2015

Taylor was off to a party and Allison got a last minute invite to a party/sleepover so Matt and I took advantage of a New Year's Eve Date Night @ Pechanga!

 We started with a delicious dinner at Blazing Noodles and had to laugh at our fortunes.  Matt's (top) was perfect for the 4 days he was getting to have alone while the girls and I head to Arizona.  Mine was equally perfect since I was lucky to get the 4 days to spend in Arizona!

 Then it was on to the Round Bar for drinks, great people watching and loud music!

 I loved all of the decorations and the ceiling was covered in nets full of balloons for the midnight celebration.

 The place got pretty crowded by 10:30 and we didn't want to be on the road with all of the crazies so we left a little early

and rang in the New Year at home.  Looking forward to a happy, healthy and very busy 2015!!

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

 The forecast called for snow overnight, but there was just a light rain when we went to bed.  We woke up at 4:00am and saw huge snowflakes and snow on the ground!  It was worth getting out of bed for this.  The last time we saw snow here was 11/21/2004!

 Unfortunately, Matt had to leave for teaching in the treacherous weather.  He said it was slow going on the freeway with many accidents along the way, but no snow in SD.

 Snow fell for hours.  Kaia loved it and ate quite a bit.

 As the sun came up, more and more neighbors came out to take pictures and 

 and build snowmen.

 The girls got goofy and put on gloves and googles for a snowball fight.

Once the snow stopped, we ventured out to drive around the neighborhood.  The surrounding hills were coated in a blanket of white.  So neat!

 It was the perfect way to end 2014!

Reliving Our College Days

One of Matt's Christmas presents was tickets to tonight's SDSU vs San Diego Christian basketball game at Viejas Arena.

We decided to make a fun night of it and revisit some of our favorite spots near SDSU.  We started with dinner at Woodstock's Pizza.  We spent a lot of time here and love that they even put sauce in the crust.  Everyone in the place had SDSU gear on, which made it really cool.

We drove around College Blvd and Montezuma and made a stop at the "Peach House" (no longer peach) where Matt lived with Dave, Rob and Joe.  A new fence and paint color, but pretty much the same otherwise.

 We had planned to get to campus a little early to walk around, but the cold temps made that not such a good idea.  Instead we just went to the arena, watched warmups and bought some souvenir sweatshirts to take home to the girls.

 National Anthem

 The Aztecs were highly favored in the game and we saw a lot of dunks and fancy plays, showing off some of their skills.  Once the score was pretty much locked, we also got to see quite a bit of the guys that normally sit on the bench.

We were bummed that Polee wasn't suited up (he collapsed during Monday's game), but we loved his outfit and how he reached out to the crowd!  We hope he gets medical clearance soon since he is a big part of this team!

 Matt and I are trying to figure out a way to reapply to SDSU.  We sure enjoyed our time there and have fun every time we go back.

 We even had one last sighting of Santa!

Merry Christmas

Everyone was up pretty early to get our Christmas Day started.  The girls always head right for their stockings and had fun picking through all of their goodies.

This year was Active socks, Bath and Body lotions, candy, pre-wrap, candles, etc.  I wasn't very good with the camera while we opened presents, but we were all spoiled, as usual.  

Allison loved her Beats headphones, new keeper jersey, clothes, gift cards and more.  

Taylor was excited about her mini Jambox, clothes, SDSU shirt, gift cards, candles and other goodies.  I loved my iPad Mini and purse and Matt was surprised with Beats headphones and SDSU basketball tickets, along with a few other fun things.

It was fun having Kaia as a new addition this year and she loved her treats too.  She was so cute and wouldn't sit and wait patiently to be handed a new fun toy.

We ate a delicious egg casserole and french toast bake and lounged around for a few hours, enjoying our new toys.  Then it was off to the beach on a beautifully sunny Christmas afternoon!

We walked along the Carlsbad Beach path and enjoyed the perfect SoCal weather along with lots of other beach goers.

 We left in time to make a casual ham dinner with all of the fixings at home and finish the night watching Elf.  It was a very nice holiday for the four of us and we feel very blessed for the time we got to share together.

Christmas Eve

We had a little photo session in the front yard before heading out to 4:30 church this afternoon.

Luckily, we ran into Wendy and her family at church to get a shot of the 4 of us!

 The Christmas service is our favorite holiday tradition.  The music is so festive and the message is always so simple, yet meaningful.  It was the perfect way to end the "craziness" of the season and focus on the true meaning of Christmas!

For 45 consecutive years, Rancho ends each service with a candlelight ceremony.  It is truly magical!

 After church, we had a delicious dinner at Francesca's.  We missed having my parents here with us this year, but the food was delicious and the service is always so personal.  Last year, the owner brought us samples of homemade banana and chocolate cocktails.  This year it was a lemon cocktail that smelled fantastic, but burned going down!  We stopped at Starbucks for some holiday drinks

 and then came home to open one present.  Taylor got some shirts from Pac Sun and Allison got her SDSU t-shirt.

 Kaia loved her toy too! The girls helped me prepare an egg casserole and french toast bake for tomorrow morning and we watched The Polar Express before heading up to bed.

Everything is all ready for the Christmas festivities!

Poinsettia Bowl

 The Aztecs faced the Navy Midshipmen for this year's Poinsettia Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium.

 We got awesome Club level seats as SDCCU members!

 The SD Marines did a beautiful pre-game flag display that covered the entire field as the National Anthem was played.  

 The game was a low scoring battle with both teams focusing mostly on running plays and lots of field goals.

The halftime fireworks show was played to Christmas music and was pretty spectacular!  However, the Aztecs lost on a missed field goal attempt in the last seconds of the game.  It was an ugly way to end, but a fun event for our family!