Summer Recap & Back in Chi-town!

Hello everyone. It's been a while since my last post. This summer was a hectic one with both me and Michelle working and living out in California for the summer. I decided to try a new format and play around with a new tool I found online called ANIMOTO. Since I'm frugal (cheap) I'm utilizing their free feature which only allows you to do 30 second clips. So, I've gone ahead and created 2 of them, but I think it's a cool way to highlight our summer. So, enjoy.






Also, I'm adding some bonus coverage of some pictures I was able to take coming back to Chicago. The plane flew right over the city so I was able to capture some pretty cool views. I even got one of Wrigley field from above.




Anyways, we're both back in Chicago and getting back into the full swing of school and all that fun stuff. Lots more excitement to come! Stay tuned...

what's on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge?

Good question. Most people just walk a quarter way down the bridge, get their hair blown in the wind, take a few pictures, go to the tourist store, and call it a day.

WELL, there is civilization on the other side - Sausalito! As a kid, I used to go there to eat ice cream. Not sure why, that was just the thing to do.

To celebrate our 2nd anniversary, we revisited Sausalito where we spent our first few days after our wedding.

But first we stopped in the marina district of san francisco...













The fog you drive through on the golden gate...




View of san francisco from sausalito, still covered in morning fog...





The Inn by the Sea, on the right, has balconies directly over the water. That's where we stayed 2 yrs ago!













We went back to the same place for dinner.

A refreshing weekend to end my time in california.

summertime summertime

It's been nice to take a breather this summer, especially to celebrate some birthdays!

My high school friend, Kazu...

We went to a spanish tapas restaurant, and yes, that rice was jet black...

My favorite though was my parents' birthday. We decided to surprise them by flying my middle sister, Grace, home from LA and suprising my parents with a whole family dinner. For a few seconds, my mom didn't even recognize Grace. It was awesome...

We went to this steakhouse (see my dad's happy face), and they put my parents' names on the menu in celebration of their birthdays!

another 50 to go...

2 jobs
2 moves
2 grad schools
and O net value in our name later,
we're still married.

It's been a fabulous 2 yrs!

santa barbara

Happy summer! We're finally both settled here in california, and have adjusted to the work life again. For the 4th of july, we took the 4 hr trek down to Santa Barbara to visit our good friends Jesse and Kerry. We haven't seen these cool cats since they got married two yrs ago, and they showed us a good time!

Watched fireworks at the park...

How cool is it to live in a beach town all year round?

They had this parking fee system that I've never seen before. You shove cash into these little slots that coincide with your parking spot.

Here's Jesse demonstrating for us...

After a fun day at the beach (ask the Smalls about our v-ball game), Jesse and Kerry took us to have wine and cheese right on the pier. What a view!

It was hard to capture on camera, but we enjoyed some awesome scenery on our drive home...