To My Dear and Loving Husband

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompetence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay.
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persever
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
By Anne Bradstreet (c.1612-1672)



Happy 29th Birthday my love!

I thank God every day that you were born. And I'm so glad that I get the chance to celebrate your birthday with you. I hope your 29th year is the best one yet!

Mid-Week Mishmash

Remember all those vinyl records that we inherited and wanted to sell? We took the boxes to a couple record stores and it turns out they were worthless. So off to Goodwill they went. At least we get a tax write-off. Good riddance!

(Note: not all of these boxes ended up with us, we only took a few boxes and the Mr.'s parents have the rest)

I'm continuing to work on my digital scrapbook and my final paper scrapbook. I'm trying to catch up on scrapbooking since I'm about 4 years behind. I was thinking that when I finish my final paper scrapbook I'm going either sell or do a giveaway for all my left over paper, stickers, embellishments, etc. What do you think: giveaway or sell?


Thursday is the Mr.'s Birthday. I'm getting him two presents and both of them are things I've gotten him before that he loved but wore out. I think that means we've been together for too long. I'm getting him a "magic wallet" and something else. More on that later.


I've started keeping my vitamins in the kitchen and that makes me SO much better at remembering to take them. I pretty much have to take vitamins with food since vitamins often upset my stomach. I am also thinking of getting one of those "days of the week" pill things that old people use to help me remember to take them, ha! I've been taking Trader Joe's Vitamins and I think they are pretty good. What vitamins do you like?


Here's a fun travel tip. If you know you travel a lot (or even shower at the gym a lot), purchase and keep a second set of cosmetics all packed in a cosmetic bag. The only cost is the initial purchase and you can always raid your travel bag if you run out of a product in your home supply. This saves SO much packing and unpacking time.

A Journey through my Scent Memories

The first night I hung out with the guy that would later become my husband I told him that scent is the one of the strongest forms of memory.

And for me that is so true. I've always been very "loyal" to a certain scents or perfumes throughout the years of my life, so whenever I smell a certain scent it takes me right back to that time in my life.

So I though it would be fun to take journey through the scents I've worn over the years. My "Scent Memories..."

Middle School and early High School - Bath & Body Works Sun-Ripened Raspberry


I wasn't allowed to wear perfume yet, so I loaded up on the sun-ripened raspberry body splash and lotion. The smell will always remind me of my teeny-booper days.


Sophomore and Junior year of High School - Roxy Hula

I felt like a chic little surfer girl in this stuff. I'm sad they don't make it anymore, I'd love to get a whiff of it.


Senior Year of High School through Sophomore Year of College - Tommy Girl

My first real "designer" perfume. One whiff of Tommy girl and I'm 18 again going to my first fraternity parties.


Junior and Senior Year of College - Michael by Michael Kors
My best friend wore this scent and I loved it so much that I started wearing it too. This is the perfume I was wearing when I met the Mr. and on my 21st birthday. When I smell it I think, "ahhh, to be barely legal again."


First years out of College (2005-2007) - Marc by Marc Jacobs

I'm not sure how I started wearing this. I was wearing it the night that the Mr. proposed to me. It will always remind me of Manhattan Beach summers.


2008 to Present - J'adore by Dior

I was wearing scent at our wedding and still wear it today. I'm sure that someday this scent will remind me of my newlywed adventures.


I wonder what my next scent will be?


What scent are you currently wearing? What scents have you worn over the years? What scents remind you of a particular time in your life?

Ski Utah! Trip Recap

There's a reason the Utah license plates say "Greatest Snow on Earth" -- the skiing in Utah is Epic.

I love sking in Tahoe and Colorado but I have to say the combination of great snow, great resorts, easy travel, and generally nice weather make Utah my favorite place to ski.

The Mr., me, and three of his friends spent three wonderful days tearing up the slopes of Utah.

Day One

The first day we went to Park City Mountain Resort. This is a fun, historic resort and we had beautiful weather there.

Mr. and me on the slopes with Park City (the town) below us:


Me and "the boys" at Park City (I was the only girl on the trip, ha!)


After skiing we had Pizza and Beers at Davanza's in Park City. Total dive, but good food and great prices.

Day Two

We spent the second day at The Canyons in Park City. I'd never been to The Canyons but I was BLOWN away. It's an amazing resort. It's huge with a wide variety of terrain and great snow. If you ski one place in Utah, make it The Canyons, seriously.


The Mr. and I skied non-stop from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM and still didn't cover all the terrain. I was so in love with the slopes there I literally could not stop skiing. I'd love to go back to The Canyons for several days.


The Canyons also has fun base area where several gondolas and chairlifts meet up with outdoor dining and music.



At night we back the Sheraton in Downtown Salt Lake where we were staying and then went out to dinner at Chanon Thai Food. We had wanted to go the famous Red Iguana but the lines were too crazy, so we settled for Thai. It was solid Thai Food but the service was so slow, we almost ate our arms.

