Bullseye

Happy NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year from Santa Barbara. It's hard to believe we are into yet another year. Twenty ten. Sounds weird. Two thousand ten. Even weirder yet. New years resolution: keep my blog more current... Hope you all have a great one! See you next year.

The mighty Rio Grande

We made it back to Nuevo Mexico for Christmas this year. It was great to be back on our old stomping grounds and see all the family. Good times. Great oldies. Here we are flying into albuquerque.

Jeans

Gotta love the flea market in Albuquerque

Robert's Dam

Here is where Elisa and I used to hang out in high school. Took the kids here for a little photo shoot with the lovely sandia mountains in the back.

Team Ice Skate

"Thing-ah"

The "thing-ah" that helped Ashlyn learn to ice skate. What a contraption.

Roxanne & Snickers

Roxanne and Cassidy spent a month in Albuquerque this summer where they attended horse camp. Nana got them one lesson at Christmas so they could show off their skills to the rest of us.

SNOW!

We did manage to make a snowman with the few inches that fell last week. Nana, from Montana, pulled out all the snowman tricks. The kids had a blast and decided to name him HARDY. Kelly and I immediately coined "Hardy the Party Snowman" which led to some heavy drinking...(see below). Kids and Nana not too happy with the alcoholic snowman.

Hardy had one too many

Dirt Angel

Ashlyn was dying to get outside to make snow angels all over the yard.

Calumet, Las Vegas NM

This has been posted a few times on my blog before, but there has been an update to the Calumet girl...the garages have been painted blue!

Painted Church, Las Vegas, NM

Project Runway Christmas Challenge

My mom had a little project runway christmas challenge for us after all the gifts were opened. 2 teams consisting of 1 model (kid) and 2 adults. We had to create a get-up for the model with the left-over wrapping materials. Lester and I dressed Roxanne (left) and took away the gold. Tim Gunn would be proud.

Meltdown

Here are a series of pictures from one of many meltdowns that comes with having 4 kids...

Ashlyn Jo took a liking to Jackson's life-like dino robot.

Tooth Fairy

Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy had a busy night on Christmas Eve. Kelly pulled Jackson's loosey goose tooth just in time...

Barber Shop, Santa Barbara

Signage + Arrows LAX

Jason & Annie

Jason and Annie made the trip out to San Roque bed n breakfast a few weeks ago (takes me ages to update my blog these days). Great to see our old pals and show them a taste of life in paradise.

From the courthouse tower, Santa Barbara

Javier learning the ins and outs of Jason's killer camera...

Beach Picnic

More Shoestring...

...our favorite local wine.

Pic by Jason

Mr. October

Jason prepping for his model shoot...

Hendry's Beach

Portland!!

It's been way too long since I've been back to pdx. It's pretty much the greatest place ever. Here are some shots from my plane ride (gotta love that iphone camera).

Better than portland, is my circle of friends up there. Anna had a really bad bike accident earlier this summer and is lucky to be alive. After many days in the ICU and crazy back surgery (makes me cringe everytime I think of it) she is on her way to a healthy recovery. It was great to spend lazy days in the northwest with mikey and anna and their crazy russian dogs! I also got to spend some time with em and carson and their darling little girl eleanor AND got to meet Liz and Darryl's new little one - Owen. Cutie patootie.

Apple Festival

Went apple/pear tasting at the Portland Apple Festival. Good eats!

Portland Horse Project

http://www.horseproject.net/sepdx.htm

Owen

Eleanor

Portland Eye Candy

Chortek aka Snortek

Chortek means "little devil" in Russian. Chortek is Part I of dog duo boston terriers, Leshnee is Part II. Anna and mikey give all dog commands in russian. It is a site to see. Come on anna and mikey! Get the dog whisperer on this, I'm sure he teaches english as a second language to pooches.

Tuffins McMuffins

Tuffins, Dale's new cat, is a tuff little kitty and doesn't put up at all with anna & mikey's boston terriers.

Abundance

We are spoiled year-round with farmers' markets here in southern california. In Santa Barbara, there is a market EVERY day except Monday. Doesn't this picture say it all? Abundance. This needs to be a still life in an art class somewhere.

Virgi and Bob

Javier's parents Virgi and Bob came out for their first Santa Barbara visit. It was great seeing them and exploring more of Santa Barbara...

south facing SB

Santa Barbara is south facing...hence the compass on the pier. Confusing to say the least when we first moved here. the sun does not set over the ocean...

Stearns Wharf

Santa Barbara Train Station

My dad came out to help with more painting and to see the yankees beat the angels. We took the train from santa barbara down to anaheim. Nice little ride.

