The Happiest Place(s) on Earth

A couple of weekends ago we spent two days at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.

The parks were doing $99 for two days for California residents which is a pretty good deal. We hadn't been to Disneyland in a while and the Mr. had never been to California Adventure, so we decided to go for it!

We spent the first day at Disneyland...



We did some shopping on Main Street.


And rode a ton of rides.

I love this look of intensity on both of our faces on Buzz Lightyear.


We loved the throwback Captain EO 3-D Show. I TOTALLY remember seeing this as a child. The Mr. liked it so much that he bought a Captain EO shirt (see later pictures)


We pretty much rode all the key rides in the morning -- Indiana Jones, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Pirates of Caribbean, Star Tours, and Haunted Mansion.

Then we ate lunch at Blue Bayou (the restaurant inside of Pirate of the Caribbean). The food isn't amazing but the ambiance is great!

Then in the afternoon we rode some of the "kiddie" rides.

While in line for Small World a boat got stuck because it was overloaded. Hilarious.


For dinner we went back to our hotel, The Sheraton Anaheim, for free food and wine in the Club Lounge. Yum!


Then we back to the park to see the fireworks and ride a few more rides.


We did some goofing around on Space Mountain (the second time we rode it).



We spent the second day at California Adventure...


We had a blast riding the California Screamin' Rollercoaster and The Tower of Terror.


But I was most excited for the Little Mermaid Ride. I'd been wanting a Little Mermaid ride at Disneyland since I was 7 years old and it was my favorite movie. I don't even care that the ride is for kids, it was so great! Here's a little peak at a fish from it:


We spent most of the afternoon exploring the park, seeing some 3D shows, and having a couple of beers. I love that California Adventure serves beer and wine!


I hadn't been to California Adventure since 2002 and they've done a LOT to improve the park since then. The wharf section is so cute!


We really lucked out with weather. It was a gorgeous Sunday at the park!


We had a great time at the parks, but both of us concluded that it feels a little strange to be 30/almost 30 at Disneyland with no kids. We decided that the next time we go back we'll have to borrow someone's kids or bring our (not yet even conceived) kids.

And then I got an iPhone...

A few weeks ago I got an iPhone. And since then I've been busy!


Busy asking Siri questions, telling her to set my alarm, and yelling at her when she she doesn't understand me.


Busy making words with my friends.


And busy Instagramming everything in sight...

Random mementos from our dinner at Melisse? Instragrammed.


Pet cemetery at Disneyland? Instragammed.


Myself in the car? Instagrammed!


Seriously, I have to resist the urge take a picture of every inanimate object in sight just to instagram it. Who knew a few photo filters could be SO addicting?

I know I am about 4 years late to the iPhone party, but I have to say, I like it a lot. I feel like my old Droid was pretty good (probably because Droids are becoming more like iPhones every month), but the iPhone is just a little more "slick" and easy to use.

I've got lot of other apps too... Pandora, Pinterest, CNN, Yelp, Flixter, Netflix, MyFitnessPal, The Bible, Southwest, and All Snow. But I'm always on the hunt for new apps. What iPhone apps do you like?

The Big 3-0!

My dear husband is 30 today!

It's hard to believe I'm married to someone in their 30s (That just sounds old. Sorry, it does.)

We're taking the day off work and celebrating.

Actually we started celebrating last weekend with a wine tasting trip to Santa Ynez. And we're capping the celebration off tonight at the Mr's favorite LA restaurant, Melisse.


(In Solvang before wine tasting last weekend)

Happy 30th Birthday honey! Cheers to a new decade and many more new decades to come!

Highlights

I'm taking a page from my friend Rachel's book and listing out "the good" or highlights of my week.

I've been trying lately to be more thankful the good things God has blessed me with, so why not incorporate that into the ole blog.

Highlights of my week...

• Last weekend my church had a conference about the Holy Spirit that was really good. I've been listening to and singing this song all week. Love it.
  
• I met with my boss for my mid-year performance review and she had really nice things to say about my work.
• I found out all the season of How I Met Your Mother are now available for streaming on Netflix. Yay!
  
• I got to come home from my business trip early and when the Mr. picked me up at the airport on Wednesday night he had JUDAH in the car! He said he thought the cat could use a little adventure because, "he never gets to go anywhere." So I got to snuggle with my sweet cat on the ride home. Love my husband.
  
• I got my hair cut/highlighted by the wonderful and talented Carey Bear.
  
• We finished our taxes. I did them myself using Turbo Tax which made me feel super smart and self-sufficient. Even though we owe some serious $$ to the feds I'm glad they are done.
• Tomorrow morning the Mr. and I are heading up to Central CA wine country (Los Olivos, Santa Ynez, etc.) for the weekend. So excited for some yummy wine and quality time with my honey.
  

Source: flickr.com via socalnewlywed on Pinterest

You can't go home again

Last week we moved out of our condo, our first home.

We packed all of our worldly possessions and one sweet beast of cat in 50 boxes and moved away. (Note: the cat was actually in a bag)

I didn't take pictures of the boxes or the empty condo. Something about it just felt too sad to take picture of.

