Here we are, a few days after Turkey Day, and no updates since September! Sorry folks. I guess we have been a bit busy. Let me try and get you caught up...

Our latest adventures have mostly taken place on our new mode of transportation - our new bikes! Our longest trip has been 30 miles round-trip, from our digs here in Goleta all the way to beautiful downtown Santa Barbara (and back again)! Here's a pic from our journey:
We also attended the annual California Lemon Festival, which happens to be right in our hometown of Goleta. Lemon EVERYTHING you can think of, people. The lemon meringue pie was our favorite. We indulged in pie and fresh-squeezed lemonade and listened to some live music...fun! (p.s. More to follow on the beard....from Matt)



On October 28th we paid a visit to our long lost friend, Dave. Dave Matthews that is, and his friend Tim Reynolds. We had a spontaneous moment that Saturday morning, and after deciding that we WERE going to see Dave Matthews play at the SB bowl that night, we were successful in finding 2 tickets on Craigslist. Gotta love craigslist! Anyway, we met up with Brent, who I teach with, and had a blast!


Fast foward to the present....
Thanksgiving!!! Usually we are here in sunny California with our family back east each Thanksgiving. But not this year! My mom, dad, and brother Dave made the journey out here and spent Thanksgiving with us! It was so incredible to have them out here for 7 full days! We really made the most of our time together.....bike rides, beach, surfing, sightseeing, Hearst Castle, elephant seals, many dinners out, harbor, wharf, bowling, shopping, coastal drives, art walk....ahh the list goes on! Herb, Judy, and Dave even accompanied me and my lovely class on a field trip to the Sea Center today in downtown SB! We had many delicious meals (including a gourmet home-cooked Turkey-day dinner in our tiny kitchen!) and shared many laughs.

We did so much, and now have so many wonderful memories of this time together. It is always so much fun to share our experiences out here with the people we love so much. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing, loving family.
Thank you for everything Mom, Dad, and Dave! Les and Steve, we missed you so much....can't wiat to see you in a few short weeks!

Here are some pics from our incredible week together:

Until next time,
hugs and kisses,
Laura and Matt

So....this blog goes out to Lesley, who gave me the bright idea of a blog entry that is all about Seamus! Who is Seamus? some of you may be wondering. For those of you that have not had the pleasure of knowing Seamus, you have no idea what you're missing! Well it does help if you like birds, but this particular one is quite the catch. For starters, Seamus can talk! He can also head bob faster than anyone I know. He is our very first pet. We thought we were "settling" for a bird, since that's all our family student housing lease allows. But WOW we had no idea what we were in for! Seamus has a favorite toy that is appropriately named "Toy". It broke once due to too much playtime, so we patched it up and made two "Toy"s! Seamus is constantly learning new things to say. Let me try to list all of his current voacbulary words/phrases: Pretty birdie, Whatta you doin?, C'mon, Cute, Being cute, Being a cute birdie, Seamus, Seamie, I love you, and his latest hit, "Well....See you later!". I might be forgetting some. He can also do the baseball "charge" call thingy. Seamus started as a Valentine's Day gift from Matt in 2005. He has evolved into a little guy with a lot of spunk who provides daily entertainment. Matt, much to his own surprise, has completely fallen for him......so much that he looks at other birds on the street and goes, "Hey little guy!". It's quite hysterical. Anyone one that needs a "small caged animal" should definitely consider a Seamus. Warning....if you're like me, you might end up holding one-way conversations with him. But don't worry, it's perfectly fine to do that.
p.s. We also have a pet rat that is actually my classroom pet. She comes for weekend visits at our house, though. Recently she (who's name is Molly) decided that it would be a good idea to invite her other street rat friends over for night-time parties. Just last night they chewed through her bag of rat food. Great, now we're feeding the neighborhood rats. If only they'd clean up their rat poo after they were done. Let' s hope they like sticky traps :)

We have had quite the summer so far! During the school year I sometimes wonder what I've gotten myself into with this demanding profession, but now that summer's here, it's all becoming clear! It's so amazing to have this time off and to finally get to see all of the people I love so much! After finishing up an eventful school year, Matt and I flew back to the east side for my sister Lesley's wedding. It was so much fun and a beautiful day despite the rain. Here's a pic of Lesley and Steve at the rehearsal dinner as well as one of me and Les:


After the busy wedding weekend, Matt and I headed down "the shore" with my folks to our adorable house near the beach in Strathmere, NJ. It was there the next day that the most incredible event occurred! We went fishing with my dad, a lifetime fisherman, which I agreed to do only after observing Matt's enthusiasm for the idea. After a few hours and only 2 "keepers", I was starting to yawn and getting a bit bored. All of the sudden, out of nowhere, a great tug on my line sent me almost plunging overboard! Dad was yelling things like, "don't give him any slack!" and "don't fall out!" as I struggled to reel this monster in. Since I didn't know what I was doing, I just kept following my dad's orders until this massive fish appeared at the surface. With one swipe of the net, we had it in our boat.....a tremendous 10 1/2 pound, 30 inch flounder! Just to give you an idea, a good catch would be about 3 pounds and about 18 inches long. Needless to say, this was the biggest fish that both my dad and my pop-pop (his dad) had ever seen in their entire fishing careers! Well, it was quite the event. My dad took Matt and I around the island showing off this phenomenal fish as Matt and I chuckled in the background as we observed my dad's delight. What a memorable day!


We then headed up to Cape Cod, MA to visit the Harrington family for the fourth of July week. They recently bought a trailer in Dennis that sits right on the beach. I was continuously in awe of how many people could pile into such a small place, but it certainly made for lots of adventures and laughs. Thanks to his grandparents, we may even have a winner in America's Funniest Home Videos! In their innocence, they made a funny blooper while Matt was videotaping them on our camcorder. Keep an eye out for us! We both agreed that the Cape is truly a magical place. I love all of the houses with the cedar shingles and white picket fences. We could definitely see ourselves living there someday! We found this great bike path that was paved over an old railroad. We couldn't pass up the opportunity, so we rented bikes one day and rode all the way to Orleans, which is further out on the Cape. Our destination was my Aunt Mary and Uncle Lee's house, which we finally made after a few wrong turns and a couple miles added onto our trip (almost 20 miles in all!). We finally found their beautiful house and had lunch with them and my cousin Katie. Fun times!

After saying our goodbyes to the Harringtons, we were back on the road again....this time to see Lesley and Steve (the newlyweds!) in Portland, Maine. They have just moved there and it was so much fun to see their cute apartment that is in walking distance of downtown Portland. It's a great little city! After our quick visit, we headed south again and Matt and I said goodbye for 2 weeks. He was flying back to Santa Barbara...back to work :( I continued southward without my hubby to have a fabulous girls weekend with my amazing college friends...Kelsey, Wadler, Angela, and Elisha. We had such a fun weekend and it was just like old times....we just jumped right back into our fun times together like we had never been apart.

I am now enjoying another week or so with my family at the shore and will head back to Santa Barbara next week.
Matt just booked an adorable bed-and-breakfast for our first anniversary on August 6th! It's called J. Patrick House and it's in the quaint, beachside town of Cambria, Ca which is just south of Big Sur. You can check it out at jpatrickhouse.com. We are so excited to celebrate!
The rest of the summer will be filled with gardening, going to the beach, catching up on the pile of books that I've been meaning to read, meeting up with Matt for lunch, and attending two education conferences. Sorry this update was rather lengthy, but since it is the first, there is a lot to tell! More to come!