Mini Vacay in SoCal

Like how each word in my title was an abbreviation? That's mainly because I'm lazy ;)

This weekend, Hubs and I headed down to SoCal with my parents. My sister and brother-in-law live down there, so we decided to go visit them and do some fun stuff too.

Lunch. Ikea. Snack. Dodger Game. Dinner.

(I never thought I would see so much blue in my entire life! Hubs was there to watch the game, I was there for the garlic fries!)

Breakfast. Disneyland. Lunch. California Adventures.

Best ride, hands down, is California Screaming. Second best, Toy Story Mania.

Nap. Dinner. Disneyland. Dessert.

Breakfast with best friend. Driving. Snack. More driving.

I'm just now realizing we sure did eat a lot!

I sure am glad to be home...now I can rest!

DC in the Winter

Hubs and I headed to the East Coast for a friends wedding and some r&r at the beginning of March. It was cold, but we had a blast hanging out with old friends and making new ones! One of the highlights of the trip was going to the White House...we even got to see Obama!

Oahu 2009

Blake's brother is in the Coast Guard and is stationed in Hawaii. This is where Blake proposed last September. We had the opportunity to go out to visit Drew, Vanessa, and our nephew Tommy a week ago. We had a blast! We were upgraded for free to first class on the way over and were given a free upgraded convertible to drive while there.

A free place to stay+airline miles (free flight)+vacation days+bulldog football=Us going to Hawaii!

Trip to the Big City

When I first met my husbands parents, I was deemed as the "city girl". Not sure if that is becuase I lived in DC for a bit or the fact that I was Fresno (which come on, it is a city but not a big city).

This past weekend Blake and I went to visit our good friend Berger in the Bay Area. We had a blast. One of my favorite parts was watching Blake as he experienced public transportation for the first time (I LOVED the Metro when I lived in DC, so BART wasa welcome experience). The first time he had been in a taxi was with me in DC.


Here are a few pics from our weekend!

Santa Cruz

Blake and I are lucky to have families that either live in really cool places or own vacation homes. My Uncle's family owns a house in Santa Cruz.

We love going to the coast. We haven't been to Santa Cruz in almost a year, but are so looking forward to it. I have worked lots of hours and weekends, so we are taking off tonight and coming back on Thursday.

Along with the beach and boardwalk, we are going to go to Monterey on Thursday...I haven't been to Monterey in years.

Looking forward to spending some quality time with my love without the distractions of home!

Disneyland...

It's time for me to go to bed, but I wanted to leave you with a few pictures of mine and Blake's trip to LA, more specifically Disneyland this weekend (oh, and we went to the beach!). Longer post to come soon...

DC and Dodger Pics

Since the blogging thing hasn't been happening lately, I decided I would post a few pics from mine and Blake's trip to DC and the Dodger game...enjoy!

Alone

The last three days (ok, 2 1/2 days) I spent alone in Santa Cruz. My family has a house there, and I hardly ever go. I took this week off of work to recuperate from Missions Month. Now, I love to be with people. I would rather hang out with somebody, anybody (well, almost anybody) than be alone. I remember being little and being bored out of my mind once my sister went to school and I was home all alone to play by myself. My mom would tell me to entertain myself...which lasted about 5 minutes. I tried to get all of my close friends to ditch work to come with me, but nobody was able to take off...some did try, but to no avail.

So I did what I never thought I would do....

I went by myself.

And it was the best thing I could have ever done for myself at this exact point in time.

I have not been this relaxed in, oh, over two months. Realistically, I haven't been this relaxed in a very long time.

I had nobody to worry about but me. I did what I wanted when I wanted to do it.

List of what I did these past few days:
-Took a nap
-Watched The Office
-Saw Vantage Point
-Sat in front of the ocean, listened to my ipod, read my bible, and journaled for about 3 hours
-Laid out on the beach and read a magazine
-Walked around downtown Santa Cruz
-Walked around Capitola
-Ate some great pizza and even better sea food
-Sat in front of the ocean again...ate breakfast and journaled
-Drove along the coastline
-Watched more of The Office
-Slept...a lot
-Ate ice cream!
-Walked along the wharf

All in all a very relaxing time. It was time that I needed to recharge and refresh. I have a feeling this is something that I am going to do more often. How often...I'm not sure. But knowing how rested and good I feel, I would love to be able to do this every 3 months.

where did the time go???

