Team Abbott

Let's get through 2010!

2011-05-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

I'm going to do a really quick recap of the rest of 2010 after September. I just want to capture it all down and then we can possibly get up to the actual present time...

Mark's brother Tyler came to visit us for a few days because he was going to leave on his mission soon and wanted to get some family time.

Mark and I babysat Brett and Becky's three boys (i.e. our nephews) for a weekend.

Mark and I set up our tent in the front room, where we slept out and read books and watched movies/tv for the weekend.

We attended a Halloween party that someone threw in our ward, which included bobbing for apples.

Amber came to San Jose with the rest of the BYU Women's Soccer team and we were able to hang out with her and watch the game.

I made my most favorite Halloween decorations. They are made out of wood blocks that are each 10 inches tall. I loved making them and having them up in our house.

We spent Halloween with the Abbotts down in Yorba Linda, which included dressing up for a ward party with all the family, attending Tyler's farewell, and having a family Halloween party that Abby put together. I was finally able to be part of all the Abbott's family traditions, such as the chocolate chip cookie ghost, dunking for apples, wrapping people up as mummies, and the skeleton story.

We spent Thanksgiving in Utah with the Wadsworths, which included playing games, eating a yummy dinner at Grandma's house with the rest of the Bowen family, and spent lots of time hanging out with the family.

Mark completely planned and put together an Adventure Date, complete with building me a fort in our bedroom and letting me find clues to the different activities he had planned. We got yummy See's candies and borrowed an adventure movie (Indiana Jones of course) from the library, followed by a trip to the Egyptian museum the next day.

I put together a Baby It's Cold Outside date, which included looking at Christmas lights, and eating cookies and hot chocolate near the Christmas tree while watching Elf (which features that song).

We celebrated Christmas by decorating our house and then drove down to the Abbotts in Yorba Linda to celebrate for two weeks. We looked at more lights with the family, spent lots of time hanging out with our family (including our cute nieces and nephews, like baby Katelyn who loved pulling her uncle Mark's hair... what a patient guy!), opened presents on Christmas morning, went out to eat, and went on a hike.

Sunday, Day 10, Last Day in Hawaii (sigh...)

2011-05-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

Sunday was the only day that we actually set an alarm and woke up early. We went to a 9 am sacrament meeting in the Honolulu Tabernacle building. It is by far the most beautiful church building we had ever seen and was rather large. We ended up only staying through the first talk and then had to head back to our hotel to quickly pack before we needed to check out.
After packing and checking out, we went to Burgers on the Edge for lunch. This was a fast food burger place that we had passed several times a day and always interested us. It was unique because we could fill out our specific order on laminated sheets that we handed to the cashier. Mark loved it because he likes unique things on his hamburger, not the usuals. We were also able to get sweet potato fries with our meal. Yummy.
After lunch we drove up to the North Shore and went back to Waimea Bay. We ended up having to pay for parking across the street because it was so crowded. When we got down to the beach, the waves were absolutely huge. The lifeguards were warning everyone not to get into the water, but many people were regardless. After sitting on the beach and reading, Mark decided that he wanted to go in and swim around. I was a little nervous, but knew he was a good swimmer. I went down closer to the edge of the waves while he went in, just to keep an eye on him. I started taking pictures with our disposable camera (thus the weird quality), when a wave came up higher than usual and knocked me down, which knocked Mark's sunglasses that I had just tucked into my swimsuit to fall off and get quickly taken away. Before I could even think, the glasses were already gone and the next wave was coming in. I kept looking out for them, but we never found them again. I believe a porpoise is out there sporting sunglasses somewhere. Either way, I felt awful about it, but at least it was the end of our trip. See how huge the waves were below...

We had to finish off our Hawaii vacation with one more trip to Giovanni's Shrimp Shack and then to Matsumoto's for shaved ice and ten packs of Hichew's (these yummy fruit candies that Mark used to get in Taiwan).

We had to fill up our car in Hale'iwa and there was a light sprinkling of rain. During our stop at the gas station, we were wowed to see two full gorgeous rainbows that filled the sky. Absolutely breathtaking. They were big enough that I couldn't get the full rainbows in one picture, just in halves.
We then ended our Hawaii adventure by sitting on Hale'iwa Beach as the sun went down. The scenery was beautiful and the sound of the waves so soothing. We talked about our adventures and were able to reminisce. What a spectacular way to wrap up Hawaii for us.

After the sun went down, we changed out of our swim clothes in the public bathrooms and then had to rearrange our packing in the dark parking lot. We left Hale'iwa around 7 pm and drove straight to the airport. Below is our last picture we took in Hawaii, where we camped out in the airport courtyard amid the lush vegetation and enjoyed the solitude of Hawaii. We just weren't quite ready to be in the airport among the hustle and bustle of normal life yet. One thing I have learned is that Mark and I absolutely love vacationing together. He is my best friend and makes every situation more fun.

Well, after that we got on the airplane around 10 pm and flew home through the night. Turns out that may not have been the best idea ever though, as much as I don't regret anything to do with Hawaii. I just couldn't for the life of me get to sleep. I would go back and forth between trying to watch the new "Karate Kid" movie and then trying desperately to sleep. Basically I had a mental/emotional breakdown at some point and was in tears because I couldn't fall asleep. Mark made me switch to the window seat in the hopes that I would be able to get more comfortable, despite my continued crying and protestations. I was a serious grump.
We arrived in San Francisco around 6:15 am, with very very little sleep and trying not to be too grumpy (Mark much better at this than me). We had to walk around the airport for a long time trying to find our shuttle. Once we were finally picked up, we started the long, grueling journey back. We literally didn't get home until 9 am, partly because we were traveling during traffic times, but mostly because our shuttle driver was absolutely terrible. I was getting the biggest headache ever and was getting more and more grumpy. He was the type of driver who would go super fast and then slam on his brakes. Seriously terrible.
After we got home, we jumped in bed and slept for about three hours. We then had a nice relaxing day at home, trying to get ready for real life.

Hawaii Day 9 (Saturday)

2011-04-17T15:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning found us sleeping in, yet again. We like to get our sleep in on. We left our hotel around noon and headed straight to Xtreme Parasailing. We went out on a boat with 8 other people who were also going to parasail and two awesome drivers. We were the last to go, which was fun to build the anticipation. We went up to 700 feet off the ground and were even lowered down into the water at one point. We were on the boat for a total of about an hour. We paid about $10-$15 for our drivers to take a roll of film for us. We were really glad we did because we got some amazing pictures that we wouldn't have been able to get otherwise. It was an amazing experience! So peaceful and calm up in the air.

After our parasailing adventure, we actually had to sit in the parking lot for about 15 minutes to eat some food and feel less like we were still on a boat. Afterward, we drove back to our hotel and changed into swimsuits and headed down to Waikiki Beach. It was a little cloudy, but fabulous to sit out and read and enjoy the beach.

For dinner that night, we finally decided to check out the hotel restaurant we had seen signs about. Turns out we were the only people who had the same thought because we were completely alone. The food was pretty good, but not great. Fun experience though. We also got a free virgin strawberry daiquiri, which are always yummy.

After dinner, we headed straight back out to layout on Waikiki Beach again as the sun set. That night had the most gorgeous sunset we had seen, which we enjoyed but wished we had brought our camera to capture. After the sun went down, we went out into the ocean and swam around until it got too dark. We threw a tennis back back and forth, practicing catching and diving. We then swam out to the wall that divides the ocean from the little swimming area and watched the waves come in and splash over the wall.

Once it was too dark to see, we got out of the water and walked down Waikiki Beach towards a Waikiki block party they had set up. There were lots of stalls of food and other excitement, where we enjoyed a nutella/banana/strawberry crepe. We also watched Hawaiian dancers and listened to several different bands. One guy was actually really talented and I wish I could get a copy of his song "strawberry love" but I think he was just a local guy. We also listened to a big band who had the entire crowd singing and dancing with them. At one point, we were all dancing and singing along to Danny's Song (I think that's what it's called, I just had to google it), where it goes...

"Even though we ain't got money,
I'm so in love with you honey.
And everything will bring a chain of love
And in the morning when I rise
You bring a tear of joy to my eyes
And tell me, everything is gonna be alright"

Now, I didn't know all the words like some people in the crowd, but I knew enough to sing along. Turns out Mark had never heard the song before ever. How did he not ever hear this song? It was pretty funny because every single person in the crowd was singing along except him.

We walked around the block party for awhile and then headed back to our hotel, where we sat out on the balcony and enjoyed our last night in that beautiful place.

Hawaii Day 8 (Friday)

2011-04-17T14:05:00.001-07:00

Friday morningwe slept in and had a chill morning hanging in our hotel room before heading out for the day. We first stopped for a small detour at the Pali Lookout, which is an area of historical significance in the Hawaii history. It was here that King Kamehameha fought with the natives in order to combine the Hawaiian Islands under one rule. It's a very steep hill and apparently people were falling off the hill like crazy during the fight. Of course, this is all the information I can remember after several months of actually being there and reading about Pali Lookout, so I could be leaving some things out. Either way, this area is always really super crazy windy, as you can tell from my hair below.

We continued our drive up the east side of the island and stopped at Kualoa Ranch. I had passed this ranch many times when I lived in Hawaii years ago, but had never gone there. We took the movie and ranch tour first, where we rode around in these open window buses...

and saw some amazing sites! Kualoa Ranch is a large area of land that is really best known for being a film location. Many movies have been filmed there and continue to be filmed there. I guess the week before we were there, they were taping part of Pirates 4 with Johnny Depp. We were able to see some of the well-known sites from movies. Do you remember the movie Jurassic Park? There's a part where the people see these dinosaurs coming and they run down a hill and hide behind a pile of wood while the dinosaurs run and jump over them. That hill and that pile of wood was at Kualoa Ranch! No more dinosaurs around here though...

Several scenes from Lost, one of our most favorite shows, were filmed here. We were able to see the house that served as the inside of Jacob's hut, the lush forest area where the final scenes of Lost were filmed, and Hurley's golf course! If you don't know what I'm talking about at all, you should watch the show starting from the first season. Seriously awesome.

Godzilla was also filmed here and they left the big footsteps...

