my favorite series of photos from cali.

That's our ring bearer! :)

mas cali.

a glimpse of my california.

//my favorite little man showing us all how well he can eat// 

No words can really describe how good it felt to go home a couple of weeks ago. Though it wasn't the first time I went to California since moving out here, it was the first time I visited my family and friends in the bay. We packed so much in during the few days we were in town, driving up and down 80 many many times. I'm so thankful that Dave and I have such loving friends and family who took time out of their days to make sure they had some free time for us. Here are a few of my favorites taken on my phone.

//visiting sudwerk and old friends// 

//i popped the question and asked her to be one of my co-MOHs// 

//the boys reunited// 

//senorita bread//

 //i want to get back to my city by the bay//

//next year!// 

//visiting refuges has to be one of my favorite parts of traveling now// 

 //buster insisted on riding shotgun with dave on the way to the airport//

girlfriends.

//Photo courtesy of the incredibly talented Lauri Levenfeld/Zoom Photography//

This is an love letter to all the ladies (and a guy) out there that have made such an amazing impact on my life. I just want you to know how much I love you all and appreciate your friendship. I couldn't have ever asked for a better bunch of ladies to call my friends. I feel lucky to have continued our friendship even though I've moved miles and miles away (and some of you have moved just as far in the other direction!). I feel especially lucky to have met another set of ladies out here to keep me sane and help me settle into this new land.

fuji faves.

//They do//

Here are the scans of some of my fuji faves from our San Diego weekend.

//Groom's side with the happy couple//

//With our old pet snake Monty//

 //Corona del Mar//

//Sweetwater Marsh NWR//

san diego, a wedding, and some photo recovery.

This Labor Day weekend was one of the best I've ever had – I got to go home! Not home home but home. Since I fully plan on moving to SD when we're ready to settle down and buy a house, I feel it's safe to call it home. It's especially safe to call it home since there's family there... and home is where the heart is, right?

We made the trek to the amazing west coast to witness Dave's little brother, Michael, get married to his girlfriend of years, Rebecca. Thursday night, we went straight from the airport to Dave and Buster's for a bachelor party of sorts. Though it wasn't a wild and crazy night... and it had a girl (me) in tow... it was a lot of fun.

The ceremony was held on Friday at the San Diego Court House. If you've never seen this building, look it up! Gorgeous with amazing views. There was a sailboat festival on the bay adding to the beauty of it all. The reception was held in the backyard at home. The transformation of that backyard by adding lights and tables was amazing. I've always loved that backyard for how lush and green it is. But adding the tables and lights... amazing.

We tried to pack in as much as we could on Saturday and Sunday. Corona del Mar, Board N Brew, Sweetwater Marsh, In N Out (animal style fries, I've missed you so!), sushi, family time, legit Mexican food (Dave got brain and tongue), seeing friends, and whatever else we could do/get that we can't out here in DC.

It was tough to say "see ya soon" to SD since we're not sure when we'll be able to go back, but it was great to get away and just enjoy with no responsibilities and no real plans. Plus, you can't beat the coast line and weather!

As for the photo recovery part of the post title... I flubbed and deleted all of the photos on my memory card after Dave put some of the photos on his parents' computer. In my head, they were all downloaded onto my computer. In reality, just a portion of the photos from the weekend were saved. Thankfully, I found a program that allowed me to recover ALL of my photos. Unfortunately, I was not able to recover the video file from the actual ceremony. Dave found a program that worked for that, but for some reason it only recovered a portion of the video. Still working on trying to save that little piece of the puzzle. In case it ever happens to you, PhotoRec is free and works on all systems. It says it can recover .avi files, which is what my video is, but it didn't work. Either way, it recovered all of my photos!

Update: Thankfully we put the wedding stuff on dropbox and the video was there! Thank goodness for technology.