I can't believe that it has been so long since i have written anything. Let's just say the past month has been quite eventful....again.

I had the chance to help put on a wonderful outreach at the Pomona Migrant Center in Madera, CA on August 18th. God definitely showed up in a big way...not like I was expecting anything else, but it is always humbling when the God of the universe does his thing in such a real way. For all the details, check out this site.

This past weekend I went down to visit my sister and some friends in Pasadena/LA. I had a wonderful time. On Friday night, I went to the House of Blues in Hollywood, was on the VIP list to see Mat Kearney. Being VIP let me go all over the place at the House Of Blues, along with free food, free drinks, and a great view of the concert. Chris Franz got himself, my sister, and Jen Fernandez on the VIP list, then he decided not to go...so I got to be Chris Franz for the evening.
Saturday Stacey and I went shopping, then spent 2 hours at the AT&T store getting her a new phone. That night, some of her friends were having a tailgate party since it was the first USC game. There was a lot that went on that night, but ultimately it was a lot of fun. Sunday I hung out with a friend, went on a motorcycle ride to Malibu, had some great food, hung out at the beach, saw Superbad (hilarious), watched Blades of Glory, and had some really great conversations. Monday it was time to head back to Fresno. Luckily, traffic was not bad on the way home, and 3 hours from the time I got in the car I arrived home.

Today was back to reality at work...I felt like I was kind of out of it today, not being able to concentrate a whole lot, but I should snap out of it in a few days...hopefully.

I might be climbing half dome this weekend, so it will be nice to get out Fresno and head up to yosemite.

Huntington Beach

I love the beach. I was able to spend some time there today after my conference. I am about a shade and a half darker by being out in the sun for an hour and a half. I took a little nap and then read out of The Externally Focused Church, a book that I am reading for work.

Anyways, I was thinking I was going to go into detail on how the vastness of the ocean makes me think of the vastness of God's love, which it does, and then go into more detail about being in God's creation, but I am really tired. So, I'll have to leave that blog for a later time.

Just remember that God's love is as vast as the ocean! (even more vast, but our puny minds can't even comprehend the previous statement to its fullest) :)

Memorial Day Weekend Fun

Tomorrow at 3 pm, I am leaving Fresno and going down to LA. I am going to be in Catalina from Friday to Monday. I'll be back in town late Tuesday night. I am so excited to relax and do nothing for 4 days. I am even more excited that I won't have access to my email. :)

Last day in DC

My last full day in DC was on Tuesday. It was absolutley beautiful out...about 80 degrees.

I got off at Farragut North, which put me 2 blocks north of the White House and right in the middle of the business district in DC. I walked around for a little bit, looking for a Cosi to eat at. There were 2 places that I really wanted to eat at while I was in DC, and Cosi was one of them. There is one on every corner, it seems, much like Starbucks. I found one just when I was starting to get hungry...funny how that works sometimes :)

After I ate, I began walking south towards the monuments. The plan for the day was to read, journal, people watch, walk around, and sit in some of my favorite spots. The night before I left my journal and Bible in Jenn's car, so I had Lesley's Bible and some paper.

There is a lake that is just north of the reflecting pool (the one by the Lincoln Memorial) with grass all around it. I sat there for awhile, pondering different things. I read a little bit, and was going to journal some, but wasn't inspired to do so...the sheets of paper weren't doing it for me. I decided that I was going to walk around some.

This led me to the Lincoln Memorial. With my ipod on, I sat on the steps of the memorial, and took it all in. There is something about sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, being able to see the WWII Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol all in one view. There is so much history that the Lincoln Memorial alone holds, let alone those other places. After sitting there for awhile, I decided to continue on walking. Somehow I ended up sitting on a bench by the Potomac River, near the Jefferson Memorial. After walking by the Jefferson Memorial, I ended up sitting in front of the Washington Monument, directly facing east towards the WWII memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. The White House was my next stop, both the South and North sides. (Oh, and on my way to the North side of the White House a nice guy named Jerry tried to get me to sign up for Green Peace...beware, they are always there. The funny thing is that I am just as good a talker as he is, so he didn't get to say much, and before he got to make his point (after references to Anchor Man, made by me), I let him know I was not interested. Better luck next time Jerry.) The man who runs our country lives in that place...now it may seem trivial to you, but everytime I walk by the place I can't help but think of all that he endures everyday and then feel a deep respect for the man.

