Two Exciting Weeks!

These last two weeks have been busy but full of fun! First we found out something very interesting when it comes to carving pumpkins. Unlike back at home, you can't carve them 2 weeks before Halloween and put them on display. Ross and I carved our pumpkins on a Sunday and two days later they started growing hair and mold. So they only lasted 2 and a half days before we had to feed them to the trash. But we still had fun!

Last week we got to enjoy a visit from my parents and brother. The visit with family started on Saturday the 23. After a quick trip to the airport and a quick lunch that consisted of pizza and beer, we packed up the back pack and were off to Hollywood to hike up to the famous Hollywood sign! The weather couldn't have been better considering we had rain everyday the previous week. So after an hour and a half of hiking to the top, we enjoyed a small picnic of wine, beer, cheese, crackers, and meat (you know....the typical picnic you take hiking). To relax after a 5 mile hike, we enjoyed a nice Mexican dinner with margaritas and then off to the beach to listen to the sounds of the evening surf.

After a 5 mile hike what would be better than walking around Disneyland all day?? Well we got to enjoy just that....something Shaun and I haven't done with our parents for 20 years!! Minus the light mist/rain that moved in later in the evening, the weather was nice and we all had a great time! We even got to see the new water show, World of Color!

And if a 5 mile hike and walking around Disneyland an entire day wasn't enough physical activity, we decided to do a 10 mile bike ride along the coast. But this wasn't just any regular bike ride....we rented a 4 person surrey. Basically it's a bike that looks very similar to a golf cart. Since Shaun and Amanda had to leave that morning, Mom, Dad, and Ross and I got to enjoy this one on our own. We started in Huntington Beach and rode south along the beach to Newport Beach. To replenish ourselves after our 50 min bike ride, we enjoyed lunch and drinks at a bar overlooking the ocean. After an hour of relaxing, we had an hour ride back up to Huntington Beach where we started, but this time with a strong head wind that made it all the more difficult.
Even though this last visit from family dealt with a lot more physical activities, it was tons of fun and we can't wait until we see them again.

To finish out this past weekend, we enjoyed our first costume party for Halloween! Ross and a couple guys from school all dressed up as 1980s wrestlers and I went as the referee. After enjoying a few drinks at the house party, we all headed down to Newport Beach to one of the bars on the coast. I have to admit you feel a little goofy walking down the street going to a bar dressed in a costume. Thankfully we weren't the only ones dressed up so that makes things feel less weird.

And now that October is officially over, the next big even is Ross' birthday! Details on how that plays out will be in the next posting. So for now, below are some pictures from the last few weeks, more to come later.

My Birthday

To celebrate my 28th birthday, Ross surprised me with a dinner cruise! We set sail around 7:00pm and cruised down the harbor along the peninsula. We enjoyed a 4 course meal, a bottle of champagne, and of course dancing! Every time we would go to the beach we would always see these cruise ships/boats leaving the harbor and I thought it would be so much fun to go one of them. So Ross was sweet enough to take me on one! I posted some pictures below. And in addition to the dinner cruise, Ross surprised me with flowers during lunch at work on my birthday!

Not much else took place these last two weeks. But the next few weeks are going to be busy. This coming Saturday I will be taking a class to become a Notary. My boss wants me to become a notary and in California, you are required to take a 6 hour class and take an exam. So I get to do all of that this Saturday.

Ross has his rough draft of his law review article due in a couple weeks so he has been spending a lot of time working on that in addition to mid terms. So like usual, he has been extremely busy.

Next weekend will be something different for us because Shaun and Amanda will be here next Friday and Mom and Dad will be here next Saturday! So excited to be able to spend time with all of them together at the same time! We are planning on going to Disneyland on Saturday and then we are going to hike to the Hollywood sign! So far those are the only two real events set in stone. But I guess that is what is nice about visits from family, you don't always have to have everything all planned out. They are usually easy to please.

Bonfire Pictures

Welcome Home Car!!

