Projects

 

I have decided to start posting the projects I have completed because I alwasy seem to be giving them away and then have no record of what I have accomplished. This little pumpkin hat is one that I knit for halloween and gave to Lucy. She is so cute and sports it well.

 
This is my beautiful niece Zoe. She is wering the first item of clothing I have ever sewn. I'm sure I could do a lot better next time, but I think it looks cute on her.

These are the Christmas stockings I knit for me and Jon....ther are Nordic...and yes they are giganctic. Somehow we...Santa...was able to fill them to the top.

Circ De Soliel

So we had the awesomist night at Circ De Soliel. It was at the AT&T park in San Francisco.

It was called Ovo. This is the only picture I took before the show started. I was hoping that people were going to come out and jump around on that ball thing, but they didn't. When the show started it just disappeared into a cloud of fog.

For once I was obedient and listened to the people about not taking pictures during the performance. I am so glad I was because somebody next to us did and the camera police ran up to our row and insisted on squeezing himself through until he got to the guy who took it. Then he proceeded to try to take his phone, which was what he had taken it with, away from him.  He ended up just making the guy delete the picture while he was watching.  

Steep Ravine

 

We went with some friends camping at the Steep Ravine. It is north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge near Stinson Beach. Anyway it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I think it is my favorite camping spot right now.....besides the fact that I threw up on the car ride there because of all the windy roads.  

The view from our tents.

 

The cool thing was that we actually arrived when it was dark the night before. So we woke up to the beautiful surprise of our surroundings.....and to the beautiful breakfast burritos that Jon and Jon made.  

  

Me and Rischel trying to keep warm by the stove.

  

  

These cabins that are next to the campsites looked super familiar. It turns out that they are the cabins I stayed in as a child. I think its weird that we happened to stumble upon the same place I stayed in as a kid.

  

  

  

  

  

This awesome rock was in our campsite it was really fun to climb up there and see the view.

  

  

  

  

   

  

  

  

  

   

  

  

This was another super rock we climbed up that had grass on top of it. We sat there for a while and looked out at the ocean.

  

  

...and meditated a bit.

  

  

  

  

Man, you really got to watch out for those newts.

  

Rischel let me sit in the front on the way home so I wouldn't barf again....such a nice friend.

  

  

This was on the way home we stopped by this cool look out. I loved this trip because we were out of the city in 30 min and into nature...that felt like miles away from anything.

Insomnia

Sometimes when I can't sleep....which is quite often during the nights I have off...I drive up to Twin Peaks to enjoy the view of San Francisco at night.

CHRISTMAS!

It is so hard living away from family sometimes....especially when every time I come I have to become reacquainted with Zoe. But all I really have to do is show her "nay nays" on my phone and then we are friends again. I love how she called me Aunt D.

Jon and I are so lucky when it comes to splitting Christmas with the families. The Brownings celebrate/open presents on Christmas Eve...for the most part. While my family does the whole Christmas morning thing. So Christmas Eve with the Brownings (and occasionally the Quebbeman-Turley family will join us). And sleep over at the Q.Ts for Christmas morning.

Yes, it was Christmas Eve and I was still finishing knitting presents.

Elle was so into the tissue paper from the presents. I don't think she even noticed what was inside them. (Elle is Jon's sister's daughter...confusing?)

Christmas morning with the QTs. Zoe was the gift distributer. It's always more fun when a little kid is doing it.

To define my mother in one brief story. My mom was opening a present dad had given her. She was very excited and was opening it quickly. The wrapping was being stubborn and was hard to rip off, but she did it very forcefully...so no problem....except for the fact that she also ripped off the front cover of the book, which was her present. (One of the many ways I am like my mother...I think Jon is finally understanding where I get it from.)

I guess dad has always been into puzzles...I had never really tried until this vacation. SO addicting! We stayed up almost all night on Christmas Eve doing this puzzle....which was mostly of clouds and dirt, so it was kind of difficult.

 

You may see a common theme throughout some of this pictures. Hint: it involved Ginger our cat.

Jon is modeling the "scowl" I knitted him. I can't remember what name we decided to call it, but it's in between a cowl and a scarf, so.....

This vacation was the Vacation of Games.

Do you notice the common theme yet? If you haven't guessed, it's that Ginger LOVES being part of the family. He wanted to be on my lap the whole time I was putting the puzzle together, tries to sit in the chair like a human while we are eating dinner, and of course lays right on top of our cards!

The story behind this picture is: My parents came over to Betsy's (Jon's sister) house to play some new games with us. During the game Betsy was fixing a bracelet of mine and had the super glue out. Somehow Janie got a hold of the glue. She got it all over her hands and on her lip. Janie HATES having dirty hands, therefore was very upset. She sat in my lap while I tried to pick all the glue off. At one point I looked down and she was dead asleep! I guess that's what happens when you have three older brothers that run you around all day.

Finals

Finals was stressful for both of us. I was trying to finish knitting Christmas presents and stockings and Jon was studying hard for his tests. 

 

I was knitting while watching a show and Jon tells me he is going to take a 10 minute power nap.  I kept on waiting for him to comfy up for it.....he never moved....I looked up and he was dead a sleep like this.  Soo cute.

 

We did some last minute shopping at good old Stonestown mall. They had such a gigantic Christmas tree in the middle. It was so big we couldn't get the whole thing in the picture. 

 

Okay....."threading" is sooooo painful. This is the second time I've had by eyebrows threaded and I must have forgotten how painful it was the first time....because I did it again. For those of you who have never threaded it is a very accurate way of hair removal. Kind of a rip off, but worth it. 

 

Jon and I were in the mood to do something Christmasy before we went home for vacation....so we went to the Nutcracker. It was amazing! Oh and one of the super cool things was that it was snowing outside. The theater was blowing fake snowflakes outside! 

 

This is the inside of the San Francisco Opera House where the Nutcracker ballet was.

 

 

Some Nutcrackers....to expensive to buy...to I just took a picture.

 

Some cool building we saw from the balcony.

 

Some cool people on said balcony.

 

Good show even in the nose bleed section.

  

 

 

These are amazing sculpture trees that we saw on our walk from Muni to the Opera house. I really wanted to climb up in one and take a nap.

 

After the Nutcracker we walked to Union Square and ate some dinner at the Cheescake Factory. It was a pretty warm day, so we sat out on the balcony and watched/laughed at people skating/falling.

