Fall is Here...

Fall is finally here. It even rained a couple weeks ago and I am slowly starting to notice some changing leaves. (This isn't Utah, it takes a little longer). So we have been doing FALL STUFF!!

A couple weeks ago I pureed a pumpkin. I did it last year and couldn't wait to do it again!

(I already used one jar and have tons more in the freezer!)

We have been enjoying, roasted seeds, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin soup and I can't wait to try a pumpkin pasta recipe that I found on Sunday!

On Saturday our good friends, the Shewells, invited us over to paint pumpkins! We had a blast. It was hillarious and everyone's turned out so good! Ashlee even made ghost cupcakes. I didn't take my camera, but here are some pics of the end result.

Other than that, we are both trying to recover from yucky colds and prepare for finals. Nathan has been amazing the past couple weeks and I know it's just the beginnig for him. Finals are approaching and on top of that he has been very involved with the Palmer Center and the job/internship search. He has more on his plate than I know I could handle and yet, most of the time I have to remind myself he is busy because he is so good at taking time for me. I feel so lucky to have him!

Happy Fall!

Let's Go Cougars, Let's Go!

This weekend we went to the BYU vs. SDSU game down in San Diego! It was a blast. We got the general admission tickets ($11 each!!) and got great seats in the shade. (I think they might have been the best seats in the house honestly).

We went down with Nathan’s sister, Tammy, and her family. It was a blast hanging out with them and driving down together. I got to “teach” Ashley the fight song. Mostly she would just come climb on my lap and ask if we could sing again! But she almost got the raw-raw-raws! Andy was so fun, he got so into the game.

We got down there pretty early and after a really fun lunch, got to watch the team warm up. The game was great, lots of scoring and lots of cheering. Since we were in San Diego we met up with Nathan’s family and enjoyed dinner at…you guessed it…Pietros! We had a blast seeing everyone and cheering for our cougars!

TCU this weekend...we already can't wait!

Conference Weekend

What a great weekend!! Right from the start we knew it was going to be good. I got to take off work a couple hours early and we headed out to Azusa, CA! Where is that, you ask? (I know you’re asking because I asked too). Well, it is inland in LA just east of Pasadena. Anyway, we have some really good friends from BYU, Mary and Chase, who were in town visiting her parents. They called and wanted to meet us for dinner, so we met half-way…in Azusa.
We had so much fun getting together with them and catching up! We always had a blast hanging out with them in college and we picked it right back up on Friday. We couldn’t believe how grown up and cute their little girl, Livia, was. Last time we saw them, she was 5 weeks old! We were so glad they called, and can’t wait till we can get up north to see them again!

Then came Saturday…Conference! I always love conference weekend. I will be honest, I love the food. But mostly, I love the cuddliness and spirit of the weekend. I love being able to sit on the couch and listen to the prophet of the Lord speak to us. It truly is modern scripture. I feel like I am being fed the whole weekend! This year, I had so many favorite talks. But my top 2 were Elder Richard G. Scott on Revelation and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland on the Book of Mormon. I know the Book of Mormon is true and I know that we have a living Prophet on the earth today. And I am so grateful that they speak to us and remind us of what is important!

Finally, on Sunday, we decided to go watch the last 2 sessions of conference at Tammy’s house (Nathan’s sister). It was so relaxing and so yummy! Thanks for letting us crash at your house all day! She made quite the breakfast for us, followed an awesome dinner. And all mixed in the middle was fun talking, painting toe nails, blowing bubbles, and playing the Wii.

Sunday was also my Grandpa Gamble’s 80th birthday! Even though we couldn’t be there to celebrate with everyone, I wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday. They celebrated by playing Jeopardy about his life. I heard it was a blast!

After a weekend like that, we were almost ready for Monday! And that is quite a feat!

Backbone #2

A couple weeks ago when we hiked the backbone trail we were telling our friends, the Shewell's, about it. They said they had done the hike too. As we sat and talked about the trail we quickly realized we were NOT talking about the same hike!

So last weekend, we decided to try Backbone Trail #2. We "ran" again, but this one was STEEP! Talk about a good run!

The coast was really foggy so we couldn't see the ocean, but we had some amazing views down into the canyons. It was fun to see where we drive every day from the top of the mountain!

And the fog was breathtaking too!
(Picture taken by Nathan. He has really been working on his photography. I think this is my favorite picture he has ever taken!)

The Palmer Center

Please indulge me as I take a minute to be a very proud wife. One of the main reasons we chose to come to Pepperdine was a program that they offer called the "Palmer Center". It is an entire program based on Business, Finance, and Entrepreneurship. It's a really great opportunity to network with people that have the same intrests you do. Well, as you have probably guessed.......

Nathan got accepted!!!

And had his first meeting on Wednesday night!!

Congratulations, Nathan!

September 11th

Every year on September 11th, Pepperdine honors the day with a flag display on the front lawn across from the Ocean.

There is one flag for every person killed in the attacks that day. 2,974 in all.

It was very powerful and humbling to stand in the flags are realize the magnitude of that day.

A Sunday Surprise

About 10 minutes after we got home from church last Sunday we got a call from Tammy, Nathan's sister. Her question, "Do you want visitors"? Of course we did!! We were so excited to have them all come up and spend the afternoon with us. We had a blast playing with Andy and Ashley and talking with Tammy and John. I wish we had gotten some more pictures, but we did video Ashley playing the piano and singing "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus". She is a little performer!

Enjoy!

Thanks for coming up guys. We hope you do it again soon!

A Morning Hike

Saturday morning we took off early for a hike. To get there we pass by the Biggest Loser Campus.

Amazing what they can do with Camera Angles, isn't it?

It's so fun to live that close to things like that. We see these yellow signs every day as we drive to work. With words or initials for the movie or TV show they are filming that day!



And then we were off for our hike. I love living in the Santa Monica Mountains. There are hikes, quite literally out our back door (well, if we had one)! Saturday morning we decided to try a new hike called "Backbone Trail".

The landscape was really unique and fun. We passed a fun area that was just full of huge boulders. It was amazing to look up at these boulders above you and realize that they took thousands of years to form!




We ended up running the trail up and enjoying it on the way down. The view was beautiful and Nathan got a chance to play with his photography.

It's Finally Here!!

College Football has started!!

And boy did it start big.

Saturday's game was unbelievable! We enjoyed watching it with friends, hot dogs and a big screen. The #9 Ranked Cougars look like they are well on their way to a good season! And we will be watching every step of the way!

Wicked

Last weekend we went to San Diego to see Wicked!! We went with Nathan's family and my mom and sister joined us too. It was so much fun to have them there and be able to see everyone for the weekend! We started the day off by picking them up from the airport and walking around Sea Port Village while enjoying some Clam Chowder at the Fish Market for lunch!

Then it was time for the show...

What a show it was!!!

Until that morning, we had never even heard the music for it so, needless to say we were a little shaky on the story line! But it didn't even matter, the story was incredible, the costuming amazing, and the singing phenomenal!

After the show we went to dinner at the family favorite, Pietros.

The rest of the weekend was spent talking, fort building, wii playing and family enjoying!

Thank you Greg and Debbie!!