I ended up getting back on the metro at Farragut North and made my way to Dupont Circle. I went to the Starbucks, which faces the circle and is made of glass windows, so you can see everything. I sat there drinking by caramel macchiato, read some, and then people watched. After giving my feet a rest (I had worn old navy flip flops all day, thinking that I wouldn't be walking around that much...I had blisters that night), I went to a bookstore, and then headed back to Lesley's.

Tuesday night is small group night, so the girls that I had not gotten to see yet I would get to see. It was so good to be in that setting again, with those women who I love and respect deeply. I was able to catch up with those that I had not previously had a chance, and we laughed quite a bit before we began the study. Jenn, Linda, and I were on the couch...it is never a good combo when the three of us are next to each other. It felt like I had not missed a study, that I was jumping back into the normal routine.

I was staying with Jenn that night, since she was taking me to the airport the next morning. I said bye to everyone, both sad and excited, assured that the place that I was suppose to be was Cali. Jenn, Natalia, and I talked outside for about an hour and a half, mostly laughing, and discussed the lotion test again. I hadn't eaten anything, so we decided to find a place that was open. Turns out the only thing open at 10:40 at night is McDonalds. I am sure that was good for my body. :)

I got on the plane yesterday, with mixed emotions. I am glad to be home, to sleep in my own bed, to be with my friends and family again, but am sad that DC has to be so far away. Thank goodness I have friends back there who don't mind me staying with them. I am sure that I am going to be back across the country visiting before I know it.

Weekend in Pasadena

I went down to So Cal this weekend. I went to a concert on Thursday night in Ventura...which was interesting. The opening act was horrible. He couldn't sing and he was sort of a spas. He moved his arm and leg around...if you know me, the next time you see me ask me to do an imitation of this guy. The second girl, Kimberly Jean, was decent. She could actually sing, but she was bad at introducing the next song. When she sang a song called Banana in my Drive Way, I lost all respect for her. When Eric Church finally came on, I was more than ready for him. He didn't come on until 10:00, and I was really tired, but he was really good. He definitely was worth listening to those other two and worth waiting for. I didn't get to my sisters place until 12:30, which I am not too sure she was happy about considering she had to get up around 5 to continue studying for a test.

Anyways, after my sister got done with her test Friday morning, the fun began. We hung out with two of her friends and went shopping. Her and I got to eat lunch together, which was really nice. The day included watching a movie and trying to take a nap. That night we went to a pre-spring break party with the 07's, 08's, and 09's in the Physicians Assistant program at USC. I had a blast. I forgot how much I love to meet new people.

Saturday consisted of going to Universal City Walk to eat lunch and hang out. Then I took a nap and my sister went to Ikea with two of her friends from Fresno that were visiting. That night we hung out at the apartment and went to 21 Choices, which is the best frozen yogurt shop that I have ever been to. They have six different flavors every day, and then you have the opportunity to mix in different items (kind of like Coldstones but with yogurt). I received a coupon for a free yogurt for the next time I am in Pasadena. :)

On Sunday I had the opportunity to meet up with some friends who moved down there for grad school. It was great to catch up with them. Stacey and I went to lunch at the Corner Bakery. I love this place. There was one in Virginia that I was able to go to. So now every time I go down to Pasadena I make my sister go there. It was great to hang out with my sister. I love hanging out with her and just being able to talk about whatever. I know that there aren't going to be many times in the future where that will happen, at least while she is still in grad school and especially when she starts her rotations. I ended up coming home around 2 or so.

The consensus is that I love Pasadena. The town has such history to it. Downtown Pasadena reminds me so much of Georgetown in Washington DC...if I can't be in DC the next best place is Pasadena.