The To Do List: The Griffith Observatory

Owen and I have been watching a lot of Netflix documentaries about space, the universe, stars, planets, etc.  We brushed up on our vocabulary and headed to the Griffith Observatory with our friends Emily, Rudy, Brian, and Steven.

Ah...Albert.  I had to wait to get a picture with him, so I wasn't going to waste my time!

Silver City, NM!

Owen and I took a long weekend to go see his mom who lives in Silver City, NM.  It is only about a 10 hour drive so we thought we might as well go for an adventure and get out of the city.  He did most of the driving and I did most of the bossing around/sleeping-it was a perfect arrangement. 

Silver City is actually famous- it's the hometown of Billy the Kid, who went by "William Bonney" back in the day. The town itself has a lot of character from both Native American and Mexican influences. 

Ellen met us right outside of town because she was certain that GPS wouldn't be able to find her house...she was right!

Ellen knew that  I loved mining and mining culture and took us to see a very large, active, open mine. This is the Santa Rita Mine.  The colors were amazing- the picture doesn't do it justice, as it is both beautiful and devastating at the same time.

Billy the Kid's replica cabbin

Ellen took us hiking to show us the landscape, which is very different from CA and from MT.  

Big Cholla Cactus

Juan Pablo,  the Cholla  we brought home from NM, is sprouting new arms!

The mountains in the far back are mountains in Mexico!

While we were there, the Broncos were playing and Owen decided that he had to do all think is groups of 18, since 18 is Payton Manning's number.  So, he ate 18 pieces of toast and cleaned out a jar of peanut butter.

The next morning we had to leave very early, so Ellen cut his toast in to 18 pieces...so much more practical :)

Christmas Eve

In my house growing up, Christmas Eve was a big deal.  We had a big dinner and opened presents that we got for each other.  Trying to keep some of the tradition alive, Owen and I wanted to make a giant dinner that would keep us going all the way through our Disneyland adventure the next day.  We thought we would try our hand at prime rib.  Owen researched recipes all day long! We decided on the "low and slow" technique for our first attempt.  Most people who know me know that I do not do well waiting for food.  I think the scientific term for what happens to me is hangry.  Hangry defined:

Hangry

word of the day: February 07, 2011

When you are so hungry that your lack of food causes you to become angry, frustrated or both.

An amalgum of hungry and angry invented to describe that feeling when you get when you are out at a restaurant and have been waiting over an hour to get the meal that you have ordered.

"Damn! Where is that steak I ordered? We've been waiting for an hour and a half here. The service here is terrible! I'm starving! I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel really hangry!"

After 5 hours, I was still alive (barely) and we were ready to eat! Christmas Eve success!

Christmas at Disneyland!

Disneyland

Disneyland was great-very overwhelming, a lot of people...but the details! The detail that Disney puts in to their rides, shops, landscaping- everything is magical.

Indiana Jones
It was a very busy day at Disneyland.  Lot's of people wanted to go to the Happiest Place on Earth to celebrate Christmas.  With that being said, we had to wait a long, long time for every ride.  Below, we wanted to capture a moment of sarcasm mixed with a little frustration because the Indiana Jones ride had a malfunction and shut down when were were about six people away from getting on.  Oh the frustration! We stood in line for a long time to have that giant boulder come rolling toward us!!  Don't worry- Disneyland also has magic mechanics that know what they are doing.  They had the ride up and going in about 15 minutes and the giant boulder rolling towards us was worth every second spent in line.

Pirates of the Caribbean 

Space Mountain

Cinderella's Castle! I had to send this one to my nieces.  

Iron Man!

Splash Mountain

The Haunted Mansion- this one was my absolute favorite! It was decorated as Nightmare Before Christmas. AHMazin!

Everyone I talked to said that the lights are just beautiful at Disneyland during Christmas and I have to agree...

I'm so glad we got to spend Christmas with these two.  We had such a great time, good food, fun rides- a great way to spend Christmas!

