birthdays were the worst days now we sip champagne when we're thirstay

this post today is being written while i listen to the new san francisco water cooler album. finally out on vinyl! it's so funny to me when albums are released in late july of 2010 but they've been in the works so long that they have 2009 on the artwork. anyway it's great and it's my friend david's band. this past weekend we spent a bunch of time with him when we were down in santa cruz.

but anyway, let me start from the beginning of the weekend. it was miri's birthday on friday! she is now three! we drove down to the monterey peninsula on friday night and spent a long weekend hanging out at my parents house.

for her birthday, my mom got her a bunch of books and jeremy and i got her a balance bike and a helmet. a pretty nice haul.

it was also my dad's birthday! presents for everyone!

meanwhile, ethel and my dad's dog homer played tug of war all weekend. they have another dog named baxter but he's kind of a grump and doesn't like to play so much. ethel and homer don't mind. when they get around each other they are in their own little world. btw homer weighs around 130 lbs and ethel weighs about 14.

while in monterey we also found a petting zoo for miri and took her bowling. growing up in that town, the bowling alley was called 'lincoln lanes' but now it's 'monterey lanes' and it's also kind of a rip off. charging for shoes for every game, not just the first one? sucks. whatever though because miri looked great in bowling shoes.

so after a few days in monterey we drove 45 min north to housesit for my uncle in the santa cruz mountains. his house is my favorite place in the world, with seriously no hyperbole at all. he grows pipen apples in the orchard in front of his house and it's super private and beautiful and just the most relaxing place ever. this is the view off of the main deck:

i took way more pictures with my actual camera and after they get developed i'll probably post some. when i was a kid, my mom and i lived in santa cruz and my uncle was a great father figure for me after my biological dad left. we are very close and have probably the most similar aesthetics out of everyone in our family. he was so, so nice to let us housesit for him and take care of his cat/plants/bird feeders. i <3 my uncle to pieces.

after coming down the mountain we hung out with david in the beach flats, ate a snack at falafel hut and napped/chilled out for a while. miri thoroughly enjoyed her apple from martinelli's. santa cruz!

we also hung out in watsonville and ate fish tacos with a bunch of friends but were too lame to take pictures. which is a total bummer because we got to hang with the cutest baby ever. oh well. next time.