August and Everything After

This is not our usual “six month” catch-up, so you should all be very impressed…it’s only been FIVE months! ;) This is a super busy time of year, so I’ll try to keep it brief because I know that you all don’t have hours and hours to scroll through a verbose blog post (that’s fun to say) due to the hustling and bustling (how can you tell if you’re hustling or bustling?) and whatnot of the season.

My heart is heavy today…my Uncle Stewart has been laid to rest after a very long battle with cancer. I have never had the privilege of spending much time with my other Uncle (Robert), so I must say that this hit me surprisingly hard because I have so many wonderful memories of Uncle Stewart and I was lucky enough to spend lots of time with him…moreso when I was younger, since I’ve been a nomad pretty much all my adult days.  And of course he will be missed, but I know that he is in a much better place and free of pain. God has a plan for everyone and I’m very happy in knowing that my Mom living so close to my Aunt Mary is God’s plan to help her through this. Much love to you all and know that I would be there in a heartbeat if I could! This military life is quite wonderful, except in just this situation. L These things will always be Uncle Stewart: photography, epic war movies (Saving Private Ryan), and chocolate covered cherries.

Here’s our whirlwind catchup:

August

What goes on in August? Nothing. Except this picture:

September

Did some stuff, saw a bunch of Japanese stuff. Ate a bunch of Japanese food.

Actually we truly did because J’s friends from Korea came over to stay with us for a few days and we did a bunch of tourist-y sightseeing that we haven’t done since we first moved here! It was really fun to see some of it again and to remember what it was like being in awe seeing it for the first time…and we truly enjoyed how much our guests LOVED Japan! Just like we do! J

October

YES, FINALLY we get to the most important month of the year…ma birth month!! ;) Seriously, though, I am looking forward to these birth celebrations more and more because J really knows how to spoil a girl!! We had an amazing trip to Disneyland w/our friends! It was a really relaxing few days away from base (which was needed) and it made getting older way less scary! I got adorable cookies from my friend (they were unbelievably cute and also tasted good…what a woman!) and we enjoyed a lot of laughs playing board games…took it way back old school cause I’m old! HA! Oh and my work friends went crazy getting me an adorable cake, gifts, and everything! This is a pretty charmed life, folks. You haven’t lived until you’ve had sweet Japanese women doting over you! J And my Momma sent me a beautiful opal ring, so all that and jewry to boot! Oh and lots of online shopping courtesy of my seester…I’ll have you all know that I had been wanting a Waterpik for months and I used my Amazon gift moolah to buy it…and I’m happy to report that TWO whole months later, I’m still loving it and using it daily! So, do the responsible thing for your loved one this Christmas and hook them up with a Waterpik! Your dentist will do a happy dance*.

