49er Game

Our fabulous seats.

The players coming out of the locker room

                                                         

December 12, we went to the 49ers game in San Fran to watch them play against the Seahawks. We were fortunate enough to see their best game of the season! The final score was 40-21. I forgot my camera :( so these two pictures are from my phone. 

Wine Tasting Weekend

I made the drive to be with all my closest girls from high school in Sonoma County this weekend for Corynn's 22nd birthday. It was a weekend filled with great friends, amazing food, and tasty wine!

Friday I arrived after the long 5 hour drive, I was more than relieved when I arrived to what Corynn and her roommates call "the chicken farm." (They have chickens and live in a house on a farm in Petaluma.) The first thing I saw was this adorable puppy in the picture below, who was Corynn's roommate Hillary's friends puppy (whew! confusing!)  He was just visiting for the day, and boy was I happy to get to play with him for a little! That evening, Corynn and I drove to Berkley and met up with Katie, Leslie and Kindah. We ate a yummy dinner and headed back to the chicken farm for the night. 

Saturday I woke up to a fantastic breakfast made by Corynn's roommate Christina. She made home made cinnamon rolls! I grew up never liking maple syrup, or cinnamon rolls in general but boy were these AMAZING. After letting breakfast settle, we got ready and headed out to Healdsberg to go wine tasting. We ended up going to quite a few wineries, but my favorite by far was Williamson Wines tasting room. They paired each of their wines with hors devoures. My favorite was the cabernet sauvignon paired with irish cheddar topped with blue cheese, and a pecan drizzled with honey. Mmmmmm. 

That evening we had another amazing home cooked meal, and gathered in the living room to sing Corynn "Happy Birthday." I ended up going to bed pretty early since I had to make the trek home in the morning.  Even though I can barely pull my jeans over my booty, I had so much fun getting to spend time with my girls! Here are some pictures. :)

Me & Brr the pup

Downtown Healdsberg, it's nice to see the leaves change color! You don't get that much around SLO.

First stop, Williamson Winery!

Sean & the birthday girl looking confused.

Just being silly :) 

From left: Leslie, Corynn, Christina, Katie

Group photo at Hauck tasting room

Toad Hollow

Another group shot at Toad Hollow

Leslie & I at Portalupi tasting room

(They paired one of their wines with cheetos!)

Corynn blowing out her birthday candles. :)

Thanksgiving with the Tristao Family

Every year, my Mom, Sister and I do an all in one day trek to Tulare to visit with my Mom's side of the family. This year was an exciting one because it was the first time we brought our boys. So Thanksgiving morning, we all hopped in the car and headed to our cousin Dennis' house with Turkey and stuffing on our mind. :) Everyone loved Ryan & Jon, and my sister and I enjoyed having them there to meet our family. I especially look forward to the traditional Portuguese stuffing my family makes every year, so it was also interesting having them both try it! I still don't think there is anyone who loves it as much as I do! That Sunday, my sister and I had a mini Thanksgiving meal with our Dad in Paso Robles and ate yummy duck with rice and veggies. Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving/Thanksgiving weekend.

My sister & Jon playing pool in our cousin's game room

Ryan very comfy & sleepy after tons of turkey

Amanda & I (the new haircut too)

At Cafe Stravaganza in Carmel

Dad's house for our mini Thanksgiving

Dad overlooking Heritage Ranch

Big Change

I spent the last 3 years growing my hair out so it would be long and healthy. Once I did, I decided it was time for a change (figures.) As I pondered which haircut I would choose, I remembered my friend who donated her hair to locks of love, so I looked up their website. Locks of Love is an organization where people donate their hair (10 inches or more.) That hair is made into a wig for a child with an illness that causes hair loss. I arrived at my hair appointment very nervous, my long hair was like my security blanket! They put my hair into a ponytail and snipped away. As I was getting my hair cut, one of the hair stylists approached me and said with tears in her eyes how happy she was that I was doing this, because as a child she had alopecia and lost all of her hair. This made me feel even better about what I was doing. I ended up cutting off around 11 inches, and I am so happy I did. There's a child out there who needs hair more than I do. :)

Oregon vs. Cal Game

On November 13, I went to the Oregon vs. Cal game with my family friends & my Mom. We left at around 10:30, and had a BBQ at our family friends house in San Francisco near Ocean Beach. It was gorgeous that day! Perfect temperature for a walk on the beach & a BBQ. Soon after we drove to Berkley, parked, and got a bus to the Cal Stadium. It was SO packed! There were 65,000 people in attendance, aka completely sold out! Although the game was not too exciting (Oregon won 15 to 13), I still had a lot of fun catching up with old friends and getting to spend some time with my Mom. Little did I know my mom is a closet football freak! It was very entertaining seeing how she acted at the game. :) I had never been to a college football game, but after that I would definitely go to one again. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

That day at Ocean Beach, SF, hundreds of jelly fish had washed up on shore. The next day on bay area news they were talking about it!

