Love, 

The Valenzuela's

Girl's Trip

   This last weekend Gabe had to go out of town, so I asked my mom if she'd come down and play with me.  Being the amazing mom that she is, she hopped in her VW bug and cruised on down to Cali to see me.  We had the best time!  It is so fun when people come down to visit because it feels like I'm on vacation in Cali even though I live here.  We had such a blast.  We shopped 'till we dropped, (literally), cooked yummy meals, shopped again, played at the beach with Texas, shopped, went on walks, rented chick flicks, and shopped some more.  I wish I had more pics other than just this one, but we were just too busy having fun to stop and take a picture.  Thank you mom for coming down.  It was so fun to have a girls trip! 

So Long Sweet Summer...

     Yes, it is finally time to say so long to summer and put on my boots for fall.  Its crazy.  Usually I pull out my boots and sweaters a long time before the middle of October. I admit it... I do miss the fall in Utah.  I miss the crimson red and golden yellow leaves that paint the gorgeous mountains.  I miss the crisp cool air and wrapping a blanket around me during a football game.

 (Some pics taken for our engagements last fall up Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah)

     But I've come to learn that fall in Cali isn't all that bad.  You see, while it rains and sometimes snows during the fall in Utah, the sun always shines in California.  The weather stays at a cool 70 degrees and I have even found some leaves that have turned to red.  I love fall so much but am a little sad to see the summer go.   We had an amazing summer, and I've realized that due to the horrible blogger that I am.... I blogged nothing of this so called amazing summer, besides our awesome trip to Texas.  So I thought I would throw some pics on and do a little summer re-cap.... 

     We spent a beautiful, warm California summer night chowing down on Hot dogs and peanuts, singing, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", and Cheering on our new found favorite baseball team, The Anaheim Angels.   GO ANGELS!!!   

    My whole extended family on my mom's side got together for a family shin dig in Utah up at Wolf Creek for the fourth of July.  We boated, played games, swam at the pool, watched fireworks, and had an awesome time.  Thank you Yates N' Mates for an amazing fourth!

   Gabe, unfortunately couldn't come to Utah with me.   He was working away in California.  He did manage however to get this beauty playing football with some of the guys in the ward. I'm pretty sure it was some awesome tackle that created a fumble, was picked up and scored for his team.  Not really, but it makes the bruise that much cooler! 

     I'm sure you've figured it out by now but we welcomed our new little puppy Texas to our Family in July.  He is so much fun and has quite the personality.  He's super energetic, loves his walks, chasing bunnies and playing fetch.  He loves the beach, and recently we took him to the playground and found that he loves following Gabe up the stairs of the playground and then sliding down the slides by himself.  It is probably the funniest thing I have ever seen and he is definately the hit of the playground.     A cool thing about California is that everyone is so Dog friendly.  We love to take texas with us to have a picnic on the beach, sit outside at a restaraunt, and take him shopping with my mom to Fashion Island in Newport!
  

 We also welcomed our beautiful new nephew to the world, Colton Weston Spencer.  He is so adorable and we just love him!  Hailey is such a good big sister and I'm so proud to be an aunt!  Congrats Wes and Ash!!!! We love you guys and Colton!!!
   I just had to throw this one in because I do have the sweetest husband in the world.  He brought me home these beautiful roses one night just for no reason at all.  He is so good to me and does so much for me.  I thank my lucky stars to be married to the most amazing, handsome, man in the world!

     On one warm summer night, we drove up to La Verne to see the Musical "Jungle Book".  Gabe works with this guy Sal who played Baloo in the musical.  He managed to get us the very last two seats in the house. It was fun to see him singing and dancing up on stage and have a "cultural" night out on the town!

     Gabe and I both love to go Camping.  We kept talking about it and talking about it and we were determined to go this summer.  We went out and bought a tent in hopes that it would motivate us to go.  Well, we still haven't officially been camping in California yet.  It seems that every weekend we want to go, something just comes up.  But... we did manage to set it up in our apartment and watched t.v. while lying in it.  I'd say that that at least counts for something. I'm still determined to camp before winter... It might just be in the living room.... 

