San Francisco Summer

Summer Time is the best time of the year, I think it even tops the holiday season. Some reasons might be...the endless bbq's, wedding season, flowers, sunshine, pool parties, outdoor concerts, cute sunglasses, convertibles, hiking, fresh ripe fruit, sandals, popsicles, music blaring while driving, sun tanning, gardening, swimming, and having fun! But most importantly the reasons why I love summer is simple...Kyle is out of school, I get a break from teaching for a few months, and we are lucky enough to be able to live in different cities and explore all summer long. As many of you know we were in Baltimore last summer with kyle at JHU, and this summer we are in heaven in San Francisco with kyle working at Genentech!

We were lucky (I say blessed) enough to have a beautiful house in South San Fran in a city called Brisbane. The view from our large front windows is something out of a moive. We have a complete 180 degree view of the Bay and Down Town San Fran. It is truly unreal...and are counting our blessings for this opportunity and the fun things we get to do along the way.

For example here is a small recap of our weekend...

It began Friday night with a Hike up the San Bruno National Forest Mountain to the very top which overlooks the entire bay area which is located right behind our house. We had a complete 360 degree view. It was fun but we had no idea what the hike was going to be like...lets just say we were glad to finally hike in a downward motion and walk back home. Saturday morning we woke up early and headed into down town SF to visit Coit Tower which is a massive tower over looking down town, we drove through the famous Lombard Street and made our way to Fishermans Wharf where we had lunch and enjoyed some good ol clam chowder and fresh fish tacos. The weather was absolutely beautiful so we decided to continue the day with heading over to visit the Painted Ladies (the houses that look like the "Full House" house). After this we relax in the sunshine and walked around the Golden Gate Park....that place is HUGE!!!!! Its like saying "ahh ya, lets go walk around and through the entire central park in NY" Seriously....its massive people! Which brings me to today...we got up and went to church, hurried home and headed back to the Massive park and were able to enjoy the sunshine with 15,000 other people in a multi band concert with artists like Michelle Branch, Matt Nathanson, Parachute, and our Favs...One Republic! This was a TOTAL BLAST!!! We were in heaven, laying on our blanket hanging out in the sun on a sunday afternoon listening to music we love and enjoying one anothers company laughing and having fun like were the only ones at the park.

I realize all weekends wont be quite like this, however this is one for our memory book (hench why Im posting about it). Besides, I think Kyle and I have taken a minimum of 2,000 photos in the last 48 hours...of which should be posted in the next little while. (our internet is a little iffy)

Life is good...be happy...be thankful! <3

I always do this

I know....I always do this! Not post for months, and then have a three month summary of whats new around here. Well, here I go again! :) But before I begin, just a warning- there will be a lot of pictures!

It all begins with the Blazer game!! Ran into some great friends (who were jazz fans) not to worry...The blazers won :) Bit thanks to mom and dad for always treating us to some fun times!

Here we are at a little getaway for our anniversary at Oregon Gardens...if you have never been there-we recommend it! Great bed and breakfast with a spa and cute little single apartments. There is a HUGE garden that you can walk around with lots of paths and a great view...however, maybe go when the sun is out...not mid winter!

Kyle and I have a love for the outdoors. Any chance we can get were outside either on a bike ride or a walk/hike. It is soo nice to have the paths, hikes, views, and beautiful scenery in corvallis that we have. Below is kyle and myself taking a break on an early morning bike ride.

The next big event was Kyles grandmothers 90th birthday!!! Phew! Grandma Bell is the one on my right in the floral blouse. The others on her sides are her sisters. One who is 97 yrs old and one who is 87 years old. Looks like we have some longevity in the future!

Following this big event, we celebrated Kyles 24th birthday! Here he is with is gifts. We were able to make it home for a short trip to visit his family...thus ALL the gifts. When it comes to presents, he is like a little boy. Ripping through the gifts and examining them based on their functionality. Guess thats an engineer for ya :)

Shortly after this we were able to escape for a long weekend to Bend Oregon, with thanks to my best friend stephanie. Her parents have a beautiful house there, and a few of us friends were able to have a fun weekend with some fresh snow and some fun games with great food.

We woke up the morning we left to some fresh snow...here we are walking around down town Bend by the Deschutes River.

A few weeks after this we were able to tag along with my parents for a GREAT RELAXING SUNNY spring break! We headed down to Palm Spring to get some much needed Vita D, and some R&R. While we were there some of the great things we did were...Play tennis at least once a day! Eat lots of yummie food, read some good books, have an AMAAAAZZZING spa day in celebration of my birthday, and last but not least...make my poor dad sleep outside on the patio. No joke. Its a looong story, but the short version is that his snoring is WAAAY too loud. And his daughter (me) was not having a week of hearing him snore (ear plugs dont do anything for this guys noises he makes...its not just the noise, its the shaking of the walls that happens when he snores) This being said, you can get an idea of what his bed looked like :) WE LOVE YOU DAD!!! Such a good sport!

Kyle and Dad went on an excursion to Joshua Tree...here they are. Looks sooo exciting eh? Exactly why mom and I stayed back to play tennis and enjoy the sunshine while we could.

