Our California Christmas (part 2)

Well, once the Christmas festivities were over, we had a day off to relax a bit.  We headed over to Kohl's and  Costco and then us kids took Kenny's car and went to the mall briefly.  We also played some video games while Mom made a really delicious dinner: homemade chicken tenders and perfect onion rings.  They were amazing!  Then we watched a favorite movie of ours: O Brother, Where Are Thou? (my sister and father can quote the whole thing, more or less) and played cards for a few hours.  It was a nice, low-key day.  Especially since my mom had a bit of a cold and on Tuesday we were headed into the City.

my dad commissioned Zak to draw a shark and a unicorn fighting for Jenna. yes, he specified that the unicorn was the clear victor, but both animals had taken heavy damage. needless to say, she was thrilled.

delicious Costco hot dogs

Our day in San Francisco was fun, the weather was perfect and the shopping wasn't too awful.  Zak enjoyed briefly popping into the Rolex store and another fancy watch store.  I enjoyed shopping with my sister at Sephora for some fun make-up to use our gift cards on.  Zak also enjoyed going to this music/entertainment store called Rasputin's, there are a handful of them in California, and they are always huge and have tons of music, dvds, etc.  He was like a kid in a candy store.  It was nice to spend some time in the City, and not being rushed around too much.  Around 5, Dad met us and we got all pretty to head over to the fancy restaurant we go every year, L'Olivier.  It is an absolutely delicious French restaurant and a major treat for everyone.  Zak has been once before, two years ago, and wasn't as thrilled with his choice then, but this year he understood why we rave about it.  Everything was perfect, and it was so nice to be all pretty and dressed up, talking with all of my extended family.

Jenna excited to be near a shark balloon

Zak wanted a picture by the Rolex store

Jenna with Annalise

we're hoping that one of the many pictures we took will be nice enough to replace our last nice picture...
from when I was 15...this one looks good, right?

meeting Annalise for the first time, unfortunately she was a little fussy. but cute!

Zak was brave and decided to try the escargot for an appetizer.  He let a few of us have one, and let's just say that I checked that off my bucket list.  We're glad we tried them, but probably wouldn't get them again.  I had a delicious appetizer of baked brie, which I split with my brother to get some of his awesome crab cakes.  Zak and I also split french onion soup and a really good Caesar salad.  My cousin Grant and his wife Ali had their sweet baby along, Annalise.  She's about 5 months old and it was fun to see and interact with her.  For our entrees, we decided to go for steak, I got the filet mignon, and Zak had a New York, both of which were divine.  We tried to eat as slow as we could to savor the flavors.  For dessert we each got a souffle, because we figured we might as well get it at a French place, right?  Zak got the Grand Marnier, and I had the chocolate.  Both are good, and while Zak may think he chose the winner, I will beg to differ.  Stuffed, we drove home, happy and exhausted.

with those snails, after popping on into his mouth

pretty girls: Allie, Sasha, me, Jenna, Ali & sleeping Annalise

Sasha, me, Zak, Jenna & Allie eagerly waiting for food

Kenny, Jordan, Brandon & Matt looking handsome

Wednesday was my (24th) birthday!  We had creamed eggs on toast for breakfast and I opened some very nice gifts.  Zak got me a beautiful ruby ring with diamonds on either side; I totally was not expecting it, although he has told me many times he wanted to get me that ring.  Doy.  Jenna and Kenny got me some awesome mugs, a cute one with elephants on it, and a nice bug one with the S.F. city skyline on it.  My parents got me a nice, fancy rice cooker that I've already used since I've been home and love!  Wednesday flew by too quickly, in my opinion.  Around noon, I headed over to Jamba Juice to have a little chat with one of my friends from high school; it was so nice to see her, even if it wasn't that long.  After, us kids met up with our Robison cousins and went bowling for a little bit.  No one was super awesome, but Jenna wasn't exactly great. :)  It was just a goofy, fun time and I was happy to spend time with everyone.

