We just got back from a really fun trip to the Bay Area! Friday morning at 4:30 our alarm went off. We got up, packed, got ready and were in the road by 5:30am. We drove straight to Monterey and arrived around 1:30pm. We then enjoyed the Monterey Aquarium which has the only Great White Shark in captivity. We took a ton of pictures, though the shark didn't like to hold still so most of our pictures are a bit blurry. Here's the best one we took though.
We thought this sign was just a bit too funny to not take a picture of...There was the same thing over the octopus tank. Apparently visitors are more likely to be obscene in front of a shark and an octopus :)
We watched the sea otters during feeding time. We also watched critters in a big tank being fed, it was pretty cool.
This little critter is called a Sea Dragon. It's a sea horse that looks like a bunch of swimming leaves. He was clearly one of our favorites.
We stayed at the aquarium for a couple of hours and then visited a few of the little shops along the same street. We picked up a ton of salt water taffy, which we enjoyed in the car.
Then we got back in the car and drove another two hours to my sister and brother-in-law's house. We slept on a L shaped couch so Peter and I were head to head. At some point in the night Slippers (one of the cats) jumped on me and scared me half to death and then continued to walk up to my chest and lay down. His purring woke Peter up who then got extremely jealous that I (not a cat person) had a cat on my chest and he (the totally cat person) didn't have one. Slippers stayed with me for awhile and then left. In the morning Peter found Slippers and carried him over to the couch so that he too could have a sleeping cat on him. Abbie and Rafe have also have Wiggles (another cat). He's much more shy than Slippers is and he is quite a bit fatter too. Our pictures didn't turn out well, so Abbie said she would send a couple good pictures of her cats so we can post them and show you her two cats that enjoyed playing with us while we were there.
On Saturday morning Peter and I drove to Fairfield to the Jelly Belly Factory. We went on the factory tour again and then bought a case of Belly Flops as well as a few other specific flavored beans. We went there for the first time a little over two years ago. It was totally worth the drive to go back again. Here's a bean mosaic that of course I really liked.
Outside in the parking lot
Where we parked there was this fun little dog run. I thought it just was too cute.
After that we drove to Muir Woods which is a Redwoods Park. We really enjoyed our time there. Here are a few funny pictures that Peter took.
Then we headed back to Abbie and Rafe's house where my dad, Scott, Norla and the kids had arrived. We enjoyed the evening and then Sunday morning we got ready for the whole reason for our trip up to the Bay Area. Abbie and Rafe were having an open house party. They bought their house recently and were having a big family gathering on Sunday, so we had to go (we took extra time off of work so we could make a mini vacation out of it too). At noon people arrived and we had a great time. Aunts, Uncles and cousins came...it was so much fun to see everyone. Here's Peter and me and my aunt Patty.
And here's the whole gang that attended the party.
Abbie and Rafe have this amazing view out their front windows. Peter and I went to sleep each night looking at the San Francisco and Bay skyline. On a clear day you can see everything. You could easily see the Oakland Bay Bridge and the San Mateo Bridge. This particular day was not very clear. Though on the left side you can see a rainbow.
This is a picture of part of their backyard. The focus is on the Japanese Maple and it's beautiful changing colors. Now something totally unique about their yard is that when you go up to the top of the fence you could see deer passing by. They came out early in the morning and again around 5 or 6 in the evening. We saw 4 different ones. We saw two Bucks and two Does.
Here's a picture from this morning. It's a little Doe.
We had an amazing time!
On the drive home a couple funny things happened. At 4:30 Peter announces that he needs to go to the bathroom. I suggest we pull off the freeway and find the next fast food place. He says he's fine. Not long later he says it again. I suggest the same thing. He refuses. Then we get stuck in stop and go traffic (more stop than go), he complains again. You can all guess what I suggest, but alas the answer is no. The traffic finally lets up and we're moving again. He makes the comment again and again and I sit there biting my lip. Then he complains that his back hurts from driving so much. I make the same comment again adding that while we are stopped we can switch places and I'll drive the rest of the way home. He says no. An hour and 45 minutes goes by and he finally takes an exit. We switched places and I drove the last hour and 15 minutes home.
At an early part in our driving home adventure I looked out the window and pulled a partial blonde moment. "What kind of car has a ja... oh wait never mind I figured it out." Peter-"figured what out." Me-"Oh just figured out the type of the car that's all." Peter-"So what were you going to say?" Me-"What kind of car has a jaguar on the side of it? Was what I was going to say but as soon as I thought of the animal I realized what it was." Just a partial blonde moment.
