Christmas Time

I'm feeling extra Christmasy today so here are a few photos of our December

We put up pretty Christmas lights on our new house, found Santa's reindeer at Thanksgiving Pointe, walked around Temple Square and played in the snow.

Welcome Winter!

I don't know what it is about the first snow, but nothing gets me more excited.  So naturally Saturday morning when I awoke to big fat snowflakes coming down I immediately made Brady promise we could go up the canyon with the puppies.  I made some hot chocolate, pulled on my Sorel's, and put the puppies in the car.

New House

Three years ago Brady and I tried buying this cute little house in Lindon, but we were about one day too late on our offer and the people before us got it.  It was a lot more complicated than that, including tearful phone calls from the crazy woman selling the house, but we'll stick with the simpler version.

This year at the end of June the house came back up for sale and we jumped on it!  Those three years were pretty rough on the house, but we could still see the potential.  We put our current home up for sale and made an offer on this one as soon as possible.  By July 4th we were under contract for both houses.  On August 13th we moved in.  This is what it looked like...

I don't think I've ever been so overwhelmed in my life.  I new we had our work cut out for us when we walked through it a month before, but I was obviously looking through rose colored glasses.  These past two months have been the most physically and emotionally exhausting times I can remember, but we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!  If it wasn't for Brady's motivation and persistence we would probably be living in a hotel by now.  The first couple of days included many trips to the dump, tree trimming, grass watering, fence building, floor installing and waaaaay too much painting.  I'm still sore, but hey, it paid off!

Obviously we're not done with everything, but our Laundry/Stair area are, as well as the family room so here you go...

Sorry for the blurry before pictures, I had to take these from our inspection report because I did a horrible job of taking befores.

Ignore the blanket covering the couch, we had a small dog problem...

 This laundry room would be ok if you had some doors to close it off from the rest of the world, but since it's right out in the open we had to make it a little prettier.  Oh and that yummy kitty litter was scattered all over under the stairs, GROSS.  P.S. aren't indoor plants just the best?  They make my world go round.

Thanks for reading!

THE END

Crystal Cove, California

This is a little delayed, but I am finally getting around to posting about Crystal Cove!  This was probably my favorite part of our road trip, mostly for sentimental reasons. 

Here's a brief history of Crystal Cove:  In the early 1900s a bunch of people started building beach houses out of whatever they could find, mostly wood that drifted to shore after a cargo ship had wrecked out at sea.  The cottages are certainly not perfect, but they have oh so much charm.  My family got in on one of these cottages when I was a baby and we continued to visit until 2000 when the government finally kicked everyone out and boarded up the cottages.  Pretty depressing. 

For years we were terrified that they would all be torn down and replaced with some fancy resort, but in 2004 they began renovating cottages!  In the summer of 2006 the first few were finished and open. My sister and I got to stay in one that first summer.  It was definitely different than before (a lot more people) but still amazing.  Every year it gets harder and harder to reserve these cottages.  They have to be reserved six months in advance and thousands of people try every month so it feels like winning the lottery when you finally get one.  My family stayed again in the summer of 2007 but we haven't been able to reserve one since.  

Because Brady and I couldn't reserve a cottage for our trip we showed up early the morning of and by some miracle they had a cancelation and we got a cottage!  It was so fun showing him this little part of my childhood.  We ate smoked albacore and fresh bread from The Crab Cooker (tradition), walked to the little cave that for some reason we had to see every time we stayed there, played in the tide pools, and of course watched the sunset.  Our cottage had the most AMAZING little sun room that overlooked the ocean with a little twin bed that we squished together so we could hear the ocean while we went to sleep.  

I cannot wait until our beach house is finished and we can stay in it! I also hope one day you can stay there too and feel the amazingness you feel in this little hidden cove.  Oh and don't tell anyone about it or we'll never be able to reserve one!

My old beach house ^

Big Sur

After leaving San Francisco we headed south towards Big Sur.  The drive between Lake Tahoe and Big Sur was SO FUN.  I wanted to spend a week in every city we passed through.  Santa Cruz and Monterey were beautiful.  We stopped at a beach in Monterey and it was surreal.  The beach was surrounded by sand dunes covered in wild flowers, and the waves were so perfect and blue.

Carmel was a dream.  Someone actually lives in this perfect little bay with this perfect little swimming pool in this (not so little) house.  Maybe I'll be that lucky person one day!

 And all of in between cities was just as amazing.  Why can't all long car rides take place next to the ocean?

The reason we planned this whole trip was to go visit Brady's childhood friend Taylor who moved out there a couple of years ago.  We spent the our first day there on the north side.  We had dinner at the Big Sur Bakery Taylor and his girlfriend Camille and saw some things he had been working on.  Taylor wanted to take us on a "little walk" to watch the sun set, so we started out at Pfeiffer Beach.  By the way, the sand at this beach is PURPLE from abalone shells.  Can't beat that.  We started walking along the sand which slowly turned into little rocks which then turned into huge boulders with waves crashing on them.  

With the tide coming in and the sun setting, I was a little bit worried.  We made it to another beach and up the steepest mountain I've ever climbed and found what we were looking for!  THIS...

Some guy had made a nest for humans out of Eucalyptus trees!  It was huge inside too, you could definitely sleep in there.  It had two cute windows looking out over the ocean.  Perfect place to watch the sun set.  This "little walk" that was supposed to take 30 minutes was a little closer to 3 hours.  The hike back was in complete darkness tromping down the mountain through groves of Eucalyptus trees.  But we made it out alive!  The next day we went to see Pfeiffer Falls which was even better in person than any photo I've seen of it.  We also hiked up to Limekiln Falls.  It is so strange to be next to the ocean with sand and deserty plants all around you, then to turn a corner and you're surrounded by Redwood's with clovers and ferns covering the ground.  Big Sur is amazing.  

Next we went to Sand Dollar Beach and relaxed before going to dinner at Treebones, the resort Camille's parents own.  We had sushi and warmed up by the fireplace.  I don't think we could have possibly fit one more thing into that day.  We awoke early the next morning and headed south for Crystal Cove.