Australia & New Zealand

 well, i am back from my trip! i actually came back about two months ago, but i just haven't blogged until now! i really need to get back into blogging...

anyways, it was an amazing trip. so much happened & i felt so many things on this trip. it was a much needed getaway.

although, i won't go into too much detail (because fitting two weeks of vacation into one blogpost is a scary thought!), i'd like to share little details with you through photos : )

 i got to meet (& stay with!) two of my blogger friends! first i stayed with sarah. she was so loving & i thoroughly enjoyed my time with her. i got to meet her caring family & tour her family's business. & she took me to kikki k!! i loved kikki k. i stocked up on so much stationary goodies.

then i stayed with katyha in sydney! we went on a great little adventure in sydney, walking to all of the places i wanted to see. i got to see the opera house, which was a big highlight! we also caught a glimpse of mia wasikowska while we were out for the night at bills eating pavlova. (i love pavlova now!!!)

then i hopped on a plane & met with my sister for the first time in eight months. it was such a great feeling to have my sister again.

 in auckland, raquel & i ate good food at the food truck garage as recommended by amanda of here comes the sun & visited the auckland art gallery. fun fact - my instagram photo of the veggie burger was regrammed by the food truck garage instagram : )

after spending a few days in auckland, raquel & i started our road trip around the north island of new zealand! we drove on the left side of the road on the right side of the car...& i drove for a bit as well! i didn't like it...

 after spending some time at the hot water beach, we made it to matamata aka hobbiton! seeing hobbiton was a dream come true.

after a surreal experience in matamata, we hit the road again to the tongariro alpine crossing aka mt. doom. i have an amazing story of how we hiked the tongariro crossing, but i will just say that it was 7.5 hours of almost nonstop walking in extreme weather conditions (the shuttles were even cancelled because of the bad weather), high winds, high altitude (hard to breath!), & up steep mountainsides for over 12 miles. i still can't believe that i did it. the views were incredible. it's an experience i will never forget.

 after our hike, i could barely walk & woke up in pain many times that night. the next day i downed pain killers & went caving - glowworm caving. it was incredible.

during our road trip around new zealand, we stayed at many hostels (backpackers) & airbnbs. this one was really cute.

 it was a fantastic trip & i was sad to leave my sister. she is coming to visit in september though (on her way to india!) & i am so happy about that. i miss her.

mansions & one pot wonders

so i finished converting my thesis into a journal article. it took me two full days & by the end of it i was so done with my thesis. miguel was great though - keeping me sane & cooking me food. i took two hours off of writing & took him on a surprise day trip to the leland stanford mansion. it has great architecture & thought it would be a great way to celebrate the end of miguel's first semester of architecture. it was just the two of us on the tour so it was nice (like a private tour!), but i was too shy to take photos inside the mansion & the sun was too bright to get a good photo of the whole house. so you get what you get i guess! it was quite beautiful & we enjoyed all of the greenery outside as well.

 we made one of the one pot wonder dishes i told you about in the last post! we made the spinach & artichoke one. it's crazy how easy it is & it turned out pretty good. needed a little salt in my opinion & we added some parmesan cheese & red pepper flakes (well, miguel did).

sorry about the unedited iphone photos! i'm just a bit lazy today, writing from a hotel room on a road trip with my family : )

tonight

i roasted artichokes tonight using this recipe. the artichokes i used were humongous. & i loved the color of them after i cut their tops off. so beautiful.

i also made this cold brew coffee tonight for tomorrow morning breakfast.

we ate the artichokes & watched the grey's anatomy  finale. goodbye cristina.

thailand

i'm back from thailand! it was such a great adventure & my sister & i did so many things. i met a blogger friend, pet baby tigers, & visited the breathtaking grand palace. we went to temples & saw the emerald buddha. we visited hill tribes & saw the karen long neck villagers. we rode tuk tuks, songthaews, minivans, taxi scooters, taxis, ferries, & planes & visited three cities. we ate thai, mexican, italian, japanese, greek, spanish, & western food. i got sick only once. & it wasn't just the heat, but the humidity also that really got to me. i experienced songkran & got soaked with water. i experienced going to a thai cinema & visited the cutest cafes. my sister & i packed so many things into those two weeks & i loved that she got to show me a little bit of where she has lived since september. it was a good trip.

there are so many photos of my trip, so i may be coming back here with little excerpts to show you. thanks for hanging in there while i was gone!

1. the grand palace

2. me in the temple at the grand palace

3. raquel & bougainvillea on the way from our guest room in bangkok. 