Peter had made us fresh smoothies right after dinner. We each devoured our glass and he went back for seconds and somehow this happened. He's still wondering how it happened. Not only that but it fell off the counter onto the hard floor and the glass didn't break! There's raspberry smoothie all over the oven, cupboards, floor, his sock and the arm of his shirt and the glass is still in one piece. Hmmmm that one has got me wondering, that's a pretty big drop.
We went and saw The Lion King last night. It was AMAZING! Totally worth it. If we did it again I would totally buy the more expensive tickets to sit up closer. At one point this giant elephant and other animals walk down the aisle and up to the stage....the costumes are all amazing. We were sitting in the balcony and still could see everything, but totally worth the price to sit up closer for this one. At the end they did have birds flying over our heads which was pretty cool too. Definitely go see this if it's in your area.
A few weekends ago we went to The German American Oktoberfest. We went with our friends Greg, Ellen, Ethan, Leina, Derek and Cora. We also met up with Peter's parents, Laurel, Chris and his kids and another little girl that was Camille's age. Chris had four little girls to watch over, so we found them at one point and went out on the dance floor. Camille and her friend twirled in circles. Claire danced with David and Ellie was tired so she stayed in her daddy's arms. Laurel and Diana checked out the little booths that were filled with all sorts of stuff. Cora got a flowery head band from one of the booths. She was adorable wearing it.
This is where Claire kept trying to take David's hat, so he put it on her head and she decided to give it right back. They were playing the famous hat game.
At one point the musicians left the stage so we thought they were switching people or taking a break and then all of a sudden the trumpet player stands on the table next to us and starts playing. Shortly there after the tuba guy comes over and plays with him. It was pretty cool. It's not every day you see a grown man standing on top of a table where people are eating.
Here's Greg, Ellen and Ethan having a great time at the Oktoberfest.
Right before we left we picked up these yummy treats to share. We all stood around snacking from the load we picked out. My favorite was the fruit tart. Peter liked the chocolate cake with cherry filling. They were all very good.
After ward we went to Peter's parents' house and looked at photo albums. They had pictures of Derek wearing a Polish dance costume and makeup. We had to show him the black mail we have on him. :)
We thought this sign was just a bit too funny to not take a picture of...There was the same thing over the octopus tank. Apparently visitors are more likely to be obscene in front of a shark and an octopus :)
We watched the sea otters during feeding time. We also watched critters in a big tank being fed, it was pretty cool.
This little critter is called a Sea Dragon. It's a sea horse that looks like a bunch of swimming leaves. He was clearly one of our favorites.
We stayed at the aquarium for a couple of hours and then visited a few of the little shops along the same street. We picked up a ton of salt water taffy, which we enjoyed in the car.
Where we parked there was this fun little dog run. I thought it just was too cute.
Then we headed back to Abbie and Rafe's house where my dad, Scott, Norla and the kids had arrived. We enjoyed the evening and then Sunday morning we got ready for the whole reason for our trip up to the Bay Area. Abbie and Rafe were having an open house party. They bought their house recently and were having a big family gathering on Sunday, so we had to go (we took extra time off of work so we could make a mini vacation out of it too). At noon people arrived and we had a great time. Aunts, Uncles and cousins came...it was so much fun to see everyone. Here's Peter and me and my aunt Patty.
And here's the whole gang that attended the party.
Abbie and Rafe have this amazing view out their front windows. Peter and I went to sleep each night looking at the San Francisco and Bay skyline. On a clear day you can see everything. You could easily see the Oakland Bay Bridge and the San Mateo Bridge. This particular day was not very clear. Though on the left side you can see a rainbow.
This is a picture of part of their backyard. The focus is on the Japanese Maple and it's beautiful changing colors. Now something totally unique about their yard is that when you go up to the top of the fence you could see deer passing by. They came out early in the morning and again around 5 or 6 in the evening. We saw 4 different ones. We saw two Bucks and two Does.
Here's a picture from this morning. It's a little Doe.
We had an amazing time!
Wall on left has one coat of plaster, wall on the right has two coats of plaster.
TADA! The bathroom is complete! 
