Tis the season

My favorite part about the holidays is spending time with family! I moved back home to be closer to my immediate family but when I left Utah I left all my aunts and uncles :( My grandparents and gang from my mom's side of the family decided to go on a cruise for Christmas and luckily left out of San Diego. My sister, her kids, mom and I drove down on Monday to say hi and hang out for a day.

Here is my grandpa and I after lunch at El Torito. I love this picture because he doesn't smile for just anyone! Yeah that's right, I'm the favorite :)



After lunch we just went back to their hotel and hung out. Ashleigh's kids love playing with my cousin Chad. It makes me sad that they don't have any cousins close by...sorry Ash but I'm not helping out with that one! Here are the cousins under 21:

Kaleigh, Tyler, Corey, Chad, Ryan, and Nathan (front)


The adults wanted to play also!

White Christmas

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas"...or not! The last couple days it's been 80 degrees down here in So Cal! It's crazy to walk outside a week before Christmas and have it be this warm! Have no fear, I've put this warm weather to good use. Davey Havoc make a surprise visit to town and I was lucky enough to be on his list of people to hang out :) I met up with Dave and Sean and took them out to lunch with this as our view...


...this is why I love where I live!!!

Then we ventured down to CDM to walk along the beach and look at the multi-million dollar houses. It was so nice to chill with some of the great friends I made while living in Salt Lake. Oh how I miss those days of the MBBC! Thanks for the visit boys :)

Laughter in Laguna!

It was Rachelle's birthday a couple weeks ago and she was kind enough to include me in the celebratory events. I went with her and her husband Mark, and their mutual friend Steve to Laguna for some shopping and dinner on the beach. It was a really fun evening of just being with good friends and beautiful scenery!

Here is the gang (Mark, Steve, Rachelle and myself) with a little pre-dinner shopping. We found a super cool wall and couldn't resist the touristy photo in front of it :)


After some shopping we grabbed some tasty burritos and headed straight for the beach! One of the things I love about hanging out with Rachelle and Mark is how organized and planned they are....they looked up the expected time of the sunset and planned our dinner accordingly. On top of our tasty burritos they came prepared with chips & salsa, homemade margaritas and even a virgin one for me! Thanks Mark ;)



After dinner we walked around Laguna enjoying the amazing atmosphere it has to offer; one of which we take for granted living so close to it! We had a blast just hanging out. The boys were boys and the girls were girls! I found one pair of sandals with socks attached and couldn't help but trying them on. We've all never laughed so hard! Sorry for the quality of the picture but we were laughing too hard to truly capture a decent photo but I'm pretty sure this one speaks volumes...

(Notice the poster of the model next to me)


TaDa!!!!!!!

Trick or Treat?

Happy Halloween!!!

Those of you that know me well, also know I don't dress up for Halloween...sorry to be the bah-humbug of the group! I just think Halloween is for kids and not a reason for girls to shed 97% of their clothing soooo........to celebrate I LOVE taking my nephews, and now nieces trick-or-treating :)

This year I did sport my old dance competition jacket. Probably the closest you'll see me dressed up voluntarily. I'm surrounded by Curious George, a bumble bee, OB 1, and Optimus Prime.

The Man in the Yellow Hat and Rachelle came along with us door to door. The boys really do crack me up! Nathan is a riot when he comes away from a door complaining his bag is "too heavy". We came back with way tooooo much candy! We were more than successful

When we got home Roger, Kari and Kendall had showed up as a knight, princess and unicorn! They were quite adorable and you'll have to check out Kari's blog for more pictures. Here are my 2 favorite nieces :) Too adorable for words!

Seasons

I love being able to hop on a plane and go to Utah to check out the beautiful colors it has to offer around this time of year! I honestly think that's why the make Conference when they do so people out of state or out of country can understand why 'This is the Place'.

Anyway I think I'm going to make it an annual tradition to go to Utah for Fall Conference (even if I don't actually attend). I couldn't get over how pretty the mountains were! I never understood how someone's favorite season could be fall until I moved to Utah! I always associated fall with having to go back to school but the beautiful colors has me won over!

Utah never seizes to amaze me though! Wakeboarding on Monday and then snow on Wednesday. Man your seasons come and go quickly!

