Thanksgiving Travels

For Thanksgiving this year, we went up and down the length of California! We traveled north to my parent's house for the actual Thanksgiving Day. It was nice to be with family. This was Matt and my first time being at one of our families house's for Thanksgiving! That morning we played soccer and volleyball with my mom, dad, Katie, and Natie. Then we got together with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandmas and ate a fabulously delicious meal. The next morning we skipped Black Friday shopping to drive to Southern California to spend time with my sisters and Matt's cousins. We were able to see Jennie's new house--it was GORGEOUS! So stylish and nice, and I can't wait to decorate one of the rooms with all of my Xmen action figures! :) We went to the beach, went ice skating, and visited my Grandma's old house. One of the coolest things we saw were 4 or 5 dolphins playing in the waves really close to the shore, about where someone would be getting ready to boogey-board. Brittany, you'll love those!
We then trekked north to visit Matt's cousins who had just returned from Utah. It was lots of fun seeing them. Matt lived with them one summer while we were dating and I stayed with them while visiting Matt and we love visiting them. We ended the Thanksgiving weekend stuck in traffic on a journey that took us 9.5 hours instead of the 7 hours it was supposed to take. But it was fun and worth it all! Thanks Jen, Jan, and Schoessows for letting us stay at your place!

A Wagon Ride in Old town San Diego. Linds got hit on by 2 drunk nasty men...

The Beach in Carlsbad

More lovely beach--and the weather was perfect!

Hopefully you can see the red circles I made to show the dolphins. They are just chillin and playing in the waves!

I can't believe how close to the shore they were!

It was fun to see so many all at once

Old Town San Diego Ice Skating outside...The sun was shining, and there were puddles everywhere of melted ice. If you fell, you were soaked. One kid tried to trip me!

We got to see the San Diego Temple! One of my favorites. My family took a tour of it before the dedication many years ago!

Free Fallin'

As Allie and I have gotten older and have taken new steps in life (graduated, new jobs, not sleeping in), we have felt something known as adulthood creep more and more into our lives. So when I heard about skydiving from a coworker and found out that Allie has dreamt about going, we decided, 'why not?' Allie's sister also went and had a blast, and convinced us it was the thing to do. Is there a better way to stay (or act) young than to free fall from 13,000 ft? I submit not. We were feeling pretty spontaneous until we found out George Bush Sr. went on his 80th birthday, after having a hip replacement.

On Saturday, we went to a small airport in Lodi, CA and got signed up. Because the jump was tandem, it was very simple and straightforward—just do whatever you instructor tells you to do. After a quick plane ride, we were over the Sacramento Valley and made the jump. When you look outside the open door, the view looks surreal. Allie went first and I followed about 15 seconds later. After a 60 second free fall, the parachute was pulled and we floated for about 5 min before we landed softly on the ground. The entire time, a camera man snapped about 500 pictures, so feel free to take a peek (pictures tell a much better story.) We both had an incredible time and would recommend it to anyone. After we returned all of our gear and drove home, we promptly took a nap. Kicking adulthood in the pants is hard work!

Sad Day...

Sad day. BYU lost. Rough game.

Baseball and Sisterly Love

Matt and I finally went to a baseball game. One of the last games of the season for the Giants. We weren't in Chicago to see the Cubs play so we had to settle for the Giants. The At&T Park is gorgeous! It overlooks the San Francisco Bay area and is a breathtaking view. My sister also came to San Francisco and blessed me with her presence that weekend :). Linds wanted to go to the Jelly Belly Factory because she had never been, so I took my 2nd Jelly Belly outing since living here. It was lots of fun and good to see her because it had been a while. Jennie, now it's your turn to come visit me! :)

Giants Game--you can tell we really like the team. I wore my Chicago sweater and Matt wore a Cubs hat!

Zipline fun

The Stadium

Now that's love

Yes, we really are related, though time and again she tried to convince me I was adopted...

The Jelly Belly Squeeze! They had a green screen so they could charge $20 for a picture with Jelly Belly's in the background...I don't think so. I'll leave it green for free!

With the Big man himself!

Decorating-Phobia...H*E*L*P!!!

Unknown to many is my incredible fear and disgust for decorating. This seems to stem from my inability to be creative. We have been in our new place for 5 months and this is the extent of my decorating scheme:

Ok, so it's not quite that bad (though I really do have this poster hanging in our bedroom. Go X-Men!), but I need help. Any ideas for creativity in the living room that will give me the smallest headache possible? We've got a ton of wall space, and I really don't know what goes with what. I took interior design 101 at BYU--absolutely no help, unless I wanted to know about the architectural style of EVERY house in the world (I don't think the teacher understood what the word "interior" meant). I welcome all advice and tips and hints and anything you will give me! I'm a desperate woman! It's a hard life...

So Rise and Shout the Cougars are Out...

It's not Deja Vu, we actually went back! So much fun. Matt's parents came out as well, so we had a Lanenga Family Reunion! It was a short weekend, but we loved it! Can life get better than sand volleyball, BYU Football, friends, family, and food? I submit that it cannot!

