Guess I should give an update since I've been away and haven't posted for a while. I spent the last two weeks in LA, San Diego or somewhere in between. The purpose of the trip was to attend a wedding of one of my old roommates and turned into some work and fun with friends.

I tried to fit in as much as possible and I think I did pretty well. Activities included:

• Seeing The Black Swan at midnight after flying into LAX
• Going to Disneyland three times - one of which was quite rainy
• Karaoke with nine of my close friends at our favorite Korean Karaoke
• More movies including The King's Speech and Burlesque in LA and SD
• Shopping at Fashion Valley and Nordstrom Rack
• A full day of training a new employee at the company I work on contract for
• A reject reindeer party with friends including reindeer like Goner the Zombie Reindeer, Vomit and Stoopid the White Trash Reindeer and Poser the Gothic Reindeer
• A Hollywood Christmas party up in the hills
• Food, food and more food at favorites like Santana's, China Fun, Golden Bagel, 25 Degrees, Wonderful Sushi, Il Fornaio, Umami Burger and PitFire Pizza Co.

Overall it was a totally awesome trip and I am so glad that I was able to stay the entire time I had planned so I could work more and get more time with all of my friends down in CA.

One of the photos I took: Sandy and Steve's first dance

Another of my pics - classic Sandy

Me and the beautiful bride

Me and Kim - our other roommate

I went as YeeHaw the Cowgirl Reindeer

YeeHaw with Santa

a few of the rejects

my favorite :)

Christmas on Main Street

The beautiful tree while waiting for fireworks

Matthew, Kat and I before the fireworks and snow

Our "family" Christmas picture - from left to right: Michelle, her bf Simon, Joel, his gf Susie, me and Matthew

CA Screamin' - literally

So now I am back and I am glad to be back. It is nice to have the cozy weather - makes it feel more like Christmas. I can't wait till the Christmas festivities start up. We did go to the lights at the raceway thing last night with Brent & Buffy and Kim and the girls. After we got back and were coming inside the house, Melia was lagging so I went back to see what she was doing. I found her as shown in the pic below. When I asked what she was doing, she said she was petting Remus and then she said "Good boy. Good boy." She also asked if he'd grow up someday to be as big as the Expedition. It was hilarious!


The job search continues... Most companies are taking the holidays off from interviewing so I will keep up the search but probably won't have any interview activity until after the holidays. I am very thankful for my contract job, which makes a huge difference so I can mostly support myself during this limbo time.

Well, that's it! Hope to see you all sooner than later!

We’ve had a fantastic time celebrating Danica’s 5th birthday! I can’t believe she is growing up so fast. She is our little sweetheart and just the nicest girl ever! Her smiles are captivating and she is so loving, considerate and caring. Alyssa quite possibly has the best big sister ever. Danica spends a lot of her time taking care of Alysss and playing with her. I can always count on Danica to help me out when I need it. Today we took a snuggle nap together on my bed, I loved it! She won't leave the house without a hug and kiss. She loves to play polly pockets, baby dolls and dress up. She loves to color, cut and draw. This year she has taken the training wheels off her bike, learned to swim and learned to read! It’s been so much fun but I wish we wouldn’t grow up so fast!

Her party was early in the month, we had a princess tea party theme with lots of little girls and two boys. She doesn’t like cake so we made a huge cookie and put candles in it- that was a big hit! We drive past the Macaroni Grill on base several times a day but never go there and Danica always asks to. So, Saturday night we finally took her there and we had a great time. The kids thought it was so fancy.... I guess we need to take them out more often! Today she got to open her presents, wear a fancy new dress Grandma sent and eat her favorite dinner of chicken and broccoli. What a great birthday!






The girls did a photo shoot with dad while they were in their new princess dresses!

Again this year we went up north to Camp Schwabb and stayed at the cottages on Oura Wan beach. It was fantastic. We had 7 families, tons of kids, tons of food and great fun. The kids biked, played, did a treasure hunt and just ran free. Every night we put them all to bed and gathered in one of the cottages for games until late. We pulled all the tables outside for our Thanksgiving dinner and it worked out great. I cooked the turkey the day before because we had no oven up there and it still tasted good! We had an awesome turkey bowl with real flags and some serious competition!

One of the days we went over to the Neopark and had a blast checking out all the animals and the unusual petting zoo with dogs, ponies and guinea pigs! We had a blast!

This run was a crazy run. When we first signed up, it was 6 miles with a big climb at the beginning but not bad. A week or so before the race, we went on a checked the site to find that they had changed it from a 6 mile to 7 mile run and the elevation profile was insane.

Meagan and Cory Allen came down from Battleground to run with us. They stay over at our house Friday night with Harris and we had a friend from our ward watch our kids and Harris while we all went to the race.

It was a beautiful day luckily after a week of rain. It was muddy and snowy though. The trail went all over the area there that is actually closed to the public and only open for logging. The race officials got special permission for the race to be run there. There was a lot of jumping over logs and the sort which definitely was a change for me. We were able to run behind the falls which was just awesome except for the fact that after you did that, you had to climb like 3 or 4 flights of stairs. The trail went back onto the logging roads and some of the hiking trails until it took us to "the hike" - basically a huge hill that is meant for mountain biking only (there were signs all over saying "Mountain Bikes Only"). It was quite the hill but the run was so beautiful and amazing to tun all through the trails and roads up there.

Meagan came in first of us 4 (6th in her age group), then Peter, then Cory, and then I came in Last of us 4. If you look at the results page, it will have Peter and me switched. When I checked us in, I grabbed both of our numbers and accidentally gave Peter my number and I took his. My brain wasn't working so well that morning :).

Overall, it was a blast and I cannot wait to do another one. Totally different than road running and I love the change in scenery. Peter has gotten me hooked. Now Meagan, Cory and Peter are planning to get me out Mountain biking. That will be interesting :).

-Anne

Overall it was a failed attempt but we did get a few useful shots.

In case you haven't noticed yet, I have a new blog. The link is to the right in the "Our Favorite Blogs" list. It's called "marnables barnables".

Nothing groundbreaking - just my own finds, thoughts and musings. Its main reason for being is because I want it but also because I need to learn how to use Wordpress for work.

Now you know my secrets. Feel special.