TIMBER

Like I said earlier - Don't get a Christmas tree that is over 10 feet tall, actually let's say 8 feet just to be safe. 

Timber! That is right, it happened. I walked into the house after work one night and my mouth dropped and my heart skipped a beat. Our very big Christmas tree (that took me so long to decorate  - 3 nights) was lying flat on the floor. There was shattered glass everywhere from the new christmas bulbs that I had just bought. That wasn't the only devestation, I walked around to the back and sure enough all the water in the stand that I had so diligently kept full had spilt all over my beautifully wrapped christmas gifts. I had spent hours wrapping about 40 presents in nice gold paper and beautiful ribbon and they were all soaking wet. I unwrapped them only to find a lot of wet clothes. Luckily the gifts were mostly for family members so we let them dry out and explained what had happened.

 

My dad and Terry came over that night to help Rick take care of the tree. Terry and I cleaned up all the broken ornaments and tried to save as much as we could. My dad and Rick spent the rest of the evening screwing in a large piece of plywood to the bottom of the Christmas tree stand and bolted the tree to the ceiling.

It took us a few days to get the tree re-decorated and luckily we had some help. Becky who is one of my favorite people to decorate trees with, was in town. We have been decorating Christmas trees together since 2000. Ben one of Rick's best friends was lucky enough to be in town visiting and was able to join in as well. The tree ended up looking okay. However, we never replaced all the new ornaments that broke, so the only part of the tree that ended up decorated was the front. The sides and back were pretty bare. 

Oh Christmas Tree

I usually like to get the Christmas tree the Monday after Thanksgiving for FHE. However, we wanted to cut it down this year so we had to wait until the weekend. We went to Half Moon Bay with our friends to a great Christmas Tree Farm. It had every kind of tree and every size you could think of. We were looking for a large one for us and a fluffy one for them. It took us a very long time to find the perfect tree. Along the way, we stopped off at Pigeon Point Lighthouse. It was an amazing day along the coast. 

The boys cut down the trees while the girls cheered them on and took pictures. The Christmas Tree Farm had tons to do there. We played on the swings hanging from the trees, roasted marshmallows, had hot chocolate, roasted dogs, made wreaths and enjoyed the day there. We were prepared in our warm jackets, scarves, hats and mittens however, it was warmer than a summers day in Half Moon Bay. I think the guy at the ranch said it was about 70 degrees. We were a little worried we wouldn't be able to get both, very large Christmas trees home on top of the Land Rover but the guys were good and they made it home safely.

Rick cutting down the tree.

The guys trying to stuff it through the largest shoot they had.

Making wreaths

Playing

 

We haven't finished decorating our Christmas tree yet because we need another 20 boxes of lights to go on it. Once we get it decorated, I'll post some pictures. It was a fun time and possibly a new Christmas tradition. Although this may be the only year we are able to have a tree this big! It gets pretty close to the ceiling in our loft which means it is BIG!

A Day in The City or shall I say Everyday in The City

Each morning I have a mile walk to my office from the gym and the other day I was thinking, how beautiful my walk is each morning, so I thought I would document what our morning ritual is. 

The alarm beeps very early in the morning and we pop out of bed put on our swimsuits or our gym clothes, brush our teeth and quickly head out the door. We are usually running through the bart station to make our train. 

We take a 12 minute bart ride into the city and walk a few blocks in the dark to the gym. Half the time we swim together and the other half we start out rowing on the urgs and then do our thing at the gym. 

After my shower, I head out the door, walk a block and see 

The Ferry Building

I walk through the plaza past all the sleeping homeless people

(you can't see this one really good, but it is someone sleeping up against the trunk of a tree)

I continue to walk down along the Embarcadero

I pass by the pier. I love this pier, you can see the Bay bridge in the background. I like to take lunch breaks here.

I walk through the park at Levi's Plaza,

until I get here. My office building at Levi's Plaza. You can see Coit tower in the background. The stairs leading to the tower are right across from my window.

This is my home away from home. 

Rick has a much shorter walk than I do but still gets to see great things. Right across from the Ferry Building is his office building. It is a large beautiful office building on the corner of Market and Embarcadero.

He goes up 10 floors and get this view from his office 

The Bay Bridge with the sun coming up. You can't beat that.

We enjoy working in the city and being able to see so many beautiful things each day!