After that tour, we came back and immediately started the Jungle Expedition tour given on Kualoa Ranch. This tour was in an army type open vehicle and we drove around the very primitive areas to see the place where monarchy used to live. This tour was neat because our tour guide asked us at some point if we were Mormon. I don't know exactly why he would have thought so, except for the fact that we were young and married and we were dressed modestly. He happened to be a member too and worked in the temple and we were able to chat with him. I love finding random members all over the place. We also hiked up to a certain part to see the amazing view,

and ate some guavas that our tour guide picked off the trails for us.

After our Kualoa Ranch expedition, we drove up to the PCC again. It was fun to go a second time because we were in such a rush to see everything on our first visit. This time we were able to play games at some of the islands, and we weaved little fishes out of leaves, watched an IMAX movie, just walked around to see the sites, got some weaved leaf crowns, and sat on a bench chatting as everyone else was eating dinner and the sun was going down.

After our peaceful outing at the PCC, we drove back to Waikiki and decided to check out the Hard Rock Cafe. I've only been to a Hard Rock a few times, and that's always been on vacations. Mark had never gone before, so we had a lot of fun eating the delicious burgers and checking out the cool rock paraphernalia (is that really how you spell that word) all over the restaurant. Mark was most excited about seeing the Guns 'N Roses guitar and the Pearl Jam guitar (shown below).

Hawaii Day 7 (Thurday)

2011-04-06T22:46:00.001-07:00

Thursday morning we woke up still pretty tired and without any specific plans for the day. That was the best part of taking a long trip to Hawaii. We had times to do some things twice and have more mellow days. We had plenty of things on our list of things to do, so we were never bored. As we were getting ready for the day, Mark couldn't find his toothbrush and realized that he must have misplaced it. After searching around out hotel room, I finally found his brush...

Needless to say, we actually just left the toothbrush in the garbage and just shared mine for the rest of the trip. We decided that we wanted to go on a hike and looked through our list of potential hikes and decided on Manoa Falls. And we were so glad that we went! It was a really fun hike, very different from the other hike we had taken before. There were some people on this trail, but not very many. The hike went through the jungle and undergrowth. It was just beautiful. The only downfall was the fact that the trail was a bit muddy, so our shoes got pretty dirty, but it was so worth it. Also, it did get pretty warm while we were hiking, but that's just Hawaii for you.

Can you see how muddy the trail got?

Mark wanted to find the biggest leaf on the trail and I think we found a good candidate here:

After our hike, we went back to our apartment, but not before picking up some rubbing alcohol and more bandaids for Mark's foot. We cleaned out his wound and reapplied bandaids, followed by our lunch of rice and eggs. We were still feeling low-key so we hung out, watched some tv, and read until about 3 pm when housekeeping called to see if they could clean our room. We decided to go check out the Foster Botanical Gardens. We got to the gardens at 3:30 and turns out it closed at 4:30. That was the perfect amount of time for this though. We took a self-tour and saw plants from all over the world.

Yep, there's a cannonball tree, which you can see below. You can also see the sausage tree. Such craziness.

We then drove up to Punchbowl, which is a military cemetery near Honolulu. We walked around and saw some of the more famous graves.

We then headed back home and had to stop by Rainbow Drive-in for some BBQ steak. Mark watches the show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network and had seen this place, which just happened to be by our hotel. We would pass it every day and Mark thought he had recognized it. The food was really yummy.

We also picked up some pastry desserts from Zippy's, a store we kept seeing all over the place. We ran home and quickly changed into our swimming suits, grabbed our towels and books, and headed down to the beach. We sat on the beach and read as the sun set and it got darker outside. Eventually we were just reading by the light of street lights. After it got too dark to read, we laid out and chatted and listened to the band who was playing cool cheesy music at the restaurant nearby. We then walked down the beach to the International Marketplace, where they have lots of stalls with souvenirs to purchase, before heading home for the evening.

Hawaii Day 6 (Wednesday)

2011-04-05T21:21:00.001-07:00

Polynesian Cultural Center Day! We were super excited to visit the center that day. So excited in fact that Mark was a little distracted while getting ready, so his belt didn't turn out quite as he had expected...

We ate at the coolest McDonalds ever that happens to be right next to the PCC. So lush.

We arrived at the PCC right when it opened and spent every single minute running from thing to thing and probably saw on the bare minimum of things. Thank goodness their one-day village pass actually lets you come back and visit again for free within a few days.

Our day included visiting all the different villages, where you get to see a presentation and learn about the cultures. We also watched a canoe pageant that spotlighted all the villages. We visited the villages of Fiji (pictured below),

Tonga (with amazing drums), Samoa (the funniest man who taught us about fire and then the guy who climbed the tallest palm tree), Tahiti, Hawaii, and Aotearoa (i.e. New Zealand), where Mark participated in the royal guard and dancing ceremony (see below).

We did have to sit out in the heat at times, but it was fun to be outside.

Mark and I went back to Aotearoa village where we played the stick game and practiced with poi balls. Some of us were a little better than others (something I honestly can attribute to girls camp growing up)...

The PCC has beautiful grounds that we really enjoyed, especially as the evening started setting in.

We attended am awesome luau where dancers performed and they dug up a pig and we ate lots of yummy food... oh, and got laies.

After dinner we walked around the park until the night time show started, which had awesome dancing from all the villages. After such a long day, we were pretty tuckered out on the drive home, but Mark did a great job driving us back safe. He also had to deal with walking around on his hurt foot all day long. His foot ended up hurting pretty bad that evening. Such a stud!

Hawaii Day 5 (Tuesday)

2011-04-03T21:25:00.000-07:00

Headed up to the North Shore, stopping by Dole Plantation to get some pineapple ice cream and to buy some warm cinnamon roasted macadamia nuts
Driving around Hawaii was one of my most favorite things. It was always nice enough weather to drive with the windows down, which we enjoy. During the day the wind felt nice and cool and during the evenings it never got cold enough to make the drive uncomfortable. I am a huge fan of wind, most especially in Hawaii. Which is a good thing because it is really windy in Hawaii. I absolutely loved driving around with the wind blowing in my hair. This is definitely the best picture I got of the craziness of my hair.

Sharks Cove for snorkeling, where we rented lockers and one snorkel (I had bought one the first time I was in Hawaii and we continued to use it) and bought an underwater camera of very cheap quality. We snorkeled around and saw great fish. Near the end though, I did end up getting a small cut on my foot. Here's Mark, the most amazing snorkeler ever!

We stopped by Ted's Bakery for some lunch and my much loved chocolate haupia (coconut) pie. I used to get this all the time and it is so good.

Sunset Beach, where we sat out and read in the warm sun for awhile, only to have the shortest and warmest rain ever (you can see the raindrops coming down in this picture of Mark).

After a few minutes the rain went away and the sun came out again, so Mark headed out to swim in the waves. However, he apparently got too close to some rocks, so when he tried to kick his foot to swim, he hit his foot and cut his foot pretty badly. I quickly gathered everything and we headed to where our car was parked, across the street. At our car we tried to clean out the cut with water. I know this picture doesn't show it too well, but he did have at least five pretty serious cuts/gouges.

Mark was a stud though and didn't let that finish our day (he's amazing) so we tried to carefully push his flip flop over the cut and headed over to Hale'iwa where we walked around and bought some souvenirs. Now that I'm thinking back on this, I think I should have insisted that we went home immediately. I can't believe we just kept going on his hurt foot! We did have to stop by Matsumoto's for our most favorite shaved ice.

This was the only day that I drove the rental car, because we only put Mark's name on the rental. But with the right foot being pretty hurt, I ended up driving home to our apartment.

Once back at our apartment I thoroughly cleaned out Mark's cuts and we were able to use some antiseptic from the front desk. We then covered it up with, oh, I don't know, how many bandaids do you think that is, 5 or 6 different bandaids?? Poor guy.

Hawaii Day 4 (Monday)

2011-03-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

Monday morning began like any other Monday... with a hike in a luscious paradise. We hiked the Diamond Head hike, which is near Honolulu and a really big touristy hike. There were tons of people and lots of languages being spoken. Still a fun hike though, despite the oppressive heat of the day. The hike included several sections of tunnels and stairs, such as these...

The view from the top. You can see the ocean, Waikiki/Honolulu, and the crater that makes up Diamond Head.

Ah, here's an example of one of the tunnel sections.

Yay, we made it back!

We then headed back to our apartment, stopping for groceries and the famous and delicious malasadas at Leonard's Bakery. We made fried rice and eggs at our apartment for lunch and decided to take advantage of our close neighbor, the Waikiki Aquarium.

Then back to our apartment to change into beach clothes and off to Waikiki Beach before the sun went down. We also enjoyed walking down to see the Duke statue (big famous surfer guy statue). There are so many stinkin' people on Waikiki Beach. We decided that we liked staying in Waikiki because the atmosphere was really fun, especially at night. You probably shouldn't go wondering around the more isolated beaches late at night, but you totally could in Waikiki. However, Waikiki Beach itself is not that fun. Go check out the North Shore beaches. Much less people and much more beautiful.

Throughout that day we had noticed a large stage and seating going up on the beach. We didn't think too much about it until we noticed what it was for...

The new version of Hawaii Five-O was broadcasting the following Monday and they were doing a special premiere the week before. While we thought about our possible plans for the evening, we walked over to Teddy's Bigger Burgers (also a close neighbor) for the most amazing hamburger, fries, and shake.

We decided to go hang out on the beach again as the sun went down. It's just so peaceful and sweet. I think this was the night we saw a grandma/grandpa couple wade out into the water and watch the sunset holding hands. How sweet is that. Also, notice the flower behind my ear... Mark picked it just for me. :)

We then decided that we didn't have anything else going on and it sounded like fun, so we found a spot where we could stand and see the stage and screen for the Hawaii Five-O party. And guess who showed up?? Jin from Lost!! Nowhere near us of course, but up on the stage. There were hundreds of people sitting and standing on the beach, but thankfully they had the speakers turned plenty high and the video quality wasn't too shabby. Apparently they show movies or shows there on a regular basis. The show actually turned out to be pretty awesome and we have been seriously hooked ever since. It's especially fun to watch now and see the places we visited.

Hawaii Day 3

2011-03-20T17:25:00.000-07:00

On our first Sunday in Hawaii, we woke up early (partly due to planning and mostly due to the time change), got ready, and went straight to Pearl Harbor. We opted to pay a few dollars to get the audio tour, which was really interesting but definitely not necessary. Before you leave to see the monument, you watch a 20 minute video about what happened during the attack. The area around Pearl Harbor is absolutely beautiful, which makes the realization of what happened there so much more crazy. Here we are on the boat ride over to the monument.

