Currently Loving!

There are lots and lots of things that I am currently loving right now!

*Juicing! I am been introduced to a little thing called juicing and I am hooked! I am not a girl who likes to just munch on a cucumber or cook kale for dinner, but if you juice it, i'll drink it! They are pretty tasty and I feel super healthy when I'm doing it! There is this really cool place downtown Santa Barbara called Juice Ranch. They have fresh, raw, organic pressed juice in tons of combinations. My fav so far is the Greens and Ginger. It has kale, celery, romaine, cucumber, spinach, parsley, apple, ginger, and lemon. They come in these really neat glass bottle and when you return the bottle, they give you a discount on your next bottle. I would like to get a juicer to do this at home, but lets be honest, I bet they do it better!

Greens and Ginger

*Barbara Oneal. I just finished a book by Barbara Oneal, The All you and Dream Buffet. Its about 4 bloggers that meet through their blogs and decide to meet in person for a party at a Lavender Farm. She is such a descriptive writer that you can almost smell the lavender and taste the fresh coffee they brew. This is her latest that came out in March, but I have read all of her books. Another favorite of mine is called The Garden of Happy Endings. A common theme in all of them is that there is always a dog, they are located in the midwest, and they are constantly baking and cooking good foods! Also, if you know me, the im a sucker for a cute book cover!

*Fresh Flowers. California, especially the central cost area is known for its flowers. Locally grown flowers on street corners downtown and at the market are abundant and beautiful! I try to keep a bouquet in the house at all times because it just brightens my day and smells amazing! There are usually fields of flowers growing by my house and I hope to snap some pictures soon! Thats another plus about living here in California, I feel its spring year round! 

This picture is my inspiration for my next trip to the flower shop!

*Homemade margarita pizza. I have been making homemade pizza crust, homemade pizza sauce and adding fresh mozzarella and basil to this delicious dish. I use my kitchen aid stand mixer to make the crust then par bake that before adding my toppings. Unfortunately I have not found a good take out pizza here in CA yet. So for now, its homemade for us!

YUM!!

*Wine and Candles. Now I will burn candles and drink wine till the cows come home! Im kinda picky about my candles but Bath and Body works of for sure my favorite! They actually add more fragrance oils to their candles then Yankee candle does. That means but it burns the smell is more potent and lasts longer. They have warm and cozy candles in the fall but in the spring the candles are like walking into a garden!! Im currently burning Lilac in one room and Honeysuckle in another. I recently bought a candle called Snap Peas, which is surprisingly nice! It has less of a floral scent and more of a grass smell...does that make sense? Anyway, its very spring/summery! 

As picky as I am about candles, I am not picky about wine. I haven't met a wine I didn't like, but I LOVE this one! I picked a few bottles up at Trader Joes and this one had a cute label and the price was right. They had a red and white and both are superb! 

That is my lavender plant in the background. Its pretty fantastic.

How cute is this bottle!?

*MILLIE! Lastly, i'm currently/always loving this sweet face!

Millie says good night!

                                                                                                                                         -Kels

Kansas comes to Cali

Living in California has its perks, one of which is that people love to come visit! In February, my dad bought my mom a ticket to come see me!  He got a great price on a ticket from Kansas City to Santa Barbara, and it was quite a pleasant change to go from a snow storm in Kansas to blooming roses in California. I picked her up at the airport and we headed to Monticito for a mani/pedi at Shine Blow Dry Bar. We picked out a pretty pink and they got to work! We were given a cupcake and glass of champagne to top off our experience there!

After  that we headed home and made some homemade pizza  and snuggled with Millie. The next day we had reservations for a tour of a winery in Solvang. Rideau Winery is a vinyard that offers tours and tastings year round. Its a beautiful estate, unfortunatly in Febuary the flowers were not in bloom. The tour was still very interesting and the wine was tasty!

This tasting was a walking tour, so you would get a glass at each little destination and at the end they had you sit and try a few more with little snacks to pair with the wine. Mom isn't a big wine drinker but I think she enjoyed it! We spent the next couple of days hitting up the farmers market, cooking delicious food, and just enjoying the weather!

I got lucky again in March when my brother and his fiance came to town! She had a friend who was getting married in Santa Barbara so they flew out for that and then hung out with us for the next few days. I picked them up and we headed to the Harbor for some dinner on the dock overlooking the boats. We indulged in calamari, wine, and great conversation! They filled me in on all the wedding plans while we were soaking up the sun! 

