My sister and Brett left to fly back to the east coast this morning.  The house feels quiet and empty – S is at work, they are gone, and even the cats are somewhere upstairs hiding.  Kinda sad   I miss them already. 

Every single day of their trip we did something fun and exciting.  Yesterday was the final full day of their trip and it was my sister’s 23rd birthday.  For her birthday, she wanted to go to the beach.  So we headed down to Santa Cruz.

But first, some exciting news.  In the morning… S and I went to the place that I hate the most in the world…. the DMV.  No, that’s not the exciting news.  The exciting news is… I officially got my motorcycle license!  Well, right now I have a temporary one.  But the real one is in the mail and I should receive it in the next few weeks.  So I am a licensed biker!  Woo hoo!

I decorated the house during the night for Sarah’s birthday.

She was very surprised and happy when she woke up.

So was Mendy.

Cookie eating and word rearranging quickly commenced.  “Happy Birthday Sarah” soon turned into:

After a chocolate chip cookie breakfast and the DMV trip, we went to Santa Cruz.  S didn’t come – he was working from home but had too much to do, so it was just Sarah, Brett and I.  Oooh…I forgot to share the happy news we got last weekend.  Two things actually:  1.  S will be coming home from work earlier each day – he got approval to leave work earlier and work on the train on the way home.  So he will get home around 6pm, woo hoo!  and 2.  S will be working from home on Wednesdays each week.  Both of these items will really help make the long commute more tolerable and will allow us to spend more quality time together!  And now that this weekend we move forward an hour, it will get darker later so we can actually do fun stuff together after work.  I can’t wait!

Santa Cruz was gorgeous.  It was cool outside, but the sun was shining and there weren’t very many people since it was a weekday during the off season.  First we went to see the sea lions.

They were swimming in the water!  This was the first time I have ever seen them swimming.  Usually they are lazing around and sunning on the wood, out of the water.

Actually, they weren’t exactly swimming.  They were pretty much just floating and resting in the water.  It looked so relaxing.

Then we walked on the beach.

Had some serious discussions

And of course walked down the pier, to Marinis, where Sarah got some saltwater taffy and a caramel apple with white and milk chocolate.  In-credible.

We also walked around downtown Santa Cruz.  They have a little community market called New Leaf that I absolutely LOVE.  I have to stop myself from going crazy and buying everything whenever I walk in there.  I limited myself to an organic chocolate bar and some chips on this trip

For her birthday dinner, Sarah wanted to go to this place in Campbell where you can grill your own steaks, called Grill’em.  It was pretty cool – they bring the raw steak to your table, and you go up to the grill and grill it to your own desired perfection.  I didn’t feel like red meat, so I went for a teriyaki chicken salad (twas delicious.)  But it was fun to watch them cook their steaks. 

After dinner we headed back home and had some cake.  Sarah had requested a funfetti cake with chocolate icing, so thats what we had.  Sooo good.  I had two huge pieces, and then I put the rest in two big tupperware containers and gave it to Sarah and Brett to take with them.  I know myself, and there is no way I can have that cake sitting in the house.  That is ASKING for trouble.  Actually, it was S’s idea to give it to them to take… and it was a good one!

So after a happy week that went way too fast, I am back with my quiet house.  It’s tough – times like this, when my visitors leave, always remind me of how far away I am from my family.  The good news is that I will get to go to the gym, which I haven’t done for over a week and a half!