Well, as usual it has been a crazy December! As soon as soccer finished, I flew out to Arizona to spend a night at my parents, then we spent 3 days at Disneyland... heading back up to the Bay Area the Monday before Christmas. Zac and I worked Tuesday morning, then drove down to San Luis Obispo Tuesday afternoon. We stopped at Eagle Castle Winery in Paso Robles on our way to his parent's house in Los Osos. [I think we've made our decision to have our wedding here, by the way.]
Christmas in SLO was fun. Zac and I were able to meet up with a few of his friends from high school and college, as well as spend time with his siblings, Marcus and Marissa and his parents! We visited wineries [Wolff Vineyards and Claiborne and Churchill Vintners] where we are members at to pick up wine shipments, and have a glass of wine. On Christmas Eve, Zac's Grandpa and his friend Fey came to visit and have the family's big Christmas Eve crab dinner with us. What a fun evening! We all gathered around the dinner table for a great meal, spent time together opening Christmas presents, and finished off the night with some excellent pies for dessert!
Rise and shine! Early Christmas morning, Zac and I hit the road with our dog, Parker. I am so lucky that Zac is willing to wake up early so we can drive home to the Bay Area so that I am able to help cook with holiday meals.. what a treat! We were a bit concerned about finding food since it was Christmas day, but were lucky to find a drive through coffee shop open just before we got onto Highway 101 to head north. Two breakfast burritos and two large cups of coffee.. and we were off! We got home to San Carlos, and spent time with my parents and brother opening Christmas presents and enjoying lunch. After that, it was time to get all the cooking done and preparation for Christmas dinner. My grandmother, Auntie Sha and cousin Rachel arrived in the late afternoon with presents, some food, and champange in hand! Everyone got settled as my Dad finished up the cooking for Christmas dinner, I poured glasses of champagne, and everyone spent some time together talking about their Christmas mornings. We were treated with a big rib roast and all the fixings for dinner, along with wines and sparkling cider.. YUM. Then time to open Christmas presents.. followed by what amounted to 5 or 6 pies for dessert! And of course, I brewed up an extra special pot of coffee for Christmas dessert.
Stay tuned... More to come on our day after Christmas and Orange County trip!
Merry Christmas 2009 everyone!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Frantic Friday - I'm Back!
Wow. So sorry, it has been a while. November has been one crazy month! And, it seemed to fly by.
To be honest, I didn't realize people were reading the blog either! But, I've gotten questions from several people asking why I hadn't blogged. So I will be re-committing myself to my blog!
To sum it up: We got back from Walt Disney World on November 7 - also Zac's birthday. Hit up the 49er Game on November 8th with a big group tailgating [37 of us this year!]... So no time to rest. I started coaching soccer at Sacred Heart again on Monday, November 8th. A couple weeks of Zac back at work, myself working and soccer practice on a daily basis. And then all of a sudden it was a few days before Thanksgiving!! We went to San Luis Obispo for a quick trip to Zac's parent's house and had an early Thanksgiving dinner with everyone there! Then, drove back up to the Bay Area early Thanksgiving morning so I could help cook for Thanksgiving with my family. Came back from Thanksgiving week and had a soccer tourney start up on Monday, November 30. Needless to say, there has been no room to breathe! Oh, and forgot to mention - in between all that we've been trying to nail down a wedding venue and date! Woo!
My "plan" is to get in a blog post about our trip to Walt Disney World [this is of course, modified from my original plan of several blog posts dedicated to that trip!] so stay tuned!
To be honest, I didn't realize people were reading the blog either! But, I've gotten questions from several people asking why I hadn't blogged. So I will be re-committing myself to my blog!
To sum it up: We got back from Walt Disney World on November 7 - also Zac's birthday. Hit up the 49er Game on November 8th with a big group tailgating [37 of us this year!]... So no time to rest. I started coaching soccer at Sacred Heart again on Monday, November 8th. A couple weeks of Zac back at work, myself working and soccer practice on a daily basis. And then all of a sudden it was a few days before Thanksgiving!! We went to San Luis Obispo for a quick trip to Zac's parent's house and had an early Thanksgiving dinner with everyone there! Then, drove back up to the Bay Area early Thanksgiving morning so I could help cook for Thanksgiving with my family. Came back from Thanksgiving week and had a soccer tourney start up on Monday, November 30. Needless to say, there has been no room to breathe! Oh, and forgot to mention - in between all that we've been trying to nail down a wedding venue and date! Woo!
