Down at the Boardwalk We'll Be Having Some Fun

Some of my favorite childhood memories are at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Yet, the Boardwalk is one of those things I didn't fully appreciate as a child. The amazing view of the ocean as you glide by on a ride (or in my case grip the bar in front of you in fear that these tiny metal brackets holding you up will disintegrate and leave you crashing to the ground).

The bright colors of the rides contrasting with the blue sky, amidst the palm trees.

 The relatively cheap thrills in such an amazing location.

Marini's candies - a must-eat

I fully appreciate every moment I get there now.

Photos of the Rock O Plane and Hang Glider by Justinbustin

*Post Title slightly modified from The Drifter's Under the Boardwalk*

Photo Friday: Beach Walk

As I've yet to corner my husband and demand my photos from the Black Hole aka his computer, I will take you on a beach walk. When Brando and I went sailing with my parents, my sister took the boys to Sunny Cove Beach in Santa Cruz below, which, ironically, we happened to sail past. I called to check, but they weren't there yet when we sailed by! So I took a picture to show them we sailed by, any way.

 Notice how overcast it is - this is the so-called Santa Cruz fog. It burned off less than thirty minutes later, as it does every morning and sometimes, as in this case, early afternoon.

Here we are less than two and a half hours later in the bright sun, excited to walk down to the beach from a friend's house. Okay, I'm excited (or about to eat something). Brando's just chillin'.

 

Once we were there, I kept my distance so as to not get freaked out with how far out they were out there. Those two little heads out there are Justinbustin and his cousin.

 See that little head popping up behind the wave? That's my Justinbustin.

The one to the left sitting in the shore break is Shawners, and the one carrying the skim board is Justinbustin. The other two are their cousins.

 Same story. The girl sitting on the cliff is also their cousin.

This is me, keeping my distance. And also to show you how uncrowded the beach is on a sunny Saturday afternoon in the summer. Got to love the local spots.

 Brando jumping off the cliff.

 

The reason Brando went out there - Justinbustin and his cousin headed out there all on their own pondering a cliff jump, which they did end up doing.

Coming in after learning how to skim board.

 

The wetsuits were such a perfect idea - at a $10 rental per day from Rip Curl at the end of 41st Avenue they were the worth the hours the kids played in the water without getting cold. We initially got them for the kids to go surfing, but the tide was too high, so they boogey boarded and skim boarded instead.

Such a relaxing, gorgeous beach just at the end of 17th Avenue. My sister used to live just down the road from here, and, as is often the case when you live in any area, you don't fully appreciate it until you move away. Thank goodness her ex surfs and appreciates every inch of the ocean. He has throwing boogey boards, skim boards, surf boards, and wet suits in the back of his truck down pat allowing him and my sister to take their three kids and her two from her current marriage along with my two boys down to the beach. Thanks, guys!

'Cause Today I Swear I'm Not Doing Anything

This trip to California's itinerary goal was to, for once, enjoy time actually IN Santa Cruz and with family, transition to my mother-in-law's new house, and enjoy our new twenty-one day old niece. Normally when we go to Santa Cruz, our hometown, we stay a few days, drop the kids off with the grandparents, take off on a romantic venture, come back for a whirlwind 48 hours and then fly back home.

This time, with my mother-in-law's new house and our new baby niece, I just wanted to ENJOY time there for once. Create new memories at Brando's Mom's new home. Spend time with those we love. And appreciate all that we had growing up as kids. And, boy, did we. Our itinerary reads like a Restaurant Guide to Santa Cruz with all the fabulous dinners at all of our favorite restaurants we had with our parents.

And since the majority of my photos are on Brando's computer, I'll leave you with the few photos I do have of some of my favorite memories.

