Seaplane Show

Here are some pictures from the seaplane show. I really have no other commentary because Jake is the expert and I just think they look pretty.

The Pear Festival

Saturday was filled with many exciting things: a long run, the pear festival, a seaplane show, the Mexican rodeo, and dinner with the Maes family, but it would be ridiculous to include ALL of that in one blog post, so I'm going to break it up a bit. Today I'll recap the pear festival and then we'll go from there.

The pear festival signifies the end of the pear season. It's a celebration for all the people that work so hard during the harvest and then during the packing process. It's also a celebration for the people that just like pears because you don't have to be a pear worker in order to attend.

The festivities kicked off with a parade and then everyone headed towards the middle of main street where craft booths, food, and music had taken over.








Here are some pictures of the best float in the parade. I'm not sure if they actually won this title or not, but they definitely deserved it.

The Bass Bowl

Friday night was the BIG game of the season for Kelseyville High School because they played their rival, Clearlake High School (which is in Lakeport and not Clearlake by the way). This year they called the game "The Bass Bowl" because somebody had the brilliant idea of carving a big bass trophy to give to the winning team. I'm not completely understanding the concept of giving away a big carved bass as a reward for anything other than a fishing tournament, but since bass fishing is such a popular sport out here I guess they thought it would be applicable to reward a football team with it. Hmmm...yeah...moving on....the game was exciting and Kelseyville took home the "trophy"!

In anticipation for the big game, Jake and I had been discussing high school football traditions and the subject of homecoming came up. I jokingly asked if I could wear his letterman's jacket to the game this year and then declared that I also wanted a mum to go with it. Jake had no idea what I was talking about. "A mum?" "Yeah, you know, the flower with the ribbons attached to it. You give it to the girl you take to the homecoming game and she gives you a smaller version that you wear on your arm." *look of confusion* I was shocked. I spent 4 years of high school hoping and dreaming that a boy would actually ask me to homecoming so that I could wear one of the coveted mums! It never happened. According to Jake, I was too busy reading to get asked out by a boy *rolling my eyes*.

I explained the importance of this, but Jake just thought I was crazy. Here's a picture of one I found online:

So is this only something that is done in Texas? Other states must have these too. I mean I know Texans are a bit crazy, but surely other people have heard of this concept. No? Well I could go on and on about the differences in the football culture that I have witnessed in the past year, but I think I'll save that for another time.

There's a Train in the Mall!

We discovered this in Chico when we had some extra time before the wedding we were attending. I wanted to ride, but decided it might be a little strange to do so without any kids. How awesome is this though? It's not even on tracks. It just drives around like those little shuttles in the airport. They even have to yell at people to get out of the way!

Wedding in Chico and Our Anniversary

On Saturday we took a little road trip to Chico to attend the wedding of a girl that Jake went to high school with. Cute side note: The bride gave him his first kiss! During 1st grade one of her friends went up to Jake and told him that Holly had a secret for him. Holly came over and instead of telling him a secret she gave him a kiss!

The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time.

The ceremony and reception were held at a private estate of a guy that's really into hunting. This is a museum that he has on this property!

On Sunday we made our way to downtown Chico. It was kind of sprinkling outside and nothing was open so we were a little disappointed until we stumbled upon this music/craft festival! It was on the Chico State Campus so we took our own little tour of the school and found all sorts of neat things.

A rose garden!

A river that runs through the middle of campus!

And then an activity meant for children, but we took part anyway!

Jake did not want to participate and he does not like the way his fan turned out. I thought it was beautiful though.

Then we found this really cool consignment shop. I found 2 more (cheap) blue mason jars to add to my collection!

We had a great time, but the weekend went by way too fast. Next weekend will be equally as exciting though because it's time for the annual Kelseyville Pear Festival!

And in honor of our 1st anniversary I have a couple of short stories to share:

1. A few months ago when we were at Tim and Jill's wedding I was talking to a group of people I'd met the night before at the rehearsal dinner. One of the girls was a bridesmaid and she was talking about how she'd heard the cutest thing that day. She started talking about how on the way to take pictures Tim was saying he felt bad because Jill was going to be all dressed up and beautiful and he just looked like he was going to work for the day. Then Jake chimed in and started talking about the first time he saw me at the wedding and how he thought I was so beautiful and how exciting it was for him. Awww...how sweet, right?

2. At the wedding the other night one of Jake's groomsman was there. During the reception we were talking to him and he said "my favorite part of your wedding was when you sang that song. I got a little choked up."

Me too groomsman, me too...

Happy First Anniversary

to us.