My "plan" is to get in a blog post about our trip to Walt Disney World [this is of course, modified from my original plan of several blog posts dedicated to that trip!] so stay tuned!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Baby Brinn
My friend Anissa and her fiance Brett had their baby on November 26 at 1:57am! Welcome Brinn Madison Williams! Congratulations Niss and Brett!!!
Photo credit: Anissa Barnett
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Orange
Zac had bought me a bouquet of flowers a while back.. and they were these flowers with great deep orange colors.. and I thought it would be a great color to use for the color scheme for our wedding. Oranges, greens - great outdoorsy autumn type colors.
Today I was looking at florists, and came across these pictures. I think they are awesome. What do you think?
The original inspiration:
Venue: Holland Ranch
We really, really like this place. Holland Ranch is in San Luis Obispo.
"A bit more casual and kitschy, which seems more Kate Smith to me! I love the barn!" - my good friend, Karen
Check out the pictures! As always, click on them to enlarge.
"A bit more casual and kitschy, which seems more Kate Smith to me! I love the barn!" - my good friend, Karen
Check out the pictures! As always, click on them to enlarge.
Some great links to beautiful weddings at Holland Ranch:
Zac would never go for a jeans/cowboy boots sort of wedding [only in my dreams!!]. But, isn't this just fabulous??
Monday, October 19, 2009
Venue: Eagle Castle Winery
On Friday afternoon, I was attempting to finalize which venues we wanted to see that weekend. Zac kept reminding me that he wanted to at least relax a little on our weekend visit to SLO.. and to take into consideration the USC football on Saturday [of course].
I had emailed back and forth a couple times with Roxan, the event/wedding coordinator at Eagle Castle Winery in Paso Robles. On Friday afternoon I gave her a call to talk about us coming by for a visit. I realized it may be a bit difficult as it was Harvest Festival in Paso, but I thought we could fit something in. She suggested we stop by that evening on our drive down to Los Osos.. and I said it sounded like a great idea, but we'd have Parker (our dog) with us... turns out, they are dog friendly! She said, bring him! So we did.
Eagle Castle was magnificent. Zac absolutely loved the place. It was medieval, and fun. The pictures on the website do not do the place justice. They need to be bigger! [Maybe it is a problem with my browser, I don't know.] Anyways.
Roxan showed us around the castle, and we new instantly it was a top contender. It's not exactly what I had pictured for our wedding (rustic, kitschy, DIRT...), but it was DEFINITELY a place worth considering. We tasted all of their wines, had a great time chatting with Roxan and her boyfriend [soon-to-be assistant winemaker at the castle]... and our dog, Parker, "chilled" on the castle patio, while getting endless amounts of attention from the evening's harvest fest attendees. We bought a couple bottles of wine, and told Roxan we'd be in touch! Driving away, I knew Zac liked this place more than I did... and while I'd love to find a place that both of absolutely love... it may not happen. [We are different.] So, I proposed that IF we did end up having our wedding there, I would like to choose some really great places for the engagement sesh... including the beach, a barn or ranch... and other cool places around town. Like maybe Montana de Oro [where we got engaged last summer!]. He agreed that was a great idea. YAY! :)
Here are some great links of past weddings at Eagle Castle:
Link 1 - LindseyHAHNphotography
Link 2 - David Pascolla photography
Link 3 - Cameron Ingalls photography [Scroll down further on this page for "An Eagle Castle Affair" too!]
I had emailed back and forth a couple times with Roxan, the event/wedding coordinator at Eagle Castle Winery in Paso Robles. On Friday afternoon I gave her a call to talk about us coming by for a visit. I realized it may be a bit difficult as it was Harvest Festival in Paso, but I thought we could fit something in. She suggested we stop by that evening on our drive down to Los Osos.. and I said it sounded like a great idea, but we'd have Parker (our dog) with us... turns out, they are dog friendly! She said, bring him! So we did.