Friday-

*Breakfast at Aldo's with Brando's Mom

*Saw our new baby niece, along with her Mommy & Daddy

*Shadowbrook with my parents

Saturday-

*Sailing with my parents

*these photos were actually taken during our second sailing trip, mentioned later on*

*Brando's childhood friend's wedding at a vineyard estate in the Aptos mountains

*Windjammer after wedding party

Sunday-

*Brunch at a family member's house with the newly married couple

*Riva's on the wharf with Brando's Mom

Monday-

*The Farm for breakfast
*Photo Shoot with Brando

*Seascape Resort for lunch with Brando's Mom

*Golf cart ride down to Seascape Beach and beach with Brando's Mom

*Stockton Bridge Grill with Brando's Mom and my Mom (not one of our favorite restaurants, but a good place to go for a quiet evening)

Tuesday-

*Rio Del Mar Beach with Brando's Mom and the boys

*Pedicures with my Mom and niece

*Kianti's with my Mom, my niece, and her boyfriend

*Marini's Candies with my Mom, my niece, and her boyfriend

Wednesday-

*Boardwalk with Brando's Mom, the boys, my niece and her boyfriend

*Shadowbrook with my parents and Brando's Mom

Thursday-

*Justinbustin went to work with my Dad

*Seascape Resort with Brando's Mom, our new baby niece and her mom and dad, and Jen

*Rio Del Mar Beach with Brando and I

*this photo was actually taken at Sunny Cove Beach, mentioned later on*

*Dinner at Star Bene with Brando where we had our first date almost twelve years ago (not one of our favorite places as far as food goes, but favorite for sentimental reasons)

*Stayed the night with Brando at Bella Notte, where they have heated bathroom floors and a fireplace, for an impromptu anniversary celebration

Friday-

*Monterey Bay Aquarium with the boys, my sister and her five children, my niece, and my Mom

*Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in Monterey with all of the same

*Smurfs with the boys and my Mom and Dad

Saturday-

*Sailing with my Mom and Dad

*Sunny Cove beach with the boys and my sister and her five kids - that's Brando in the orange shorts on the cliff, and Justinbustin in the wetsuit on the rocks just to his right

*Crow's Nest with my Mom and Dad

Sunday-

*Walnut Avenue Cafe lunch with my Mom and Dad, and Brando's Mom

*Rio Del Mar Beach and boogey boarding (the waves were too small to surf) with the boys

*Dinner at Bittersweet Bistro with Brando's Mom, our new baby niece, B, and her mom, K, and dad, M - equation in the heart he drew courtesy of Shawners (delicious food, slow service, gorgeous restaurant)

Monday-

*Shopping at Rip Curl (I always do my last minute run before the airport)

*Lunch at In n Out with Brando's Mom

I may be missing a few things in there, but that was the gist of it. See what I mean about being a guide to restaurants in Santa Cruz? I asked my Mom if she felt like this trip was any different with us not going anywhere, and she said, yes, we gotto eat with you every night. Worth. every. moment.

*Post Title from the lyrics of Bruno Mars' The Lazy Song*

In Honor of my Nephew and New Niece

A romantic photo...

The actual wedding and celebration with only family invited was Friday. Tomorrow is the wedding and bigger celebration with all their friends invited. So much to do!! They've been staying by a house on the lake and spending time with all their family who has flown in to see them this weekend. So much fun playing at Austin's Parks and Pizza with them yesterday, and having brunch at Cannoli Joe's with them today. What amazing people to be so gracious to their family and those who came to see them marry by spending time with them on their honeymoon. I love my nephew so much and am so glad he has such an amazing woman in his life that has a big of heart as he has, and just as big and crazy of a family, too. And Happy Father's Day, honey. Thank you for giving up your father's day to help me pick up and organize flowers.

Happy New Years 2011!

Wow, what a productive, wonderful weekend to start off the new year!

Saturday we took a bike ride around Town Lake.

If I remember correctly, it's become a New Year's Day tradition as it's a day where we know we get to sleep in, yet the whole afternoon stretches in front of us, begging to be filled with a bike ride.

Town Lake is the perfect leisurely ride with plenty of room at the The Palmer Event Center

to stretch out on the grass and relax.

Today, we ran by Costco and found the most beautiful, functional bookcases and took the very. first. steps. towards decorating our home together (those periods are. so. overdone. but they get the point across oh so well). We chose the bookcases together. Brando and Justinbustin set up the first one together, then Brando set up the second one and switched things up a bit with only leaving a few of the linen baskets in. He even rehung the artwork to accomodate the new bookcase, put the lamp on top, framed a picture from our wedding renewal and put that on top, and moved flowers from another into the now available shelves. I put the finishing touches on it by filling a vase with coral from our first trip to Hawaii celebrating our nine year anniversary. The whole thing makes my heart smile every time I look at it from the corner of my eye as I sit here and type.

