Occidental

This past weekend Jack and I headed up north for a romantic get-a-way in Occidental. We stayed at the Inn at Occidental, a quaint little cottage with perfect little themed rooms (we were in the Sonoma Lodge, hence the tree bed and antler obsessions) and spent the weekend hiking, driving around daydreaming about buying acres of property, and gazing at the beach. It was just what I needed to take my mind off life and to enjoy to beautiful weather with my love.

his + hers

My favorite part of decorating our Christmas tree is unwrapping the ornaments to find your favorite one and remembering fond memories with that ornament. Since this was Jack and my first real Christmas together, we didn't have any ornaments to decorate our tree so we decided to start our own little tradition together. We each got each other a Christmas ornament that we thought reflected each other, and we found some pretty perfect ones at that. I can't wait to carry on this tradition for years to come so we can have a tree full of meaningful ornaments.

the Giants win the pennant the Giants win the pennant the Giants win the pennant!!!!

Monday night's Giant's game. Game 7. The game to determine who will win the pennant. One of the top 3 best nights of my life, hands down.

Just imagine...after eight innings of home runs, hot dogs and high fives, your standing on your tippy toes, with 43,000 fans in a downpour of rain, crossing your fingers and toes, hoping praying wishing that Romo's next pitch will strike out the evil Matt Holiday. And then, Holiday pops up a ball and it's game over. THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! And the crowd erupts and you're jumping up and down, screaming at the top of your lungs, hugging and high fiving a million strangers. There are fireworks blasting off in the background and you look around the stadium at the most dedicated fans all stoked out of their minds because THE GIANTS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES! You stand, drenched down to your nickers, in the flooded bleachers, smiling from ear to ear because the giants did it.

Needless the say, every San Francisco resident was out of their minds crazy happy that night. Even the cops were initiating high fives.

I swear, it was straight out of a movie.

in charge of the world

source: Jennifer Causey

So apparently I talk in my sleep… Jack so kindly sent me this email recapping our unconscious conversation last night:
I am sitting here next to you working away as you sleep.... I wanted to record what you just said so you could enjoy it tomorrow

you:  ....of the world?

me:  what?

you:  in charge of the world.

me:  who is?

you:  I'm tired.

me:  what?

you:  you're in charge of the world.

me:  oh, ok well you can be in charge too.

you:  I'm tired.

I'm pretty sure I can foresee the future because Jack very well could run the world one day. Either that or I was just really really tired. 

our little garden

we have a garden. a garden for two. a garden that has green leaves. a garden with which we are going to grow food. it. is. awesome.

 oh yeah, and that's the view from our garden/ roof. swoon.

apartment plans

First of all, I want to thank everyone for your extremely kind and supportive comments and messages. One thing I do know about this whole blogging experience is that the blogging community is absolutely amazing- I've met so many spectacular people and have loved getting to know all of you! So thank you for your love and support while I try to figure out this whole thing :)

As many of you know Jack and I are moving in together in August and I've been {slightly} obsessing over how to decorate our new place. Luckily, we have very similar styles so it hasn't been too difficult figuring out how we want things to look. The trickiest part is narrowing down the choices to fit into our small apartment- we have so many ideas and not enough room! Above are some ideas we have for our kitchen and living room- I love the frame collection and the steel chair with the plant, and I'm digging that chalkboard wall and some succulents for above the sink in the kitchen. I can' t wait to move in so we can start making, collecting and creating our new home :) 

1//2//3//4//5

1//2//3//4//5//6//7//8

exciting news

At the beginning of the year Jack and I decided we were going to move in together in August. After two months of seriously searching high and low for the perfect apartment we found it. As soon as we both walked in we knew it was the perfect place for us- with an awesome sun deck with beautiful views of the city, big bay windows looking out on a quiet neighborhood street, walking distance from our favorite part of the city, beautiful unique finishes and all new appliances... it seemed too good to be true. But last night, after shmoozing the landlord at the open house, we got a call from him saying he wanted us to live there. HE CHOSE US! 

The San Francisco renting process is so competitive these days and small, dingy apartments will go for unbelievable amounts, so we are so so so lucky and happy to have found this amazing place in our price range. So, come August 1st Jack and I are packing up our stuff and moving into our first little home together, and we could not be more excited! Pictures and decorating brainstorms to come.