Eagle Castle was magnificent. Zac absolutely loved the place. It was medieval, and fun. The pictures on the website do not do the place justice. They need to be bigger! [Maybe it is a problem with my browser, I don't know.] Anyways.
Roxan showed us around the castle, and we new instantly it was a top contender. It's not exactly what I had pictured for our wedding (rustic, kitschy, DIRT...), but it was DEFINITELY a place worth considering. We tasted all of their wines, had a great time chatting with Roxan and her boyfriend [soon-to-be assistant winemaker at the castle]... and our dog, Parker, "chilled" on the castle patio, while getting endless amounts of attention from the evening's harvest fest attendees. We bought a couple bottles of wine, and told Roxan we'd be in touch! Driving away, I knew Zac liked this place more than I did... and while I'd love to find a place that both of absolutely love... it may not happen. [We are different.] So, I proposed that IF we did end up having our wedding there, I would like to choose some really great places for the engagement sesh... including the beach, a barn or ranch... and other cool places around town. Like maybe Montana de Oro [where we got engaged last summer!]. He agreed that was a great idea. YAY! :)
Here are some great links of past weddings at Eagle Castle:
Link 1 - LindseyHAHNphotography
Link 2 - David Pascolla photography
Link 3 - Cameron Ingalls photography [Scroll down further on this page for "An Eagle Castle Affair" too!]
Night time shot
Day time shot
Rooftop area for ceremony and cocktail hour
The Library
Monday, October 12, 2009
Preggers: Chris & Ninah!
On Friday night, we were blessed with the opportunity to meet up with some good friends of ours, Chris and Ninah! They were driving up to San Jose, and staying the night at Ninah's parents before flying out to NY the next day. We suggested meeting up for dinner and bocce at Campo di Bocce. Who doesn't love a good game of bocce?! Zac and I had gotten to the restaurant a few minutes early of our reservation, so we grabbed our table and ordered a couple Peroni draft beers. Chris and Ninah arrived and joined us at our table. We planned on eating dinner, and then playing bocce. Campo di Bocce is awesome. You can eat, then play... play then eat... or eat while you play! Bocce any way you want it.
We suggested the Peroni to Chris and Ninah when they first got there. Chris ordered one.. and Ninah seemed to be waiting to decide what to drink. We all ordered meals, salads... and were checking out the desserts early on. The waiter came by to check on us.. and Ninah turned down an offer to order a beer or wine. I thought this to be odd, as normally they are both always down for a good drink with us, but didn't want to jump to conclusions! (I put it off in my head at the time that maybe they are saving money for their trip the next day to NY!) Later when our meals came, we had been deep in conversation, catching up... and Ninah (upon trying to explain her concern over some salmon she was eating possibly not being cooked all the way through) said, "Normally I wouldn't be concerned, but..." At this point, we KNEW something was up!! Zac and I both started to get excited... As Ninah about to tell us their big news... Zac turning bright red over excitement... It was a very, very exciting time to hear that our good friends are expecting!!! We are sooo excited about it, and cannot wait to see how things go leading up to the arrival of their baby girl in February.
Below is a picture of our friends, the soon-to-be-parents!
Congratulations Chris and Ninah!!! We are soo excited for you!
We suggested the Peroni to Chris and Ninah when they first got there. Chris ordered one.. and Ninah seemed to be waiting to decide what to drink. We all ordered meals, salads... and were checking out the desserts early on. The waiter came by to check on us.. and Ninah turned down an offer to order a beer or wine. I thought this to be odd, as normally they are both always down for a good drink with us, but didn't want to jump to conclusions! (I put it off in my head at the time that maybe they are saving money for their trip the next day to NY!) Later when our meals came, we had been deep in conversation, catching up... and Ninah (upon trying to explain her concern over some salmon she was eating possibly not being cooked all the way through) said, "Normally I wouldn't be concerned, but..." At this point, we KNEW something was up!! Zac and I both started to get excited... As Ninah about to tell us their big news... Zac turning bright red over excitement... It was a very, very exciting time to hear that our good friends are expecting!!! We are sooo excited about it, and cannot wait to see how things go leading up to the arrival of their baby girl in February.
Below is a picture of our friends, the soon-to-be-parents!
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