the holiday season is in full-swing over here.

last week was joe's work holiday party 

at the spinnaker in sausalito.

good food. good friends. 

great dancing!

joe and i played it really smart this year and decided to wait until last weekend to start any and all christmas shopping. 

saturday we went to the city for shopping and to see the nutcracker. 

i've been not-so-subtle in my hints to joe that i want to see the nutcracker ballet. 

it didn't happen last year, so i vowed this year we would do it. 

i was ready to spend big bucks on the real deal, but when i was presented with the opportunity to see the san francisco youth ballet academy perform the nutcracker for only $7 a ticket!!, i couldn't pass it up. 

"the kids will be really cute"

"i've seen some amazing child ballet dancers"

"$7 sounds so much better than $100!"

just a few of the thoughts i had.

you guys...i was wrong.

i'm pretty sure we were the only people in the audience who didn't have a child/sister/brother/some-sort-of-relative in the performance. 

and i'm almost positive i'll have nightmares about the giant mouse and nutcracker for the rest of my life.

bravo kiddos, but lesson learned = sometimes, you get what you pay for.

it's a good thing we got a lot of shopping done, ate some delicious food, and ended the night at ghirardelli, so we could still call the day a success. 

have i mentioned that i love the city at christmas time?

all i want for christmas is a house on the marina. please, santa?

we leave tomorrow for utah 

(2 days earlier than planned thanks to a snow storm rolling in!!! 

do you think i've ever been happier to hear about snow? no, i have not.)

that means i have a whole lot of shopping/packing/wrapping/cleaning the apt. 

to get done in one day. 

i could really stress out right about now 

if excitement wasn't the only emotion i'm capable of feeling.

see you soon, utes!

ps. sorry for the lack of quality in the pictures. 

they were all taken on my phone, most in motion. 

but i'm also not sorry, cause its either phone pictures, or no pictures.

(usually that means no pictures...)

merry and bright

now that i'm out of my food coma, i guess its time for an update.

thanksgiving was so great!

we stayed here again instead of going home.

(not that i was offered an alternative, but i really thought i was ok with not being around family for turkey day. of course that all changed when i started watching the macy's parade while talking to my family.

the water works just came out of nowhere...and stayed for most of the morning.)

i eventually got a hold of  my emotions, asked my mom a million cooking questions for
my homemade rolls and mashed potatoes,

and we ended up having such a wonderful, delicious, fun day.

i'm so grateful for the friends here that invited us to join them for thanksgiving dinner.

they made our thanksgiving away from home more than ok.

on friday, joe absolutely refused to take part in any black friday shopping

and i wasn't about to go brave those crowds by myself!

so instead we headed into the city for the tree lighting ceremony

to fight the biggest crowd we could find...

it was such a beautiful day, and i ended up getting to do some shopping after all :)

we watched the actual lighting of the tree from one of macy's big windows, and i'm pretty sure we had the best seat in the house.

we ended the night with some rooftop dining at cheesecake factory, with a view of union square, ice skaters, and the tree.

i'm loving the city this holiday season.

its so magical and buzzing with so much excitement.

on saturday joe finally agreed to see twilight with me.

i'm not sure what he hated more:

the movie, or my review of the first 4 movies so he wouldn't be confused the whole time.

i think he was still confused but he was a good sport and didn't make fun of me once!

sunday was a big day.

joe and i agree that the leftovers from thanksgiving is one of the best parts, and we knew we wouldn't have any this year.

so...we attempted our first thanksgiving meal: just the two of us!

turkey, rolls, gravy, stuffing (from a box), potatoes...the whole smorgasbord!

once again, i called my mom so many times, she probably felt like she was the one cooking the meal.

what would i do without her? thanks mom!

unfortunately, it didn't turn out as well as i'd hoped.

the potatoes were too runny, the gravy wasn't very flavorful, and the rolls were in the oven a little too long.

but we didn't burn the turkey! 

so i'm chalking this up to mostly a success and hopefully it'll be better next time.

i had every intention of documenting the process, but the only picture i managed to get was of the turkey before we cooked it...no one cares to see that.

oh, and all of our christmas decor, including the tree, is now up!

so things really are merry and bright around here. 

happy holidays everyone!

halloween + other stuff

it's official people: 

i've eaten enough candy corn in the last 24 hours to make myself sick.

all in the name of halloween though, so it was worth it.

sick husband = no costumes, nothing festive, not even a horror flick to appease my need for anything festive. i even rushed to the store after work today to buy candy for possible trick-or-treaters.

guess what? not one child dropped by. 

now i'll be forced to eat all that candy by myself...poor me. 

wish me better luck next year!

in other news:

our weekends in san jose are officially complete (for now, that i know of)

i did enjoy our nightly stops at pinkberry, sushi dates, 

and filling up on diet cokes in the car -

but i'm excited to be sticking around for a while too.

on sunday we watched the giants win the world series!!!

i'm not a huge baseball fan, or a big fan of any sport for that matter, 

but i was really into the giants this year. 

its been really fun living in a place where i'm so close to a major league team, 

surrounded by loads of loyal fans. 

even the cross guards love a good sweep!

i love holiday-colored m&m's.

if you ask me, they just taste better that way.

and mini fist pump for the first plant at work that i haven't killed!