 One of my most favorite date nights is driving to IKEA in Costa Mesa, browsing through the warehouse and then get meatballs and chicken fingers for dinner.  You just can't beat the prices... and the fun.  We spruced up our bedroom one night after an awesome date to IKEA!

 

    

We took Texas to the pool one Saturday morning to see if he would like it.  Turns out.... He hated it.  He's not much of a swimmer, but more a fan of laying out under the sun.... He is so my dog.  I do hope though that in the future he won't be such a wimp.  Someday he may have to save a drowning child from a well and it won't help if he's to much of a wuss to jump in! 

 

One morning I woke up to this beautiful Sunrise.  Just a little reminder how much God loves us.

   Alright, so this was supposed to be a super fun night.... We were GOING to spend weekend in San Diego, play around at the beach, and eat yummy food.  But we didn't know what to do with the dog.  So.... we brought him with us and snuck him into the Hotel in a purse.  Dumb Idea. Needless to say, Texas is not a hotel dog, squished the fun, and we spent the rest of the weekend hanging out at home.  Scratch that off the list of cool ideas....

    As I mentioned in my previous post, Gabe and I met up with his family in Texas to watch Roman play football.  It was such an awesome trip and we had fun every second of it!  By far the coolest part was watching Roman play Football in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium, sitting in the front row on the fifty yard line!  "Best trip in the world", "Texas Forever".

   By far one of the best things about saying "goodbye" to summer is saying "HELLO" to UTAH FOOTBALL!  Gabe and I are both huge Utah Football fans!  We both have some good memories there in Rice-Eccles stadium... The tailgating, The Muss, The fight song, The red, The fans, and our Utes.  We miss not being able to see them every week.  And especially because the Mountain is usually the only channel we can watch them on, and we don't get it in Cali.  But the games that our Utes have played when it was on ESPN... we found a way to watch them.  We went to this little corner sports bar in Mission Viejo.  When we walked in, everyone was decked out in their USC gear.  The place was packed.  Gabe and I walked in decked out in our Utah gear and found the one little TV that was playing the Utah game.  After the USC game ended, the place emptied and Gabe and I were left to cheer on our Utes all by ourselves.  We stayed until they finally kicked us out during the fourth quarter.  We may not be in Utah to cheer on the Utes... but we're still cheering. 

 "A UTAH MAN SIR, AND WILL BE TILL I DIE! KI-YI!.... GO UTES!!!"

   Texas becomes more and more curious as the days go on.  About a month ago I walked out to see that he had just made himself comfy cozy on the couch (which he knows he is not alowed up on... thus the guilty face)

   With some of my left over birthday money, I decided to buy Tex a huge nice pillow to sleep on.  Then one night we left him on the porch for a half hour while we ran to the grocery store.  He somehow managed to destroy his huge nice pillow, rip it to shreds and pull all the cotton out onto the porch.  And then stuffed some under the railing onto the ground below. It looked as if it had snowed in Cali.  No more pillows for this dude. 

  But how can you be mad at a face like this?

    

With summer slipping, fall slowly coming, and my wierd obsession with fall leaves in October, I decorated our apartment a little bit to Welcome the fall.  

      Last weekend we took Texas to the Dog Beach at Hunington for the first time.  It was so much fun and He loved it there!  Well, besides the water... he is terrified of that. We're hoping he grows out of it cause its so fun to watch all the dogs play in the ocean!  He does love the sand and could dig for hours.  He is such a playful puppy too.  He loves meeting new dogs and getting chased around.  And everyone at the beach loves him and he is such a people dog.  We definately enjoy the sun, the sand, and Texas!

   Last weekend Jake, Gabe's Brother, came into town.  He had a blast with him and it was so fun to have family with us.  We ate yummy food, went shopping in Downtown L.A., watched some fun movies, played at the beach, and had a lot of good conversation.  The time went by way too fast.  Thanks for comin' Jake!  We had so much fun!

So long Sweet Summer.  Welcome to fall.