Thanksgiving break!

Well, once again it's been much too long since I last updated the blog! It's that time of year I think, when things get insanely busy between the holidays, and your first graders go nuts, and you just don't have a minute to think! hehe :) But I have been itching to get the pictures from Thanksgiving and our WONDERFUL time with Brian and Lisa up on our blog... so here they are!

Curt's parents came down the Sat. before Thanksgiving, we picked them up at LAX (lovely airport, wouldn't you agree? eeewwwwwww), and headed straight for truly lovely San Diego. When we got there we hooked up with Curt's uncle Todd, aunt Jean, and his cousins Kyle and Jackson and went out for a delicious Mexican dinner in Old Town.

The next day, uncle Todd took us on a tour of the town, and one of our first stops was MCRD (Marine Corps Recruiting Depot). Here's Curt and I after enlisting:

After checking the place out, including a pretty cool museum (complete with props as you can see above), and doing a little shopping at the exchange of course, we had a great lunch at Pizza Nova (yummmmyyyy!!!) and then headed over to Coronado, a beautiful island right off the downtown. We checked out an unbelievably gorgeous, huge, old white hotel right on the beach (I failed to get those pictures off of Lisa's camera! Shoot!)... and we walked around and checked things out - very fun. After our great day out and about, we headed inland to Todd and Jean's house for a great evening in! Jean made the yummiest kabobs and twice baked potatoes, and we finished off our meal with Kyle's apple crisp! It was delicious cousin! :) Here's Todd, Jean, Lisa, and Brian:

We decided to do some wine tasting in Temecula on the way back up to our house, and so we checked out a few wineries, enjoying the fruits of the land in liquid form, along with a little shopping, beautiful surroundings, and relaxation. It was a great time!

This was a winery (Ponte) that cousins Jen and Brian recommended - it was way fun and delicious! I loved how it was wrapped up for Christmas:

Wilson Creek winery was gorgeous and tasty as well - as you can tell! Whoa Curt!

A quick shot of the fam at the tasting bar....

The grounds outside were aMaZing!! Just lovely - and we had perfect weather as you can see:

This was a fun sculpture on the lawn, don't you think?

Brian and Lisa:

Home again, home again, here we are back up in Palmdale - it was so nice having a much bigger place for our guests compared to our tiny apartment! We had so much fun hanging out with Lisa and Brian, doing a puzzle (or trying - we're bringing it home at Christmas by the way! lol), just relaxing, and enjoying the fruits of the season and being Thankful for family and friends.

Here's a shot (though not in great light) of our tree this year:

Here's the table set up for the Thanksgiving feast Curt and Lisa made:
And a last great shot of the four of us before feasting! We love you guys so much, and thanks for coming and being with us on Thanksgiving!!!

Until Christmas...........

Love to all! :)

Huskie Fans

This fall has been so busy that I am realizing I have had absolutely zero time to update our blog on a regular basis. . . . That said, here are some pictures from the UW/UCLA game we went to yesterday at the Rose Bowl down in Pasadena. It was a blast, despite the fact that the UW lost (grrrrrrrr) and SHOULD HAVE WON. (where was the review on that touchdown play?!) Anyhoo, we're not bitter....
Here's the tailgate scene, we had BBQ wings, chips and refreshing drinks all to enjoy in the sunny, 75 degree weather. There is not much to hate about California this time of year.



Curt getting in a little pre-game texting

On our way into the stadium, sure of victory

Our fellow partners in tailgating and Huskie fans for the day, Brian and Andrea

Quick pic inside the Rose Bowl....

A shot of the stadium....

Getting ready to start!

Just some football pics:

By games end: 24, 23 - UCLA. Nnnnooooooooooooooooooooo. What the heck happened UW?! Great day, but would've been even GREATER with a win, esp. when surrounded by gloating Bruins fans. Ugh.

Will update with more pics soon, especially as we get our new place in order -- (it's taking forever). I am missing the days of working only 2 or 3 days a week and writing papers! There was so much more time for decorating...... lol. Oh well. :) Love to all family and friends! Miss you guys!

