December

December was a great month for Jon and I. We can't believe how fast the year went by. We love the Christmas Season and enjoyed spending time with our friends and family.

We had our annual white elephant party at our house. It was a blast and there were several gifts that made a come back and many more new ones. We're pretty sure that most of the gifts were left behind as we continue to find them hidden throughout our house and garage!





Maverick even joined in on the festivities... whether he liked it or not!



We were able to make it up to Mammoth one weekend for the "Night of Lights." It was an incredible fireworks show at Canyon lodge. It was well worth it, we had a blast. Here's us with some friends at the top of the mountain.



Jon and I enjoyed Christmas Eve morning to ourselves and then we headed up to Big Bear for Christmas with Jon's family.



We had a great time in the snow in Big Bear. They just had a great storm come through that left all kinds of snow to play with. We built an incredible sled run and all had fun playing on it. I didn't manage to get any pictures of us going down it. I guess I was having to much fun myself!


Building the run and playing with snowshoes in the backyard.

Maverick LOVES the snow!



I totally slacked on getting pictures throughout the month and obviously fell way behind. Hopefully I'll do better in the new year!

November Catch Up

I know December is already almost over, but it was a very busy few months for Jon and I. So here's a few things from November.

When November comes around, we really start to get the itch for snowboarding. So we had a snowboard tuning / waxing party with some friends in our garage one night.



Jon and Andy got to do some good riding. Here's a couple of them riding a log on Joplin out on Saddleback mountain.





We were able to get a few hikes in at Peter's Canyon, that made Maverick a happy dog!



Thanksgiving was spent with the Joy / Spykerman family in Big Bear. It was a great time as usual. It's always great to catch up with family. And there was plenty of entertainment with the dogs and kids running around.

It was raining on our way up, which turned into snow when we got to Big Bear. We saw this amazing rainbow on our drive.



Out on a walk.







The best dogs, Maverick & Dooley!



Thanksgiving dinner was fantastic as usual.



On the last day, we took a off road jeep tour. It was a lot of fun. Here's the group that went looking out over the Antelope Valley.



November was definitely a busy month for us with work, but we were thankful to be able to have some nice times with friends and family to break up the stresses of orders and customers!

More to come soon.

Halloween Bike Ride

Every year, our friend Andy plans a Halloween costume bike ride. This year, we decided to mix it up a little bit and turned it into a bike ride / camping trip. Jon and I rode our tandem mountain bike with bob trailer in tow from our house down to El Moro. Then the fun really began. Everyone was in costume. We rode a few miles in to our campsite. Set up camp, ate some food, played some games and had a great time together. I didn't get many pictures but here you go!


Our very creative "costume"


Best costume of the night goes to Heather aka the Oscar Meyer weiner


A beautiful morning

Taggers!

I've been tagged by my friend Juliana and I'm supposed to say 7 random things about me. So here it goes:

1. I hate needles! I can't stand getting shots, taking blood, anything like that. Even when it's other people. I was in the ER with my husband when he got his knee sliced open while snowboarding. The doctor was giving him shots inside the cut. And I passed out! So there I am laying on the ER floor. Awesome!

2. I LOVE snow! Probably more than anything in the world! Not only because of the obvious reasons (snowboarding, snowshoeing, snowball fights) but because after a big storm it makes everything look so clean and peaceful! I start dreaming of snow in July. Those dreams usually consist of me trying to get to the snow, but not being able to. I love snow so much that Jon and I have decided to move to Mammoth come January for three months! Pray for snow!

3. I am addicted to coffee with flavored creamer! I get overly excited when I go to the grocery store in October and find that the Peppermint Mocha creamer is already available. This happened to me last week. I bought two bottles!

4. My dog rules! His name is Maverick and was named before Sarah Palin decided to get Mavericky. And he was not named after Top Gun either. I just like the name. I am training him to do agility and hope to compete with him some day.

5. I love the Discovery Channel. Jon and I have never had cable until this year. I am totally addicted to the Discovery Channel and Science channel. There is a show called Time Warp that I am totally intrigued by. They take everyday occurrences and slow it down to 500 frames a second. Incredible! You wouldn't believe how cool popping a bubble looks in slow motion!

