Top 10 pluses and minuses of California life

Let's start with the pluses, and end with the minuses, because that's where the good pictures come in, and I like suspense:

+ 1: We are about fifteen minutes away from the BEACH! Which means we also know all its secrets, like where the best spots to dig for sandcrabs are, and .... ok, that might be the only secret we know, but I submit that it is the most important one.

+2: Our ward is amazing, and since we do NOT live in UT or AZ, I can still occasionally be considered a pretty crafty wife here :) Also we get to be outside of the "bubble"(c'mon, you know what I'm talking about) and see all the goodness that exists in a million other faiths. Very inspiring. And if you think I'm exaggerating about the "million" other faiths, just picture all but three of the 100 chapels in a UT town replaced by a different church. It's amazing.

+3: We get to feed the missionaries--ha-HA!

+4: Since there are not a gajillion violinists and pianists here like there were in UT, I get to play for everything from baptisms to stake firesides...which is fun to keep me performing, and learning to make up pretty arrangements.

+5: We are growing tomatoes and have four almost ripe again. Today is November 2nd. 

+6: We can keep things like oh, say...a pregnancy...a surprise for as long as we want to, until someone comes down to Disneyland again. I was thinking how funny it'd be to not tell anyone until Thanksgiving, and then show up 6 1/2 months pregnant, but of course I am not THAT good of a surprise keeper. But still, the option is there :)

+7: I have now been wearing my flip flops for a year and a half straight. 

+8: Snorkeling. Utah Lake may have been exciting, but can you beat this? And oh, yeah, that picture was taken in mid September.

+9: We have as much privacy as we want, since it's a 600 mile drive for anyone to come visit. Eh? Also, we have an excuse to stop by the Cache Valley cheese factory multiple times a year. THAT warrants a plus.

+10: I can fill up a cart with fruit and veggies for about what it would cost me to get a grab bag of fruit in UT. For example, 8 lb/$1 for oranges and 4 lb/$1 for bananas are standard prices(Superior and Buy Low, guys :)). 

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And now for the minuses:

-1: WHERE IS ALL THE LAND??? I know it's beach, but ... really? We should really talk to someone about putting some of those orange groves back or something, I think.

-2: No snow. We may have had some brownish speckled Christmases in UT, but a green Christmas seems kind of strange. Especially to see the Christmas lights and fake reindeer out with no icicles or snowmen.

-3: Sometimes I forget I'm supposed to feed the missionaries until that night. Heeh! PBJ night for all!

-4: I'm more than a little afraid that the only-violinist-in-the-stake thing will not be exciting for long. I love doing as many musical numbers as they ask me for, but I get wondering if people might think I'm just hamming it up :)

-5: Our dirt is made of clay. Like that same tomato plant has been working on those same four tomatoes for about a month now. On the plus side, maybe Miles and I could take up pottery again?

-6: We miss being able to call up the siblings and come hang out on random nights. And play pranks on each other. Although the best prank was probably us showing up without telling anyone last October. Meh heh heh...remember the umbrella incident at Rebekah's house, Elizabeth? Yep, I'm definitely counting down til we get to all hang out again in November and December.

-7: I have the mother of all sandal tans.

-8: The leaves NEVER CHANGE here! Bah! Instead of Utah's nice tidy Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and why-is-it-still-so-cold Spr-inter, we have Spring, Summer, why-is-it-still-86-today-it's-November, and a- little-cooler-without-so-many-flowers-maybe-frosty-grass-almost-spring.

-9: Our car just hit 322,000 miles, so someday the drive back and forth to UT may not be as exciting. And you have to admit that the alien jerky samples are very small. Although ... Cache Valley cheeeeese! :D

-10: This is what our pumpkins looked like after less than SIX DAYS:

Well, this one was technically Josh and Debbie's pacman pumpkin, but by Sunday it got too ant-y to take to them, so ...