The monument is definitely awe-inspiring and touching, looking at the USS Arizona still underwater below your feet and reading the names of the men who died there. Before leaving Pearl Harbor, we got some ice cream because we were so hungry and hot.

We then drove over to the Swap Meet to see what souvenirs we could get. I know, I know, much less of a "Sunday appropriate" outing, but the Swap Meet is super close to Pearl Harbor and it's only open so many days of the week. It was fun wandering up and down the aisles, seeing all the different booths, despite the oppressive heat of the day. We got some fresh pineapple, which was delicious and cold, as well as some other souvenirs.

We then drove up north to the Dole Plantation, where we took full advantage of every activity they have available. We went on the garden audio tour...

worked our way through the pineapple garden maze, which in 2008 was declared the world's largest maze. We actually didn't make it all the way to all of the check-in points because it was going to close soon, but we got enough of it to be awesome.

We ran straight from the maze to the train that drove us around the plantation and told stories.

As we finally went inside the actual Dole Plantation building, we walked by a booth where they were roasting macadamia nuts with some sort of carmelizing going on. We love free samples, so we took the sample offered and realized they were very yummy. We meant to come back and buy some that day, but totally forgot until too late. However, they were seriously good enough that we made sure to come back and buy them another day.

We then came to the "piece de resistance" of the Dole Plantation... the best ice cream in the entire world!! Their pineapple ice cream is worth traveling for. We each got a waffle cone full of pineapple ice cream and loved it too much to even stop and take a nice picture.

After a long day of walking around outside in the heat, we were super tired. We came home to find that our nicest housekeeper ever had actually done all our dishes that we had gotten dirty so far. We then ate homemade burritos in our apartment for dinner. We relaxed by sitting out on our balcony and hanging out on our bed watching none other than...

LOTR!

We are kinda nerdy, I know, but I love it. We also watched Malcolm in the Middle. We usually ended up watching two episodes of Malcolm in the Middle (from 10-11 pm) most nights, because we were so tired and most things shut down by that time anyways. The show seriously reminds me of Hawaii and is hilarious. Since getting back from Hawaii, we've started watching the show reruns regularly.

THE BEST VACATION EVER. PERIOD. Hawaii Days 1 and 2.

2011-03-10T19:39:00.000-08:00

Mark and I went to Hawaii last September and had the seriously best vacation ever. I went to a spring term at BYU-Hawaii in college and thought I had the best time ever then. Turns out I was wrong. Going with the Mark-man just put it ridiculously over the top. Oahu will always be one of my most favorite places in the world and I had so much fun enjoying it all with him.

Day 1: Friday

Shuttle ride to the airport (where we were very early and had lots of time to hang out)
Airplane delayed by 1-1/2 hours after we were already seated (finished our airplane magazine crossword puzzle before even taking off)
Long flight where we enjoyed watching the A-Team
Landed in the evening and walked out to muggy lusciousness
Picked up our rental car (after switching cars because the first one didn't have a working cigarette lighter... not for smoking, duh, but for our GPS)
Followed the GPS directions to our hotel, ended up parking in a lot kitty corner from our hotel, which was cheaper and super close
Checked into our awesome room and ate packed poptarts because we were starving before falling asleep

Day 2: Saturday

Woke up super early because we weren't used to the time change yet
Ate poptarts again out on our very own balcony

Walked down the block to our first view of Waikiki Beach and enjoyed the view

Gorgeous drive up to the North Shore!!! This view makes me so ridiculously happy... pineapple fields with the ocean in the background. Perfection.

Waimea Bay, my favorite beach, where we snorkeled, laid out in the sun, read books, played in the surf, and even made up a silly game throwing rocks. The water is so blue and the sand is just so wonderfully sandy!

Drove to Hale'iwa, one of my favorite towns ever, and went straight to Matsumoto's for the best shaved ice. Gotta get the plastic cup (worth not dealing with the mess for a mere 25 cents), a scoop of ice cream on the bottom, and condensed milk on the top! I cannot do it justice. Simply delicious.

Speaking of yummy food, it was time to head out down to Giovanni's shrimp truck for the best garlic shrimp you have ever tried. Finger licking good!

Then we went to check out my old haunts... Laie Tempe, BYU-Hawaii, and my old apartment

Back to Halei'wa to eat at Cholo's Mexicano restaurant for some yummy eats

Safeway trip to pick up groceries
Long laborious walk with groceries, towels, backpack, sweatshirts, etc down three stories in the parking garage, across two traffic lights and then up 6 floors in the elevator
Realized how super burnt we had gotten. Mark even made me sit in a bath of freezing cold water to bring out the heat (so cold!).
We then realized that our bathtub wasn't the greatest and the water had actually leaked out into our bedroom, soaking the carpet. We decided we didn't care enough to actually move out and change rooms, but we did have to have the hugest fan on full blast during the next two days.

*Can you tell that I love Hawaii and I loved our vacation? Everything is the BEST EVER!!

Whirlwind July and August 2010

2010-12-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

As you may or may not be able to tell, I'm super far behind on this blog, but I still have grandiose plans of getting it all captured and up-to-date. Thus, my bullet point list blog post! Just a few quick updates from our many adventures from July and August of 2010...

Mark's brother Brett came to visit us for a few nights and we loved having him. We were able to make a trip down to Santa Cruz for a day and go bike riding, walk around the boardwalk and beach, and even get a deep-fried Twinkie.

I put together a fun bookstore date for Mark and I. We went to Barnes and Nobles and had to complete certain tasks and share things with each other, such as finding a recipe we wanted to try, finding a book we remembered from growing up and reading it to each other, finding a funny joke to share (we ended up reading Far Side), sharing a yummy treat at the bookstore cafe, telling each other "I love you" in a language we each would like to learn, finding a picture of a place we would like to travel to together, and reading love poems to each other. We had a fantastic time together and spent relatively little.

Mark graduated with his MBA from San Jose State!!! I am so proud of him and his diligent efforts to get his education. He is such a hard-working guy and I love him! We were so lucky to have Mark's parents come celebrate with us for the weekend. After the graduation we drove up to San Francisco and hiked around the beautiful Muir Woods. Mark was very excited to receive the PS3 I splurged and got him as a graduation present and initiate our brand new "you are special today" red plate.

We traveled to Utah for a long weekend to hang out with family. We also were able to attend a Merlin and Donna May Bowen reunion (my grandparents), held at the Simons' gorgeous cabin. Each of their daughters (i.e. my mom and aunts) shared a sweet memory of growing up. We especially loved being able to relax, hang out and play games with the Wadsworth family. Also, we were able to fit in some visits with Kevin, Rachael, and baby Ben! We sure love all of our family!

Mark and I went to a Brian Reagan show. Brian Reagan is one of the funniest comedians I have ever heard. We were laughing like crazy for the entire show.

We traveled down to Yorba Linda for Labor Day weekend to hang out with family. It was fun to help celebrate three birthdays; Papa, Greg, and Tyler. We love getting to see our Abbott family so often!

Disney Magic 2010

2010-11-11T22:48:00.000-08:00

During 2010 we were able to be part of the "Give a Day, Get a Day" Disney put on. We gave service by making 2 fleece blankets each to donate and got free tickets to Disneyland! I love going to Disneyland with Mark, who makes everything so fun and who knows all the ins and outs of the park. We even brought our own yummiest sandwiches ever for lunch.

Mark knows all about how to use the fast pass appropriately. We had so many for the day!

Posing outside California Adventure.

We really enjoyed having Mark's brother Tyler hang out with us for part of our day.

Tyler was so hungry that he bought the hugest thing of sourdough bread and basically ate all of it in about five minutes. Massive amounts of bread.

Great picture of Tyler and me.

Mark and I wandering over to California Adventure to see the new World of Color show, which was seriously amazing!! I'm sad we didn't get any pictures of the show, but we were too enthralled to even think about it. So cool.

Last year we went to Disneyland on Mark's birthday and got him a funnel cake right as the park was closing. Mark loves funnel cakes and I wanted to make sure he got some sort of treat on his birthday. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures of it and I wished I had. We had to recreate the event and take pictures again. Such a yummy tradition and so fun to be out in the park at night with very few people around.

Great day baby!!

Marriage Advice from The Incredibles

2010-11-08T20:04:00.001-08:00

I have a confession... occasionally I listen to movies at work. Not when I have to concentrate and have lots going on. In fact, since changing departments recently I haven't had the need or the time to listen to movies. In my last department though, things could get really slow at times. Listening to movies seriously got me through. If you're ever interested, go to listentoamovieo.com. It's kinda sad how many movies I've never actually watched before but now know because I've listened to them (example: Back to the Futures 2 and 3).

Anyways, I was listening to The Incredibles the other day. Such a great movie. I wasn't paying too much attention, but suddenly I got pulled into the movie. Elastigirl was visiting her friend Edna Mode (the clothing designer) and had just realized that her husband, Mr. Incredible, had been lying to her about his job. She didn't know what was happening and perhaps even suspected some unfaithful issues. She started sobbing and asking Edna Mode what she should do. Edna began to answer and my mind started to formulate the typical answer someone nowadays would tell a woman who suspects lying and/or infidelity from her husband. For some reason Edna's actual response took me by surprise.

She said "What are you talking about? You are Elastigirl! Pull yourself together! What will you do? Is...is...is this a question? You will show him that you remember that he is Mr. Incredible! And you will REMIND him who YOU are!"

The first thing Edna suggested is that Elastigirl needed to show her husband that she remembered that he was Mr. Incredible. I truly believe this is one of the sacred duties we as wives should always be working on. Husbands need to be reminded and shown, both by words and through actions, that we know he is Mr. Incredible. Mark is the most incredible man, and I never want to be guilty of bringing him down. I want to build him up and remind him of who he is. He is not only my Mr. Incredible, but a divine son of God with the most amazing potential. Some days I'm better at this than others, but it's a goal I have for myself every day. Husbands need to be reminded how wonderful they are and how much they are appreciated. Don't take your Mr. Incredible for granted!

Another thought though... the second piece of advice Edna gave was to remind her husband of who she was. We are beloved daughters of God and we need to respect and love ourselves. When we are confident, we are better able to build up people around us.

