Anniversary Celebration

So thankful for one year of marriage! To celebrate, we headed up to Big Bear Thursday evening after work, hung out all day Friday, and came back Saturday afternoon. It was perfect. We had a cute little cabin equipped with a kitchen, so we could cook all our own food, went for a night walk by the lake and stood looking at the soft-moving reflections of the setting sun, went kayaking on in the late morning sun, hiked an "easy" trail (made difficult only by altitude), watched Casablanca (Adrian for the first time!), and read, read, and read some more. Loveliness. God has been so good to us.

Kayaking on Big Bear Lake

Wonderful day!

Our little cabin

Adrian grilling our anniversary steaks.

On our actual anniversary, we headed to Petco Park for a Padre's game (my first!) with the Reilly family. (We didn't purposefully plan to go on our anniversary, it was just the only day that worked for all of us :)

Petco Park

Some of the Reillys...some of whom are looking at the camera.

Happy to be sitting under a warm blanket on a cold night, watching baseball.

Oh, one wonderful part of this weekend that I haven't added yet is that I discovered a lovely new cd that I love! "Jenny and Tyler" are a husband and wife duo who sing fantastic music -- check 'em out!

Safari Saturday

This past Saturday Adrian and I headed to the Wild--I mean, Safari Park with Mike and Lauren, who now live in CA! I had only been to the Safari Park once before, and I mainly remembered it being extremely boring, but this time around we were in the company of good friends :) Really thankful for half price tickets and a long day walking around in the sun, for picnic lunches, the amazing variety of animals God has created, and for getting to see a cheetah run (amazing!).

This lion happens to be the only animal I took a picture of.

Sunset Lovin'

It the smell of hay mixed with puffs of dust kicked up around our feet, sticking to sheen of sweat around our calves that made me exclaim, "This reminds me of going to the fair!" I then proceeded to relay all of my childhood memories from the Kern County Fair to Adrian as we walked the distance from our car to the Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival.

It felt like a fair inside also. Vast numbers of people, cowboys hats everywhere, booths and games, food stands (funnel cakes!), and loud music. We plowed our way through the people, wandered around, collected free tooth products (which Adrian pulled out of his pocket later to show me...I convinced him not to floss his teeth), and finally plopped ourselves onto the grass behind several levels of fencing to watch Gloriana, Chris Cagle, and Phil Vasser.

Mainly, we were just there for the music. Mainly, we were just there for Gloriana.

But I have to say, Chris Cagle was probably better -- he had obviously been performing for a long time and Gloriana was still a little new and awkward.

Gloriana

Just chilling on the lawn, trying to avoid being stepped on by somewhat intoxicated folks.

Chris Cagle

 After all this crazy fun, we headed to balloon glow--which, it turns out, is where they gather a bunch of hot air balloons on the lawn and light them up again the night sky. Huge. Beautiful.

Before.

After.

Thanks Temecula for having your famous festival right next door to us! It was fun.