my quarter century birthday

I decided to make the absolute most of my birthday as it fell on a Friday. My one day turned into a 4 day long weekend as I signed up to do different activities I had not done before. I reached for the land, air and sea, all in one weekend.

Let's rewind to Thursday, the start of it all...

Thursday, my birthday eve, I celebrated it with my family. A nice dinner followed by what can only be described as the most amazing cake to ever grace my presence. This is saying a lot, because I am not exactly a "cake person." I generally would prefer something along the lines of ice cream, cookies, or sweets for dessert. However, I saw this post on Pinterest a few months ago; Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake. Yes, you read that right.. cookie dough inside a cake. Never in my wildest dreams could I have guessed that I would be getting that cake for my birthday. {and I certainty was not going to attempt to make it!} This cake was hands down, the most delicious cake I have ever had, with little bits of cookie dough, running through the middle.

Friday, was a typical day of work for me. Although I did get a free birthday drink from Starbucks! A great way to start any day, if you ask me. After I was done for the day, I raced home because Brett had a couple presents left for me that I was ready to open. Yay for presents! Tissues paper and wrapping paper covered the floor but it was time to leave! We quickly fixed ourselves up a bit and went to grab a bite to eat before tearing up the track on Go-karts! I have been twice before and it is a really fun experience to just let loose and race your friends. My parents even came and my dad was brave enough to get on the track with us. It was a great Friday night.

Saturday morning, we drove down to Monterey, as we booked a 4 hour rental for Stand Up Paddle-boards. {or SUP} We figured 4 hours would be a sufficient amount of time as neither of us had done this before. We were expecting a little more trial and error, that's for sure. We got the hang of it in about 15 minutes and off we went. We had such a good time paddling through the "slough" as the tide was helping to carry us. We thought we had plenty of time to get back to the dock to return the boards, with 2 1/2 hours to fight the tide and return. Little did we know just how difficult it was going to be to paddle against the tide. It was really hard going and for a good portion of the time, as hard as I paddled, I just stayed in place. We eventually made it back to our dock and returned the boards. As soon as I got in the car, I immediately fell asleep {sorry, Brett!} I was so exhausted.

Sunday morning involved sleeping in, past 10, I might add! Which is something I haven't done for a very long time. We had a lazy morning as we were gearing up for a big activity, a flight tour and lesson. We arrived to the airport early and filled out some paperwork and waited in the lounge for the pilot and plane. I was expecting an air tour around the bay area and a short in flight lesson, that's what it seemed like would happen on their website. As soon as we got in the plane and went down the check list, the pilot showed me the controls for the plane and off we went! I was flying a plane the entire time we were up in the air. Of course he helped assist in take off and landing and through a patch of turbulence we had. Otherwise he was explaining the gauges and talking about the area we were flying over. The 45 minutes went by so fast and before I knew it, the wheels hit the runway and it was all over! I loved every minute being up in the air and is something I would definitely do again. After we left we went home to make dinner together and fell asleep really early after such an amazingly long weekend.

My 24th year was a pretty big one looking back on it. It took me to far away lands, local new discoveries, new job, new apartment just to name a few. Really looking forward to see what my 25th year will bring me.

Cheers!

X x

law school graduates

Quite a few of Brett & my friends have gone the law-school route. One already down, three currently graduating and taking the Bar exam this summer and a couple more still in school. 3 years of more schooling after the 4 years of under-grad is just too much schooling if you ask me.

Last weekend the boys threw a combined party since they both graduated from the same school together.

The theme was fiesta with music, margaritas, beer and wine to choose from. There was also a taco truck on the side of the house to order tacos, burritos, or tamales.. ole!

The best part was when the two grads tried to break open the piñata - blind folded, disoriented and with a golf club!

It was the perfect way to celebrate and honor these two with their new Law degree.

Congratulations Jake & Steve!

X x

greek islands... here we come

Later today Brett & I are going to embark on our vacation to the Greek Islands! I can't even believe the time is finally here. We have been talking about this for months that I never thought it was actually going to happen. So to kickoff our vacation, since we have to fly through London anyway, we decided to pick a flight with a pretty long layover so that we could get into London to soak up some of the atmosphere of the Olympics. Of course we don't have tickets for anything, but we figure we can just get there and see what happens and then we head back to the airport and catch our flight to Athens. Then from there we will be taking ferries to four different islands - Paros, Mykonos, Santorini, and ending in Crete. It is going to just be so amazing and incredible. I am really, really looking forward to getting away from the daily grind and just be seaside for two weeks!

I downloaded a blogger app for my ipad & will try my hardest to update as I can for you but I am not sure what type of internet connection I will have. I will probably just instagram a few pictures as I can because it is the easiest way to upload quickly, so make sure you are either following me on instagram or twitter; username for both is @suzeebabe so you have no excuse not to follow! :]

Anyway! I have lots of packing and running around to finish, but I will leave you with a quick look into what my life looks like right now, I hope the rest of you all have an amazing couple of weeks.

