Some of the things we did lately

I've missed a lot of smaller events from the blog lately what with having an irregular schedule and not doing quite so much, but we have been keeping busy and I wanted to write some of the good times down before I forget. 

The last regular post I did was about going to the Redwoods for Thanksgiving, so I have a lot to catch up on. I'll start in December.

We went to the living desert for free one weekend because we get free entry with our Bank of America cards. 

We had a potluck at Makbule's house and on the same night I went to a holiday cookie exchange with my friends from meet-up. I made the always popular Christmas crinkle cookies. 

The next week I went to my first aerial skills class which is a lot of fun! 

We also dropped in on Makbule in her office for Mitchell's birthday (as she was leaving for Turkey soon) and unbeknownst to us, she had invited Marine and Rene to join us for cake. 

I had a Christmas girls night where we decorated cookies and watched Love Actually. We had to stop the movie halfway through as Marine's roomate came home and we picked it up again the next week at our apartment while Mitchell went to improv. 

I went to the board game cafe with some other friends from meet-up and I still have the dice we won from doing their in-house game. 

We went to the library holiday party at a branch I'd not been to before and then on the weekend we went ice-skating at the festival of lights for Mitchell's birthday. The group got him a basket of cheese as a gift and we all had a nice time, even though some of us were experienced skaters and some of us were beginners. 

That weekend we also went to the 123 Farms Christmas lights. It was very pretty, and we enjoyed some mulled wine while we walked around fields of lights and sculptures. I think it was a little overpriced for what it was, but it was very pretty. 

We had made the decision to stay in California for Christmas this year, and so had quite a few friends, so we invited them over on Christmas eve. We all brought food and mulled wine, and we played games and Rene even managed to find Christmas crackers which had whistles and music to follow inside which was a lot of fun to do together. We discussed different traditions across Europe and ate a lot of cheese together. 

Christmas day we called a lot of family and made our own Christmas dinner just us.

 

On the 27th, Thomas arrived and we had all sorts of adventures with him. We went to a New Years Eve party at Stephie and Milan's where we did all sorts of fun German traditions including watching "Dinner for one" and fortune telling with hot wax.

I took Thomas up the aerial tramway to see some snow and we did some hiking, and then we all went to Joshua Tree for a hike which was also very cold and windy. Mitchell also fed a chipmunk a jalapeno here which he thought was funny, but I thought was very cruel. 

Fortunately, it wasn't all cold weather for Thomas and we had a day at the beach too and I took him on a little waterfall hike with smoothie bowls at the end. As a quick activity we also went to go and find the wild donkeys around Riverside. We went to San Diego Zoo and the Long Beach Aquarium, and spent the day in LA seeing the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood sign.  

Showing him all of Riverside in one go

When Thomas left we had a low key weekend and went to go and see Natalie in her dance show and went for drinks after. We got a little caught in the rain afterwards. 

Soon after, it was my birthday, and Mitchell discovered that you can go skiing for free on your birthday! He rented a cabin, and we were able to borrow all of the gear from a friend which was awesome! 

We drove up last thing on the Saturday and once we'd finally found the right place in the dark, we were able to get pizza from the shop next door right before they closed for the night. We were up early in the morning, with snacks we'd bought for breakfast. The weather report had said chains were required, so we put them on the wheels, but almost no-one else seemed to be wearing them and the roads were pretty clear, so on the way home we took them off. 

Not actually our cabin as it turned out, but cute all the same

We arrived at the slopes of Snow Valley, got my free birthday ticket, and set off. Mitchell gave me a lesson and then we started doing the tiny practice runs. I did ok, but it was a lot faster than I had imagined! We did a few more run of this slope, stopping for hot chocolate and then lunch after a few. Mitchell then went on a bigger slope by himself while I had a rest (it's tiring!) and then we went on final run again together. We left a little early, because there were big grey clouds gathering and the weather said a winter storm was arriving that evening, but I did have fun and agreed to go again one day.  

The next weekend was more birthday celebrations, but this time it was me and Bruno (whose birthday was the next week). He'd just moved from Riverside to LA, and we all went to see his new apartment and have a party on his rooftop, and then moved downstairs once it got chilly. We had people sleeping all over the floor and had a great time. 

The next morning, we went out for coffee and breakfast, and then went to the Broad together to see some art.

The next exciting thing was Mexico which I've written up in a separate blog post.

When we got back, we went for a couple's massage which was my birthday present to Mitchell. We also went to Stephie and Milan's to try out their pretzel recipe and VR machine.

Dangerous chemicals were used in the production of these pretzels

That weekend, we all went back to Bruno's and went out to a club nearby. There were a few less of us staying over, and it was a bit of a messy night, but we all had fun doing a post-mortem the next morning. 

We met up again the next weekend to have a "Dune" watch party. Bruno stayed the night and then we went for some brunch at a little French cafe where we brought Marine along for an authenticity check. She approved of the cooked dishes, but not of the pastries. The four of us then went to hers to play settlers of Catan, and then we made some dinner and went to watch "Dune II" in the cinema with the group. 

On St Patrick's day, we went to a music festival which had been a Christmas present. They had free beer tasting, so we tried some interesting ciders and even a bright green mint lemonade. The music was good and it was a very nice day out. 

Later that weekend we went for a hike into an oasis in the desert. We had to stop before we got there as they had closed the roads temporarily, so we went to visit the Palm Springs botanic gardens and ate our lunch while we waited. 

Don't touch - spiky

We started the hike and it was very beautiful. There were huge California Palms and a little river running through them. We had to take a quick break when it started to rain, but it brightened up for the rest of the hike. The second half was along a ridge above the oasis, which was less pretty, but cool to see it from another angle. 

Sandra had a party the next week, with lots of food and dancing at her house. We also went to a place called John's amazing pizza place, which has an all you can eat pizza buffet and arcade games. We went for a friend's 8 year old's birthday and brought some lego as a present. 

We also started going to the gym to help with Mitchell's physical therapy.

And we went back to Knott's Berry Farm for the Boysenberry festival, which wasn't as cool as we were expecting. The regular food outlets had a few additions of food with the berry incorporated, and there were lots of decorations, but it was mostly the same as last time.

As it's springtime, we've also been out hunting wildflowers in our local area.

And that just about brings us up to our East coast trip and visit to New York!

There's been a few more things. like karaoke nights and pizza and beer at the getaway on campus, improv shows, and quick little shopping trips together, but to list them all would take forever. I promise to catch you up again soon!

Lots of love,

Emily and Mitchell

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