Throwback {when it all began}

Today we are time traveling back to high school to relive the glory days of when Jack and I fell in love. Don't we look so little? We were just babies when we met (15 and 16) but even way back when we knew it was the real thing. During our beach nights (kids gotta hang out alone somewhere, why not the beach?) we would map out our lives with plans to live in Colorado and become ski bums or live in bustling New York for a few years before settling down on a farm with a big red barn. But lets rewind to the beginning. I'd like to tell you a little story of nice little girl and a wonderful little boy: 

Once upon a time there was a girl and a boy who both wanted to do something better than lazing around Marin County over their summer break, so they decided to dedicate their summers to helping others through an exchange program called Amigos. Little did they know this decision would not only better the communities they lived in, but would change their lives forever. On one of the first days of training the girl saw a cute boy across the room. She was excited when they were placed in the same group together. She thought the boy was excited too because he smiled a lot. The girl noticed the boy had a very nice smile. Over the next couple of months the girl and boy flirted and smiled at each other. A lot. When they went on their separate trips, the boy wrote the girl a letter, but she never got it. If only the girl could read that letter now...

When they got back from their trips, the girl and boy texted a lot and eventually the boy asked the girl out to a Giants game. The girl was super nervous because she liked the boy a lot, and it ended up being one of the greatest nights of her life. The boy taught her all the names of the baseball players and bought her a hot dog, and she still has the ticket from the game saved in a special box. Needless to say the girl and boy fell madly in love. They grew to become best friends  and spent their teenage years living a fairytale love- completely smitten and infatuated with each other. Over the following years they had so many good times and, sadly, some bad, but despite where they were in their lives they still loved each other very very much. Then, the girl and boy's lives fell back in rythmn and they were able to be together again, and man, did the girl miss the boy a lot. And the girl thought the boy missed her too, because the boy couldn't stop smiling. A lot. They spent the next couple of years falling even more in love (if that was even possible), and grew to realize they had changed each others lives forever. Now, the girl and boy live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and spend each day exploring their new home and celebrating their lives together. 

But that is not the end of the story. We still have our whole lives ahead of us and plan on doing many awesome amazing things, a few including:

Jack and Anna's Awesome Life Goals:

Go on a hot air balloon ride

Drive cross country and see all the landmarks

Go to concerts where we don't know the bands

Go to more art shows and pretend we know what we are talking about

Run around SF during Santa Con

Explore Europe

Explore South America

Relax on a Tropical Vacation (possibly the Maldives if we become bazillionaires)

Re-fall in love in Paris

Explore the ocean by going Scuba dive

Bury a box (more on this later)

Go to movies at Sundance

Make a home together

Get hitched :)

love day

I love valentines day. Even when I was single I would always look forward to eating pounds of chocolate, making gushy love song mixed CDs, and snuggling up with friends to watch goofy love movies. But now I love it even more because I get to spend it with the most thoughtful, kind, loving best friend/ lova in the whole entire world! This v-day, instead of doing the whole dinner at a restaurant with flower and chocolates ( which isn't really our type of thing anyway), we both surprised each other with super sentimental cards (jack listed 100 reasons why he loved me and said that didn't even dent the surface everything he loves about me), got our FAVORITE Mexican food for take out ( don pistos is the bomb), and drove out to the headlands to have a picnic in the back of Jack's truck. This is such a special place for both of us since we used to spend a ton of time here when we dated in high school- on our second date in high school we went to the same look out spot and made a bucket list of things we wanted to do together and this was when we realized that this was turning into something more than just hanging out. So this valentines day as we sat in the back of jack's truck we started another bucket list of things we want to do with each other. I can't wait to do these awesome fun things and can't wait to add more to the list.

Jack and Anna's Awesome Life Goals:

Go on a hot air balloon ride

Drive cross country and see all the landmarks

Go to concerts where we don't know the bands

Go to more art shows and pretend we know what we are talking about

Run around SF during Santa Con

Explore Europe

Explore South America

Relax on a Tropical Vacation (possibly the Maldives if we become bazillionaires)

Re-fall in love in Paris

Explore the ocean by going Scuba dive

Bury a box (more on this later)

Go to movies at Sundance

Make a home together

Get hitched :)

Our Road Trip

This fall Jack and I took an EPIC road trip through Oregon, Washington, and Montana. It was the most beautiful time of year to travel in this area because all of the trees were changing colors and every day there was perfect crisp, fall weather. Our first stop was Ashland to visit some family, then we headed up to Portland, Seattle, Leavenworth, Coeur d'alene, and then Glacier National Park! Glacier was breathtakingly beautiful, despite the near freezing weather and occasional snow, and I took approximately 1,846 photos. No joke. But besides the beautiful landscape and awesome back road adventures and not having to work for two weeks, my favorite part of the whole trip was being able to spend every second of each day with my bestest friend and love of my life. I can't wait for our next escape! Here are some of my favorites: