What are you Thankful for?

Every Thanksgiving, we get together with our best friends Pat and Lindsay and make an awesome Thanksgiving dinner. It's tradition for us to be together on Thanksgiving, and before every Thanksgiving dinner, we go around the table and say what we are thankful for. This year, we thought it would be fun to share what we are thankful for with all of you.

We are thankful for our amazing friends and family (that would be you!) and that everyone is in good health. We are thankful that in the last year we have gotten in better shape and have a lot more energy for life. We are thankful that in this bad economy Patrick has an amazing job that he loves and we can afford a comfortable life. Yes, we have to cut back on things but we have everything we could possibly need. We are thankful for the possibilities in our lives and the unexpected in life, in general. We are thankful for each other, because after all these years, we are still having fun.

I could go on and on. It makes you feel good to reflect on all that life gives you. So, what are you thankful for? Big or little, we want to share in your thanksgiving!

Life in SoCal

Well, it's a couple weeks into November and we're still using our air conditioner, the surrounding areas are burning and we had a couple small earthquakes this morning. Oh, to live in Southern California!

This past week the temperatures were in the high 80's to mid 90's and the Santa Ana winds were blowing. We always enjoy the winds except when they lead to fires. Yesterday, when I dropped Patrick off at the skatepark and went to the gym, you could tell the air quality wasn't good due to all the fires. Just in the hour I was at the gym it got so much worse; the sun was disappearing in all the smoke and the air glowed (it is a really eerie feeling to see the sky like that). I decided I better go get Patrick because it wasn't healthy for normal people, but with Patrick's asthma, it could be so much worse. We both could feel the smoke burning our throats and even for me it felt like it was harder to breath. In the two years we've lived here, this is the worst we've ever seen. You couldn't even see the mountains that were only a mile away.

Needless to say, we went home and hide in our apartment the rest of the day, where we could breath our nice, filtered, cool air. Gotta love air conditioning, even if it does cost you a fortune in the summer down here.

*Patrick and I are sooooo excited to be going home to Oregon for Christmas. It will be wonderful to get some nice cool, clean air into our lungs.*

Happy Halloween!

Patrick and I love Halloween! The other night we carved our pumpkins in preparation (they're already molding, so we'll be throwing those out today). We bought a bag of candy to hand out in case we got some trick or treaters and we've been listening to Halloween music for the last couple days.

Since we didn't have anything else to do on Halloween, we decided to have our own Halloween party, just the two of us. Patrick made some scary snacks that were delicious. We had monster mouths, brain, zombie fingers, bloody mummy toes and worms in dirt. Yummm! I dressed up as a 50's housewife and as part of my costume I had to bake some cupcakes (What? It was part of my costume). We were really hoping for some trick or treaters because we haven't had any in 8 years. But, once again, we got no one. We're just glad we didn't get a lot of candy.

We watched a scary movie, ate our scary snacks and had a really good Halloween overall.

I designed the pumpkins and Patrick carved both of them. He did a good job.

Spiderweb cupcakes

Patrick's creations!

Hey, save some of that brain for me.

I really wanted some trick or treaters so I could answer the door in my costume! Totally bummed.

Hiking

This last weekend, we decided to go on a hike to get some exercise. There are a lot of day hikes in the mountains around us. You would never know from looking at the brown mountains that there are many hikes along water with lots of vegetation. We drove only about 10 minutes to get to the trailhead. The hike was between 6-7 miles roundtrip and we had a great time getting out in nature. It wasn't the best day to go, though, as it was 94 degrees that day!

The trail is used by horse riders, mountain bikers, trail runners and hikers. We saw all of these kinds of people while hiking, but surprisingly, there weren't that many people overall on the trail. Patrick is trying to convince me to go back for some mountain biking. I'm not so sure, though. I've only been on a bike twice since my horrible mountain biking accident 4 years ago!

Arroyo Seco

We've become very good at taking our own pictures.

We stoped here for a rest. It was nice and cool by the water.

This was the nicest bridge on the whole trail. Other ones were under construction and one bridge was so badly damaged it was closed off and you had to cross the creek by jumping on rocks. Of course, for Oregonians, that was the best part of the hike!