It's said that California has seasons...we just took out the bad ones ;)

Back to being a bum

As the school year begins I can't help but think back to this great education I just received and feel like I now have the skills to be a fabulous teacher, but unfortunately the state doesn't have any sort of budget and therefore is letting go of more teachers than hiring and I am still unemployed. It's definitely not the path I would have chosen but I have to look towards the positive....

I moved home for 1 reason: to be close to family, especially the nieces and nephews. It's truly been such an awesome experience! On Labor Day my mom was out of town but no worries the rest of us threw together an awesome bbq after a fun day at the beach. We had fun playing in the waves, then rinsing and goofing off in the pool and stuffing our faces with food. I was sitting on a lounge chair enjoying the intense sun as it began to set and Nathan came over and put his head on my chest and said, "I love you Lindsey. Thanks for moving home. I have fun playing with you!" My sister denies having told him to say this to me but regardless it made my heart melt!

Besides the beach and pool, I've been spending a lot of my spare, unemployed time at Disneyland. Gotta love those season passes :) My sister and I like to take her 2 youngest while the twins are in school. I know it sounds cruel but we always bring them back cookies! We're terrible at taking pictures but if we did my whole scrap book and blog would be filled of Disneyland pictures if it isn't already.

I'm out of the loop and have no idea who the character is above but Nathan loves him! Below is my sister and her husband with 2 out of 4 of their kids. We sent Mike home shortly after to pick up the older kids.

All of my time at Disneyland is time well spent though. I finally beat my sister and Mike at the Toy Story Mania game! Usually the twins kill me but I got my high score of 143,500 points! ...it's the little things :)

Keep Santa Cruz Weird

Ready...set....let's go tour Santa Cruz!!!

After a great party we came back to Taylor and Ian's for an old school slumber party! It was so much fun to have us all watch movies in our sleeping bags until we started to fall asleep. It reminded me of back in elementary school. We didn't waste the day though, we got right to our sight seeing!

Here is the Bell Tower at the end of the block. Santa Cruz is an adorable little town that has a "downtown" that consists of about 3 blocks that's filled with local restaurants and boutiques. I love the charm in this city!

Anna posing real quick before heading back up the other side of the street. She didn't want to miss out on anything! It was hilarious until our all day shopping began to wear Bobby thin. He was a good sport though

The girls on the pier with a bit of the boardwalk in the background. We tried to do the hand on your waist pose but Anna missed that memo because she didn't want to block me out of the picture. She is always looking out!

Beneath the pier are seals and lots of them! I was obsessed! You can't tell from the photos but they're MASSIVE!

Anna asked me how I think they get up onto those planks because they're a good 6ft above the water. I said I didn't know, but probably during high tide. Right then a seal jumped out of the water onto the plank...question solved

They were finally able to pull me away from the seals and over to the boardwalk. I felt like I was in a movie. Their boardwalk is 10x better than Balboa! I'm going back to visit on a Tuesday when the rides cost 50cents!

The store was our continual stopping/meeting ground. Every time we'd come back, I'd find something else to try on. Here's Taylor and Ian and their beautiful store! Congrats again Tay Tay!

Check out her store at: shimmybang.blogspot.com

also on facebook

P.S. The title of this post came from a bumper sticker I ran across. I really do like Santa Cruz!

Shimmy Bang

My little Tay Tay is all grown up! I'm so proud of Taylor for opening her very own store!

She has just recently opened her own boutique in Santa Cruz and named it Shimmy Bang.

Last weekend was the opening party for family and friends so Anna, Bobby and I headed up because we wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Here I am checking out all the cool clothes and accessories! It's funny because a couple weeks ago Taylor was down in LA buying merchandise for her store and let Anna, Eliza and I tag along. I didn't think anything was cute enough to buy then but I wanted 10 things from her store! Great marketing skills Tay ;)

Taylor's boyfriend, Ian designs these sunglasses. They're pretty sweet but a little difficult to see out of

Here is the inside of her store.

Taylor and Anna in front of Shimmy Bang after a very successful opening. (It's much colder in Santa Cruz than down in OC but, no it's not snowing)

She has the cutest store around! It's the only one that has charm and character that matches her clothing. Next time you're in Santa Cruz, go and check it out!

We're so proud of you Tay Tay!!!

