Life Lately // Spring Vibes

Wow guys, its been a while! I think it is time to update you all on what's been happening with me lately. If you follow me on Instagram, this won't be that surprising, but let me just say this: I am 100% completely loving spring right now. It has been amaaazing so far and I can only hope things will be even better as summer approaches. If spring is any indication as to how summer will be, its going to be crazy awesome.

First of all, I just had spring break last week and it was pretty epic! One of my best friends, Nayeli, and I took a road trip down to San Diego. We started planning this back in February after I had the brilliant idea that a girls trip to San Diego would be the perfect spring break get away because it is a) cheap since we can stay with my family b) it's beautiful! No complaints here that the best, closest, cheapest place for me to travel to for all my school breaks is a sunny wonderland! We had the best time on our trip and it was so fun traveling with one of my best girl friends.

We spent time with my family, went to the beach, went for a couple hikes, tried out new restaurants, talked nonstop, and giggled over shows we watched together like Jane the Virgin and Teen Mom. We also explored different areas of San Diego and went wine tasting very close to my dad's house. Wine tasting was definitely a huge highlight of our trip! We got Groupons, which made it super, super cheap and the weather and scenery was beautiful. It was lovely trying out different wines together and laughing while wandering around the wineries after maybe a bit too much tasting ;)

Another awesome thing we did while we were there was meet up with Morgan and a couple of her friends at Coin-Op Game Room, a bar with really cool retro arcade games. It was really nice seeing Morgan again and having my blog world and non-blog worlds collide :) Dai was able to come down for a couple days, which was also nice! He works very hard and deserves to have a little fun too!

Oh, we also went to this awesome place that truly deserves a blog post of its own: The Succulent Cafe. It is exactly what it sounds like an outdoor cafe with succulents everywhere (insert heart eyes emoji). As you can imagine, it basically had all of the things I love--coffee, succulents, and my dog since it was outdoors! I definitely felt right at home :) I think next time I am down there I will stop by again (duh) and take some photos so I can share them here for your enjoyment!

Aside from my trip to San Diego, things have been pretty good. School is stressful, but there are only six weeks left of the semester, so I am telling myself I can/will survive! This semester I have been making more friends, which has really helped my sanity. It is nice to know that other people in my program are going through the same things and we can help each other out!

I'm currently just trying to focus on the rest of the semester and do my best to produce quality work and finish strong. I am starting to think about summer a bit too and search for internship opportunities. I need to work on my resume as well so I can start sending that out! I'm hoping I can find something that will help me gain some real world experience in the design/photography field. Time to start preparing for the real world, but it's scary haha.

So that's pretty much what's been up with me lately! I've missed blogging and have so many ideas for things I'd like to do with this space. I'm hoping that it won't be so long before I blog again! I'm always working to find balance and maybe this time I finally will figure out the secret to it all ;)

How has your spring been? Do you have anything special planned? I hope the flowers are blooming and the sun has come out in your city!

Adventure // San Diego Spring Break

Hi, friends! I was pretty lucky this year & sort of had two weeks of spring break (one without school & one without work!), so we were able to fit in little a spur of the moment road trip to San Diego! I always love taking trips down there since it is where I am originally from & where most of my family lives. Plus, I definitely enjoy hanging out on the beach & soaking up the nice weather when I can!

We had a great time hanging out with my sisters, brothers-in-law, aunts, nephews, niece, & cousin. So much family to visit! One day while we were there, we went to a lake with my sister and nephews to visit my other sister who was camping there with her little family. The kids had a great time riding bikes in the dirt and playing on a splash pad. They were even able to push me into the water, if you can tell from the photo above ;) We also went swimming with my nephews & spent some time jumping on the trampoline. Those kids are fearless on that thing, I tell ya! They were just doing flip after flip and I couldn't bring my self to do a single one. Does this mean I am getting old? ;) My sister & I also got to have a little girls night out! We left the kiddos with Dai and my brother-in-law and went out for drinks and dessert for the first time since I'm 21 now. It was a lot of fun doing something "adult" like & hearing stories from my sister when she was my age & all the trouble she got into :)
We also spent some time staying with my aunt who, lucky for us, lives pretty close to the beach. We started off each morning that we were with her with a nice, long walk down to the ocean to get coffee or have breakfast at a little cafe. One morning we also met up with my cousin and her dog so that the pups could play on the beach. They were so cute together and, luckily, they got along really well! While we were there, we also had a few family dinners and it was really nice to be able to see family that I usually just get to see around holidays.
We really couldn't have asked for more lovely weather and I'm so happy that we were able to take full advantage of it! I definitely can't complain about laying on the beach or swimming in the ocean instead of being at work ;)

