Monterey Bay Bike Ride

I'm going through the pictures we took over the summer and realized that we haven't been doing a very good job of posting everything to our blog. With the 150-mile challenge, we explored a different place each weekend. Probably the most fun bike ride we did was a 52-mile ride around Monterey Bay. We parked our car in Monterey, geared up, and then headed North along a trail that follows the bay's coastline. During most of the ride, we could see and hear the waves of the bay. Sand drifted across the bike path at many points. We also passed lots of farms growing artichokes, strawberries, and other delicious looking produce. We hit Castroville (16 mile mark) and then turned around.





Once we made it back to Monterey, we stopped at our car for lunch. Then it was time to head South through Monterey and onto 17-Mile Drive. This part of the journey was very picturesque, especially with all of the perfectly manicured golf courses. At this point, I was beginning to wish I brought my clubs along. But of course I realized that toting golf clubs on my bike would probably be a little difficult. We did get a couple of fun pictures, including a shot of Celeste and me in front the 8th green at the Links at Spanish Bay.



We continued a little further down 17-Mile Drive as the fog started to roll in. We saw several antlered deer meandering along the golf courses. We stopped at bird rock to look at hundreds of sea lions resting on the rocks. Then turned around to head back to the car and home. Total mileage count = 52 miles (13 miles toward the 150-mile challenge).

Dragon Boat Festival

So we've been meaning to upload some pictures from the Dragon Boat Festival back in September. The Festival took place on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay and my Firm, KPMG, was one of the sponsors. Leading up to the Festival, we participated in three physically intense practices. Paddling is quite the workout. On race day, our team raced in three 300-meter heats. Below is a picture from one of the heats. You can tell from the photo that our starts got us pretty far ahead (you can see the dragon head of the boat right behind us). Can you find Celeste and me in the photo? We'll give you a hint -- we're both on the near side of the boat (click on the picture for a larger view).



Dragon Boat racing is a very team-driven event. Everybody must paddle in unison in order to get the most power and speed. We had a lot of fun team-building with other people from KPMG.

Zion's National Park

Celeste and I have gotten plenty of hiking in this summer. My work has a three month challenge to walk/run 150 miles or more. Bike riding also counts at a 4-to-1 conversion, so we've logged quite a few miles on bike as well. One of our favorite spots so far was Zion National Park. We did a few hikes there including Emerald Pools, part of Zion Narrows, and Hidden Canyon. The park really is amazing to behold. The steep walls protruding out of the valley floor are absolutely amazing. The red rocks are picturesque. A person needs to visit the park to really see and understand the amazing beauty that it holds.

Overall, we had a lot of fun, but there were plenty more hikes we wish we would have had time to see, especially Angels Landing. Looks like another trip is in order. :)

Zion's National Park

Snorkeling Pictures from Hawaii

It's been a couple weeks since we got home from Hawaii. We have lots of fond memories from our trip. We finally developed the pictures from our underwater disposable camera. It's been so long since we actually had to develop film that we forgot how to do it. But Costco developed the film and burned all of the pictures to CD at a reasonable price. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Hawaii

Hawaii Anniversary

Celeste and I just got back from Hawaii where we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. We had a wonderful time with activities such as snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, sightseeing, enjoying the beaches, and eating at a luau. Here are some pictures from our travels. We also got an underwater disposable camera which we are going to develop and post soon. Enjoy!

Hawaii

Stake Play Video

I was just going through the pictures from Stake Play and found that they have a video posted of the swing routine that we choreographed. The camera people did a really good job at capturing the dance. You can either watch the video below, or click here to see it in high definition. We had so much fun choreographing the routine and are VERY happy with the results. The youth did GREAT! Hope you enjoy!

Point Lobos

My sister, Deanna, and cousin, Scott, came to visit last week. We sure had a lot of fun doing tourist activities around the area. The first full day they were here, we went down to the Monterey area to Point Lobos. Point Lobos is described as one of the greatest meetings of land and water. It is such a wonderful place. There are tide pools, cypress trees, sea lions, birds, forests, and the list goes on. Hiking around (we clocked 5.25 miles for the day), it is almost like you visit many different national parks all in one place -- the park is just so diverse.

My favorite part of Point Lobos is the tide pools. There are star fish, crabs, anemones, and a host of other sea life that I don't know the names for. It reminds me of the days when I used to watch Sea Quest DSV on TV and dream about becoming a marine biologist. Next time we go to Point Lobos, I need to take a better camera because all I had was my phone. Deanna and Scott each had a camera. I need to bug them in order to get copies of some of the fun pictures of the tide pools. I did get some fun pictures of when we were resting and looking at the sea lions. They were swimming about twenty yards from where we sat on the rocks. So much fun to watch.

