Pumpkins and Beaches in October

We had our annual pumpkin carving this year with Celia and Aaron. It was an intense evening with pumpkin seeds flying through the air.

The final results were all worth it Mine
Al's
I promise I'm not ghetto and don't wear stained shirts...lol I was doing the dishes before and apparently I was doing them on my shirt.
I think Aaron's pumpkin was the best even though I hate cats. We put a sparkler in it to make the night more interesting.
Afterwards we made carmel apples. Al and I got a little greedy with the carmel.....him more so than me. His is the front left apple or some might call it carmel on a stick
There is a good 5 inches of carmel on that apple....haha On Wednesday we went to the ALCS to watch the YANKEES play!! Even though I suffer with severe ADD during sporting events I made it through all 4 hours with a smile on my face. :)
Ross and I in downtown L.A. waiting for Al to get out of brain surgery. Downtown L.A. is sketchy Brian, Ross, Al, and Me
and more important Al and Me.

I can't forget to post the hot dog Al ate. Some guys that bought one before him in line were calling it the Home Wrecker..... I think Al was even a little intimidated eating it. Gooooo Yankees!!
The highlight of the week was going to the beach.....suprise. On Friday my friend Jenny took me to Carbon Beach in Malibu. It's also known as Billionaire Beach and all the stars go there because nobody knows about it. Next time you're reading US Weekly or People and you see stars on the Beach in Cali.....chances are it's Carbon. I didn't personally see anyone famous, but I will be going back for sure.
On Saturday we went to Huntington Beach and it was so perfect. We watched the surfers and breathed the ocean air. We ate at Dukes for lunch with a beach front view.

Ice cream dessert
My new profile picture on facebook
Love Huntington Beach..... ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Childhood Memories

There are certain aspects of my childhood that bring me just as much pleasure now as they once did many years ago (hence why I convinced my Al to accompany me to a pumpkin patch this weekend). This time of year makes me nostalgic for lots of reasons and it got me thinking about some of the things that aren’t quite as fun now that I’m older. I wouldn’t wish for it to be any other way, but sometimes it’s nice to look back fondly at some of the simpler things that brought me so much joy. Here are some pictures of Al and I at a Pumpkin Patch in Hollywood. Somehow I imagined it being more patchy, but here we are on the corner of Fairfax in a parking lot covered with hay and over priced pumpkins.

My purpose at this pumpkin patch was to find the perfect green pumpkin to carve. I figured since I carved a white one last year it would be fun to try another random color. However being that their pumpkins were like $5 a pound I didn't accomplish this. That white beauty in the middle was $75
Here are the green pumpkins that I wanted. Who wants green pumpkins besides me? They should have those on sale. After this excursion we ate dinner at Don Antonios. I hope I don't have to tell you what that is, especially if you're a Hills fan like me.....it's the Mexican restaurant Heidi and Spencer always eat at. It was the best Mexican food I've had in a long time.

Not the clearest picture of us.
The carne asada was delish. Two thumbs up for Don Antonios. On Saturday we made our way to Magic Mountain. This is one of the things that isn't as fun now that I'm older. I used to love theme parks and could spend the entire day going on ride after ride without getting sick. I look at rides that spin in circles now and get sick looking at them. I still like roller coasters which is mostly what Magic Mountain is, but I learned quickly that I need a good 30 minutes or so of recovery time before I hop on the next one. Al and I were prepared to spend a good 5 or 6 hours there, but realized we were ready to go in 3. As I looked around yesterday I realized I had a good 10 years on most of the people there. I also decided I will never let my kids have season passes to any theme park because it is a place for teenagers to makeout and do who knows what else. The Batman rollercoaster. Sad to say we never went on it because the line was 1.5 hour wait....
We closed out our crazy day at Magic Mountain with a ride on the Bumper cars. Hey at least I can still handle those.

My days at theme parks have come to an end (except Disneyland), but what better person to share it with than Al. I know next time I'm at Magic Mountain I will be the infamous parent sitting outside the ride holding the drinks and snacks. How was the ride honey?

The Past Two Weeks

While we were away.....Al was back east for work the last two weeks and I was in Zion visiting friends and family. Although he says he was working he got to attend a lot of sporting events which = heaven in his mind. He went to a Princeton football game He even tried a sweater vest on for me
He went to a Redskins game. I loathe the Redskins.... and saw all the D.C. sights.
While Al was studying about brain surgeries and frolicking through D.C. I went back to Utah to visit. It was sooooo much fun to see everyone!! Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to make time for me. It always means a lot to see all of you.
I wanted to go on a hike while I was there, so my mom and aunts planned to go to Dog Lake which is so beautiful in the fall. However a cold front ruined our plans and we were greeted with this at the hikeWe ended up going on a hike closer to the mouth of the canyon with less snow and more fall colors. The view at the top was awesome.
Yay for hikes
On Saturday I hung out with two of my favorite people ever....Ash and Tonya. We had so much fun and it was a girls night that was long over due. Ash drove me by the Draper temple and we were the only sisters in site so we had a photoshoot. The silliness began later that night when I had a bright idea to buy matching onesies. Tonya tried to act like she wasn't interested, but secretly she loved them and they fit her cute pregnant tummy perfectly. I know we look ridiculous, but they kept me warm every night in SLC....hahah
On Sunday my family had a birthday party for my Aunt Mary. I made the most delicous red velvet cake EVER. Ryan found the biggest thing of cheeseballs I've ever seenOne night I was with Stacy on a plastic pumpkin hunt. You wouldn't think it would be hard to find 30 of them at Halloween time, but we found ourselves in Wal Marts stock room loading up the cart.

I also found an entire bag of vanilla tootsie rolls that night. It was fate because earlier that week I was picking out all the blue wrappers in a childs play mix they usually come in. Thank you Tootsie for finally realzining that vanillas are the best. Congrats to Kylee and Zack with their new baby Nixon. He is so precious.This picture of all of us was taken, but it looked like Tonya was the mom
Redo
My 10 days in Utah was well spent. Here are more pictures of friends and family
Miss you all.....xoxo