Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving meant a nice long weekend off from work for both of us, so we spent it relaxing and doing a little shopping. This year we decided to take Duke & Harley down to San Diego with us for Thanksgiving with Lucas' family after making sure that we had tired them out so that they wouldn't be as hyper around everyone.

We made the drive down to San Diego Wednesday night...big mistake, traffic was insane and an hour and a half later we had only made it maybe half way when it would normally take just about two hours to get down there. Alas, it was Thanksgiving...the dogs had been getting restless anyways so we stopped over to let them walk around and stretch their legs. A little while later we were finally there.

It was time for Harley to meet Kasey, Uncle Dan & Aunt Karen's new dog. Duke had met Kasey a couple of weeks before and they had a lot of fun chasing each other around, but Harley is a lot bigger and she loves picking on Duke so we were a little worried considering Kasey is about half Duke's size. But, they got along great and would have a great time playing with each other.

The next morning, Thanksgiving day, we all went to the nearby lagoon and went for a walk/run with Duke, Harley and Kasey coming along too. Aidan and Julian wanted to take turns walking Duke while Harley went for a run with Will so we stayed back to walk with them. The boys had a lot of fun walking Duke and watching him explore all the bushes along the way. When they weren't walking Duke they each took turns sitting on Lucas' shoulders. It was a lot of fun and a nice start to the morning.

After lunch, we kept up with one of Mahina's Thankgiving traditions and went to see The Blindside at the theatres. The Blindside was a great movie that we both really enjoyed and look forward to buying on DVD. When we got back to the house, Jason, Aunt Karen't nephew and his girlfriend Peggy had arrived. We hadn't realized how close they both live to us, it'll be nice to know more couples around us.

Thanksgiving dinner was a feast as usual, everyone crowded around the center island as the food was being pulled out ready to dig in. By the end of the night everyone was tired and completely full and ready to relax. While Lucas was playing and beating Aidan in NCAA '10 (Hawai`i over Texas!) Mahina was downstairs with Jocelyn having fun while the dogs just roamed the house and played with the first person they saw. Harley was the perfect size for Julian to grab by the collar and walk around with so when she wasn't causing roucous around the house she could always be found right at Julian's side.

We spent the rest of the weekend taking advantages of the sales that were going on and also managed to get iPhone's too. With Nema in town, we took advantage of his iPhone knowledge and were bugging him with questions and recommendations for different apps, even taking him to the Apple store with us to pick out phone cases and screen protectors. All in all it was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun!

UCLA vs ASU Football

Our Saturday morning started out much like any other until Elijah called us up with extra tickets to the day's UCLA v ASU football game at the Rose Bowl. We quickly re-scheduled Harley's grooming appointment for the following Monday and got a quick work out in for Harley before heading over to Venice to pick up Elijah and his brother Zack.

We started the drive out to Pasadena telling stories and hearing of this year's MOB Days adventures. Soon enough we were in Pasadena and found ourselves driving around looking for a place to eat lunch. We headed for L&L but changed course and ate lunch at a teriyaki restaurant right next door.

Refueled we took off for the stadium. There were tons of people tail gating by the time we got there and the party was in full swing. We managed to find a parking spot close to an exit so getting out wouldn't be too much of a hassle. It was getting to the stadium and back that was going to be a hike. Elijah had 6 tickets  to the game and before we went in to the stadium he managed to unload the last 2 tickets. We were really fortunate to have some great seats to the game, we were 3 rows up from the visiting sideline at about the 37yd line so we had a great view of the field.

Once the game got going things got a lot more fun. ASU started with the ball and on their first drive their sophomore quarterback threw a Pick 6 to get the scoring going for UCLA. Things were looking to be a good night for the Bruins, but the Sun Devils hung in there and were running the ball up and down the field.

It was starting to get cold so Mahina and I made our way over to the UCLA gear booth and Mahina picked up a UCLA football shirt to layer up with. We weren't the only ones cold though, Elijah and Zack started to cuddle to keep each other warm and kept the lewd jokes flowing all game long.

One of the big reasons we all went to the game was to see Eddie Williams start at right guard. Eddie and Elijah played high school ball together, but Eddie had broken his foot a couple of weeks before so he was out for the season which sucked. We left the game with about 5 minutes to go in the 4th quarter and headed over to the UCLA campus to meet up with Eddie. Once we found the dorm, Eddie rolled over on his scooter and met us in the lobby. We hung out for a little bit and then headed over to grab some Diddy Reese cookies in Westwood. All in all it was a great day with the Bruins and we had a lot of fun.

