Thankgving Weekend Rush

Our Thanksgiving weekend was a total whirlwind. Thanksgiving morning we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which I always enjoy. Then we headed up to a restaurant called "The Gateway" up in Three Rivers, right outside the entrance to the Sequoias for an intimate Thanksgiving Meal. We were sat next to the window overlooking this view.

 

 

The weather was perfect and they had the window open so we could hear the calming sound of the water. The Thanksgiving feast was delicious and we were completely stuffed by the end.

We also had a great time stopping on by Slick Rock Recreation Area that is near Kaweah Lake and got some great shots.

Trav wanted to cook a little hen for dinner.  It turned out pretty good. I was impressed. :)

That night we hit up some early Black Friday sales. We went to Target, the Tulare Outlets, and Macy's. We continues our shopping the next morning. We got some good deals, but there wasn't really any particular sale item we really needed or were anticipating. We were mostly going just for the rush and fun of it all, but boy did it wear us out. On Saturday, we kept the busyness going. We headed to Santa Clarita to go to Magic Mountain. We were pleasantly surprised that the lines weren't a mile long. We enjoyed a perfect weather day of a high of 78 degrees and thrill ride after thrill ride.

We have so much to be thankful for. Our jobs, our home, our family, our friends, the gospel, and our freedom and many many more.

Winter Treasure

 

I always loved getting hot chocolate at the gas station only because they would had the mini marshmellows. That was the only reason I got it because, let's been honest, gas station hot chocolate is scolding hot and overly choclately. When I saw these mallow bites at the store last year, I was overjoyed. Seriously! I was so excited to create the cholately marshmellow taste at home with Nesquik.

The summer went by and it was plenty hot outside, so there was no need for hot chodolate. Well now I'm so happy some colder weather is here. As soon as I spotted these marshmellows I immediatly bought them, and I have had a glass a hot chocolate frequently. :) These mini marshmellows are my winter treasure.

New Calling

A new change of pace on Sunday

I was just starting to get more comfortable teaching the "Teaching for Our Times" lessons in Relief Society. They focus on talks from the Apostles and Prophets General Conference Talks. I have grown such a strong testimony of God's special witnesses here on Earth and I soak up their teachings. I have been teaching for just over a year and I just got released.  I'm really going to miss Relief Society.I got called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Primary. It is definitely a change from teaching women to teaching children. The biggest adjustment is to figure out what keeps the attention of junior primary vs. senior primary. I did my first sharing time today on the Articles of Faith. The children surprise me with their knowledge.  Here's to a new adventure at church and I sure hope it goes well.

Not quite old yet....

Thursday, November 8, 2012

I would consider age 30 as "old" ha ha...I guess it seems old to me. Luckily Trav hasn't reached 30 yet. He turned the big 2.9. this year.  He worked on his birthday, which meant he didn't get home until 8 o'clock. So we went to his favorite of favorites and ate at Red Lobster. I was so glad that they have expanded their menu very recently to include more non-seafood dishes and I actually liked my dish a lot. Trav got the meal that has lobster, shrimp, and crab. He didn't want to miss any of the good stuff. They recently remodeled the Red Lobster in Visalia and I liked the new feel it had. It was more of a romantic setting and we had a great dinner together.

For his birthday he requested tickets to the BYU vs. San Jose State Football Game tickets and a battery for his watch. Pretty simple I know. I decided when I was out and about at the mall to pick him up some Hickory Farm Sausage and mustard. He loves that stuff. The surprise for his birthday was a big Y flag from his parents. He was super excited about it. It's crazy to think that 6 years ago, while dating, I surprised him down in Price with a cake and painted Happy Birthday wishes on his car windows. Good Times.

 

 

Saturday, November 17-BYU vs. San Jose State Football Game

 

Travis was had a lot of anticipation for this game. It was originally going to be played at 1:30 PM which would have worked perfectly for the face that it is a 3 hour drive there and then back, but about a week ago they changed it to 7:30 PM because it was on ESPNU. We headed out and as always had a fun-filled car ride. There is never a dull moment with Trav. We have a blast and it included the usual singing. Our game tickets came with tickets to the BYU Tailgate Party. So we went early to be a part of that. It was held at a Baseball Field near the Spartan Stadium. We ate a BBQ dinner, watched some BYU highlights, and got in on the Cougarettes dancing with Cosmo. There were a ton of BYU fans!! They were everywhere!

 

After the tailgate party we headed to find our seats. We were about 30 rows up at the 50 yard line. In all the other BYU games we've been to we have been on one of the end zones sides. We had great seats and it was a lot easier to tell how many yards they picked up  per play. It sprinkled off and on and rained at the end of the game. BYU had two opportunities to win. In the last 1 minute of the game Trav and I really thought that BYU was going to pull it off, but Riley Nielson got tackled during a pass and fumbled the ball and it was over. San Jose 20 vs BYU 14. Bad loss for BYU, but never the less entertaining and a whole lot of fun!

Don't let the empty seats behind us fool you. It was all packed with BYU fans by the start of the game. If I were to guess I would say 50% BYU 50% SJSU.

Trav got a picture with Chad Lewis, former BYU Tight End who went on to play in the NFL.

 

We headed out at about 11 PM. We had a 3 hour drive ahead of us and it was still raining, which didn't help. We wouldn't not have drove home that night, but Trav had work the next day and I had Sunday commitments. Trav and I spent some time analyzing the game and giving our input of what we would have done as a coach. I like that I know quite a bit about football and most sports in general. It helps me know what is going on as I watch the game and it's always interesting to talk through the plays and the game with Trav. It always nice having something in common. It was a fun day trip to San Jose, CA.  Too bad we didn't have more time to explore the city...Maybe next time.

Holidays Flying By

 

Let me just make it clear that all holidays are more fun with children. They just get excited about every little thing, which is so cute!

 

I told Trav that I really wanted to carve pumpkins this year because last we we waited until the night of Halloween to look for pumpkins and couldn't find any. This year we thought we would head to the local pumpkin patch and pick out the ones we wanted. It was the weekend before Halloween, so needless to say the patch was pretty well picked over, but we were still able to find us some good ones that had one good side, stood up, and still had the stem. :) We had a great time carving them together. Travis is Frankenstein and mine is the "Wicked" one. While carving Trav asked jokily, "Are we too old to carve pumpkins." I happily responded, "We're never too old to carve pumpkins." I thought they both turned out great and they kept treat-or-treaters coming on Halloween Night.



On Halloween, since Trav had to work until 7, I went to the ward Halloween party with our friends The Deans. I loved seeing all the kids costumes and talking with friends. The kids went around and did the trunk-or-treat. Then we went back to the Deans house to hang out, Trav joined up with us, we ordered a pizza for dinner, and played Hearts. This was all in between playing with cute Lily and answering the door for treat-or-treaters, and holding Bella (their dog) back to not scare the kids with her bark. There were actually a few groups that came by with quite a few kids. I was glad that it was worth buying some candy.  I always like to be the house with "the lights on" :)

 

 

 

Up next is Thanksgiving! This is the finished project of the owls I did with my mom and sisters while in Utah. I think it is so festive and I added some garland and leaves or sorts from Hobby Lobby. I actually put this up before Halloween. Trav inquired, "Isn't it a little early to be putting up Thanksgiving decorations when we haven't had Halloween?" I answered, "They are just owls dressed up in their Halloween costumes." He had no response and we laughed. Looking forward to whatever we plan for Thanksgiving!!