Thanksgiving in Portland

For Thanksgiving, Owen and I went to see Jessye and Andy in Portland.  If the trip had a theme, it would be FOOD.  I seriously did not feel hungry the entire time we were there!  Jessye worked really hard to make sure all of the food was gluten free so that I could enjoy anything I want in giant quantities.

Olive is Jessye and Andy's pug that they rescued.  She was precious! What a great snuggle buddy!

VooDoo Doughnuts

Owen and I watch a stupid amount of Food Network and Travel Channel.  We could listen to people talk about eating and making food all day.  We were able to go to VooDoo Doughnuts in Portland which is a famous doughnut shop that has been featured by Anthony Bourdain:  VooDoo Doughnuts  and Man vs. Food's Adam Richmon: Man vs. Food- VooDoo Doughnuts


The shop is famous because:
1) They make crazy combinations of awesomeness into doughnuts
2) You can get married while you are waiting in line for breakfast
3) BACON maple bar....

Owen, obviously, went for the bacon. 

Tiki Bar

Jessye and Andy took us to all of the cool places in Portland.  One of our favorites was a tiki bar downtown.  You walk in the building and you hear thunder and it starts to rain-INSIDE! The drinks were amazing, and strong! This cute little pineapple you see below packed a punch!

The Slammer

The Slammer is one of Jessye's favorite places.  She kept talking about how they decorate for Christmas starting the day after Thanksgiving.  I was expecting a few strings of lights and some cheesy Christmas music, but these guys went all out! Every square inch of the bar, from the floor to the ceiling, was covered in lights and Christmas decor.  

Movie and Hard Cider=Yes

We watched the new Hunger Games movie at a theater/restaurant/bar. It was amazing! Owen was stoked about all the leg room, I was stoked about all of the Cider.

It was a great trip! Delicious in every way! We can't wait to go back!

New chapter

Owen and I moved to CA with the intention of being close to LA.  Living in Brea, we were a good hour away.  Our friends mostly live up north in Burbank or Hollywood, and we found ourselves driving every weekend to meet up.  So, we decided that we needed to find a good location in between LA and Cypress, where I work.  I only had a bazillion criteria when it came to where we would live, the most important...I didn't want to get murdered.

As a general rule of thumb, my mom has had me run possible living locations past my Uncle Harv, who was a police officer down here back in the day.  I would text him different places and he would text back a loving, "run!" "no...probably keep looking"...."let me call an old homicide detective buddy"..."I know cops who wont even go there".  Once, I decided we were going to prove him wrong and went to check out a place that he thought was in a "not so good neighborhood".  It turns out, Uncle Harv knows his stuff.

Finally, we found Downey, a quaint city of 100,000+ about 9 miles from downtown LA, and 12 miles from my work.  Downey boasts the oldest McDonald's in the world and played and integral role in the production of parts for the Challenger.   Moving from Brea (about 30,000 people and sidewalks that sparkled, literally SPARKLED) to Downey was going to be another adjustment in a long list of adjustments over the past year.

So the packing began! We tried to pack a little bit every day- I even wrote out a schedule that we completely ignored that probably would have been really helpful to keep us from getting overwhelmed.  Owen and are both Grade A procrastinators, probably just because when you have to panic, life is more interesting.

Moving Day....take my word for it- everything that could possibly go wrong, did. It's a great story so remind us to tell you sometime!

 Remember that amazing fridge we had to buy when we first moved down?  Well, it's a hundredth of an inch too big and is hanging out in the middle of our kitchen. 

Even though it was a particularly horrible day, it had an amazing ending- we are both very excited for what comes next!

Justin Timberlake!!!!!!

Back in July, my 14 year old dream of dreams came true.  I was going to a Justin Timberlake concert.  To prepare, I listened to his new album in my (car to and from work), I watched "Justin Timberweek" on Jimmy Fallon, and re-watched all of the Justin Timberlake SNL episodes.  Needless to say, Owen was pretty sick of me and Justin.  We sat pretty far away so I couldn't get a good picture...but I was so excited to be within a one-mile radius as him that I didn't really care....


I told Owen just to make whatever face he was feeling...