Monday, December 31, 2012

Year in Pictures Pt 1

Another new year, despite what those Mayans thought (or not). Here's a visual look at what the past 12 months have brought around here...

January:

Ok this is technically New Year's Eve. But that's what everyone thinks of when they think January, right? We went ice skating together for the first time. None of us are expert skaters, but I think we had a good time.


My favorite picture that I took that month. Thank you Instagram.


I ended the month taking a work trip to Fairfield, Ohio. Right outside of Cincinnati. I live a glamorous life, I know. Ohio in the middle of winter. It was a good experience, and now I can go the rest of my life without ever having to eat Skyline Chili ever again.


Yup. California and the ocean beach for me.

February: 

We had a membership to the Oakland zoo this year and made use of it as often as we can. I think Audrey can even find her place around that place now. If you need a guided tour, let her know.


Fan Fest. We went to Giants Fan Fest before the 2010 and 2012 season. Due to huge crowds, we tried to go before 2011 season but didn't make it in. You all know how those seasons ended up. Just saying, Giants, just saying...


I'm putting these together because it was Sara's birthday and she had a big dance todo that month. You'll probably see a bunch more of her dancing later so I'm leaving this as is for now.


Pt Reyes. Oysters. Yum.


My favorite picture of the month. Makes me smile every time I look at it.


Oh yeah, Leap Day!

March:



See? Told you you'll see more of her. Not even close to being the last...


Not all pictures are cute and cuddly, right? I sprained my thumb playing basketball. Used to happen a lot in my younger (and more active) days. Just wanted to gross you out real quick...


First time I preordered tickets for a movie. Hannah and I, and then these other people, all got into the Hunger Games book so it was a big day to finally see the movie in the theater. Like be the first in line with a Zachary's pizza excited...


My favorite picture of the month and more Instagram plug. If you follow me there you would see my love of cloud pictures. Even more than food pics, which is saying a lot...

April: 



Hey Easter! and just a usual family picture from us.


My first Escape Club trip! I've been letting Hannah without me so that she could be with her friends, but I helped drive on this trip to Alamere Falls and it was beautiful. The hike did kick my butt though. These kids, I tell you...


My favorite picture of the month. Santa Cruz on a sunny day. I love living in an area where we can there are so many mini trips to take. 


We center a lot of adventures together around food. Really, so should you.

May: 


I had a really lousy record going to Giants game this year. It was frustrating. But the wins I did see, boy were they good. More in a moment... (that's what they call a teaser)


More beach. And clouds. Hmm I need to branch out more in my picture taking...


Speaking of, here is my favorite of the month. One of my favorite places to take pictures is the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. So many interesting places to cool pictures. Been going there since I was in high school goofing around with my sister (no, you will not likely see those pictures)

June:



June is kind of a big month for me. First it's our wedding anniversary, which this year we celebrated at The Commonwealth, a phenomenal place in the mission where we had crazy good food like the fish roe inside of a frozen horseradish shell, and my first (and possibly last, in California, anyway) foie gras.


As a quick interlude, this is my favorite pic of the month. Mostly it's my beautiful wife, but I'm going to take 5% credit for taking the pic. 



Then it was my birthday, which I wanted to celebrate with friends, and Oktoberfest style. Plenty of drinks at the Biergarten follow by more German goodness at Suppenkuche. Going to be hard to top next year...


Then there was this. Oh sure it started out as a Giants game, wearing my new birthday present jacket, on food truck night... then it became the first perfect game in Giants history. I pretty much can't complain about bad Giants game for 2 years. I also just made up that rule.


Oh and a year of the year recital for Sara too. But it wasn't really the end of the year for her. There was the summer trip to come...

And a perfect teaser to part II! Man I did not intend for this to be so long. Picking pictures is hard! I now have a lot of respect to all of you who do end of the year retrospectives...

To be continued...

Friday, December 21, 2012

I Belong to You

Working on slides for church this Sunday. Adding a new (to me) song and I like it a lot. I want to share it with all of you.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Return of the Weekend

Was so glad that we had a softball free weekend that I took a bonus day off. It ended up being only a few hours of extra time as there was still commitments to meet, but we really wanted to keep a family tradition and go to a pumpkin patch together. Not just any pumpkin patch either. We have really grew fond of a particular one because of its charm.


It had an old antique truck...


Fun cutouts are always fun...


Animals are a big draw with the kids...


and hay bales to jump on (and off). Also a kids favorite.


We don't actually buy a lot of pumpkins there. That gets expensive. We get a couple to thank them for getting our moods for the season. Since the weather around here doesn't seem to know it's October...


We didn't totally have a weekend off from kids activities. Sara performed as a part of the Rodeo chili cook off on Saturday.



I had a great time sampling and judging a bunch of chili too. Trust me, you do not want to see that.

Unphotographed moments of shopping, a movie date, church, and starting to do some Halloween costume shopping... oh yeah, there was this...


I think I'll just end it on that...

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

More weekending with little balls with stichings....

We try to stay together as a family as much as possible. A big deal with the kids are getting older and have more and more of their own "thing". Hannah's softball tournaments take up pretty much a whole weekend. We all pile into the car and go along. We try to entertain ourselves as much as possible.



We twirl.


We read.


Then we watch Hannah go to work.

Yup. Family time happens anywhere. And couple time too.


Sara also had a dance commitment performing at a school carnival in Pinole.


Some things do get missed as we split up to attend all of their activities...

There was also attending a certain team's playoff game. But I'm not ready to talk about that just yet. It was fun for pretty much zero baseball related reasons...

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Weekending...

A better and smarter blogger have figured out that sometimes, you just have to keep up journaling your weekends, because that's when the more interesting things happen. I already told you that most weekends nowadays compose of softball, dance, and more softball. But once in a blue moon, we do get  a free weekend and take advantage....

Food. It always involves food. Like the Eat Real Festival at Jack London Square. Lamb poutine, anyone?


Time with the grandparents is also important...


Which conveniently means a chance for a date night! German food! Beer! in boots!


And Sunday dog park day. I am really liking Dog Park days, and we don't even have a dog...


And other such fun things. Church, reading, sports on TV. We almost don't know what to do with ourselves with the free time... but we manage.