process new and higher quality proteins and other nutrients are produced. Tests have shown that the nutrients in seeds and nuts are anywhere from 50% to 400% greater after sprouting or soaking.

Because sprouts are living, growing food sources, they have a rich supply of enzymes. This quality makes sprouts easily assimilated and metabolized by the body.

So you see sprouting, it is easy and so good for you!
Even if you do not take my advice i hope you.....

Weekend Vacationing at HOME!!

2011-03-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

Yep, we went on vacation this weekend, but we didn't go anywhere. Nope, we just stayed home! This was a treat for us, because we are always on the go. We love being busy, especially when it is all fun stuff!! But it felt so good to stay HOME!

Meet Hailey...

She is one fun, and cute little kiddo!
I have blogged about her before, one of my favorites is this one!
Anyways...

We get to take care of Hailey most of the weekdays, but this week was special, we had her for Saturday morning too! We started the morning off by showing her how to juice her own orange juice.
We had no idea how much fun this would be, she thought it was so cool. And then all throughout breakfast she was saying, "this is the best orange juice ever, you have GOT to try it", she was soo cute!

And after we squeezed the oranges we had some YUMMY crepes! We even made it extra special and used the "birdy plates"! Yep it was a great time!

Here are some photos of us having fun...

Aaron showing her how it is done...

She really got the hang of it by this point.

She is one happy girl!!

She wanted to take some photos too, these were the two best ones!

Now time for some PAINTING!

After we were done painting little miss Hailey went home. Aaron and I then started on our own adventures.

I will skip all silly and crazy things that we call fun, and go straight to the highlight...

And yes, that is our cat sound asleep on the bed, and there is Ezekiel on his bed. Both nights it was family snuggle time for sure, all of us were on this thing, ha ha!!

Yep, this awesome bed was there for two days until we finally took it down today!

There is just something about a stormy day and a cozy bed thrown together in the front room, that is irresistible!!

Aaron and i NEVER water T.V. during daylight, but we did for a little while this weekend! (However, we are so nerdy and absolutely LOVE documentaries, so that is what we watched, ha ha). And lets be serious, when you have a cool little lair like that one it is really hard to leave, ha ha!

When we usually make beds in the front room they are hidden by one of my all-time favorite things, an awesome fort! But our pansy German shepherd was not ok with that, (he is afraid of EVERYTHING), but we still love him!

(And the bed was still cozy without the fort)!

You can't have movie time without fresh popcorn!!

One of the highlights of the weekend was definitely our hike in the rain, and i put these photos on yesterday from that hike. I was kinda bummed at first because we had wanted to get drenched, and then it stopped raining right as we began hiking, but then after and hour or two the rain came, YEA!!

Hope you had a great weekend too!!!

Rainy Day Adventures

2011-03-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

Well this weekend was great, and even though it rained the entire time we still managed to get in some fun adventures!!
We actually STAYED HOME this weekend, which is weird for us because we usually are traveling around on the weekends.

But this weekend was awesome! We got a great inflatable bed from a thrift store, and then set it up in the front room, and haven't had the heart to put it away yet!!

I hope to post some photos of the weekend soon, but for now i will just put on some from today. We went on a hike, (well actually two), and had a blast.

I LOVE how everything looks so different when it rains, it is way worth getting drenched!

Hope your weekend was great too!

Rain Clouds

2011-03-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

Good morning! Well i am off to work on this sunny morning, but the forecast calls for rain, rain and more rain for the next little while. I don't mind the rain, there are still plenty of fun things to do in the rain, like go on a hike and get SOAKED with your best friend, (seriously SO fun)!

But i will leave you with some photos taken about a month or two ago when me and the hubby got a little trigger happy on the beach.

But seriously, it was So BEAUTIFUL how could you not??

Have a wonderful Friday everyone!

This is what happens when you tell Aaron to take a NORMAL photo, my fault, i should have never asked.

And YES am taller than Aaron, oh well

Sweet dreams

2011-03-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hailey is now sound asleep, but i had to post a photo or two of how cute her and Ezeikel were tonight! A dog is such an awesome friend! He would do anything for her!

So i will leave you with these,

Sweet Dreams

and once i took one photo, she wanted more and more...

Hope you all have a great night!

Study day

2011-03-15T14:17:00.000-07:00

Well one of the greatest things about living in California is that a study day equals

a Lay out day!

I have a paper and a test tomorrow, so i worked on my paper this morning,

then after lunch headed outdoors to study!

Hope you are all having a great Tuesday!

Ok, i admit, sometimes i find that my eyes wander away from my book, oh well!

The company...

the essential bikini...

And right around the corner is this guy, my awesome hubs busy working!

awe baby... i love you too!

The weekend..

2011-03-14T16:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend was full of all sorts of fun, we drove to my parents house on Saturday

and had a great lunch and spent some time with the fam. Then went for

dinner at Aaron's dad's house, where he made us some great ribs. We then started the day off on Sunday going to the Selma flee market, where we were slightly disappointed. We LOVE flee markets, and were so excited to try a new

one out, but it was not as good as the ones we usually go to. But we still had a blast and managed to find some treasures!

Aaron found an awesome bow and arrow, and i got a brand new pair of jeans and a cool antique pitcher.

We got a ton of fresh veggies too, all straight from the ground with the dirt still on them, (just the way we like them)!

And of course we had some great tacos for lunch!

Then from there we went up the mountain for a fun day of snowboarding!! We will never stop doing what we love, and every time we go we have such a great time!

Here are some photos of all the things we did, some of the flee market, at my parents farm, some beautiful blossoms, and even a few from the mountain.

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

You can tell when i am responsible for taking photos snowboarding, boring!!

Meet Taffy the goat, and Candy, my mom's horse.

Daisy is the goat in the front, baby is behind her.

Tsunami in Morro Bay this morning, no big deal

2011-03-11T23:33:00.000-08:00

Yep, the horribly devastating tsunami that hit Japan and other parts of the world did come this way, but just to give us a bit of excitement! I feel horrible for all those who are suffering, or who have lost their lives in this disaster, it is just SO terrible! However, here in Morro Bay we felt it just slightly. But you know how it is in a small town, schools were all cancelled, places evacuated, and warnings were everywhere. I know that those warnings were necessary because nobody could predict just how bad it could get. However, here though that meant that pretty much everybody and anybody was out watching the water, or trying to find the perfect spot to watch the action. I was lucky and got to go to work late, and so that meant that i had ALL morning to scope it out! It all started at about seven when Aaron's mom called to warn us about it, that pretty much made us jump up and rush to the car to take a little hike to get a good view. Well we were one of a ton of people out for a thrill, and it turned out to be nothing more than a beautiful hike and a fun time sitting in the sun. Next, we ran home and grabbed our bikes and headed towards the water, it was a good choice. We found almost all our neighbors there, it was a little party! Anyways, we had a great morning. For all of you who were hearing about it on the news, this is what our experience was like. I can only wish that every one's was as fun as this!

So in these photos it is really hard to tell what is going on, but basically the water in the bay rose between 8--9 feet according to the coast guard. And it did this VERY fast, both coming in and going out.

Garden Progress

2011-03-10T21:45:00.000-08:00

YEa, it is always so exciting for us when our seeds first start sprouting in our little garden, and every day we check with anticipation to find mother nature working her magic. I am happy to say that now we have lots of sprouting veggies!! It has been about a month now,(i think), and our peas, potatoes, carrots, onions, beets, lettuce, peas, and broccoli are all doing fabulous!!

Hope you are all having a fabulous Thursday!