(i know its not a great looking plant, but i even managed to kill ivy, which my coworker said, she 

"didn't know was possible." so living = victory in my book.)

hope you all had a happy halloween!

sometimes when your husband teaches double-weekend seminars, 

you just have to tag-along.

so tag-along i did.

this weekend it was san jose.

while joe played superman and taught people how to read

(ok, his job is so much more than that, but i'm horrible at explaining it)

i spent my days shopping...

and hanging out on the san jose state university campus.

it is beautiful and it totally brought me back to my days as a college student.

dare i say, it even made me miss it?! 

ok, i don't miss spending hours studying in the library or walking everywhere,

but it definitely had me feeling nostalgic.

we even ate at pita pit, which i haven't had since living in logan.

and to use the wifi in the library, i had to get a library card.

i'll be back next weekend so it's totally worth it.
turns out san jose's not so bad...

believe it or not, weekends with my husband around seem to be much more enjoyable than those when he's traveling for work.
this weekend, i took advantage of every minute with him.

we started the weekend off with a trip to the oakland temple.

its so pretty, and its such an amazing experience every time we go. 

on saturday, our local bff brett was nice enough to give us tickets to the usu vs. sjsu football game.
we drove down and had a fun day in san jose.
i must say, its really fun to watch usu win a football game.
i'm not sure i witnessed that in my whole 4 years going there...

 

 

joe and i finished off the night in san fran, stopping at ghirardelli for some dessert.

only 7 weeks to go until i get my weekends with my husband back.
if anyone wants to come visit, this would be a great time. book your tickets...

i'll use any excuse to celebrate

today marks the one-year anniversary of my move to cali!

while it's not nearly as exciting as celebrating one year of marriage,

i still think it's a little bit exciting, right?

for the first weeks of my life here, i was somewhat of an emotional mess.

(joe might argue that that's an understatement)

i was absolutely thrilled to be living in a new place,
with my husband!, starting our new life together.

but, i was also terrified to be living in a new place,
with my husband?, starting our new life together.

i was experiencing true homesickness for the first time in my life,

and for the first few days i'd burst into tears for no reason at all.

each day was better than the last though,
and joe and i fell into a comfortable routine of daily life together.

right now, i wouldn't change a thing about our lives

i love the freedom we have to go anywhere,
or do anything,
and i love that we can do it all together.

we've made so many great memories in just one year,
and this definitely feels like home now.

here are some of my fav's from the past year:
going to the beach

muir woods

visitors!!!

our first christmas tree together

the redwoodsbaseball gamesmonterey/carmel

and most of all:
living with my hubs.
it sure is fun exploring this place together!

sometimes i get anxious to move back to utah,

but i know i'll seriously miss this place when/if that time comes.

i don't know how much longer we'll be here,
but i'm definitely enjoying this time while it lasts!

travels: part 3

the last part of our trip landed us in:
maui!!!

it. was. amazing.

my first time ever to any hawaiian island, joe's first time to maui.

as i mentioned earlier, i planned this trip and kept all the details a surprise from joe.
this was the first picture i took of him in hawaii, waiting in line to get our rental car.
notice his nervous, forced smile?
he won't admit it, but he was a wreck all morning.
he hated having no control over our plans, and i know he was very nervous that something was going to go wrong. (ok, i was nervous about it too).
but everything worked out perfectly, even better than i had imagined!

we were blissed out the whole time.

we snorkled, body-surfed, shopped, slept in,

saw a turtle!
(no picture of course)

soaked up the sun, explored, played in the sand,

ate pina coladas every day and shaved ice every night

i'm ready for round two.

on our last day in maui we celebrated our one-year anniversary!

[we started off the celebration with breakfast at the gazebo restaurant. 

joe was in heaven with his pineapple pancakes and coconut syrup!]

i can't believe a year has already gone by.
being married has been the best thing ever.
the past year has brought a lot of changes and firsts
and joe has been so supportive through all of it.
i've learned so much about him, and maybe even more about myself.
i'm so thankful such a wonderful man chose to spend eternity with me.
i love my mister!

travels: part one + two

island park

i love joe's family cabin. i first went there when we were dating

in fact, that was where joe and i first exchanged "i love you's"

so i have very nostalgic feelings toward that place.

i love spending time with family

exploring yellowstone

swimming in the boiling river

seeing mesa falls for the first time

4-wheeling

shooting guns

and roasting marshmallows.

definitely one of the prettiest places on earth.

joe's new bff: baby eliza. 

she is so so cute and i loved watching them together. 

he loved her, she loved his hat. win-win!

utah

was fantastic, as usual.

kayden and koby cracked me up, as usual.

it went by way too fast, as usual.

i might love those children an unhealthy amount.

we found koby's halloween costume.

kayden impressed me with his love for sushi.

keslyn still seems tiny to me, and her hair kills me.

thanks to both of our families for making us feel so loved everytime we come home! 

the rest of the trip will have a post of its own. coming soon...