Our Christmas tree is up!!! Monday morning for FHE we picked out our Christmas tree! When we were about to drive away we heard a loud noise & realized the guy loading our tree had dropped his walkie talkie in it! We had to bring the tree out & shake it to find it! We put up our tree, decorations, & made peanut blossoms! Blitzen was there waiting below just like always (I have almost the same picture from when he was a puppy). It was a fun night & I am so excited for Christmas! I love the feeling of Christmas season, how everyone seems to be more kind, so many things to look forward to, & relaxing on the couch with the glow of the Christmas tree!

Thanksgiving break started out great with Britt & I going to World Market a second time & both finding golden llamas! It was a whole different experience from the first time, we found them quickly & then the workers were so nice to us & even took our picture. My llama was $20 & Britt's was $100! Britt was soooo nice & we split them & had so much fun getting to browse & pick out some really cute things! As soon as Nate got off work we headed to San Diego!

Thanksgiving day actually ended up being a very long day. We were cooking from 8am to 5pm & it was very hot (10 degrees hotter than in AZ even). It was nice to have a nice meal, but the day just seemed very long & Nate & I got burnt out by so much cooking.

Friday Nate & I did some shopping at Fashion Valley mall & then met Ryan, Christina, & Nicole at Torrey Pines to hike. We hiked down to the beach & the water felt soooo nice!!! Then we got lunch in Point Loma. We tried to go to Con Pane & it was closed, sooo sad!!! But we got lunch across the street at a cute marketplace area. At night we went to the San Diego temple to see the beautiful lights!

Saturday I went to the beach in the morning & Nate did some projects with his dad. Then we met up with Ally & Zach for dinner in Little Italy. It was so cute down there with all of the lights up. We ate at a really good Italian place, Filippe's (their salad and raviolis were sooo good). Then we got some gelato, walked around, & looked in an art gallery & some of the shops. When we got back to Nate's parent's house we played "the newlywed game" & it was really fun. Nicole asked Chris, Julie, & I questions & then asked the husbands the same questions to see how many we got the same. Nate & I won with 10 our of 14! Pretty good! It was a fun night!

Sunday we headed back to good old AZ!

We threw Ally a bridal shower a few weekends ago! It was so fun having her & Zach down here & we had such a fun weekend with them. They got to our house Friday night & Mom, Brittany, Matt, & Brooke all came over so that we could all have dinner & treats together.

Saturday morning we went to World Market to try & find some golden llamas. Zach found one for $20 & the rest of us all just felt stressed out & disappointed we didn't find one. Brittany said something about how it was so annoying how they hid them so hard & that we had to crawl all around the ground looking for them & she was done looking. Then when we were walking out the door, she quickly fell to the ground to check under one last table, haha!!!

After World Market with Ally, the boys went to play Top Golf & we decorated mom's house & got ready for Ally's shower. It turned out really cute! We had a cheese board, fruit, orzo salad, & lots of good desserts. Britt did the game, asking ally questions that Zach had answered & giving her a piece of gum for every one she got wrong. She ended with lots of gum, payback for when she did the same game for Britt's bridal shower (picture lots of Ally's high pitched laughter while everyone else was silent & Brittany having to chew tons of gum)!

Sunday we had an early Thanksgiving since we would all be gone for Thanksgiving & it was so nice to relax & have a nice dinner together.

We went to Sunset Cliffs to watch the sunset while we were in San Diego for a quick weekend. I love Sunset Cliffs & it will always be a special place to me since Nate & I took our engagement pictures there. I also love surfing there & used to go there to surf & eat Con Pane on the weekends when I lived in PB!

Mom, Brooke, Brittany, & I drove up to San Diego for a girls weekend to go wedding dress shopping with Ally! We left Friday morning at 5:30am! So early, but it was nice to get there by lunch time! We picked up Con Pane & met Ally at the beach for lunch! It was a little rainy at the beach but still fun to walk down on the sand & visit with Ally! Then Ally had to work, but the rest of us drove to La Jolla Cove to see the seals & walk along the coast. Then we checked into our hotel & got ready for dinner. We met Ally & Zach at a place called La Puesta that they kept insisting Nate recommended. You had to have an ID to show you were 21 to get in & Britt didn't so we were all nervous they wouldn't let us in. Luckily when we all insisted we were over 21 & don't even drink, they let us in. The food was really good, mom & I shared the best carne asada fries. It was really noisy & kind of a college type crowd though & we kept saying, "I can't believe Nate would recommend this!" Later I asked him & he had no idea what that place was so someone else must have recommended it to them, haha! After dinner, we walked over to Extraordinary Desserts. The walk over was a little sketchy, we walked by the prison, which weirdly enough was downtown. Brooke said something about the people being freaky really loudly & then realized there were people on a bus bench right next to us, we quickly walked passed them! We split a few desserts & then headed back to the hotel.





