It's true, I left a little piece of my heart in San Francisco when we came home from our Honeymoon. I say this often but, that beautiful city is probably the only place that I would gladly leave Greenville, SC for. Then I think about our family, church and the low cost of living here and I always change my mind. HA! But since some of my love sick, honeymoon heart is still in San Fran I thought it would be great to make a photo book to remember everything and cross off #47 on my 101 in 10001 list.

^^ I love all the great art you can add to any page! 

This drawing of the bridge was absolutely perfect.

With the easy process on Shutterfly and the high quality products I knew that the book would turn out beautiful but I was still shocked at the beautiful result. Flipping through every page makes my heart long for the west coast again!! One day, we will make it back out there. One day!

This product is c/o Shutterlfy.

All opinions are honest and my own.

Six Months.

We celebrated our six month anniversary on Saturday night by opening the bottle of wine that we purchased on our honeymoon in Sonoma and I made dinner for Peter. When I was working on my 101 in 1001 list and added #48, I didn't realize at the time how much Peter would really help me cook on a normal basis. He enjoys it and I enjoy his help so much. Plus, having him around in the kitchen a lot is fun.

After our busy Saturday of running errands we had a little break of rain which was unexpected. Peter worked in the yard and I painted the chicken coop so by the time dinner came around he was relaxing in the living room while I started to prepare dinner. He asked if I needed help but I gladly said no. I wanted him to rest and I also wanted to make dinner for him. He is always so helpful around the house and I really appreciate that, so it was really nice to do something for him and just let him sit back and enjoy it. By the time dinner was ready it was time for him to open the bottle of wine. Then we sat down and enjoyed our dinner and wine together. The dinner wasn't anything fancy, just some ravioli that I picked up from Costco and a can of sauce from Publix; simple but definitely tasty. And the wine (B.R. Cohn, 2010 Sonoma Valley Zinfandel) tasted even better than we remembered!! 

& here is the fun story behind those gorgeous flowers since I’m sure you are wondering! ;)

Tulips are my favorite. They are such a happy flower and they have always made me smile. I came home from work on Friday to find a vase of tulips and a card waiting in the kitchen. I gasped, looking at Peter thinking he has done the unimaginable, (he isn't the buying flowers type) and he flashed that sneaky grin and said they aren't from me! I grabbed the card with confusion and read it while tears filled my eyes. My sweet friend all the way in Missouri sent me my favorite flowers for our “Half-A-Versary” and I could have burst. It completely made my day. Not only am I blessed with this amazing man as my husband but I also have some equally amazing friends. Thanks Cassie & Matt for the beautiful flowers - we loved them!!! 

During the last six months of marriage I have learned a lot. Some big things and some little things, but through all these things I know with my whole heart that this marriage is good. It is such a wonderful blessing in our life and I’m so thankful for it. We work hard to love each other but that can be easy after only six months of doing it as husband and wife. My prayer for our marriage is to never stop learning together and loving each other on purpose. During the many years in our future together I know there will be ups and downs but I want to try my hardest to love and appreciate the man that the Lord has given me. Six months is nothing in the grand scheme of things but it has been absolutely everything to me. 
I'm so thankful!

little bit more of San Fran!

At the beginning of the trip when we were in San Francisco I was crossing my fingers for a trip to the Ferry Building Marketplace but we couldn’t squeeze it in. I was a little bummed but I was still crossing my fingers that we could make it happen before we flew home. Well, make it happen we did! It was even better than all the pictures I saw online. All the vendors with the fresh food and the delicious restaurants to choose from was so neat. We decided to try out The Slanted Door and it was also my first time eating Vietnamese food and Oh My. I don’t know what took me so long and it was honestly really dumb of me to wait because I have a feeling it will be pretty hard to find some Vietnamese cuisine that will top that restaurant. After the yummy lunch with the beautiful views outside we found a few of my most favorite desserts, French Macaroons!!! With a slow drip cup of coffee from Blue Bottle Coffee company and a Hazelnut, Coffee & Pistachio flavored Macaroon we ended our trip on the highest of high notes. Or at least in my book…

A perfect ending...