 
 Yes, that is gross pumpkin juice and mold anchoring the pumpkin to the ground. Let me clarify that they were already moldy and attracting ants TWO days after we carved them, but I had to at least leave them out until Halloween. Then they were too squishy to pick up, so I rolled them into a garbage bag, along with their many inhabitants. Is it just me, or do pumpkins last more than a couple days outside in UT???

Halloween...CA Nielson style!

Aaaand back to blogging! I know it's been another month or so, but I can never think of anything interesting to write unless I have some fun pictures to put up. So now that I've found the camera I'm back to it for a bit.

Starting with Halloween!

Since no one trick-or-treats in our neighboorhood(and Miles didn't want to go, either) I decided that we should have a Halloween party this year. We invited the other four newlywed-ish couples, and I had a blast planning it all month. Miles was a really good sport and even let me dress him up. Since we all go to bed around 9:30, though, we had our party on the Friday before Halloween. Less festive, I know, but it did have its perks...like almost everyone being free that night.

The crew, except David and Tessa, who had to go home early.
I'm sad I didn't get them in the picture! Next year!

I used all my pinterest skills to make some fun food, and fulfilled my lifelong dream to buy dry ice and make homemade rootbeer. Note: you really do need a lot more rootbeer flavoring than the recipes suggest, or it may taste like cream soda. Just hypothetically...

The best part was that our ward Halloween party (*cough*) I mean Harvest Hoedown... was the next night, so we carved pumpkins for the contest they were having. I thought for sure we had some winners, but no such luck! More on the pumpkins in my next post...

Zenos and Sara drove themselves over :)

The beekeeper suit is a little worse for the wear these days, but did you
know you can get all colors of duct tape at the 99 cent store?

I say Josh was cheating, but...Captain America
and his trusty Boy Scout companion!

I'LL give you a belly! Ok this picture is just gross. But I still love pumpkin carving!

 On REAL Halloween, we didn't really have plans, so I wanted to go crash our neighbor church's Halloween party. We probably would have, too, but then Sara and Zenos invited us over for dinner at their place. We ended up playing some rip roaring games of spoons, in which I lost and had to take an awkward picture, and then Miles and I headed off for a non-successful attempt to register at Wal Mart. Complete with his mustache, of course.

I think Miles has some definite career possibilities we haven't
explored. Private eye, Pirate, French waiter...

Our Halloween house :)

Girl or boy? Oh baby!

Now, before you get too excited, we don't find out until this next Tuesday. But since I can't get all the family together and do a party(yeah...I really wanted to make blue and pink cupcakes or something, haha) here's where you get to guess, and we'll see who's right! Hint: it's not twins.

Here's what we have to go off:

Due date: February 12, 2013(that puts us at five months)

1st ultrasound picture:

Jelly bean baby! 

2nd ultrasound picture:

Hehe...boy? Just kidding, but this one cracked us up!

 3rd ultrasound picture:

See the profile?

Aaaand, for Rebekah and Melanie, here's what baby looks like from the outside :) I tried to pull my shirt back so you could see the bump really well. :) This was the pic that showed it best, but it also might be sticking out just a little. Oh well! I'll do more later, and have Miles take the pics. 

We don't have any preference...we'll just be excited for a healthy, happy baby! 

FYI: all Miles's brothers and his sister have had girls so far(7 total), and on my side there are 3 nephews, 1 niece, and one well-dressed cat.

So! What do you think? Boy or girl?

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Catalina...where we will live someday!

Ok, so I mentioned that you get a free trip to Catalina on your birthday, and we've been dying to get over there and try snorkeling for about a year now. We almost went last year, but I think we didn't find out until around my birthday, and didn't have a day off or something...whatever it was, we didn't go and planned to go this year. SO worth it!

The boat ride was a little over an hour, and we made the mistake of sitting in the front-ish side. It's like being on a constant roller coaster that goes all slow, and you have moving waves in front of you...bleh. Miles looked at the horizon, and I closed my eyes for most of the ride. We did see dolphins, though! And on the way back we sat in the back-er middle, which was much better.

