2013, I like you so far.

Possibly my favorite experience of 2013 thus far was visiting Facebook for the installation of the newest restaurant sign in their ever expanding outdoor food court, Teddy's Nacho Royale. Designed by my favorite graphic designer. I don't have a pic of the complete sign (the "Nacho Royale" part is missing) but will post pics when everything is finished. 

 The sign is humongous! 

And even more impressive when lit up. 

Another sweet surprise was this commercial, airing during the Grammy's, which includes Brent's cityscape illustrations. It's always exciting to see Brent's projects make it out into the real world!   

Christmas 2012

First stop, Houston. 

When we pulled into the driveway Santa and his reindeer were waiting for us to arrive.  I'm sure the neighbors were also glad for us to arrive as it was 2am and the Clark Griswold Christmas lights were probably keeping some people up.

Dad spent all month drawing, painting, cutting, & hanging the perfect Christmas scene to welcome us home. What a sweet Dad! The reindeer even sprung to life Christmas night when a strong cold front came through and knocked one through a window.

Christmas Day with the whole gang.

Cousin Kelley joined us for Christmas this year. It was so fun!

Henry was the highlight of Christmas this year. It was so fun to be with him for his very first Christmas! 

That face could get away with anything!

Next stop, Boerne. 

We had such a great time at Couchman Christmas that we didn't stop to take any pictures except this one with Brent's Grandmother JoJo. Next years Christmas goal is to take more pictures at the Couchman's Christmas! 

In closing, I would like to give myself a pat on the back for reaching my 2012 New Years Resolution of visiting Texas more. We came to Texas 5 (or 6?) times in 2012. I'm not sure if I can match that in 2013 but I sure hope so.

Summer + Fall

Catching up here on some end of summer/fall happenings. We've recently celebrated our two year anniversary of being California Couchmans. Crazy! It is starting to feel like home :/ 

Brent was asked to contribute to a fundraising event called "I Don't Believe In You Either", with proceeds going to 826 Valencia. If you don't know much about this charity you should read about it. And, if you visit SF you should definitely stock up on pirate supplies at their pirate supply store. 

Each artist was asked to re-imagine a tree stump based on their own interpretations of Bigfoot. Brent's is my favorite of course...but check out the whole show here.

This summer I switched from working full time to part time. Not working full time is basically my dream come true:)...particularly on sunny, warm days picnic-ing in the park.  

We were so excited to have Jared visit us. The first time he came to visit us (and his first time to sf) it was so foggy you couldn't see the ocean if you were standing in it. The city really redeemed itself this visit. We had the best weather and got to show him all of our favorite spots. And.ate.a.lot.of.food. We are pro's at that. (blog post on sf food coming soon)

Over Thanksgiving Brent got to meet Henry for the first time. Brent loves Henry. He is just the cutest thing ever and we can't wait to see him for Christmas!

Brent's high school band had a reunion this summer for a charity event. I had only heard stories about the band and met a few of the guys but never seen them live. It was a happy day for me to get to see them in concert. Here's Brent singing a love song to me. Just kidding, I made that up. 

We went with some friends to Opera In The Park. It's a free opera that broadcasts at AT&T park. If you show up early you can picnic on the field. The field was full by the time we got there but I think I preferred our seats anyways. Gotta love some back support. We watched the opera, Rigoletto, on the jumbotron which was broadcast live from the opera house. I wouldn't say I loved it but I'm glad we went. 

Brent worked with Nickelodeon to design a logo for the SpongeBob's Christmas special. SpongeBob just got cooler.

And just when you thought you'd seen it all...yes, this is a patio table umbrella in a sunroof. 

Happy 12.12.12

NYC Weekend

We had a great little weekend getaway to NYC this fall. Maybe it wasn't the best timing a week after Sandy hit, but most things seemed back to normal. We ate lots of food, saw some sights & friends, shopped, saw Newsies, but probably most memorable was eating dinner 4 feet away from Beyonce & Jay-Z. 

Our friends took us to one of their favorite pizza joints in Brooklyn. It was a small place and the pizza was amazing AND Beyonce & Jay-Z sat next to us. We played it so cool that we didn't get a picture of them, of us with our friends, of our pizza...we thought they'd think we were trying to take a picture of them if we pulled out our phone. It was also really hard to pay attention to anything our friends said because when I looked at them, I was basically looking at Beyonce. Beyonce's sister Solange and her son were there too. My one regret was that I didn't go over and say hi to Solange. She went to my small little private school and even though I don't think we ever talked to each other and were three or four years apart,  I just KNEW that she would want to talk about the good ole' days at WCS with me. But I got cold feet. 