 

Jon tends to close his eyes in pictures...

 

Then he always does this when I tell him to open them....oh silly Jon

 By the way Jon wanted me to clarify that not all of these events happened the same day. I'm just lazy and don't want to do multiple posts.

Thanksgiving?

It's been so long since I've blogged that I can't remember where these pictures are from. I'm pretty sure they are thanksgiving. 

Dad, don't hate me for posting this picture, but it's just to good not to. Backstory: the whole fam...extended and all...went lazer tagging at the good old Lazer Assault in Provo. Dad forgot to wear a dark shirt, which is a total no no in lazer tag. I had a dark undershirt on and so I gave Dad my blue shirt..because he was on my team and I didn't want to loose, even though we did anyway...so he wouldn't glow so much. I think it looks good on him don't you?

 

 

Zoe came up to my Mom asking her to put these goggles on. How cute is that. She is also obsessed with tooth brushes as you can tell by picture number one. 

 

Monopoly Deal. One of our new favorite games.  Sidenote: Its so funny watching my parents scramble for reading glasses. Half the time they are wearing each others.....for example in this pic. You can't really tell but they are pretty girly. 

 

Amy's birthday dinner at Red Robins.

 

Ashley's boy, Ashdon.

 

Amy and her kid Axel...and Ashley's claw coming for the camera.

 

Me and Jess

 

Zoe insisted on playing outside in the FREEZING cold. We watched Ginger watch us. 

It's always good to get some slobbery Zoe kisses.

Catch up...once again

This is actually from Thanksgiving. We were in Utah and my Aunt and Uncle and cousins came over to visit. Zoe really wanted to be one of the girls.

I can't remember what Brian was showing them, but it obviously was entertaining.

I love our cat, Ginger. He decides to sleep in the funkiest places.

Okay so I couldn't resist taking a picture of this mullet lady, because it's just amazing.....when we came back for Christmas, we saw her again. Oh yeah, and any guesses as to where these sightings have been occurring?......you got it: WALL-MART!

Crafty Christmas Diana

I have had so much fun decorating this year! Amy got me a Martha Stewart magazine and my Mom and I looked through it during Thanksgiving vacation. I was inspired to make my first wreath. I went on a walk with Kristine and Ben around Aldea (our apartments) and picked up eucalyptus leaves,little pinecones,nuts and berries and cut a few low hanging leaves....and ta da!!!!

 

I am very impressed with myself.

Ouch

So I got this new contact solution that is supposed to be really good. The only catch is that is has a chemical in it that eats the enzymes off the contact, so you have to make sure to let it soak for a whole six hours before putting it in. I guess eyeballs are made up of a lot of enzymes, so you can see why that could be a problem. I guess some of the liquid had leaked out on my trip or something, but when I put my contact in I had instant PAIN! My eye clamped shut and I yanked the contact out and had to shove water into my eye as fast as I could. I don't know if you can tell, but my eye was so red for a couple of days....and I lost my contact when I threw it out. The funny thing is that this same thing happened to my mom......what's with us mom?

Haircut

I decided last minute when I was in Utah to get my hair cut at my favorite place. I have such a hard time getting out of my comfort zone.....I mean I live in San Francisco I'm sure there is some awesome hip hair place I could go to......but instead I wait until I have trips home.

Oh yeah and since I decided last minute to get my hair done, I was stuck at my parent's house without a car. I rode my mom's road bike to Shep's....it looked clear and blue outside....so deceiving...turns out it was freezing, but I was late. I started riding the bike and halfway down the first hill I had to stop because I couldn't feel my ears or hands. I wrapped my scarf around my head like an old lady to keep them from falling off and suffered through my numb hands. This worked quite well until I looked over my left shoulder to check for cars and my scarf caught the wind and flew over my face, temporarily blinding me.......SCARY! I hurry and flipped it back behind my ear and attempted to look over my shoulder.....and again it flipped in front of my face! I finally just pulled the whole thing off.....so glad I didn't run into something. By the time I got to my appointment I had snot running down my nose, was sweaty and half frozen, (yes it is possible) and could not move my fingers for the life of me....what an adventure.

Welcome to Utah

I forgot to post the pictures form my phone: When I landed in the SLC airport this as what I walked into...unfortunately it wasn't for me. Yipeee for the Real Salt Lake soccer team winning the major league championship. It was crazy everybody was chanting and cheering. There were news crews and cameras everywhere.

Christmastime!

 

I love Christmas! Before leaving to Utah for Thanksgiving I put up our Christmas tree...Jon was not very happy with this, but he did like the idea of coming home to San Francisco to a christmasy house. I also got this idea of making a garland out of felt and circles and sewing them together from PeaPod Fabrics. I'll probably hang them in our window or something. Thanks Jess for helping me cut them all out!

Turkey Weekend

I was lucky and got to fly home to Utah on Monday before Jon finished school. I was very grateful to spend a bunch of time with my family and friends. Thanks again Ash for picking me up and showing me your cute house! Jon flew in Wednesday night after being at school all day....then I made him stay up with my family who was playing nertz until one in the morning. In other words this is a picture of a tired Jon.

This was Thanksgiving dinner number two at Grandpa and Grandma Turley's house. I basically just ate my dad's squash the second time around, but I'm pretty sure Jon packed another meal in....that's my man!

I love our family and how competitive and into games everybody is......My aunt and uncle and cousins from the Quebbeman side also were in town and came to Grandpa's with us. The Turley's have the most fun basement ever! Ping-pong, Foosball, Air hockey!

On Friday my whole family went to play laser tag.....killer fun! Our team lost. I wish I could just play laser tag everyday for thirty minutes and count that as exercise. We were all dripping sweat by the time we finished. Afterwards, we went to the Indian Palace and ate delicious indian food. You can't see it very well, but Zoe has a "soup lip".....she was eating a yellow soup that left a big mustache on her lip.

Josh and Dad in deep conversation.

Later we went over to Rachel and Josh's house to watch Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

Favorite quotes from the movie:

Steve Martin: "Where's your other hand"...

John Candy: "Between two pillows"....

Steve Martin: "Those aren't pillows!"

Steve Martin: "Here's an idea, when your telling a story....have a POINT!"