Miss Caitlin and I at the Harbor

I only had one other day off while they were here so we decided to go to a wine tasting. Do you see a pattern here? :) This particular vineyard we stopped at was Roblar Winery. It was GORGEOUS! We did our tasting outside where the wisteria was in full bloom and smelled like heaven! The santa ynez valley has such a country feel that we felt right at home!

This is a part of the outside area at Roblar Winery. I want to live here!!

We finished off the day with dinner in Los Olivos at the Cafe and Wine Merchant. We sat outside under the pergola and drank more wine!! It was so great to have them here and I cant wait for the wedding!

                                                                                                                                      -Kels

Weekend Getaway

Cambria CA 2014

So we have been in California for about 2 months and we are really enjoying it so far! We had a long weekend recently and headed up to Cambria CA. It is this quaint little beach town about 2 hours north of here. We stayed at the Cambria Pines Lodge that is nestled up in mountains a mile or so away from town.  We had our own cottage with two rooms and 3 fire places!

Our little cottage!

After checking in, we headed to the beach and had lunch at the Moonstone Beach Bar and Grill. It was heaven! Wine, fresh clam strips outside overlooking the beach! I had smoked salmon quesadillas and Ry had clam chowder and as previously mentioned, the freshest clam stips ive ever had!

At the grill with my wine! Notice my super cute vest1?1? Im super into vests this year. This outfit was a pinterest inspiration!

After lunch we headed to the San Simeon beach to check out the elephant seals. There were hundreds of them on the beach mating and having babies. It was neat to see them in a natural setting doing their thing. 

Momma and baby elephant seals.

We had dinner at the lodge that included a bottle of wine and filet mignon! I have just recently uncovered my love for a good filet mignon cooked to a nice medium rare! In fact, the next night I also had filet mignon. You just cant beat it! While we are on the subject of good food, let me tell about The Hitching Post. Brad came down to visit for a few days and we took him to The Hitching Post in Casmalia Ca which boasts the best steaks in CA! I literally dreamed about the food that night! I digress.

We took a stroll along the beach, stopped to watch the waives, snap a pic, and feed the squirrels! lol

Beach pic!

This squirrel was defiantly not scared of me! (those are rocks in my hand,  I was tricking him)

Who is that handsome guy!?

The fireplace in the main lodge. They had live music each night and comfy couches to lounge on while sipping on a happy hour drink!

 The next day we did a little shopping downtown, had lunch on the patio at a mexican cafe, and hit up a wine tasting. Dinner was a Linn's Restaurant, home of the Ollalieberry Pie. The Ollalieberry Pie was featured on the Food network show, The Best thing I ever Ate. The ollalieberry is a hybrid fruit,  kinda like a blueberry and raspberry. It was pretty fantastic! After dinner we headed back to our "room" and snuggled in. We left the porch door open and the smell of bonfire would fill the room, we decided it felt like we were glamping! Morning came and we had to head back home. On our way, we opted to stop in Morro Bay for breakfast. Frankie and Lola's is this cute breakfast place on the coast. I had blueberry pancakes that were to die, the blueberries were so fresh! 

All in all, we loved our little getaway! We cant wait to head back up the coast!

Moving to Lompoc

We Moved! Ryan got promoted to Lieutenant at USP Lompoc in California. We found out about a month and a half ago and it has been a complete whirlwind ever since. There is so much involved with a halfway cross country move but the Government has been so great and helpful through out the process. We had to find a home, break our lease, find me a job, pack up the house, drive out here, and try to get settled! We took a week long house hunting trip out to California to try and get the lay of the land and obviously find a house. We ending up finding our place on day and so we basically just hung out by the pool, lounged in the room, and watched the Newlywed Game!

In addition to lounging around, we went to the Wine Ghetto here in Lompoc. Its a community of small wineries that do tastings and educate  about the win they produce. This particular one was specalized in Pinot Noir and the company is called Montemar. They were so welcoming and helpful that we stayed and chatted for hours. They have a lounge area out back with olive trees, fire pits and rustic furniture. When you pair the beautiful weather with the high end meats and cheese they sell to go with the wine, you cant beat it!

I found a great nail salon that I will frequent often! This lovely color is perfect for fall.

We drove up to Pismo Beach while on our little trip.  This beach was perfect for bringing some chairs and a cooler down by the water and just relaxing. 

This is the Lompoc beach we checked out. It is literally 8 minutes from our house! How beautiful is this! 

Our new street! House pictures to come!

