thirty years young

nate's birthday wasn't very dirty and he doesn't really look thirty, but we celebrated despite landing in north carolina on a red eye the day before. oh, and it was the first day of duke classes for that husband of mine. party!

for birthday #29, we went to pizzeria toro with matt and belize to celebrate. in the last year, pizzeria toro burned down, was rebuilt, and opened its doors again. how could we not go again? nate's classmates took him out late for a second birthday dinner too.

sage helped me fill thirty balloons with thirty things we love about nate, and i made his traditional chocolate strawberry shortcake (an edible labor of love). he so kindly gave himself a flight to austin to watch some BYU football.

down the coast

after nate's summer internship, we rented a mini van to fit our heaps of stuff and drove down california on the pacific coast highway. wow! if you really want to fall in love with california, this is how. i couldn't even contain myself with all that beauty. i think nate heard me exclaim, "wow! wait! i have to capture this!" ninety-seven times.

on the agenda...
monterey
carmel
pebble beach & 17 mile drive
point lobos
bixby bridge
mcway falls
big sur
piedras blancas beach
hearst castle
san luis obispo
santa barbara
agoura hills
and ending in...aliso viejo at my brother's house.

our timing couldn't have been better. as we drove down the coast, our friends were driving up the coast, and we met in monterey/carmel for two days. thanks to a killer upgrade (nate is convinced nora's smiling at the front desk did the trick), we landed in the biggest suite at our hotel, complete with a huge deck overlooking the bay. gorgeous!

we ate seafood right on the pier and walked through downtown monterey.

the boys golfed the next morning while the girls hit the aquarium.

 ahhh, this view. sign me up for the bay area.

 sage loved the giant kelp forest (sharks!). we spent a good hour here, so i had to throw this photo in.


as usual, nora was happily along for the ride. this baby! i can't get enough.

we explored the carmel mission while our babies snoozed in the stroller. i regret not busting out my real camera. i love a good spanish mission.


 we stumbled upon the huge car show going on in carmel the day we were there. i'm no car lover, but these restored cars were impressive. mostly, i was dying over the quaint neighborhoods where every house has a name and style. we had to park 10 blocks away from main street because of the crowds, so we got a nice little tour of the surrounding neighborhoods.
we walked main street and stopped for fudge at the cutest candy shop. every walkway, shop, house, and restaurant was cute.

 
 
 
 our mini vacation with this fun crew ended in lunch on the patio of casanova. our six little GIRLS were quite the scene, but the homemade spinach gnocci was worth the chaos.

we drove the 17 mile drive at dusk.

we had a mix of fog and soft purple skies as our backdrop on the road that winds through golf courses and along the ocean. we stopped at pebble beach for a check on nate's bucket list: walking the 18th hole. obviously, playing the 18th hole is probably higher on the list, but hey, we'll get there.

sage cracked us up with her fake phone. "hang on mom, let me just take a picture of the sunset!" as she held her phone in the air. i always marvel at what a different world our girls will grow up in.

the next day, we stopped briefly at a few lookout points in point lobos, then came to the bixby bridge, built in 1932.

next up was a hike (walk?) to mcway falls, a beautiful blue lagoon with a waterfall trickling into it.

 i feel incredibly lucky hanging out with my people. i love them so!

we really started getting into the forested mountains as we drove deeper into big sur. with no cell service, we were determined to find big sur bakery since it came so highly recommended. and we did! and it was perfection! i always wish my dad were with me when i find a good bakery. there is no one who appreciates the fine art of the chocolate chip cookie more than my father.

we quickly ran to the railing at piedras blancas beach to peek at the massive elephant seals covering the beach, then drove on to hearst castle. we ultimately decided to skip the actual castle tour since we didn't have time and we were guessing sage and nora weren't dying to walk quietly through an old mansion. we'll save that for another day.
as we drove past the grounds, i did a double take. a herd of zebras roamed by the side of the road. we spent the next half hour reading everything on wikipedia about william randolph hearst's life (zebras have roamed the grounds for years). i also read french parents don't give in to nate while we drove, so in addition to appreciation for beautiful ocean views, we came away from this trip armed with french parenting tactics and random facts about hearst himself.