Well, enough random advice. I do feel strongly about this and hope it helps someone else out there as well! It's been a great thing for me to remember and work on every day. Oh, and random, but I love Edna from The Incredibles. She is so hilarious. The whole movie is great. Go watch it again.

Adventures in Primary

2010-08-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

Do you remember that movie "Adventures in Babysitting"? I used to think that movie was so funny.

Anyways... Mark and I have loved teaching Primary for the past year or so. We are currently teaching the CTR 4 class (i.e. kids ages 4 turning 5 during the year). Yesterday, we were in the Junior Primary Sharing Time listening to some really neat presentations. They had members from the ward dress up with shawls and tell us stories as though they were people from the Bible who had witnessed miracles performed by Jesus Christ. A really great lesson that seemed to be going over well with the kids, based on the unusual quiet in the room. One woman ("Martha")stood up and told us about how her brother Lazarus was raised from the dead (see John 11-12). She very vividly described how Lazarus then walked out of the tomb/sepulchre, still wrapped in his burial clothes and with something still covering his face. I started thinking about how scary that really could have been.

Suddenly, from the back of the room, we heard... "was he a zombie?"

Oh my. I love my calling. Good question kid. I'm glad we got that straightened out.

Favorite Books of the Year (and probably longer)

2010-08-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

I love reading. I always have. I remember watching my mom read all the time. She loves reading to relax. She prefers the mystery novels, a la Mary Higgens Clark. I learned from her the wonders of diving into a good book and losing yourself in another world. Or just forgetting what's going on around you and relaxing for a few hours. Both of my parents encouraged us to read often. Going to the library was always a trip, starting with trying to collect all the books we had to return. The books were loaded into our square laundry basket. Yes, you heard me correctly. Who borrows just one or two books from the library? We would stack them high in our laundry basket. Probably around 20 or 30 for all of us. I loved searching the shelves for new books to read. I have fond memories of Sweet Valley Twins (and High), R.L. Stein, Babysitters Club. All the classics. I felt so grown up when I would occasionally need a book from the regular library (i.e. not the juvenile section) and I had to walk up the stairs to the mass of books waiting. Some reading experiences will never be forgotten. I have a very vivid memory of reading in my bed while eating the chocolate peanut butter Girl Scout cookies, whatever those are called. I even remember the vague plot of the book I was reading... something about fairies and another world or dimension or something. I remember crying as I read the chapter where Dumbledore dies in Harry Potter #6. I was lying on my bed at Campus Plaza, unable to put the book down, while my friends were hurrying me from the front room so we could go somewhere. I had to find out what happened. I also remember forcing the five youngest in my family to sit down and let me read them Harry Potter, despite their protests. I knew they would love it. Another thing you should probably know about me... I don't know how people can read and actually enjoy non-fiction. I need some adventure and excitement and drama. Some magic. I read for pleasure.

Okay, enough reminiscing. I wanted to let you all know my absolute and utter favorite books that I read this past year. For more details on my book list, you can join goodreads.com and become my friend. I am in love with that website now. In no particular order, here are the top three best books I have read this past year:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (and I really should include the two other books in the trilogy... all very good!)

I absolutely loved this book. I haven't been this pulled into a fantasy series since Harry Potter. I mean, I know I loved Twilight, but honestly this writing and J.K. Rowling's writing is just on another level. The storyline and the characters in this series are so well-written. Definitely not for young teenagers due to the violent nature of the books (good luck making these into PG-13 movies!). I had heard about these books before, but didn't know what the fuss was all about. Let me tell you, the fuss is all real and all worth it. Although in retrospect, I was glad I ended up reading them just a few months before the last book was released. I went crazy having to wait even that long. Also, this was a series that Mark and I read together and he loved them as much as I did! Another reason I know how much these books affected me... I cried while reading them out loud to Mark. It's a little more embarrassing to cry in front of someone instead of just in the comfort of my own reading session. But it happened during both of the first two books for me.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

This book is seriously adorable. I read this the longest ago so it's hard to remember all the specific feelings, but I loved this book. I loved the way it was written, just as letters written between different people. I cared so deeply for the characters and what was happening to them during this difficult time (post WWII England). A must read.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Oh my gosh I love this book. The storyline, the characters, the writing- it is all magnificent. It is set during WWII in Germany, which can be a very difficult subject but one that can be very important as well. I think that the voice of the narrator for this book is absolute genius. The book is told from the perspective of Death. Not the Death we think of who looks like the grim reaper. It's a Death who simply has a job to do. Who doesn't revel in the unpleasantness going on around him. A Death who is sympathetic to those who are suffering. It's very poignantly told. The way it was written did take a little bit of getting used to, but I ended up loving it. It was also odd to me how I could still be so emotionally invested in certain events, even when the Death narrator had already told us what would happen. It seemed like that would be spoiling the ending, but oh gosh that was not the case. I was glad that I was reading the end of this book in the privacy of our room with the door shut. I love my husband, but I was hoping he wouldn't come in to interrupt. I was so involved in the ending. I believe I sobbed for the last 30-50 pages or so. Literally sobbing. Not just tearing up. I had to work to control myself so Mark wouldn't hear my sobs and come in and interrupt. I needed to be involved in the story and the characters.

The Fourth with the Family

2010-08-10T21:53:00.001-07:00

Mark and I traveled home to Yorba Linda for the weekend of the Fourth of July to hang out with our Abbott family. We had so much fun spending time with everybody and celebrating. We watched the fireworks at Greg and Devon's house again. It's always especially fun to see our little nephews and nieces. Baby Ben had gotten so much bigger than before. We were also glad to be present for baby Stevie's second birthday party. We have the cutest families!

Papa and Stevie were being so cute together, laughing and giggling!

Birthday Boy Bash

2010-08-10T21:43:00.003-07:00

After getting the house cleaned up, we were able to finally celebrate Mark's birthday!! I love Mark. He is my best friend in the world and I am always thrilled to spend time with him. For his birthday, Mark and I decided to finally check out the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot. We went the day before his birthday because his birthday landed on a Sunday this year. The Mystery Spot is located up in the Santa Cruz mountains. Apparently it's a place where secret mysterious things happen due to some crazy natural phenomenons that scientists aren't able to explain. We had lots of fun and the area was absolutely beautiful.

The Mystery Spot has some weird gravitational things going on. When our tour guide put down the pictured board on a certain spot, one side appeared to be higher. Then, when he put a pool ball on the board, it actually started moving what appeared to be upwards. So apparently it was actually downwards because the gravity was pulling it that way. He even used my chapstick to prove that it wasn't just their weird ball. Really weird.

Mark posed outside the house that fell down the side of the hill after being firmly constructed, just to stop at this spot. They believe it stopped here because this area must be the center of the weirdness. Our tour guide told us one theory of why the area has weird gravitational pulls may be due to magma under the earth's surface.

Mark standing up straight on the table in the house. When you stand up straight, you actually appear to be leaning super far over.

Can you tell what way the gravitational pull is?

Heather posing in the house doorway.

Chilling in the Santa Cruz mountains after our amazing tour.

The next morning was officially Mark's birthday, and here's his official first birthday picture!

Opening presents later that day.

I made lemonade pie instead of cake because that's what Mark likes. Unfortunately, I couldn't find our candles, so I just used the only candle we had. Happy Birthday Handsome!!!

Our Very Own Gift of the Magi

2010-08-10T21:43:00.001-07:00

I love marriage. I love those little moments when you realize how blessed your life is and how amazing everything is when you get to spend forever with your best friend. Just such a moment happened the Friday before Mark's birthday. I wanted Mark's birthday to be fun and relaxing for him. I also knew that our house desperately needed to be cleaned. As probably most of you can attest, cleaning the house becomes a weekend chore when everyone is busy with work and school. And let's just say that we hadn't cleaned for at least two weeks before this... sad to admit. When I got home from work on Friday, I had a few more hours before Mark would be back from his afternoon class. I put things into high gear and went crazy on the house, trying to get everything taken care of before Mark got back so we could just relax and play over the weekend. I swept up the kitchen and felt a little surprised that I swept up only so much grossness. I had thought it would be worse. Awesome, maybe we aren't so messy after all. Feeling better about ourselves, I continued mopping and dusting and cleaning counters and all that jazz. Then I vacuumed, sure that I would pull up an enormous amount of more grossness. To my surprise, it actually turned out to be a fairly light vacuuming day. So weird and so awesome. I quickly put the house back together and eagerly awaited Mark's return. When he came home, I was so excited to show him what I had done for him (never having been good at keeping presents or nice things secret). I told him everything that I had done, to which he just gave me a small smile and said "so you really swept and vacuumed today?" Being a bit surprised by this response, I was quick to answer in the affirmative. At that point, Mark told me that he had already swept, mopped, and vacuumed the apartment earlier that morning before his class. Even right before his birthday! I'm so grateful for him! We both ended up laughing when we realized how "gift of the Magi" that moment was.

While I think this story is sweet, I do realize how sad the state of our apartment must have been to still have things to vacuum and sweep up twice in one day. Vaguely depressing. It usually isn't that bad though, I promise!

Basketball Date

2010-08-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

I recently found a website (thedahlingdatingdivas.blogspot.com) that talks about planning dates and keeping the romance alive. It's so stinkin' cute. It's given me a few ideas for future dates and gotten the wheels turning. During the NBA playoffs, with Laker madness going on, I was again reminded of how much my husband loves basketball. After thinking about it, I decided I could put together a fun basketball themed date. I decided to plan the date for the weekend before the Lakers game 6 and 7 (not gonna lie... I wanted to make sure there wouldn't be any sad basketball feelings if the Lakers did end up losing... but that wasn't a problem anyways!)

That Saturday, Mark was gone during the morning taking a few hour long test for his MBA program. I knew he wouldn't be having the best Saturday morning ever and it gave me enough time to get everything planned and ready for him. So it was the perfect day for a fun date!

First of all I downloaded some jock jam songs to play during the date and get us in the competitive, fun mood. I ran a few errands and then got to work on my invitation. That's one thing that I think is really cute about my new website... they typically make cute invites for their dates. Just another thing to get excited about. So I made a basketball ticket (see picture below) for our ESPN (i.e. Extra Special Private Night) Basketball Date with his name and the time. I left the ticket taped to the doorknob so he would find it when he got home. I also made a schedule based on an actual basketball game and then titled each one with ESPN shows. Hehe, I know, too cute. I left the schedule with instructions to "get in his basketball gear and get ready to rumble" on a pile of his basketball clothes. When the time came for the date to start, we both got into our basketball clothes, turned on the jock jams, and started on the schedule... I'll add some details below on what we did for each part.