November

For November we pretty much laid low until the 20^th when we flew out to Cali to spend Thanksgiving with the kiddos! We flew into San Fran and then rented a car and drove out to Travis and spent the next day just trying to beat jet-lag and hanging out with a couple of my Cali friends! It was great to spend time with them even though we are always rushed when we get together! But J got to enjoy Ashley’s bday party while I hung out w/my girlfriends so that was a bonus! He always has to miss those events because we’re so far away. Then we picked up the kids and headed out on our epic road trip…first stop was Bakersfield so that we could just take it slow and not rush full speed down to San Diego…and also because we knew we’d still be jet lagged so we built a couple of “slow” days into the trip! It worked great because we got up early the next day (also known as 0930…to kids, this is early in case you didn’t know) and continued the drive down to SD…with a stop in Hollywood to fuel the movie lover in me! I got to walk the (almost) entire Walk of Fame, paused for the pic below next to Nicole Kidman’s name, saw Grauman’s, and walked in Dolby Theater!!! I really, really REALLY wanted to do the Dolby Theater tour (it is where the Oscars are held for you non-movie folk out there) (hey wait, how are we even friends if you don’t like movies??)(I kid, I kid…but still, that’s just weird that you don’t like movies)…but alas we didn’t have time, so we’ll have to save that for the next trip! But I got to peek in the door and the theater looked pretty magical…I so badly wanted to trip on the same stairs as J-Law but alas, they weren’t to be found. But overall, it was a great (quick) trip through Hollywood...and we even enjoyed trying to follow one of the MANY tour buses through some ritzy neighborhoods in our half-hearted attempt at celebrity house-hunting. I so badly wanted to just ask random people “hey, are you Tom Hanks??!” or whatever name popped into my head, but I didn’t have the guts. It did make the kids laugh a bit when we would be driving and I’d pick a random celebrity that the person walking looking absolutely nothing like. Good times! Actually, come to think of it, maybe I’m the only one that thought it was funny…anyway, we moved on that same day down to the Naval Base in San Diego to check in and get situated. It was a beautiful drive and more pretty much perfect pacing, which continued throughout the whole trip! Nobody needed a vacation from the vacation due to going 95mph all the time, which is always good. J Over the next few days we enjoyed eating lots of fatty American food (Cheeeeesecake, oh good GRIEF), strolling around San Diego’s awesome downtown, and visiting SeaWorld and the Zoo. I will refrain from telling you all about the documentary I stupidly watched on SeaWorld’s cruel treatment of animals (it’s called Blackfish, look it up, it’s awful)…but let me just say that I deeply regret watching that before we went. That being said, we got in 5 for the price of 1 thanks to J’s military status, so we felt as though it would be a waste not to go…and I did enjoy seeing animals that I would not be able to see anywhere else. That is the nicest thing I can say about SeaWorld lol. Oh and the cleaner fish were super fun (see below). Anyway, the ZOO was totally amazing and we spent Thanksgiving Day exploring there and we had our epic Thanksgiving dinner there too! It was quite a day. And my only regret of the whole trip was that we didn’t budget two days at the zoo…we were a bit rushed through it due to not wanting to miss our Turkey Day reservation, but it was still a great day. If you visit San Diego, budget two days for the zoo for sure! Oh and my other favorite day was definitely the BEACH day…we found an awesome beach at Coronado Naval Base that we pretty much had to ourselves for a couple hours! It was beautiful. And then we went tide pool exploring along the coast and ended the day at a great location to watch the sunset! Pretty perfect little family vacation and I am very thankful that we got to experience it together with the kids!

This brings us to December and it's early yet still but it's been awesome considering we got to see one of J and I's favorite artists live on the base for free what whaaaat! Colbie Caillat was amazing!! And I got to hang with J and some of my sweet girls from the spouse's club so it was even better. This pretty much catches us up and it's our wish that you all have a blessed and fun holiday season. Cherish your family. Tell them you love them every single day if you can. Don’t wait and don’t be shy about anything because you don’t know how many days you have left to tell them what you want them to remember. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and may all the days before and after be blessed!

Much love, from Jonas and Liz to all y’all! Enjoy the pics below!

*Happy dance not guaranteed. But most likely your teeth will love you for it!

Simmy pretending to talk on the phone and me pretending to be bored. Yeah, we're weirdos ;)

The awesome Hollywood sign and Ash's epic "Ashley face"

Smoochies overlooking Hollywood

Smoochies at the artsy garden in San Diego ;)

Awww :)

Bad pic of us, wicked awesome pic of everything else lol

Dory!

Everyone else is derp but I actually look cute!!! How is this possible? Oh well, guess what, it's going on the blog! HA. Take that, sleepy family! :p

The Derp Series, Pic 1

The Derp Series, Pic 2

The Derp Series, Pic 3

The Derp Series, Pic 4

The Derp Series, Pic 5

Oh look, a llama!

Rebel.

The characteristic star pattern of the Masai giraffe (left) as compared to his Reticulated buddy on the right. I was sooooo thrilled because I've never seen anything but a Reticulated giraffe in a zoo!