Monterey Bay
While in the bay area, waiting to go to New York, we have been taking advantage of the beautiful scenery and amazing destinations all around us. This time, we made it down to Monterey Bay on a whim. No real plans or destination, we just thought Monterey would be a pleasant escape from San Jose if even only for a 1/2 day. We didn’t make it the aquarium, but we did have a wonderful drive and lunch on Cannery Row. We only snapped 18 photos which have been posted to our Flickr gallery.
Disneyland Baby Moon
What is a baby moon? I asked Katie the same thing! Turns out that it’s your last vacation before the baby is born. Pretty slick, eh? We took ours at the place that got us in this whole mess, Disneyland in Anaheim. We always wanted to stay at the Grand Californian at the resort, but thought it deserved a better reason than just “because”… what better reason than Lucy? The hotel was amazing and because Katie was preggo, we really couldn’t go on too many rides, but that didn’t matter. This was not only our baby moon but our last trip to Disneyland for a very long time. Our goal was to walk the park, take many photos of our favorite spots and just relive the thousands of happy memories the park facilitated. To sum it all up, mission accomplished. 121 photos have been posted to our Flickr gallery:
We only hit the park one time this 
December, mostly due to illness & scheduling. This trip is particularly unique because we actually sat and watched the Christmas parade. Little known fact about us… we have been to the park dozens of time but have yet to actually sit and watch any parade. Katie has been wanting to plan an entire trip around the parade since we first started going, but I always was against it. I mean, sitting on a curb for hours to reserve a spot does not sound like an ideal use for time at Disneyland. Regardless, this trip was the one.
Katie has always wanted to see the Christmas parade and this being potentially our last year in SoCal, I caved and we settled in on the curb, across the street from the Penny Arcade. While waiting, we met a couple who was from Oregon but used to live in Orange county. We talked for a good hour+ and they shared much of our likes/dislikes about the DLR experience. They were far more negative than us, 
something I didn’t think possible!
Once the parade started, we waived and cheered at just about everything that floated by. By the end, our rears were in pain from the concrete and legs asleep from the 3+ hours of reserving our sweet spots. We had dinner, hit a few of our favorite rides and headed for home. All in all, a good trip. 31 photos have been posted for your enjoyment over on our Flickr page.
Christmas Time @ DLR
Christmas time at Disneyland starts up in the 3rd week of November every year. Anyone who has ever been to Disneyland during the Christmas season will tell you, Disney’s decorations kick the crap out of any local light/Santa display. This year we went during the first day the decorations were up and man was it packed! I picked up Katie at school (hence the photos of Katie in her scrubs) and we shot down to the park before rush hour traffic hit.
Small World, Holiday Edition
This trip was a little different as we actually set out to ride “Small World”. Now, if you have ever been on “Small World”, riding it once per calendar year is enough but now that it’s decked out for the holidays, we broke this rule. I tried to take photos in the ride, but the darkness and blur of the photos weren’t worth posting. So, short summary, it’s amazing. They pipe in the smell of ginger bread and play holiday music. The robot children are dressed in their country’s holiday garb which is actually pretty interesting.
Parking @ DLR
To sum up the trip, we got “Rock Star” parking to boot. Let me explain… parking at DLR is a nightmare. I mean, it’s not terrible by any means, but if you get in at the wrong time or during a heavy flow, you may end up walking near a mile to get to the tram to just enter the park. DLR cast members (what they call their employees) will often tell you where to park while directing traffic. When they are directing traffic, you are at the mercy of lady luck, which as you know likes to screw us regular folks over on a regular basis. When they 
are not directing traffic, you pretty much can choose any row you want to go down and see what’s open. Our standing rule is “Don’t get greedy” which refers to passing up OK spots in hope of finding a great spot. Often if you get greedy and pass up a OK spot, the person behind you will snag it (so there is no going back) and there are no better spots available.. you will have to go back to square one! Very aggravating. SO, this trip, no one was directing traffic because we arrived later in the evening. We ended up parking ridiculously close to the escalator to the trams, one row behind the handicapped parking spots. Like I said, “Rock Star” parking. Not having to trek to your vehicle is a great way to end a day at DLR.
Photos of the day can be found over on our Flickr page.