We got there and checked into our little hotel. By the way, if you're going, make reservations a few months in advance and do it at the SeaCrest Inn. We missed it because they were all booked, but they have a "dolphin package" midweek special that for a room AND a round trip boat ride it's less than the cost of the boat ride alone. It looked cute enough, too.

Lover's Cove...sorry for my closed-eyes face,
but you can still see how pretty it is, right?

Mostly we just explored the island and went window shopping, but the BEST part really was the snorkeling. We went to Lover's Cove, which I guess is the best spot there, and there were soooo many huge fish. Miles of course was really sad that he hadn't brought a spear with him. 

Almost as soon as we got into the water we could look down and see fish in the water around us. There was this guy with a full old-fashioned scuba suit on...as in, it looked like Captain Nemo with a helmet and all. Of course I was watching what he would do, and he had some kind of little floaties with him, too. Interesting...
I don't know what he had, but a few minutes later all around him was this huge feeding frenzy of fish. Seriously, like finding Nemo style.

There were also tons of really pretty fish, like these:

Doesn't this look like we're in an aquarium? 

I TOUCHED them! But couldn't catch one. 

On the second time coming in from snorkeling, I had some trouble getting across the rocks. They were SO pokey! Miles, however, had a little less trouble, and managed to take this flattering picture-------->  I am the squinty one in the wetsuit and goggles. :)

And the winner of the day....

ta-daaaa!!! Betcha didn't expect THIS!

And one last picture Miles took...this one was right before we had to leave on Tuesday night. The whole island isn't very big, and the tourist-y part is all within about a five or ten minute walk, although they have all kinds of shuttles for people. We only saw one or two actual cars there, and the rest of the locals drive golf carts around. It somehow makes everything on the island seem really cute and quaint, while downtown Long Beach has the same teeny little houses and small alleyways, but there you just fear for your life a little. We found a little staircase that went up the hill where people live, and it gave us a great view of the island. We agreed that it would be pretty sweet to live on the island, although I don't know that they need a facilities manager for the little branch there yet. Maybe when they build a Catalina Island temple?

Whoa! It HAS been awhile since I've been on here. The whole format has changed; I feel like I'm in Microsoft Word or something!

Back to business...since we posted our surprise birthday video, I've been procrastinating getting on here and doing another post. I also discovered today that I haven't taken pics off of our camera since April, so that kind of added to the problem. That said, today is the start of some mad blogging to catch up on our adventures, and maybe post some preggo pics. Maybe.

To start, here's the latest fun thing: MILES is 28!!
In order to properly celebrate his birthday, I signed him up for every birthday club I could find, and we are still taking advantage of the great free birthday perks they sent, since they don't expire for a couple weeks. The best ones, in case you're wondering, are:

1. IHOP - free dinner !
2. Baskin Robbins - free ice cream cone
3. El Torito - free dinner again-a lot of good food!
4. Rubio's - free entree up to $7!
5. YoPlace yogurt - free 10 oz. yogurt *this one you have to go in to the store...
6. Weinerschnitzel - free corndog(I know, I know...but my six year old heart still loves corndogs!)
7. Or, if you're all crazy and want to eat ON your birthday someplace, you can show up at Denny's and get a free gland slam.
8. Aaaaand best of all, a free boat ride to Catalina island and back, as long as you start ON your birthday. More on that later.

Most of the restaurant dinner ones are really a LOT of food. So unless you want leftovers, you can always share the free birthday thing and just leave a good tip. :)
Enjoy!

and just for fun, here's the best birthday video ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEylNeshD30

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!!!!!!!!!

San Diego, the Neals, and the wonders of Tecate!

The older I get, the more I realize that siblings are the best. Luckily we live close enough to my sister Jenn and her husband Matthew to get to hang out with them and their cute kids periodically.
This time around Matthew's passport was about to expire, so we planned a day trip across the border into Mexico. Since Matt and Jenn both speak Spanish, something as run-of-the-mill as Tijuana would never do...we went all out and headed for Tecate, knowing only that it was part of Mexico and famous for its brewery, of all things. The locals should be in good spirits, right?