Day Three

On day three I really wanted to go a fun little resort called Brighton, but the Mr's friends wanted to go to Snow Basin, so we ended up going there. Snow Basin has great intermediate and expert terrain, but unfortunately there was super high winds that day so several gondolas and parts of the mountain were closed. And many of the runs that were open had poor visibility due to the low clouds and snow blowing up from the winds. So I didn't do as much skiing at Snow Basin as I did on the other days.

I did, however, spend a couple hours drinking beers in the luxury lodges with the Mr...


And the crazy boys...


We did dinner and microbrews at the Beer Hive Pub in Downtown Salt Lake. We did some bar hopping but we liked the Beer Hive the best of any place we found. They have a giant beer menu and some fun local brews on tap (note: all local brews were under 4% alcohol due to local Utah liquor laws I guess).

All and all we had an epic ski trip and I cannot wait to ski utah again!

PS- Another one crossed off the list!

Nose Dive!

So I've been wanting to recap my Utah trip, but first I had to share my crazy injury that I got on over the weekend...

(picture taken yesterday AM after the Dr. No makeup. Keepin' it real)

Nope I didn't fall on a double black diamond on the slopes. I feel into the dresser in my bedroom! It was the middle of the night and I got up to go the bathroom and tripped.

Yup... skiing = easy... walking in the dark back at home = difficult. In short, I am a klutz.

I went to urgent care and they sealed my nose with glue stitches (but not before asking me a bajillion questions about how this happend with the subtext of "does your husband beat you?").

Now I'm feeling fine but looking pretty awful.

Here's how I looked before work this AM...


I'm really afraid of scarring though. Has anyone had any success with Medera or other scar-removing solutions?

Hitting the Slopes!

You're gonna hate me but...

I'm off again! ...

To my favorite place in the world to ski...



Utah!

Here's me in Utah circa 1989...


I only hope I look this cool this weekend!

Talk to you all next week!

Northern California Dreaming - Monterey & Santa Cruz Trip Recap

I love how big and diverse the state of California is -- so many amazing sites to explore right in my home state. As a Southern California girl, I love having the chance to vacation in Northern California -- it's so different from Southern California, yet it's so close!



This past weekend the Mr. and I vacationed in Monterey and Santa Cruz on the Northern California coast for three days.

Friday

We started off Friday with a drive on the 17-Mile Drive at Pebble Beach. Such a beautiful drive! It's definitely a "must do" if you're in Monterey.

We saw beautiful coastlines...


Spectacular surf...


And a bunch of wildlife!

(not a bad place to be a deer, huh?)

There were SO many beautiful scenic lookouts...


Look closely at this rock. It's covered in harbor seals and sea lions!


We saw the famous "Lone Cypress", which is the logo of Pebble Beach.


After the 17-Mile Drive we went down the old Monterey wharf and cannery.
We found a great crepe placed called Vive La Crepe where you can enjoy crepes right on the water. The owner was super nice and gave us a great dinner recommendation (more on that later).



There were all kinds of fun sights on the Monterey wharf.


Looks like some people forgot to dry-dock their boats for winter. Oooops!


At the end of the wharf there are some great harbor and ocean views.


Then we went back to our hotel to change and go out dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Passion Fish.


Our dinner was amazing! We had crab cakes, squid, crab salad, scallops, Margerum Sauvignon Blanc, and chocolate torte. YUM. Seriously, if you're ever in Monterey go to Passion Fish.


Saturday

Saturday morning went on a walk by our hotel and visited Dennis The Menace Park. Such a cool and cute park! If you have kids they will absolutely love this park.

The we headed up to Santa Cruz.

We went to the point/lighthouse and watched the surfers. The lighthouse has a small "Museum of Surfing" but we didn't go in.


There were TONS of surfers in the water despite how cold it is. Santa Cruz has epic surfing so I guess the die-hard surfers don't care that it's freezing this time of year!


The we went to Verve Coffee House for some delish lattes. They roast their own beans onsite. Fresh!


The we checked into our hotel and go ready to go to my friend's wedding celebration at a yatch club.


My friend had a destination wedding in New Zealand in December, so she decided to have a fun, low-key wedding "celebration" back home in California. We ate fresh crab, salmon, and halibut and drank wine that her and husband her made!


Sunday

On Sunday we checked out of our hotel and drove up to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park about 1/2 hour away from Santa Cruz.

This beautiful park has redwoods that are 2000 years old! This redwood was growing in California before Jesus was born.


The redwoods are so giant and majestic that they are pretty much impossible to capture with a camera.


Can you spot the Mr. by this giant redwood?


Soon it started to rain... hard. We got SOAKED.


Some of the redwoods are so big that they almost have these little "caves" under them. The Mr. and I were joking that maybe trolls live in there. So I decided to do an impression of what those trolls might look like.

Uncanny, right? I'm pretty sure this pic is going on the Christmas card next year. :)