OUR baby

We don't have cute baby or children pics to share with you...but here's what our kitty has been up to this week...a little yoga followed by watching her favorite DVD.  :)

Aquarium by the Bay

We spent the day in San Francisco today to get John's visa for his upcoming trip to China. But while we waited we decided to check out the Aquarium by the Bay and have lunch at Pier 39. Here's John petting the bat ray!

Chey's first hat

This is the first hat Cheyenne ever bought...can you guess why this was the one? :)

Pinnacles National Monument

Today we took a day trip to Pinnacles (famous for it's crazy rock formations and multi-level caves) for a little hiking and pseudo-camping.  What is pseudo camping you ask?  We had planned to tent overnight, but it was really hot (in the 90s) and cooling off with the campground showers was not an option because they happened to be out of order...so we did the hike we planned to do the following morning right after the first hike, made our pudgy-pie pizzas and smores, and then decided to head home.  Yes, northern CA has spoiled us...we can no longer tolerate any temperature outside of the 50-75 degree zone!  

John's 28th B-day!

After a nice dinner at the new steakhouse in San Mateo (courtesy of Genentech), we had some yummy cupcakes!  :)

Cabo, Mexico

Mexico...ahhh, the memories.  Wish we were still there.  John and i normally like to GO GO GO on vacation and see and do as much as humanly possible, but this time, for the first time, we went on a relaxing vacation.  We thought we might be bored, but it was actually really refreshing to just chill.  Or maybe we weren't bored because we had great company and therefore many moments of uncontrollable laughter with our friends Hayley and Trent.  

There was a LOT of time spent relaxing at the pool or the beach napping or reading or playing cards, but we did do a few things:  a sunset cruise, a snorkeling tour via a "pirate" ship, and Hayley and I also went horseback riding on the beach and took a glass bottom boat over to the secluded beach that can't be reached by car or foot.  

A couple things put a slight damper on the trip.  1) John got injured in hockey 2 days before our trip and tore 3 of the 4 ligaments connecting his collarbone to his shoulder blade.  So he was either wearing a sling or keeping his arm close to his body.  2) I got stung by a jellyfish while snorkeling.  3) Hayley got a bad migraine one AM and we had to cancel our kayaking tour.  4) Trent got a bad sun/heat rash.   But other than that, the trip was a blast!!!  

Cheyenne's birthday

This is out of order...I can't believe I almost forgot one of the best weekends and best birthdays i can remember!  

John picked a little town called Cambria, CA which is about 3 hours south of us on the coast.  We stayed at a great little B&B called Pelican Cove Inn which was right on the ocean and had complimentary breakfast, afternoon wine and cheese tasting, and evening dessert and warm drinks in addition to a public outdoor hot tub and fireplaces in every room.  We enjoyed taking walks along the beach, watching the sunset, and eating and window shopping in town.  

On our way back home we stopped at the Hearst Castle, an amazing mansion built in the 20s? that is high in the hills overlooking the ocean.  We also made a stop at the elephant seal lookout...these huge seals have trunks like elephants!...and then we drove home via Hwy 1 through the beautiful Big Sur coast before stopping at an outlet mall for a little shopping.  

Easter

Another holiday without family.  :(  We try to make the best of them though.  This time we decided to enjoy the beautiful day by first dusting off our bikes and taking a long ride along the Bay.  However, this turned out to be quite the task.  Since we hadn't used our bikes in about 6 months, all 4 tires were flat.  I asked John almost immediately if he would run next door and see if the gas station had a pump while I looked for our little hand held one.  Well, John assured me that the gas station did NOT have a pump.  So we spent the next 2 hours looking for our pump, attempting to use our pump, trying neighbors pumps, and finally walking our bikes a few blocks to a store someone told us had a pump only to find out that the store was of course closed on Easter.  On our walk back to our apartment after accepting defeat.. as we passed the gas station across the street from our place, i saw out of the corner of my eye, a PUMP!...what do ya know John, there IS a pump there.  It took us 30 seconds and all 4 tires were full.  We tried to laugh that one off and get on the road.  :)

We then had a great Easter meal which consisted of my family's favorite, ham loaf and our friend Brooke's texas potatoes.  Here's the ham loaf recipe for Hayley who recently asked me for it and anyone else who might want to try this AWESOME dish!  

1lb. ground ham, 1/2 lb. ground veal, 1/2 lb. ground pork

1 egg

1 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup milk

3 T brown sugar

3 T tomato soup

salt/pepper to taste

Mix well and bake 1.5 hrs at 350 degrees.  Put sliced onions on top.  Last 1/2 hour remove excess grease,  add 3 T of water and remove onions.  Mustard sauce (do in double boiler):  2 egg yolks, and 1/2 cup of each of the following:  tomato soup, yellow  mustard, brown sugar, and vinegar.  Cook until thick and hot.  Serves about 5 people...or 2 with leftovers!  

The Twisted Sticks

John's work hockey team, the Twisted Sticks were given the opportunity to play at the NHL rink where the San Jose Sharks play.  It was a fun day...John's team played, then the rink was open for all the guests to skate, and then we stayed for that night's Sharks game.  Can you find John in the picture above?

Visitors

Northern CA must be the place for midwesterners to get sent for work!  We had multiple visitors in the last month due to their work sending them here.  We had dinner with our friend Matt one week followed by our friend Kellee and her boyfriend the next week.  My aunt Kim was here a couple weeks later, but we missed her because we were in Mexico.  We LOVE visitors though...so if YOU're in the area, let us know!

Blossom Trail

The first weekend in March was a beautiful day and we decided to take a road trip to the "Blossom Trail" near Fresno, CA.  There were miles after miles of fruit tree orchards in bloom with a view of the mountains in the background and great food stands along the way to stop and snack.  

Vegas baby!

In February, we took a weekend trip to Vegas after "winning" a package on the radio (which turned out to be a timeshare scam).  On the first day we hung out with my parents who were also there that weekend and on the second day John and I hung out on the strip.
The third day we took a long bus tour to the Grand Canyon which I had never seen before!  It was a long trip, but the view of the Canyon was amazing!

Jumping on the bandwagon...

We've really enjoyed reading our friends' blogs, so we thought we'd give it a shot...maybe it'll be better than our mass emails?!  :)  This way only people who really WANT to see what we've been doing will do so.  And we can add pictures!  Speaking of pics, don't mind the crazy guy behind us in this one!  We'll catch you up on what we've been up to since my last mass email, and then we'll move forward....