Weekend in the Mountains

I come from a tiny town at the very tip of California.

Most people, especially people in the Bay Area don't realize that California extends above San Francisco. It does, in fact, and quite a bit actually.

Fun fact: there's about 6 more hours worth of California before it becomes Oregon.

 

Sometimes the traffic and the work week becomes too much to bear and I need to escape. Back to my tiny town with 4 stop lights, back to the comfort of my mom and dad, to made from scratch pancakes and the smell of the wood stoves burning in every house on the block. This past month has been one of those months that makes me crave simplicity. Nick and I have been busy, and we have been stressed, the need for an escape became overwhelming.  

 

We took off Friday afternoon before the impending doom of the BART strike traffic got underway. After spending 2 hours a day sitting on the freeway surrounded by other commuters, there is no better feeling than driving 80 on a highway with no other cars in sight.

 

 

 

We got to my dad's late and after a warm welcome from the dogs, we had a glass of wine and went to bed. We woke up Saturday morning to the sounds of coffee brewing and the nails of the impatient pups clicking on the wood floors. My dad made some amazing pancakes from a recipe in his head and we spent a long time talking and catching up. We went down to the river to see the salmon run and took some deep breaths. My favorite part of a trip home in the fall is the colors. The trees explode into bright reds, oranges, and yellow up there. It is just so beautiful.

 

Saturday night we made dinner at my mom's, took a walk to the park I played in as a kid, drank more wine and caught up with mama. The next morning we cooked a delicious breakfast and packed up to head back home. On our way out of town we stopped for stuffed breadsticks at my favorite small town pizza place and to see my friend Katelyn and her boys Benjamin & Noah. I love some quick snuggles with those big babies.

 

 

Sunday night as we got closer to home the freeway started to clog and we both sighed. Our escapes to the mountain always go by too quickly but Monday always feels just a little more relaxing after even a quick trip. Also? this is only a 4 day work week for me and that is preeetty awesome.

5 on Friday: Life Lately

I haven't been very good at blogging lately. You know it's bad when your husband starts asking.
The truth is I just haven't felt like I have anything new to share and as usual, work is kicking my back side and the last thing I want to do at the end of the day is look at my computer. Let's catch up shall we?

One
Dog Injuries - Nick & I had a very eventful week last week. It started the Friday before when we found a giant lump on the side of Teddy's head. It was hard to see since he is so freaking fluffy. We watched the lump over the weekend and took him to the vet on Monday. The morning after his first vet appointment we woke up to what looked like a murder scene on our bedroom floor. Poor Ted's head had exploded and we rushed him to the emergency vet at 6AM. They found he had an abscess that had ruptured and they had to do surgery to put a drain in his head. He looked like Frankenstein for about 4 days. He is doing just fine now and is back to his rascally ways. He's pretty stoked about not having to wear his giant satellite dish anymore too. No explanation whatsoever about what might have caused said abscess.

Two
Home Makeover - I caught a bug called "decorate every room in the house like a crazy person." Up until about two weeks ago we didn't have any photos of us up in the house except for in a little bookcase in the front living room. I've been bugging Nick for weeks to hang up some floating shelving that I bought and finally he caved. Our family room finally looks like real people use it! Now I've moved on to obsessing over our bedroom. I feel like that room should be my favorite room in the house, it right now.. it's my least favorite. I picked out some new bedding and have slowly been pulling pieces together that will fit perfectly. I am loving the new Threshold collection at Target and fell in love with the bedding we got. I'm pretty much designing the entire room around the bedding. I can't wait until it's done.

Three
Fall! - We pretty much had all of our fall decorations up by September 1st. I like to decorate in phases. I started in September with Autumn only and then slowly started adding Halloween decorations. As soon as Halloween is over we will transition back to Harvest & Thanksgiving pieces. I am very particular about how we decorate and I hate to rush the seasons. I cannot stand to start decorating for Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. It seems like the year passes by so quickly that I hate to rush through my favorite time of the year. I am absolutely loving how cozy and warm our house is feeling right now. And.. it smells amazing at all times with all the crock pot meals and spice candles I've been burning.

 

Four
Getting Crafty - I caught another bug called "craft all the things!!" I have been refinishing furniture like a fiend and spending more time at the craft store than at home. My favorite of all Pinterest successes is this pretty little burlap wreath. I am in love.

Five
This one isn't really relevant to what we've got going on right now but I'm excited about it and wanted to share. I finally found a phone case on Etsy that I liked, it showed up yesterday and I am in love. Bee Covered has some of the cutest designs I've seen and her prices are so reasonable. Also I love anything with a cute monogram. I always prefer a sleek, slim case to a bulky rubber one. My problem is that for my job, I spend a lot of time walking construction sites and have to have my phone handy to take notes and photos to send to my assistant. I have dropped my phone way too many times and the thin plastic cases never give the screen any protection. This case is firm rubber and has the tiniest lip that would protect the screen if it fell but is thin enough not to bug me. I will definitely be using this shop again.

 Happy Friday!! Hallelujah.

30 by 30: Update

1. Complete my professional certification. Done & Done

 

2. Be Matron of Honor in a wedding. My sister got married this last June and I was the only wedding party attendant & Maid of Honor. I'm not going to check it off yet though. My sweet friend Jeanette is getting married next May and asked me to be MOH. Two is better than one!

 

3. Work from home full time

 

4. Go parasailing

5. Take a hubs & me only trip to Las Vegas

6. Go skydiving

7. Become a mama {number one, most important ever lifetime goal. No pressure...}

 

8. Go stand up paddle boarding

9. Find our family church

10. See the Grand Canyon at sunset

11. Go on a hot air balloon in Napa - Check! My sweet husband planned a surprise hot air balloon ride in Napa for our anniversary weekend. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever done.

 

12. Become an aunt

 

13. Do yoga on the beach - Check! The resort that we stayed at in Maui offered yoga classes once a week. The morning we went it was raining, so yoga on the beach turned into yoga in the pool cabana instead. I didn't have my camera because, well I was doing yoga.


Source

14. Go to Disneyland

 

15. Buy our forever home 

16. Go white water rafting

17. Watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade with my kids.

 

18. Become a confirmed Catholic & get baptized

19. Start a new job

 

20. Ride horses on the beach

 

21. Pay off my student loans

 

22. Get my real estate license

 

23. Spend 4th of July with my kids & family in my hometown

 

24. Go camping at the beach

 

25. Visit our friends in Denver in the winter

 

26. Have Thanksgiving with the entire family. {This means mom, dad, sister & BIL, and Nick's family. My parents divorced when I was in 5th grade. My 10 year old self is absolutely beside herself with the idea of this actually happening}

 

27. Visit our friends in Dallas & eat Texas BBQ

 

28. {Still need some ideas...}

 

29. {Need something else to put here... }

 

30. Go somewhere really cool for my 30th birthday

 

I added a few more items and I only have two more to go. In January I'll be 27 and I'm pretty quickly running out of time to make some of these things happen. The next few years look like they're going to be pretty fun!

See the original 30 by 30 post here.