Recent Happenings in Cali

It's been FOREVER since I last updated our blog... Full time work is craziness...and I don't know where all my time goes any more! (wait...... to work). I've turned into somewhat of a flake of a friend and am tired all the stinkin' time -- BUT, am starting to "get" first grade and enjoy it more and more each week as I get the hang of things. Whew! :) I would've also updated our blog sooner had it not frustrated me to the point of almost throwing our computer out a window two weeks ago when I added these pics, as it wouldn't let me re-order them! Darn you blog! (I might have also slightly over-reacted, something I am good at). So I am going with them some what out of order. I will live. :)

Remember when all those crazy fires were buring down in Cali about 6 weeks ago? We captured a few pics of the event out on the deck of our old apartment:

On another note, Curt suprised me with a fabulously fun trip just North of Santa Barbara in celebration of our 5 year wedding anniversary! We "camped" in this huge canvas tent, complete with a bed, electricity, and heat -- it was super relaxing and just a short walk down to the beach. Here was a little flower we saw on one of our treks (out of order)...

Curt posing in front of the sign where we stayed... we would highly recommend it! There are awesome cabins too (but a tad more expensive).

The long drive up to the enterance...

Walking along the beach... it was a misty and refreshing morning -- so nice to escape the 100 degree heat of the desert!

Happy 5 years! hehe :)

Random picture.... beach that way -->

More beach pics:

The dinning hall and general store at El Capitan -- Meals a little over-priced and greasy, but still very fun -- all part of the experience! :)

The pool overlooking the ocean we mercifully had to ourselves a couple different times:

A grape shot:

Me and the tent:

More grapes! (out of order... GRRRrrrr).

Curt made dinner reservations Sat. night at a FABULOUS place called Bouchon in downtown Santa Barbara -- it was AMAZING. They specialize in fresh, seasonal, organic foods. You know the meal is going to be good when the bread and butter before you even begin your meal is out of this world! The rest of the food and wine did NOT disappoint. My salad below -- pear, nut, and goat-cheese with a vinaigrette and caramelized onions... Mmmmmm...

Curt said his heirloom tomato salad was the best thing he has EVER eaten. It was soooo good. The pictures don't do it justice either; we didn't want to be "those" patrons with the flash going off every few minutes on our camera in a nice restaurant. hehe.

Sharing our YUMMY dessert -- lemon ice-cream with a blueberry cake and fresh berries. Mmmmm... Loved every bite!

Snapped a quick pic outside... Thanks for the AmAziNg food Bouchon!

One last pic of the tent -- an inside shot! Fun fun... (but also out of order). :)

Fabulous weekend! Great way to celebrate 5 years!

Will update again soon with pics of our new place (we are renting a house... yippppeeeee!) and maybe some pics of my classroom!

All for now....

The Last Days of Summer....

So the last week has brought with it some big changes in the Stephan California household! I was officially offered a job this past Thursday.....Yaaaayyyy!!! I got the call while teaching my 6th graders during my long term sub job... the district sent a sub in later that morning, and I had 1/2 of Thursday and Friday to fill out paper work, clean my new classroom, set it up (as much as I could), and prepare materials for the little first grade kiddos on Tuesday morning! WheW! It was a long and semi-stressful Friday -- but my fellow first grade teachers were unbelievably helpful, and made me feel sooo much better by the time I left Friday evening. More updates to come on this however... and pictures, but for now, I have got to finish up this summer!! So let's head to Bend, my parent's new home (still crazy to think about!)..... Here's a great shot of Mt. Hood on our way down from Portland, where we spent the weekend before at my brothers' homes:

Let me tell you, we sure didn't waste any time getting straight to work helping my parents paint their new house! We were so excited to help start making it more of a home by getting some color on the walls and some decorative items unpacked.... Here's Curt getting ready to roll:

Here's mom hanging out in the great room, with the dining room behind her. All the big windows in the house are just gorgeous, and let in tons of natural light, which I love! Notice how everything is stark white and moved into the middle of the rooms..... Lot's to do, but I love a blank slate!