If you are ever in the area, Point Lobos is a must see. We'd be glad to show you around some of our favorite spots. Just remember to bring your hiking shoes. :)

Tropical Sorbet from Costco

Celeste found a really fun Tropical Sorbet at Costco. The sorbet comes in several different flavors (coconut, pineapple, pina-colada, lemon, and mango-orange). And on top of that, each flavor is individual served in an orange peel, a lemon peel, a pineapple skin, or a coconut shell. They are very tasty. Except, of the 12 that came in the last package, I only got to eat three of them. We shared two with our friends. Guess who ate the other seven? You guessed it -- Celeste. :) And she helped me eat my last one tonight. As clarification, she didn't eat them all in one day, but over six days. Guess that is one of the upsides of working at home.

Oh yes, and there is a coupon for the sorbet this month. We'll probably be getting the max number of boxes that it allows. If you're a Costco member, I'd suggest trying a box.

New Golf Clubs

I keep talking about my new golf clubs and so I figured it would be fun to post a picture of my new driver (the Nike SQ Sumo Squared 5900). As you can see in the picture, it is pretty big compared to the golf ball (the largest that is allowed by golf rules). This sure makes it a lot easier to hit the ball, although it did take me a bit to get used to the size of the club. Also, the shape of it is square, so it is a little different than conventional shapes. But it sure does hit the ball straight. Makes it a lot easier to have fun when I'm out playing golf.

Swing Dance Performance

This weekend was the annual ward talent show. Celeste and I choreographed a swing dance routine with our friends Devon and April. We thought it turned out pretty well. Enjoy the video:

Dancing at Jeff and Jessica's Wedding

A couple weeks back we went to our friends' wedding in Walnut Grove, California. It was basically the middle of nowhere, but it was perfect weather and a perfect setting. Walnut Grove is located in rural California, which, surprisingly, really isn't that far away. We left early in the morning and trusted our GPS device to get us there.

The wedding itself was at a small Catholic church, after which Jeff and Jessica road in an old Cadillac convertible to the Grand Island Mansion (an old mansion on a large plantation) for the reception. One reason our friends were really excited to invite Celeste and me is that they had a live jazz band. Of course, we brought our dance shoes to enjoy the dance floor. It's funny because one of my friends said that while we were dancing, the women in the room were whispering to their husbands that they wished they would have done the dance classes afterall. :) We sure love dancing! We're performing in the Church talent show tomorrow and will hopefully get a movie to YouTube.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Celeste and I decided to take a break for the weekend with a trip to Disneyland/California Adventure. Our friends were going with their kids and invited us to come along (the 4-year-old actually invited us). After work on Friday, we drove down and made it to LA around 11pm. We woke up early the next day to drive down to Anaheim.

My favorite rides were the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, California Screamin', Tower of Terror, and the new Toy Story ride. The Toy Story ride is definitely a good addition to California Adventure. It is the same concept as Astro Blasters where you are shooting at items. Except in the Toy Story ride, you wear 3D glasses and are shooting at a huge screen. You can watch the items that you shoot (rings, darts, etc.) as they virtually fly across the screen in 3D. It's really fun. The 3D glasses also made for some pretty good pictures. :)

Stake Play

We had a great time this weekend as the youth performed in our Stake Play entitled Wired -- basically a music/dance festival. The theme was based on different things that you might find on an iPod, such as music, movies, and pictures. Celeste and I choreographed a swing number to Sing Sing Sing and our four couples did a fantastic job. Just check out the above picture of the beginning "V" formation. We really challenged them with multiple lifts and some fancy footwork. I think there were ten different formations that the youth had to memorize. We also helped choreograph a part in Footloose and They Dance. Everything turned out even better than we expected. We'll post videos soon. The youth we worked with were so fantastic!

Overall, Stake Play was a wonderful experience. The Spirit was very strong as the kids expressed their talents, especially in the last part of the show that emphasized the importance of eternal families. We are grateful that our families can be together forever.



On a side note, as I look at the pictures that we took, it’s probably time that we got a new camera. I talked with one of the photographers from Stake Play (who took some amazing shots that I’ll give a link to when they are posted) about some of the photos that he took, and I remembered how much I enjoyed doing my photography class back in my senior year of high school. Maybe it’s about time I took up that hobby again...

Indian Curry Cuisine

This is a picture of an Indian curry dish that Celeste made this week. It gets ten points for taste plus extra credit for presentation (this is on a ten point scale of course). Celeste has really been getting good at finding new recipes. We are constantly trying new dishes that she finds online.