Pre Game (i.e. NBA Countdown): I had looked up some Lakers trivia to ask Mark.
First Quarter (i.e. NBA Shoutaround): A round of horse with our nerf basketball set.
Second Quarter (i.e. Saturday Primetime): Mark and I took our basketball game outside to the streets! We went to a park nearby to play some real basketball. I had brought some Gatorades to drink, which turned out really helpful because it was so warm. We shot around and warmed up and then played a real game. Mark totally won everything we played. He's so good at basketball and I'm... not quite as good. It's okay, we each have our own strengths. I also brought our camera with us to the courts so we could take pictures for our own "playing cards." Here's some of our pictures...

Halftime (i.e. NBA Coast to Coast): On our way home we picked up some pizzas for dinner.
Third Quarter (i.e. Outside the Lines): We looked up the video "Dazzling Dunks and Basketball Bloopers" on youtube. Mark had grown up watching this funny movie and I've definitely heard it talked about often in the Abbott household.
Time out (i.e. Pardon the Interruption): We gotta shower sometime. We actually ended up doing this before we watched the movie, but this was the originally planned order.
Fourth Quarter (i.e. Midnight Madness): no comment :) I love marriage!
Post Game (i.e. NBA Live: Bring It Home): And then for treats, I thought we got a little sweaty and dirty playing basketball, so why not a "dirty" treat. I found this recipe somewhere and Mark absolutely loves sour gummy worms, so I had to try it. It's simply instant chocolate pudding layered with crunched up Oreo cookies, topped with some gummy worms. So yummy! We ate our treats while watching a movie, because everything actually went much faster than I had originally planned and I started the date super early. The only movie that we own with a slight basketball twist is "Three Ninjas." Remember that part where Rocky and Colt play basketball with the bullies for Emily's bike? Yep, I sure do. How they spot the bullies 9 points out of the 10 required and then beat them hands down. Awesome. "Rocky loves Emily."

This date was fun to plan and sooo super fun to spend time with Mark!! I'm definitely going to plan some more fun dates in the future!

June Family Extravaganzas 2010

2010-08-10T21:30:00.001-07:00

Once again, we had a lot of family time during June, so I'll give some brief info and mostly just let the pictures do the talking.

Early in June we were able to travel down to Yorba Linda for baby Katelyn's blessing. It was so neat because all of the Abbotts except Randy and Sandy and clan were able to be there. We love getting to see our family on such a regular basis and seeing our nephews and nieces grow up.

Later that month, Heidi and Seth came to visit us! We felt so lucky to have them visit, especially because they had flown into LA, rented a car, and driven up to spend only two nights with us just to drive right back to LA. We were so grateful that they made the huge effort and enjoyed hanging out with them. They are such fun people! On their one full day in the area, we went to San Francisco and saw the sights.

Half Marathon Madness

2010-08-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

So sometime last year I decided to make the crazy goal of running a half marathon. Actually, I know exactly when I made that fateful decision... after watching the Biggest Loser finalists run a whole marathon. I figured that if they could push themselves and run a full marathon, then I certainly could run a half. Doesn't that make sense? I suppose it would except that at the time I hadn't been running in awhile and that I really dislike running. I quickly realized this, but not before I had already told several people about my goal. You know how they tell you that you should confide your goals in other people? Yeah, it works. Total motivation. No one wants to tell everyone they're running a half marathon and then not come through. So at some point I was stuck. Come heck or high water, I was going to run a half marathon.

To start with, I asked for a pedometer for Christmas. That's the first step after all. I would need to know how many miles I was running. Then I used my birthday money to buy new running shoes, seeing as how the running shoes I was using before those were at least 7 years old. Once those two were purchased and stowed away, I looked up half marathons around the area and decided to run one on Saturday, June 5th. It was going to cost a pretty penny, but it was a goal and you gotta do what you gotta do. Last step... I created a 12 week training schedule by comparing a few template schedules online. Wait, there's another last step... actually start running. Ugh. It did help that I finally figured out how to listen to my iPod while running. For some reason my ears are weird and/or I'm just weird. The ear buds don't stay in my ears if I jostle around. Thankfully I had an awesome sweat band to hold it in place. Bright red with stars on it. Then I finished off my outfit with bright red shorts and a bright orange tank that Mark gave me. Lots of prep work... and then finally comes the actual running.

About halfway through my training program, Mark started running with me occasionally. I asked him if he wanted to run the whole training program and the half marathon with me and he said yes! It was kinda sad how I had to work up to 7 or 8 mile runs and he just joined at that point and it was a piece of cake for him. At some point, we realized that Brett and Becky were blessing their baby Katelyn the weekend we had planned to run the marathon (hehe, I still hadn't paid the money to run in the official race). Almost all the Abbott family were going to be there and we would have felt sad if we couldn't have made it. I thought about it for awhile and I realized that my goal was to run the length of a half marathon at one time, not necessarily to run an official half marathon. Besides, it was going to end up saving us a lot of money. So, because of that, we decided to continue training and then run on June 12th.

However, while we were running on May 22nd, which was going to be our last long Saturday run before the big one, we started our run planning on a 8-10 mile run. About 3 miles in though, I realized that I could either run 10 more miles that day and be done with it, or I could run 13 more miles again. Mark being the stud that he is agreed to my surprising proposal that we just run the whole thing that day. It ended up being crazy hard and probably would have been easier if we had planned on it beforehand. Because we hadn't planned on it, we started later in the day than we would have (i.e. it got pretty warm), we hadn't eaten a ton for breakfast, and we hadn't brought any snacks and/or liquid with us. We ran a 5-mile loop (that did include running from our house to the library and a park with a drinking fountain at least) twice, made a very quick stop at our apartment for some water, soda, and Ghirardelli chocolate (for the sugar), then followed by our favorite 3-mile loop through the neighborhoods by our house. We were so thoroughly exhausted. Those last few miles were terrible. I will admit that we did walk occasionally throughout, every two miles or so. Once during training we ran 7 miles without stopping and it just killed me. After we got home, we got some Gatorade from the 7-11 next door to our apartment and basically just collapsed. My body just felt like it was shutting down on me, while Mark felt pretty sick to his stomach. Eventually I got up enough energy to make us some potsticker snacks and we decided to go out to eat at Outback for a reward later that night. Here's some pictures right after the run...

Some things we went through during our training and run:

Shin splints - Heather
Sore knee (from a previous injury) - Heather
Gross blood blister toes - Mark

Good times, but definitely not to be repeated. I realized that I enjoy small runs (i.e. 3 miles), but long miles are not for me. My poor body just starts shutting down.

May Family Extravaganzas

2010-08-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

Seeing as how I'm so far behind and for some reason still believe that someday I can get caught up... I'm going to give very brief explanations and mostly just include the pictures.

We were able to visit with Kevin and Rachael while they were staying in Sacramento at the beginning of the summer. It was so much fun to see them, especially because we got to finally meet our new nephew, baby Ben.

Then we were so glad to have Ashley and Dave come visit us for several days. They are so fun to hang out with and put up with us, even when we were boring and had to work. Thankfully we were able to hang out during the evenings and spent a day in San Francisco. Umm... sorry again about swearing when we were going up that huge hill with complete stop-and-go traffic and cars in front of us were dying and turning around. I got super stressed out. I really usually don't swear!

To finish off our May Extravaganza, we went down to Visalia to visit Brett and Becky and kids, and to meet our new niece, Katelyn! We always have such fun hanging out with their family. Their kids are so cute and baby Katelyn is no exception!

First Year Anniversary

2010-08-10T21:09:00.001-07:00

Ahhh, our first year anniversary. We had such a fun time celebrating our first fabulous year and look forward to many more. Marriage to a great, fun, worthy man is simply the best thing in the whole world. There have definitely been ups and downs thoughout, but the ups always outweight the downs. Besides, the downs just help us to grow together in the end. And I personally think we're getting better at this whole marriage thing. Always good to improve. Well, to celebrate our anniversary, we decided to go to Pismo Beach. We had heard good things but never been there yet. Mark found us an amazing place to stay. It was a bit pricey, so we just went for one night. Besides, Mark had school and a pretty busy schedule. We stayed at the Avila Village Inn and it was tremendous! More in the pictures to follow...

First of all, the inn had free beach cruiser bikes that they let us use. We drove for about 15-20 minutes to the beach and walked around a little outdoor shopping market. It was awesome.

Avila Beach

We then drove to Pismo Beach (about a half hour away) and walked around and ate yummy seafood for dinner.

Pismo Beach sunset

We had heard of this Hot Lix place before on a special Food Network candy show and were surprised to find it in Pismo Beach. They make candy out of bugs. Yes, that's right, bugs. So we just had to go check it out, and Mark even talked me into trying some... they were only 25 cents each. Actually the chocolate covered crickets weren't so bad. They bake them so they're crunchy and then cover them in chocolate. Tasted like a really crunchy crunch bar. Gross when I started thinking about it, but not bad tasting. Mark said the chocolate covered worm was worse. I refused to try that one.

There were a few reasons why we loved our little Avila Village Inn so much.

It was a small inn, maybe 30 rooms. So it was really quiet and intimate.
The free bikes, good times.
They let you borrow dvd's from the lobby, so we watched Strictly Ballroom, finishing up at the very last moment before we had to check out.
The lobby was absolutely stunning (no pictures), with this huge fireplace and basically no one there to bug you.
Free cookies and free apples (neither of which we tried... fresh strawberries from the market was good enough for me).
Our fabulous room... it was huge and luscious and simply amazing.
We had a balcony, which faced the back of the hotel, rather than the common grounds like other people's rooms. It faced the secluded trees area. The bike trail was down there as well, but we felt like it wasn't super close. See the view below...

and last but not least... we had our own private hot tub out on the balcony. We definitely made use of it a few times. It was so sweet and peaceful to sit out in the hot tub and feel so alone and out in nature. Then we had a fun time using it again the next morning... we wanted to make sure we got our money's worth.

The front/side of our inn.

After checking out of the hotel, we drove over to Pismo Beach for one last visit. Unfortunately, it was actually pretty cold. I don't think we took our jackets off. But we sat in the sun on our towels and beach chairs and read for awhile. We love the beach!

