Never Ending Summer

Summer sunset, Camp Esperanza @ The Painted Turtle

 
Here in Southern California we are experiencing one long, hot summer. I realize summer is technically over, but we did not get the memo. This past weekend was cooler than most, but we still managed to go swimming and enjoy the early morning coffee and late night brews outside, without a sweater/hoodie.

Here is a brief bullet-point list of my actual summer; I hope to highlight some in blog posts.

• BBQs every other weekend
• New puppy breath
• Yoga sessions
• Pool parties with more BBQ
• Family visiting from afar
• Trip to Springfield, MO for FUN, visiting many, many neat places like Aunt Martha's Pancake House
• While in Springfield, going to Red Velvet Vintage Shoppe and getting to meet one of the owners Emma and her sister Elsie's husband, Jeremy Larson
• Trip to St. Louis for work
• Seeing a far away friend
• Trip to Knott's with my cutie niece and bestie
• Puppy Walks
• Camp, camp and more CAMP!
• Shopping Sprees
• Iced Coffee Dates
• Not one, but TWO water-slide backyard parties! 
• Meeting new friends and becoming even better friends with others

I'm sure there is more, but this is a nice overview to help me remember this fun-filled summer. 

Hello there...

I have been slightly MIA over here, but I have a lot to update from another amazing summer!! Also, I started another blog with my Ziegler Family. Check us out over here.

The Real Z Files

Meet Duchess Zooey Bella

...the newest member of our family. She is a precious baby bulldog.

Camp Esperanza

that is all.

The Many Faces

I am not going into full detail here, because this is not a subject I am fully comfortable sharing on my blog, but for some reason I am. Recently I experienced a mild flare up, like I always do in the New Year and/or springtime and, additionally, other life events that greatly impacted me. Thankfully my flare never turned into a full blown one and I barely noticed an effect of said flare UNTIL the anxiety and depression kicked in. It literally felt like a switch was flipped in my head. From one day to the next I went from a confident, fairly happy, fun-loving girl to an overwhelmed, quiet, and depressed person.

Depression I am used to as I have experienced a mild form of depression almost my whole life and I have seen the devastating effects firsthand of how far depression can take a person. Anxiety, on the other hand, I have also experienced on and off, but never knew that it was anxiety! So originally, when I started to feel this come on, I figured I can handle this...here we go again! I started to put into action how I normally deal: more exercise, better food, and a change routine. Instead of working, as this has always helped in the past, I became worse.

Over the last several weeks I took photos of myself to document my recovery due to an amazing team of doctors, complementary therapies, and overall really thinking about what is important to me.
 
Here are some photos of my journey: 

The beginning of help

Help helping

In the sun

Missing Liberty, RIP

Smiles

New hat!

Girls' Weekend

In February I headed to Las Vegas with my favorite Jen to see Ashton Zyer play live. We stayed off Fremont Street in the oldest hotel in Vegas. The hotel is currently under renovation, the rooms are halfway fixed-up, but still retain their original bathrooms, pretty amazing! When planning this trip I knew I wanted to stay Downtown, because my grandparents were frequent patrons on Fremont Street and I wanted to "pay homage" to their Vegas. As well, this was my first trip to Vegas as an adult, not for work!

Anyways it was a quick trip; nice to spend time with a good friend, hear beautiful music, and experience a little bit of "old" Las Vegas.

On the road, hotel, show time

Dinner, slots, more hotel

Downtown neon lights, way better than "The Strip"

32.

This year my birthday was real low key (yes, my bday was over a month ago and I am now just blogging about it!). Hubby and I headed to Beverly Hills for a little walk and a stop at Fōnuts for fancy doughnuts that are baked and/or steamed instead of fried. We purchased 6 flavors: Lemon, Red Velvet, Bacon Maple (hubby fav), Cinnamon Sugar, Glazed with Sprinkles, and Blueberry Early Grey (my fav).

Later that day we had fancy burgers at The Counter and went to see Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. That is my kind of day!