A Sunday of Firsts!

Today was a HOT one....Matt and I were tempted to wallow in our sweaty sorrows on the couch and fight over who gets to be closest to the fan, but we got enough guts to brave the elements and took a stroll to the farmers market. Usually we arrive around 11am on Sunday, right around the time when the farmers are setting up their stands. Today we didn't get there until 2pm, right when they were closing. We decided this was a good time to go....they were pretty much THROWING carrots and celery at us, going, "Take them for 50 cents, we're about to leave". I mean, what farmer wants to take home veggies after they've carted them all the way there? At one stand, we were about to purchase some green onions when the girl asked us if we've ever tried zucchini flowers. Well..we've grown zucchini and watched the flowers fall right off once they get overpowered by the zucchini. We've never thought to eat them though! Apparently, this box of beautiful zucchini flowers (which do cost a pretty penny) were wilting in the heat, and the girl said, "Take them, they're yours!". We got home and found a recipe that has them stuffed with ricotta cheese and green onions (both of which we had) and blindly experimented with our first zucchini flowers. It was a success! They were crispy and cheesy....what a perfect combination! Definitely worth a sweltering walk to the farmers market!!





Another fun note.....I finished knitting my first pair of socks today! These are for Matt. Thanks to my sister Lesley, I have now moved out of my comfort zone of knitting scarves, and into a whole new knitting world!!! (Thanks Les!!)

And We're Back!

WOW....It has been exactly 1 1/2 years since my last post!!! oops! This morning, Matt and I were on a beautiful 13 mile bike ride along the hills and the ocean when SUDDENLY this little blog popped into my head. At a water break (it was HOT!), I said to Matt, "I think we should start up our blog again." And Matt said, "Do it" (meaning YOU do it, cause I'm sure not going to! :) So....here we are back again, just like old times. Rather than trying to catch up on MUCH lost time, I will simply post some of our most favorite things to do lately, that will hopefully highlight the last year and a half. Then....get ready....I will announce our exciting new plans for the fall!!! (don't cheat and skip to the end.....!)



1.) Gardening! We have SO enjoyed cultivating our little vegetable garden over the last 2 years. It was a steep learning curve to say the least, but little by little we learned what to do (and not to do!) to keep our little plants happy and alive. Last summer, we had the most AMAZING tomato plants, and one day I got this idea to trim all of the side shoots to promote new growth. Well, I got a little scissor happy and I'll never forget the look on Matt's face when I showed him the scraggly remains of our once-beautiful plants. Whoops! (they grew back though..thankfully).

We had lettuce coming out of our ears at one point, so our neighbors got to reap the benefits too!

The fruits of our labor!


2.) Being outside!
Santa Barbara's incredible weather allows us to be outside all year long (we will miss this!!!). We definitely take advantage of this nice feature. Lately we've been doing a good amount of biking. Hiking is up there too as one of our favorites.

Tidepooling with the Harringtons!

Biking in the Santa Barbara wine country with Les & Steve....we
met a miniature horse along the way!

On a hike to the San Ysidro waterfall.

3.) Wedding Crashers!

OK so we've never really crashed any weddings since we've been invited to all the ones we've attended, but we've been to our fair share over the last few years, as several of our friends tied the knot. Here are some pics from 2 of the most recent:

Katie & Tim Blacquier's wedding in MA.

Angela & Tim Sipe's Wedding in PA

4.) TRAVELing

We've tried to explore as much of the beautiful California coast as possible before we leave. So far, we haven't made it north of San Francisco, but we've been lucky enough to have several repeat visits of our most favorite place on Earth....Big Sur, CA. Just last month, my family visited and we were so excited to share this magical place with them!

Wind-blown sisters in Big Sur:

We've also been abroad this year! Matt went to a conference in the Netherlands last spring, and we both traveled to Berlin in November.

I met up with UD buddy Kelly Lennon and we did a fun (frostbite!)
tour of the cool city of Berlin!

Well, this leads us to the big news.....it's only natural that I now tell you about our upcoming move......! This October, we will be moving to the country of Germany! That's right folks...we'll be saying goodbye to the laid-back sunny California days, and saying "Guten Tag" to the bustling city of Berlin! Matt has accepted a post-doc position there, which will set the stage for a whole new 1-2 year adventure abroad! We both could not be more excited for this incredible opportunity, and look forward to sharing it with you! (I PROMISE that the blog will be updated REGULARLY once we're there!!!)

So, for now I'm signing off with the hopes of updating this sooner than later. We'll be spending the summer in SB, and then taking a road trip across the country back east to spend time with our family.....I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on our whereabouts!

Bye for now.....Laura :)
p.s. If you subscribe to this blog, you will get updates automatically, since I'm not always good about letting people know it's been upadated...