After almost 5 weeks and a lot of phone calls, we finally got my car back. Thankfully things weren't too bad with just one car, but it does make going to work and school a lot easier when we each have our own transportation. But since it has been 3 weeks since I lasted posted anything, I have some catching up to do on what's been going on.

Last time I posted Ross had his tryout for Trial Advocacy. He found out the following week that he was one of 20 people that made it on the team. There were a total of 50 people who tried out and they only took 20. So that was really exciting! And now that he is part of Trial Advocacy, that means more time at the school. But this is something he was really wanting to be apart of to help build skills and experience. Law Review is still going well. This past week he finished the first part of his article which was creating his outline. And as for classes, the first midterm is next week so the heavy studying has begun.

As for fun stuff, a couple weekends ago we went to our first movie premier in Los Angeles. One of the ladies Ross goes to school with did stunt work and small acting parts before going to law school. Well this is a B rated movie so it was nothing like the red carpet in Hollywood and it was something that was completed in 2008. She had a small speaking part that lasted about 5 mins but it was still fun to go to. There were 20 of us total that went and we all rode in a limo to the premier and then we went to a night club in Santa Monica for a few hours. Even though neither of us are really into the club scene, we still had a good time.

The following weekend we enjoyed a campfire/bonfire on the beach with a group of friends from school. That was a lot of fun....roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over the open fire on the beach listening to the ocean in the background. The last time we were around a campfire was in the mountains back in Colorado.

So September was a packed month. Now we are moving on to October which means my birthday, Halloween, the start of the holidays, and another visit from the family! Mom and Dad, and Shaun and Amanda are making another trip out to see us....this time together. They will be here the weekend of the 23. So we are looking forward to seeing them again. This time we plan on spending a day in Disneyland and then we are all hiking to the Hollywood sign. Can't wait, it's gonna be a lot of fun!

Not-So-Good End to August

Well, here it has been yet another 2 weeks since I last wrote. But I like to think I've had good reason. On Sunday, August 29 we were involved in a small car accident. Everyone is fine except for my car. In a nut shell we were hit by a 19 year old girl who stepped on the gas pedal instead of the break pedal when pulling out of a parking lot and ran right into the front tire on the passenger side. We had to have the car towed because it was no longer drivable. It has now been two weeks and the car is still at the repair shop and it is still waiting for parts to arrive to be fixed. So for the last two weeks Ross and I have been carpooling around town in the Durango. It has actually worked out pretty well and forces Ross to get up early and do some studying for school instead of sleeping in and watching TV.

In addition to the car drama, Ross has been super busy with school. Not only has he been busy with his regular classes but he has to spend extra time on research for Law Review as well as attending weekly meetings that are on Saturday mornings for a couple hours. And this past week he had his tryouts for Trial Advocacy. For the tryouts he had to prepare a cross-examination of a witness and a closing arguments. Both could not be over 5 mins. So this past week I was role playing as both the witness and the jury. Unfortunately he tried out on the first day so we have to wait until sometime next week for the results. But I'm pretty sure he made it with no problem.

Other than Ross being busy with school, work going good for me, and the car spending more time in the repair shop than I would like, things are going good for us. I posted a few pictures of what the car looked like after being hit.

Summer Officially Over

Well summer has officially come to an end in the Wood household. Ross started school today which also meant starting his externship at the Orange County District Attorney's Office. Even though today was his first day there, he didn't get to do too much except watch a 3 hour video they make all new hires start. So the last hour of his day wasn't filled with much work. So we will have to wait until his first week is over to get a better idea of what goes on there. He will be working there every Mon and Wed for 4 hours and then Friday for 8 hours. All that on top of taking 5 classes and doing Law Review (more details in a bit). So this semester is going to be more hectic than last semester.