We didn't move far away for now. In fact we're just down the street in Long Beach. We can even see our old condo in the distance. The Mr. said that it's weird to see it, that it's like "seeing an ex-girlfriend."

So true.


The condo saw us through four years of precious memories -- the days leading up to our wedding, our first year of marriage, all of our "firsts" living together as a couple, our first pet, dance parties, football games, holidays, dinners together, decorating distastes, joys and even heartbreaks.

It feels so strange to think that I'll never be back there again.

Leaving was very bittersweet. Overall I'm glad to be moving on, but sad to be leaving the place that saw me go from giddy about-to-be-married girl to "mature" married woman.

So what's next, you ask? We're not 100% sure. We know our new rental is a temporary situation for a few months but we're not exactly sure where we are going next. We have some ideas and when one starts to pan out, you know I'll let you know. Cheers to adventures!

LBC Party, Sour Beer, and Other Adventures

On Friday night the Mr. and I threw a final party at our condo. The theme was "The Long Beach Experience" and it was so much fun!

We saw a lot of friends we hadn't seen in a while and I think people enjoyed our creative "Long Beach" theme.

As part of the party the Mr. wanted to do a Tequila Tasting, which was actually a huge hit! We sampled 7 different kinds of tequila (the Don Julio Anejo was my favorite). We even had scoresheets that I made up on the computer. Here's all the tequila in our freezer before the party started...

PS - We have A LOT of tequila left so if you ever want to drop by for a margarita let me know.

We also did a "Long Beach Visual Trivia" competition. I printed out pictures of 10 Long Beach landmarks/items and people had to guess what they were to win a small prize (Starbucks card).


This one was easy. It's the Queen Mary!


Visual trivia is a lot fun and the best part is that people can't look up the answers on their phones very easily.

Continuing with the Long Beach theme we also had handcrafted “Long Beach Longshoremen Burgers" and regional “Hipster” microbrew beer (I forgot to take pictures during the party because I was having too much fun).

Speaking of beer, I recently tasted "Sour Beer" for the first time and loved it! So I hunted some down at BevMo and had a couple of bottles of this Sour Beer for the party. Yum!


Have you ever tried Sour Beer? I guess it's an up-and-coming trend. The Week magazine (which I actually read every week) even did a little special on it last month.


A couple of weekends ago we drove down to Oceanside to have lunch with my parents. On the Oceanside Pier there were several of giant pelicans that clearly had no fear of people. Here is my Mom and a pelican that's almost her size!


Speaking of beasts... I often try to take pictures of our cat, Judah, but he rarely looks at the camera. A couple of days ago I caught him basking in the morning sun and snapped this pic with my phone. Consider your soul stolen, cat!


When I became a follower of Jesus almost seven years ago I bought an NIV Study Bible. If I have my way it will be my bible for the rest of my life. But recently the cover started to really peal and fall apart, so I covered it with some words and pictures I cut out from magazines and then "laminated" it with clear tape. I think it looks pretty nifty and it's not falling apart anymore. Crafting win!


And finally, because it's random/funny, here's a picture of a co-worker and I with "mustaches" at recent work party. Hers is actually a fu manchu, but you get the point, we're ridiculous. I'm so lucky that I work with such fun and funny people.

2011 and 2012 Books

2011 was my best year for reading yet. I read 18 books!

Here is what I read...

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
My rating: 5 stars out of 5
My full review here

The Help by Katheryn Stockett
My rating: 5 stars out of 5
My full review here

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
My rating: 3 stars out of 5
My full review here

The Pact by Jodi Picoult
2 stars out of 5
My full review here

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhonda Janzen
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
My full review here

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
My full review here

Something Blue by Emily Giffin
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
My full review here

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
My full review here

Last Night at Chateau Marmont by Lauren Weisberger
My rating: 2 out of 5 stars
My full review here

Sacred Marriage by Gary L. Thomas
My rating: 2 out of 5 stars
My full review here

The Secret Gift by Tedd Gup
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
My full review here

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
My full review here

The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Laura Schlessinger
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
My full review here

Faithful Place by Tana French
My rating: 2 out of 5 stars
I just couldn't get into this book for some reason. The plot didn't interest me and the "Irish" was hard to understand.

Who Moved my Cheese By Spencer Johnson
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
More of leaflet than a book. Easy little allegory to read.

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
A good read but didn't like it as much as Something Borrowed and Something Blue. I did like seeing some of the same characters from those books though!

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
My rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Even though I loved Freedom I didn't like this book. It had no plot and the characters bugged me. I quit about 1/3 of the way though.

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Great book! Interesting characters and crazy plot twists.

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In 2012 I plan to read these 12 books plus a few others for my book club that have not been decided yet.

January - One Day by David Nicholls

February - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

March - The Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin

April - Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

May - First Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham

June - On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah

July - Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

August - The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

September - Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs

October - The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

November - The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond

December - Wishing and Hoping by Wally Lamb

What was your favorite book in 2011? Have you read any of my 2012 books? What are you reading in 2012?