This is exciting to me for so many reasons, the most important of which are that I've always been the one to decorate our house, and for the past few years have mostly given up. Thanks to the inspiration of these amazing bloggers and specifically this post (check under Lovey Dovey Stuff on their Projects page for even more sweet and romantic couple decorating ideas), I have gotten Brando excited about creating a beautiful home for us to enjoy and relax in together. This was our first step.

In addition to that, Justinbustin volunteered at church this morning again, and we volunteered as a host family yesterday evening in an amazing program for families who are homeless or, better put, in transition, where the families are able to stay comfortably in churches for a week to two weeks at a time and are able to have their own room for their family instead of having to stay in shelters where quarters are often cramped and/or separated and the stay is less personal. As well, Brando surprised me with breakfast in bed this morning - yummy ,

and tonight we are relaxing with a clean house, a glass of Pinot Noir for me, and a Dos Equis for Brando, while the boys play one of their Christmas gifts on the Wii.

Winter Wonderland

Snowboarding at Northstar was amazing! This year I was determined we would make it to the snow, and that's how we ended up at Northstar for Christmas week. Special thanks to Brando's Mom for loaning, borrowing, and buying enough snow gear so that the only thing we had to rent was snow boots for Justinbustin.
At Northstar we took advantage of the small ratio of students to instructors at Burton Academy. While it was more costly, I figured since we only had one day there we might as well make the most out of it. I definitely didn't want to walk away without knowing how to snowboard, and I wanted Brando to actually have some time to have fun boarding the slopes and not have to be stuck like glue to us the entire time.
I'm so glad I took lessons while Brando took the runs from the top of the mountain to the bottom more than several times. My knees were burning but I was able to go down the bunny hill four or five times, and I can definitely get on my new snowboard with a gorgeous peacock on it that I heart, and do a little shredding. The kids took their lessons separate from me - thank goodness because I saw too many parents dragging crying children down the slopes. Justinbustin was catching air by the end of the day, taking the bunny hill by himself and trying to catch the fresh powder in the trees. In between boarding lessons we had lunch together and convinced a cold handed Shawners to go back out and finish his lesson by lining his gloves with hand warmers and another pair of gloves. Shawners was more on my level by the end of the day, but loved it, telling me he caught air then flipped and his board hit his head, he finished his story by saying how awesome it was.

The day was clear and gorgeous. Just before the end of the day the resort turned into a winter wonderland with gorgeous huge flakes of snow for a bit.

Before the end of the day, we boarded around together for a bit, watched Justinbustin come down the run a few times, and watched Shawners walk in knee high snow before heading back down the mountain on the gondola.

Going on our first trip to the snow ever as a family (and the kids and my first time ever) was a complete success and I still can hardly believe we went. What an amazing trip!

Summertime Mealtime

After having Brando's friend Big Shawners grocery shop for us, then come home and slave in our kitchen for four hours making three delicious meals for us that lasted us all week, and then hearing Allison rave again about her delicious meals made in advance for the entire week, I finally decided I would do it myself. After Big Shawners wasn't available to come over tonight and do it again, that is.

So, tonight, Brando and I grocery shopped and slaved for four hours to make three (hopefully all) delicious meals that will hopefully last us the week. Grocery shopping together was a BLAST, especially sending the boys in all different directions to get ingredients (out of the whole list, I'm pretty sure Brando and I only got two items ourselves), coming home and all four of us putting all the ingredients together - washing, chopping, putting together, all the while I was making the ingredients pretty in their own individual bowls whilst Brando made fun of me,

and then finally, FINALLY eating my delicious plate of chicken, red pepper, and onion kabobs marinated in soy sauce, honey, and olive oil with fresh green beans, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, and basil.

So excited for beef bourgouignon with red wine, carrots, and onions,

asparagus with fresh squeezed lime and garlic,

rosemary potatoes,

and goat cheese, basil, and bread crumb stuffed tomatoes.

ph. by Brando (except for the 3rd ph.), unedited because I stole them too quickly