Birthday Week

This was a very happy birthday week....it was Kristine and Jason's birthday also. They threw a party for the both of them. This is Lisa and Lucy. Lucy was snuggling her head into her mommy's neck, but I missed it.

Kristy and Rachel...I just realized that I don't know if that's how you spell your name!....Let me know.

Diana Hulme, Kristine, and of course little Ben.

Jason, Jon,Jon,Brady, and Mark...why does that always happen? The girls end up in one corner and the guys in the other?

I just love this picture of Ben squishing Rischel's cheeks.

Taija, Rischel, me, Kristine....the D1 girls....ooops I guess we are D2s now. Time flys! (For those of you who are not dental school savvy, people call the first year of dental school D1, then D2 and bla bla bla.....I don't really know why they do that.)

We all sat in a big circle for about 30-45 minutes making Ben walk from person to person....who ever thought that would be so entertaining....plus he was totally hamming it up and showing off big time.

Mark's Birthday

Anisha and I waiting for Mark to blow out the amazing cake Lisa made him. I

don't know why this picture is so dang funky, but there it is.

Happy Birthday Mark!

So....I was feeling so exhausted that night. Jon really wanted to go over to Mark and Lisa's party...I felt like I couldn't even lift my head up so....no offense guys....but I just wanted to stay laying down. Jon bribed me by saying he would push me up to their place on the little razor scooter that always sits outside our apartment....and have no idea who's it is. On the way home it was so funny... he was trying to push me with his stomach because he was carrying something in both of his hands.....obviously I couldn't get a good picture, but it's a good memory.

Running with my Man

Jon and I went on a run near our place...up and around Twin Peaks. We ran up two giant hills and I could hardly breathe...of course Jon just sprinted up them.......it was also raining, which didn't help the situation. It was a beautiful view though...totally worth it. 

Yes this is one of the two hills...it's so steep it has stairs!

I LOVE where we live...I mean check out the beautifulness! (there Jon is, it probably isn't helping that I keep on stopping and taking pictures.)

I hate/love running with Jon....we have been running together since high school. He kicks my trash every time! I love it though, because he pushes me so hard.

 

Blurry, but beautiful.

And this is Jon taking a picture of me at my weakest moment, sucking air at the end of our run.

Close Up

This is what happens when Ben Ellsworth gets a hold of our camera...he was really excited to take this picture just like this....I'm sure it was wonderful in his mind, but I don't think I should ever be this close to a camera. If you didn't already guess the beardy chin you see is that of my husband Jon.

Ben also snapped this lovely picture of me....Ben I don't think I will ever let you touch our camera again......I mean really!

Hi

Hi everybody, I am Jon, not Diana. I am going to attempt to add my two cents to the blog on occasion, and to celebrate that fact, I made a new header for our blog. I thought it added a Jon-ish flare like nothing else could. Kinda like when you move into a new cubicle at work put a picture of your family up. Not to say that Marty Mcfly is my family (...yet...Marty, the offer's still on the table), but I just thought it would be nice to participate in the family blog that Diana works so hard on. Hope you like it D, cause it took a LOT longer than it should have.

Weekend with Mom

My Mom came to visit us a couple weekends ago....it was so fun. I was looking forward to it for a long time!

We went to Alcatraz....which Jon and I have been wanting to do since before we moved here....my mom coming was a good excuse to finally do it. It was such a beautiful day. Totally worth it just for the ferry ride to the island.

View of Alcatraz...view of San Francisco...from here it looks very similar to the view of New York from Brooklyn. I guess big cities are all pretty similar.

Even with a BAZILLION tourists on the ferry it was still somehow very peaceful.

My beautiful Mommy.

This is the Bay Bridge....you can barley see it, but it's there.

We took the last day tour. It was nice because there weren't as many people. There were some major hills we had to walk up...good exercise.

This is the shower room.

Diana: "That would be so weird showering next to all these people."

Jon: "That's exactly how it was in the MTC."

Diana: "I don't think I would ever take a shower"

Jail Birds

This is inside the prison...there was a huge uprising with the prisoners...turned into a big war. The marks on the floor in this picture are from grenades that were thrown in to try to stop the prisoners.

These cells are so tiny!!! I think I would get claustrophobic!

Some views from the Island.

On the ferry ride home, we looked back and the fog was pouring over the island.

This was so beautiful to experience, the sun setting behind the golden gate bridge with the fog so thick coming in.

It's tradition whenever we go to the piers to eat dinner at Boudin. I think it's one of my favorite places to eat. I always get a gigantic bread bowl with tomato soup. There's a fire outside and it is so relaxing to sip soup while sitting in front of a blazing fire.

While Jon was doing dental stuff my mom and I headed down to Ocean Beach. Everything was so green...we loved it.

I hope I age like my mom, because I think she is so good looking.

The waves were gigantic and it was a typical overcast San Francisco beach experience. It was fun though to sit in the sand and watch the waves.

Ok so I was a bit cold.

I took mom up to Twin Peaks to show her the view. It was such a beautiful and clear day.

We could see the whole city.

Can you see all the white dots in the bay? So many sailboats on Saturday.

My dentist man.

Mom and I went to Jon's lab to see what he does all day.

He was so tired and sick. That's Jon's drawer with all his toothy stuff.

On the last night, we went to Berkley to visit and eat dinner with friends. This picture is of my mom and Linda who have know each other forever.

Linda, mom, and Betz...another long time friend. Thanks for coming out mom! I love you!

Slippery Delights

I saw these when I was coming home from work the other morning...at first I thought it was a snake. I couldn't stop myself from touching them.....slimy!

Halloween

Pre- Halloween our friends the Couch's put together a fun night of pumpkin carving and delicious food eating. Jon and I went to the pumpkin patch by our house on 7th and picked one out before we headed over to Jason and Kristine's place.

This pumpkin patch place had the coolest atmosphere...and really neat pumpkins!

This is little Ben Couch...cutest pj's ever! Jon is so jealous of them...we looked hard but couldn't find any Jon's size.

This is the group of carvers: Rischel and Jon, Jason, Brady, Taija, me, and Jon....Kristine is taking the Pic....thanks Kristine.

Ben's Halloween costume. We got a sneak preview since they were going to Sacramento to celebrate with family.

I think this is the best carved pumpkin Jon has ever done....I was totally amazed!

This is Jon's...evil pumpkin peeking through the blinds.

