a bay area summer

Man, I can't believe how quickly this summer is coming to an end! I am so so so not ready to see it go yet. I feel like I find myself saying this every year, but I guess things just keep getting better and this was definitely our best summer yet!

Parker and I were lucky enough to call this apartment in Palo Alto Square home for the summer. And even though both of his parents only live about 10 minutes from our apartment and we spent most of our free time at their homes with them, it was so nice to have our own space and get a glimpse into the future of what it would be like to live here on our own someday.

Parker had an internship with Cassidy Turley this summer working with 4 different commercial real estate brokers. He loved the opportunity he was given to work directly in the field and in the city that he hopes to be working in someday. He was able to learn a ton about the real estate market and have first hand experience on what his work days would look like, etc. I'm so proud of him and how hard he worked! It's been so fun to see him come home excited about the things he's working on.

I worked as a nanny to the sweetest baby girl in the entire world. Parker and I fell head over heels for this little angel named Nora. I bawled my eyes out when I had to say goodbye to her. We would have gladly adopted her if we could have! I felt so lucky everyday to work for a family who I fell in love with. Everyday Parker would text me asking for me to send him pictures of baby Nora if I hadn't already and I'm not kidding when I say that most nights we'd be like "let's look at pictures of Nora!" and would lay in bed talking about how much we love her and how cute she is and how hard it would be to say goodbye to her. And boy was it hard! She will forever have a piece of my heart! (side note: Parker literally loved her so much that I worry he won't love our future children as much. Hahaha)

Here are some of the highlights from our time in the bay that I don't want to forget!

Hiking the Dish at Stanford is one of my mother in law's favorite things to do and has become one of mine now, too! The view is amazing and it didn't hurt that it was only a mile or two from our apartment this summer :)

My mom's sister Chris and her family live in Walnut Creek which is only about an hour away, and I love the extra time I'm able to spend with them when living so close! We went to Mount Diablo Park with them one weekend and I loved every minute of it. and Purple Grandma was in town, so you know we were there!

love these cousins of mine!

^Gma almost had a heart attack here....

My cousin Rachel and her husband Brad (aka Parker and I's bffs/neighbors) came down for the weekend to bless their new baby Caleb and we were so happy to be close so we could make it! Love them

Aaaaaahhhh, the city. My favorite!!! Parker and I went down on a day date one weekend and happened to stumble across a Chipotle Cultivate Festival. You know we were there! Haha. (I think I ate more Chipotle this summer than should ever be allowed. There was literally one .25 miles from our apartment.....bye!) We went to see the Painted Ladies in the city (full house, anyone? my childhood) and walked around Golden Gate Park taking in the views. There's so much to see and do in San Francisco it's insane. I am completely in love with the city and am always trying to find any excuse I can to go up to it!

have birds ever allowed you to get this close to them? like WHAT?! I was freaking out.... 

Los Altos Farmers Market and Off The Grid Food Trucks. Two of our all time favorite things to do on summer nights. Off The Grid is like the mother of all food truck roundups. We would go every Wednesday night with Parker's dad and his siblings and it was always a blast being together and trying new foods! And the Farmers Market was on Thursday nights so yeah let's just say I didn't cook as much as I should've this summer....

Biking around Stanford campus was definitely another highlight of the summer in the bay.

Don't even get me started on the food here......

Yeah, I don't want to talk about it....


One day we went on a day trip up to Monterey to go to lunch and to the aquarium and it made for such a fun day! (and good thing it was fun cause something had to make it up to Parker after searching for parking for 30+ minutes....it's still a sore subject;) )

one of the best seafood restaurants I've ever been to. oh my

On one of our last nights in the bay Parker's dad took us to this authentic Mexican restaurant right around the corner from these views in San Jose. We went on a walk before and after dinner and it was honestly one of the best nights of the summer in my book.

I love my Fields siblings toooo much!

It was definitely a summer for the books. We loved our summer in the bay and can't wait to hopefully be back for good someday!