Eliza's last day

After 6 Flags, Eliza and I met up with my guy friends from high school to wish Stone good luck at Law School! I feel like all my friends from high school are going places with their lives. I just need to find the motivation to join that bandwagon!

Anyway after a fun day and night, Bobby and Hiro were kind enough to let us crash at their place. This saved us driving time and years on my life because I hate the drive to LA with a passion :) We woke up and headed over to Santa Monica. We found a super cute cafe to eat breakfast at and then enjoyed some shopping! Then we checked out the pier and more roller coasters!

Every time we'd take a touristy picture, I'd always make Eliza ask because it didn't feel so weird with her accent. One lady said we looked like sisters...she was from Vegas and I just think the matching outfits threw her off!

After Santa Monica we headed over to the LA Temple for baptisms. The San Diego Temple is gorgeous but I just have a special place in my heart for this one. I think it's because this is the first temple I was able to go inside.

The temple grounds are beautiful! It felt like a perfect day! (just try not to look off the temple grounds and see the billboards for Hos and Pimps TV show)

After the temple we saw The Time Traveler's Wife and then headed over to Hiro's restaurant where we'd end an amazing holiday together with a fabulous meal! If you ever come to LA please let me know and I'll get you hooked up at Hiro's amazing sushi restaurant!

The entire day ran so smoothly. Everywhere we went we found easy FREE parking. We couldn't have asked for the day to run any smoother!

I'll miss you Eliza but hopefully be over there sooner rather than later!

More Flags, the Better

While Eliza was in town she really wanted to go to Six Flags and experience some roller coasters, and boy did we! I haven't been since high school so I didn't remember anything about the rides let alone when they took your pictures. My photo for X2 epitomized fear! It was pretty hilarious :)

It was blazing hot that day because 6 Flags is located in the desert of no where so we took a break to rehydrate ourselves and caught a bit of their parade. Clearly no Mickey Mouse but it was interesting to watch :)

It was a fun day but definitely could never spend 13+ hours at 6 Flags

Cinderella's Castle

After a long day at Disneyland we packed some breakfast and decided to have a picnic down at the San Diego temple because the baptismal font wasn't working. Rachelle was interviewing for jobs down south so met up with us. It was a nerdy thing to do but it was a ton of fun. 

Here is the view from the freeway... breathtaking right

This is one of my favorite temples. It's location is perfectly placed so everyone can see it driving down one of the busiest freeways in Southern California. It's what sparks the conversation for a lot of investigators, "Oh so you go to that temple in San Diego that looks like Cinderella's Castle?"

I love this picture of Eliza! Now we just need to insert a return missionary next to her!

Here's the 3 of us after breakfast. It was a cool experience bringing Rachelle along with us. She said she has always wanted to go but never had a reason...one of these days we'll get her dunked ;)

We decided to keep Rachelle with us as our San Diego tour guide. We drove through Pacific Beach and then stopped at Mission Beach. It's seems like a fun beach city. Very different from Newport or Laguna but somewhere I wouldn't mind living.

We couldn't leave without feeling the water. I'm such a wimp for cold water though! Pinedale has scared me; unless I've got a wakeboard strapped to my feet there is no way I'm getting in

First timer's at the beach ;)

(love it cuz we've all lived next to the beach for years!)

Such a difference from the beginning of Eliza's trip with all boys

Happiest Place on Earth!

Having Eliza visit has been a continuation of my vacation! It's been a blast especially because we both share a love for Disneyland! I gave her the choice of not going but we couldn't resist!

Tea cups!!!! 

haha we didn't ride them but they do make for a classic picture :)

We did however ride Indiana Jones. They said the wait was 40 min so we got in line....2 hours later we weren't so sure we should have waited....2 hours and 3 minutes later we had smiles on our faces again! It's one of my favorites!!!

A trip to Disneyland just isn't the same these days without making an appearance over to California Adventures. How can you come all this way without going on Soarin' Over California? I mean it actually smells like the ocean and orange fields!

We also watched parades

...and we liked it :)

Space Mountain is another favorite but look at Eliza's face, that is purely priceless

We ended up staying for over 13 hours loving every second, well minus about 1hr and 45min of waiting for Indiana Jones but everything else was top notch!