I think the mummy was Jason's and the Boo! was Taija's.

These are seriously the best pumpkins I have ever seen!

Kind of creepy though.

Halloween

This Halloween was almost a flop. People are way more into dressing up here than in Utah. Jon and I kept on talking about how we wanted to have better costumes than last year, (Jon was white trash, utilizing an actual trash bag, and I was a mummy in toilet paper) unfortunately we procrastinated until the last minute and tried to go to Party City to buy a costume...the line was wrapped around inside the store and outside down the street. We stayed in line for about 15 minutes and realized it totally wasn't worth it. We went home very sad...but started brain storming...and thought up some costumes that were way better than store bought ones...that's a cop out really.

Jon suggested I be a robot...what a super idea! I spent the next day at Home Depot buying dryer vents and spray paint...I was surprised how quickly I was able to put it all together. This is the final product.

Jon was a biker that crashed. Pretty good make up right? I'm proud of my work. So the bone sticking out of his arm took me standing in line for 40 min at Party City....it was defiantly worth it though.

This picture is kind of bad, but this is the line I waited in...it went all through the isles and wrapped around...ridiculous. What a wonderful wife I am.

I wish I had pictures of everyone, but here's the ones I do have: Brooke, Bekah

Taija and Brady

Kristy, Patrick in the back, and Kyle

Ben and Anisha

Rachel and Woods

The only part of me that was visible.

Here's some video of me getting in and out of my robot costume...it's was quite a production. The sound on the fist video is messed up, but you get the idea.

Jon's Way

Not to get too braggy, but have I ever mentioned that I have the most wonderful husband in the WORLD?!

Jon loves everything to be very clean....he decided to clean the burner thingies. He soaked them in ammonia overnight...which worked really well, but stinks like you'll never guess..when he took them out to clean them we both about passed out! I made him wear my N95 mask. It really helped with the smell and made for a great/funny picture.

Girl's Party!

We had a fun night hanging out with the girls at Kristine's house while the boys went to priesthood.

Thanks Kristine for putting that together....so much better than sitting at home waiting for Jon to come home!

Weekend Of AMAZING!

The last weekend of summer before Jon had to go back to school, (and the day after we got back from New York) we decide to go to LA....it was very spontaneous. Sometimes it's fun just to decide to to something and then a couple hours later....DO IT!

So the first day we were there we went to the dreamiest place in the world....Disneyland. Oh man I love living close enough to get to Disneyland in a few hours!

We were like giddy little kids. We were at the gates right when they opened...I think it was 7:30 or 8:00 am.

I'm pretty sure this is the Pirates of the Carribian ride that we went on multiple times....the good thing about going so early is there are no lines!

Of course Jon and I had to drive our own cars, because neither of us was willing to give up the driver's seat.

This was another one of those rides that we did multiple times. It was new to us...and it included laser guns, so how could we resist. Oh yeah and if you know us at all....we are competitive people... so this ride was just for us. Each little two person car comes with two laser guns and a score board. The more things you shoot the more point you get and at the end of the ride whoever has the most points (me) wins!

Jon, you're a cutie.

Our good friends Ben and Anisha met up with us the second day to go to Magic Mountain. It was so incredibly hot! It definitely wasn't SF weather!

This is Jon's sad "I'm really hot" face.

The boys loved going on the water rides....of course we got soaked!

This is the only real ride we had to wait in line for....we came here at the right time! On most of the rides we would get off and run back to the front of the line and ride it again.....we were very successful at making ourselves completely sick!

The Giants Final Game

Who knew I loved going to baseball games? They can actually be pretty exciting... I will admit that I think I love them because Kristine and I always end up chit chatting the whole time...with an occasional shout out to the Giants and to our husbands.

The Giants won their last game...so far all the games I've gone to they have won. (I should probably let them know that I am their good luck charm.)

Another example of Jon and I leaving the house totally matchy matchy and not realizing it until our friends comment on it.

Such a cool view from our seats.

The boys: Jason (Kristine's hubby), Jon (my hubby), Jon, Jimmy, and Dan.

Of course there always has to be a half naked experience in our San Francisco adventures...you can't see very well, but this guy is in a speedo sunbathing on a kayak in front of a bazillion people. Obviously begging for attention....which we gave him.

Bluegrass Festival

Jon and I decided to go to the Bluegrass Festival at Golden Gate Park...thanks Jimmy for telling us about it. We made the hugest mistake by driving...we could/should have easily taken muni, or walked...so we spent at least 45 min looking for a parking place. It was worth it though.

And this is what we should have done...ridden our bikes....can you believe how many bikes there are? You can't even see the bike rack!

It was packed at all the stages...obviously we didn't get very close, but it was so fun to hear the music. I was amazed at how many different types of people were there...I love these kind of things that bring all sorts of people together to enjoy the same thing.

New York, New York....it's a wonderful town...

This is wall street...I was pretty dang surprised/disappointed when I saw how small and unimpressive it was. I always imagined it...I don't know exactly, but not like it was. If I was walking around I wouldn't have even guessed where I was if I happened upon it.

We walked to the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge...I think it is set up a whole lot better than the Golden Gate Bridge. You walk above the traffic instead of right next to it...the view is pretty amazing.

How bridges are put together overwhelms me. Look at how many cables and wires are going all over the place...there is definitely a job fit for every type of person. Oh and by the way, speaking of bridges, the Bay Bridge broke again tonight. I guess one of the cables came swinging down and hit a truck. Thank goodness nobody got hurt...I think I'm going to be scared now every time we cross it.

This is my cousin Marin's son. His name is Charlie...he is so cute and talkative.

I hope Jon has a dental practice with a name this amazing!

Good old China Town...Jon's home away from home.

Everybody was telling us not to go to the Empire State building, because we would be waiting in line for hours. Jon and I are stubborn, so we went anyway....it was amazing! There was absolutely NO line! We walked straight up to it.

The view was so amazing! We could see all the places we had walked to the day before....from a birds eye view.

I've always been too cheap to pay for these binocular things, but Jon popped the quarters in and I am so glad he did. I totally recommend it.

Isn't that so weird how humans decide to live so cramped together? Looking down at New York from the Empire State building reminded me of a big ant hill.

It's so funny/clever how these tourist sites will force you to walk through the gift store...and how incredibly pricey everything is!

