the fair.

Would you believe I had never been to the OC Fair before I met Tim? I remember the first summer we were dating and we hung out in the middle of the day. He had this idea to take me somewhere he thought would be fun, and he did not tell me where, which drove me crazy. I still remember pulling up at the OC Fair and being so excited because I had never gone before. Since that first year, we have gone every year since, and it's a great tradition.

Tim's favorite part of the fair is the garden. I am not sure how, but this guy has grown quite the green thumb. For him, it seems like the most exciting thing about buying a house in the future is being able to grow his own garden. I think it's so great. I picture us eating fruits and vegetables from our garden in the future, and Tim teaching our children about growing plants.

 Other highlights of day included watching a watermelon eating contest, seeing a vendor cut a potato into a rose and give it to Jody, having the BEST mango & strawberry smoothie, and our favorite tradition... the photo booth. It's fun to compare the strip from last year to this years. We took the one last year pretty soon after getting married, and we seemed so young! It's nice to have a year under our belt and to feel like we have really grown.

a concert in the park.

Saturday evening we went to a concert in the park. It was so much fun it made me really sad summer is coming to an end. I love events like this so much. Plus, we were seeing The White Buffalo, and it was free, so you really cannot beat that.

We got there super early to save good spots on the grass and brought a picnic, which was really great. Tim and I got a cute picnic basket for our wedding and I am so glad we registered for it because it is so fun to use! Picnics are our favorite, and it was fun getting to catch up with Tim's sister and just relax together.

Tim especially loved this concert because there were not two hundred sweaty people crowded in a hot bar fighting to get close to the stage. For most of the show, we sat on the grass, and since we had a good spot, it was plenty close to the stage. After hearing more songs, I had to go stand by the stage with some other people who were dancing because it's basically impossible to sit down while listening to the buffalo.

I hope we get to do the same thing next summer. It was totally worth it if you live in the Orange County area.

Food adventures

Last night we tried to make pad Thai. We are huge fans and found the ingredients at Sprouts so it seemed like a good plan.

Then we realized we did not have a wok and the eggs turned out funny and the oil was popping and burning my skin. And suddenly I did not want pad Thai because I was convinced it would suck. I am sometimes an awful pessimist even though I claim not to be. I am glad Tim always wants to see things through and is the opposite of me in that way. 

Since we did see it through it was actually a pretty tasty meal. We didn't cook the noodles long enough so they kind of stuck together but the taste was great. That's all that matters to me...

Overall a successful time.

And because I have nowhere else to put this story... Isn't it funny when you have known someone a long time and find out something new about them that blows you away? I have been with Tim over six years and last night he was laying in bed a funny way and I noticed that this guy has a ton of moles on the back of his right leg. Super strange story I know. But it excites me to think that there is still so much I have to learn about Tim. 

Tim's first day.

Last Wednesday was Tim's first day at Boeing. Well, technically, it was not his first real day because he was just signing paperwork and doing orientation stuff and getting a name badge. But I still went with him to support him and make sure he got there on time and we thought it would be fun to have a lunch adventure afterwards. Our plan was to find a new place in Long Beach and spend the day exploring.

It really seemed like a solid plan at the time. Then I realized I'm not that good at adventure. At least, I'm not that good at lunch adventures. I envisioned we would look up a local restaurant and go! When in reality it was not so smooth... I looked for the local places, but nothing sounded that great, and who knows if it's really good, you know? Also, we are both pretty indecisive people. Tim was driving and I was looking up places, asking him, 'Does this sound good?' And he would shrug and say, 'Yeah, that's fine with me.' [There have been many a fights over neither of us being able to decide what to do. Really.] So I get frustrated because I assume nothing sounds good to Tim, when in reality, he's just the easiest guy to please. It's rare that he's actually craving something very specific. Most of the time, anything sounds good to him.

Long story short, we landed on a teriyaki place that had good reviews. It was pretty good! Tim was not that impressed, but I would definitely go back. I got the chinese chicken salad and Tim got the teriyaki chicken. It was fun to pull off a lunch adventure and I hope in the future I get better at it.

*Also, because I am such a proud wife I had to take a 'first day of work' picture of Tim. My sister, Emily, said it looked just like the 'first day of school' pictures my mom would take of us every year, which made me laugh. It's true. But I am so proud of Tim. He's only been in the field a year and now he is working at Boeing! What an accomplishment! I do not know anyone else who has known what they wanted to be since they were a kid. It's impressive to me how he has known his goal for so long and has worked so hard to get there. Besides that, he works so hard to take care of our little family and prepare for the future. I am so proud to be his wife. 

a post about cake.

Not many people know this about me, but I am a sucker for traditions. I love them! When Tim and I got married, I wanted to have even more traditions because we were creating our family. Christmastime was peppered with questions from me like, "Should we do this with our kids?" and "Wouldn't this be a fun tradition?" It's exciting to think of having traditions when we have kids.

So, I've known about the cake tradition for a while. You know, that you are supposed to save your cake topper from your wedding and eat it together on your first anniversary. And boy, I was on board! Because I love traditions, and you know, cake. Cake would be a main food group if I was never concerned with calories.

