First Day of School

Well it was our first day back at school after a very long summer. Kristin went back to UCR and I started at Cal Poly. Both of us enjoyed our days and look forward to making it one more quarter closer to our degrees!

A True Vacation

Labor day weekend came up on us bearing a gift more rare than a short line for Space Mountain (it was the first reference I could muster, yes I'm a major nerd): the elusive Three Day Weekend! After the rejoicing subsided the question was raised, "Vacation?" Isn't the reply obvious?

We'd been craving a real vacation for some time- whether it be camping, visiting family, or what-have-you, but had simply been lacking in time with Joseph's work at the bank. So without further ado, we hopped on the internet and booked a hotel for our favorite beach location in SoCal- Laguna. The week-day vacation slashed prices for us, any further worries were eased Joseph received a bonus from USBank (which he hasn't worked at for the last six months). It seemed that the universe was on our side!

We enjoyed a day hopping around tide pools playing with little hermit crabs, eating South African seafood (slightly disappointed to be seated by a very drunk, very loud party) and Italian gelato, and relaxing in the hotel spa and heated pool (the day was too cool and windy for the beach). It was amazing to finally enjoy a vacation as a (tiny) family, even if it was in minature.

                      

  {Dinner at Mozambique. Those parrots behind us say "Hello" and "Goodbye" as you pass- awesome!}

On a slightly different note, my sister, Krisale, had her daughter. My first blood-relation niece is named Brialle, and she is such a cutie.

Am I right or am I right?

Summer- The Second Installment

     During the middle of July, as this summer's heat wave descended on SoCal, our baby Honda, Harley, got a bit of a cold. Well, more like a 'hot'. Her head-gasket needed to be replaced, which came with a hefty price-tag. Meanwhile, one of Joseph's co-workers had a $2,000 outage and was fired, so he picked up her hours in order to help compensate for our unexpected bill. It is quite fabulous how one door opens after another closes. 
     Joseph working full time put a bit of a damper on our summer plans (what plans?) but there was still plenty of fun to be had.
     Living in SoCal (and with a self-professed 'water-child') makes us obligated to hit the waves. We headed back in July for a short fun trip, and again in August for the 'Super Trip'. We were in Huntington for ten hours, hanging with friends (including many of my old high school buds), boogie boarding and roasting s'mores when the sun went down. Ah the beach!

 {After drying off and waiting for pizza to arrive}

Then came another trip to Disney after the summer black-out. You know us- can't get enough. Hopefully we can afford to renew our passes. Prices are getting ridiculous!

 {Jungle Cruise with one of the best skippers we've had}

When September came, it was finally time to use our Huntington Library Free Day passes. The Huntington had been on our list since our early dating days, and we were so happy to finally make it.

                                                                                                                       {Can I keep him?}

                                                                     {Royalty must ponder}
 
To keep myself occupied between adventures, I've been cultivating my 'domestic' side. I made jam with my sister-in-law Rebecca, Joseph and I babysat her two oldest for three days (never met kids that were easier to put to bed...means they wake you up at 6 am though), and I tried my hand at baking bread. 

{Honey Oat Bread}

It was a delicious first attempt- I highly recommend throwing around some dough of your own. Its rather therapeutic: Honey Oat Bread

School's Out For Summer

While we are overjoyed at Joseph's acceptance into Cal Poly and the current buzz about the house focuses on school school school, all the fun is coming from summer summer summer. Over the past few weeks we've enjoyed two trips to Disneyland (the first we've had over the last three months, a new record of separation since we've been together, I think):

[Splash Mountain]

[Third Highest Score on Buzz- Joseph was VERY excited]

[Waiting for the World of Color show]

After our trips to the park, we finally cooked up the Easter ham we picked up on sale. Joseph insisted no ham dinner would be complete without the full spread, so we had "Christmas in June", exactly six months before Christmas.

 [Stuffing, GB Casserole, Carrots Ham]

 

Needless to say, we've been eating lots and lots and lots of ham. We then enjoyed the first of many fabulous beach outings with friends, and spent four hours on the sand (it got cold early) playing phase ten. And finally, last Thursday we were able to return to Redlands market night for an evening eating delicious lamb gyros, purchasing produce, and wandering through antique stores. Ah summer, how we love you so!

 

School!

Well I was accepted to Cal Poly Pomona this week which left me quite speechless cause i really wasn't expecting it. They had put me on their wait list a couple months ago so i thought that was their nice way of saying technically you qualify but we don't have room for you. Well it looks like they found room. I don't know if i will attend there because i am still waiting for Cal State San Bernardino to get back to me but hey i will at the very least be attending school in the fall! woot woot!

My Amazing Wife

So Kristin has officially been offered a job as a Supplemental Instruction Leader over at UCR.
Isn't she amazing?<3

The Best Honeymoon Ever!

We just want to start off by saying that the honeymoon was FABULOUS!!!!! We want to go back like yesterday.

So lets start at the beginning shall we? okay.

First Stop Cambria(a little town just out side San Simeon)-
Reasons we loved it here
1)They gave us each two fresh cookies that were still warm
2)They gave us a bottle of Martinelli's
3)Our room was amazing. It even had a fire place
4)Our room was a stones throw from t he beach
5)We were a hop skip and a jump from Hearst Castle
6)See 1-5
7)see 1-
8)see (ok you get the picture

picture time of Cambria

The view from our B&B

Our room at the B&B

And now Hearst Castle

Us at the main entrance

Next off to Monterrey

Now the B&B we were at the wasn't as nice as the one in Cambria but it had a pretty good size Jacuzzi tub so we are not complaining.

Monterrey Bay Aquarium

Hey look its us. oh wait that's two penguins kissing oh well close enough.

That night we went to the nicest place i have ever eaten. The food just put us in the greatest mood. The restaurant was called the fish hopper and it is right on the bay.

Our last stop was a little bbq place in Venice called Baby Blues BBQ. It was featured on Diners Drive-ins and dives and well it was fabulous!
We, the Mickelsons, would like to thank your for joining us on the recap of our honey. We know we enjoyed ourselves and hope you did too! Have a great day!