Kappa Alpha Theta Alumni Brunch

If you ask either of us what the best and most rewarding decision we made while in college, besides Lucas’ decision to date me, it would be hands down joining our Sorority and Fraternity, Kappa Alpha Theta and Sigma Phi Epsilon. It might be stereotypical to say that these people are our sisters and brothers, but they truly are. My “family” of Alex, Dominique, Taylor, Hayley, Taylor and Julie are truly some of the most amazing girls I have met. So when I got the email that we would be having the Annual Theta Alumni Brunch, I quickly responded yes and was counting down the days till I got to hang out with my sisters.

When I arrived at the brunch I was greeted my Christie, the Undergraduate Alumni Chair, Monica, the VP of Public Relations, Sarah, the President and the Alumni Alicia, Sarah and Dominique, my little sis and bridesmaid. We quickly sat down to catch up on all things Theta; it was amazing to see these girls again. Partially through the Brunch we had a “little competition” and got quizzed by tables on Theta Trivia. Not by our surprise, the Alumni killed it and took home the prizes.

It is always ironic to me that we have the Annual Alumni Brunch in The Hill because that is where my pledge class had our Bid Day. It is always surreal to come back year after year to where it all started and think that it was only yesterday that I received my first, of many, Theta Shirts and met my sisters for life.

Griffith Observatory

It was a beautiful night in LA so after doing a little research we decided to head to the Griffith Observatory. Mahina had managed to find out that between 5:54 and 5:58pm the International Space Station would be flying overhead of the Observatory, and conditions permitting we would be able to see it fly by.

We decided to make a trip of it and stopped to get dinner in downtown. Originally, we were planning to stop at the Nickel Diner that we had see on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" a Food Network Channel great, but they were closed so instead we ended up at this funky pizza shop the Pitfire Pizza Company. We lucked out and the food was great... except for the homemade watermelon lemonade, worst idea ever.

As we drove up the long and windy road to the Observatory it became apparent that parking was going to be an issue, but instead of getting greedy and going for that one spot at the top that's sure to materialize when only you get there we found a spot along the road just a little ways down the hill. As soon as we were out of the car we were awestruck by the beauty of the city down below. It was a little hazy so the visibility wasn't as clear as it could have been, but the panoramic views of the city were just incredible. Due to an unforeseen road closure, we arrived at the Observatory right after the International Space Station would have made its way overhead, which sucked, but the exhibits in the Observatory made up for it.

Once we were inside we immediately headed over to buy our tickets for the "Center of the Universe" movie exhibit. By the time we got the tickets we only had a little bit of time before the movie started so we started to explore the Observatory before heading outside. The Observatory does a great job of making the science of Astronomy understandable and hands-on. There were plenty of diagrams, samples and pictures to explain everything you wanted to know about Astronomy.

Hands down though, the Center of the Universe move was the highlight of our trip. The movie is shown on a screen that is basically the entire ceiling of a dome. It's a sight to behold itself. The movie was basically Astronomy 101 with some incredible animation and real space images as well. We both thought that the movie was incredibly eye-opening and fascinating. Had Lucas seen it 10 years earlier, accounting might not have ever happened...

Right in the center of the Observatory where you walk in hangs a huge pendulum that is there to prove that the Earth is in fact rotating on its axis. It's a difficult concept to explain, but the basically because the pendulum is constantly swinging and always in the same direction if you setup some pins say 90 degrees to its right they will eventually come to be knocked over by the pendulum because the earth's rotation brought the pins into the path of the pendulum. It's pretty cool.

Another exhibit the Observatory had was about the planets in our solar system, and yes they still had Pluto up there. At each planet there was a lot of information about its size, mass and gravity with a scale on the floor so you could see what your weight would be on each planet.

We spent the last couple of hours checking out the rest of the Observatory before making our way over to the gift shop where we managed to pick up two 50 year paperweight calendars that were pretty nifty.

National History Museum

One of Mahina's oldest friends Jessica was in LA for the weekend for her birthday with her husband Jeremy and their two friends Garrett and Meagan. They had all made the trip from Utah to celebrate Jessica's birthday with a trip to Disneyland. After a weekend of festivities, we were able to catch up with Jessica and everyone at the National History Museum.

After the museum the group still had the rest of the afternoon before their flight back home so we decided to catch a movie. When we got to the theater the only thing that looked remotely good was Law Abiding Citizen with Jamie Foxx and Gerald Butler. It was a great movie, but a little intense for Mahina and scared her good a couple of times.

Sadly it was time for Jessica and everyone to head to the airport to catch their flight back home.