santa barbara holds memories for nate.
his mom used to bring her kids to the art museum and library often. nate appreciates it now, but his eight year-old self would have rather been playing soccer.

we ordered gigantic burritos at freebird, then spent the night with nate's grandparents just north of los angeles. after a brief visit, we made it to my brother's house in southern california at last.

in case i didn't take enough ocean photos, one last view of this stunning coastline.

that time we lived in san francisco

i came into our san francisco summer skeptical, but excited. as the song goes, i may have left a teeny bit of my heart there. unfortunately, i rarely pulled out my real camera (mistake!), but i still wanted to make a little something to remember the city by the bay.

remember this about san francisco

if you look for perfection, you'll never be content.

- anna karinina

i don't like doing things halfway or a little less than perfect. in my perfect world, i wouldn't be so, so behind on preserving all these memories in our little family. but alas, i am way behind. i'm going against my inner perfectionist and jumping in with the rest of our mediocre iphone photos so i don't forget this magical summer that we fell in love with beautiful, foggy, expensive san francisco. 

here's what i want my girls to remember...

i want them to remember the beautiful chapel on a hill we went to each sunday

...and the crazy parking situation.

 
 
i want them to remember our relaxed days of nowhere to be, and especially the day we meandered down every secret pathway at the palace of fine arts.

 i want them to remember all the time we spent with aunt madi. she was always down for an adventure.

 i want them to remember that we played with amazon boxes, ikea toys, and puzzles all summer. sage put together every puzzle we had multiple times a day.

i want them to remember that we visited every garden in san francisco. the japanese tea garden, the botanical garden...you name it, we walked in it. 

 i want them to remember our daily walks through south of market to the embarcadero, past dad's office (where he'd come out on the deck and wave to us), then on to the ferry building.

but also remember the times we stopped at dad's office for breakfast, or lunch,
or just to take pictures in the photo booth (did i mention we love google?).

 i want them to remember our rooftop garden where we could see the whole city, if the fog (did you know he has a name?) wasn't around that day.

 i want them to remember that this was the summer of PURSES for sage. without fail, madi would tie a knot in her purse strap and let sage wear it all day. even with a broken leg, sage insisted on carrying a purse on all our outings.

 i want them to remember all the concerts, circus shows, museum events, and movie nights. if anything had "free" in front of it, we were there--and we didn't even do half the free things in this city!

 i want them to remember our day trip to santa cruz. it wasn't a very warm beach day, but we still played in the sand and rode the carousel. sand became nora's favorite food group.

i want them to remember our little trips down to half moon bay. we went to the wrong beach during low tide one time, and by the time we found our friends at the right beach, everyone was crying and muddy. we stopped at in 'n out on the way home to make things better.

 i want them to remember that this summer was when nora and sage really learned to play together--tea parties and box rides, baths together and stories in bed.

 i want them to remember that we lived a few blocks from the flower market. we'd see people walking out of an alley with armfuls of gorgeous bouquets, so one day we peeked into the alley and found this waiting for us.

i want them to remember that sage lived for free balloons from nordstrom, and that the girls took lots and lots of stroller naps.

 i want them to remember the oakland athletics game with the lindes in box seats.

i want them to remember our funky kitchen stools...and that sage fell asleep at dinner multiple times. we wore her out.

i want them to remember all the cool playgrounds that we only got to explore in our last week when sage could walk again.

 i want them to remember our beach days, even though most were windy and foggy!

 i want them to remember our perfect day down on the peninsula. we visited my cousin and her new baby, then went to happy hollow and the los altos farmer's market with the bauman girls. gorgeous weather, the juiciest fresh strawberries, music floating through the market, and fun friends.

 i want them to remember our farewell san francisco dinner at le charm. we had the patio mostly to ourselves, and it's always a good idea to end on french food.

and i want them to remember our funky loft. the decor was a mix between naturalist and buddhist, there were no doors, the flooring was iron mesh, and we were the only unit that had a sun room with roof access. sage slept on an inflatable toddler bed, nora in a pack 'n play, all just inches from our bed. also, remember that i was stressed out the entire summer about keeping those 14 plants alive, but mainly that gigantic ficus tree.

and if my girls remember nothing else, i hope they remember that there was a lot of love that summer in san francisco.