Thanksgiving Week

We spent Thanksgiving in Utah this year with my family. I drove out to Utah with my dad on Saturday. It's Rick's busy season right now so he stayed in town to work. He worked until Wednesday afternoon and then flew out to Utah. We stayed at my twin sister's house. The first half of the week Mariah and I did some sewing projects for Christmas. I must say, I did a pretty good job considering that I don't sew and have little patience for it. Our projects came out adorable. When Rick came into town we celebrated our nephew, Dallin's 8th birthday. 

Thanksgiving morning Rick and James (Mariah's husband who lives in Iraq) got up early and headed to Thanksgiving Point to run the 5K Turkey Trot. There wasn't a big turn out since it was raining. I was there to cheer them on and take pictures as they crossed the finish line. They both did great considering they are not use to the high altitude. Rick came in 9th place and James in 13th place. They both ran it way under 25 minutes. Good job guys!

After the run, we sent "the boys" out to the mountains to go quadding behind Utah lake. The girls had a little time by themselves to start preparing Thanksgiving dinner. I did the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and pecan, cranberry white chocolate pie. Mariah made the homemade bread, salad and corn and Ricky made homemade whipping cream for the pie. It turned out delicious.

After dinner the boys all went outside and played football. It was fun to see them all playing football together. That night Rick and I headed to Park City to visit his family. All the girls and Rick went Midnight Madness shopping at the outlet stores. After shopping until 3:30am Rick, Caitlyn and I decided to head back for some sleep. However, Rick's mom and sister stayed shopping until about 10:00am the next morning. I can't believe they shopped for 10 hours and in the middle of the night. Crazy. I am definately not that hard core. We did wake in the morning and headed back out there for more. That night his parents came to our house and we all played games. The Ricks won! I can't believe it - it was pure luck!

We left Utah on Saturday morning and drove to Fernley, NV and stayed with Jessica & Jeff and family. It was fun to play and is always a relaxing stay. Thanksgiving was great this year. We were able to spend some time with both our families and enjoy some time off. 

Check out my cute husband!

BlogLog for October

I know our blog has been so boring lately - absolutely nothing new for a month. We have been crazy busy this month and we haven't even taken a trip. We've been in town every weekend this month. I must say, it has been a very busy month for work traveling during the week. Rick was out the week of the 6th and again the week of the 20th and then I was out the week of the 27th. Sad for us newlyweds, we only got to spend one week together this month and the weekends. Luckily our business travels are not a permanent thing.

Here is a quick re-cap of our month:

Weekend of the 4th, we went to San Jose to spend some time with my Dad and Terry. We had a little birthday celebration for me (better late than never) and then went to dinner. On our way out I accidently grabbed the wrong cell phone and left. I thought I was grabbing Rick's cell phone when really I was grabbing my dad's. Sunday morning we woke up to the phone ringing. I told Rick his phone was ring and he said that isn't my phone. I quickly realized what I had done, which resulted in another trip down to San Jose. We decided to bring our laundry with us so we could be productive while we watched the endless summer, a surf documentary my dad and Rick wanted to watch. Sure enough the washer broke, flooded the whole garage which was being used as storage for all of Terry's stuff including cardboard boxes, white couches, TV's and clothes. We had to empty the whole garage, dry it out and clean it and move it all back in. It was a long night.

Weekend of the 10th, was a weekend full of showers for me. Saturday morning I helped out with a baby shower for my friend Melissa and Saturday night I helped out with a Bridal shower for my friend Caisa. For Caisa's bridal shower we had a limo pick her and her mom up, so after the shower Molly, Jason, Caisa, Adrian, Rick and I cruised around town in the limo. Of course we had sweets and fondue for the shower so we were looking for some real food. Not much was open in downtown PA at 10:30 at night. We ended up stopping at Taco Bell, however the only thing open was the drive through. Of course the limo didn't not fit through the drive through so Adrian walked through it for us while we waited in the limo. It was kinda of funny.







The one week we were together this month, we stayed at the Claremont Hotel in Berkley. Rick had a work conference there so we spent 3 days there. I took a day off work and went out for breakfast with my friend Marielle while Rick went to conferences. We then met up for lunch and went for a swim in their wonderful pool. Rick got a massage and we spent the afternoon shopping on Telegraph Ave., my old stomping ground. We looked for an 80's outfit for Rick for his 80's work party. We bought him some sweet Risky Business glasses, pegged his jeans and bought him a little Siouxie and the Banshees pin (which I love and and going to start wearing myself).