Sometimes it is tough being so far from my closest family members, but I want to try to make visiting them more of a priority. If you have the time to drive, it really isn't that bad of a trip down there! Plus, we made it there on one tank of gas, so $40 for gas sure beats the price of a flight and rental car.

By the way, happy Friday! Fridays are usually the best days for me. Tonight I am going to the Giant's game with my nanny family (with box seat tickets--score!), and I had the entire morning free, so it's been a pretty good day!

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to adventuring with Leah and spending the rest of the day with Dai. He told me that we can spend the day doing whatever I want, so I foresee outfit photos and a coffee date in our near future ;)

What are you up to this weekend?
Have a great weekend, friends!

Merry Christmas from California!

Merry (belated) Christmas! These past two weeks have been such a whirlwind! It feels like I have been going non-stop since school let out for the semester. I finished up work for the rest of the year, spent a day baking with my family, went on a special Christmas date with Dai in San Francisco, wrapped loads of gifts, and went to San Diego for 5 days with Dai to celebrate Christmas with my family. Woah, I'm exhausted just typing all of that out haha. Yesterday was the first day that I was even able to open my laptop in literally days. Taking a little break to simply enjoy the holidays was definitely nice, but I have missed blogging! Here is a little peek at what I have been up to.
While in San Diego, we had a tea time date, went paddle boarding, ate at one of my favorite breakfast spots, and saw a balloon parade in downtown at the harbor! Paddle boarding was super fun and both Dai and I are looking forward to doing it again sometime soon!
We celebrated Christmas morning at my sister's house with her husband and three boys. I always love spending Christmas morning with them and getting to see my nephews be so excited for all the festivities! Santa brought Dai a GoPro, so he was definitely pretty happy :)
For Christmas dinner, we celebrated with part of my mom's side of the family and I was able to set the table for all of us to sit together. We don't usually get to all sit at one table for dinner, so this was a rare occurrence and I tried to make it as special as possible!
We also spent some time hanging out on the beach, my sister and I drove around looking at Christmas lights together after doing some shopping and grabbing coffee, and on our last day, we all went out to breakfast before Dai and I started our drive home.

Now I am home for a few days before heading off to Seattle for the New Year and to celebrate my birthday! I would say it was a pretty lovely sunny California Christmas :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season from wherever you are!

Apple picking + San Diego

This weekend while I was visiting my sister and her little family in San Diego, we went apple picking! I have been wanting to go this fall and am so glad we did. Gosh I just love fall.

My nephews were pretty excited to pick out pumpkins, and even more excited to fill our bag with apples. We didn't borrow an apple picking stick, and when we decided to, they were all gone of course. So we used kids and a 6'2" man instead. It was more fun that anyway. We all stood on the ground as my brother-in-law held up each little boy to stretch his little arms to grab the perfect apples we were pointing at. What a sight it was.

I am so happy that I was able to take a mid-term break to visit my family for the weekend. It is just so nice to get away and I miss them all the time.

Well, now that I'm home, here's to another full week of schoollwork and hopefully some cozy fall things!

Goodbye San Diego.

Gosh he looks so old here.

Well, here I am at the airport, waiting for a flight back to San Francisco that has been delayed 2 hours already. Good time to do some blogging, right? So here are the LAST of my photos from my adventure! I promise I will more on to more interesting things ;) I had a really great time on my trip and I feel refreshed and ready to get back to my life at home. I am also ready to do some new things with the blog! As I've started to get the hang of this blogging thing, I am excited to start doing some DIYs and outfit posts that I've had planned before I even started this blog. I have made lists upon lists of ideas (I really love to make lists).

