Vegas Baby!

So to start the year off, me and some friends took a little road trip to Las Vegas. Peyton got a super sweet deal on rooms at the Wynn, so 8 of us drove over friday and stayed two nights...

Now, being non-drinkers and non-gamblers, you might wonder what we did we with our time. We actually had a great time. No drama (and with 3 guys and 5 girls, in close quarters for 2 days, this is surprising). We got in and went to our rooms. We were starving so we called up my friend Brooke (who happens to work at the Wynn) and had her meet us across the street for dinner. We had a great time. Good food, amazing spot in the corner of the restaurant with a great view of the Encore/Wynn and the strip.

After dinner we bought some tickets to "Madame Tussauds Interactive Wax Attraction." It was fun to run around the museum looking at all the celebs in their wax forms. The next day we played about LV, saw the Bellagio water show (which is pretty much my fav thing in Vegas) and were total tourist in Las Vegas. I had been in vegas about the same time 4 years earlier, right after my mission. Me and Brooke had taken a picture then in fron of this same fountain... so we did again. Then we decided that we looked a lot better 4 years ago...

Then we saw David Copperfield - which was a pretty amazing. I just don't understand how he does his tricks... seriously. HOW? Anyway, it was a super cool show. Of course no trip to Vegas would be complete without Brooke doing something to my hair. :) this time we went lighter. Everyone seemed to like it. I know I did.

I feel pretty good about this year... I really do.

Out with the old... in with the new

Since I've been a serious slacker in blogging lately, let me catch you up on the year's end and beginning.

So my friend Jeff (from summer 07) came to visit for New Year's Eve. I haven't seen him since he left to go back to school Aug 2007... You know how sometimes when you meet up old friends, all you end up talking about is old times? I've run into this a few times with high school and mission friends, and it gets old. I mean all you talk about is old memories and you make no new ones. Well, it wasn't like that meeting up with Jeff. After a short time of catching up, it was like old times. Laughing and joking - fun. 2008 wasn't that great of a year. Don't get me wrong - landing a job that I actually like was pretty great. But all things personal kinda sucked in 08. I moved to one of the second largest city in the county and I've never felt more alone. I mean I have a roommate that I love, even when she drives me crazy - I really do love you Kels. Anyway, getting back to my point, after a hard year of crappiness, it was sooo great to be reminded of great friends I've had and have - even if they don't live in the same city as me.

So back to my year's end - Seeing Jeff was great. We (a bunch of my friends I made in Glendale) had a party. Good times really. Then we headed over to a friends house and spent the night there. She lives in Pasadena and really close to the parade route. So we spent the night and then walked down to the parade route and watch the Rose Parade. I've never done it before and it was pretty cool. But not something I need to make a tradition. Here is a pic of us at the parade.
It was a beautiful day, great way to start the new year, so we thought that we should hit the beach... we when I say we, I mean Jeff, who has been in Utah for months. Well the beach was a bust and freezing cold.

Anyway - the start of my year has been fantastic and I'm actually really excited for 2009!!!

this one's for em...

So I told Em that I had decorated my tree last week and she wanted to see it. It's a really beautiful tree; see my roommate Keslie is a decorator. Anything from a room to person, she makes things look better. So of course I petitioned her advise and influence when decorating my brand new fake Christmas tree that I got from Target for $49.99.


My mom had supplied me with lights (which I no longer needed since the tree I purchased came with lights on it... not sure what I'll have to when when the lights start going out on the tree, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it) and some ornament to get things started. We went back to Target and picked out a some more ornaments and ribbon to finish it off and headed home. So Kelsie busily gets to work, whipping up all these bows, finishing off with one giant one for the top. Trees like this always remind me of the tree in the living room at home. My mom decorates the fancy tree with ribbons, beads and hand-made bows. I wanted everything to be red and silver, which I thought would look nice against a green tree and white lights. I try to mimic what my mom does... she's a pretty good example.


Anyway. So Kels puts on the all the bows and wraps the tree in ribbon - so I figure that it's free game to start decorating. But see, this is my fear of Christmas tree decorating kick in - I don't want to mess it up. But since there are only two colors, not kids or dogs to hide the big, glass pretty ones, I thought you can't go wrong... Well, I had put on maybe half a dozen ornaments when my roommate so graciously tells me that I did it wrong, I wasn't thinking in triangles and she proceeds to remove my ornaments and moves it to a new locations on the tree. I didn't help out much more after that. I let her think in triangles and finish off the tree. I think the tree is better for it.


Here is us by our tree before we had to go to the ward Christmas party... which, true be told, wasn't much fun...

A few of my fav Christmas songs

Be Thankful

So last weekend I went home for Thanksgiving. It was an amazingly good weekend. Over the course of the weekend, I found that there are three things that I am extremely grateful for.

1. Friends

So my friend Peyton came down for Thanksgiving, we left LA and headed down to SD Wednesday afternoon. We stopped off at Disneyland on the way down, rode the new Toy Story ride at DCA (which is soooo much fun) and then took a walk down Main St at Disneyland. The drive down was very nice and we had some really good conversations. Friday morning Andrew and Michelle drove down early and got to my house about 8 am. We took my niece and nephew to see Bolt in 3D Friday and Saturday we all played around the Zoo. We had a blast. This is us waiting for the bus ride. We had a great time running around the zoo and checking out the elephants, polar bears, meerkats and pandas. There is nothing like hanging out with friends and just being dorks. At night we played games with my brother Tom and his wife Amber. Having good friends is priceless. Friends you can be yourself with, friends that share your same beliefs and have great conversations. I feel like I haven't had that in a while, so it was really great to have a weekend full of that.

2. Family

I have an amazing family. It starts with my grandma, who turned 100 just a month ago. Then I have parents that I don't deserve. They will do anything to help out their kids any way possible. Like me and my car and finances. They are there, ready to help. My siblings, even with the age span, are close and we have a good time together. Lots of families don't get that when they are just years apart, and not decades. My family is amazing and examples to me.

3. The Gospel

So as if my weekend wasn't good enough with good friends, amazing family and awesome memories I went to church Sunday to my parent's ward. The speakers they had we all new members, sharing their stories about choosing the right and their decision to join the Church. It was great to hear their stories and reminded me why I love this gospel. What a great time we live in - to have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. There is so much that I have that I am thankful for, and my membership int the Church if Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints is number 1. It's the most important thing in my life.