Weekend of the 17th, was the Red Bull Soap Box Derby in San Francisco. We invited a bunch of people but most people couldn't come or we couldn't find them. We ended up running into some friends from the ward - Janelle and Jeremy and watch it with them. It was pretty entertaining, watching the vehicles race down Deloris St. There were about 60,000 people there so most of the time we sat in the park and watched it from the big screen. On Sunday was my dad's birthday party so we went down to San Jose to have dinner with him and a bunch of people from church. We also carved pumpkins. Rick and I won for scariest pumpkin. We won movie tickets.



Weekend of the 24th we went to Half Moon Bay with some friends from Palo Alto. We went through a hay bale maze that was two and a half acres big. Rick and I were the first ones to finish. Of course I was pretty excited about that. We then went to Pasta Moon for dinner. It was better the first time we went there. We had calamari and a cheese, meat and olive platter for appetizers. We then had pear and procuitto pizza and fettucine with prawns, white toasted corn, jalapenos and procuitto with a lemon caper sauce. Saturday night was the Halloween party at church. We dressed up. I wore my Norweign costume which can look a little like little red riding hood and Rick wore his big bad wolf costume. It was fun. We then had trunker treat in the parking lot of the temple. We passed out candy to all the kids in the back of the Land Rover. We then had our friends over to carve pumpkins and drink hot apple cider.








Weekend of the 31st, was a Halloween party at our friend Luanne's house. There was a bunch of couples there and we played games. I was so tired because I had been traveling all week and was on east coast time. Saturday we got a bunch of stuff done around the house and then headed to Livermore to visit with my family. We went to dinner and then watched a movie with them. It had been awhile since we saw them last.

The rain has finally come and we have been enjoying it. We love the sound of the pitter patter on the roof with the wall of windows that show the dark clouds and the rain pouring down. We finally turned on our heater and enjoyed the cold rainy weekend in a nice big warm warehouse loft!

Weekend BlogLog - Sept. 26th

I know it has been a while since I have posted on our blog and I'm sure my usual loyal readers have stopped checking for something new by now. It has been a pretty busy last few weeks. Rick and I were both out of town on business trips last week, which was good planning on our part. We planned it so Rick would be gone the same week as me instead of me one week and him another. A week and a half is long enough to be away from my adorable husband. Rick went to Pittsburgh to talk about tuna and dog biscuits and I spent the first half of my week at Hormel Foods, General Mills and Schwan's Foods in Minnesota. To my surprise Minnesota wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The business trip was actually very busy and very successful. I then headed to Arizona on thursday for a lunch meeting with the veeps at Bar-S Foods.

My little sister Lauren lives in Arizona so I was able to stay and visit with her for the weekend. On Thursday when I flew in I was able to meet up with my friend Heidi who lives close by. We had lunch together. It was fun to see her. Lauren and I were also able to visit our life long childhood friend Susie. We haven't seen her in years. It was great to be able to catch up with old friends.

Lauren, her roommate Natalie and I headed to Prescott, AZ to go camping in the National Forest. I didn't even know that Arizona had a National Forest. I thought Arizon was just filled with rocks, dirt and heat. The National Forest actually had lots of trees and was 59 degrees. I had packed for Arizona weather so was obviously not prepared for this. It rained on us a little bit but we still enjoyed it. We had a campfire, played some games and ate lots of food. The next morning we got up and headed to Watson Lake to go kayaking. It was a small lake but beautiful. The water was surrounded by large rocks. We kayaked all around through the rocks.





Since I was going to be gone in Arizona for the weekend, Rick decided it was a good weekend to fly to Utah to see his family. I was a little bummed I didn't get to go, but wanted to take advantage of a free trip to see my sister. His sister Caitlyn picked him up at the airport and he surprised his family. He was able to spend lots of time with them and really enjoyed playing with all his adorable nieces and nephews.

After a week and a half Rick and I were very much ready to see each other. Monday night I picked him up from the train and we enjoyed the evening together. This month is going to be a busy month for both of us. We both have a lot of traveling to do which is usually not the case.