friends and their babies!

i've been lucky enough to see or meet two sweet babes and their lovely parents in the last couple of weeks. tish, morgan, and melina stayed with us on their way to a conference in monterey. we also got a chance to do some tidepooling with melina on a spectacular november day. 

melina hanging out with her (favorite) auntie and uncle. :)

loving algae from an early age! 

hooray for the intertidal

hard core training for the "wife carrying relay"

 there were lots and lots of humboldt squid washed up on one of the
beaches. as i was taking this photo, i realized that this one was still
alive. i put it back in the water and it started turning all sorts of cool
colors. it eventually swam away from the beach a bit, but they all seemed
to come back and beach themselves after a short while. and the gulls
were waiting for them in droves....

this past weekend i got to meet my kiwi niece - sofia louise barnes. jen, grant, and sofia arrived from new zealand early in the month to do the U.S. grandparent tour through oregon and california. i cannot wait to see them all again soon in auckland! 

we stopped in at OSU for a trip down memory lane - go beavers!

while i was in oregon, i took the opportunity to scatter some of cassie's ashes and hike in a place we both loved and spent many of our days. cass was my #1 running buddy when we lived in corvallis and would keep me company while running the trails in mcdonald forest. there are so many good memories in those trees and trails. i miss them both...

visit from mama foley

my mom was able to come out to california for ten days at the end of the october. my goal for her for the trip was rest. she had carpel tunnel surgery at the beginning of the month and had since been raking piles and piles and piles of leaves. not the best thing for healing, in my opinion! so we did lots of activities that required little wrist movement, including lots of hiking and sight-seeing. 

 monarch butterflies congregating for the winter at natural bridges

 hearst castle! i've been wanting to visit since i moved to
california, so my mom's visit was the perfect excuse to go!

 so out of place, but crazy cool...

 the view is pretty spectacular!

 a few yearling elephant seals were hauled out at piedras

 the weather was amazingly beautiful - piedras blancas

 we toured the piedras blancas lighthouse

had a very nice hike out to my old field site along the big sur river

a little beach time at natural bridges

we also squeezed in a trip to the san francisco to hear lang lang (an amazing pianist) play with the san francisco symphony and evensong at grace cathedral. a work trip took us to sacramento. in exchange for seven hours in the car, we decided to treat ourselves to a tour of the california state capitol. it is a really beautiful building, so i'm glad we got the chance to check it out. 

thanks for visiting, mom!