Since it’s been a few months since we checked in here, I’ll give you a quick photo rundown of what we’ve been up to.
September: Brady’s parents came to visit. We took them to see the highlights of San Francisco, then up to the North Bay to check out Muir Woods (Redwood Forest.) This is them next to a 1,000-year-old tree.
We also took Brady’s parents down to 17-Mile Drive on the Monterey Peninsula. It covers a lot of beautiful coastline scenery…and it’s where all the ritzy golf courses are. Brady’s dad is an avid golfer, so this was a must see.
October: My family came to visit for UEA weekend. Brady and I took them to see a lot of the same sights. Here’s my youngest sister by the Golden Gate Bridge.
Sadly, I didn’t get many pictures on this trip because my brother was so busy snapping photos with his amazing camera. I figured I’d just swipe the photos from him afterward. That has yet to happen…
For Halloween, Brady and I dressed up as Occupy protesters. Since I work in the media and these guys were all over the news (not to mention my growing annoyance with them) it seemed only fitting. I also wore my costume to work that night…it gave everyone a good laugh.
November: I don’t really have any pictures to sum up November. I’ll just say that while the weather started getting frigid in Utah, we were enjoying 60′s in California.
We decided to stay close by for Thanksgiving so we could take more time off for Christmas break, so our friends Andrew and Carrie invited us up to their family Thanksgiving dinner (with Andrew’s parents and siblings.) We had a blast and felt right at home with lots of good food and good company.
December:
The return of the “Hanukkah” Christmas tree. We love our blue and gold decorations, AND our friends Sam and Amber have the same color scheme for their Christmas tree. See? You don’t have to be Jewish to have blue ornaments. Thank you very much.
Brady was in charge of decorations for our ward Christmas party. This is one of the murals he helped create. The theme was “When Joseph went to Bethlehem.” The requested attire? Your favorite shepherd’s clothing. We had a difficult time choosing what outfits to wear (since we have such an abundance of shepherd’s clothing around our house…or not.) Fortunately we were able to find something decent.
Sidenote about the mural: it was traced using a projector and some butcher paper. But apparently, not many people in the ward know that and they just think Brady is a really good artist. He’s already gotten requests for artwork.
So, our Christmas vacation finally arrived…and off to Utah we went for a fabulous 11 days. It was so fun to spend Christmas with families and see so many friends.
We went tubing at Soldier Hollow with some of Brady’s siblings and their families (even though there was NO snow…see how the ground is BROWN behind Brady? That’s all manmade snow we were tubing on.)
January:
Happy 2012! We spent the New Year in Utah, playing games and eating lots of food with my family, including our cousins, Jessica and Adam, and Jaren and Amberly.
When we got back to California, it was tough to get back into the swing of things. After so much time off, I forgot what it was like to work nights! Thankfully we’re back in the groove now, and enjoying life.
A couple weeks ago we decided to explore Castle Rock State Park in the South Bay. It’s up in the Santa Cruz mountains, and when you get to the top you can see clear out to the ocean. Beautiful scenery, and fun hiking. I’d definitely recommend it.
So, that’s a quick update on the major goings-on in the White House. We’re looking forward to a lot more adventures (and hopefully a few more blog posts) in 2012.