Zak made me wear ALL of my diamonds

L-R: wedding/engagement ring, newest ruby & diamond ring (24th bday), diamond ring (20th bday), blue and white diamond ring (23rd bday) == fancy, lucky girl

We had a family dinner at Grandma's, which was absolutely amazing.  My parents have perfected this recipe my dad made years ago for a Priesthood cook-off night for church (and won), Macadamia Nut Chicken.  It's essentially marinaded chicken coated with breadcrumbs and crushed macadamia nuts, cooked.  But then there is a papaya-mango-pineapple marmalade that goes on top that is wonderful.  Add sides of macaroni salad, rice and broccoli, and you're good to go!  I invited Amy over to dinner, since I wanted to spend time with her/I love her.  It was awesome.  Everything was just great.  We all had a great time and I got some wonderful presents, including some more Disney movies to add to my collection, make-up and lotion, as well as this book I've wanted for awhile, The Art of the Disney Princess, and the first book of the Hunger Games [side note: I made my family tell me about these books, since I knew nothing about them, and then my aunt got it for me, and I read it in mere hours.  I then found the next two books on-line (because I couldn't wait for the ones I ordered with a gift card to arrive) and read them in like, a day and a half. Awesome trilogy/can't wait for the movie!].  We had chocolate roll and German chocolate cake for dessert and oh, everything was just the best.  I enjoyed talking with my grandparents and aunts, and cousins, and just everyone.  It was a pretty rockin' birthday.

this was taken right after we took a nice one, but Zak covered his face with a balloon at the last minute!

cousin (& friend) picture, L-R: Matt, Jordan, Brandon, Jenna, Zak, me, Kenny, Amy, Grant, Sasha, Allie -- almost everyone!

Thursday arrived way too quickly, and it was a bit upsetting.  But Zak and I cleverly got everything packed and figured out for carry-ons for the plane early on so we could play video games and have fun with my family.  And, for the final food send-off, my mom made my favorite appetizers: (from Cheesecake Factory) sweet corn tamale cakes.  They were better than the restaurant's, and, oh man, we were in heaven.  Just amazing.  I'm going to try making them once I get a food processor/the ingredients.  Delicious!  We briefly said good-bye to the Robison cousins and headed off to the airport.

the best appetizers in the world, oh yum!

my mom's dad used to make handles for boxes to carry on plane; she made one for the rice cooker and was so proud of it! it was awesome and survived the trip!

Our journey from there wasn't bad, we were expecting snow when we landed, but the roads were clear and aside from some rain, uneventful.  As sad as it was to leave California, it was nice to get home to our bed and little place.  But I haven't fully accepted us being back here yet, as I've only sort of put away laundry washed from the trip, and some of the presents.

We want to thank everyone, not just in California, but among our other family and friends, for such wonderful and thoughtful gifts.  We are lucky to have so many loving and caring people in our lives and are grateful for everyone.  We loved our time in CA and can't wait to visit, like always.  And thank you for all of the birthday cards and wishes for me, too!

Zak: The Business Man

Zak wrote this post on Facebook, and I thought I'd just cut & paste it here for everyone who hasn't read it yet. Although I was sad to be apart from him, I'm glad he had this opportunity to go. I'm really confident he'll get this promotion, it's pretty much a perfect fit for him. I'm so proud of him! :) Here's his trip, in his own words.

I left Tuesday evening out of our little regional airport. I felt like a pretty cool businessman until I saw the horde of Beta Theta Whatevers getting on the plane for their spring break trip. I flew on a Bombardier Q400, which is a turboprop plane. Pretty cool. I had a brief layover in Seattle. The airport there is very cool, very interesting architecture. I had a brief jump from there to Portland, where I sat next to a man who'd had so much to drink, it was coming through his skin. My favorite! Fortunately, he was passed out for all but 3 minutes of the flight. I got into Portland around 10pm, where I was directed to get on the wrong shuttle and got sent to the wrong hotel. I eventually sorted it out and got to my room at approximately 11pm. I startled my roommate pretty badly, haha.

Wednesday was my first real day of training. We talked about colored stones, tweezers, and the minutiae of diamonds. We also spent time learning how to estimate diamond prices based on their attributes, an important skill for the custom design work.