The BBQ at the Downer's relatives house in SF.

My Mom & I celebrating the victory

Cal Stadium

Mom & Sonia

Halloween Weekend

Ryan & me as a 20's flapper & Indiana Jones

Sitting at Sean's right before the downpour as we were about to go downtown

Me & Sean at Frog and Peach Pub (Sean was Wilson from Castaway) 

Malibu Speedzone!

The weekend of October 23rd, we drove down to Santa Barbara, and spent some time with Jahmin & Jordan before we headed down to Covina for Ryan's step-grandpa's 80th birthday party. After his birthday celebration, we headed to Malibu Speed zone and had a blast! We drove go-karts on the slip track, & the individual race track. I was so speedy that I beat Ryan's time on the race track! I don't think we've all laughed and smiled that much in a long time, I felt like a kid again. After returning to Santa Barbara we ate breakfast in Summerland, and went wine tasting. We had so much fun, so here are some pictures! 

Wine Night on a SLO Rooftop

So it's no surprise that Ryan and I (especially Ryan) LOOOOVE wine. We planned with a group of our friends one night that we would have a Tuesday wine night, but I didn't really think we would all follow through.

Oh, but we did!

Tuesday, I got off work, jetted over to the store to buy some brie & crackers while the boys set up. I arrived to Sean's house, to find them on the rooftop with a table, lamp, stereo, and at least 5 bottles of wine! Our friend Sean lives in downtown SLO apartment, and his windows lead to a large rooftop that we have explored a few times before. It was a nice night, not too cold, barely any cloud cover, and we had different types of yummy wine to drink. 

Here are some pictures :)

Sushi Night

The two of us eat sushi about twice a week. It has started to become an expensive habit, so we thought of making sushi ourselves. =)


We purchased the japanese dish set, a bamboo mat, and my favorite japanese soda (It's a yummy kids soda with a marble on the inside), and all the necessary ingredients.


Ryan did all of the work, and it was amazing! I've had home-made sushi before, but this was the best i've ever had. We had rolls with imitation crab, cucumber, avocado, and asparagus.


So I thought I would post some pictures of our yummy dinner. Thank you Ryan! <3

  

  

  

Nova

Anyone who knows me knows that I love dogs. It's an obsession. My family bred Dalmatians, so I was always around at least 5 dogs at a time. As much as I want a dog, I knew it wasn't the smart thing to do while we're living in a small apartment with no yard. So after Ryan and I moved to a pet friendly apartment, we decided on getting a cat. 

It was late April when we started looking. Of course we went to the Humane Society and the SPCA to see if we could rescue one, but we were told it wasn't "kitty season" yet. We had our hearts set on a tiny baby kitten that we could take home and raise, but we thought we'd take a look at the older cats anyway. This process was so difficult! We would sit in the large outdoor room for hours petting, observing, and loving all of these cats. We found quite a few characters going through this process. Ryan met a cat named Muffin who loved giving hugs. In fact, he loved giving hugs so much that he ended up scratching Ryan’s shoulders! He was so adorable, but he was too old, and we were concerned if he had bad habits like scratching furniture that we wouldn’t be able to train him properly. While Ryan met Muffin, I found the cat I wanted. A 6-month-old black cat with green eyes named Dash. She was the most calm, cuddly cat but we soon figured out she was consistently sick, and felt if we were to take her home we may be unable to afford the vet bills.

Our second or third visit, a 1-year-old buff colored shorthaired cat with an attitude caught our eye. Her name at the time was Molly, and she was a playful but aggressive cat. Ryan loooooovveeeed her, and thought she was the one, but I’ll be honest I wasn't too sure about her. I thought she was mean after watching her interact with other cats. After sitting in that room for an hour, I agreed and we took her home.

Let me tell you, I was so wrong about her! She is the sweetest, most loving cat in the world. Although she doesn't like being held (which I still hold her anyway against her will), she always wants to be in the same room as us, and loves sleeping in our bed with us! My guess is she wasn't used to being around twenty plus cats, and maybe just likes being a lone ranger. She's done really well with us, and Ryan and I really enjoy caring for her. 

I felt that if she was going to be our cat, we needed to give her a new name. I was looking up Native American names, and saw "Nova" which I think in Hopi means, "chases butterflies." If you watch her play with her favorite toy, (da bird) you'll know why we ended up naming her that. Funny thing is, we rarely call her Nova. Most of the time it's "Kiddenz" or "Kitty." =)

So here she is! Miss Nova.