when kylee comes to play

There is no greater joy than being with the ones you love most.  My heart was overflowing this past week because my beautiful friend, Kylee, came in town again!  You can read all about our adventures this last time she was in town here, here, and here.  I love that her job is based here in San Diego so I get to see her every couple of months.  Although she was in town for a week we both had pretty busy schedules so we squeezed in as many of our favorites as we could.  

First stop was our absolute favorite restaurant, Cucina Urbana.  If you live in San Diego and love food-you have to eat here!  Your mouth and your tummy will thank you.  On the menu was a cheese and board, a gorgonzola mouse vasi with roasted pears, and a pear and arugula salad.  (We LOVE cheese!)

Our last day together we continued on with our tradition of eating breakfast at Claire's on Cedros.  It really doesn't get much better than this: best friends, husband, delicious food, and an abundant heart.  

After breakfast we headed down to Seaport Village.  This is a treasure.  As I'm writing this I just can't get over how lucky we are to live in this beautiful city and see the beauty everywhere.  The weather could not have been better and the skies were so clear for most of the day.  

Our last stop for the day was to a little wine bar downtown to enjoy, you guessed it, cheese!

It may seem like all we do is eat, especially cheese, but we just had to soak up our favorite places to eat at in such a short amount of time.  Festivities that weren't chronicled were:

watching "Elf" 

quoting "Elf" lines over email all week

making dinner together

staying cozy in our PJ's at 7pm at night

planning our trip up to Reno to visit them

laughing over "Whitney" together

sharing a pot of coffee

laughing until our bellies hurt

{thankful vol. 19} date night re-do

This year for our anniversary we wanted to keep it low-key and just cherish a fun evening out since we don't get to do that often anymore.  Plus, we are planning some trips next month and are busy trying to save for those :)

Last Saturday night we had a plan: dinner at a beautiful restaurant on the beach, cupcakes, then a comedy show. We got all gussied up....heading out to dinner...and then a change of events happened. 

After dinner we both started feeling awful, so as we drove to our next destination we decided to end the night early.  I was feeling super nauseous, Daniel wasn't feeling that great either, and we knew we wouldn't enjoy the festivities planned.  We deemed that the following weekend would be an anniversary "re-do".

So to make the day special I started with baking the husband's favorite cookies.

And then I made a "manly" dinner.  This means steak with caramelized onions, green beans, and twice baked potatoes.  

The husband was completely surprised with dinner since I hardly ever make red meat.  I have to admit that I was pretty proud of myself for making the steak and it tasting mighty delicious.  The only epic failure of the night was the potatoes, which just wouldn't cook, but we were entirely too full to enjoy them so it wasn't that bad after all.  

After our romantic dinner at home we headed to The Comedy Store in La Jolla.  We had never been and were super excited to try something new.  

Oh. My. Goodness.  This will definitely be another date night activity!  We were laughing so hard that our cheeks hurt.  

See: still so happy after!

Then we strolled down the pathways of beautiful downtown La Jolla.  I was in LOVE with the lights that were already up!

And my new coat that was a killer deal! 

Daniel couldn't resist stopping into a little cafe to snag a slice of his favorite: carrot cake.  

It was the perfect evening to celebrate our beautiful marriage and three years of wedded bliss!

sweet sunday

This week flew by!  I still can't believe that it is Sunday and that October is here.  It is as if I have blinked and the last four weeks have already come and gone.  I know that I have been lagging on my "sweet sunday" posts, but blogging has been last on my priority list lately and my posts come sporadically.  

So this sweet sunday is going to cover the past two weeks and some wonderful things that have brought me happiness.

Happiness is....

1. This little ray of sunshine: Lindsay!!!!  Last Saturday she was the birthday girl and it was so much fun getting together to celebrate her.  She is seriously one of the most joyful people ever and, as teachers, we have lots of stories to share.  

2. Going out to dinner!!!  We used our "exception" for my spending freeze and enjoyed mexican food. Oh, YUMMY!  And...I got to see miss Mandy! It was like a wedding reunion!  I love this group because my belly always hurts from laughing so hard with them.  My highlight of the night was Lindsay crying out "Truck, truck" as we scoured the parking lot for her truck.  

3. Blowing out birthday candles.  Memories with friends are irreplaceable! 

4. Guess who's here?!?!?! KYLEE!!!!  Kylee= happiness in my life.  

5. We celebrated her return to San Diego with dinner Kensington Grill.  It was my first time and, holy smokes, was it amazing.  We were stuffed and needed to be rolled out after.  

6. Spending time talking to a one of a kind friend is the best happiness.  I don't think I can thank God enough for all of my amazing friends.  They truly help keep life in perspective, they keep me grounded, and most of all they love me for who I am.  

7. Going to my favorite breakfast spot this morning!!!!  Breakfast was spent with my two fav people: Ky and the husband.  

I know I always share 7 thing that bring me happiness, but #8 and #9 warm my heart:

8. Having not one, not two, but three kidos hang on my leg after school saying "I don't want to go home, let's just stay at school all day".  These moments don't happen often (I promise!), so I cherish them when they happen.

9. The spending freeze is over and I may have celebrated with a little bit of shopping today, but it was definitely hard pulling out that plastic card and hanging it over.  Seriously, as I perused through clothing racks I just kept asking myself "Do I really need this????".  Then, the husband called and told me to go buy a new pair of jeans.  These were his words, "Find a pair that make you feel good and remind you how beautiful you are."  

How did I get so lucky?????