Christmas Vacation

This year we drove out to California to spend Christmas with my family.  My parents rented a beach house at Half Moon Bay so that we could all be together.  It was nice to be so close to the beach and it was also nice to have everyone under the same roof.  With such a large family and everyone being married and having kids and stuff, everyone being in the same place can be pretty rare.

The drive out there went pretty smoothly, except for the parts where the speed limit was only 30mph, those were pretty slow parts.  But, we got to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge for our first time!

Our first day there was Christmas Eve.  That morning we went to the beach, Olivia snuggled up with Nate the whole time, she loves him.

When we first got there, we were walking around on a pier watching people fishing and catching crabs.

Then we went to see the Mavericks.  It was a beautiful sight!

Of course, the next day was Christmas.  We only managed to take one picture of Christmas Day and it was right after Olivia ate a nice big lunch and fell asleep so she was drooling milk

After everyone else left (except Neil and Ashley), we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Everyone else went before we got there.  Apparently we didn't get very many pictures of it, but it was really fun.  Nate took this awesome picture of some jellyfish.  I want to make it the computer background, it's so mesmerizing!

Outside, looking at the bay

Of course we had to get lunch at the fish hopper, it's tradition!  Or so we're told.  Either way, the food was absolutely amazing.

The next day (our last full day), we went to the Jelly Belly Factory.  We weren't allowed to take any pictures during the tour so we just got these 2 right before we went in with our Jelly Belly hats on.

They told us that Olivia had to wear one too.... So she did!

We had a very nice relaxing Christmas break.  Thanks for having us, Mom!

A Quick Recap

Well, as you are all well aware, I haven't been that good about updating our blog very often seeing as Halloween was like 6 months ago and I'm almost halfway through school now. I will do my best to recap any major events that have happened in our lives for you all. I will start with Christmas and some photos....

We went to San Jose for Christmas last year to visit my parents and it was a lot of fun! Before we went, we did our own personal gift exchange at home. Look at our cute little tiny tree :)


And then we went to California. We visited the children's museum....

Here's Nate

And Dallin ( I think his collar is popped)

And Dad
And I'm really not sure if this is Nate again or Mckay. Either way, it's a good face.
And then waiting outside the Museum

On another day we went to the beach to see the tide pools. It was a bit of a hike to get there. But it was beautiful!


We had a barefoot hippie couple take this for us. They saw us taking individual pictures and told us we needed to take the picture together or it wasn't worth taking pictures. I thought is was pretty funny that they said that.
and then we made it to the tide pools! So pretty....





I guess the culinary side of Nate makes him think he needs to taste everything he picks up. hehe
Thank goodness he didn't try to taste this one!
Me and the kids went to the sandy part to play on the shoreline
I almost got caught by the water

And then I got to hold baby Charlotte. That was the end of our Christmas trip!

Vegas!

Nate and I have ended up being pretty busy this summer! Now that I have a job, we're both constantly on the move so we haven't had much time together lately. Luckily, I have the best husband ever and he decided to surprise me with a 2 day trip to Vegas! He got an amazing deal through one of his professors, who is the head boss guy or something over the Venetian and Palazzo hotels. I don't know what he does... but he got us a great deal! We stayed at the Palazzo, which is the newer of the 2 hotels.

The first thing we did when we got there was change into these bathrobes!





And here is the rest of our room.

I saw this when we were walking to the mall across the street from our hotel and thought it was funny.

This was the view from our room.




And this was the bathroom. I loved the vanity area for getting ready!






This was a huge waterfall/river/pond water display thing outside the Wynn and Encore hotels.
This is the Palazzo. It was amazing!

And this was the vanity in action. I was getting ready to go see the phantom of the opera in the theater in the hotel. We got free tickets to the opera with our sweet deal!

This is us about to leave for the show. We are a very good looking couple if I do say so myself :)

After the show, we took a walk around the hotel. This statue thing is pretty cool

We found a gondola ride! Completely inside the hotel! We didn't take a ride, but we took some pictures of it.

Of course, we had to take some pictures with the slot machines before we left

I found a really really big slot machine!

After the buffet at the Belagio, it was time to go. We were very happy and very full.