Picking Pumpkins

It's that time of year and anyone who knows us, knows we love fall. Living in SoCal, though, doesn't provide for the most fall-like experience. So this last weekend, we were determined to find a little bit of our favorite season.

On Saturday, we drove 70 miles one way just to find a true pumpkin patch (one that wasn't set up in a parking lot, surrounded by a chain link fence, with inflatable ghosts). We wanted an actual farm. So, we made a day of it. We did a hayride (Patrick did it with me, even though he is allergic, because he couldn't believe I had never been on one before). We walked through the sunflower forest, which could have used a little watering, and we checked out the food stalls but didn't get anything to eat. I mean, who ever heard of shaved ice and fish tacos at a fall event. So weird. We bought 2 beautiful pumpkins that Patrick will be in charge of carving next weekend (neither of us trusts me to carve my own pumpkin and not lose a finger).

After the pumpkin patch, we decided we should go to the beach since we were only about 4 miles away. Yes, it is a weird life down here, where you can pick out pumpkins while wearing shorts and eating fish tacos and then go to the beach, all while profusely sweating. Back home, you'd be lucky if you weren't tromping through the mud to get your pumpkins. Well, I guess, you gotta get your fall where you can!

The Farm

I have a thing for cutouts. I always have to get my pic taken in it if I see one. I think Patrick was embarrassed. Ha ha!

So manly. Carrying his pumpkin on his shoulder while wearing a robot shirt.

We think these pumpkins weren't actually grown here since they look like they were just put out here in the dirt. But at least there was a barn!

Random trip to the beach.

Red Sox Rule!

On Friday, Patrick and I went to the Red Sox vs Angels playoff game in Anaheim. Patrick had bought us tickets to the game on Monday and we were sooooo excited to go. We hadn't seen a live Red Sox game in 2 years! The Red Sox had won the first game in the series on Wednesday, which made us even more excited to go to game 2. Once we got to the stadium, we took a walk around and got to see the Red Sox batting practice. We got a giant hot dog to share (it was no Rem Dawg from Yawkey Way) and then we went to our seats. Our seats were right behind the bullpen so we got to watch our pitchers and catchers warm up.

The game was great! In the first inning we were up 4 runs and throughout the rest of the game we were winning (you wouldn't know it by listening to the guy behind me. I don't think he realized the Angels were losing). Then in the 8th the Angels came back to tie the game. It was so nervewracking. In the top of the 9th, though, we hit a 2 run homer!!! Red Sox victory! We're hoping for a Red Sox vs. L.A. Dodgers world series!

Our First Anniversary

A week ago, Patrick and I celebrated our first year of marriage. We wanted to do something special and were longing to spend some time in nature so we booked a cabin just outside the mountain town of Julian. Julian is a small town approximately 2 1/2 hours southeast of LA. It was originally established as a gold mining town but is now known for their apple orchards and apple pies. The town is only about 3 blocks long, but is full of quirky little shops. There are numerous pie shops, each one with a signature apple pie. So, of course, we had to try as many as our stomachs could handle.

The majority of our time was spent at the cabin, though. Our cabin was so amazing. It was originally built in 1929 in the craftsman style. The fireplace was my favorite part. It was hand laid and the original builders incorporated some Native American artifacts (which, of course, today would not be PC). Both nights we were there we had wonderful fires. In the mornings, when the cabin was cold, we would sit on the window seat to be warmed by the sunshine. Each afternoon, we sat outside with mugs of tea and slices of apple nut bread. It was so relaxing. Our cabin had an amazing view and, all three days we were there, we saw deer and wild turkeys. The last night, Patrick cooked us a wonderful anniversary dinner on the antique Wedgewood stove. All three days spent in Julian were amazing and we can't wait to go again.

View from the cabin. The owners say on clear days you can see the ocean.

The Cabin

The cabin had great character!

Deer eating bird seed.

Patrick basking in the morning sun.

Relaxing by the fire with a glass of wine. It doesn't get any better than this.