Tag: family

New Year, Old Traditions

Growing up I spent a handful of New Year’s in Rio de Janiero on Copacabana beach, where my mom is originally from. Brazilian tradition involves wearing all white on New Year’s Eve to symbolize peace and renewal. It also includes putting flowers into the ocean as a gift to the goddess of the sea & to bring good luck into the new year. These traditions date back to the 1500’s. Ever since I’ve lived in San Francisco I’ve made it a point to take advantage of my close proximity to the ocean & walk out into the water on new years. There’s something so peaceful about going to the beach & thinking about the whole year to come.

I’ve spent the past five new years working in the ER. I always choose to work NYE for a few reasons: 1. it’s endlessly entertaining in the ER 2. I love my coworkers & we bring a ton of food & decorations & have lots of fun 3. I want to have Christmas off so I always volunteer to work on NYE.

Turning the page on 2017 & going into 2018 is so exciting. 2017 was filled with so many wonderful memories. We spent an incredible two weeks exploring Spain & Portugal, we enjoyed SF Giants spring training in Scottsdale for my birthday, we saw friends get married, camped in Timber Cove, found out in late summer we’d be having a baby & so much more! I’m excited & anxious for the year to come, I know it will be our biggest one yet! With everything on the horizon, it feels good to lean on old traditions. Even though this past weekend I’ve been combating a terrible head cold while working 11 hour nights I’m so glad we made a point to get to the beach & throw our flowers in the water. I can’t wait to do it next year with our baby in tow.

Happy New Year! I’d love to hear what some of your New Year traditions are, leave them in the comments below.

City Rambling

San Francisco in the springtime is so beautiful. I love wandering around the city & taking in all the views. Even though I’ve lived here for nine years San Francisco ceases to amaze me, I feel like I’m still finding new sweet spots in the city. Some of these pictures are from earlier this week when a few friends & I did a little urban hiking around nob hill / pac heights. The rest of the pictures are from this past Saturday when Chris & I took Juno out to Crissy Beach to meet up with some friends for a little dog date! Don’t let the sunshine fool you, it was freezing by the water, barely breaking 50 degrees! Despite the cool weather it was a great weekend hanging out at home & just enjoying this wonderful city. Saturday night we snuck away for dinner at favorite spot of ours in the mission. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! We’re just a couple weeks away from trip to Spain & Portugal! Can’t wait!

Ocean Beach Adventures

^^ no one can throw driftwood for the dog like Chris can 🙂

This weekend we changed up our normal beach routine, instead of heading over to Baker Beach, we decided to venture a little further & hit up Ocean Beach.  Baker is super close to our apartment & has sweeping views of the Golden Gate so it’s our usual go-to. The weather this weekend was SO beautiful that we knew Baker Beach would be saturated with tourists and locals alike so we decided to try & find a spot with a little more room for Juno to run around. We went to the south end of beach & it ended up being perfect! I think spring may have finally sprung in San Francisco & hopefully we’re past all the non stop rain. All this warm weather & sunshine makes me so happy & excited for summer! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Our Best Black Friday Purchase – Ever!

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One year ago on our way home from my parents we picked up our sweet black lab Juno. I’ve never been one for black friday shopping but this by far was our best black friday deal ever! In some ways the last year feels like it’s flown by, but at the same time it’s hard to remember what life was like before we had this sweet girl. I’m certaintly a little nostalgic being a couple states away this year celebrating Thanksgiving in Texas. But we’re sure to celebrate Juno’s adoption day when we get back home. For now she’s enjoy Thanksgiving break in suburia with my best friends family & their two dogs! It’s crazy to think our eighty pound labrador was once 15 pounds of pure puppy! Time flies! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving & shared it surrounded by loved ones.

 

East Texas Nuptials 

^^ Early morning flights = sunrises from window seat!img_8609^^ Jumping for Joy we made it to Blum, Texas…img_8646-1

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img_8670^^Rooftop bars with live music & all these fine friends ❤img_8603-1img_8631^^ Weddings with this man will always be my favorite.

^What do you do when you’re locked out of your hotel room at 1am waiting for maintenance to drill the door open? Take random photos in the hallway, duh.img_8584

This past weekend we went to a wedding in Blum Texas, which is outside of Cleburne Tx. Never heard of it? Yeah, neither had I! Chris is from Austin originally & so over the past four years we traveled quite a bit to Texas, visiting family & friends. I’ve also spent small amounts of time in both Houston & Dallas. But this was my first time really going deep into Texas. Albeit a stark comparison to our day to day life in San Francisco, there’s something so nice about being out on country roads, windows down, country music playing. I grew up in a small town in northern California so I can appreciate large parcels of land in towns that maybe have one stop light. And I can certainly appreciate big sky country, especially for the beautiful photos it helps produce. Chris has a large group of friends from college & it was so nice to see everyone all in one place again & just spend the weekend together! Not to mention that going to weddings now having already been married for over a year makes us nostalgic about our day. Weddings are just the best & this one was no exception! The first night there we went to the beautiful rehearsal dinner held at Lost Oak Winery. After the rehearsal we headed to downtown Burleson to continue the night & meet up with all our friends. We went Old Texas Brewing Co which had an awesome rooftop bar with live music. The next morning I was lucky enough to randomly wake up around 7am & catch this absolutely breathtaking sunrise from our hotel room. None of the sunrise photos have been edited whatsoever. It was so beautiful!! The wedding itself took place on this gorgeous estate surrounded with trees. Chris always talks about how special Texas is & how there’s no where quite like it. I don’t know if this born & raised Cali girl will ever truly understand what he means but I can attest that there’s definitely something spectacular about it & it’s home to some of the best people we know & miss! We got back late Sunday night & woke up to San Francisco rain, so I guess it’s time to wash the jean shorts, pull out the rainboots & get ready for fall in the Bay Area!

PS. One of the best perks of having a husband is convincing him to take cheesy jump on the bed photos so we can test out the new remote for the camera! yay!