Baby, it's Cold Outside!

Yeah, it's cold here. It makes me want to cry. I'm wearing my hot-pink legwarmers to school today.

Due to popular requests, I'm adding a couple of pictures.

My cute little feet, warm and incognito . . .

. . . and with my pants pulled up. Yeah, I'm a fashionista, I know.

New Years Eve . . .

Even after spending a great time at Grandpa and Topsy's place we craved even more sunshine and warmth. Thankfully, Rob's Aunt Bonnie lives in Whittier, CA, and since she'd been telling us to come visit, we were too close to not come . . . it was only an extra 109 miles! :)

New Years Eve morning we packed up and hopped back on I-15 south. It was an easy two hour drive to Bonnie's house, and we were very pleased to see even more sunshine and palm trees. After a quick lunch, Rob was antsy to see the ocean. Although he lived in Barstow as a kid, he'd never been to the Pacific in California! After a short drive up the PCH to Malibu, and driving all over Santa Monica to find an ATM, we found ourselves at Santa Monica Beach.


Well, there he is. No shoes, jeans rolled up to his knees, and hoodie on. Rob and the Ocean.


Doesn't he just look so happy??


You can't go to the beach without writing in the sand . . . and this was the first time I was able to write about me and my man. It made me so happy.


This is the second of the three pictures taken of me on the trip. I know, I know, it's glamorous, right? I've always thought I have adorable feet.


As we were walking on the beach, we found a coconut, which Rob promptly stood on and took on the waves. It was really quite funny. Later that night while we were walking on the pier, we saw a kid walking around with a coconut. I wonder if it was the same one. :)


And here's picture number three. There were a bunch of carnations on the beach, so Rob picked one up and gave it to me. How thoughtful, eh?


Just one more . . .


Since it was late in the afternoon when we got to the beach, we just decided to walk up and down the shore, and on our way back, I took this shot of the Santa Monica pier. It was beautiful. I wish I had my real camera (not just my camera phone) with me so that I sould have gotten a better shot. Oh well. I think this looks great with all the lights and the reflection off the wet beach. It was such a great night!

Once we got back to the pier, we decided to splurge and go on the roller coaster. It was pretty fun, and the fact that we were in the front coaster car made it even better.

After our fun at the beach, we went back to Bonnie's, and "crashed" her New Years Eve party. Ok, we didn't really crash it. There were all kinds of goodies to eat, and fun to join in on. We stayed up for the New Year, and then promptly tried to go to bed. There was an exceptionally loud party at one of Bonnie's neighbors, but hey, it was New Years afterall.

Our Travels . . .

Even though we had two weeks of time available to us between Rob quitting his job, and us needing to be back at school, initially we had planned on coming back to Rexburg the Monday after Christmas. Well, as many of you know, Rob and I are both adventurers at heart, and the thought of coming back to dreary Rexburg with a week and a half left to wait for school to start made us a little sad.

So, the morning of the 27th, we concocted a plan to head south. Rob's Grandpa lives in Barstow, CA; so we decided to start there. We left Springville, UT--where we were for Christmas--Monday morning, the 29th, and aside from a two hour traffic jam through Las Vegas, we had a great day of driving the 529 miles to Barstow. It was very satisfying driving out of areas where snow covers the ground, and into a climate where short sleeves are acceptable to wear in the middle of winter.

We spent Monday and Tuesday night with Rob's Grandpa and his wife Topsy. Grandpa and Topsy were married Fall 2007, and aside from a brief meeting them at our own wedding in April 2007, I hardly knew them. It was so nice to spend a couple of days getting to know them, and seeing Barstow in a different light. I've been there before--back in 2004 while friends of mine were stationed at Fort Irwin, but this trip opened my eyes to the beauty of the Mojave Desert. Rob spent about a year living in Barstow while growing up, and has fond memories of the area.

This is one of the three pictures taken of me during the trip. I'll post the other two later, but this one is definitely the cutest. I guess that is going to be how it's going to be with me behind the camera, eh? Anyway, we had a great time with Grandpa and Topsy. We ate at the original Del Taco, went to the Bus Station that is made out of old railroad cars, and I taught Topsy how to make Quesadillas. We greatly look forward to returning and spending more time in Barstow!

A Merry Christmas it was!

Rob and I had an awesome Holiday season. I haven't blogged much during the school break because we were away from home for most of it, but here is a quick catch up of our Christmas.

First off, we left Idaho on Christmas Eve, after Rob said his goodbyes at work. He's been working at Boise Building Materials Distribution in Idaho Falls, driving a forklift, since July. Christmas Eve was his last day so that we would be able to go on a little vacation before school started up again. We spent Christmas with Matt, LeMira, and Jackson, and had a wonderful holiday.

As you can see by the Tusken Raider pose, Rob got a "new" rifle for Christmas. It's actually a M44 1945 Soviet issued Mosin-Nagant military rifle. It's a pretty hardcore rifle, and Rob is estatic about finally owning one. Here is a funny comparison between it, an AK-47, and and AR-15.

And this is the rifle in all it's glory--bayonet and all. Apparently, because of it's short barrel length, the M44 is the loudest Mosin, and it creates the largest muzzle flash of all the Mosin models. Here is a You Tube video of an M44 being shot:



To go along with the firearm theme for Christmas, Rob got me three air soft bb guns--he figured that if he only bought one, he'd get shot all the time; if he only got two, we'd only shoot each other; but by buying three--we can actually play with another person. :) Don't worry though, firearms weren't the only thing we gave and recieved. We also got a couple of games, cds, pedometers, and Rob got me a pearl necklace, bracelet, and earrings set too. We felt completely spoiled this year. :)

I'll blog more later about the additional festivities during our break.