So you want to know if we would recommend venetian plaster to anyone??? Well Peter did all the work and though he has a few blisters...he said, "If you just want a new color, don't bother, but if you want the look, it's worth it." He plans on doing a venetian plaster in our guest bathroom (the one we were originally going to do) next month. He said he learned from this experience a few things he would do differently next time.
As part of my birthday present Peter ordered these cute outfits for me online. Every time we went to a build a bear workshop they never had these, but we found them online once and thought that would be a fun gift for Peter's dad as he is so into German folk dancing and such. After more consideration we decided it wouldn't be a great gift for him, but we really thought we needed it for my collection. The topic was dropped awhile ago. Then on my birthday Peter said he ordered something for me but it didn't arrive on time so he would probably save it for Christmas. After all he did say it was probably something more that we would both like than just me. I was a bit curious, but was fine with waiting until Christmas. Then last week we were looking at our credit card bill and I asked what he bought at build a bear. He was like, "ah man you weren't supposed to see that." The funny thing about it all is he can't hide gifts from me well so I figured I would find out before Christmas anyway. So back to the story...I am now trying to figure out what he could've bought at build a bear and then it hits me. "Did you buy the folk dance bear?" His response (he runs upstairs, comes back with the package) "uh well Happy Birthday." He pulls out the two outfits and aren't they adorable? I ran upstairs and found two naked bears and clothed them. They've been sitting on our couch for awhile. 
How do the guys on HGTV do this? Peter wants to paint...he thinks starting with our downstairs guest bathroom will be first. Here are the paint samples that we picked up, what do you think?
The above samples are from Frazee, the ones below are from Behr.
These are the Venetian Plaster and Bellagio Faux samples. We're seriously thinking about trying a Venetian plaster in a neutral color...but we're keeping our options open.
So what do you think?
We got cleaned up and then headed to Sea World. Peter's company was having a company day at Sea World. We got into the park for $17 each and also each received a $15 voucher good for food or merchandise throughout the park. At 6pm the park closed, but everyone wearing a special tag got to stay until midnight. There were a ton of people there! Peter had no idea the company was that big. (Many people came from Utah too.)
We managed to walk next to each animal during feeding time. I don't know how we managed to do that, but every place we stopped was feeding time. The otters we saw first. They were super cute. They were playing with balls that were stuck in ice. One kept trying to crack the ice to get the ball out. Ice was flying everywhere. We also saw the bat rays. The dolphins were also playing with balls, hitting them with the tip of their nose and sending them flying into the air. There was also a log type of thing that they kept rolling on top of. Next we saw the turtles...the baby ones were being fed. There were a couple big ones sleeping and a couple of big ones swimming, but they were separated from the babies.
We fed some ducks with the pellets that were left on the duck food table. It was like checking to see if all the candy was dispensed....and guess what?! Someone left some food behind so we picked it up and fed the ducks. Saved us 50 cents from buying our own, though I did offer it to Peter. We all know how much he loves the ducks. The seals and sea lions were also being fed. We had to laugh at the fish vendor sign...in case you can't do math they spell it out for you: "1 tray-$6.00, 2 trays-$12.00, 3 trays-$18.00, 4 trays- $24.00, and 5 trays- $30.00"
We also touched sea stars and nearly got attacked by one giant one. Peter got his picture taken with a "I'm getting attacked by a giant star" face on, but it came out blurry. Many of our other pictures came out blurry too. We met up with Greg, Ellen and Ethan and had dinner followed by the Shamu show. Before the Shamu show Greg and Peter had fun putting coins in the water cannons and squirting the rafts as people came by on the Shipwreck Rapids ride. It was a chilly time of the day, so the people on the ride were just plain crazy. They were drenched when the guys were done with them. At one point Greg put the quarter in and told Peter when to push the button. The people got soaked and all looked back to where Peter was pointing at Greg. It was funny. Another time Greg waited for a raft to come close and then he slammed down on the cannon button. He hadn't put any coins in, the people on the raft were like "Oh no...followed by oh." That was hilarious!
As we were leaving the park we saw this advertisement for the Wild Animal Park. It was too funny to pass up.
Oh yes, we also upgraded our passes and got silver passports to Sea World for $49 each instead of the usual $89 each. So now we have year passes to Sea World, Zoo and The Wild Animal Park. We haven't gone to the wild animal park yet...so that will be another adventure. When they were printing out our passes I started laughing...then realized which pass had my name on it. One pass had dolphins on it, the other had sesame street on it. I got the sesame street pass. What a bummer!