Miles and I drove down the night before, and got to go to the San Diego temple. Unfortunately, these pictures don't do it justice! Nor do they do justice to the huge lake that we stepped in on our way out of the temple.

Miles took this. Gorgeous, huh?

this one, too. He's good.

 We slept over and then had some fun times with the nephews--I recently learned to make balloon animals for our YW carnival, so I brought that and we had some fun times playing with them. Jason cracked me up.

Anyway, we finally got off to Tecate. Miles and I, and especially Miles, and also I, REALLY miss the land and space that there is in UT. It was like coming home again to drive out to where there were no houses and just rolling hills. Someday!

The rest I will tell through the pictures, because a)it is much easier not to try to format these suckers, and b)I think it is more fun to read, no? Enjoy!

Onward, to Mexico! We payed five bucks to park our car in this magnificent lot, I believe :) The pots were free

I think Jennifer is on the US side of the boundary. Looks easier to cross than I imagined...

Just kidding! This is the real boundary! Lucky for us we just walked right on through

It was pretty cold and rainy. That church behind us had some really neat stained
glass windows, and told the story of St. Guadalupe(ask Matt on this one)

Well, they pegged me, but Miles is really more of a baritone or bass.

Tecate! and ... McDonald's! I forgot to look and see if they had McEnchiladas or something.
We walked all around the city, checking out the little shops, the old train station, and headed for the museum.

I guess this is the real draw of Tecate. Yep, the brewery. We walked to it and thought
about doing a tour, but it smelled funny, and we didn't want our free beer coupons.

After a while of walking to the Museum, I thought it might be necessary to hire some transportation. 

We also considered staying the night at this lovely hotel, but since
Matt's passport expired that day, we couldn't chance it. Pity.
Just kidding, this is part of the Tecate Community Museum. They also had some cool
computer screen thingys and indoor displays, which saved us from a torrential rainstorm or two

...and here we have Atlas, oops, I mean, Matt. Mattlas? 

We were getting hungry, so we stopped in to a little grocery store and found THESE little gems.
We bought some cookies.

What we DID end up eating was delicious! Tortas, a quesadilla con adobado, and a burro gigante!
And don't worry, we didn't lose Jenn. She and Matt just took turns taking all the pictures.

Here it is, the most delicious restaurant in Tecate. That we have tried, anyway.

Wouldn't it be funny if this was a coincidental picture?
It wasn't, though. We passed these murals a few times and couldn't resist taking pictures.

Jenn couldn't stop laughing! 

I still think Miles wins the prize for this one. And for humoring me when I wanted to take a picture of his imitation.

"The best bread in Tecate!" Of COURSE we went in.

...and it was pretty much the Willy Wonka's chocolate factory of Mexican baked goods.
We filled some paper bags, gave away the last of our pesos, and headed back to the border.

What!? $3 per sin? What, are they still selling indulgences here?

 Ok, quick break from pictures only. Only because this was hilarious! We were walking down the street towards the border, completely by ourselves, and suddenly what did we hear? Crazy mexican carnival music blasting from...I don't know where--one of the houses? Enjoy!

AHa! I think we were inspired to walk across the border! Look at this crazy
long line of cars trying to get back in! Also, thanks for sharing your churros with us, Matt!

Back to the good ol' USA. What you can't see is Matt crossing his fingers in his pockets that they'll let him back in.

Hurrah! We made it! and I finally took my hood off :) hey, it was COLD!

The US side of Tecate. Welcome to the USA, everyone!!!

Our first(and last) view of Tecate. 

What a fun trip! I'm so glad that we live close enough to Matt and Jenn to occasionally hang out like this! We also probably would have never planned something so cool on our own, and it was such a blast to spend time together! Thanks, guys!!!