Of course, I try to contribute whenever I can. I made an 8-layer Chinese chicken salad this week. But I can't take credit for sprouting our own bean sprouts that became the eighth layer. Celeste sprouted those herself and I just washed them off before putting them in the salad. Below is a picture of the sprouts right before I pulled them out for washing. This used to be just a handful of dried mung beans but grew to fill the entire container. They were very tasty!

Hiking in Stevens Creek County Park

Last weekend, Celeste and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather to go hiking (this, of course, was in between our yoga class and swing dance practice). The park we chose was Stevens Creek County Park, and it seemed promising when we got there. However, we weren't able to find a good hiking path. We found several paths, but each was marked with a closed sign -- maybe the trails are too muddy during the winter. If anything, it was nice to get outside and enjoy the nice weather. Plus, I got to use my new hiking pole! Next time, though, we'll look at a map and choose a trail in advance.

Freshly Squeezed Juice

I used to not be a very picky eater. I would eat pretty much anything that was given to me without any complaint (with the exception of stuffing, which I am learning to like). But that has changed lately, at least in a few food groups. One thing I have become very picky of is freshly squeezed juice. Whenever I go to a restaurant, I usually order water to drink, mainly because I don't like all of the artificial sweeteners that are in juices. But in certain restaurants, I can't help but order their fresh juices. For example, I got fresh strawberry lemonade the other day at the Cheesecake Factory and it was terrific.

I think part of the reason that my taste buds prefer freshly squeezed juices is illustrated very well in this picture. We sliced ten oranges in half and then used our Bosch to juice all of them. The result was two completely full glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice (plus some that we saved for the next day). We've done this a couple times in the last few weeks (can you tell that we shop at Costco?). One of my favorite variations has been to juice a grapefruit into the orange juice. Very tasty, and very good at preventing sicknesses that has been going around.

Stanford Theatre

On Friday we decided to have our date night at the Stanford Theatre. This was the third or fourth time that we went, and we haven't been disappointed yet. The theatre plays old movies, typically ones in black and white. This week, though, they had the 1940s films enhanced using Technicolor. High tech. :)

There were two films that played this week. The first was An Apartment For Peggy. The second was Margie. Originally, we were just going to stay for the first movie, but ended up staying for both. In between movies, they also have live organ music played on an organ that rises up out of the stage (see picture above). If anything else, it is worth going for the organ concert.

One of the reasons that I really like movies here is that they make you think. For example, in Margie, it is all about high school kids and how they worry so much about what other people think. But most of the time, what they worry about is really only imagined, like being embarrassed about something your parents did when in actuality it was something pretty important. Anyway, it was a funny movie and I would recommend anyone in the area to stop by the theatre. You're almost always bound to get a good (and clean) show.

Valentine's Day

We had a really fun Valentine's Day filled with lots of exercise and relaxation. First of all, the day before Valentine's Day, we went to a church dance. There was a professional dance performance, after which there was a short dance lesson and general dancing. We had a lot of fun. There was one fast swing song that we really got into. We danced... and danced... and danced. The song just kept going! By the end of the song, we were the only couple left on the dance floor. Celeste took her sweater off after that song and we both needed a drink. We had a lot of fun that night!

On Saturday, we started the morning with yoga, then did a two-hour dance practice with the youth for the Stake Musical (one of the boys didn't show up, so I got a big workout while Celeste observed), then home to work a bit before the evening.

I picked up some flowers for Celeste (Costco has great roses at reasonable prices) and then we decided to chance the weather at the beach. It really wasn't that bad, although it was a little cold (you can probably tell based on the picture). We walked along the beach and were hoping to see the sunset, but it was covered by the clouds. It was nice to just walk and talk. Afterwards, we decided to warm up with some caramel apple cider, and then headed home for a great homemade dinner. Overall, a very great day. Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

Fresh Fruit

The other day, one of my friends brought a whole bunch of fresh mandarins to work. I grabbed one that still had a leaf on the top, because the leaf made it seem fresher than the rest. It looked so good that I decided to take a picture. It tasted really good, too.

P.S. I think that the lines in the picture were caused by the sun coming through the blinds.

Matt's birthday

So today was my birthday, and it was definitely a great day. Celeste spoils me every birthday, ever since she organized my first birthday with her five years ago. Today was no exception. Celeste got out of bed before me, and by the time I was all ready for work, waffles with blueberries, strawberries, whipped cream, and syrup were waiting for me on the table. And to top it off, there was also fresh squeezed orange juice. Very tasty!

Work was good, especially because my phone kept buzzing, telling me I had new (birthday) emails. I was thinking how amazing it is the many methods of communication that people wished me a happy birthday. I got text messages, emails, cards through the mail, phone calls, and messages on my Facebook wall. But of course, the best is always in person, and especially from my wife.

