It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

Nathan and I have made great strides in the area of decoration classiness since last Christmas. Last year for our Christmas tree Nate grabbed his hatchet and insisted we chop down a tree in the mountains instead of buy one. So we did just that and set up our tree by constructing a makeshift stand out of a a free red bucket and tied it to our swamp cooler. This year we actually bought a tree from home depot and got a real stand to go with it.


For ornaments, I convinced Nate to make old school paper snowflakes with me. Nathan is actually kind of awesome at making paper snowflakes. His were actually better than my own. I struggled with the whole folding thing...




I also made a star out of cardboard and tin foil to top our tree! Classy? Maybe not..




Last night we had a bunch of people over to decorate Christmas cookies with us! Decorating a ton of Christmas cookies with all colors of icing, piping bags, and sprinkles was something my family did every year. I missed having all my Mom's classic Christmas cookie cutters but found a bin of 30 holiday shapes that will have to be my go-to Christmas cutters!










Nathan with some of our neighbors!

The Holidays Begin!

Like so many others, this is my favorite time of year! Nathan and I had a fabulous start to the holiday season with a trip back to Virginia to see my family. I went out early to go to my friend Danielle's wedding. We have been best friends since we were 9 and it was so great to be a part of her big day! I loved her gray bridesmaid dresses and will definitely be wearing mine again. My favorite part of the whole day was getting to drive too and attend the sealing with my Dad. He is just the best and the LDS Washington D.C. temple is beautiful!







I spent the rest of the weekend after the wedding just hanging out with the family. For those of you who don't know swimming in the Northern Virginia area is HUGE! My little brother was in a swim meet that lasted all weekend. I got to see him swim a few events and he is quite the breast stroker. Better than I ever was, that's for sure!


Nathan flew into Virginia on Tuesday. He was really happy to have to weekend to himself because he has been working on classes to get his MSFS (master's in financial services... kind of like a CPA but in the insurance world) and had to study and take a final for one of the classes that weekend. My brother Sam and his wife Erin also came up for Thanksgiving day. It was the first time the whole family has been together since my wedding!

My cousins Brooklin and Brian came over for dessert with their kids!

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we went hiking at Great Falls Park in the Maryland side. It was so beautiful! I am secretly trying to brainwash Nathan into falling in love with Virginia. It think it might be working...







Last weekend I went up to Utah to go to my best friend Jessica's bridal shower. It was so great to see all my old college friends! I have the best friends. Her shower was a ton of fun and I got to be her assistant for taking bridals on Saturday morning! We are looking forward to the wedding on December 19th! Other than that I am starting my new job at a company called NatureGen on December 14th. So I am doing all those little things I need to get done like blog, see the dentist, and send out Christmas gifts this week. Wish me luck!

Emily and David Come to Visit

Last Wednesday my sister-in-law Emily came out to visit from Virginia and brought our little nephew David as a surprise. David is Nathan's older sister Katie's son and Emily has been nannying for Katie the past few months in Virginia. Katie and Emily surprised us, nobody had any idea Emily was bringing David except Nathan's Mom - who they decided to call last minute so David would have a car seat and other toddler necessities. David is one cute kid! We had a fun weekend hanging out with a bunch of Nate's family - his brother John decided to drive down from LA the moment (literally) he heard David had come. His wife Vanessa also came on Friday and we celebrated Nathan's Grandma's 85th birthday at a luncheon on Saturday.


It was at Steel Canyon - where we had our wedding!


Look familiar?

Vanessa, David, Emily, Me





There were a whole bunch of distant relatives that I'm sure I met at my wedding who came as well. But who really remembers everyone you meet at your wedding? Its kind of like when somebody asked you "Oh did you get the wedding gift we sent you?!" and you're like - yes! I quiz myself nightly on who bought what off my registry! Anyway, after the birthday party we went to Nate and Emily's friends wedding. Emily and I had made the boutonnieres for the wedding earlier that day and I must say that they looked fabulous. Floral design was probably the most useful class I took in college. Considering my minor and chemistry and degree in food science hasn't gotten me a job yet. Whatever right? I have gone to 3 interviews a nutracutical company though and have been waiting to hear back!

On Tuesday, Emily and I took David to Sea World!









David loved the: sea lions, otters, and sesame street rides
...and was terrified by the: dolphins (big time) and sharks
We saw the dolphins during their "play time" and I thought it was way cool because one of the dolphins threw me a basketball and let us pet her (him?)! The dolphins splashed too much and had too many teeth so David did NOT like them as much as us. Luckily he was easily cheered up by a nearby tank full of otters...

The Rest of Europe

Lately I have been working on our "Europe Trip" Shutterfly book which has been quite the project considering I took 1,200 pictures. Tonight I was wishing we were back on our trip and decided to document the unblogged portion of our trip...

We left Paris and rented a car - then we drove 30 minutes outside Paris to Versailles...
Nate outside of Versailles

In the hall of mirrors inside Versailles - it was truly a spectacular palace!

Outside in the massive Versailles gardens - our camera ran out of batteries right after this picture so I missed taking pictures of Marie Antoinette's quarters

After Versailles we drove up to Normandy through the most beautiful countryside I've ever seen...
Outside our hotel in D'Arromanches (Normandy, France)

The next day overlooking D'Arromanches - the first town to be liberated on D-Day

A German gun battery

Omaha Beach - truly brave men walked here

Driving in the cool countryside to Amboise! Every 5 minutes Nathan made us pull off and take a picture of something...

Eating dinner in Amboise, France the first night - I LOVE Amboise, its in the Loire Valley of France and has its own Chateau - the street we are eating on here is where we ate all 3 nights and it was SO perfect!

We visited 5 chateaus in the Loire Valley - it was such a great place to visit and I would recommend going there to anyone!
Me outside the first castle we visited, Chenouceau

How would you like to cook in THIS kitchen?!


Really old trees!

Outside of "the mans castle" as Nate called it - A giant castle design for the prince and his hunting buddies during the winter

So very exciting...

Lovin' my Nathan!

Outside another castle where a rich french family still lives!

We saw 70 hunting dogs get fed at one of the castles. It was kind of gross.

A really old chocolatier!

Outside of Amboise



Make a wish!

And hug a bush...

We drove through the vineyard country! It was so beautiful

Me outside our hotel in Amboise - it was a 900 year old building!

Eating dinner on our last night in France

On our train to Germany!

Picnic dinner on the first night in Munich

The Residenz Musuem in Munich - Everything got bombed in WWII so nothing was original

The treasury had original things though! Check out that crown

Yummy Bratwurst!

Large piece of cheese

We toured the BMW factory in Munich - Nate loved it

The Marienplatz

After Munich we rented another car and drove down to Bavaria, Germany - it really was like the Sound of Music and the pictures just don't capture its beauty fully

At Mad King Ludwig II's first palace

The Disney World Castle!



Hanging out

This GPS saved our trip... we couldn't have made it without it!

While in Bavaria we stayed in Fussen, Germany which is about 10 minutes from Austria -on this day we did one of my favorite things - we hiked up to some castle ruins that were basically deserted and gave ourselves our own private tour!

The view was amazing!

Jumping for joy!







The alpine slide of Germany! Much cheaper than its park city counterpart..

We rode the tram up the Alps on the last day

Nate on top of the world!



Outside an old Church in Bavaria

Making friends with European animals

Eating gelatto on our last night :(

The End! Sorry for the excessively long post. People have probably already vowed to stop reading my blog because my posts are so long. Anyway, it was a great trip! I love traveling! I wish we could do it all the time.