Bonjour Bebe!

On Saturday morning, I headed down to Monterey to make sure I got some photos of one of my bffs, A. before her 9th month of pregnancy. We met in Provo a looooong time ago and lived with each other in Salt Lake and Venezuela. A. and her French husband moved to Monterey 3 years ago which has been so fun to have her only an hour away. It helps they are both so photogenic. Here are a few shots that stood out of the pack to give a little slice of their life in Monterey.

Fluffy Meringues. Yummy

A. and T. favorite French bakery in Monterey

Beautiful Monterey coastline.

Gorgeous Day-Gorgeous family-Easy photo shoot on the 17 mile drive in Monterey with A. and T. and bebe.

The little Lenoir family

Favorite shot of A. and her little bebe on the way-I use the term "bebe" as T., her husband is french.

Shot of A. and T. making a little heart on her bebe.

BFF's, Cakes and Mutant Aloe Vera plants

One of my dearest friend, A.-she is 34 weeks pregnant and looks A-MAZING! I went down this weekend to take some shots of her and husband T. before the 9th month. She, of course, looks about 4 months pregnant. We had to work to make it look pregnant but I was really happy with the shots. I always love to visit and spend a couple of days at the seaside with them.

Now THAT is an aloe vera plant.

Rissini's-an Italian bakery in Monterey that has the most outrageous cakes I have ever seen. I always like to see what they come up with when I am spending a weekend there.

Brushes, Blondes and Sisters

This made me want to immediately buy paint and splash some canvas. A eclectic art stop, Accent Arts in Palo Alto-I get my Japanese watercolors here-every time I go in, I like to get a new color for my stash. They are so super saturated and delicious to play with.

The blonde triplets of Palo Alto. C.in the middle surprised K. on her last Friday here. This is at the Counter in Palo Alto which has REALLY slow service but...you can build your own burger-my personal favorite build is the grilled chicken, pineapple, Bermuda red onion, Tilamok cheddar, hickory smoked bacon, dill pickle and sweet BBQ sauce.

K. is such a good sport. She let me braid/experiment with her hair before she left for England on Saturday.

Really Big Shoes and Zero1

While waiting for my ride to the Zero1 party, I wandered over the the park in San Jose central and saw tons of men milling around a rather dramtic shoe selection. The cause was raising awareness for domestic violence and to garner attention, men showed up and selected a donated women's shoe and walked a mile-"Walk a mile in her shoes". Of course, the selection of shoes fitting those over a size 11 gets expontentially more colorful. I got to hand it to these men-some of them really embraced it-wearing socks, getting pedicures, pre-bandaging and mincing around to get the feel. They might have thought about gel inserts....I think more than a few woke up today with a blister or two but what a great cause to support!

The start of the walk. This charmingly group of gentlemen obligingly posed and preened for a shot pre-walk. Thanks guys! Hope the blisters weren't too bad!

Whoa. I can't even walk in these. Brave soul.

I have to hand it to these men-it is not easy to walk at all in these types of shoes-Let alone a mile. Here is the fire chief and his red patent shoes. Oddly fitting.

This is kind of spectacular. I particularly appreciate the black sock coordination.

Very cool offices at Zero1

I think I found the lamp I want for my room. This little gem was at the Zero1 launch party at their new site in San Jose. They are a very interesting organization that brings art and technology together and every 2 years, they light up the city with amazing exhibits. http://zero1.org/

Check out how my dad's head is glowing with the light of the beams. Cool.

Arasterdero Preserve and Gorilla time

Some of the 10% of shaded trails we found. It was a little exposed and on the warm side yesterday...But they were all troopers and we had a great time.

Sisters! This is before I dragged her on a 5 mile hike...see how happy she looks?

The beginning of our hike yesterday. Not sure why they wanted to sit on different stumps but I went with it:) I love the poppies. I also kept telling J. that if he picked them, he would have to go to an American jail as they are the state flower. K. made me stop tormenting him.

K and I got our toes done after a long lunch in the city.
Note to self-pedicure after a lot of walking is the way to go.

It was a serious heat wave in SF-I think it hit 90? Made for some great cityscape shots.

This gelatto place was AWESOME. Bright orange inside and each of the flavors had corresponding decorations....for instance-this is a shot of banana gelatto with a gorilla on it. How cheeky;)

Yummy Asparagus pizza with truffle oil and carmelized onions at Rose Pistola.

My Car...ok...maybe not my car...but this beauty was on the street in North Beach in SF and I just couldn't help myself. It was so shiny!

Bonsai Dog

How cute is my sister, her husband and "their" dog? J. seriously was considering a dog after hanging with Jolie...although she looks kind of tiny next to them.
BUT she is a Yorkshire terrier and J. IS British...it seems to fit, no?

I love the tiny purple flowers on this one.

Couldn't help myself with this shot-this was at the Bonsai exhibit at Mitchell Park-these trees are AMAZING-most of them are over 40 years old.

This was her favorite place to sleep-at the foot of my bed-I was constantly worried that I would knock her off but in the end, we came to an understanding. I let her sleep wherever she wanted and then she would sleep soundly for 6-7 hours.

This is one cute little puppy named Jolie that I was taking care of this past week. She is pretty much walking cuteness. And the guy holding her is my very accommodating brother-in law, J.

I LOVE Jennifer Garner and she has great taste;)

If you are a loyal blog reader...or just want to scroll down...you may notice that Jennifer Garner is wearing the SAME shirt that I wore for my birthday party! Great minds think alike. This could be the first time I have matched a celebrity on the same week or any week for that matter.
Cool.