So now Millie and I are in a hotel waiting for Ryan to join us. We are going to spend about 2 weeks in a hotel before we can move into the new house, hopefully the quarters are not too cramped!

The one where the cops had to intervene

So at least once a year, my girls come to visit me and we have one heck of a time! This year was no exception, in fact it was one of the craziest! It started with the thought that we wanted to take advantage  of colorado outdoor activities. We had been zip lining, horse back riding, and white water rafting. The only logically thing left was to go kayaking! Of course we have no training, no guide, and no clue what we were getting ourself into. So against Ryan's better advice, we headed out to Canyon City to rent our equipment! When we got there, we of course were not able to load the kayaks onto the car, so we got the company to do it for us!

Here we are taking credit for loading the kayaks on the car and getting pumped up for the adventure!

Miss Alyssa and I unloading the kayaks off the car. Harder than it looks!

Also, getting them in the water was harder than it looks! Miss Sarah was such a good guide!

So after the hard work of getting the kayaks into the water, we were ready to set sail! We were loving the warm weather and mountain views. 

While on the river, 1 mile felt like 5 miles so we really had no idea how far we had gone. After a while, the skies start to get ominous and we were hard pressed to find a way out of the river. We make the decision to pull off to the side of the river, and see if there was a road in sight. There was not. We could not go any farther on the river because of posted signs staying "Danger!" So we climb up the side of the canyon walls, leave our equipment, and walk the trail to find a road. We finally walk far enough and run into a high way and a cop parked on the side of the road. The plan was to ask the cop for a ride back to our car, then I would drive back to the end of the trail, we would carry the kayaks 1 by 1 for about 3 miles to the car. We acknowledge this plan was not the best, but it was the only one we had.  So the cop agreed to take me to the car and then, it started pouring rain. The cop thought he would drive to the other side of the river, to see if there was a way to drive the car right up next to the kayaks and load them up. There was not. But we did encounter some hillbillies that almost got tazed by the cop! As the rain is pouring, the girls forge the river and bring the equipment across to the other side while me and 3 cops hike through barb wire, waist high weeds, and ditches to get to the kayaks. We reach the girls, deflate the kayaks and drag everything back about a mile to the car. We throw the equipment into a cop truck and they drive it back to the rental company. Needless to say, we looked rough! Clothes were muddy, friendships got stronger, and memories were made. 

Summer in November

I am a very bad blogger! I had such a great summer that I didn't even get around to blogging about it! So here in a very consalidated post about a few things I did this summer!

Went to Mile High to see Kenny Chesney! This handsome guy doesn't like country music, but he likes me, so he went!

Ryan, on the other hand really enjoyed the music! Such a great time! Beer and boat music!

My parents came to visit us in Colorado and we took them to a Rockies game! Ryan and I are rocking our rockies gear!

Coors field is so cool

My lovely parents! So glad they were able to to come visit!

Then, we traveled to Vegas, where I drank mimosas from sun up to sun down!

We watched these guys gamble and also said bye to Brad for a while! He is in China now teaching over there as a part of his Masters program!

We love Vegas!

Had dinner with these lovely ladies! We always have such a good time when we get together outside of work! I am so blessed to have met them and established a personal as well as a professional relationship with them!

My Daniel! We went to a Colorado Hockey game this summer. We decided we do not like hockey, but we do like the munchies that come with sporting events!

Fun times!!!

Colorado Camping

I have never been an outdoorsy kinda gal, but throw in a bon fire and some booze, and i'm in! My work  gals and I decided to pack up our tents and sleeping bags and head up to Mueller State Park in Colorado. We reserved three lots up in the mountains and let me tell ya, it was beautiful!

Mueller State Parking! Colorado Camping 2013!

 One of the most exciting parts of the trip was the food that we were going to make! Campfire food is so delicious! Here are a couple recipes we tried.

These tasty treats were a big hit! I took frozen Rhodes Rolls and let them thaw out. After they thawed we wrapped them around a hot dog and stuck it on skewer.

My lovely friend Beth made this dish. She put chopped up potatoes, bacon, spices, and lots of cheese! They were the perfect side! Beth wins the award for best camp cook! In addition to the hot dogs and potatoes, we also indulged in s'mores and beer! You really cant camp with out it!

My tent mate, Kalynn! We have never put a tent up before but by trial and error, we figured it out all by ourselves!
You can see in the background how beautiful the view was.

I am using a rock to hammer in the stakes, super inventive!

We were so proud of our accomplishment! Pretty cozy in there!