lafayette reservoir

Ben didn't have any meetings before Church yesterday, so we took the opportunity to go walk around the Lafayette Reservoir.  It was so, so pretty!  I love this Earth.

merced/dad's 50th

Another successful weekend in Merced - this time to celebrate Dad's 50th birthday!

The boys took a bike ride in the beautiful hills of Central California.  Ben only got lost and frightened me once . . I hate it when Dad calls and says "We've driven all the way back to Merced and we haven't passed your husband . . turning around now to go find him."  It gives me anxiety every time!  But they had a fabulous time and said the ride was just gorgeous.  :)

That evening we celebrated Dad's 50th birthday with a very large party!  There were so many people in our kitchen.  Why they didn't sit in the living room or TV room, we don't know.

Hostesses.

Fun to be home again and fun to wish Dad AND Thomas a happy birthday on the same day.  :)

dottie's/farmers' market/mt. diablo

We are so loving (a) me not working on Saturdays, (b) the beautiful 70-degrees-and-sunny weather, and (c) this fun place we live.  Saturday we went into San Francisco to brunch at Dottie's True Blue Cafe - a much-loved favorite for eggs, bacon, home fries, and buttermilk wholewheat pancakes spiced with ginger and cinnamon.  Mmm-hmmm!  To make the experience even lovelier, we only had to wait in line outside for 45 minutes.  After brunch we headed to the farmers' market at the Ferry Building along the Embarcadero for a couple hours.  It was fun to taste all the in-season fruits, some flower-flavored water, and nummy cheese.  We even bought a few things to bring home and add to our dinner.  You know, farm-to-tabling it.

Did I mention that it was a gorgeous day?!

We got an early start (7 am on a Saturday!), so we came home early afternoon and I took a nap while Ben went for a ride up Mt. Diablo.  My phone rang a couple hours later and it was Ben with his second flat tire of the day.  :(  He got his first, repaired it, and then got another, but didn't have any more spare tubes.  Poor guy!  So I headed up Mt. Diablo to rescue him.  It's quite the slow and windy drive, but I didn't mind one bit because with all of the rain we've been getting, the hills have finally turned green!

I love that California's state flower just blooms everywhere in the wild all over California.

And what a better way to end a wonderful Saturday than with a trip to The Olde San Francisco Creamery.  You will be surprised - it was our first trip there in 2014!

ben turns 27

My handsome husband turned 27 yesterday!  Ben took the day off from work and went on an 80-mile bike ride.  It took him 4 hours and 40 minutes, and I'm sure glad that he enjoys it!  My bum is still sore from our 1 hour ride over the weekend.  

When I got home from work, we went bowling and Ben is very proud that he "marked" in 7/10 frames and scored over 100 points.

We had dinner at Ben's (and mine) favorite pizza place - Zachary's - and I had dropped off some balloons there earlier in the day for a little surprise.  When our pizza was ready, the waiters all came over and sang and Ben got to blow a candle out of our pizza.  What could be better than that!?

Ben really wanted me to make him a cookie cake for his birthday dessert . . and I did . . but it took twice as long to bake as the directions said, and it was still super mushy.  We ate around the edges and called it good!  Note Ben's PJ pants - I made them for his present this year and they fit perfectly!

another half-marathon

Valentine's was a delight!  It's so easy for it to be delightful when you're in love.  We've been wanting to try a neighborhood restaurant - Pasta Primavera - so we walked down the street and enjoyed one heck of a meal!  Ben treated me with a pound of See's Candies and I treated him with . . five new pairs of socks!  Isn't he so lucky.

Saturday, we got up (way too) early and Ben ran his second half-marathon, this one the Bay Breeze in Alameda.  Cheering for Ben will never get old!  He came in at 1:38:30.

sausalito & rodeo beach

When I quit my work-on-Saturday job back in August, we thought that we would do lots of fun things on Saturdays, now that we had the day to spend together.  Well, we've gone to Merced once for fun and I've gone twice to babysit, but besides that we have not done much.  Granted, I have taken ballet classes on many Saturdays since then, Ben has continued to ride his bike for several hours each Saturday, and Ben has been busy working on graduate school applications.  I recently decided that we really need to take advantage of this beautiful area and all that it has to offer because who knows how long we will be here!  We picked a date and set it aside to do something fun together.  That day was yesterday and we spent the day in Sausalito and then Rodeo Beach.  What a delight.  Hopefully we can keep this up and do more fun things.

First stop: Napa Valley Burger Co.  This is my "Napa Junior" - junior, it was not.  But tasty, it certainly was!

Last time we were in Sausalito we got ice cream cones and enjoyed the view.  I suppose with it being February and all, it made sense that this time we got hot chocolate and enjoyed the view.  San Francisco looked so dang good across the Bay!  So clear and so splendid.

When we'd had our fill of Saus . . it's perfectly delightful but rather small . . we drove a couple of miles to outside of the Bay.  Rodeo Beach.  So little and cute and pretty!  We watched some surfers (freezing their bums off, we assume) and then we hiked a little ways along the coast.  We even saw a whale blowing its poof into the air!

Christmas

I keep waiting until I have inspiration to write something cute and clever and detailed about our Christmas, but the inspiration is just not flowin'.  However, we had the most delightful Christmas with my family in Merced and then at the beach house in Cambria.  It was so peaceful and happy and relaxing and I just love, love, love my family to pieces.  Here are some pictures that give a brief, and certainly not complete, account of Christmas 2014.

Grandma Rowan, as per tradition, reads Luke 2 at the Rowan Family Christmas Eve party.  This year we added songs between certain verses and it was so lovely.

Ben, Grandma Rowan, and me.

Anne Marie & me.  How I love this lady!  I miss living close to her.

On Christmas we got to talk to Elder Rowan!  He'll be home this summer!

The day after Christmas we drove to the beach house and this is the sunset that greeted us.

Our house is right next to this ranch with paths for walking.  I love it and I took a lot of pictures on my walks.

Ice Plant on the ranch.

Funky bench and paths up the hills.

This is a view of the beginning of the ranch, taken from right next to the beach house.

It's pretty either way you look - beach or hills.

We visited the beaches where the elephant seals come to give birth in the winter.  They are the funniest animals and I love them.

Elephant seal beach.

We played football on the beach at sunset one evening.

How dreamy can life get?

San Simeon Pier.

We also went tide-pooling right below the beach house.  It's definitely one of my favorite things to do.

Sea Anemone.

Sea Urchin.

My father, commander of the tide pools.  But seriously.

We even saw a whole bunch of seals out on the rocks when we were tide-pooling.  Seals are funny.

Besides seals, we saw whales and dolphins swim by the house multiple days!

This rock is covered in little Sea Anemones closed up while the tide is out.

The men-folk + Emily looking down at Mom & I at the tide-pools from up on the bluff/ranch.

This is taken from the ranch, looking back at our house.  It's the very first one when you reach the houses.

Emily.

Dinner at the Sea Chest.

The boys rode their bikes every morning and on Sunday we drove one of their routes - so pretty and so hard!  Glad I wasn't biking it.

"Batch" in San Luis Obispo on New Year's Eve - I thoroughly enjoyed my cookie ice cream sandwich!

Panoramic view taken from the back yard.

I love my family and I love Cambria - Christmas 2013 for the WIN!