So...back to Law Review. Law Review is like a "magazine" the school publishes. The only way you can get on Law Review is by invitation only which is based on grades and class ranking from the previous year (which is why Ross was invited). So, with this magazine, lawyers, judges, and legal scholars write articles and submit them to the school. Then the students on Law Review review the articles, edit them, and site check them. Once that is done, the articles are published in this "magazine". In addition to the articles from lawyers, judges, and legal scholars, every edition of the magazine includes an article written by one of the Law Review students. This magazine is a national magazine and once the student's article is published, all lawyers, judges, and legal scholars have access to it. The big thing about Law Review articles is that they can be used as legal sources for trials thus adding an additional level of publishing or notoriety to the writer. So the hope is that the article that Ross has to write is published before he graduates.

Another sign that summer is over is that our vacation to Las Vegas has come and gone. It seemed like Vegas weekend was never going to come and before we knew it, we were back home and Vegas week was over. Even though it was only about 3 and half days long, it was a very nice vacation. To help celebrate Dad's 60th birthday, Ross and I surprised him with his favorite cake (German chocolate), homemade of course. We enjoyed 3 nights in one of the suites and free tickets to the hotel's Cirque de Soleil type show called La Reve. Talk about amazing!! It involved live music, dance, acrobats, and synchronized swimming.

After our trip to Vegas, Ross' mom came out to visit us for a few days before Ross had to go back to school. She got into town last Wednesday and headed home this past Saturday. Unfortunately I had to work but we were still able to go out and do things in the evening. We enjoyed some delicious sushi and a walk through the canals in Naples, fireworks at Disneyland, and some yummy Mexican food and a beautiful sunset on the beach. Good way to end the summer.

Below are some pictures from our trip to Vegas and Margo's visit to California. You can view new pictures from the World of Color at Disneyland via the slide show. Hope you enjoy!

Ross and Mom showing their excitement to be in Las Vegas!

Behind us is the view from our hotel room

Behind us is the view from Mom & Dad's room (much better than ours)

The La Reve theatre

As seen on "Pawn Stars" on the History Channel

Ross doing his yoga on the beach

Downward dog pose

Anniversaries!

Last week was a week of anniversaries for us. A year ago August 1st was the last day we lived in our house back in Colorado. It was also the day we finished packing up everything and started our move to California. A year ago August 3rd was the day we arrived in Costa Mesa and moved into our new home. And 4 years ago August 5th was the day I became a Wood. To celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary, we had an amazing steak dinner at Morton's Steakhouse. Talk about the best steak I have ever eaten!! It was so delicious and the service was fantastic. After dinner we enjoyed a nice walk along the beach and watched the waves crash on the sand in the moon light. After the beach we headed back home to change into some stretchy comfy clothes and enjoyed a movie.

I guess you could say that we celebrated our 1 year anniversary of living in Costa Mesa by signing a new lease on our favorite apartment (not really). Or we decided to stay put mainly because of the hassle of having to locate a new place and move everything all over again. So we are stuck in our place until next December.

Another anniversary that took place last week was my 90 days at my new job. With the completion of my first 90 days, I now get benefits, paid vacation and paid holidays. I also had a 90 day review which went very well and I got a raise and a job title change. So now I just have to make it 9 more months and then I will have my one year review which has the possibility of a second raise.

With all these anniversaries going on, it only seemed right to celebrate everything with a trip to Las Vegas! So that is exactly what we are doing this weekend. Actually the trip was planned back in April to celebrate our wedding anniversary and my dad's birthday. But we can celebrate everything else at the same time. Ross and I are leaving this Friday morning and will pick up my parents from the airport in Las Vegas that evening. We are staying 3 nights in a suite at the Encore Hotel and Resort and are going to the Le Reve show on Saturday night! Should be a pretty fun time. Ross and I have been looking forward to this vacation for months and are so excited that it is finally here! The only disappointing part of the trip is that Shaun and Amanda won't be joining us...they decided a music festival would be more fun than Vegas (or it was just bad timing and they had already bought their tickets). I guess that means we just have to plan another trip, which is something I'm OK with.


Picture of the hotel we are staying in