4. eating at an outdoor noodle shop called lung lek that is popular among locals in ayutthaya. the meal we had was about $2. total.

quiet times

hello there. march has come to this new year so fast. before i know it i will be off to thailand! i've been booking hotels/guest houses & flights to different parts of thailand (so cheap by the way - for $100 my sister & i have round trip tickets from bangkok to chiang mai round trip, for both of us, together.). i'm also in the market for an internal frame backpack & have my eye on a couple.

life has been relatively quiet lately. & i've liked it that way. it helps me fall in love with the little things that i may have otherwise missed. i've been spending some time in the yard, cleaning, mowing, & planting. on days that it is raining i love just curling up in my bed, looking out my window & listening. 

miguel came to visit one day last week & he took me out for breakfast at a cute cafe & we just sat there enjoying each other's company. he was staring at me the way he stared at me on our first date - a mixture of awe & amazement. we then went back to my place & just cuddled up, playing computer games on his new laptop & then getting chinese food at his favorite place in my city. it was such a simple day but i loved every minute of it. 

we leave on our anniversary trip tomorrow. i'm so excited : ) it's just a bummer that i just caught a cold. oh well. a little cold won't stop me!

also tomorrow, i am teaching my mom's scouting group how to make terrariums! they will be using mason jars & moss & little figurines. i have a feeling they will turn out pretty cute : )

miguel called me from target yesterday just to say that he felt weird going to target without me because we always go together. i haven't been up to visit him in a while & i think he's missing me. awww ;)

ok, those are all of the little tidbits of my life i have to share with you for now. i hope you have a lovely weekend!

link love:

• i love the simplistic design of the herringbone house
• a new kind of garland diy
• this video that miguel sent me is pretty powerful, in more ways than one

two years

 miguel & i celebrated two years together on february 6th! we spent the day together, beginning to end. he had to get to campus early to work on an architecture project, so we picked up breakfast at starbucks on the way.

 miguel's second class was cancelled so he surprised me with ramen!

 we have a trip that we will be taking soon for our two year anniversary when we both have days off of work. so for the actual day, miguel had the cute idea to reenact our very first date ;)

now, i didn't realize we were on our first date when were. it kind of just happened. he had asked me to go to target with him to help him pick out christmas gifts for his nieces. then he asked me if i was hungry & we went to california pizza kitchen. after dinner he said he wanted to do something else with me, so we went to a movie. & that was that.

& that is just what we did to celebrate! a trip to target, dinner at california pizza kitchen, & monuments men. we bought each other candles from target ;) it was overall a really cute night.

here's to many more anniversaries!

farmer's markets & sky photos

 lately i feel like it's required to start off my posts with photos of the sky. it really has been quite lovely. i took these at twilight on a 5 mile bike ride (keeping it up!). everything was so peaceful.

below is just a quick photo of my new year's brunch with my parents at home. my mom made the table look so nice! & i brought home some bunuelos (on the burgundy plate) that miguel's mom made for me. so good!

 i've been taking trips to visit miguel quite often lately before school starts up again for him. by the way, he switched his major from accounting to architecture this semester, so that's exciting! anyways, i've been actually driving the hour to see him (twice now!), which is a big step for me as i loathe driving, especially on the freeway. i'm so proud of myself! soon it may be no more train rides for me...

 so my last trek on the freeway to miguel was welcomed by one of his berry & banana smoothies : ) delicious! (he makes them every morning to drink on the way to work, so he has crafted a smoothie skill of sorts.) you can see the christmas gift miguel gave me on my wrist ;)

 about four months ago, i was going through back posts of bleubird & saw a watch that i absolutely loved. i showed miguel & searched a little online to find one similar to it, but found nothing. two months passed & i had given up finding anything close to it. but miguel had his own plan to find the watch & give it to me for christmas - i had no clue! he searched & searched until he found the watch on etsy. he made an account & bought it the same day. he was so excited & when i opened my gift i was in shock & got all teary eyed ;) he did good.

 one other thing i got for christmas that miguel was excited about was a costco membership from my parents! basically the first thing miguel & i did after i got it was make a trip to costco & load up on all kinds of goodies like toilet paper & artichoke dip. seriously though, we were so excited. haha.

 we also took a trip to the local farmer's market. miguel had plans to cook me dinner. we got some broccoli & green onions & breakfast!

 & of course we had to stop at our favorite ramen place. seriously so delicious!

 i took a quick shot of miguel cooking fried rice ;) hehe. what a handsome man.

in other news, miguel & i went on a double date with lizzie & her new friend last night. we saw her. i had mixed emotions from the film. i thought the cinematography was spot-on & the colors were beautiful. the film brought some really good points to contemplate on the future of relationships with ever-evolving technology. it also asked some interesting theoretical questions in my opinion. joaquin phoenix's acting was dynamic. i was just left with questions & an almost uncomfortable feeling at the end. so i'm not sure if i really liked the full movie. anyways, watch it & let me know what you thought!

also, i've been planning my trip to thailand to visit my sister in april & i'm so excited! i've been browsing blogs to find neat places to go : ) if you have any recommendations, please let me know!

now i'm off to finish silver linings playbook before miguel comes home from work!