After a few week blogging hiatus, I’m back! Things have been super busy around here, so blogging just hasn’t been a priority of mine. Summer is an especially demanding time for me at work, so I’ve been putting in a ton of overtime. By the end of the day, my brain has felt fried to the point of not even wanting to focus on a Netflix show! That on top of preparing to move, dealing with some health stuff, and just trying to relax in the evenings to save my sanity has felt like a lot!
But, I figured we’re long overdue for a post about what we’ve been up to lately, so here I am š
To recap, for those of you who missed the announcement…WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! We (finally) get to move in in early September. I shared a bit more in my Life Update post, so be sure to check it out.
Even though we are still not dining indoors at restaurants (because, hello, WE ARE STILL IN A PANDEMIC), we’ve felt comfortable enough to enjoy a few outdoor dining date nights over the last month or so! We even ventured out of our Goleta bubble and went all the way down to Montecito. For those of you who aren’t local, that’s a whopping 15 minute drive on the freeway from us. We enjoyed a very fancy dinner at Tre Lune. We went all out with an appetizer, pasta dishes, and dessert, which is pretty out of character for us! Take a look at how scrumptious our seafood pastas were…and the gelato was to die for! But of course, the company was my favorite š
I haven’t been doing a ton of cooking and baking lately. During the summer, our apartment gets pretty warm by the late afternoon, so I really try to cut down on our oven usage. However, I could not help myself from baking this festive strawberry shortcake for July 4th!
We have enjoyed several trips to the beach on Friday evenings after long weeks, and just last weekend we killed time walking out on the pier while waiting for our takeout order to be ready (but of course).
We celebrated my birthday at the end of July, and I just had to capture these two images because they represent Gary so well. He wrapped one of my birthday gifts in Christmas paper with a Chanukah gift tag which totally cracked me up! I also adored the card he selected this year. We decided that if we were the dogs in the image, I’d definitely be the one on the left coming in asking for a sip of his milkshake. #accurate
Right after my birthday ended (and by right after, I mean literally within 3 hours of my birthday being over), we traveled to Kalispell, Montana for the Peiffer Family Reunion! The few days we were there were jam packed with outdoor activities, family bonding, and good food. Gary’s sweet grandma heard that it was my birthday, so she made me her famous German chocolate cake to celebrate and I was so surprised! We also had a bunch of firsts on this trip — It was my first time staying in an RV, Gary and I pedal boated on a lake together for the first time, I rode on the back of an ATV for the first time, and we tried huckleberry flavored treats for the first time. As it turns out, huckleberry isn’t the only thing that Montana is known for. Gary’s cousin sent us home with a bottle of “Alpine Touch” which they apparently put on everything. As it is, I’m definitely at the stage of my life where I’m excited by new seasonings, but when we got home and tried it, it was seriously delicious! We’ve put it on eggs, rice, chicken, pasta, veggies…pretty much everything. It’s amazing.
The festivities continued when we got back home. Gary took me out for such a sweet birthday dinner in Santa Barbara. I had wanted to try a new restaurant, and the ambiance and the food of this place delivered. We were in such a cute little corridor outside the restaurant, there were string lights above, and I just loved it. Also, the pizza had seafood on it! It was so tasty, and it was such a great way to wind down my birthday celebrations.
This is very random, but it might be one of the highlights of the last few weeks based on my camera roll. I’ve probably mentioned my bkr bottle obsession in a few other posts (probably every time I get a new one). Well, they do a mystery bag sale every year where you pay a flat rate and get a mystery bag of bottles. This year, they were themed mystery bags — desert, mountains, and tropics. The sale started half an hour before our flight landed in Montana, and before we had even gotten off the plane, I had placed my order for the tropics themed mystery bag. When the box came, my excitement level was through the roof. Gary can attest to that!! I even Facetimed my mom so she could see my reaction to opening the box. I really didn’t know it was possible to be so obsessed with glass water bottles, but the three colors I got are just perfect. I’m extra hydrated these days š
We had another occasion to celebrate just this week! Gary and I celebrated 3 years of marriage with a make-your-own pizza date night at home. What is it with us and the pizzas lately?! We were so eager to eat it when it came out of the oven that I did not even snap a photo. Let’s just say that we’ve mastered pizza night in the Peiffer household š After dinner, we went out in our hammock on the balcony and witnessed a gorgeous sunset. This photo doesn’t do it justice at all, but it’s still pretty good in my opinion.
Alright, how’s that for a little bit of life lately? We’re coming down to the wire with getting our apartment packed up and ready for the big move, so I may be posting pretty sporadically in the coming weeks. I definitely have a Trader Joe’s Food Finds post for the month of August coming, though, so be on the lookout for that!
xoxo
Jennifer