Wadsworth Parentals Visit

2010-08-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

We always love having visitors come stay with us. I was so glad that my parents were able to come out and visit us this year! My mom had a conference held here in San Jose, so they ended up just staying at the hotel. Next time though... sleepover at our house! We had a great time hanging out with them, chatting, laughing, and having adventures.

We taught them how to play the train game (i.e. Ticket to Ride), which I think they really enjoyed. Great game. Oh, and isn't my dad looking great?!? He's lost a ton of weight in the last year since going on a very strict diet and exercise regiment. He's doing so fabulous!!

One of the days they were here, we went up to San Francisco. I have been wanting to walk across or drive across or bike across or anything across the Golden Gate Bridge every since moving to this area. So we made that happen! We walked all the way over and back. In case anyone was curious... it's kinda a long walk! I think we decided it was about 2 miles one-way. It's awesome to see how in-shape my dad is nowadays... he left us in his dust because we were going too slow and we didn't see him again until we got all the way across. He put up with our speed on the way back though. So much fun!

Mi Madre and me! Halfway across the bridge. What a fabulous lady she is!

The view of the city and the bay from the other side of the bridge.

And then, as if walking four miles wasn't enough for one day, we walked down Embarcadero to get to the correct pier for our Alcatraz adventure. If you haven't been to Alcatraz before, just be aware that it does include a fair amount of walking. All I know is that by the end of the day we were all pretty sore and tired (well, maybe that was just me). Here's us on the boat ride over to Alcatraz.

Listening to the audio tour on Alcatraz with the city view in the background.

Hanging out in the outside exercise area.

Just checking out the accommodations...

Oh gosh, I love my dad. He made me take several pictures to see if he could get his "angry prisoner" look correct. He did awesome.

Mark was less the "angry prisoner" and more the "why are you taking more pictures of me prisoner." :)

And here's some pictures on the boat ride back from Alcatraz. Well, we're not actually at sea yet. I think the boat's still docked, but we wanted to get some Alcatraz background in the picture. Anyways, we're just pretty awesome. That's about all there is to it.

I love this picture of Dad and I (is that really the grammatically correct way of saying that? looks weird...)! Partly because it reminds me of the hat that I brought all over San Francisco because it's usually cold there and it ended up being the hottest day in San Francisco I've ever seen. The hat ended up most of the day in Mom's purse. Still being the best mom ever. Always having to carry things around for us, even when we're supposed to be adults now!

All in all, we had such a fun time with the parentals in town. We got together several evenings and also spent time with the Waltons. We even all went and worked out in their hotel gym. Definitely a first as far as family activities. Very cool.

Easter 2010

2010-08-10T20:49:00.000-07:00

April showers brought Easter fun for the San Jose chapter of the Abbott clan. However, I did make the grossly huge mistake of putting off Easter candy and basket shopping until the night before Easter. That week just ended up being much busier than I had anticipated. And when I come home from work, I would much rather hang out with Mark than run around doing errands. All in all, a bad decision. I also didn't have time to run errands during the day on Saturday because General Conference was held the same weekend of Easter. We were busy watching the sessions, trying to get outside when we could, and making food. However, I had the genius idea of going to Walmart to shop for Easter supplies while Mark was attending the Priesthood Session that evening. Genius or insane. It seemed like a good idea, until I got into Walmart, found a shopping cart, and found the Easter aisle absolutely jam-packed with people and shopping carts, with limited amounts of candy strewn everywhere. So, a new plan formed. One that included not looking at prices and objectively deciding what to buy. No time for such nonsense when hundreds of people are pressing upon me and when the candy has all been unsettled and moved from its original resting place. So I just started throwing things in the cart, one for Mark, one for me. I made it down the first aisle after many moments of utter panic and despair. Freedom! Only to realize that I still needed baskets, plastic Easter eggs, and another candy run. I found a huge bin full of plastic Easter eggs that were just ridiculous looking... who wants comouflage eggs? Or real-looking bugs on their eggs? Where are just the normal plastic Easter eggs? Too tired to care much, I decided against them. After all, most of the candy I bought was individually packaged and didn't need plastic eggs. Maybe next year. Then in a moment of desperation, I decided to simply leave my full cart near the end of the aisle and make a quick run down the Easter aisle towards some surprisingly cute looking baskets and a few candy items that looked appealing. Once again, who has time for price checks? Miraculously, no one had disturbed my cart by the time I dug myself out of the crowds again. Thank goodness. I would have been even more aggrevated if I had to start all over again. After failing to find one or two other items on my shopping list, I finally left the store in disgust. Let me share these words of wisdom: never, ever, EVER go holiday shopping at Walmart the day before the holiday. Maybe not even a few days beforehand. If you're going for the cheaper Walmart prices, plan ahead. Otherwise, just buy candy somewhere else. After all, I ended up spending much more money than I had originally planned because of the intense craziness. Oh well, we do love our candy here! And yes, I will admit that we bought even more day-after-Easter-sales candy.

In years to come, perhaps we will fill each other's Easter baskets, like we do for Christmas stockings, but this year it was all me. I wanted to do it and thoroughly enjoyed the rush of preparing a basket for Mark. Not gonna lie... it wasn't so bad picking out candy for myself either. Well, because I prepared both baskets, I hid both of them in our bedroom (limited space in our small apartment) and made Mark find them both. He found his cheery yellow basket first (yellow is his favorite color after all).

Then he found my basket for me... yummy!

Mark enjoying his treasures!

A close-up of my basket of luciousness...

We also took time to decorate eggs together, something that I never really did often growing up. We actually tried to do this last year and even bought the egg dying kit and hard-boiled eggs. Three weeks later though, we still hadn't dyed the eggs and ended up throwing them out. This time we were better... we actually dyed the eggs! Of course, we did end up throwing them out a week or so afterwards. One step at a time...

Here's Mark with his favorite egg - LAKERS pride!

Decorating in our kitchen.

Mark's ubber cute face. :)

The end product - our eggs! And yes, you can see the start of the egg Mark made me... M hearts H. Love that man!!

A look back continued... February and March 2010

2010-08-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

Just a quick review of February and March this past year. First of all, here is an awesome picture of one of our favorite meals... Salad Dressing Chicken. Basically I boil bite-size pieces of chicken in a mixture of water and salad dressing until the liquids all boiled away and the chicken gets a little crispy. Basically the salad dressing gets soaked into the chicken and the chicken tastes delicious! Our favorite salad dressing to use is Italian Dressing, but we have a few others we've tried and loved, such as Poppyseed and Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette, which is pictured below. Tastes totally awesome and turned out basically red/pink. We made this for the first time a week or so before Valentines Day, but perhaps in the future this could be a fun Valentines Day meal for the family?

For our first Valentines Day married, we actually celebrated by ourselves before by going out to eat. And yes, because I'm lamely doing this post six months later, I don't remember what restaurant we went to. Sad. But we had lots of fun, especially Mark taking crazy pictures.

For the weekend of Valentines Day, we actually traveled down to Visalia and spent time with Brett, Becky, and their kids. We had such a blast! We've been so lucky to have them live pretty close and be willing to put up with us. We love them! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. Once again, lame.

Then came March. As part of our future traditions, we threw the Second Annual San Jose Abbott Academy Awards party! The Abbotts always throw an awesome Academy Award party and we definitely want to continue the tradition, mostly because Mark is really into movies and into the Academy Awards. We invited several couples over and had lots of food items that related to many of the nominated movies. Unfortunately, once again, no pictures until after the fact. Too much like my Mom who always forgets to bring and/or use her camera, except during the ugly times (i.e. Christmas morning). I'm getting slowly better at taking pictures though.

Mark and I filled out our guesses on who would win which awards. Mark definitely guessed more correctly than me, no surprise.

I wish I had taken a picture of all the food before we dug in, but at least you can see the aftermath of the crazy amounts of random food. It took a lot of cleaning, but was so worth it!

During our cleaning escapades, we somehow tried to put an entire cabbage (or at least a lot of it) into our garbage disposal, which for some reason didn't agree with it. It was actually pretty hilarious. The water started backing up and then Mark grabbed the plunger and went to work... only to find out that the metal part of the sink on the far top right corner of the sink is connected to the pipes and shot out a water and cabbage mixture all over the counter and the walls. Nothing quite like cleaning up gunky cabbage pieces from all over your kitchen. At least I took a picture of this shining moment. :) Eventually we realized the plunger wasn't helping and got the Drain-O. We now have a very sincere testimony of the power of Drain-O. Ten minutes later the sink worked perfectly.

During March, we had yet another first holiday after being married... St. Patrick's Day! I don't remember much about St. Patrick's Day growing up, but I think it can be fun dying food green and celebrating. So, I made pesto pasta with chicken (I think we had to use a bit of green food coloring to make it look that green), french bread with dyed green garlic butter (super yummy, even though that did look a little gross), and Sprite dyed green. Awesome first St. Patrick's Day.

January Joys 2010

2010-07-24T19:17:00.001-07:00

After returning home from our Christmas vacation, we tried our hardest to settle down into normal life. Always hard after long, fun vacations. Of course it always helps that my birthday falls in January! Mark was so nice and absolutely spoiled me rotten. That evening, we went out to eat at a new Thai restaurant that we found near our house... Thai food is one of my absolutely favorites! He also gave me lots of fun presents...

And even bought me the hugely yummy Costco chocolate cake! Man oh man I love this cake... although I have to admit that we definitely couldn't eat too much of it ourselves so we actually still have some sitting in our freezer today... 6 months later. Sad, I know. But so yummy!!

I also decided that it would be fun to go to Sea World because I've never been there and have always really wanted to. Once we started looking into it, we couldn't resist because with Mark's southern California residency, we got an annual pass for the price of a one day pass. So we're going to try and use it a few more times this year and really make it worth our money. Besides, who could say no to such cute polar bears?? And yes, I keep wanting to call them panda bears for some reason. I have no excuses.

I even tried to become one with the polar bear.

And dolphins! How cool is that?? I love dolphins.

We absolutely loved the Shamu show... which happened about a month before the horrible Shamu disaster in Florida. We've been since and the show has totally changed. In January, the trainers were all jumping in the water and swimming with the whales and would get close to them. Nooooo longer. Since the trainer's death, the show changed drastically. No one got in or even really close to the water or the whales. The Shamu show is definitely cheesy, but at least before the accident was really cool.

We were starving after the Shamu show, so our yummy lunch made all the difference.

