Birthday Time!

Now it's time for MY birthday! And can you guess where we went? I'll give you a hint: we've been there before and it's one of our favorite places. That's right! Disneyland!!!

We spent the day before my birthday running all over Disneyland having fun. Here are a few pictures:


Oh, and this picture of us on Space Mountain was really special. If you can see Jeremiah's hand, he's holding up two fingers. He did this to show that this was the second time we rode the ride in a row - after the first time, we came back into the dock thinking the ride was over and that it was time to get out. But instead of making us get out, they quickly asked everyone in our car if we would like to ride it again. We all screamed YES and there we went! No waiting in line or anything - what a great birthday gift to me :)


On my actual birthday, my parents drove down to be with me, Jeremiah, and his parents. They all made the day really special for me. Jeremiah spoiled me not only with a trip to Disneyland but also a lot of fun gifts, including the TV series Firefly on DVD - if you've never seen this series, it's a must. It's so much fun; we can't figure out why Fox decided to cancel it - but that's TV execs for you.

We went to our favorite Pizza Joint for dinner, That Pizza Place. Then we came back to my in-laws for Lava Cake and Ice Cream.


It was so nice having both sets of my parents there to celebrate with me.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Boo!

Halloween this year was pretty low-key. We went to Jeremiah's parents' house to pass out candy to the little trick or treaters. We enjoyed a roaring fire out in the backyard as we handed out regular sized candy bars to all the little kids - of course, we were the house everyone wanted to go to :).

My "costume" was fun earrings.

The highlight of the evening was one little boy about 3 years old. Last year, we also passed out candy and Jeremiah's friend was dressed up like Spiderman. This little boy, dressed up like Batman- equiped with all the big muscles and everything - just stared at Spiderman in disbelief. He was mesmorized that Spiderman was actually standing only a few feet away from him and he wouldn't even grab his candy because he couldn't take his eyes off Spiderman.

So, I took a picture of the little boy with Spiderman and emailed it to him. His dad replied saying that the picture was now handing up on his son's bedroom wall.


This year, the little boy came back and guess what he was dressed up as? Spiderman! He had been looking forward to seeing the "real" Spiderman all year. Unfortunately, our Spiderman was off at college and couldn't be there with us. We felt so bad for the little boy but it was also really cute.

The evening wasn't anything over the top, but it was still fun and just enough for us.

Birthday Time!

On September 18, we drove up to the Irvine area to celebrate my sister's 29th birthday. It was held at an Irish pub with her closest friends (it was my first time to a pub of any sort so that was lots of fun for me).


We had a great time and as I looked around the table, I was so happy for my sister because she has an amazing group of friends who love her dearly and she deserves nothing less.

Happy Birthday Sis!

Hume Lake

Well, we had a great time a Hume Lake this year (August 3-12). It was super special as it was our first time as a married couple so we had our very own campsite.

Here are a few pictures:



We went up to Buck Rock to check out the view one day. The view from the top was incredible.



Jeremiah went on the infamous "Death Hike" with his brother and some of our friends. (They are trying to find a path down to this river where there is supposed to be amazing fishing. They have tried numerous times but have yet to find it. The hike starts really early in the morning with a long drive, then they hike for hours and eventually make it back to camp late at night. I'm typically a nervous reck the whole time they are gone because they are out in the middle of nowhere and it something were to happen to them...well, I try not to think about that.)

We had great times at the Cove playing in the water and on The Log. I even swam across the lake this year both ways. It was a struggle as I haven't swam that much at one time since I was on the Swim Team back in High School, but I was proud of myself for doing it (my fear of little creatures in the lake didn't help either).

This year was also really special as it may be the last one for a few years that Josh and Mandi will be with us as they will be going off somewhere with the Navy. But hopefully it won't be too many trips that they aren't around for; it just won't be the same without them.

Josh, of course, made one of the biggest fires you could possibly imagine. We all were at leat 10-15 feet away from the pit and were plenty warm.

We also learned some new dice games complimentary of Ruth and Tim. Those were so much fun and we plan on sharing them with friends and family back home.

This trip was a much needed vacation and we are already looking forward to next year. And my parents are planning on coming next year so that will make it even more fun.

Here's to another fun adventure in the book!

Birthday Time!

On May 20th, we drove up to Orange County to be with my good long-time best friend Jamie for her birthday celebrations. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and ate lots of yummy food.

Birthday Time!

Another fun trip to Disneyland but to celebrate a birthday this time: Jeremiah's 28th.

This is us on the Mad Hatter Tea Cup ride (we got a little sick afterwords but at least we got a few good pictures!)


We had a little fun trying on some hats.

We rode lots of rides, ate at the Blue Bayou, and just enjoyed being with each other at one of our favorite places.

It was another great adventure for us...Happy Birthday Jeremiah!

Our Honeymoon...

Our Honeymoon was also fabulous. We spent just over two weeks in the Hawaiian Islands.

But first, we spent the day after our wedding at one of our favorite places ever...Disneyland! We walked all around with our "Just Married" buttons on our shirts to let everyone know. (I couldn't convince Jeremiah to wear the bride and groom hat with me so we nixed that idea :( ) It was a great day! We went on lots of rides and ate at the Blue Bayou for lunch - yummy!



The highlight of the day, however, was actually when we got back to our car in the parking lot. Our truck still had all the writing on it from the wedding the day before saying we were just married. When we got up to our truck, we noticed that there was a note on the windshield. Someone had written us a note congratulating us on getting married and they were so thrilled that we chose to come to Disneyland to celebrate - it was really special to get something like that from a complete stranger.

The next day we headed off to Hawaii! We flew in to Oahu and then hoped on a small plane to Maui. We spent a week there and that ended up being our favorite islands. There was enough touristy things to do but it felt very much like you were a local at the same time. We found a cute little 50s Diner and we ate there a few times (great strawberry shakes!).



We traveled all around the island and took the windy road to Hana. (I got pretty sick and will probably never take that road again, but it really was beautiful along the way.)

We also found some great places to snorkel. Jeremiah really enjoyed it and I'm still trying to get over my fear of the fish touching me so my enjoyment was a little limited.

Our big splurge was going to a fancy luau. It was so much fun and we really enjoyed it.



After our time there, we headed back on a plane to Kauai. This island is gorgeous with all its jungle-like beauty. We had a great time relaxing on many different beaches. That's one of the best parts about this island - there are plenty of beaches to go around so you could actually be the only ones on one as if it were a private beach.



After 3 days there, we got back on a plane and went back to Oahu for a few days. This was definitely our least favorite of the islands - it's just way too commercial. We did go to the famous bay (although I can't remember the name of it right now) where the best snorkeling is on the island. We saw some great fish and sea life there. My fear of the fish and being in confined areas near coral was suppressed a little bit as this bay felt more safe with lots of people around and not as many wide open ocean spaces so I was able to enjoy it a bit more. Jeremiah had a really good time, though.

After a few days on the island, it was time to go. Overall, we had a blast exploring so many different places and had another great adventure together.