Solvang, CA.

At 11:55 am on Friday, jon and I left the house and headed to California’s Denmark! Aka a little slice of heaven.  We hit traffic in la, obviously, then got a little bit sidetracked trying to find the kardashian’s store in Calabasas (it’s closed) but that is neither here nor there. We drove through Santa Barbara and up through the mountains. It was at about 4 pm and the lighting was perfect. the scenery was breathtaking. We were on our way to motel 6 when we spotted a more convenient motel. We hastily cancelled our reservations without even looking at the room, a move we would dearly pay for. The lady in the office was sweet, but boy could she talk. She burned up the few precious minutes of remaining daylight we had and had hoped to see solvang with. She showed us our room and we left before we started regretting our decision and headed to solvang. It was no more than 5 minutes down the ‘busy’ road. We passed an LDS church along the way, nestled among a Baptist church, a winery resort and a jehovahs witness hall. A little something for everyone, eh? :)

Driving into solvang was everything we had hoped it would be. The buildings, streets, trees…everything was perfect! It reminded jon and I exactly of our time spent separately in denmark. My dad, Amanda and I went on a scandinavian cruise in 2006 and it left from denmark. We had a couple days to look around and it was beautiful. Jon served his mission in Sweden and in some areas the nearest temple was in denmark, so they’d spend the day there on temple days.

Our first stop was the solvang brewing company for dinner. It was complete with Danish folk paintings and romantic lighting. That being said, all the doors were open and it was freezing inside. The main fireplace wasn’t enough to keep the place warm. We got there at about 5:30 and just beat the dinner rush. We sat right next to the fireplace. We got a Danish sausage sampler for our appetizer; Jon liked it more than I did. The spicey sausage could have been the culprit of my painful stomach ache later that night...though it also could have resulted from the food we ate on our road trip which included tootsie rolls, banana bread, dots, chocolate covered peeps, spicy cheetos, salt and vinegar chips, chocolate granola bars, etc…with little to no water consumption. Anyway, for the main dish jon ordered a Danish burger and I had his French onion soup. His Danish burger was made with a beef and pork patty and had lingonberries. He loved it.

After dinner, we struck up conversation with one of the store workers and asked him what there was to do at night. We told him we didn’t drink to narrow down our options. He asked if we were mormon and continued to tell us that he used to be, too! He went to mexico city on his mission, the same mission my dad went to. He was really nice, but said that everywhere in solvang closes early, I guess that is European.

We walked around for awhile to scout out all the places we wanted to visit the next morning. It was so cute, even at night. Now that it gets dark so early, it always seems much later than it is. Secretly, I really like having it get dark at 5. We went back to our motel at about 8 and were forced to deal with our rash decision. It. Was. FREEZING! In our room!! There was no heater, and a big gap above the swamp cooler that was allowing a draft. Jon went to get a heater from the lady at the front desk while I laid on the bed crippled in pain. Luckily I fell asleep at about 8:30, and jon was successful in getting a heater. More good news, the bed was a king size. That is absolutely unheard of since we have been sleeping on a full our entire marriage. Still, I woke up in the middle of the night to jon RIGHT next to me, and sharing my pillow.

my dads dream come true.

this is a teeny replica of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid. when my family was there, we saw the real one on the shore in denmark. 

horrifying.

HB, USMC.

Happy 237^th to the United States Marine Corps!

On November 1^st, we celebrated the birthday with jon’s batallion at Pechanga casino in Temecula at the birthday ball.

My dear friend gherine did my hair and makeup and I wore amanda’s homecoming dress from MHS. It was really fun! Right when we got there we got our photo taken, then we had an hour or so of mingling which meant drinking for everyone else and standing around for us. :)

The ceremony started at 7 and it included a pagent with all different uniforms that the marines have worn through the years starting in 1775 when it was formed. Then they cut the cake and served a piece to the olderst and youngest marine in attendence. We watched a video of the commandant of the marine corps’s message. His message is always really touching and reminds us why we (as spouses and marines) love the marine corps. The guest of honor was R. Lee Ermey. He is best known for his role in full metal jacket, but I only know him from the geico commercials. I was excited for his speech at first. thirty minutes later, it was very obvious that he was just winging it and we were starving.  When they finally brought the food out, it was devine. It was steak and chicken with mashed potatoes and vegetables. The dessert was amazing as well. Cheese cake and chocolate mousse….so good. After dinner, we spent some time dancing! It was so fun to dance together, but it was a little weird being surrounded by marines in their dress blues getting down. I seriously saw a female marine getting as low as she could go with her uniform skirt hiked up very far. She was wearing librarian-esque glasses and her bun was falling out. She literally looked like a college girl on Halloween night dressed as a marine. We stayed and danced for about thirty minutes and then called it a night. It was a on a Thursday and I had school the next day which was a bummer. It was a magical night, and quite bitter sweet. We are not sure if that was our last ball, but we didn’t want to dwell on that.