Let's just say BYU won... 44-0 against Wyoming! Amazing! Don't you love the matching shirts?

BYU is #1

Eating out at the Mayan in SLC

Graysen, our beautiful niece!

Sand Volleyball! BRad just had knee replacement surgey, so he can finally jump (it was embarassing, really) and Matt did not end up with a Q-tip in his face, so the day was favorable...

Fort Bragg in all its glory!

We went to Fort Bragg! My family has gone to Fort Bragg every Labor Day weekend since I can remember. We'd go with 10 or so other families and party it up! It was my first time back since I graduated from high school--almost 6 years! I was SO happy to go back, and even happier that Matt got to experience Fort Bragg. The beach is about a two minute walk from the camp site and beautiful, as you can tell. It was so windy, and our whole campsite was in the shade, so it was chilly. But it was a lot of fun! We went to Sand-Dollar Beach, Glass Beach, Mendocino, Tide Pools, and just had a blast. I love Fort Bragg and family vacations!

Fort Bragg! Look at the BEAUTIFUL sunset! If you couldn't tell, it was pretty cold! Some fun with the sunset
The Ocean! And the family Matty and I and the oceanNatie and I are cRaZy...

Glass Beach Look at the pretty glass rocks! Do you see the heart on top?
Of course, the traditional pose on the fence! :)
All the crazy kids!
Katie is crazy, too! Did you see that I dropped Natie in the background?

Fun with the sibs!

Katie and Natie came for the weekend! Sarah had to work and we were sad she was not there, but we made do. It's nice living close enough to my family that we could get together. We went shopping at the outlets, went miniature golfing, and had fun at Six Flags! Katie just LOVES her facial expressions, so look closely! :)

In front of the dolphin fountain at Six Flags!

Waiting in line FOREVER for Medusa...

The girls

Everyone loves the swings! I actually pulled my camera out while we were on the ride and got a video of it. Hope you are not motion sick...

Grrr...Go Raiders!

We love James Taylor!!!

Matt and I went to Tahoe for the weekend to see James Taylor live! It was so much fun! We went to his Salt Lake City concert a couple of years ago while we were still dating and LOVED it, and Matt saw him in Cincinnati many years ago. So we are officially roadies, traveling just to see him live. He has the funniest comments in between his songs. And believe it or not, we were not the youngest people there! We strongly recommend seeing him in concert to anyone who hasn't. You won't regret it. We've also been going to the golf driving range lately and we really enjoy it. I did a lot better than expected--Matt is a good teacher, and definitely better than me. We were both able to hit the guy driving around to pick up the golf balls. :) And we got a new couch! Our most expensive purchase as a married couple...that is if you don't include our rent in California! But we love it and it is SO comfortable! Enjoy!

Mexico Video! Watch it, it's great.

Look at JT rockin' out!

If you look very close, you can see James in the background! He's good...

Me and Jamesy :)

The view at Emerald Bay, it was absolutely gorgeous!

Matty swinging the clubs. He hit this one 400 yards!

Look at that posture. Look out, Tiger Woods!

Our new couch. See how comfy it is, he fell asleep!

Look at how good he looks in his JT shirt!

I left my heart in San Francisco...

We have officially been married for two years! On July 8th, Matty and I celebrated two amazing years of marriage! We actually celebrated it over the 4th of July weekend and went to downtown San Francisco. It was a lot of fun. We went to the Full House Park which I had never been to, and let me tell you, it was a HUGE tourist attraction. People were everywhere. A lot of people were there to watch the fireworks because you could see over the hug buildings and see the bay so it would have been a great seat. It then took us about a half hour to find a parking spot which was 14-15 blocks away from where we were trying to go! So we caught a trolley which was fun. We were the people holding onto those poles for dear life as we went down those steep, steep hills, and it was lots of fun. We ate an enormous sundae at Ghiradelli Square which was covered in the richest hot fudge sauce we have ever had--we both felt so sick even after sharing! We walked on the beach, listened to the live music playing and then trecked the 14-15 blocks up the steep hills back to our car! Let me tell you--quite the workout! I'm sure every single calorie in our bodies was burned!!! The trolley line was way too long. We decided to watch fireworks from the hotel room because we were on the 9th floor overlooking the bay. It was a spectacular view, and we were able to see multiple firework shows. It was a great weekend, and we even bought a new couch! Our most expensive purchase together (besides rent in California!). It is a light beige leather couch, and it is beautiful. We are anxiously awaiting its arrival and can't wait to chop up our old one! :)


Down memory lane--Full House Park. Everywhere you look...

Matt hanging onto the trolley handles. It was so fun!

The small strip of beach next to Ghiradelli Square.

At the lookout point just before the Golden Gate Bridge!

Pier 39--by the way, we were both SO freezing cold that we had to but sweatshirts. I've been to San Fran before, but this was freezing!

Matt lookin smokin hot!

What do you know?! Even though it was freezing we decided to take a boat tour! We're crazy.

And of course Hard Rock--yeah!

Me with my people. We had good times.