On Saturday we met Ally & Zach at d-street beach & it was such a perfect beach day! The weather was perfect & it felt so nice to relax on the beach. After a few hours we walked to a sandwich place for lunch & then got ready to go wedding dress shopping with Ally! First, she tried on an old homecoming dress that my mom had that she might want to wear for her wedding dress. It was a dress that my mom's mom (Grandma Darlene) helped her pick out. Then we went to a place called White Flower that is just like the show "Say Yes to the Dress". It's a place that I went dress shopping with my mom, mother-in-law, & Ally! You have to make an appointment & then they have a place just for you & your family to sit. You pick out the dresses you want from some amazing dresses & then someone helps you change into them. They give the people you come with drinks & cookies It was so fun to go there with Ally & she looked sooo pretty in all of the dresses. There were 2 that we all liked. When we left, we were all expecting that she would say she wanted to buy a dress, but she said that trying on all the dresses actually made her realize that she wanted to wear the dress from my mom because it felt more like her. It did fit her perfect & she will look so pretty as a bride! Next, we went shopping at Fashion Valley mall & I found a really cute dress at Anthropologie! Then we went to dinner at a really good Indian place. Zach met us there & me & Brittany asked him some questions & video taped his answers for Ally's bridal shower. The funniest thing was that Brittany was asking the funniest questions that were so vague. She asked him, "So, how do you do certain things? Like fold towels & put the dishes in?" Hahaha! After dinner we crashed at the hotel & then we headed back to AZ in the morning. Another funny thing about the trip was that we each took turns driving & we all had little freak out moments (except Brooke). Brittany got all stressed when she was driving & said she couldn't drive with all the ooing & ahhing when we got stressed she was going to hit a pedestrian. I got stressed when Britt told me to take a freeway after I'd already passed it & then the GPS wouldn't work. Then mom kept saying to go left when the gps would show right. Haha, good times! We made it back alive & had such a fun time visiting with Ally, doing wedding plans, & also relaxing at the beach & eating lots of good food!!! I'm so thankful for my family & that we all have so much fun together! We missed Melissa but it will be so fun to all be together in a few months for the wedding!!!

Nate & I went to St. George to visit Melissa, Sam, Jenna, & Andy for fall break. Brooke came up a day later with Rhett, Ethan, & Kade. We had such a fun trip & it is finally starting to feel like Fall!!! On our first day there we went to a park, went hiking around the red rocks, & went to the Stahley Pumpkin Patch that we go to every year. They had a corn maze, lots of games, animals, slides, pig races, & lots of pumpkins. It was really fun & is one of my favorite fall traditions! Then Sam made us his famous pizza & we played games & had pizzookies. Such a fun day!


Jenna put Nate in jail & tied a bell on him so she could tell when he escaped!

Note to self, don't sit next to Nate when playing a game!

After hiking through the crack with Jenna!

Nate sure loves that corn slide!







On Tuesday we walked to the duck park. It was perfect weather to be outside walking & a good break from the AZ heat! We went to a volcano park that is the most amazing children's park ever. It has a volcano that really erupts every hour, a train that goes around the park, & a waterfall. Then we had lunch at Cafe Rio & then drove up to Cedar City to see the fall leaves in the canyon. Most of the leaves had already fallen but we still saw some really pretty orange, red, & yellow leaves & the drive through the canyon is always soooo pretty! We drove up to the children's pond & spent time walking around the pond, fishing (Ethan caught 3 fish with a Moana fishing rod!), racing around the pond (Brooke & I were dying after, I thought my throat/lungs had something wrong with them!), & drinking hot chocolate. Then we went to a cute little pizza place & had pizza & gelato.



Wednesday we went to another park, St. George has the best parks for kids! Then the boys watched Jenna & Andy & Brooke, Melissa, & I went out to lunch at Painted Pony & shopping. It was really fun to have a girls day together! We stopped at Wingers at Nate's request (Nate & Ethan tied for most wings- 12, last time Nate & Sam both ate like 25 & the waitress was a little shocked & said it was the most anyone had eaten, haha!). Then we headed back to AZ. It was such a fun trip & so nice to get time to visit with Melissa & play with Jenna & Andy!