Grand Central Station

Jon and I went to the Broadway show of Mary Poppins. It was super delightful.

I look like the ghost of Time Square

So overwhelming...

Some more pics from our Staten Island Ferry ride. Jon is such a good pointer.

Gil took us on a ride around the city one night after work. We rented a zip car..who new they had BMW zip cars...and off we were.

Image from here

This is the Apollo in Harlem. Ella Fitzgerald sang here in the 30's on the Amateur nights. So many famous people started their careers here. Let me give you a list. Bille Holiday, James Brown, Diana Ross, the Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Aretha Franklin.

I love the city at night...there is no way I could capture how beautiful and vibrant it all was with my camera, drivng in a car. You get the idea though.

We drove over the Brooklyn Bridge to enjoy the nighttime view of Manhattan.

The thing about trying to take a picture at night infront of a brightly lit city, is that either we will be seen and the city won't, or the city will and we won't. Oh well

This is what it looked like behind us.

Obviously I am in love with the view.

I think it is so wierd/cool seeing the LDS temple in a big city....I mean I grew up in Utah and the temples there look very....templey. The one in New York is very sleek and fits in nicely...I guess that's what they were going for. I would have missed it if Gil hadn't pointed it out.

This is the cafe we were eating at when a GIGANTIC cocroach ran across my lap.....I can't believe I didn't even scream...that's not like me at all.

I was just previewing my post and realized I didn't put this picture in....I had to show how amazing my hair/bangs are in it! Plus it shows off my beautifully unique hair line.....Enjoy! (taking pictures with bangs+ very windy conditions= amazingly funny pictures!)

New York City

We were lucky enough to have time off from work and school to take a vacation to New York. Thanks to cousins/friends Marin and Gil and of course Charlie we had a lovely place to stay a couple blocks away from time square. Thanks again you guys!

We made a trip to the MOMA. That was definitely our kind of art museum! Photo #1: Mirror Art #2: I liked these shapey stair things #3 Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol.

This hairy unibrow painting was one of Jon's favorites.

Okay these just made us giggle...a lot. I mean come on it's a solid red painting with two lines in it and the one on the right...it just BLACK! The funniest this is we stood behind the guy in the ponytail and watched him study this artwork for a very long time. Obviously I am not cultured enough to get it.

The two things I love about this couch thingy is it is so colorful it makes me happy and it's made up of a bunch of little pieces that are not connected in anyway....and it was comfy!

Another Andy Warhol: I think he was one of my favorites this trip. The picture on the right is by Roy Lichtenstein.

Shout out to Provo...our home town! And I almost peed my pants laughing at the please do not touch sign.

Music collage...super cool....and freaky cut out eyeballs in a spiderweb.

Classic

Time Square: so bright and advertizy!

Gil works at 30 Rock. It was fun to visit the building where one of our favorite shows takes place.

Rockefeller Building: we got to go up to Gills office way up in the 60th(ish) floor....it was an amazing view. Oh and something crazy: Gill was showing us one of the board rooms and the windows were open...and they didn't have any SCREENS on them. So I was able to stick my head out of the window...don't worry I held back from spitting...although I really wanted to.

This was a breakfast cafe we ate at around the corner from where we were staying. It was so cute and I really LOVED the pancakes!

We had so much fun in Central Park. We rented some bikes and rode all around the whole thing. It was so green and pretty. It seemed a lot cleaner than the Golden Gate Park....and it was weird not seeing a bunch of homeless people camping out everywhere....where are they hanging out?

We walked everywhere! We just happened upon the David Letterman studio.

The greatest surprise was that my best friend Jessica was in New York the same time we were. We got to hang out for the day.

We finagled some extra tickets for Jessica and Claire to go to the Daily Show, so we all got to go together! It was so amazing. Oh and the best part is Matt Damon was John Stewart's guest. I was laughing out loud the whole show....I think I was laughing the most and the hardest out of everyone.

We decided not to go to the Statue of Liberty, but be did take the free ferry to Staten Island and saw her from afar.

It was windy on the boat...can you tell?

This is the bull by Wall Street. Can you see how its balls are really shiny? That's because it is considered good luck to rub them....so we rubbed them....just to help out the economy of course.

He he he he

This is us on top of the Empire State Building. I have more pictures to come. this is just a preview. It was absolutely amazing up there!

Boards Celebration

Jon and Brady finished their Boards after studying all summer. We all went bowling that night to celebrate. It was so much fun!

Couples from left to right: Taija and Brady, Jason, Kristine, and baby Ben, Me and Jon, Jon and Rischel.

Somehow Jon and I always end up matching when we go out. We need someone to check us before we go out!

The girls getting ready to kick some trash!

Pacifica

A bunch of us went to Pacifica one weekend to hang out at the beach. The boys all went surfing and the girls chit chatted on the warm sand. What a dreamy day! Check out Ben and Anisha cheesing it up for the camera.

Here's Jon, Jon, and Ben heading out to surf. Jason was there also, I don't know where he was hiding.

Jon trying to ride the wave all the way in...to me.

My sexy surfer man.

Skegges Point

Jon and I have had so much fun exploring new places to mountain bike. Jon took me to one of his favorite place as Skegges Point. It was the hardest ride either of us have ever done. I don't think we will be going to that trail anytime soon.

Driving home was so awesome! The sunset was absolutely beautiful!

Look how cool that is!

Point Reyes

Our first backpacking trip. The Browning and Haynie family before our hike.

The hike was cool because it was through the mountains, but once in awhile we would pop out onto the coast.....sooo beautiful!

I love how everything was so green.

Pay no attention to my chubby weird face and focus on Jon's cheesy face.

Me and Rischel...hiking buddies

Jon and Jon hiking buddies

Jon and Rischel

How cool is that view!

This was the night we arrived at our camp, which was right next to the beach. It happened to be a red tide, which was sooooo cool! I think we played for hours in the sand kicking it around and watching it glow....watching the florescent waves roll in. It was amazing! Later that night the guys tried to build us a fire...unfortunately all the wood we found was wet. This fire only lasted a couple of seconds....and that's only because it was soaked with lighter fuel. It was a warm few seconds though.

On the hike back we stopped at the rope swing and jumped into the refreshing lake. This first picture is me jumping...I'm such a weakling I could barely hang onto the rope.

This is my Jon....obviously not a weakling.

It was a very fun weekend, thanks guys!