X x

twenty-four

Today I turn 24.

It's amazing to see what these past 365 days have brought me . I have already accomplished so much that I never thought imaginable; became full time employed at my work, took Brett to meet my family in Scotland, got an iPhone, went to my first basketball game, went for an all day hike through Yosemite, visited Chicago and Indiana. But what am I telling you this for? You've been sitting along side me while I blog about it all, right? :]

Even though I am working for a bit today, I will be heading off to Greece in just a few days with Brett for two whole weeks! I am beyond excited for our adventure together and to have some quality time away from everything and just enjoying all that the islands have to offer.

X x

every now and then..

... you need a little reminder in the morning to get through the day :]

I hope everyone has a great Friday & weekend.

X x

first day of summer

Hooray! Summer has finally arrived, well says my calendar anyway. And in honor of such a wonderful occasion I have created a little mini list of everything that I want to do this summer. I would love to hear your summer list or if any of my activities line up with yours.

Cheers to a wonderful, warm and bright summer 2012!

X x

going off the grid

Tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn {okay, 6.30am} Brett and I are heading off to Yosemite for Memorial Day Weekend! We have been looking forward and preparing for this all week. I haven only been to Yosemite once in my life and I was very little with my family so I don't remember much. But today is crunch time so I am grocery shopping, finishing up laundry, packing up, charging; cameras, cell phone's, ipad's you name it.

We have a big all day hike planned for Sunday so this week I have been trying to load up on protein, also I haven't had any soda {ok, I cheated once at lunch} lots and lots of water and keeping the exercise pretty light this week as I don't want to be sore before I even get there. We also have a 2 hour horseback ride booked on Monday that I am really looking forward to because it is something I always loved and used to do when I was younger. Unfortunately, the weather report says rain on Saturday when we arrive so we are just going to play it by ear for what we want to do. Also, we cleaned out Brett's explorer with shock vac and all because if there is one crumb of food in there a bear will smell it and rip the car apart to get to it. {no seriously} There have been so many stories about this happening, I even heard a bear ripped open a car because there was gum on the floor - yikes! At least we took care of that earlier in the week. All that is left today is the finishing touches.

Here are some of my pictures as I am still finishing up packing. I hope you all have a wonderful 3-day weekend with your family and friends. This weekend... we are going off the grid and I will see you when I am back to civilization!

X x

exploring uncharted territory

I have lived in California my entire life, grew up in the bay area and went to LA for college, but I think you already knew that. From there I have ventured elsewhere, San Diego - Santa Barbara - San Luis Obispo - Napa - Sacramento - Tahoe - Kirkwood... you get the idea. But I have actually never been to Davis! Which, in case you aren't familiar, it is just south of Sacramento.. like 20 minutes south. I guess I have never really had a reason to go, it was always just a little dot on the freeway as I drove past it. Well this weekend Brett and I drove up after work because one of his friends just graduated from UC Davis with his Law degree. We arrived later in the evening and went to dinner and bar hopped a little, celebrating and toasting every step of the way- it was really a great evening. The next morning we woke up and I wanted to explore the area a bit more since it was dark last night. I am pretty much just in love with Davis right now. It is the perfect quaint-but-not-so-quaint town at the same time. Everyone is riding their bikes and walking to the town, there are fabulous little restaurants everywhere all with out door seating available. I thought I was in love then, until I came across the most amazing frozen yogurt place {although really it was a candy shop with frozen yogurt on the side} There were six different kind of frozen yogurt followed by an entire wall dedicated to different kinds of candy. Then they had jars full of  chocolate, peanut butter, caramel sauces, jars of cookies and then tons of fresh fruit to choose from. You can see the pictures below, it was incredible. After that we found our way back to the car to hit the road.

As we are driving back in the direction of home, we decide to swing by Berkley and visit a another friend of Brett's and his girlfriend who live there. Surprise!! I have never been to Berkley before. I am sure most of you where where it is, but it is just north of Oakland and across the bay from San Francisco. It was a nice day but there was fog so you couldn't really see much of the city :[ But we got a tour of the campus, it was absolutely amazing and the huge clock tower that is in the middle was a sight to be seen. After walking through it all, we ended up on the main downtown area and had a bite to eat. There were all kind of restaurants and shops of course in true Berkley fashion "organic" "all natural" signs everywhere :] but it was still so much fun.

After leaving Berkley we had to quickly head home to do a quick clothing change and then go to a family friend's house to celebrate their daughter who just graduated from USC. The weekend was pretty non-stop but I really enjoyed getting to see two new places in California as well as celebrate the accomplishments of others!

X x