6. I am in a bunco group.

7. The Seven. I have the most amazing group of girlfriends. We call ourselves the 7. We have been friends since high school, and some since we were born! We were all in each others weddings. We are enjoying watching each others kids grow up. We look forward to growing old together. I love my girls.

So that's random me in a nutshell. Now I am supposed to tag 7 people to do this. Most of my blogging friends have already been tagged, so I'm tagging some random people. I don't even know if these people look at my blog (or how often they do). Maybe I just stalk their blog. Tag your it: Drew, Jeana, Melissa, Kristi, Megan, Sheryl, and Jen.

Last Minute Backpacking Trip

Jon and I have been dying in this October heat. So this past weekend, we decided to get out of it! We left Saturday afternoon for an overnight backpacking trip up San Gorgonio. We hiked 6 miles in to Dry Lake and then back out Sunday morning. It was a great little get away. And it was Maverick's first backpacking trip. He absolutely LOVED it.


On our way up


Jon and Mav at Dry Lake (which was truly dry this time) and our home for the night (Mav slept on my feet and kept them warm!)


It was cold up there! Maverick's water froze overnight.


The view at Dry Lake


A man and his dog. I just love this picture!

It was a short but sweet trip. We had a wonderful time and it was nice to be away from the noise and heat of the city.

Happy Birthday Maverick!

Today is Maverick's 1st birthday! The time has gone by so fast! He is such a great dog and we are so happy with how he has turned out.


The day we got him


After a long session of glow-in-the-dark frisbee

He has been taking agility classes at Wags & Wiggles for the last 6 weeks. Here he is doing his first mini course that they set up. He was born for this!

Bald Eagle

The other night, we were out riding our tandem mountain bike at Peter's canyon around sunset. We saw the most amazing thing... a Bald Eagle! In our own backyard! I tried to take a picture of it, but it was too far away. Luckily there were some people out there with binoculars so we could get an up close view. It was simply amazing! Apparently, it has been living out there for 3 or 4 weeks now.

Here's a picture of us.

South Utah Trip

Brian Head


Roy and Filtz
Their solar powered House

Thunder Mountain


Canyon-erring

The road back to the cars

The 7 go to Napa

A couple weeks ago, I headed to Napa with my best girlfriends. These are all the girls that were bridesmaids in my wedding. We've been friends for what seems like forever (in a good way of course!) For a while, we had been going on short trips together for each others weddings, etc. It had been three years since our last trip, so we were well overdue! So we decided to head to Napa! What a great time of sharing, laughing, relaxing, and quality girl time.

On Friday morning, we all flew up to San Francisco and took the BART to Concord where Alissa picked us up. We headed to her house and her and Tim made us a fantastic lunch before our short drive to Napa. It was really fun to see their house since they've been doing all the remodeling!

Here's us eating lunch in their backyard.


After lunch, we loaded up the car and headed to Napa. We rented a wonderful house with a gourmet kitchen and a spa!



We had lazy mornings with no schedule! That was nice!


On Saturday, we got massages and then headed out to the wineries in the afternoon. We went to V. Sattui first. Then headed to Sterling. Both were excellent wineries.






V. Sattui winery had some pretty amazing wines. We also had our picnic lunch here.








At Sterling, you take a gondola to the top of the vineyards. It was a beautiful view from up there. Did I mention the weather was PERFECT?! For the wine tasting here, you go on a tour of the winery and taste along the way. Then you end up at a room / patio where they serve you at your own tables. Much better than standing at a crowded tasting counter!

On Sunday, we made breakfast at our house, then headed out again. We visited a winery that looked like a castle and then headed to the Culinary Institute for a cooking demonstration and dinner.






Here we are at the cooking demonstration with the chef. He showed us how to make a 7 (which I thought was rather appropriate) vegetable couscous. It was amazing! I can't wait to make it at home.




Outside at the Culinary Institute.


This is the herb garden where the cooks come and pick fresh herbs for cooking. Awesome!




Dinner. Probably one of the best meals I've ever had!


The 7: Alissa, Meghan, Missy, Heidi, Sara, Val & Juliana

I'm so thankful for my girls. I can't wait for our next getaway! Maybe Hawaii???