Girls Night Out

Girls night out in the city. Jen's b-day....it has taken me sooo long to post this that I forgot who the dinner was for, so I emailed Jen asking her, her reply was "me". Boy do I feel stupid.

Late Happy b-day Jen!

Yummy Greek food.

The group

Big Basin

In the beginning of the summer Jon and I went down to Santa Cruz. We love camping and so decided to camp in Big Basin which is very close. It was so beautiful and amazing. The quality of these pics aren't very good. I just took them with our point and shoot camera, but you get the idea.

Once upon a time we had some delicious black licorice from Trader Joe's. Jon didn't want to leave the licorice with us in our tent over night because of the raccoons and bears. Instead of taking it back to the secured car, he put it in this cupboard. Notice GIGANTIC hole in front of said cupboard! The next morning Jon and Diana woke up and opened the cupboard, and this is what they found....their licorice had teeth and claw marks in it and was half eaten. Gosh dangit you squirly squirls! Diana was still very tempted to eat it because it was her favorite, but her husband quickly threw it away before she did anything silly.

WARNING! This post contains a man in a thong

So...I was driving to work the other day and this is what crossed in front of me! I couldn't believe it....this guy was just wearing a thong and was walking around totally casual. He was even doing some window shopping...don't worry though he was wearing sunglasses, a bandanna, and crocks.

Just another crazy day in the Castro....yes, of course this happened in the Castro.

Rancid

So, I'm obviously really behind in blogging. Rancid came to San Francisco in July and our friend Branden, who is the drummer, invited us to their show in Oakland. It was amazing!

We got backstage/VIP passes which made the experience so much more amazing! I've never felt so important. Thanks Branden!

This is Rancid playing... Jordan did the rad visual effects that played behind them.

It was very crowded

Us enjoying them...

I Lied....

I lied...these are the last couple of pictures from Italy. Again, the boats parked in the "garages" that I think looks so funny.

When we were on one of the water taxis, this massive thing rode by us. It seemed really out of place.

The cutest mini ever. The only picture Jon will ever look tall in... (written by Jon)

Jon and I went to an island called Lido one of the days we were there.....oh man it was so wonderful. We rented one of those paddle boats and paddled around on the ocean for a while and then took naps in the sun.....dreamy.

Ok...now I'm done....I promise no more Europe posts.

Last Italy Post

Isn't this building amazing? I would love to have a house covered in green vines...or whatever those are!

I loved looking at all the boats that were "parked" outside peoples houses. It still is such a foreign concept to me of having your transportation be a boat.

These houses made me so happy when I saw them! Check out those colors.

This was the coolest chimney I have ever seen. Look how crooked it is.

This is Jon accomplishing one of our favorite tasks....eating gelato.

This was on a rainy part of the day, I think the streets look so cool when they are wet.

So we went back to Murano...the glass island...to get a souvenir. We went into this one shop and the owner was so cute. He showed us this glass ornament that, turns out, he made. He was speaking Italian and I was speaking Spanish, but from what we could figure out he is kind of famous....well kind of. He showed us a book that was displayed next to the glass ornaments and his name was in it....I couldn't read it, but his name was there. He was so proud of himself. I bought the ornament and he signed it. It was really cute. I think it's the best souvenir I got.

Jon, doing his thing.....figuring out what public transportation to take to get where we need to go.

Another cool door.

Cool street.

So you know how a lot of big cities have street vendors....so does Venice....kind of......and it's not a big city....anyway....this was cool.

He works out of his boat....even in the rain.

Jon bought us some delicious fruit.

Like I said in another post, there was a eatery next to our hotel that had delicious gelato and calzones....they also have pizza with french fries on it.....just in case the pizza wasn't greasy enough.....and yes Jon got one and ate it. Who would ever have though to do that?

Cool view.

Some famous building that I can't remember what it is.

And another...

And another...

I know this one wasn't famous or anything, just cool looking

Cute Jon face on the bus boat ready for an adventure.

Some more parked boats.

That's one of those traghetos that I talked about earlier that goes from one side to the other.

Gondoliers chit chatting.

So...turns out they are everywhere.

There was this one path that we always walked on....and this guys was always staring out of his window... Kind of creepy.

Later that day we went to the airport to get on the plain to go back to Barcelona....we were there at least two hours early and this was the "line". It was mass confusion and in Europe I don't think people really understand the concept of lines.

Seriously, the whole place was just packed.

My favorite part of Italy

This was the highlight of our Venice trip. Even though it cost a billion dollars, we went on a gondola ride. This was our gondolier.

He didn't sing to us, but turns out the gondoliers go to like four years of college to become what they are. I guess they have to learn a lot of history and stuff. So this guy knew everything. I thought we were just going to paddle around in the boat, but it was also a totally awesome tour as well.

Jon enjoying the romantic ride with his super amazing wife.

We went down the coolest little, narrow streets, or canals. I can't believe how skilled these gondoliers are to maneuver around this place!

It was so pretty and serene in the back allies. I love the architecture of these buildings.

It was funny for me to imagine having my back door open up to just water...there isn't even like a step or anything, if you were sleep walking, you would be in big trouble.

The other thing we loved were all the cool little bridges everywhere.

Some More of Italy

So...we went on this cool walk through Venice and ended up in this square/courtyard thing with awesome old buildings and churches. Unfortunately, I have a bad memory and can't tell you any names...just pictures I took.

This was on the front of a church....it's gold....oh soo shiny.....could barely peel my eyes off it.

I'm sure I've already said this, but I can't believe how many times we spent money to wait in line this trip. It was worth it though. This bell tower was cool; However, turns out they still ring the bells while you are right underneath it. I couldn't hear for the rest of the day. Oh yeah, and they rang for like ten minutes.

This is a view of Venice from the top of the bell tower that has no name, because I can't remember it.

Another view....

And another one...

Bird's eye view of the square.

(I just realized this pictures are kind of boring....but they are good memories for me.)

Cute husband on top of the bell tower.

Husband and wife on top of the bell tower.

Okay, so next we went to this part of the island called Murano. It is famous for it's glass. They do a lot of glass blowing and sculpting....super rad. This is a bail of hay that is made out of glass.

....And this is a spiky, blue, glass thing... and yes I do match it.

The people in Murano were so nice to tourists. They let us go upstairs in one of the glass shops and watch the guys that were bending the glass and making cool things.