Speaking of great blogs, this month I am sponsoring Katherine's super awesome blog, Of Corgis and Cocktails! Definitely check out this great girl and her sweet pup! I am thrilled to be diving into stuff like that and supporting blogs I love to read. It would be great to eventually get some sponsors of my own! All in good time, my friends.

The view yesterday from the Oceanside Pier

Tonight was just a wonderful night. I rode bikes down to the beach with my cousin's boyfriend at 8pm. I love the feeling of the warm summer night on my skin. We stood at the water's edge and I let the water rush around me, even though I was wearing jeans. I didn't care. The water was warm from the the day's beating sun. I took in the melodic sounds of waves crashing, the twinkling yellow lights of the Oceanside pier to the north, and the purplish clouds peeking out from the not-quite-black of the night sky. The ocean makes me realize how small I am and how powerful God is. 

We then rode up to the Rite-Aid my parents lived  in apartments next to when I was just a year old. My dad would take me for a walk in my stroller to get black cherry ice cream, and it is still my favorite ice cream to this day. Only the Thrifty brand. We each got a scoop and took our time making our way home through the quiet, dark streets of old Carlsbad. 

Talk about a perfect summer night.

I want more of You.

 I have been loving my visit in San Diego so much. So much though that I am seriously considering moving back here next year. I feel like it would be a good change of scenery and would give me a little more independence, especially since I decided to stay home and go to community college. It would be really cool to live close to my sisters again and to be able to see them and my nephews and niece all the time. It would be great for the my relationships with my family.

I also see myself giving to the community and this world in some way. I would really love to get connected in working in youth ministry, particularly high school ministry. Perhaps even with my brother-in-law who works with at-risk youth for an organization called Urban Life. When I was hanging out with him last weekend, I helped out a bit and it was just a simply eye opening and humbling experience. It forced me to acknowledge the abundant blessings in my life and helped me see how I could do things to greatly impact someone's life in a positive way. Definitely something to seriously look into and pray about. I also went to my sister and brother-in-law's church while I was visiting them, and gosh how I love their church. I have gotten to see it develop from the beginning (when it was just a group of people meeting in a rotation of living rooms), and it has been amazing to see God work and how much it has grown. I love that it is bilingual and that the people are really passionate about helping their community. It truly is beautiful. 

Also, I've really been loving this song lately! It's been great to listen to it really loudly in the car and just sing along. The words weigh so heavily on my heart. I love the video too.

The big 3-5.

I hope everyone got to enjoy this beautiful weekend. Gosh it has been wonderful down here in San Diego. I don't think I've mentioned it on my blog, but I actually grew up here and moved up near San Francisco six years ago. So this place is my second home. I was so happy to be able to appreciate and enjoy the beautiful bay and my family. I have missed them and the fabulous weather. These three little ones above are my nephews and niece (left to right: Atsede, Matias, & Amare). Yes, they don't have blonde hair or blue eyes, but they are my family. My sister and brother-in-law made the decision to adopt from Ethiopia, and now I have these great kids to hang out with and watch grow up! And there you go.

Anyway, we celebrated my brother-in-law Justin's 35th birthday party fishing and hanging out on the water. 

This would be the birthday boy. You know what I love? Whenever he introduces me to people, he says "This is my sister Jessica", not "This is my sister-in-law Jessica." I know it is just one little phrase, but for some reason it means a lot to me that he just thinks of me as his sister and doesn't feel the need to explain, since I feel the same exact way. As far as I'm concerned, he is my brother. Seeing that he and my sister have been together since they were 15-years-old, I have known him my entire life and became his "sister-in-law" when I was just 5-years-old. Kind of crazy, right? 

This is the unfortunate failed attempt at making a fish trap. Guess the bread didn't quite do it for them.

The kids caught tons of fish all by themselves! It was pretty great to watch. You should have seen how excited they got when they hooked one. 

I wish I had gotten more photos of my niece and nephews, but they were all over the place and my camera battery died! What kind of aspiring photographer doesn't have an extra battery?

What did you do this weekend? :)