Monterey, the Big Sur & Carmel were all so, so gorgeous!! I loved different things about all of them which made the last part of our trip so much fun. In Monterey we did some shopping by the water and had some tasty Pinkberry which made this lady very happy. Big Sur was unreal with its beauty that kept on becoming more beautiful around every corner of the drive. The sunset dinner with Peter in the photo above was one of my favorite memories from the trip… the food wasn't the best but the way we sat together and watched the sun go down behind the silky water and talked about all the places we had been and the places we want to go in our future was so exciting. I am really happy that I get to do life with this man and I know how blessed I am to call him mine! Carmel was complete perfection and I could have honestly spent an entire week there. From wine tasting and olive oil tasting to some delicious sushi and then window shopping for art that cost anywhere from $300 to $15,000… needless to say we did not buy anything but along the way we stumbled into a Syrian/Jordanian owned café and had some tasty Turkish coffee. It was an all around great day and great days make me super happy!!

^^^ beautiful downtown Monterey!

^^^ we stopped at the Cannery Row Brewery Company and I loved this awesome light.

^^^ First stop on the 17 Mile drive which we accidentally took twice. Definitely didn't mind driving through this beautiful scenery more than once. 

^^^ The Lonely Cyprus

^^^ does not even look real. It's crazy how beautiful this place is!

Just a little bit more of San Fran coming your way tomorrow and then the Honeymoon posts will be over. I honestly did most of this for my memories but I also thought a lot of you would like to see and hear about all the places we visited! I hope you've enjoyed it... I know we will look back on this trip every year and remember all the happiness and love that we had on the 10 amazing days. 

Some more beautiful photos for your enjoyment...

I honestly can't tell you the names of all the beaches we saw on all of our drives because there were a ton but they were all gorgeous. On Saturday the fifth of October we drove through Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz with a little pit stop at Big Basin on our way to Monterey. The long drives were starting to get to me by this point and a hot cup of coffee was needed a couple times just so I could keep my eyes open to see everything. The big ocean views and ginormous trees were so amazing and made me realize how small we are and how big God is. There were times when I had to take a deep breath and just stare at His beautiful work. He really does like to show off and I absolutely love it. 

^^^ we stopped in Half Moon Bay to take some photos and have some lunch. 

the views were so pretty and the weather was the perfect combination of hot sun and cool breeze!

^^^ on the way to Big Bason we saw this cute little tractor at a pumpkin farm and it made me feel like I was home again. 

^^^ this family on the right with the stroller was the only photo I took that truly captured how big these trees are, so amazing!!! 

^^^ Peter went in the middle of this big cluster of trees and said "You have to come see this!" 

the photo below is what we saw. 

^^^ definitely framing this in our house! 

We ended the beach stops in Santa Cruz with some light houses, super hot wings that almost made us cry & a walk through the amusement park by the ocean. It was gorgeous but this was the only picture taken during our time there since we were trying to reserve the battery for our Cannon as much as possible. I'm the genious that forgot to pack the wall plug in charger. I still want to kick myself for forgetting it but in all honesty it was nice to just enjoy the veiws with my own two eyes instead of clicking away with the camera.

Some wine and a little beer too!

I've always wanted to visit Wine Country and I had high hopes for this part of the trip but I definitely realized that I'm much more of a beer girl than a wine girl. I've always been the girl to choose wine if I have a choice so this really surprised me. After our first day of tastings I knew that sipping on a lot of different wine over a long period of time is just not my thing. Beer on the other hand is a different story. I could taste all kinds of well made beer all day long. Since my husband is an at home beer brewer and loves beer almost as much as he loves me this is a good thing. 

Beer > Wine pretty much sums up this part of our trip and we were perfectly fine with that. 

^^^ our beautiful hotel in Sonoma!

^^^ some tasty beers on our first night after the long drive and a delicious meal.

I chose the 10% dark sour and it was absolutely perfect!! Mmmm. 

^^^ Our first winery stop on Thursday at Matanzas was also a lavender field and since we used lavender in our wedding it was so wonderful to be surrounded by that lovely scent that reminds me of our special day! 

^^^ B.R. Cohn was one of our favorite wineries and the only winery we bought a bottle of wine to take home with us. I can't wait to drink it on a special date night at home with Peter! 

^^^ Benzinger was the only winery that we had a cheese pairing and I think it really helped with the tasting.

^^^ it was also the most beautiful winery too! 

^^^ Peter snacking on a grape from the vine! 

^^^ after all the wine we dedicated Friday to Lagunitas Brewing Company on our ride out of Wine Country. It was so much fun!! 

Since Yosemite was closed we couldn't spend the two nights we had scheduled there so we got lucky and found a hotel for Friday night and then another hotel on Saturday night. It turned out to be a great way to break the trip up a little bit and gave us some extra time to explore. Plus, now we have an excuse to travel back to Northern California and see Yosemite someday! Sounds like a win-win to me.