Zion & Bryce 2013

I have to admit that one of my favorite things about coming home from a trip are getting to see Rosie, Frankie and Ollie. Second is my own bed. And third is coming home to San Francisco.

But that's not to say I didn't appreciate Utah because I fact I do. After this trip I seem to have a new found love and appreciation for our National Parks, for small American towns that fly flags down their main street for 4th of July, for thunder and lightening storms that are scarce at home, and for being able to take time off and travel with DH and my parents.

Zion National Park is mind blowing. We hiked up a river into the canyon, saw waterfalls, and enjoyed small town life. Bryce Canyon has a staggering amount of hoodoo's and allows a look down on them from over 9000 feet up. We hiked, sweated, cursed, laughed, and admired. In Bryce we stayed late for the astronomy program and saw Saturn, a nebula, two stars masked as one, and clear as day the Milky Way.

Is it crazy that I've been back for not even 24 hours and want to go some where else again?

Until the next time National Park system... keep it real.

Zion National Park

 Bryce Canyon National Park

All photos here taken with my Nikon D80. :)

In memory / 9.24.12

I can't believe that time has flown by so fast - that somehow DH and I are leaving for the first leg of our honeymoon on Friday, how 72 hours has changed my life yet again.

1986

This morning at 2:30 my grandma passed away. Part of me can't believe that this is the second time in 5 months that I've lost a grandparent. I keep wishing that this wasn't real, but sadly this is real.

My grandma was an amazing woman. She always put her family first - whether it was working during the depression rolling tamales or making almond roca in a factory and giving all the money to her parents, to taking care of both sets of her parents when they became ill, to moving down to be closer to her mom so she could walk to visit her every day.

My grandparents on one of their many trips to Hawaii

My grandparents were married for almost 65 years when my grandpa passed away in 2007 and he was her entire world. I have never seen two people more devoted to each other, or who loved each other so much, even in life and death.

I can't ever remember her being angry or sad when growing up. Whenever we were sick as kids, her and grandpa would be the first ones to come over and keep us company. She and my grandpa were always in the front row for every sporting event, graduation, and major milestone in our lives.

One Christmas at a cousins house

Although the past few years have not been easy my grandma was still always happy to see us. She always remembered my mom, always teased my dad for the color of his beard, and  always insisted that I was such a nice pretty girl.

While I imagine the next few days will not be easy, I can hopefully try and console myself that she is finally happy with my grandpa again - the one thing she's always wanted since December 14 2007.

These words - these few, simple words... I wish I could put down on paper everything - but how do you sum up 28 years of love and appreciate for one person? I'm not quite sure you can. But - I am thankful and grateful that I was able to tell her this before she left us.

To my grandma, thank you so much for everything you have taught me. I will miss you so much but carry you with me every day.

Love,
Laura

weekend in pictures + wardrobe musings

I thought this might be a nice thing to start doing on a weekly basis. Now featuring - laura's weekend in pictures wrap up!

On Saturday morning we had quite a bit of rain here in the city. That didn't stop Dave and I from being able to get out of the apartment for a bit. We went down to the farmer's market on embarcadero had picked up some yummy jam, tried artisan cheeses, and were able to try our hand at pressing fresh apples to make apple cider.

After we dried off a bit from the rain we headed south to half moon bay for the wedding of a childhood friend. The wedding was gorgeous and the clouds gave way to some sunshine for the bride and groom. We had a great time (even a little too much champagne) but that can never be a bad thing when you are happy! I had a great time celebrating with Dave, my sister, my dad, and my sister's boyfriend Ray. It was probably a good thing that we had our own table to ourselves since we were pretty entertained by the seashells, cake, and anything else that we seemed to get our hands on at that point in time.

After the wedding Dave and I headed back up to the city for Halloween Eve with some friends at a club. We got home really late but had a great night dancing and admiring other people's costumes.

Sunday was a lazy day - we had brunch at once of our favorite restaurants in Nob Hill, took naps, did some housework, and had a great dinner with his mom and sister in Jack London Square. The sunset was fantastic!

Because of a gift exchange I did on one of my forums I finally got my paws on one of the chinchilla bath houses (as shown above). Frankie loves it so much he really doesn't want to share with Ollie and I might have to get him his own.

The weather is definitely changing here - I'm not complaining. As long as the skies are clear, the air is crisp and there's no rain I'm a happy camper.

Anthropologie and J Crew have definitely been my source of fashion as of late. H&M has actually had some pretty good sales too (I think I saw a sign up today - buy 1 sweater, get 1 free - oh noes!). Quite frankly if I had the cash I'd redo my entire wardrobe - but until I win the lottery I don't see that happening any time soon.

Anyway - today is Tuesday (and it's after 12 already, yay!) so get out and VOTE if you haven't already done so and have a great day! (And be safe if you partake in any post-giants winning the world series celebrations).