santa cruz

We took care of all of our lame adult things like laundry and grocery shopping on Friday night (which can surprisingly be fun since being married), then on Saturday we took a day trip down to Santa Cruz! 

It was such a nice day. We explored Capitola, boogie boarded, laid on the beach, rode the chair lift at the boardwalk, ate great mexican food, watched the sunset, and ended the night with ice cream. 

We feel so lucky to live in a place where you can drive an hour in any direction and see something amazing. 

Is there anything prettier that then beach at sunset? I really don't think there is.

she's back!

After far too long, Regina Spektor released a new song and an album is coming in September!

I screamed and danced around the kitchen when I discovered this.

AH! Listening to Regina brings back the very best memories.

little letters

dear weekends,

i love you. i wish you could stay forever.

dear neighbors,

your music is so loud my house is rattling. but i did accidentally hit your car while pulling out of the driveway this week and you didn't mind, so i'll forgive you too.

dear costco,

you're the best. you must think i'm the best too because i spend so much money whenever we are together.

dear fog,

don't you know it's summer?

dear succulents,

I can't believe you are still alive. you get no sunlight and i hardly ever water you. way to go.

dear pacifica police department,

i'm sorry our ping-pong family home evening night at the bishop's house got so intense that you had to come over to tell us to be quiet...ha!

dear san francisco,

thanks for the adventure!

love,
carrie

you smell, but I love you.

I'm not sure what the cause was exactly, but a couple years back I developed an intense love for garlic. During the year I lived at home after my mission, my Dad would stop at the grocery store on his way home from work and pick up a container of whole pickled garlic cloves for my Mom and I to eat. He would walk in the door with a bag from Sprouts and we went all heart eyes for him like he had brought home chocolate and flowers for us, but nope, it was garlic and we would eat it plain and loved it.

Since getting married I have tried to lay off eating the pickled garlic cloves whole, because you could kill someone with that kind of breath. Thankfully Miles shares a great love for garlic as well, and we cook with garlic almost daily. We also happen to live just an hour away from the garlic capitol of THE WORLD. 

This brings us to our weekend dedicated to garlic...

On Friday Miles had a couple friends come to town to visit and they were nice enough to let me tag along to the Giants game. The view was great and the game was fun, but of course my very favorite part was the garlic french fries. The Giants lost, but I went away feeling like I won!

This was just the beginning of our garlic filled weekend. 

On Saturday we headed down to Gilroy for the world renowned Garlic Festival!

It was cool and in the 50's when we left San Francisco, and when we got to Gilroy an hour away it was in the 90's. Usually that wouldn't be a big deal, but we have become wussies to hot weather these days. The festival was great and HUGE! You walk through the gates and a cloud of garlic stank hits you to let you know you are in the right place. They had garlic flavored everything. My favorite was the garlic kettle corn, who would have thought?

^Brooke and I sporting our very stylish clove hats.

There were a million people there and I will never go back, but I do feel proud to say that I have been to the world's largest Garlic Festival.

And yes, we did stink for a few days after. Yuummmm.