I wasnt lying!

Finally just a few weeks ago we were able to Celebrate Kyles Grandfathers 80th Birthday! Grandpa Joe had quite the bash...tons of dancing with a live band and a full on catered dinner. Grandpa Joe is the life of the party! He and Maggie LOVE dancing and so it was with out fail that we were swindled into dancing! It was a great night!

Keri, kyles sister and her boyfriend matt.

Mary and Dave dancing :)

I think I need to take a few dancing classes or lessons...I am in no way a "dancer"...maybe I just need to watch more dancing with the stars! hmm..

And Lastly, we have Keri who had a big lacrosse tournoment in Corvallis. She is a ROCK STAR at lacrosse and is the captan of the team. Here she is doing her thing and looking good while doing it. Way to go Ker!!

And there you have it...one VERY long blog update! Hopefully next time it wont take me 4 months before I update again. However, no promises!

Snowy Days in Corvallis...

Good Morning Snow!

Yesterday as many of you know the weathermen around here were going crazy about this snow storm coming into town over night. They were projecting a heavy 1-4 inches! Haha You midwest and east coasters think were crazy..maybe we are. However, I was pretty excited to hear about a possible day of school being canceled. YAY! I told Kyle as we fell asleep last night, that the snow better be here in the morning or else I am going to be ONE GRUMPY TEACHER! To my luck, I woke up at 5, check the district website, and was sooo sad. A 2-hour delay...THATS IT! ahh. Just so happened to be the ONLY school district that did not cancel the full day of school. Boo Hoo! Oh well, I'll take what I can get at this point :) So, I decided to take my camera out for a stroll this morning and get a few shots. Heres how they turned out... Enjoy!

Sunshine wakin' up through the clouds

Nice morning stroll

We got about 4 inches...beautiful berries on the trees

Hope Tree

One of my favorites :)

xoxo

ReCap of the last few weeks around here

First of all, a HUGE thanks to both my parents and Kyles parents for an amaaaazing Holiday break. It was great to spend some relaxing time with both sides of the family, with out work, and kyle with out worrying about studying.

It began with a rough start, kyle had his ACL reconstruction surgery, followed shortly thereafter with me getting food poisoning...i know i know, your thinking from which restaurant-right? Well, you dont have to worry. I know none of you will be going to this first class restaurant--THE BOWLING ALLY! haha I know, I deserve it after eating there. Ohhh well, wont ever have to say I never "lived a little on the edge." Anyways, we had a great time after about the first week break had began :)

What we enjoyed the most:

-Sleeping in

-A warm house

-Cute P.J's for Christmas Eve

-On-Site Laundry amenities

-Four tire-less nephews

-Hot Tub access (for free!)

-Our mothers cooking (Evans and Robinson)

-College Football

-Skiing at Bachelor

-Family Memories

-Brothers and Sisters

-Talking to Tay on Christmas

-Sledding behind the truck

-Nurf Gun Wars

-Nearly running out of gas on the Mountian

-Board Games (i know, i admit i liked a FEW)

-Clean Carpets

-Bowling

-The 3 dogs

-The Wii-Just Dance with steph and Mary!

-GIFTS!

-Baking Day with Mama K

-Shopping!

-Blazzzzerrrr Game!!!! (Rip City Baby!)

-Family Basketball, and Volleyball

-Make-up shopping with Dad and his girls!

-Christmas eve live nativity with the cousins and baby Max

-And Celebrating our 1 year anniversary!!!!!

We had such a FABULOUS time with our families, we cannot begin to describe how lucky and blessed we are to have such great supportive, and loving families.

We hope this new year brings joy and happiness to everyone! XOXO

I love my siblings, what can I say?

25 days of christmas begins today...so why not begin with a little pick-me-up to being the fun!? I do this every year and totally laugh out loud to myself while I do these silly elf yourselves.

Enjoy!!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/0xSkc9drI5xFhkPX?cmpid=ey_fb_self

And were back on...

New years resolution...post more on our blog! I realize that I am 2 months early, but why not begin now and see how I am doing come January?

Lots has been going on around the Robinson home. We are in full swing with work and studying. Kyle is finishing up his final year here at OSU, and I am 9 weeks into my first full time teaching job at West Salem High School. Kyle is keeping extremely busy and I am never finding enough time for sleep these days. Its a whole new ball game once your working full time. I do love it, but....Needless to say, I cant wait till I am done.

Kyle and I have been so busy lately, but were lucky to have both our parents in town this last weekend for the OSU football game. It was great because being an Alumni for the volleyball team we were able to get some awesome seats for the game. I have never sat Club level before and it was a BLAST! We are truly lucky to have our families close by who are so supporting and get along so well with each other.

Here are some pictures as of lately.

Enjoy!

Two peas in a pod...

Only in Corvallis...next to campus :)

watching our beavs beat up on Cal

mom and me

beautiful campus

The family down for a football game

Out for our usual sunday stroll

Summer Nights

I couldn't help myself from taking these photos...what a beautiful place we live in! Thanks mom and dad for letting us always enjoy the pool!