I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do now

I don't know which way is up n' which way is down

I knew I'd spend my life, everyday

Just trying to catch my breath before you'd take it away

One thing I knew would always be true

You'd love me to the end and I'd love you

full song

Next Race

Don't let the "marathon" name scare you though, I'm only doing the half! And it's on 10-10-10!

I'd been contemplating doing a different half marathon in Healdsburg on Oct. 30th, but I contemplated too long and the race filled up. So sad....but then I found this one and it's $25 cheaper and it's put on by the same group that did the Windsor Half Marathon that I did in May. The only complaint I had with them was that they gave away finisher hats instead of medals. I checked the "this is included in your registration fee list" and it noted that a medal is given at the end of this one though. Yipee!

Another Example of How Ridiculous We Are

Remember when I wrote about so many of the ways that we are ridiculous? Well I have another perfect example:

I'm not sure how we got on this topic, but Jacob mentioned something about how I need to get a sugar daddy to buy us things and the conversation went something like this:

Jake: I'm sure you could find one in the city. You could go to...what's that place called? the co...com

Me: The commissary?? That's what they call the grocery stores on military bases.

Jake: Yeah! But no, I meant one of those places where you can get dried goods.

Me: Oh, like on Oregon Trail?!!

Jake: Yeah, what's that called?

Me: I don't know, I think it's just called the General Store.

Jake: No, I think it has another name.

Me: Yeah, maybe.

Jake: Let's call Miltay (aka Mallory, my sister)

Replayed conversation to Miltay

Miltay: Um, I think it's called the General Store

She then promised to do some research and report back if she found anything.

Does anyone have an idea?

More Salsa & Jalapeno Hands

We did it again. We made MORE salsa that could burn your tongue off. The last batches we made were pretty green due to all the jalapeno peppers we used, so we decided to go a different route this time and made a red salsa. I think I prefer these to the last batches, but they're still unbearably hot. They have a wonderful taste though.

On a somewhat related note, does anyone else suffer from jalapeno hands? I'm super sensitive to the oils in the peppers and any time I so much as dice up one pepper I'm in pain for the rest of the day. It's always intensified after I take a shower and they burn so bad that I have to hold a bag of frozen vegetables in order to get any type of relief. I've googled remedies to this and I've tried them all. Nothing works. I suppose I could wear gloves when I cut them up, but that's such a hassle.

After we made salsa the other day Jake failed to wash his hands. I didn't realize this until we'd been holding hands and mine began to get the burning sensation. It then got a million times worse after I drove the car home that night with the contaminated steering wheel. Oh the pain! Maybe I'll go ahead and invest in a box of those silly gloves before our next salsa making session.

I was informed the other day that once the habanero peppers are ready (we just discovered that they're growing!) I will be required to eat one. Jake has told his whole family that I will take on this task and apparently it's going to be a big production. I'm scared out of my mind, but will probably do it because I rarely turn down dares that involve eating. Wish me luck!

Bodega Bay

Jake and I ventured out to Bodega Bay this past Saturday. It's only about 2 hours away and is fairly close to Santa Rosa. We needed to go down to SR anyway to run a few errands so we took care of the boring things and then set off to Bodega Bay for dinner.


ship wreck

Our first stop was this cute taffy store.



Then we went to a souvenir shop and asked a store owner for a dinner recommendation. She pointed us towards a restaurant that she claimed had good food, but was less expensive than some of the other places in town. So we went and were severely disappointed. If this place was less expensive than the other places, I can't even imagine how ridiculous they must have been. I was most perturbed that I wasted one of my non vegan meals on salmon that was smothered in a not so great lemon aioli sauce and sat upon a "potato cake". FYI, the potato cake was a fancy name for hash browns. I was starving though so I ate all of it (and some of Jake's). I'd run 8 miles that morning so I was willing to devour anything ;) We had a fun time quietly laughing at a girl seated nearby. She had a glob of butter on her chin during her entire meal, but the people at her table didn't have the nerve to mention it to her. It's the little things in life that we find amusing....

After dinner we headed to the ocean to take in some nice views. Instead we got this:

We couldn't see a thing so we quickly got back into the car (it was freezing) and headed back into town. We stopped here before making our way back home:



These are our "scared" faces.

Despite the bad food and the fog, we had a wonderful time and hope to go back in the near future. It was so fun to spend the day together. We've hardly seen each other at all the past few weeks :( Next weekend we're going to Chico for a friend's wedding and we'll be celebrating our 1st anniversary so I'm sure we'll have some great pictures from that adventure!