DIY husband

The day we brought Daisy home, Tim was so excited. I sent him to the pet store on the way home from work to pick up some things we needed for her. He came back with a rope toy (seen below next to the dog who has chosen to use a piece of plywood as a pillow) #crazypup

Yeah, that doesn't really look like the kind of rope toy you can buy in the pet store, does it? 

Nope! My sweet husband has the same disease as I do.

Why pay 12 bucks for a rope toy when rope is 2 bucks at the hardware store?

Love that man.

And let me tell you, Daisy sure doesn't care that we're cheap!

sneek peek

Just a little look at something I'm cooking up over here at Brittany's Joy. Big announcement coming Thursday!

i love you, and long walks on the beach

Happy Monday! It's been while since I've written in this little corner of the internet; what can I say, life's been full!

Tim came back from a week-long business trip that hit both Alabama and New York on Thursday night, and Amy's three-weeks with us ended on Friday. So, this weekend was one of recovery, as you can well imagine.

We spent the majority of the time at the beach, as you do.

Saturday we drove to our favorite beach in Carpinteria, a town a little south of us (Which btw is a town we would LOVE to live in someday!). An hour or two in the sand was exactly what the Dr. ordered.

Daisy recovering from her hours of running in circles in the sand; Tim coiling her 50 ft lead. With so many distractions at the beach, we don't take any chances! 

Afterwards, we cooled off at Island Brewing Company just a few blocks from the beach. 

 We had some friends over for dinner and a puppy playdate, which was the best way to end an awesome day!

Sunday, we went for another long walk on the beach. This time, we went to Thousand Steps beach (a misnomer; there's only about 40 steps down).

The weather was chilly and the tide was really high, but the beach was deserted and it was absolutely beautiful.

Normally, when we go to the beach we run Daisy on a 50 foot leash (see top picture), or we'll go somewhere fully fenced in like a schoolyard or dog park. However, we would never be able to train her unless we gave her a chance, and at a beach like Thousand Steps, really where can she go? So, we let her run out in the "open" for the very first time since adopting her, and she did really well! 

 

There were a few times she would just run full-tilt down the beach, but she would always check back in with us. Score! The high tide helped us out a lot too--she'll go in the water only when she can't avoid it, so the high-breaking waves kept her from getting to far ahead of us.

She just loved to go exploring! It was really entertaining, and nerve-wracking of course occasionally when we'd turn the corner and she'd be halfway up a sheer rock-face, jumping around like a dumb little billy goat. Most of the time, though, she stuck close.

We walked down as far as the tide would let us, then tried to get our hopeless dog to play with the ball and frisbee we'd toted with us all the way down the beach. It was to no avail; she'd rather just run in circles around us or sniff kelp. Her loss.

Sunday evening involved going to church and then unwinding watching an old movie. Happy weekend!!

winefest

This weekend was the 10th annual California wine festival in Santa Barbara. A 3-day event centered on wine? Sign me up!

Okay actually don't; we couldn't afford the whole thing, so we picked just one of the events. So, Saturday, we walked down to the park for a four-hour beachside wine and appetizer tasting.

And it was awesome.

Hundreds of wineries, dozens of food vendors, and even a handful of breweries too! Of course, the majority on the food vendors were serving cheese, olive oil/vinegars, or ceviche for some reason. It was sponsored by a bunch of seafood restaurants , and maybe that was the easiest thing to make for a gigantic crowd of winos...?

Still, though. Ceviche is delicious and I had no problem with that. The oyster shooters, though? Probably not the best choice.

 

But anyway.  We got there about a half hour into it and people were already hammered. So that pretty much set the time for the afternoon...

Tim, fantastic job on the awesome date day!

temporary but awesome

Happy Monday! It's been an awesome week, topped by an equally fantastic weekend.

Why, you ask? 

Because this lovely lady has been staying with us all week! 

Her name is Amy. She was my college roommate, my maid-of-honor, and my bestie. And I love her.

Even better? This is just week 1 of her 3 week PT internship in Santa Barbara. 

{this girl's going places}

WHOO HOO!!!

Fourth of July

Hi all! It's been awhile, and yes I do know that it's almost the next weekend but I wanted to do a quickish recap of last weekend. I was going through some photos on my phone from the Fourth of July and just had to share them. It was such a fantastic time!

We spent the Fourth and following weekend with my parents in the Bay Area.

Thursday (the ACTUAL fourth of July) began in Alameda. My parents, my brother and his fiance, and Tim, Daisy, and I loaded down the boat and launched in the Alameda Harbor. We explored the San Francisco Bay for awhile before anchoring off the coast of Angel Island (the site of this adventure)

Adri, me, Daisy, Dad, Devon, and Tim in Alameda

Daisy's first boat ride!

Through the Alameda Harbor

The Bay Bridge behind us

Tim loves our girl

Alcatraz

Our first family photo!

Adri and Devon, the few-months-away-from-newlyweds!

 On the way back, the wind picked up and we started getting swamped! Half of the bay ended up in the boat!

 

We called it a day after our salt bath :) That night we enjoyed the sounds of the fireworks (because we couldn't see them) from the firepit my brother had just built in the backyard, roasting s'mores and drinking margaritas.

Adri had to leave early early early that morning, so it was just my brother, parents, and Tim and I (and Spock and Daisy). Friday, we all worked on my parents' kitchen remodel. They're putting up drywall, which is so exciting! It's starting to really look like a room rather than a perpetual hazard zone. Later, Tim, Dad and I went to the driving range to hit some balls.

Saturday, we went up to the Delta with the boat one more time. It had been almost two years since the last time I actually got to do something behind the boat, since whenever we go to the lake there are hundreds of kids trying to tube and there's never time for us "big kids". It was TIME.

Tim out on the wakeboard

My turn. Wheeee!

Daisy did so well on her second boat excursion! She was like an expert, except when she snuck up on the seats. Bad dog! But she was so cute.

The only time she really got stressed out was when I went out of the boat to wakeboard. It was like she was watching a tennis match when I crossed the wake.

It was a FANTASTIC weekend and exactly what all of us needed! What did you do on the Fourth?