Surfliner

DIY Nachos

Say it isn't so! What has happened to america's greatest past time? Paid an arm and a leg for these "nachos". Hopefully this is just a california thing and that other ballparks are still keepin' it real.

one of our many "pet" spiders here at animal kingdom

dotty and the neighbor kid

here is our next door neighbor sporting his friendly chicken, dotty.

Plow to Porch

Our delicious weekly delivery of fresh fruits and veggies.

Charming little winery - Alma Rosa

Ben and Amanda came up this weekend for a visit that ended far too soon. We headed to the hills for wine country, and a perfect, lazy afternoon. There is so much variety in the landscape around here, from farm land to what seems like new mexico desert at times, and all the while only a stones throw from the mighty pacific. Gotta love it. We are some lucky kids.

hip hip hooray for shoestring syrah.

Shoestring...Our new wine club.

the Mission

Spent some quality tourist time this weekend with Ben and Amanda, starting at the Mission.

Little Friar Amanda

Friar Javier

Friar Benjamin

Visitors Round 2

Visitors round 2. Our pals albert and abbie came out from Minnesota for a little california vacay. It was great to see them and show them around paradise. We also got to meet their awesome friends Randy and Jamie who we hope to hang out with again soon. (Love that shirt-around-the-shoulder look albert...esp. the shirt)

Abbie & Jamie

Nothing like a day of lounging at the beach to celebrate the big 32!

Project Fence

Rob Sabin was one of our first visitors at 30 San Roque. He jumpstarted our fence project and dug post holes with Javier all weekend, poured concrete, went on multiple home depot runs and still managed to have some good fun with us. Thanks for all your help rob. Our dog, tortoise, panda bear or whatever creature we may end up with, thanks you too! What a great little fence.

Working hard...

Nice Goggles Professor

Viva la fiesta!

We have been enjoying old spanish days here in santa barbara all week. Carnivals, dancing, mariachi, and bright colors EVERYWHERE.

Confetti Eggs

The little kiddos sell these confetti eggs that are so much fun. You smash them on your friends' heads and confetti goes everywhere. There is colored confetti and glitter blanketing the streets and sidewalks of santa barbara.

dance, dance, dance

Palm Springs

Headed east for the heat this weekend. Too bad the A/C in our car didn't work. We could have used some protection from the 113 degree days. Holy Hot. Spent most of the day lounging in the pool and going on some great self-guided photo tours. I do love the desert & dry heat. It felt so good to get away from this beach gloom. Jav, on the other hand could do without the scorching sun. But he was a trooper and embraced the rays anyway.

Ace Hotel

The Parker Hotel

Korakia

This is where we stayed on our mini-vacay in Palm Springs.

Korakia Movie Theatre

Korakia shows old flics every night outside on this white wall. Great way to end a hot hot day.

Kaufmann House

Below are some pics of some other great mid-century moderns we scoped while cruising the hoods of Palm Springs.

Seriously?

"Leave town brown" bus. What a riot. I think it would be impossible not to leave this town brown with temperatures in the 113s. Spray tan bus head north to my pals in portland!

BBQ Black Tie Optional

These past two weeks have been a flurry of madness preparing for the big move north. Lucky for us, we have fantastic friends and neighbors who have been throwing us farewell celebrations left and right. This past weekend we had a little shindig at the Orange Tree Compound where we live. Much like Melrose Place, but with less drama, our little cottages are occupied by some of the coolest folks around. Lindsey, who has been instrumental in getting pica press organized and in tip, top shape, threw us a party at the compound last weekend. Bbq, bubbles, flip cup, beer pong, polaroids and breakdancing galore. Best of all, two nights earlier at jav's chemistry going away party, Ben Hafensteiner was telling tall tales of how he still fits into his "high school" tux. I paid him $3 that night to wear it to the compound party. Low and behold, Hafensteiner made his grand entrance to our bbq sporting his tuxedo (which we were told by amanda was really purchased in his college years), with a bow tie, tied by the man himself. It's nice to know there are still people you can count on. It's promising to think what $3 can get you in this economy! What is everybody complaining about? Javier and Ryan followed suit (no pun intended) and stepped it up...Ryan in his Seersucker Suit and Javier in Ryan's suit jacket. Good laughs, great weekend.

The Suits

Martin, Ryan & Ben

Hostess with the Mostess...

Nice Minnesota girl pushing the Gin Jello shots...

tasty treats

flip cup anyone?

Amanda & Pinky

Lovely neighbors Terry & Leah

Bolsa Chica

Woke up bright and early last thursday and packed my camera for a little surf outing. Jav, Ben & Martin did a little surf city, and I combed the beach for some photo ops. June gloom is in full force and will hopefully be gone with July just on the horizon. I'm starting to feel like I'm living in the northwest again. At any rate, I found some "specimens" at the beach and got to watch the surfer dudes tear it up...good times.