I love hanging out with Mark. He is always up for fun and adventure. We climbed all over the playground area, where mostly just kids and parents were hanging out and had so much fun.

We put off getting wet until the end of our day so we could get right into the car and turn up the heater. After all, even though we live in California, it was still January and pretty cold. We went down a raging rapids ride twice in a row (because no one was going due to the cold!), got soaking wet, and had a blast.

Then on our way out of the park, we passed by the Shamu show starting all over again. Since we were already wet, having so much fun, and didn't really want to leave quite yet... we went down into the third row of the "get-wet-here" section. At one point during the show, a whale literally jumped up thirty feet in the air right in front of us and got us so stinkin' wet. After a few more whale splashes, we left the park happy and completely soaked. Our clothes were still wet after the hour and half drive back to Yorba Linda.

Provo Christmas (i.e. Christmas 2009 Part 3)

2010-06-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

We were able to arrive in Utah just in time for the Christmas festivities to begin. That night we all went caroling and delivering Christmas gifts to the neighbors. It was definitely a quick change from the sunny weather in So Cal to Utah. Mark and I had to borrow lots of outerwear and boots to make sure we didn't freeze and we were still really really cold. We had lots of fun though and who really needs to feel your toes anyways?

On Christmas Eve, we went sledding at Rock Canyon Park, also bundled up in many borrowed warm wear. It also turned out to be Mark's first time sledding! I had no idea that he hadn't been before so I had so much fun sharing that with him. He got really into it and we enjoyed hanging out with some of the Wadsworth family.

To continue our Christmas Eve celebrations, we participated in the Wadsworth family traditions of eating a yummy dinner, opening family Christmas presents (i.e. the presents we give to each other, not Santa presents), and watching the musical movie "Scrooge." Here are all the kids, with lots of new brother-in-laws (definitely a new thing for us). We were very excited to start opening presents.

All the kids stayed up late watching the movie and then ended up sleeping around the basement (except Heidi and Seth who went to their nearby home for the night). In the morning we slept in, waited for Heidi and Seth to come, and then had our annual march up the stairs (youngest to oldest) to check out the tree and the presents. Dad started with his typical checking out of the tree (i.e. turning the lights on). He naturally let us all down gently by telling us that at least there was some good news... we wouldn't get too cold this year because of all the coal we received. Never gets old. We marched up the stairs, situated ourselves and started digging through our stockings. We then went present by present as each person took a turn opening something and showing everyone what they received. As you can see, my mom's still getting used to buying presents for the brother-in-laws so they mostly got matching gifts. Aren't you jealous??

Mark and myself with our stockings and presents. What a wonderful first married Christmas!

I couldn't resist putting in this picture of my sisters, Holly and Amber. They were too cute with their matching furry coats.

Christmas morning presents of all the Wadsworth kids, complete with matching pajama pants we received the night before from Mom:

Mark and I had a great trip to Utah and loved spending lots of time with all of the Wadsworths. We don't get to see them as often as we would like, but enjoy every minute that we can get. We miss and love you guys!

Yorba Linda Christmas (i.e. Christmas 2009 Part 2)

2010-06-26T13:26:00.000-07:00

Our Christmas break ended up being two weeks long, which we shared between Yorba Linda, CA and Provo, UT. We drove down to Yorba Linda and spent a few days there before flying out to Utah the day before Christmas Eve. We then spent a week in Utah and flew back to Yorba Linda to spend the rest of our time before driving home and back to real life. Lots of traveling and family and fun.

We walked around a neighborhood totally decked out for the holidays with the Abbotts. I was so impressed by the amazing decorations this entire neighborhood put together. About a million people were driving and walking around enjoying and the neighbors had even capitalized by selling hot chocolate and other treats. Mark and I were apparently on a snowman kick that night because we took a few pictures of us with snowmen. Here's my favorite... he's so happy!

The evening before we flew out to Utah we celebrated our second Christmas "morning" by giving our presents to Mom and Dad and opening up the last of our presents to each other. Mom and Dad also gave us some fabulous presents, which included this amazing Lakers book,

and a wedding photo book!! It's absolutely beautiful and was so appreciated. Thanks goes out to Brett as well for putting it together.

Mark, Tyler, and Sammy enjoying the Christmas festivities (i.e. being goofballs as usual).

As for after we came back to Yorba Linda after Christmas, apparently we didn't take any pictures. We had fun hanging out with lots of family, even though Mom and Dad actually left for the Grand Canyon the day after we got there. We hung out at home for New Years Eve. Mark and I went to our customary Bari Bari restaurant. We went the year before on New Years Eve before Mark proposed so we're going to try and continue the tradition every year.

One afternoon we all went over to Mike and Vicki's house to check out their place (absolutely gorgeous home!) and eat a yummy Mexican dinner (the seriously best fajitas I have ever eaten). We had fun chatting and hanging out. All in all, Mark and I weren't super excited to drive back to real life. We love hanging out with the Abbotts as often as we can and love having them close by.

San Jose Christmas (i.e. Christmas 2009 Part 1)

2010-06-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

I have way too many Christmas pictures to put into just one post, so I'm actually splitting it into three. I've been a little intimidated by the greatness of our Christmas posts, which is why it's been so long since I last posted. And currently I'm getting more and more behind.

We decided to buy an artificial tree that was on sale and that would last for several years instead of having to buy a new one every year. We absolutely loved decorating our tree and purchasing a few new fun decorations for our first year married. Our apartment was so festive. I love the holiday season!!

Another part of the holiday I have always enjoyed is the Christmas lights. It's just so sweet and romantic to read or sit under the lights. So after we put up our tree with lights, Mark and I set up our air mattress right next to it in the front room and slept out there for a few weekends. Here we are enjoying the glow of the Christmas tree.

We attended a fabulous Christmas party thrown by the Walton family. We were able to eat yummy food and hang out with fabulous people. We also participated in a white elephant exchange and we ended up with these fabulous gifts (definitely a bit geared towards me rather than Mark... we were sad to lose the Seinfeld trivia game at the last turn).

Another view of our almost fully decorated Christmas tree (sans the upcoming tree-topper star that we purchased in Utah).

We attended the San Jose Christmas in the Park party.

Mark is the cutest Christmas tree ever!

They had the hugest tree!

We each picked our favorite exhibit. They are so awesome because they play songs and move around. I loved the cute elves at Santa's workshop, while Mark (surprise, surprise) liked the tropical warm scene best.

Fake snow?! These crazy Californians are so cute.

Umm, what kind of rides are these kids playing on at the Christmas in the Park??

Then we had our first Christmas "morning"! Or, we needed to open some presents before leaving on our many travels because we didn't have room to take everything. First of all, we opened our stockings that we had picked out for each other. Can you tell that we love our candy? Aren't the stockings I found for us this year so adorable?!

We then opened the first of our presents that we gave to each other. We had so much fun picking things out for one another.

Just Another Day in Paradise

2010-05-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

Just a quick story to demonstrate the awesomeness that is my life...

Last night Mark and I got home from visiting family (that post will have to come later). We unpacked and relaxed and watched the season finale of Survivor (ugh, totally random but I was not happy with the outcome; I didn't always like Russell, but I liked him more than either of the two girls in the final three with him). Anyways, I was pretty tired by the time we finished the 2+ hours finale and definitely ready to hit the sack, when Mark (thankfully) reminded me that I had an early morning meeting the next day. I hate to admit that I became a little grumpy at that point. I hate waking up early and Mondays are not my favorite to begin with. Mark was the sweetest to me and helped me, even though I was grumpy. He helped me get ready for a somewhat early bedtime and even offered to stay up later to make my macaroni and cheese for lunch. (another random note: if anyone has any good ideas for things to eat for lunch, please share! Lunch is my absolute least favorite meal of the day because I can never think of what to eat and I hate to pack one every day and it just drives me crazy) Mark helped me through the process of brushing my teeth and tucked me into bed and kissed me goodnight. During the middle of the night I woke up from a nightmare, nudged Mark, and asked him to cuddle with me because I get scared. Mark automatically pulled me in and held me close and cuddled with me all night long until the morning. Best husband ever. When I woke up super seriously early, I got ready for the day and was about ready to head out when Mark woke up and immediately remembered and asked me about my dream. (random: Mark usually wakes up the same time I do, but I just had such an early meeting and he had a test that day). I love this man! He is so kind to me, even when I'm grumpy and needy and crazy. He's amazing!!

November 2009

2010-05-09T19:51:00.001-07:00

Well, turns out I didn't take a ton of pictures during November, so this may be a shorter post than it really deserves. First of all, my sister Amber, who is a freshman on the BYU Women's Soccer Team, came out to San Jose with the team to play in the NCAA championship games. We were so excited to find out that some of the tournament games were played at Stanford, which isn't too far from us. Also exciting... Amber was able to write our names down on the player's family and friends list, meaning... we got to watch these amazing games for free! We are all over free activities. We were able to go watch both games that BYU played in and had so much fun. I've never been hugely into soccer until Amber started playing (which has been all her life), but I'm finding more and more that games, especially live games, can be really exciting to watch. Here's a picture of Amber playing around during warm-ups during one of the games.

The weather became pretty cold by the end of the night, so I was glad that I brought my sweatshirt and my lion coat. Yes, my lion coat. I bought it at Ross (yay to Visalia's Ross!) and absolutely love it. The lion-esque fuzzy part does come off and I do that occasionally, but sometimes you just gotta revel in the lionness of the coat. Here's us up in the stands, ready to cheer on the Cougs!

After the game we were excited to find out that we could go eat dinner with the team at the Cheesecake Factory. It took quite awhile to be seated and get our food, what with the whole team, coaches, and family members all getting seats in the same area, but we had a blast. Amber and I reminisced about the good old days growing up and absolutely laughed like crazy. We were so glad to have been able to hang out with her. Love that girl! We were also super excited about watching the soccer games for free. We love good free activities!

