San Francisco

Last weekend Mark & I flew out to San Fran to meet up with my family to celebrate my brother's graduation from law school! While we were there we were the ultimate tourists & I was totally fine with that. We began our trip with a visit to Alcatraz on Friday morning.

 ^^^ it was a bit of a windy day out on the island ;) ^^^

From housing some of America's most wanted felons to being occupied by Native American for over a year, this tiny island has quite a bit of history lurking on it. Not to mention, the grounds of Alcatraz are just beautiful. There were tons of flowers, greenery and wild birds covering the island.

We spent the evening at our little loft where we ate tons of pizza, salad and just hung out as a family...with the most amazing massage chair ever. I will be shocked if my parents don't purchase one after how much we all used it. ;)

The next morning we all woke up bright and early & headed off to University of San Francisco to watch Marcus graduate from law school!

^^^ he did it! ^^^

 ^^^ proud mama ^^^

 ^^^ & me just being me ^^^

Congrats again, Marcus! Law school is quite an accomplishment...now onto preparing for the bar!

Stay tuned for part two of our trip to SF...

life lately {iphone edition}

 life lately has been full of freezing temps, too much food & some new york lovin!!!

cheers to the last day of january! february, i've been waiting for you :)

the end of a chapter

happy new year!!

this year was full of so much fun & many new adventures. 

here are some of my highlights from the past year.

>> graduated from BYU

>> one year anniversary with the hubby

>> having the whole family come visit us in provo

>> began my photography business

>> staycation in LA over the summer

>> got into grad school // didn't go :)

>> long weekend in sun valley, ID

>> shopping time with nani & the girls {twice!} 

>> trip to AZ for nate & mc's wedding

>> finishing our color me mine bowl, finally

>> roadtrip to visit my sister in boulder, CO

>> shane & heather's wedding

>> mark's promotion at work

>> christmas in lala land

>> got a job

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.

christmas cheer

is anyone else as sad as i am to see christmas go?? i am always a bit blue the day after christmas because i know i have to wait an entire year to celebrate again! although, this year on the day after christmas we went on a little girl's only shopping spree with nancy's mom, nani, which quickly helped those blues disappear temporarily. but as i sit in the airport i feel them creeping back.

our time in lala land was spent watching many movies, making tons of food, decorating cookies, shopping, making homemade tamales, decorating gingerbread houses, seeing old friends, drinking lots of tea for the sick girl {me}, chatting, laughing, enjoying the company of family & exchanging lots of gifts!

as we prepare to head out to seattle today for our next adventure, i am just thinking back on how quickly this vacation went by. it is so hard to find time to come home to LA. but when we do get the chance to come, it seems we fill our days with tons of activities, which seems to make the trip go by even faster. time flies doesn't it...i just want it to slow down sometimes!!

i am beyond grateful for my wonderful family. coming home is always so much fun. i know mark loves it too because he gets to mess around with my brothers & act 13 again for a few days. the older i get the more i appreciate each member of my family & wish i lived closer to them. one day! i had the best christmas this year & the gifts were only the cherry on top of an already fantastic vacation.