After work, I came home to Celeste making one of my favorite dishes, pasties. As she was cutting the meat, I asked whether I could peek in the freezer (hoping for the annual ice cream cake). It was there, and boy was it tasty. She even made it without chocolate (my friend challenged/dared me to give up chocolate, and I haven't had it for about a week now). Once the pasties were in the oven, I opened gifts. I got a new work outfit (from Celeste) and a really neat book with five of Joseph Smith's journals transcribed verbatim into a compilation entitled The Joseph Smith Papers Vol. 1 (from my mom).

Once the pasties were ready, we ate, and then let the food settle until we were ready for cake. Then it was time for that amazing cake that I spied earlier in the evening -- ice cream cake with blueberries, strawberries, and whipped cream (can you tell a trend of what I like to eat?). There were also shortbread cookies mixed into the cake and caramel drizzling the top. Celeste did a great job.

It's been a great birthday. I had a lot of fun and ate some amazing food. Thank you everyone who wished me a happy birthday and made this a great day.

The Flying Monkeys

So at work, one of my colleagues picked up the most random recruiting toy that I have ever seen. It is a stuffed monkey with a cape and mask. On the cape is the name of Moss Adams, another accounting firm. What makes this monkey awesome is that you put one finger in each hand, pull back on the legs, and shoot the monkey like a slingshot. As the monkey flies through the air, it screams like a real monkey. It's really rather clever.

So we figured this monkey was pretty much one of a kind, until another colleague came to work with the exact same monkey, except in pink. Turns out she found it in her rental property after the residents moved out. The monkey is the exact same -- pull it back and let if fly (and scream). This might be the beginning of a fun collection.

Dinner with Thomas and Natalie

We had some friends over tonight for dinner. We've been trying to have them over for a house warming dinner since we moved to our new apartment from Los Gatos. Now eight months later, it finally happened. Celeste and I made some fantastic Eggplant Parmigiano over whole wheat spaghetti. Very tasty. On the side we had salad and the rest of the whole wheat molasses bread Celeste made a few days ago (made using wheat that we ground in our new wheat grinder).

After dinner we talked for a while about learning new languages (Natalie is using Rosetta Stone to learn Swedish), the economy (what conversation these days doesn't include the economy), Costco (we may have convinced them to get a membership), and food storage (a great topic to go along with the economy and Costco). We sure had fun!

On a side note, you'll notice in this picture how our dining area is set up. Behind Celeste is the kitchen area. Behind the cameraman's left is the front door and right is the living room, where our bookshelf and chair from the previous post are located. It's crazy to think that we have already been living here for eight months already. We really like it.

Our Living Room

I just realized that we haven't posted pictures of our "new" apartment. We've been here for nine months now and have only had a few visitors from outside California. I was playing around with my camera phone the other day and took this picture of our living room. Celeste and I thought that it was a fun picture. So here is the first picture of our new apartment. We'll take some more and post them later. :)

BYU Gymnastics Meet in California

Celeste and I decided to go to the BYU gymnastics meet on Friday at San Jose State. We used to go fairly regularly when we lived across the street from the Smith Field House. But this was our first time seeing the gymnastics team since our move two years ago.

It was really fun watching all of the events. My personal favorite is probably the floor routine because of its similarity to dance. I can never count how many flips in a row they do. I kept leaning over to Celeste and asking, "Was that a triple?" She kept telling me "No, it was a double." Maybe I was just really hoping to see a triple. The only time I remember seeing one was at BYU when a guy did a triple into the pit. You have to get some pretty good air to flip around three times. Apparently, I can only get enough air to get around about three-fourths of a turn... Celeste, on the other hand, is a flip master.

Happy Russian New Year

It's a few days early, but we celebrated the Russian New Year today. We got together at our friends' house with 20 of our Russian speaking friends. This picture is of Celeste with the "waiter". He is carrying a tray with what looks like really good cake. The first couple times I saw it, I thought the cakes were real. But alas, they are fake.

For the party we had all sorts of Russian foods such as pelmeni, piroghis, Russian potato salad, Martinelli's, black bread, and a host of other dishes. Did I mention desserts? Yeah, lots of those too.

Happy Russian New Year! С Новым Годом!

Bike Riding at Stanford

I was reading my friend's blog and she mentioned something about a 365 project where you take 1 picture a day about something random from your life that you wouldn't have otherwise taken a picture. I'm not sure I'm ambitious enough to do a picture everyday, but it gave me an idea. Since I often find myself too busy to write on our blog, I figured that I would start taking more pictures and posting a picture to our blog at least every week (or so...). So to start, here is a picture of Celeste and me in front of the Stanford Cathedral last week. We found a good route from our home to the campus and have already done the route twice. It's really fun to explore the Stanford campus and we really like our bikes.