Date Night

Last night for our date night we did something we've never ever done before. We headed over to the local Barnes & Noble for some book browsing. We picked out a few that looked interesting and sat at a table sipping our Carmel Apple Cider and Vanilla Frappuccino. I loved this! I never realized how awesome Barnes & Noble is. We could have stayed for hours just browsing and chatting and laughing. We decided this was a fun, cheap date to throw in there with the usual dinner and movie date nights.

While we were there I found The 5 Love Languages book. Have you read this? It's awesome. I've read it before and thought I knew exactly what love language Owen was (I thought for sure we had the same top 2). We skimmed to the end to take the quiz. After taking the lovely little quiz in the back I found out I was wrong! After almost 3 years together I was wrong...I couldn't believe it. I felt like a bad wife.

Alyssa's Top 2: Quality Time & Physcial Touch
Owen's Top 2: Physical Touch & Words of Affirmation

I've always been an 'Actions speak louder than words' kind of person. Owen is an 'Actions don’t always speak louder than words' kind of person. And it took that little quiz for me to really realize this. It makes perfect sense though. I love my hubby and I love learning new things about him and us everyday.

Rodeo Beach

Saturday afternoon our lil' family decided to explore our new home so we headed out to the beach. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and found ourselves at Rodeo Beach.

It was SO pretty, full of people, cold and had huge waves. What a fun little beach.

The dogs loved running around in the sand with all the other pups.

And we even went on a little hike.

What a pretty place we live in. We can't wait for more Saturday beach days to come.

Officially Californians

This post is for the family and friends who wanted to see our new home in California. So WARNING: Lots of pictures.

The night before we left AZ we took a farewell grandpuppy picture. Since my parents don't have any grandkids yet, this picture will have to do.
Jessica with Izzy and Lily. Me with Jade and Jax. Dustin with Squirttle

We headed out bright and early Friday morning. We drove a Uhaul and towed our car on the back. My little bro. Sterling came with us to help with the move. Thanks Ster!!

The drive went really smooth with no problems at all. It took us 15 hours to get there, not to bad since our max speed limit was 70.

Hehe. This how we brought our dogs: Stuck them in the backseat of our car (that was being towed) and loaded them up with rawhides to chew on. I think they were a bit confused about there whereabouts most of the time.

Pulling into our apartment complex early Saturday morning. Finally we made it!

Ours is the one on the top floor. Poor boys had to carry our heavy stuff up 3 flights of stairs. I felt really bad for them.

The dog house/bed. This is where the dogs hang out most of the time. I know the camo house is hideous but they love it oh so much. So it's worth having the ugly thing in our home.

Where I spend most of my days...the office area (aka the corner of the living room). I am doing insurance account managing for my uncle and dad long distance now. And I have LOVED working from home. I'm pretty productive while working in my PJ's all day.

The other side of the living room and our amazing and super comfy couch. Also my view from my desk which is another perk of working from home. And yes I was watching Dog the Bounty Hunter. Don't judge.

**Everything is super plain and unorganized still. I haven't put up any of our pictures or decorations yet. I promise it will be homey and adorable some time soon**

Our kitchen. Hmmm. I love having my own kitchen space again. I've missed my tupperware and cooking utensils.

The only utility closet in the condo. Ugh! I have to cram everything in this tiny closet (besides our walk in bedroom closet that is equally stuffed). We do have our garage below us to store stuff, but it is lacking inside storage space.

Bathroom

Bedroom

Other side of Bedroom

View from our balcony. We love our view! We definitly got the best one in the complex.

So the next few pictures is what I spend the 2nd most amount of time doing during the day: Dog walks. I feel bad for them since they are crammed up inside all day, so we go on quite a few. I really don't mind though because the area we live in is so nice and has great places to walk around.

Hanging out at the grass park across the street from our apartment

The other side of the grass park...this gorgeous view! The golf course is right below, but the dogs like exploring on the hill side.

Walking down the many paths

Trip to the Dog Park. It's only a few miles down the road. It's been nice to take the dogs there to get some energy out of their system.

We have really enjoyed our first couple of days here in San Ramon. We are so happy we chose this beautiful area to live in and feel lucky to have the home we live in as well. We are excited to start a whole new chapter in our lives being on our own in California. We've visited our ward on Sunday and I love how we can move to an entire new region, but still feel the warmth and comfort of the church and it's members. We will miss our family and friends so please.....

COME VISIT US SOON!

We promise to take you to this fun place:
(Pier 39 in San Fran, with Alcatraz in the back)

Merry 2011

This post is long over due since Christmas/New Years was like forever ago. But like always, I'm trying to document our lovely lives.

So Christmas 2010 was spent with both the Allens and Masseys. We spent early Christmas morning over at the Howey's to watch the kidos open presents. Love it! It makes Christmas morning so much more enjoyable. We had a great breakfast with the Allen family.

We then headed over to my parent's house to open our presents but most importantly, talk to the twins (who are on their mish).

Christmas Morning

Talking to Preston (Argentina) while sitting around the Christmas candy table

SKYPING with Taylor (Paraguay). It was A.W.E.S.O.M.E. He loved that we could take the computer and show him our Christmas around the house.

The remainder of 2010 was a cold one. See below. That's right...it was snowing in Mesa (even though it didn't stick to the ground at all).

For New Years Weekend my parents rented a condo up in Pinetop to hang out and go snowboarding. I love mini-vacays!

Driving in the blizzard up to Pinetop. The usual 3 hour drive took us 7...Blah!

Part of the reason the drive took so long...we had to figure out how to put chains on our cars. Us Arizona peeps aren't used to this kind of stuff.

Finally made it to the condo and the hot tub. Hmmm.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! This is how we rang in the new year...playing settlers...

...and guzzling Sparkling Cider

We woke up bright and early to go snowboarding at Sunrise on New Years Day

It was -9 degrees...Oh.My.Burrrr.

Dad and Mom

Jake and Jessica

Sterling

So after a great day of Snowboarding (with no falls for me...yesss), we came home to our condo. We opened the door and water came POURing out of the front door. We walked in to 6 inches of water on the entire bottom floor. Flooded. I guess that's what happens when it's ridiculously cold outside and the pipes freeze then burst. So we spent 2 hours sweeping water out (barefoot I might add) and trying to get everything off the ground and packed into our cars.

We ended up staying at a lovely Motel 8 that night. Overall it had potential to be an awesome New Years Weekend with the family in the mountains. It was still a fun and memorable one though.

My lack of posting has been due to a BUSY December/January. We are officially moved in to our new apartment here in Northern Cali. Post and pictures of the move coming soon!