Happy birthday marine corps, we sure love ya!

i was facetiming my sisters and they told me to call audrey. i was calling her name and asking her to come over and she wouldn't. i told lizzie to tell her i was wearing a sparkly dress. she came right over. she liked my dress and i loved hers as well!

 this table is dedicated to the MIA, KIA, and POW's. the candle represents the eternal flame, and there are blank dog tags to symbolize that it could be anybody. there is a purple heart which symbolizes shedding of blood and loss of life. the table is there to remind us of the people haven't and won't come home.

whatever is contained must be released.

last night i made banana bread with my gran's recipe. around march, i asked her for her texas sheet cake recipe. i told her i missed her cooking, especially her chicken pot pie. she told me she'd send me the recipe and a few days later i got a manilla envelope full of recipes she picked out that she thought i'd like including texas sheet cake, chicken pot pie, and! she included her banana bread recipe. that recipe is the only one in the pile that she had handwritten. complete with an "!" after "mix thoroughly". 

i made it last night and have since not been able to get her out of my mind. i miss her so much. i wish she was still only a phone call away. 

i sent one loaf to work with jon. we are headed to LA this weekend to celebrate veteran's day! he found out yesterday he was supposed to be on duty (working from 6am-6pm, and being there at 6am the next day to switch with the next duty person) on friday. one of his friends said that she would be duty for him so that we could leave on time for our trip. so he took her a loaf of banana bread. i found it appropriate. my grandma used to send me to friends houses or over to the neighbors to give them extra banana bread she had made.

we had a guest speaker in one of my art history classes today. she was old, so i knew i was going to like her. my sisters and i get along with old people. i know, everyone gets long with old people. but we get along with old people. i think it is because we were around gran so much growing up. at church functions, when i should be with the young ladies gossiping about our husbands, i'm instead in a circle of old ladies talking about where we all take our coupons and what quilt or craft we are working on. so when i saw helene aylon, i knew i'd enjoy the class.

it was a really nice presentation. i liked hearing art history from an artists point of view. i was the only one to go up to her after class and ask her to sign my book. that meant we had some time to talk. she asked me what my degree was in and when i told her art history, she said "in art history, you have to know about everything and everyone. when you're an artist, you only have to know how to do whatever it is that you do." i thought it was really sweet that she had that perspective even though without artists, art history couldn't be. 

her eyes reminded me of my gran's.
i sure miss that lady.

"A degree in art is a degree in freedom." -Helene Aylon

race for the cure.

i ran a 5k with panera bread.

i wonder if i've mentioned that i started working at panera bread on here? well, i did. about two months ago. 

here is the whole panera group:

(i didn't know that i looked as awkward as i felt while this was being taken)

and here are the people from our cafe who ran the 5k. my friend from church got me the job. she is standing behind me in the sun glasses. 

the race started out pretty rough. i wasn't really planning on beating my personal 5k record of 29 minutes. i haven't been running as consistently as i would like, only once or twice a week for the past month or so. but i was hoping to get under 35 minutes, i thought that was reasonable. we were busy taking photos, so i started the race late. looking back, i wish i wouldn't have done that. i left the starting line at about 8:10. that means for ten minutes, hundreds of people had already started walking the race. for the first mile, i was running, walking, running, walking because it was so crowded and almost everyone was walking. it was frustrating, but i am not mad at the people who were walking. i saw so many different types of people there, it was really touching. there were lots of old ladies! at the registration booth you could pick up a piece of paper and write who you were running the race for. i found myself tearing up a few times while reading what people wrote and had pinned to their backs. one older lady was running really slow in front of me and when i got close, her paper said "me. x2" meaning she'd survived breast cancer twice, and was now running in a race. it was amazing.

the 5k was at balboa park, one of our favorite places in san diego. about halfway through the race, i noticed that we were heading toward the freeway entrance. i was in disbelief when i found myself running onto the entrance!

 isn't this crazy! i've never run on a freeway before, ever!
why would i have??

 it smelled surprisingly good down there. the air was moist, and it smelled like a forest. i had to stop and take photos, it was too beautiful not to. 

this is me and jon's bridge, at least that's what we say. this is the prettiest bridge in all of san diego. if you ever get a chance, drive down the 163 freeway at dusk in the springtime. you will not be disappointed.  it was so awesome to be able to walk right under this! it may have been a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. i wished jon was there with me, the bridge was totally up close and personal. :)

 the last mile was absolute torture. while i was running and approaching the freeway exit i thought to myself "we are pretty far down here. that can only mean one thing..." and i was right. it was uphill for at least a mile. i'm not sure this picture accurately depicts how hard it was. you can see on the right the masses running along the freeway, and then toward the left you see a little bit of the top of the hill underneath the while building. so hard! 

i made it in 34 minutes! pretty good for start/stopping in the beginning and stopping for photos of the scenery. i was in a really good mood after the race. i was really touched by all of the women and some men running for their friends, family, and themselves who had died of breast cancer or are survivors of it. i ran it in salt lake back in 2009 with spencer and my brother in law, sam. i need to remember to do this again because it was a really good feeling being around such positive people. 

all hallow's eve!

we celebrated early with lindsay and wes on sunday night!

try to guess who carved what...

jon made the 6 layer dip and turned it into a pumpkin!

it was jon's idea to make witches brew! it turned out really cute and was great ambiance for dinner. 

lindsay and wes always have the best meats and cheeses (what movie is that from?) meals! they have all types of jellies, cheese, crackers, etc. i ate until i was unhappy. and still wanted more.

we all ate too much. so much that we had to go on a walk before carving pumpkins and indulging in dessert. they live really close to the san diego temple. 

dipped bananas and oreos!
the ghosts turned out a little better looking...

their themed parties are the best.

my pumpkin, wes' jack skeleton, jon's oogie boogie from the nightmare before christmas and lindsay's emoticon! (a reference to SNL)
it was a fun night. we are sad that we won't be here next year for our annual halloween party, but at least we still have christmas!
the rest of our halloween included:

 the happy anime pumpkin i quickly made at mutual.
(the mouth could use some work...)

 caramel apples we made with the traditional caramel, chocolate and butterfinger.

halloween decor

and a scented candle i made with our baby pumpkin. i cleaned it out really good, cut holes in all the sides, then rubbed cinnamon on the bottom of the lid and lit the candle. it made the house smell like baking pie while we were handing out candy last night.
happy halloween!