my favorite month

Of course we started December off with a day at the beach. We brought a little picnic but out trip didn't last long because we started to get cold! Can you believe it?! "Winter" is finally here!

We visited out favorite little tree lot and picked up our second ever tree! Last year's tree was a stout but this year baby tree 2.0 is a slender little Noble and we just love it. We used the few decorations I made from last year and Sam made a cute-ish pipe cleaner star for the top. I guess that's what I get for putting Sam on star duty lol.

This month I also helped plan our Christmas church party with these ladies. It was a Feliz Navidad theme and so many people came, the decorations were the cutest, the Photo Booth was a hit and of course the party was a blast! 

My friend Cortney and I went to the San Diego Bay Boat Light Parade while our husbands slaved away studying for finals. Poor guys. It sure was an adventure getting there but you can't go wrong crowds of crazy people and Christmas boats! 

And finally, Sam and I carried on our tradition of a mini Christmas right after finals ended. It's just so fun as newlyweds to have our own little Christmas before we leave out of town to be with family. 

"Christmas Eve" we cleaned the house, packed, watched a movie, and got all our presents wrapped. And by all, I mean our 4 presents total haha. Student loans do that to you...

White Christmas here we come! 

thanksgiving in modesto

There's just something about coming home to these colorful, tree-lined streets. Modesto, you're not half bad. And seeing these cute faces is an added bonus!

Thanksgiving was a total party! 50 of us gathered at Grandma Lola's for the feast of all feasts. That woman is a champ! I don't know how she does it all, but I love her to pieces. 

We got to play with our Asian babies, see cousins and visit for hours with the old Modesto crew. 

Friday Samuel did chores while us girls decorated for Christmas. Is he a keeper or what?

Dad took us ice skating at the very first year of Modesto On Ice and he showed us all what's up. He's pro at skating backward. The rest of us mostly stuck to the middle of the rink singing and dancing to JBiebs. 

 We both stuffed our faces and ate wayyy too much lactose. Still recouping from that mistake #yikes. But it was so nice to relax and not worry about school or work + seeing my faves is always a good time. 

fall photos

Last weekend my friend Brittany took some pictures of us at the San Elijo Lagoon in Solana Beach and they turned out so great I thought I'd share a few! Brittany's husband started law school the same time as Sam so we have a special bond of going through that together. Also, she has the cutest baby in the whole world, the greatest style, and on top of that is an awesome photographer so basically she is just amazing and you will all want to check out her work at realityandretrospect.com . We had so much fun taking pictures with her and even though Sam took some convincing he was a good sport. And now for engagement pictures round 2?... I feel like it's weird to call them family pictures because #babyless so I just refer to them as our fall photos. But it works right?

On another note, can you believe this is fall for us?! San Diego is really so perfect right now.

 {Insert all the heart eye emojis} We love it here in our little beach town.

nachoooooo

Dressing up is my jam so Halloween is my kind of holiday! "It's the best, I love it!" Luckily Samuel goes along with my crazy costume plans and doesn't mind cross dressing. But he couldn't even look at me with that mustache. He hated it -- like would avoid eye contact with me because it creeped him out hated it! But what's Nacho Libre without a little mustache and real life afro? It had to be done.

As we were taking these pictures in the kitchen while simultaneously singing the Encarnacion song very loudly we didn't realized our window was open and got a few crazy looks from our neighbors.

Also Nacho Libre is one of the best movies to quote, once you start you can't stop. 

"They think I don't know a buttload of crap about the gospel but I doooo ok?!" 

"When you are a man sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room, it's for fun."

"To kiss your mouth I break my vow. No no no, no no no way Jose, unless you want to. 

Then we break our vow together!" 

 ~ Encarnacion & Nacho

 ooxxooXoXXx (hug hug kiss kiss hug hug big kiss little hug kiss kiss little kiss)

the sunflower field

A couple weeks ago we went with some friends to a tiny parking lot pumpkin patch for some pumpkins. But we didn't get the full-fall experience there so Saturday we took a trip to the Rancho Bernardo Pinery Pumpkin Patch for tractor rides, a corn maze, and sunflower fields. But really we all know I just went for the goats...

You would think wandering through sunflower fields would be all fun, romantic, and what not but really I'm laughing because Sam's ready to hightail it outta there because of the bees! So many bees!

Sam and I are so happy to have some more law school friends to adventure with and Cortney and Aaron are great because they put up with all of our antics and craziness. 

finding fall

Samuel had a short, two-day fall break which we wrongly thought was a full week...Hence the spontaneous road trip to find fall! We've always wanted to go up to Julian, CA to pick apples/get their famous apple pie. The orchards closed a couple weeks ago but we decided to venture up there anyway because fall break was rapidly coming to end and because you only live once. And it was perfect! 

We stopped at Lake Cuyamaca, a little lake town we stumbled upon with the coolest temperatures we've felt since Christmas 2014 in Utah. The brisk air was heaven after countless weeks of high 80's and 90's. But I guess we're not quite used to 50 degree weather anymore because we froze our little bums off as we ventured around the lake. 

At Julian we started with dessert first- some yummy homemade apple pie at Julian Pie Company. We each got different flavors and toppings but devoured each piece without a picture. We walked across the street to a little bookstore and then wandered around the rest of Main Street which wasn't hard to accomplish because it's the tiniest Main Street I've ever seen! Then we finished with an early dinner at one of the tiny restaurants.

The drive up to Julian was well worth it! We loved the scenery and were so happy to find a town that experienced fall. We got to wear jackets!! Seriously that was the best part about the whole trip! It was cold enough for cozy clothes and for turning on the car heater. Thank you Julian for the best hour road trip we could ask for! We'll be back next fall for some apple picking!!