Already paint on the walls is making a HUGE difference... getting above the cabinets was a little tricky, as demonstrated in the photo below, but never-the-less, the warm yellow tone popped the rich color of the cabinets and wood flooring right out.

Hideous shot, but thought I would include documentation of my holding a paint brush as well. I served in the prepping (aka: taping) and edging department (aka: standing on my tippy toes trying not to paint the ceiling while my arm is shaking): not my favorite, but I was out on the whole rolling thing!

One of our favorite things about our week in Bend, (besides just being with family which was the best!), were all the incredible rain and thunder storms we got to experience.... They were crazy!! Hail one day, torrents of rain the next (as I try to show below), and incredible lighting too (documented even farther below). Anyway, the bursts of moisture were welcome relief to the heat and super fun to watch. I wish you could see how hard the rain was falling in this shot!

The rain brought out a few little friends too.... including this adorable frog! I went out and tried to hold it, and it promptly relieved itself on me (thanks a lot!). Needless to say, our time together ended before it began.

Here's a shot of the kitchen with the paint all done, including our very favorite color on the left wall, Cocoa Bean.

The great thing about where my parents live is that there are about 3 dog parks right in the area, all just a few short miles apart. Their dogs LOVE it... and my mom is so good at taking them out... usually 2 or 3 times a day for runs or walks. (Mom, I know there is a good chance I'm spelling their names horribly wrong, so sorry!)... But, here's me, Charlie, mom, and Colette:

We went into downtown Bend one night when my dad arrived for a yummy dinner out, and our walk afterwards lent us this incredible sunset shot over the Deschutes River! We just fell in LOVE with Bend.

Here's Curt, me, dad, and mom.... I love this picture with all the soft light in the background.

Here's the entry-way of their house (on the right), and the great room..... things were really starting to come along after the paint got on the walls. We started pulling out decorative items, which was so fun! Did I mention, however, that me, Curt, and mom moved the grand piano and the armoire (featured in the picture below)? Let's just say our limbs were sore for days afterward, and it looked like Curt had taken a box cutter to his forearms!! Poor thing did the brunt of the lifting -- I'm a total weakling.

A look from the great room back into the breakfast room and kitchen. Love it, love it! And there's that beast of a piano we moved. I shuddered to think about moving that thing ever again. Yeeeesh.

So while we were in Portland visiting my brothers and family, Curt snuck down to Eugene for a night to go fishing with his buddy Simon. He caught a huge Steelhead, which he promptly froze so the whole family could be lucky enough to enjoy it together later. The meal Curt made with it was out of this world! For those of you that don't know... Curt loves to cook. And let me just say, he is darn good at it.... as I tried to showcase in the picture below. I can only take credit for the salad... the fish, potato salad, and asparagus were all his, and packed with a flavor punch! MMmmmm.....

Here's Chris, Karen, Curt, my dad, mom, and I at the table ready for the fish-feast:

There was another gorgeous sunset that night... after another torrential rain storm. Love, love, love the rainy stormy afternoon's and evenings.

Hi brother!!

Karen, me, and mom..... the sun was so stinkin' bright that we all appear really peeved about something in this picture... like the blinding, scorching sun.

Me and Charlie having some bonding time, although, don't I look more excited than she does?

Colette and Charlie hanging out.... They are so cute! And let me tell you, the fact that they don't shed a hair is pretty cool.

As a final parting shot, the last night we were at my parent's house there was a WickEd thunder and lighting storm. Curt took the digital camera outside, and after taking a hundred or more pictures, was please to find he captured this awesome lighting pic!

We miss you family! Can't wait to get back up to Oregon and Washington to visit! Love you guys, and mom and dad... LOVE the new place! We are super excited to explore much more of Bend and the surrounding countryside. Until next time....