My mom had saved our cake topper in her freezer, so we stopped by her house on our way to our anniversary getaway. She had stored the cake topper in one of those old gallon ice cream circular tupperware things. It fit perfectly with little room on each side. From there on, this cake went through a lot. It was kind of a miracle it even made it to our hotel room, seriously.

First, I didn't even think about the cake melting. It was frozen for a year, after all. I took the lid off while Tim was driving and realized there was water on the top of it. My innocent desire was to get the water off, so I held it out the window and shook it. And then a gust of wind hit and out of my hand the lid went. Great.

By the time we got it home, a lot of the frosting had just fallen off on of the sides. Lovely. (I did try some of the frosting though and it was delicious.) I decided we should take it to our hotel room in a fancy cake stand. For two reasons, one, I like cake in fancy plates. And two, we had gotten it for our wedding and had not used it yet. So, it seemed like a good plan. But no, again, it was a bad plan. Remember the lid?

I set the cake stand on the floor while Tim drove. There was one moment where Tim had to stop faster than usual and the cake nearly fell out of the stand. This shows a picture of the side of the cake stand. Oh man.

Even then, it was not in terrible shape. Sure, the frosting on one side was basically falling off, but the other side looked good! We could make a blog post just showing the good side! Because that's basically what blogging is all about, right? ;) But no, I couldn't pass up the monstrosity of this cake and the experience of eating it.

We got to the hotel room and it looked like this. Not too bad.

Buuuuuuut thennnnnnnnnnn, we woke up in the morning and it looked like this. It must have melted a little bit and the top layer was sliding off the bottom layer!!

Thank God it was our anniversary and we could finally have some of that cake without looking at how ugly it was anymore. It's a little depressing when you have a picture in your head of feeding each other a perfect cake and enjoying it and everything, you know? But then you realize the cake was FROZEN FOR A YEAR, and then you laugh and love your imperfect little cake.

For all that it went through, it was pretty tasty. I liked it at least, Tim is not a fan of cake. It was more about the tradition for him.

What a lovely adventure. And delicious, too!

birthday & anniversary weekend, part 2.

One of the best parts about going on a mini vacation to Laguna is the public transportation in the summer. There is a trolley that runs all the way down Pacific Coast Highway, and during the summer months, it's free! We parked our car Friday afternoon and did not drive again until Sunday afternoon when we left. It was great because driving in Laguna is nerve-wracking, in any car. (It was especially nerve-wracking when I made Tim drive my manual car a few years ago in Laguna. I'll tell the story another time.)

I also love the trolley because it has those great gold poles that you hold onto when it gets crowded, and they remind me so much of my time in Italy. There was NEVER any room to sit down on the buses in Italy, Bethany and I always stood and held on for dear life.

On our anniversary we got breakfast in bed, which was the best idea ever (except that we woke up earlier than we anticipated and had to wait an hour and a half, since we thought we would sleep in.) Casa Laguna has won awards for their breakfasts, and it is fun to be able to choose from different options than the last time we were there. Tim ordered the french toast and I got lemon waffles... both were great.

Saturday we walked down PCH and went down a random street to hang out at the beach. It was overcast the whole weekend, so we were not that interested in swimming at the beach, but we did have a picnic and explored a little.

Take a second to appreciate Tim's face in this photo, trying to outrun the cold water.

This was the view from our room. It was so beautiful. 

 After dinner, we went back and read books outside together. Obviously, we have very different taste.

I did not know where to put this photo, but I wanted to remember it. Friday night we went to the grocery store and bought food for the rest of the weekend. I love that Tim insists on carrying everything and is always thinking of me before his sore arms. He is the sweetest. And so handsome.

birthday & anniversary weekend, part 1.

I would highly recommend to anyone getting married the day after your birthday. It has worked wonders for me, because before I was never that excited for my birthday, and now it feels like a celebration weekend. Admittedly, I have only had one so far, but this one was pretty great.

We started my birthday with a picnic in the park and Panera. Judging by how many times we have gone in the last month, I think it is safe to say this our favorite casual lunch place to eat. We went to a park down the street where we had never been before. It's lovely, but the ducks are weird. They ate none of our bread! We didn't like that much, but it was still fun having a picnic and getting to talk in the middle of the day on a Friday. Tim was very happy to stay home from work.

Later we drove to Laguna Beach to stay at Casa Laguna, where we spent our first night as married folks. We hope to go back every year for our anniversary, but it is ridiculously expensive, so maybe that will just be a dream. Thank god for babysitting money and etsy money and all the extra stuff I do to get money. We had an ocean view room, which was pretty amazing! From 5-7 every day is 'wine and cheese hour.' Every day they have a different array of cheeses, wines, fruits, and crackers. I tried manchego for the first time and I loved it. (So much so, that I am really missing Cortina's right now... October 15, hurry.)

For dinner we went back to Thai Bros., the place we had been together on our honeymoon. We also decided this was to be a tradition for every anniversary, and we were so serious about it, we had not been back since our honeymoon (even though the food was ridiculously good.) However, after eating there this time, Tim said we probably won't be able to wait until our next anniversary to go again. It's THAT good, friends. I could eat it every day, probably.

Walking back to our hotel that evening was lovely. Laguna in the evening is so beautiful. It's what Bethany would call 'The Magic Hour,' and it was so magical. Just check out this great picture. I'm pretty proud of it. We love taking walks together, and it was nice to know we had a whole two days left to just be together.