a night on the town

last night mark, john, ann & i went to downtown seattle for a night out!

on the way up to the city we stopped at a delicious thai restuarant where mark & i had our fix of massaman curry. my favorite thai dish. we then rushed a bit to get downtown to make it to the ACT theathre to see a christmas carol. obviously christmas has come & gone, but i am so glad that we still attended this particular production. the theather was so unique. it held about 450 people & there honestly wasn't a bad seat in the joint. the small stage was in the middle of the room with stadium seating completely surrounding it. john & ann got GREAT seats. we sat in the second row & felt like we were a part of the play.

i love the story of a christmas carol & this play did not disappoint. there was great acting, singing & humor! i was laughing throughout the whole performance & left feeling so uplifted.

it was such a fun night & seattle really is a beautiful city.

it's been real...

...but not real fun, snow.

i am beyond excited to get out of this frigid weather we are having in utah. oh, is it not cool for some of you? well, i am chilled to the bone!

 

it is awfully pretty though.

who knows if LA or seattle will be much warmer, but a girl can dream, right?!

i can't believe christmas has snuck up so quickly this year! it feels like thanksgiving was last week & now mark & i are about to head home yet again! where does the time go...but i am ready for a break from our normal day2day routine. no work. no cooking/cleaning! AH!! no snow. sounds perfect to me.

i hope everyone is getting all of their last minute shopping done & heading somewhere fun to celebrate the holidays.

holiday mini sessions

anyone looking for some holiday photos???
this is a limited time offer to get some festive pictures for a great price! i am featuring this deal in utah, los angeles & seattle. check below for dates.
www.jennabechtholt.com

sign up today!

preview for the maskos!

this cute little family is up on the jenna bechtholt photography website!

check it out.

thanksgiving weekend

mark & i had a wonderful thanksgiving break! we spent the long weekend in seattle with mark's family. our trip was full of tasty food, a bit of shopping, lots of family time, a few movies, visiting with friends, a photo shoot & some chilly washington weather.

once thanksgiving was over we had to officially welcome in the christmas season by making a quick stop at watson's farm in puyallup. ann is very familiar with this farm/nursery, so when she heard that they had reindeers we decided that we had to make a trip out there. i was overwhelmed by the amount of christmas spirit that was in the enormous warehouse. the entire store was full of the cutest little holiday decorations, christmas trees, wonderful jarred food, reindeer and, of course, tons of different plants! i am excited to make a trip back to watson's in the spring.

the weekend just flew by & before we knew it we were back on a plane headed for utah. i am sad to see another wonderful holiday go, but couldn't be happier to know that christmas is just around the corner! only a few weeks of work & reality until we will be off again to see family. 

happy turkey day!

i hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful holiday full of family, friends & food!

 

thanksgiving is a special time that comes around every year in which we are encouraged to reflect upon the things that we are thankful for. although most of us should take more time to do this more often, i love that for at least one day we can be sure to take some time & give thanks.

i know i have so much to be grateful for & i'll be sure to give that some definite thought somewhere in between football, turkey, naps & pie. ;)

happy turkey day!

life lately {seattle & utah}

last weekend we took a quick trip back to seattle to visit mark's high school on homecoming weekend & to watch his 2002 soccer team get inducted into the charles wright academy hall of fame! when mark was a senior, his soccer team won the state championship so we thought it would be cool to be there for the ceremony. while we were in washington we took a trip up to seattle, hung out with mark's best friend & his family, spent time with john & ann {mark's parents}, went to a great breakfast in downtown tacoma, ate TONS of delicious grapes, took some naps & watched a few movies. it was really a fun weekend & it's always nice to get out of town, even if it is only for 3 days :)

below are some pictures from my iphone of what we have been up to lately...

emerald city vacay

after a long weekend with my family in LA, mark & i were really looking forward to spending some quality time with his mom & dad in seattle. as well as attending mark's best friend's wedding!

we returned to utah on monday morning & then left wednesday evening for the evergreen state. there was pretty much only enough time to do a few loads of laundry & repack for our next adventure. needless to say, we were so excited for the back2back vacations!

we landed in washington around 8pm & were greeted happily by mark's parents, john & ann. we stopped to pick up our favorite pizza {round table: pepperoni & black olive} on our way back to the house.  we ate way too much & stayed up really late watching the olympics...this seemed to be a reoccurring theme throughout the weekend :)

the next few days were sort of a whirlwind. we attended a wedding rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, late night bowling, visited a few lakes, lots of shopping with ann {yes!!}, a car museum, tons & tons of food and, of course, shane & heather's wedding!

the wedding was just beautiful & the bride looked gorgeous.
i was so proud of the toast that mark made in honor of the happy couple. shane has been mark's best friend & next door neighbor since about age 4. those two boys are like brothers & it meant the world to mark to be included in shane's big day.

*funny side story {at our wedding last year shane caught the garter & we found out that they kept the it for a whole year! heather ended up wearing the exact same garter i wore! we thought it was really cute & special}

their wedding was great & we had the privilege of taking the bride and groom to their hotel after the reception. just to add a little bit more spice to the night a policeman decided to pull us over with the fully dressed bride and groom in the back seat. i guess it's a fun story to look back on! luckily shane is a cop & we were sent on our way with a simple warning {thank goodness!}

congrats to shane & heather!!

sunday was our last day in seattle & finally all of the wedding activities were done and we could relax. we spent our last day doing a bit more shopping for mark & had a great mexican dinner in gig habor.

a weekend away: {preview of our trip to seattle}

mark & i left seattle this morning and returned back home to utah. although we are glad to be back in our own space, we are finding that we already miss the evergreen state!

here are a few snapshots from our adventure in washington && there will be many more to come!!