Christmas with the girls!

They start so young these days!

Kar-Kar, Katri, and Nic

Katri and Izzy

Each year the girls and I get together for a Christmas shindigger.  It is always a fun time with lots of yummy foods! With the kids around it is a little different but still fun. Lisa hosted the event at her place and we switched it up this year doing a game gift exchange. I enjoyed being back with all the girls, it is so wonderful to be living so close to everyone again.

Tis the season!

It's our little tradition to go to the Ritz each Christmas season and check out the gingerbread house. It is always decorated in a creative themed way. We have been doing this for about the past 5 years. This year Joe n Britt and Kirk n Chels joined us! We had a fun time walking around and dancing in the ballroom.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATRI!

Our first weekend home we celebrated Katri's birthday with her and some friends at Renaissance for brunch. It sure was yummy and fun! As usual Melissa made the cake, well this year she made cupcakes. They are always something fun and creative. If you ever need a cake call her up she does an amazing job! 

In Search of ...

here we are at the tree lot... so many to choose from!

we did not even think about a stand. oops! thanks Christian.

umm we both showed up in just about the same outfit.

Ta Da! Katri, Erin and Ottis in front of the final product.

A perfect Christmas Tree for Katri's and Erin's place. Katri and I had girls night my first weekend home. We picked out a cute little tree , well it was about a seven footer, with the help of Matt to load and drive it and Christian to get the thing to stand and stay standing. It turned out to look rather professional after all! The color in the photos is exactly right, the ornaments are pink not red. 

We miss you...

After a long long ride in the truck with our Uhaul trailer we made it home! We drove straight thru and arrived at about 3am. I knew we were close when we approached the toll road  and the smell of fire overpowered us, the farther we drove on the toll road familiar scents kept coming, like the eucalyptus leaves and the salty air.  We miss so many of you that we saw on a weekly basis in Utah. Just wanted to say hello!

So Long, Good Bye, It's Been FUN!!!

Jo, Nic, and Ambs

After spending the first year (and a few months) of married life in Downtown Salt Lake City it is time to say our goodbyes.  When thinking back the time has come and gone too quickly, the first year of marriage has honestly gone way too fast.  I still can not believe our time in Utah is over.  At first it felt like two years or so was going to be a very very long time here in SLC.   We were anxious to have our life together, start our own way of doing things, and getting settled into married life but WOW so much has happened and we have enjoyed all of it!  

I could not be more excited and eager to get back to the warm weather with the smell of the ocean and our family surrounding us.  I felt like we missed out on many eventful and special times going on in our friends and families lives back in California. I am so ecstatic to be with each of them again and create many more memorable times. 

We will miss the interesting and fun people we have come to know while being in Salt Lake. There are many great memories we have made while living Downtown through school, church, work, friends of friends, and just shopping at Anthro!  We want you each to know you have made an impression in our hearts and lives, we will truly MISS you each SO MUCH.  Thank you for your friendship, compassion, happiness, understanding and most of all your love and strength. You are always welcome in our home, we hope you make your way to Orange County in the near future. 

Jo and Amber hosted a FUN filled party for us last night! Thank you everyone for the "on the road" package of games, goodies, and tunes! The party was rockin till the weeee  hours of the night! I do not recall the last time I was out till 3am. I was happy but sad all at the same time. I am really going to miss Jo and Ambs.  I loved all the fun and funny times we have shared here in SLC. I love how life happens in ways that I NEVER would have thought it would be! My life is always filled with adventure and I try to just have fun and enjoy (sometimes it is hard) but it is so worth it! Thank you for the great time girls! We love you and will miss having you so close. 

BLOWOUT!

Linds and I have been Christmas shopping through out the week. It always seems to be an adventure whenever we hang out! This is what we found upon returning to our car after shopping at  Nordstrom Rack...

A completely flat tire! We decided to drive to the tire place at a whopping 10mph. Everyone was honking at us, staring, and laughing. We made it safely and the tire was shredded...

The other night while out shopping we ran into these cuties- Max and Jessica! I saw a cute little boy starring at me when I realized I knew him, it was Max.