happy birthday to me

Celebrated my birthday with family and friends :) Thanks, everybody!

Enjoyed dinner with Zac and Grandma. Cheers!

Watched US soccer... did not enjoy the US losing...  but I did enjoy playing bocce ball with friends. :)

Got to see baby Brinn!

Carrot cake! YUM.

SLO Visit

The day after Chris and Karla's wedding, we met up with our friends Chris and Ninah, their baby Violet and Dayes, who had driven up from SoCal for the wedding weekend as well. We went on a walk in Morro Bay and hit up Top Dog for coffee and breakfast. It was so nice to catch up with everyone, and to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Trying to get two dogs to stay put for the same picture is always a challenge...

Parker giving Violet some kisses.

Zac and his younger brother, Marcus. We think Marcus finally passed Zac in height! If he hasn't passed him yet, he is awfully close...

Chris and Karla Get Hitched!

Our good friends Chris and Karla got married on Saturday, May 1st. What a wonderful celebration. We are so happy for you guys! Congratulations!

The kiss!

Husband and wife!

Chris, Ninah and baby Violet!

Zac and I with the happy couple!

Boys will be boys...

What a fun night! Congrats, Chris and Karla! :)

Yosemite 2010

Spontaneous trips to Yosemite are always fun! Steffen and I went up to Yosemite for some fun in the snow! Steffen, who is a friend of a friend, was visiting CA for the first time from Germany. Here are just a few of the many pics from our trip.

Entering the park!

Lower Yosemite Falls

Driving out to Badger Pass... snow chains!

Snow!

Our first "view" of the Valley (about 7pm).

 

We were blessed with a nice fresh snowfall during the night... and found our car at about 6:30am like this.

With a cup of hot coffee, we set out very early in the morning to possibly catch a sunrise. The snowy sky covered any possible sunrise.. but we had a nice early morning snow walk to Bridalveil Fall.

It snowed steadily while we walked to see the falls.

 

We went back to our hotel room to get ready. Our plan was to drive up to Badger Pass to go snow-shoeing! 

Steffen "posing" on the patio in front of our hotel room.

Arriving at Badger Pass!

We went on a ranger led snow-shoe hike. The hike started out with learning a little bit of the history of snow-shoes... and then we strapped on our snow-shoes, and went hiking!

Steffen ready to go!

Me snapping on my snow-shoes!

While he didn't leave the starting line first, Steffen was the proud winner of the "Snow-shoe Olympics"!!

Messing around...

After our morning of snow-shoe fun, we headed back down to the valley floor to do some walking and see Half Dome and Mirror Lake.

We walked out to Bridalveil Fall again to see a better view of the falls than when we had been there several hours earlier. The sun was shining, the snow had stopped, and the tourists were a-plenty! I preferred it earlier in the morning... but we did get a few better pictures of the actual falls this time since snow/cold waterfall water wasn't streaming right into our faces!

There was a light snow falling while we were walking out to Mirror Lake and Half Dome.

Of course, I had to stop in at The Ansel Adams Gallery. We shopped around the store a bit, and had a good time looking at all the neat items and amazing pictures.

Took some pics with the "Big Tree."

Got a nice view of Upper Yosemite Falls.

And of course, the amazing Half Dome.

All in all, it was an awesome trip! I was blessed with this great opportunity to get to know a new friend, and travel around one of my absolute favorite places. Thanks, Steffen, for taking me on your trip to Yosemite!