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.

Our trip to TEXAS!

WOW!  Time really flies!  I think its been over a month since I have even been on here!  I could have blamed it on our little Texas puppy.  A couple weeks after we got him, he chewed through my mac book charging cord. (All the joys that come with a new puppy).  But that was over a month ago as well, so I really blame myself for my own blogging laziness.  I made a goal when we moved away to be a good blogger, and let people know what we've been up to. Needless to say.... I haven't been so great at that goal.  I recently made another goal... "be better at you goals"... And so... the time has finally come to blog. We have been having an awesome summer! 

      We just got back from Texas with Gabe's family and we had the greatest time! We flew down to Dallas, Texas to watch Gabe's little brother play football.  Roman plays football at Bingham Highschool in Utah and his other little brother Matt coaches.  Bingham is ranked number one in the state right now and got invited to play a Texas team in the brand new Dallas Cowboy's stadium.  Needless to say, we were not going to miss out on this one. We flew in on Friday afternoon and Roman didn't play until Monday, so we didn't waste any time.... we got right down to FUN business!  We headed straight to the Stock Yards in Fort Worth.

  Honestly this place was Awesome!  It was EXACTLY what I wanted Texas to be like.  It looked like the scene from an old western movie.  And every body had their boots on.  I was in Heaven.  I told Gabe that I wanted to move there and that these were my people.  He didn't go for that. For some reason he didn't want to live in a tourist attraction.  Anywho... we got some dinner, best steak in the west...not kidding.  I'm pretty sure they killed the cow in the kitchen and then put it on my plate.   It was delicious.  We then headed to the rodeo.  It was so fun!  Here we all are, waiting for the rodeo to begin... 

The next morning we did our research and found Lavon Lake in Wyley Texas.  "Best kept secret in Texas", they called it... so true.  We rented a boat for the day and wake boarded on the "best water in the nation".  There were really only about 4 boats on the lake so the water was pretty smooth the whole day. 

Once we got wake boarding out of our system, we spent the rest of the day gripping white knuckled on the death mobile.... or the tube as most like to call it.  It was definately not a leisurely stroll through the lake, and thats exactly the way we like it! It was so fun and every one got a good ride!

We spent that night watching the BYU game and enjoying a good chicken dinner at Gabe's parents hotel.  I choose not to post pictures of that event because I choose not to support BYU.  Just so that is clear.  We only watched to see Gabe's neighbor play.  Just so that is clear. (but i am glad they won... only by one point... its good for the conference... just so that is clear....)

And the next day we rested... not really.

We spent the next day touring around dallas with Gabe's parents.  We took a tour of the Texas Rangers' Baseball stadium.

Here's to you Mr. Robinson...

Putting Sammy Sosa into the 600 club.

I just couldn't help myself....

Just hanging out in the Ranger's dug out

Gabe had great seats right next to THE George W.

Its just something about those baseball uniforms... I just can't resist

The day finally came!... GAME DAY!!!! It was so awesome.  We got up early and got all decked out in Bingham Gear.  I did graduate from Olympus and I do hold a special place for the Titans in my heart... but while Roman is playing football at Bingham... I call myself a born-again-miner fan. It's catchy.  Anywho... We made our way to the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

 This place was unbelievable.  Not only was it huge, it was huge and posh and awesome and huge!  We got there as early as we could and were the first in line to run in and get our great seats.  Gabe was in absolute heaven.  We sat on the front row on the fifty yard line... in the cushy seats.  It doesn't get better than that for a football fan.

And of course I could not pass up the opportunity to wear my cowboy boots in the cowboy stadium.  

We had a great time cheering on Bingham!  They unfortunately did not come out with a victory.  But they did play their hearts out and did a great job. 

Roman did an awesome job!  It was so cool to see him up there on that huge jumbo tron and hear his name announced over the loud speakers!  Good Job Romeo!!! You played great!!!

It was definately a proud day to be a Valenzuela!  I got to wear this Bingham Jersey.  #31 was Gabe's old number and now Roman wears it.

Goofin' off a bit in the Cowboy's store...

After the game we followed the team so that we could get a pic with our all star!

The next day before we flew out, we spent the morning at the JFK memorial.  It was really cool to be there and talk with a guy who claims... He was there.  He told us his story and showed us all of his pictures of the fateful day on Elm street.  It was actually pretty neat. 

Our trip finally came to an end and we made our way back to the airport.  

To Roman (Ramon), Matt, Sarah, Marc and Janice, and my wonderful husband Gabe....

Thanks for the memories! We loved it!