Thursday was the first day we actually got to play around with the CounterSketch program. It lets you customize and tweak lots of aspects of a library of 3000+ ring designs. I picked it up pretty quickly, because it is a pretty straightforward program. Today was also the first day we worked with the CEO of the company, Sean Ritchie. He is the third generation of the family to run the company. He is a very nice, laid back guy. I tried to make a good impression, but you never know...

Friday was for me, the hardest part: the sales presentation. I would write more details, but it was pretty straightforward. We also worked on some of the more advanced aspects of the program. Or at least I did. Friday was also everyone's last day, so everyone went home. Except me. I got to stay in the hotel alone with only a warm pizza for companionship. It wasn't that bad. I flew home Saturday morning, and got home around 11am. It was very nice to be home.

The training was also kind of a selection process. They brought in 8 guys for the training, but they only have 3 computers. So I tried my best to apply my wealth of diamond and gem trivia, and my considerable aptitude for moving scroll bars and sliders on computers to the task. My boss, Mat, said he heard from both his boss and some of the people in the corporate office that I really impressed everyone there. So I am hoping that translates to me being selected. Cross your fingers for me, I will hear on either Tuesday or Wednesday.

TL;DR: I went to Portland on a business trip to get trained on using a custom jewelry design program.

Oh, and here is a ring I designed.

Diamond daze

I am a very lucky girl.  Zak has given me some very nice jewelry over the last few years, due to his jewelry connected jobs.  I am very well aware that I wouldn't have some of the things I treasure were it not for his job at Good Ole Tom's in CT.  He was able to get some very good prices on everything, including my engagement ring and wedding band.  So I am a very lucky girl and I love everything he has given me and try my best to express my appreciation for all my sparkly things.

Zak bought my engagement ring about 6 months before he proposed, and without too much input from me.  I told him I wanted something simple, with a round cut diamond and figured he would be able to find something.  He found something that I don't know if I would've picked out myself if I saw it, but I immediately fell in love with it.  It's an antique setting and ring and was just perfect.  I remember on my trip to Europe, every girl thought my ring was so unique and beautiful, and I was proud to tell them that Zak picked it out all by himself!

 the night we got engaged

Zak says that he knew it was a pretty decent diamond in the ring, but we didn't find out until the last few weeks how really nice the diamond is.  It is a quarter carat, which is big enough for my skinny piano playing fingers.  And we had assumed it was an Old European cut, but after awhile under the gem-scope at Harry Ritchie's, Zak & his co-worker Mat determined it's most likely an older version of the modern brilliant cut*.  The modern brilliant cut was invented in the 1920s and gain popularity and perfection in the 1930s and 1940s.  So the boys figure my ring was probably made in the 1920s or 1930s.  Their reasoning is that the culet (the hole on the bottom of the diamond; today's diamonds have a small, tiny one) is larger, meaning it was hand cut.

After some more inspection, they determined my diamond is probably a VVSI, or Very Very Slightly Included.  [FL is Flawless, IF is Internally Flawless, and VVSI is the next step down--only those who are trained to look for inclusions can find them under a heavy microscope.]  I was not expecting that!  Mat said their store doesn't carry VVSI diamonds because they are pretty expensive.  And to add to the surprise, the color of the diamond is in the realm of F - H (D is Colorless, J is the lowest of the Near Colorless).

They appraised my ring for a large amount of money that I totally was not expecting, definitely not anywhere near to the price Zak paid for it!  So it turns out that I have a very beautiful, near perfect diamond sitting happily on my ring finger.  I always knew it was a nice diamond, but holy cow! 

And finally, a few weeks ago, the store had a 're-mount' day, where they had a lot of gems and stones that could be somewhat custom-made for customers.  Zak had the jeweler solder my engagement and wedding rings together, so now I have one happy ring!  In short: Zak has been very good to me in the jewelry department and I know it!  Thank you, honey! :)

 

soldered together

my pretty diamonds (the ones in the wedding band are also very nice)

the cool antique setting

*Update as of 7/1: We have come across some material stating that my diamond is most likely the actual European cut.  Zak's co-worker has a big diamond manager training book and he was reading about it yesterday.  The picture in the book looks almost exactly like what my diamond looked like under the scope!