We were told me HAD to try Donut Plant. I had a pumpkin donut and it was GOOD. They had so many flavors I wanted to try. 

Dinosaurs are awesome!

Central Park was beautiful!

Happy Fall!

The Pacific Coast Highway

We first decided we needed to take this trip several years ago before we knew we were moving to San Francisco. I even bought a PCH guidebook before we moved to SF. Coincidentally, that was long enough ago that I forgot I bought the guidebook and still haven't used it. 

Once we moved to SF, this trip seemed easier than ever to finally take, but kept getting put on the back burner. Believe it or not (most of you will believe it), the trip was finally set in stone when we found out the new Batman movie The Dark Night Rises was coming out. 

Brent + Jared + Batman = happiness. 

The trip was mostly planned Couchman style (go with the flow), with a few things King style (planned out). We knew we were going to see Batman. Twice. Hearst Castle. Disneyland. And had a few nights in hotels planned out.

Day 1

We drove to Carmel by Sea and stopped for lunch at a place with a beautiful view but less memorable food. The views along the drive are stunning.

We arrived at Hearst Castle early afternoon and took the general tour of the castle. The castle (which is more like a mansion than a castle...I expected a draw bridge and moat) was amazing and the history really interested me. I might have spent too much time that night googling the Hearst family. The details, art, architecture was all so beautiful.  

 

That night we stayed in Avila beach, a few miles outside of San Louis Obispo, in the cutest little hotel. I know this doesn't interest most of you but I must say Avila La Fonda Hotel was the cutest unexpected place. It had some great amenities like serving warm chocolate chip cookies all day, chocolate crouisants for breakfast, pie in the evening, wine and cheese at 5 pm, snacks at cost, dvd and book library, a very nice welcome basket....all included in the room fee which was very affordable considering the location. 

And moving on...

Day 2

We reluctantly left Avila Beach and made it to L.A. just in time to get lunch and catch our first showing of Batman. 

The movie was really good, we had assigned seats, and the theater displayed some costumes and the tumbler (Batman's ride). L.A. was already winning cool points with us. (The glass is so reflective here but that's Batman in between Jared & Brent.)

 

The rest of the day consisted mostly of Batman related nerd talk and eating. And, I finally got to experience ice cream sandwiches at Diddy Riese. 

Day 3 

Disneyland. I don't actually love theme parks but the art and detail at Disneyland is impressive. Also, the short rib at the Blue Bayou restaurant made it worth the trip alone.

It was fun to watch Brent experience the art as an adult. He is especially inspired by Mary Blair who is responsible for most of the It's A Small World art. 

And who doesn't love a good fireworks show to end the day.

We were there from 9ish to 12am. We got to do everything we really wanted to do. As you can see, we had fun! 

Day 4

After Disneyland, we were exhausted. We slept in, took it easy, saw Batman again, and saw a few L.A. sights. A nice and relaxing day. 

Day 5 

Took it easy, checked out the Farmer's Market, Jared met us for dinner, and headed to Venice Beach. 

I didn't really know much about it, but we planned to stay a night at Hotel Erwin on a friends recommendation. Hotel Erwin was a really great hotel and we had the nicest view from our balcony. We first went out for walk on the boardwalk which was interesting...my guidebook (the one I haven't used till now) says " its a a freak show, a human zoo, a wacky carnival and an essential L.A. experience." I don't know about the essential L.A. experience part but I do agree with everything else. It was a relief when we discovered  the mid century inspired shops on Abbot Kinney Blvd. Just our cup of tea:) 

 

We had some great BBQ for dinner to top off our Venice Beach experience. We haven't found any good BBQ in SF so it was a treat. 

Day 6
We had planned to stay in Venice Beach two nights but then decided we would get more out of our trip if we stayed at a different beach town. We decided on Santa Barbara. We fell in love with Santa Barbara. Our hotel The Biltmore, mexican food at Los Arroyos, the beach...it's a beautiful place. Lot's of rest and relaxation going on and a great way to end our trip. 

 Wished we could have made it down to San Diego, but hopefully we'll get back down that way soonish. For anyone looking for a great stateside vacation I highly recommend the PCH.