See all those colorful sticks in the middle of the table...those are glass and they heat them up super hot and then bend them into different shapes, or stick them to other colors.

Next we went to the glass museum. This mural thing was in the courtyard of the museum....I love the colors...happy colors.

Some more of the glass sculptures outside of the museum.

A pretty window...

We found this while we were walking around...it was on the side of a window...it's of a guy doing glass blowing.

Okay, so this was my favorite! Look at this awesome glass, colorful, Christmas tree! Wouldn't you love to have that as yours? Well maybe you wouldn't, but I would love it.

Pretty cool...

This was on our way back to our hotel in the water bus thing. And this is Mr. Pigeon that was too tired to fly and so caught a ride with us.

The humans catching a ride...after a very fun day.

Italy

View from our plane: this is Italy from above.

When I was little I always wanted to fly through the clouds, I thought it would be so cool. Turns out it's not so cool and it's really bumpy. At least I got a pretty picture.

And here we are in Venice, Italy. I think this was my favorite place on our trip. The weather was hot and amazing and it was totally magical. This is the view from one of the bridges that crosses the Grand Canal.

The water wasn't the clearest I've ever seen, but I was expecting worst. People told us it was going to stink and there would be rats swimming in the water and garbage floating everywhere. Luckily none of that happened while we were there....only the brown water.

Jon was our tour guide on all our little mini trips. He had some books he had brought with him and would take us on adventures. This is his planning face...getting ready to take us on a good one.

I think this was the widest street we ever saw there. It's so weird never seeing any cars....I kinda like it.

We ate dinner at a little Italian place....well duh of course it was Italian....right on the side of water. It was raining, but we wanted to sit outside anyway. We were under an umbrella and it was actually pretty cozy. There was a live band playing romantic music the whole time...she had an amazing voice!

This is our little street where our hotel was. We were right next to the grand canal. There were so many delicious gelato and calzone places on the way to our hotel...I think we got one every time we passed it.

It totally amazes me how the water is just like our roads, in the way that they have garbage boats, taxi boats, public transit boats, and personal boats; However the one thing I noticed is that people just drive where ever they want, there doesn't appear to be strict driving rules.

The coolest little canal/ street things.

This was on one of our many walks...a fellow cannon lover offered to take our picture....one of the few on this trip of the both of us together.

Rad building.

I loved the gondolas! They are so cool and funky looking.

Okay, so here are some pictures of all the different kinds of boats.

That boat big long white boat is the public transportation. Along the streets are stops, like bus stops, and it comes and picks you up and runs on a certain route. The little boat on the right I think is just somebody's personal boat, but the taxi boats look very similar.

Look at these awesome doors!

This was the coolest thing, for a couple of euros you could ride one of these gondola's across the water...it's called a tragetto (spelling?)....if you don't want to walk all the way over to the next bridge.

There we are.

These gondolas really fascinate me. They look like royal seats.

The Palace of Versilles...and some other stuff

This is the Palace Versailles, we took a train for about 45 minutes from our hotel. People told us that Versailles was a really cool place to go to.....Honestly I thought it was kind of boring...but that's just me and I'm not very cultured and so don't appreciate things that most people do. I feel like if I've seen one palace I've seen them all. However, There were some cool things there that I enjoyed....

Jon totally got a kick out of this sign pretending that it was Colbert's (as in the Colbert Report) room.

This is the palace's immaculate garden, you had to pay extra to go through it...so we just viewed it through the window.

One of our favorite activities on our vacation...posing like the statues.

Yep...we're pretty awesome.

I think this is a door that I'm standing in front of. I was kind of obsessed with doors on this trip. Also I am not rocking out to music on my headphones...we got the audio tour.

Pretty, shiny, gold stuff.

I asked Jon if we could have a bed that matched the wallpaper.....he said no.

Yipeeee!!!

After Versailles, we took the train back to this museum called Centre Pompidou. Unfortunately it was closed. Fortunately the outside of it was awesome to look at. and there were a ton of people outside it playing music and doing tricks.

This is the outside of the museum.

If you couldn't tell, it's modern art....one of my favorite kinds.

This is the next museum we went to called the Musee d' Orsay. It's really cool because it used to be a train station. That's it behind me.

Jon packed our European lunch of a baguette and cheese....absolutely delicious!

Jon with a huge bite of sandwich in his mouth.

Some of Van Gogh's paintings....my favorite painter.

From this view you can kind of imagine what it would have looked like as a train station.

This was our favorite sculpture thing there. this was one side of it. It's kind of hard to tell what's going on in just a picture, but we loved how the alligator comes off the main part of it.

This is the back side of it. We looked at these for a long time.

Evil

These were the coolest sculptures. I don't know how in the world they did it, but somehow they sculpted the marble stone over the cast bronze, like real clothes.

France: Part....I can't remember because I've posted so many

This is the view from a little hill we climbed in France. We watched the sun set.

This is a cathedral we walked up to....I can't remember the name, I'm sure Jon does. Anyway it was like the highest hill of Paris or something. It had an increadible view! There were so many people just hanging out and sitting on the steps in front of the cathedral.

Can you see the Effiel Tower behind that handsome man?

After the cathedral we went to get some crepes. Soooooooooooooo delicious! I love the set up there how you just walk up to the window and they make it for you right before your eyes!

Oh yeah, and they are gigantic...

...and delicious with nutella on them, hence the gigantic costco size bottle of nutella.

Ta da! And that is what ended up in my belly.

After our romantic crep eating....we stumbled upon Champs Elysses....we didn't even realize we were there at first becuase....it's just spelled so funny. Jon is standing in a tunnel we were trying to get to the arch de triumph...but they closed it right when we got there.

So we went back and looked at it from a far. Pretty cool right?

France: Part II

The Louvre: I have no idea why they have that big glass pyramid thing, it doesn't really fit into any of the surrounding architecture.....but it sure was fun to walk through.

Glowing Jon

View from the top floor of the Louvre.

Amazing

The ultimate loveseat.

Can you believe this dinning table? I have always loved looking into these mansions!

This is the Queens bed....man this is a good night shift bed to have....you could sleep all day in complete darkness!!!

I can't remember what this was called, but it was pretty dang cool! (it's a model of the Sphinx - By Jon)

This is the Venus statue, we listened to the history of it and the details about it....really interesting.

