[last] weekend in review.

the previous weekend was a busy one. we had quite a few guests staying with us because unr played in the kraft fight hunger bowl in s.f., but james and i also went to my school's winter gala.

on friday, the boys went to play golf and sarah and i headed up to napa where we got cupcakes [obviously] and went shopping at the outlet mall. mostly though, we just relaxed and caught up with each other. i've really been missing having nearby girl friends lately. i do have my school friends, but it's different. anyway. the boys came to meet us for dinner, so we found this little hole in the wall chinese restaurant via yelp that was delicious! people in the bay seem to use yelp quite a bit... so we've jumped on the bandwagon. it's pretty useful actually... especially for indecisive people like me. ha.

saturday, i still wasn't feeling well, so i stayed home for most of the day. the boys went riding in the morning, and once james' brother and his friends arrived everyone went to a brewery in petaluma called lagunitas. i have to say... i'm glad i didn't go. i enjoyed resting and taking my time getting ready for the gala. i'm still having a lot of pain from my rib, so it took me quite a while to flat iron my hair. ha!

howie and sarah came to dinner at a thai restaurant with james and me, and the rest of the group wanted to watch a motocross race at a bar... the only problem is that james and i don't know of any good/safe bars in vallejo. so they ended up at applebees. haha. [later at the gala, one of my friends mentioned that he and his fiance went to applebees before the gala. i told him that our friends went there too, and he said, "i was wondering why they were playing motocross!" i thought it was pretty funny.]

i really wanted to get a cute photo of this little thai bike thing that is outside the restaurant, but it was wet inside, so no one wanted to sit in it. my camera wasn't happy with the humidity either, but oh well...
james and i only planned to stay at the gala for about an hour, but we ended up staying for around three hours. oops! there was dancing, professional photos [just like prom] and a casino area, where you could learn different games with no risk of losing money. james taught me how to play craps, and i think it's pretty fun. i had a little trouble throwing the dice all the way to end of the table though. haha. there was also a "photobooth" where they had all kinds of props and then you took some photos on a computer. plus, we got to see friends outside of school. all in all, it was more fun than either of us anticipated.
my dress actually blended in almost perfectly with the background for the professional photos... it was hilarious.

on sunday, we headed into the city for the game. we got there early to do some activities before meeting up with everyone to tailgate. james' brother's friend was adamant about getting clam chowder, so we went to the wharf first, then stopped by the pier for a minute because his brother's other friend had never been to san francisco before... so he wanted to see a few touristy things.
there weren't many sea lions out, but there were a few. they really are silly animals to watch.

we went to the height next because james and i wanted to look for some shoes and the boys just wanted to watch a football game at a bar. have i ever mentioned on here that i really don't understand the point of spending time in a bar when you are in a new city? ughhh. oh well. we struck out with finding shoes, but it was fun to walk around with just james for a little bit. oh and i did find the cute headband that i'm wearing in the photos below. :]

eventually, we made our way to the game.
james' brother is usually pretty shy around me, but he really came out of his shell during the game. there was a guy in a wolf costume sitting in front of us, and he had a bag of these silver hulk-like fists... so johnny borrowed one. i have to say, it was pretty hilarious.
he decided to invade our photo too... which just looks silly. james and i left before the game was over because we wanted to avoid the mess of traffic. i had school the next day, and he had his first day of work... so we wanted to get home. i tried several times to get a good photo of us on the bridge with the park in the background... but it was too cold to stand there for too long. ha.
it would have been a cute photo if the background worked out like the one below... right?

anyway. i was tempted to not go to the game, but i'm glad i did. it was pretty exciting to see the majority of the stadium filled with blue. and it was even more exciting that we won the game! even if we didn't get to celebrate with everyone else who stayed in the city.