Did you know that it’s only 59 days until our wedding? I know, right? On December 21st, 2008, Katie and I met our photographers at Disneyland in Anaheim, California for the engagement photo shoot. Despite a few bumps caused by Disneyland security (thanks, “speedbump” Patty), the day could not have been more perfect. Jen & Jeff from F7 met us there really early, and could not have been a nicer pair to work with. I know we hired them for the shoot, but they made us feel very comfortable and at the end of the day, felt like old friends. In short, we love F7 Photography! What better location to take the engagement photos than inside the park where it all went down. You can view the entire gallery here: Link to Flickr
Normally we hit the park maybe once or twice a month… but not this month. This month we have 3 trips on the plate, well, technically 2 as we just made one:
December 14:
Engagement Photo Recon
We are having our engagement photos taken at the park (seeing as DL played such a HUGE part in “us”) and we needed to do a photo-tour of the park to see which areas would make for great engagement photos. I took about 200 photos and think we have a pretty good map of where we would like to have the photos taken… so mission accomplished.
December 21:
Engagement Photos
We’re meeting our photographers at the park for the engagement photo shoot… maybe a few rides, who knows.
December 27:
Katie’s Mom Comes to Town
Any chance Katie’s mom can get into the park… she will! Just so happens she will be visiting over Xmas and wanted to hit up DL with us. We have a reservation at the Blue Bayou and plan to spend the entire day at the park, as opposed to our usual 4-5 hour romps.
All in all… a DL packed month. I worry about maybe getting sick of the park, but we did a similar schedule in February and couldn’t have had a better time.
Last Wednesday was my 28th birthday…sad but true. Its amazing how close 30 is approaching, but oh well…can’t do much about it. The day started out good Josh had left me a message on my chalk board wishing me a happy birthday with a drawing of a little cake with candles on it….aww so cute! Then that night he called me saying “I found the perfect gift…will you get mad at me for spending money on you?”. To which I answered “of course not” (what girl would say yes?). So, about an hour later he picked me up to take me out for a birthday dinner. In the car he was so excited and gave me my birthday present as soon as I sat down. It was a bag from Bath and Bodyworks with a candle, crazy nice lotion in my favorite scent and a back massager. It was perfect…all my favorite scents and everything. That being said I was a little confused because of the phone call asking for expensive gift permission. When we got the the restraunt (Macaroni Grill one of our favorites)…he asked me to hand him his bluetooth out of the glove box…when I opened it there was a black box from a jewelry store in it. I was so excited!!!!!!!!!!! I opened it up and inside was a diamond journey necklace. It is soooooo amazing…He couldn’t have picked out a more perfect gift. I adore it. We had a lovely dinner and then home where Josh made me a cake with a big 28 on the top. All in all it was a perfect birthday.
The next day as part of my birthday present Josh took thursday off and we went to DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!!!! We got our season passes and started out in the park. Josh hadn’t been there in over ten years so it was like going with somebody who had never been. Later in the day Jacob and Tak joined us and we ran the park! We had an AMAZING time. We even got neck straps for our passes and are going to start collecting a new pin for every visit. My first pin is one that says “my boyfriend is a pirate”…which is true…he is the only person I know who knows all the words to the Pirates song. He also bought me a medallion from the pirates ride…we are going to have it engraved with our names and the date…something to remember the day forever. I’m excited to go back after the move. We had the best time!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last night we had a great night…Josh’s brother Joel came over and had dinner and hung out with us. We had a great time talking and joking and playing the Wii of course. Joel is a lot of fun and the two of them together is hilarious!!!!!! Hopefully he will move back soon so we can hang out more.
Today…I bought a sweet little girl named Gretta…she is my new Jetta. I had been hemming and hawing over getting her for a long time and had been trying to sell my car…and today was the day. We went the dealership and got good deals all around and tonight we drove home in her. She is graphite blue and oh so pretty. She is my first car purchase and I’m so stoke about it! Who wants a ride?
Now that we have had a week of fun we have to buckle down as Josh moves into our new apartment in two weeks and I move in two weeks later. So we have a lot to do.
Happy Birthday, Katie!
Today is Katie’s birthday… I wish I could spend the day with her, but duty calls. I hope she treats herself to something special in the day-time so I can spoil her tonight after work!
Disneyland
Katie and I have been wanting to go forever… and now we are… tomorrow no less! We plan to take 1000 photos and ride “Pirates” many times.. possibly even get Micky ears. “[We're] too excited to sleep!”
The Great Apartment Hunt is Over!
After a month of searching and walking through endless models, Katie and I have finally found a place for us to live! Initially we were looking for a place in the SFV, Burbank or Pasadena but nothing panned out. Finally, we looked where I used to live, Parc Chateaux in Stevenson Ranch. Online we saw a 2 bedroom that we fell in love with so I called the leasing office to check the availability. It was 6:03p, after office hours, but the leasing staff was still in the office & picking up! The woman on the phone gave me an available unit number to do a drive-by inspection… and it was perfect. The next morning, I called Katie and we decided to go with this one.
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Adventures, Disneyland | Josh | 
July 15, 2010 7:06 pm | 
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