'Friend'-tober

I officially dubbed October as 'Friend'-tober because this month I got the chance to see all of my best friends throughout the month.

But first it started with our  anniversary! 

Cambria
Can you believe it's been 7 years?!? Time just disappears! We spent our anniversary driving along Hwy 1, camping one night, Brad spear fishing, staying the night in a hotel, next day in Cambria and visiting friends in Atascadero.

Cambria was having a scarecrow festival, some of them were really fantastic, others were quite  unsettling. We ate breakfast at my favorite little bakery, The French Corner Bakery, and we tried dinner at a new place we'd never been called The Sow's Ear which was pretty wonderful! Their bread comes baked in a terracotta pot, warm and delicious! We ordered the fried Brie Cheese appetizer, which was amazing! For our dinner Brad ordered a special seafood penne pasta of some kind, I ordered Jack Daniels-Pancetta Filet Mignon, it was probably the most tender filet I've ever had, very tasty! 

The 'Ville'
I ventured the 6  hour drive to spend a weekend with J-sizzle and celebrate her birthday a month early. 

We went to an awesome pumpkin patch which had a "little" corn maze. We figured 'what the heck, this should be easy' but little did we know the corn maze stretched much farther than we had anticipated and it ended up taking us the better part of an hour or so to get through it. But it was fun! Susanville really is beautiful, the views from the pumpkin patch were awesome! There were also a TON of adorable little kids with their pumpkins and wagons, I was tempted to take a bunch of pictures of these kids, but I didn't want their parents to think I was some kind of weirdo nutcase...but they were so cute...

During my stay we also went and browsed the local thrift stores and of course we had to see a movie! There were no good chick flicks out so we opted for Pitch Perfect. LOVED it!

I had a fantastic time hangin' with my homie! Miss you Jamie!

Party of 4
My dear friend Savannah and her hubby Ruben came for the weekend. I convinced Savannah, with the help and encouragement of Ruben, to get a pedicure for the first time in her life. She LOVED it! I'm so glad she decided to get one. We had a great dinner and just hung out for the weekend and it was awesome!

I was in the crafty mood so I actually made those placemats and the table runner, I also made  this tea towel, which I was pretty excited about. 

Alo-HA!
My friend Ashley moved to Maui in June, I told her I would come visit, so I found a cheap ticket and hopped on the plane to see her. My flight, being as cheap as it was routed me from CA to Salt Lake City (weird right? who knew Salt Lake was on the way to Hawaii from CA?) but it worked out superb for me because I got to see my bestie Hayley during my 2 hour layover in Salt Lake City. 

After my short visit in Utah I flew back to CA with another 2 hour layover and finally made it to Hawaii. Crazy that a normally 5 hour flight took me 12 hours this time. My good friend Erica met me in Hawaii and the three of us set off on an adventure.

We watched the sunrise...who packs scarves and jackets to go to Hawaii? WE DID!

We went to a pumpkin patch, as well as a lavender farm

We also went to a Luau

We had a lot of fun and did a lot of exploring. We were there for the "tsunami" and were even evacuated to Ashley's friend's house where Erica and I got to share a twin size bed for the evening. We rode on the road to Hana and stopped off at a few places to swim and take in the views. It was a great trip! Thanks Ashley for letting us stay with you and use your car and for showing us around all the fun things we did!

You can visit Ashley's blog to see some of her pictures and a more detailed description of what we did here and here.

Halloween!

I love dressing up, either in costume, or fancy for a party. So when I heard you could dress up in costume for a $2 burrito bowl at Chipotle I was all over that business!

I went as Charlie Chaplin and Brad was a redneck mullet man. I do have to say, Halloween is the only time it's acceptable to go to a restaurant half naked, as seen from Chipotle this trojan warrior with little of anything on. 

Brad and I also carved pumpkins, which was fun. I LOVE how Brad's turned out. Even the neighbor kids were impressed!

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to do a quick post today to wish anyone and everyone a Merry Christmas! For those of you that haven't received a Christmas card/letter I wanted to post it up here. Enjoy!

I will try to update October, November and December by the new year...stay tuned.

Have YOU been to the DOMINICAN?

Last January we had an opportunity to buy 4 nights at an all-inclusive resort for  merely $12 per person per night in the Dominican Republic. Who could say no to that? 

We had 10 months to anticipate and dream about our luxurious tropical vacation. It was going to be so awesome to get away to somewhere warm and just relax and possibly explore the island life and some waterfalls.

The airport was welcoming with signs saying "you're finally here" and some live music from local musicians as well as the free sample of rum to start your vacation off right.

The cab ride was "cozy." Did you know those lines painted on the road to separate traffic don't actually mean anything??? Neither did I...but our cab driver was super intelligent, he used both lanes as he pleased to get around traffic, which consisted mostly of motorcycles with at least 3 people squished on the back while holding a child over the side. I regret the shock of the sight paralized me to the point that I missed the opportunity to get photo evidence, but trust me, it happened, 3 people, 1 tiny motorcycle and 1 helpless toddler being held (face-out) on the hip of the woman on the very back. Feel free to pause in horror as I did. 

The accommodations and amenities were to DIE for! We were provided golf carts to drive around the resort...

We had an adorable villa with it's own pool and seriously UH-MAZING amenities! Oh and don't forget the private beach with our very own covered cabanas!

Now the food, that was something else. AND, all you can eat!!!

It was an ideal family vacation and we had an amazing time! 

We'll have to do it again...because the trip you just saw was all part of our dream, you know, that dream we had about our vacation for the 10 months leading up to it. I hate when I forget to sort the photos I create in my head with what happens in real life!

This is what it was really like

We slept...

We ate...

It rained...

We got soaked!

(which is good since there wasn't water for showers)

I fell 

(re-enactment for dramatic effect)

And we spent maybe a grand total of 2 hours in the ocean, but we did manage to find a WalMart

And we got to see most of the city of Puerto Plata through the windows of a van on our way back to the airport.

All-in all, we really did have fun. It would have been better if it were raining less, but we did learn a few things. 

1. I apparently look Polish or Russian (first time I've ever been asked that)

2. Buy you souvenirs, especially vanilla, at the grocery store, not the little shops

3. If it rains every day of your vacation, and you get an hour of non-rain, you can run around and take pictures of all the cool stuff you could have done or that you did do and didn't take pictures of.

and lastly,

4. As long as you have great people to spend time with the time still flies because you're still having fun!

If you want to see a video of the rain, click here. It pretty much did this non-stop for 3 days. And the lightening will light up the video a few times where you'll be able to see more. The thunder was bone crushing loud but that doesn't really come through from this.