Our Christmas Break

Leading up to Christmas was fun in the city. There were tree lightings almost every night, the houses go all out in the city, lots of activities for church, and because the boys were so busy with finals, it meant us girls went out to eat and went for ice cream a lot! Every holiday here is so fun!

We were in Southern California for the holidays, but first we celebrated Madison and Brayden getting married! They were married on December 19th in the Newport Temple, followed with a reception held in the Zylstra's backyard. It happened to be a downpour during the reception, but we had tents and it was still beautiful! It added to the memories. :)

It was lots of fun to have all of Tanner's family in town, especially his aunt and uncle who live in Hawaii! We have the best of times with them...especially when we share a double bed! 

One day at the mall, we ran into a real life pig...on a leash!

We went to the Newport boat show one evening, and followed it with some hot cocoa. It was fun! Some people go all out.

On Christmas Eve we headed to Newport Beach for breakfast and a bike ride to celebrate our friend Kristen's birthday!

The rest of the day was filled with wrapping presents and spending time with the family!

We took a couple trips to Disney (of course!)

We got to attend a Laker game

New Year's Eve was celebrated with dinner at Lucille's, and followed by games, dessert, and plenty of Martinelli's back at home.

On New Year's Day, we walked around the Rose Parade, and then walked around Venice beach. I even got a selfie with Bachelor Ben, and a girl who cut me in line... :/

isn't this sunset amazing!?

Brimley and Scott met us there for the evening, and it was so fun to see them!

We were originally going to leave New Year's Day, or the day following, but we couldn't get ourselves to leave! So we spent another day with my in-laws, Logan and Whitney, and were so happy we did. We got to enjoy another beautiful sunset on the bay.

On our drive home, we couldn't get over how green Northern California suddenly was! And then, we saw a little turn off named "Lover's Lane" and totally had to go. I love long drives with my love!

Christmas Break was super relaxing, and everything we needed. It was sure hard to go back to school and work! 

An East Coast Video

Because I know you want to watch 15 minutes of our trip to DC & New York....... ;)

Trip posts here: 1, 2, 3, 4

An Arizona Christmas

We got to AZ really early on Christmas Eve morning.
That afternoon I went to lunch with my girlfriends, and then we prepared for Christmas! We went to my sisters house for milk and cookies for Santa, and then we were elves that night and took presents to some LDS missionaries in our area that needed some help. It was fun being sneaky elves together-i love that tradition.

Christmas morning we went back to my sisters for a delicious breakfast, and to look at all of their new gadgets. Later that afternoon my other sister got into town, and we opened up presents!

We enjoyed beautiful sunsets, playing at TopGolf, going to the driving range at the club, seeing movies, having lots of Dirty Dr. Peppers, Last Chance, lots of food and treats, hair braiding, and spending time together! Surprisingly AZ was actually pretty cold-it even snowed on New Years Eve! We dreaded coming back to the even colder weather and back to reality of school and work. It was so fun being able to be with family!

New Years Eve was at 10pm for us, and for that, I am thankful. We are such losers now and can barely keep our eyes open when midnight hits. Unless that is...if we are doing something super productive, like watching one of our shows. ;)

double fisting it!

When we got back, our friends that are in Florida for med school came to UT for break, and had a slumber party with us-it was just what we needed. I sure miss going to yoga and Swig with my Mads-she is a friend I know I will have forever! It was so fun going to dinner and staying up late talking!