Here is the lovely bride and groom in seriously the only picture we have of them.  Why are we so bad at preserving memories on camera?

The wedding was held at the Humphrey’s Inn in San Diego, in a lovely secluded garden.  The temperature was cool and crisp.

Loren and Michelle did so much to ensure that their guests would have a really enjoyable time and there were so many cute touches.  At each table setting was a personalized drink chosen to reflect each guest’s personality.

There was also chocolate from Loren’s hometown in Canada, a beautiful ceremony performed by the founder of Dropcam and little fortune cookies that we broke open to learn our table numbers.  The RSVP form let guests leave information about their wedding songs, which were played throughout dinner.  Loren and Michelle even made a point to come over to our table to prod us when our song came up and not-so-gently hint that we should dance.  (I noticed a lot of couples dancing during Louis Armstrong’s Wonderful World!)

There were red velvet cupcakes adorned with candy maple leaves, cheesecake pops and great dance music.  There was a photo booth!

This is actually our second attempt!  In the first set, I noticed Martin was just sitting there staring at the camera; when I got mad and started shaking Martin, I neglected to notice the camera go off for our final frame.  Whoops.  :)

We ate and danced and laughed until late in the night.  All in all, what a fun wedding!

One of my favorite recent photos of Rob and Kat.  They just look so cozy and warm!  (photo by Kat)

Recently, we got a big shock when we found out our friends Rob and Kat were packing up bags and moving across the country.  Rob and Kat were some of the first folks I met out in the Bay Area and while we’re sad to see them go, we are excited for the new opportunities the move will bring for them.  Lucky for us, they needed more time to pack and came back in December for a short trip to tie up loose ends.  We were able to meet up with them and some other friends at a giant group dim sum – a delicious and excellent way to catch up with everyone!

Toro (photo by Emily)

Mark and Emily hosted a Christmas party complete with a slightly awkward White Santa (no Christmas is complete without it).  We also played my current favorite board game, Seven Wonders, ate delicious snacks and generally had a great time.  It was low-key and so much fun.  No one took any pictures at the party so I’m posting one of Emily’s photos, which is an AWWW-worthy photo of my favorite pup, Toro.  I can’t believe he was ever smaller than he currently is and I just melt looking at this adorable face.  :)

Some of the Dropcam Team:  This photo was taken at Loren and Michelle’s photo booth at their wedding.

On our last night in California, Martin’s company had their annual holiday party at their new San Francisco office.  I had met some of the engineers at Loren and Michelle’s wedding but not everyone so it was a great chance to see everyone again.  There was delicious finger foods and interesting and lively conversation – nothing more to be asked for from a party, I say.

The morning after the party was a mad scramble to pack (yes, we had procrastinated that long) and run pesky last minute errands before boarding our flight to Sweden, snow and family time!

While they were in town, we ate some donuts at a place called Pyscho Donuts in San Jose and met some of Chethan’s friends we had never met before as well as Tara’s sister.  To illustrate how crazy they are, they colored every donut a lime green color for the holidays.  They’re also fond of strange donut toppings (like Captain Crunch) or weird names (Jekyll and Hyde, Cereal Killer, etc.).

Afterwards, we headed to Windy Hill for an easy breezy (not really) eight mile hike on Hamm’s Gulch.  It was rough to say the least (well for me, probably not for the more experienced hikers!) but we finally made it to the top:

If you squint, behind us, you can see the Bay Area laid out at our feet.  It was a bit foggy/smoggy/cloudy that day but we could still barely make out the Golden Gate Bridge.  Barely.  :)

Because we seriously can’t help ourselves.

A few weeks later, we were thrilled to learn that Chethan was accepting the job he had interviewed for while in the area and another part of the NCSU contingent is packing up and making their way west.  We are very happy to have them so close by!

Because we’re from N.C. State and we can totally be peer pressured into flashing the wolf symbol.

Brian, it was lots of fun, come back as soon as possible!

I also have to say, none of our pictures came out so I am (once again) borrowing pictures from Kjersti the better, prompter blogger.  :)  Sorry, Kjersti, internet world, and readers for piggybacking!  I am trying to fix my lazy ways.  :)

Hi, Birthday Girl! (photo by Kjersti)

Kjersti this year revived a super-fun birthday theme and had her Hallo-Wine Birthday Party, complete with a wine tasting and costumes.  We all did our part to dress up:

photo by Kjersti

It’s probably hard to tell but Martin and I are actually dressed up.  Can’t tell what he’s dressed up as?

Yellow dress?  Cute apron?  How about now? (photo by Kjersti)

Yes, we went as each other!  You can’t tell, but I am wearing a Dropcam shirt, jeans, sneakers, a brown belt and I made sure to wear my glasses.  Yes, it’s less daring than Martin but there you go.

It was a lot of fun!  We got to try different wines and then we also played games where, if I am not mistaken, girls kicked butt!  Overall, we had a great time and were happy for a reason to hang out with friends.