For Thanksgiving, we spent the holiday with the Abbotts. Most of the family, minus the North Carolina Abbos, were able to be there and we had such a blast hanging out with everyone. I have to admit that this was my first Thanksgiving not being with my Wadsworth family so I did miss them, but I had a great time celebrating with my new Abbott family and was so glad to start new traditions. One thing that I for sure didn't want to miss during Thanksgiving was some yummy yams. Growing up, we always had yams every year for Thanksgiving. For a good portion of my life I avoided them until I got a bit older and tried them again. They are now my most favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal. I was a bit disappointed to find out that the Abbotts didn't have yams for Thanksgiving, but soon remedied that by offering to make them myself. I was a bit nervous about it because I'd never actually made them myself before, but they ended up tasting pretty good for a first try. And other people actually tried them (some had to be forced) and actually enjoyed them! So I may be able to make them again in future years. Awesome. One fun tradition that the Abbotts have is to get dressed up for the big meal. This was a new one for me because we sometimes ate in what could be called pajamas when we had Thanksgiving with our Cahoon cousins. It ended up being a fun thing to get dressed up. It made the whole experience seem much more classy. So we spent a good portion of the day getting everything prepped and cooked and set up and ready to go. It was fun being able to help out and be part of the whole experience. Abby had us each write down something that we were grateful for on tiny slips of paper. Then during the meal she read them out loud and we had to guess who had written what. Some of them were pretty funny. The food was absolutely amazing. Lots of people helped out and everything turned out soooo well. Not only was the food spectacular, but the tables were so nicely decorated. We ate so much and had tons of fun chatting and hanging out with everyone that day and the rest of the holiday weekend. We definitely had a blast and are looking forward to future Abbott and Wadsworth Thanksgivings to be had.

(disclaimer: if most of the written part of this blog post seems a bit rushed and all over the place, well, it is. I had apparently only typed the first paragraph and then inadvertently logged out of google without realizing it, continued typing up the entire post, went to save it, and got an error message. I opened up the draft version to find that everything except that first paragraph was gone. So aggravating. I tried to recreate the post, but it's hard to get it back to the perfection it was before... or at least the perfection that I will claim it was at before.)

September and October 2009

2010-05-02T20:43:00.000-07:00

September

For Labor Day, we had a gathering of the Abbott clan to celebrate Papa's birthday! I've been so grateful for him and all that he does. We love you tons!! We're so glad to be near to a good portion of the Abbotts and to get together with them as often as we can. We definitely miss Randy, Sandy, and kids, but were glad Sandy was able to make it out for the birthday celebrations. We went swimming, hung out at a park, played games, and had lots of chats. The boys (i.e. Papa, the seven brothers, and Miles) all went to a Dodgers game where they sat in a special area with unlimited free food. How much more awesome could this be for all the guys? I can't even tell you. Mark definitely came home feeling a bit sick... way too many hot dogs, sodas, pretzels, and nachos. The girls (i.e. Abby, Sandy, Becky, Rachael, Cam, and me) all went out to eat and had fun just sitting in the backyard and chatting. Nice to have some girl time sometimes in that house of boys. :)

October

We had a few more happenings during October. First, of course, was General Conference. I tried to make a big breakfast like my mom used to always do for Sunday morning session, and it mostly worked out. I'm just not a huge morning person and having conference start at 9:00 am seems early for me. Thus why I look ridiculously tired while making the food. Also, we were super excited to use the online version of watching the sessions instead of having to go to the chapel like we originally thought we would. Nothing quite like watching in your pajamas while eating a yummy breakfast.

We also got the chance to see Wicked in San Francisco. I'd seen it once before and Mark had never seen it. We had such a blast. It's fun to get a little more dressed up and make a big evening of something. Mark also really enjoyed the experience, which was good to hear. Here's to future cultural attempts! We got up to the city way early, which worked out well because we got the most perfect parking spot and were able to just walk around for awhile.

And last, but certainly not least, Halloween!! And our first Halloween married, so we had to make a big deal of it. We bought and carved pumpkins together...

For the weekend of Halloween, we didn't have any legit plans and were so thrilled to be asked down by Brett and Becky to spend the holiday with them. They are absolutely fabulous and we love our nephews (and are excited to meet our now new niece!). On Halloween, our nephew Jackson had a soccer game that we were able to go to and cheer him on. Sadly I didn't get a picture of him in his uniform, but he was so cute. Mark and I had fun watching the game and entertaining our other nephews on the sideline. Here's Jacob and I just chillaxing...

That afternoon we headed over to the world's most amazing pumpkin patch. Maybe I'm not a true connoisseur of pumpkin patches, but this definitely took the cake for the best I've been to. Mark and I are going to make great farmers someday...

Brett and Becky hanging out at the corn seed playing area.

They had all sorts of animals you could pet and play with. Someday we'll get a puppy...

The whole Brett and Becky clan, just waiting for their new addition baby Katelyn on the way!

I have loved inheriting new sisters. Becky is fun to hang out with and chat with.

Uncle Mark showing off his muscles for Joseph.

Walking around the corn field maze...

Afterward we stopped at the best grocery store ever, Winco. Every time we go to Visalia, we have to make a stop at Winco to buy their bin candy, especially the chocolate covered peanuts. Oh my gosh heavenly. Joseph was hamming it up at the store. And Jackson was being the stellar helper in the back!

We got Mountain Mike's pizza for dinner (delicious!) and the boys loved playing around with the small arcade while we waited for the pizza to finish.

After pizza, the boys got dressed up in their costumes and went trick-or-treating! I remember how exciting trick-or-treating was back in the day. Not that it's not cool now, but well, it's not nearly as magical as it used to be as a child. We loved being able to be part of that excitement with the boys though. Let's just say that Joseph didn't much care for his lion costume, at least at first, even though he looked seriously adorable.

Jacob and Jackson both wanted to be Darth Vader that year. By this point in the night, tired guys, the masks had come off and they were getting a bit tired of walking around and carrying their bags of candy. They loved going through their candy piles back at home and organizing them and playing games with them. We had such a blast hanging out with these guys and are grateful that they are so close to us!

July and August 2009

2010-04-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

July

Our big adventure during July was traveling home down in So Cal to celebrate the Fourth of July. We had a blast hanging out with so many family members. We went swimming, had a birthday party for our nephew Papas (i.e. Stevie), and watched the fireworks while Sammy freaked out and only one nephew started crying... because of the pool noodles being sucked out of the pool, not because of the loud sound. :)

August

We had so much going on during the month of August... it was crazy! So many people decided to come visit, which we totally loved. For off, we drove down to Cambria to hang out with Brett, Becky and kids, as well as Abby and Papa. Brett's boss (or was it a co-worker?) has a cabin that they rented. We were able to play lots of Wii and chat and walk around the beach.

We have the most awesome nephews and nieces. Seriously love these guys.

On the way home we passed an Abbott Street and had to take a picture beside it!

The next excitement of the month was when our friends, Amber, Jenn and Ryan came to visit and see the area. I wish I had taken a picture of our living arrangements for the trip (did anyone get a picture of that?) because it was absolutely crazy. Amber slept on our air mattress in the front room and Jenn and Ryan slept on their air mattress basically in the kitchen. They were such good sports to put up with it. I also didn't get any pictures of our trips to Santa Cruz and took advantage of the beach, a free aerobatic show, and lots of fun rides. Great day. The one day I really did take pictures of was when we went to San Francisco... and mostly just our trip to Alcatraz. Besides that, we rode the trolleys, walked around Chinatown and ate the best Chinese food there, walked around Little Italy and tried some gelatto, and then made our way to Alcatraz. Afterwards we of course had to hit up the yummy ice cream at Ghirardelli.

On the boat ride over to Alcatraz...

The Alcatraz tour is probably one of the best I've ever been on. So cool.

And then on the boat ride back, Mark introduced a new game, something along the line of the "loosen your cheeks and shake your head back and forth like crazy while someone takes a picture of you" game. Here's each of our attempts. As you can tell, for some reason the boys were much better at it htan the girls. So hilarious to watch.

Then for our last excitement of the month, Abby and Papa came to visit us!! We loved having them here and showing them around all our digs around San Jose, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco. They are such a blast to hang out with. Despite Mark unfortunately having school all day the Saturday they were here, I was so lucky to get to hang out with Abby and Papa while we toured San Francisco. I love my parent-in-laws! We love being close enough to them that we get to visit as often as we do.

June 2009

2010-04-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

The complete and utter highlight of the month of June was Mark's birthday!!!!!!! I am always glad to celebrate him and was even more pumped because it was one of our first birthdays being married and I got to spoil him even more than normal. I tried to make all of his favorite dinners and desserts (thanks to Abby for sending me lots of her yummy recipes!) and gave him little presents throughout his official birthday week leading up to his birthday. I even made him a sign...

And what a great year for birthdays! Disney was giving people free tickets for their birthday, so we decided to make a day of Mark's first birthday married and celebrate at the happiest place on earth. We were also able to be with family while celebrating that weekend, which was really neat. On Saturday, June 20th, we headed over to Disneyland after ending up in a weird parking lot that neither of us had ever used before and having to take ugly shuttle buses to the park rather than the cute little trolley like usual. It was definitely an adventure though.

What a cute birthday boy!! And yes, I made him wear the pin all day and loved it when all sorts of random people throughout the park, workers and guests alike, would yell out "happy birthday Mark" all over the place.

One of the awesome Toy Story rides

I hate to admit that I really did try to let Mark win at some point, but then I lost track of our scores and just went crazy at the end. In his defense, he usually beats me. I think his gun was rigged.

I love the Haunted Mansion building. The outside of the house is pretty cool looking.

On Splash Mountain we sat in the very front and became absolutely soaking wet.

My new bff, Mr. Toad. But definitely not as bff as my real bff, Mark.

Just hanging out with our pal Minnie at her house.

We love visiting Fantasy Land late at night. There's just something so magical about these simple rides, especially when it's darker outside and the lights from the park come on. So classic. Here we are in front of the Peter Pan ride.

As the park was closing and with literally hardly anyone still around except workers begin to clean up, we shared a quick birthday funnel cake. A fabulous ending to an amazing day. What more could you expect at Disneyland?

For Mark's main birthday present, I gave him a gray Saved by the Bell sweatshirt that he had mentioned once to me (i.e. I think he had even emailed me with the link). However, the package had come at the very last minute before we had left for the weekend, so instead of opening the package, I just wrapped it in wrapping paper and presented it to Mark for his birthday on Sunday. All of his family was there, so excited to see what he would get. He opened the package and pulled out... a green sweatshirt that said "Callahan Motors." Mark looked a bit confused and thanked me before I could realize what had happened. I didn't even recognize that the sweatshirt comes from Tommy Boy. Soooo, we had to wait until we got home and called the company and had them send us the correct sweatshirt. The lesson of the moment... always check strange packages before giving them to your spouse as a present. :)