the month of may.

early this month i dragged ricks to a performance of cinderella by the sf ballet. it was a lot of fun to head into the city, eat good food, and to check out the civic center part of sf - which we had never done before. the performance was at the war memorial building. we bought the cheapest tickets which were surprisingly good. the performance was a fun adaptation with really great production value and some great comedy mixed in. it was a lot of fun. the minute the performance ended ricks and i gave each other knowing looks and then rushed out of the theater. we ran down all the stairs and then rushed to our car so we wouldnt get stuck in the parking garage/traffic. it was definitely memorable!

the following week my mom came to CA again! she and i had planned to party it up just the two of us this trip and we definitely kept busy. we stayed in a little hotel in the marina neighborhood and then set out to explore the shopping and food of sf. we had a list of stores we wanted to check out which took us to the mission, richmond, hayes valley, soma, tenderloin, union square, nob hill, north beach, the embarcadero, chinatown, alamo square and lower haight neighborhoods. some of the stores we went to were a bust but others were great finds! for example, there is a store in richmond called kamei restaurant supply where you can buy a ton of kitchen stuff for super cheap and pretty much any souvenir item that you might find in chinatown is there for a fraction of the price. there was a fabric store called discount fabrics that was a great find and a few other odds and ends that we were happy to come across.

we also ate well, too. we did go to ghiradelli square twice because, lets be honest, ghiradelli square is the best. we also ate at a restaurant at ghiradelli square called mccormick and kuletos that had pretty good food and great views! we ate at big 4 which was delish and had a really fun ambience. we found a yummy breakfast place called stacks and another across the street called la boulange. yum! we also ate at mamas and learned that you can do take-out there....! there were a few other fun restaurants that we went to as well.

we did a few real touristy things, too. we went to coit tower and paid to go to the top for the 360 view. we drove all the way through and around golden gate park and found a huge windmill that neither of us knew was there. we drove across the golden gate bridge and stopped at vista point before going on to check out the shopping in sausalito. and we went to the exploratorium. after going once, ive decided i need a membership to the exploratorium- there is soooo much to be seen.

on our way back to davis, we stopped in berkeley and found an awesome crate and barrel outlet. this is where we made most of the weekend's purchases and we were beyond thrilled to find it. we also stopped at the vacaville outlets which i had never been to. those outlets were crazy crowded but there were some good finds there, too.

once we got back to davis, she and i decided to increase the storage space in my apartment a little and so we worked on that. of course ricks and i took my mom to freebirds, our newest burrito obsession, jacks urban eats, and we also went to try the firehouse in sac, which was excellent and a lot of fun. my mom really wanted to see sutters fort so we went there, too. sutters fort was actually really nice. since ive been to nauvoo and williamsburg, there wasnt anything new for me to see but they have done a nice job with it.

it was sooooo fun to have my mom around and we had a really great time together exploring sf and sac. i cant wait to see her and the rest of the fam again soon in tahoe!

chocolate wrapped to look like baguettes. cuuuute.

a great find: a super gorgeous sideboard with bone inlay!

pretty sky, bay bridge, exploratorium.

small scale tornado at the exploratorium.

ghiradelli. duh.

endless discount fabric.

view from the coit tower parking lot. because duh.

busy april.

My handsome grandma and grandpa on their wedding day.

My grandpa's mom, Merrilla - she raised her own 4 kids and her husbands 5 kids all by herself.

There she is with her biological kids - her husband died 6 mo. before my grandpa (lower right) was born.

My great-great grandma Zina (Merrilla's mom). She was pretty awesome, too. She had a rough life but kicked butt the whole way through.

 

last time i bloggity blogged, spring break had just ended. between then and now i have completed all my final projects, completed my first year as a grad student, visited utah again, and ricks has started his finals.

to recap april, there were lots of stressed out moments on my part as i tried to successfully use a specific allotment of time to complete all of my projects in a quality manner. when i finally turned in each of projects and gained freedom, i quickly remembered that unless i stay discplined and keep myself busy, i get bored and go crazy. so this summer, or at least for the time being, i am working part time writing about herbel supplement ingredients, working part time on maintaining social media for a green design-build architecture-construction company, and trying to add photos and stories of my ancestors to the fancy, newly-updated family search website, amongst other things. that last thing is my favorite. its fun to learn about my ancestors, some of them were pretty bad-a (if thats an ok thing to say about ancestors).

i got to go to ut again because during the last part of april, delta ran a weekend special from SMF to SLC and so i took advantage of the good deal and went to see family. while there, i had a lot of fun playing with the big 14-month triplets, chatting with my mom, teasing my dad, eating good food (black sheep cafe in provo is so good), bowling at an all-you-can-bowl alley with my siblings (scored 141!), seeing both of my sweet grandmas (who are 92 and 83, respectively), seeing fun movies (42), and having lots of fun all around.

still to come this month: ricks and i are going to see the sf ballet perform cinderella, my mom is coming to visit (our goal is to become acquainted with the personality of some of the sf neighborhoods via shopping and eating), and ricks will complete his second year at the law school and then begin studying for the GMAT which he will take in june (so he can apply to the business school for a joint JD/MBA - heres to an acceptance from the business school, fingers crossed!).

the end.