The gladiator

One of our favorite things to do in the museum was pose like the posers, because if you look at them closely, they really have some silly posses.

This is the goddess Diana...the huntress...just like me!

Seeing the Mona Lisa was pretty cool and frustrating at the same time...

I always imagined it as this big painting, but it was so tiny...however...they put it on this gigantic wall, which made it look even tinier....

not to mention the fact that there were hundreds of people in the way....I felt like I was in a mosh pit getting through there.

Jon doing the posey thing.....mummy style.

Jon thought I would get sick of all the pictures I had of him this trip, but looking back at them....the pics with Jon in them are my favorites.

The Eiffel Tower

So this is the same day we walked for hours along the Seine river in France to the Eiffel tower. It was pretty dang magical!

This was Jon pouting after he couldn't catch the bird he chasing. Jon...you were real close.

The Eiffel Tower

It's gigantic! Honestly I didn't think it was going to be as cool as it was.

This was one of the many times that we waited in line and actually paid to walk up a billion stairs. It was worth it though!

I was completely pooped by the time we got to the top! It was an amazing view though.

Jon soaking in the beautifulness.

We stayed up there till the the sun set.....

and the lights turned on.

Every hour they do a light show that is AMAZING! The whole thing lights up and sparkles.

Notre Dame

I've always wanted to go to there.

Notre Dame was sooo packed! We could hardly walk there were so many people. But it was fun because they were having mass.

This stain glass was the coolest thing I have ever seen. Again, the picture does not do it justice, but it was amazing how the light came through it in the dark cathedral.

Pretty

I caught Jon in a good pose.

This is the front of the building.

This is the side where the flying buttresses were...Jon's favorite part.

This is the back. There's this cute little park, where everybody was relaxing and playing/listening to music.

France

This is the Seine River...our hotel was right by here. The first day we got to France we walked for hours along this river. There was some sort of holiday thing where music/bands were playing and performing all over outside. It was so cool to watch!

Also, we looked at where the Eiffel Tower was on our map...it looked totally walkable! Anyway, that's why we ended up walking for hours.

Yet another picture of Jon and I pretending to take a picture together.

We found the cutest little restaurant with the drunkest owners! It was a cool place though and they provided great entertainment.

The most delicious pesto I've ever had.

Spain: Tosa

We took a day to go to meet up with my family and some friends at the beach in Tossa. Amazing! I almost died getting in the water...I thought it was freezing...Jon says it was "warmish". This is Dad, me, and Amanda doing synchronized swimming. I think we are going to shoot for the 2012 summer Olympics.

There was this castle thing. I don't really know exactly what it was. Mom/Dad a little help? Anyway it was amazing being on the beach and having this in the background.

There's nothing more attractive than just got out of the water hair.

Our friends Neus and Joan...and my mom. And of course my hubby Jon.

I don't know why I feel so special when I see my name on signs, but I always have to take a picture.

We walked up to the castle thing.

This is the view from the almost top.

This is the tip top...such a pretty view.

We ate a restaurant on the beach after and this was our view.

Barcelona: Be aware it's a long post

I think 1 out of every 5 people had this exact hair cut...male or female....I'm thinking about trying it...what do you think?

So...I obviously I didn't take these next two photos, but the building is so tall that I couldn't get a whole picture of it myself...so I borrowed a couple. Isn't it amazing? And guess what?!?!? They are still going to add on another huge tower in the middle that is even taller than the ones already there! I think whoever took this picture edited out all the cranes, because there are a bunch of them all over since they are constantly building.

This is the other borrowed picture...I think this was taken from the park across from La Sagrada Familia...there's a big pond there.

La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona was our favorite! Man this place is amazing...it's is a cathedral that was designed by Gaudi and has been in construction since 1882! It is so complex.

there are tons of cool little details all over...we did the audio tour thing and were there for a couple of hours. I totally recommend going there!

I love the stainglass...this picture does not do it justice at all,but they were absolutely beautiful!

Did I already mention that we love the audio guides?

We had the awesome opportunity to climb the tower...it is so cool!!!! This is the view from one of the towers...so this is Barcelona.

One of the reasons I love this cathedral is I think it looks like a sand castle...although I'm pretty sure my sand castles never look like that!

Jon was so determined to make it look like we were pinching this building...we almost got it.

Coolest stairways ever with a coolest husband ever in it!

This is the stain glass that I loved when I was inside. I don't know if you can tell but it is very colorful.

Okay so my parents and cousin Amanda came to Barcelona for a day to hang out with us. My dad forgot to were a hat, so he walked around with his hand over the not-as-hairy-as-it-once-was spot on his head to avoid sunburn...I though it was funny.

I just can't get over the whole tentacle thing...I really don't think I can ever eat one...my dad on the other hand gobbled this one up. No offense, but ewwwwwwww.

This is a park that Gaudi also designed. I really love his stuff!

This is all made out of stone and looks like it's being balanced....I can't imagine how it's being held up?

That is my beautiful mom...her hip started hurting, so we found some bikes to rent....man being a tourist on a bike is so fun! And your feet aren't killing by the end of the day! Totally recommend it!

My cousin Amanda, my wonderful husband Jon, and my mom.

Another beautiful view from the park.

Okay, so this guy was singing his lungs out...Elvis songs...he was singing in English, but it definitely wasn't his first language..because he was singing some real nonsense...I have a video I'll post later...It's pretty hilarious.

I thought this was the cutest mini doorknob in the world!

More of Gaudi's stuff from the park.

There were so many people around that area that I couldn't even get a picture without a bazillion other people in it.

This is also in the park....it's a really bit park......this mosaic is on the ceiling of the picture on the left. It's so colorful it made me happy.

This is what happens when we have been walking for a trillion hours and my feet hurt...I get grumpy.

This is on a street called Las Ramblas there are a lot of people posing as statues and doing other tricky stuff to get some money. This guys was our favorite! He was so amazing with this soccer ball. It didn't touch the ground for 20 min! He climbed a ladder with it balanced on his lips, put a shirt on while bouncing it on his head, juggled three with his feet! Man I wish I had this guys' ball control. I also have a video of this guy I'll post later.

This is what happens when there are only two of you...you have to take the same picture twice and then pretend like we are sitting by each other.....we have a lot of pictures like this.

And that's a wrap for Barcelona