And finally, because lately I’ve been doing nothing but think with my stomach, I had to call these out:

photo by Kjersti

They are Kjersti’s homemade Oreos and even though she has shared the recipe with me before and swears up and down they are super easy, my attempts to recreate them have always been disasters.  They’re missing that special Kjersti touch and never come out as soft and delicious as hers.  I love these, and the gal who introduced me to them.  :)

So, thank you, Kjersti and Greg, for inviting us into your fab apartment and throwing such a fun party!  We had a blast and hope we can do it again soon!

photo by Kjersti

In trying to catch up with everything we’ve done in the past two months, let’s get started!  Martin broke his long distance running drought after he ran the San Francisco marathon with the San Jose Rock and Roll half marathon back in early October.  Here he is with several of his coworkers and Kjersti, who developed a training regime to help everyone prepare for the big race.  I wasn’t there (talk about unsupportive) but I don’t think they could have had a better cheerleader than Kjersti.

The San Jose Rock and Roll marathon is notable for having live rock bands performing at every mile along the race.  That and the sparkly blue and green medal they hand out once you complete the race:

photo by Kjersti

I don’t think Martin could have asked for better race conditions, as the day was sunny and slightly cool.  Plus, because it was a race he had actually trained for and wasn’t a full-fledged marathon, he was fairly energetic when he came home – though quite thirsty!

Here is Kjersti’s better post about the race, posted in a reasonable amount of time after the race.  I think my New Year’s resolution should be to actually get things posted on the blog in a timely manner.  :)

1)  Amy made me dinner, a very yummy and delicious veggie-packed couscous.

2)  Hanging out with Mark and Emily.

3)  Taking Friday off and driving up to Hog Island Oysters:

We didn’t come completely prepared with charcoal/picnic food to barbecue our own oysters so we ate them raw (I wasn’t complaining though!) and broke bread (literally).  Afterwards, we drove down to San Francisco, walked a bit around the Ferry Building and ate dinner and then drove home.

4)  The next day, we spent most of it with Emily, taking a goat farm tour that ended in a ton of goat cheese sampling (seriously, we ate soo much goat cheese!!) and a walk along Half Moon Bay:

It was really sunny.  That totally explains why I’m squinty.  To-to-totally.

I think I told Amy to jump like the goat here.

5)  On Amy’s last day, we went up to Oakland and hung out with Ben, Rebecca and Wendy by Lake Merritt.  We also met up with another of Amy’s friends for dinner.

After a day in Oakland, I dropped Amy off at the airport.  I miss when Amy and I used to live in the same city, but I’m glad she made the Bay Area part of her itinerary!

You might recognize these beautiful shining faces from some of our Canada shots.  Surabhi and Ziga are definitely some of our closest friends in the Bay Area and we have had great fun with them through the years.

For their birthday, Surabhi and Ziga rented a trampoline dodge ball court for an hour.  For those who have never heard of trampoline dodge ball before, it’s exactly as it sounds.  You play dodge balls, on trampolines.  Bouncing is mandatory.

I didn’t play with the group, which made me the perfect person to catch everyone in all their sweaty glory.  I actually have played before, at a work team outing.  It sounds like it’d be fairly simple and easy, but everyone who plays for the first time always ends up surprised at just how much they sweat.  I tried to warn Martin but he didn’t take my advice to heart:

Boys are gross!  And I think they might have cooties, too.

Michelle played in this corner the entire time.  It was a pretty effective strategy.

Action shot!

What the entire dodgeball court looks like.

Overall, it was a huge success.  Everyone loved it and had a really fun time, as evidenced by the fact that they begged for another half hour of play.  Afterwards, we went to dinner at a tapas place near our house to continue on.  It was definitely a great party idea and we had a wonderful time.  Happy Happy Birthday, Surabhi and Ziga!!

Find all trampoline dodgeball pictures here.

The Gilroy Garlic Festival is an annual fair but we’ve never been until this year.  At the fair, people can try all things garlic:  garlic fries, garlic bread, garlic kettle corn and even garlic ice cream.  Here we are with our free sample:

It was interesting.  It was icy rather than creamy and tasted sort of like what would happen if you mixed garlic powder with milk.

Overall, the fair was a lot of fun.  We saw some garlic-related competitions, ate a lot of fair food in the name of garlic, ogled the craft booths and wandered around thinking, “Damn, it’s hot!”  It’s out in the middle of an open field in July and shade is limited.  Overall, we’re glad we can check this off our list of California experiences but we probably won’t be going again anytime soon.

PROOF:

Don’t they look awesome and adorable, all rolled into one?  Oh, yeah, and photo by Jordan.

For the most part, they entertained themselves (we are bad hosts!) by driving down to Monterrey and Carmel and wandering around SF without us.  But we managed to fit in dinners together every night and then a day up in Napa, filled with lots of wine (of course), even more champagne, Bouchon treats and a scrumptious dinner at Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc.

It was hard to see them go so I guess that means we’ll have to find a way to hang out together soon, eh?  Thanks for the good times, guys!