A bLoggiNg hiAtus...but with ReAsoN!

Phew! what a month! On Thanksgiving, my grandpa H passed away. He was such a great man and will be very missed, but I'm going to dedicate a separate blog post to that. The funeral was a week later and it was good to get together with family. Funny how as we get older, it seems that the only times we really all see each other are at funerals! I hate how that happens!

all the heimback kids grown up...

jordy and all the great grand kids at the gravesite

all the family minus chip and jay (who still had finals...)

since my sisters came down for the funeral, they stayed for a few weeks so we've had a lot of Simpson/Sugu time.

We've been celebrating birthdays...

and just hanging out ...

then my friend Kirsten and her husband Dallas came into town for the week. It was so fun to spend time with them in SD! I took Kirsten to the Wild Animal Park... Then we went to see the lights at Hotel Del. GORGEOUS! I love Coronado Island!

Then I took Kirsten and Dallas to the Zoo... (apparently it was a yellow day...)

Kirsten is one of my greatest friends from the Provo days and it was so great for Dave and I to get to spend time with her and her husband. There are some friendships that you can't describe in words...and the one I have with Kirsten is one of them.The family also got to watch Jordy's all-star tournament and it was a long, but fun day together.

Then we had a family christmas party before Chex had to leave. Poor dave got called to work. :( and missed it. dangit! we ALMOST got all of the Heimback side in one room!

lia got the coolest present in our gift exchange...
and, of course, we are just loving finding time together amidst all the other adventures going on this time of year. we sure do love being together. what a blessing to be married to your best friend. :)
Funny, being this busy has made me feel a little crazy... like this...

but i'm so grateful for the time to spend with such great people. We probably won't see these UT kids for quite a while since everyone's so busy with Master's programs and I miss my sisters so much when they're gone... so what a better way to spend December than with people you love...celebrating the most wonderful time of the year! We are so blessed to get to live so close to both of our parents and so much family. It makes these special times even better!

We hope everyone is having a merry christmas time!

whAt i did pRe-thANksgiviNg eAtiNg

just gotta post this because i was so proud of myself. On thankgsgiving morning, I got myself up at the crack of dawn to participate in this...

WHAT A GREAT WAY TO SPEND THANKSGIVING MORNING! it was gorgeous out! i ran around oceanside and ended up running the last leg of the 5K on the beach. this is definitely something i will do again and again.

the best part is that i ran the whole thing. there was a day when this would have been no big deal for me, but anyone who knows my anaphylaxis stories and how i haven't ran more than 2 miles at a time since then will understand. i fully intended to walk it. i was just excited to be up and about at the beach on such a glorious day. right before it started, i decided "i'm going to run this. the whole thing." so i moved up to the running section. no, it wasn't my fastest run ever. and no, it wasn't really that long of a run. but i was SO proud of myself. there was a moment when i thought i wouldn't be able to do it, but then this lady i passed had a shirt on with the scripture on the back "i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." yeah, that's a paraphrase. but it reminded me that i can! so i kept running despite all of the fears rushing through my head, and even picked up the pace for the last mile. as i sprinted through the finish line, i totally cried. yup. i did. i was so proud of myself and SO grateful for a body that is stronger than i give it credit for.

So here's to being grateful for all that we are and pushing past the walls that hold us back from all that we can be.

oNe of my fAvoRite thiNgs

one of the best things about living here. getting to spend my saturday watching thisdo thisand win this.

congratulations jordy. number one team in town. now on to all-stars. it was an AWESOME day! and i'm SO glad i got to be there to watch you outrun everyone. we're super proud of you. (sorry the last picture is bad, my camera was dying and the flash wouldn't work!)

hAppy NovembeR

probably my favorite halloween in a long time. :) we went trunk or treating with jordy and instead of taking candy...everyone takes candy... we made home-made root beer. it was DELICIOUS and we had lots of fun. dave blowing bubbles...brother frame dressed up as "glenn 40 years ago"...
after trunk or treating, we went to the boshards for some real door knocking.
jordy with becca and dylan

and the back of jordy's hair...just because it was super cool!

hope everyone had a great night! this has been such a great month! what a way to end it! :)

one final festivity...

holy smokes. so one more thing. dave suprised me last week since i was out of town for my birthday by taking me to vegas for the cirque du soleil show "O." OH. MY. AMAZING! it was incredible. it's a water show and has a stage that comes up and down out of the water so one minute someone is diving in from incredible heights, and the next, someone is running across stage covered in fire. if you've never heard of or seen a cirque, i highly recommend it. this one may have spoiled me though. definitely the best i have seen. i had been dying to see it and now i know why. i love the cirque and this was such a great way to celebrate. all dave told me was that we were going "north-east." i had no idea what he meant. i kept thinking we were going to victorville or something "fun" like that. haha. so we drove up in the morning, hung out in vegas for a few,

saw the show,

ATE CAFE RIO. (oh man...funniest story. cafe rio in vegas closes at 10. we got there at 10. dave runs to the door and it is locked, but out walks a family. being the polite gentleman that he is, he holds the door for all of them and then walks inside. he was so embarrassed...but so proud that he was able to get me cafe rio.) and then drove home. it was a blast. i just loved that dave knew exactly what i needed for my birthday this year. 8 hours in the car with just him. :) for reals! we had such a great time. i love spending time with him. with school and all the other craziness, sometimes i feel like we hardly see eachother, so it was such a great adventure. at the end of it all he just looked at me and said "yeah, don't think i'll ever be able to top this." and i totally agreed. haha. i just love and adore him more than i ever thought possible and am SO grateful for the adventures we have together.

the rest

so last week was my birthday and dave spent forever researching and making homemade sprinkles cupcakes. apparently the owner of the cupcake place went on martha stewart and gave 2 of her recipes out. peanut butter chocolate chip and strawberry. he spent all night the night before making them and when i walked in the door was SO excited to show me. they were DELICIOUS!!!

Then, on my birthday, i took off with erin to meet up with the choplettes up in san jose. what a great weekend of time with some incredible girls. we went to the california academy of science, walked across the golden gate bridge, and ate chowder at pier 39. so refreshing to spend time with these girls who have been such an important part of my life. it was a short weekend and was super sad to be away from dave, but he and i are going to celebrate my birthday this weekend.

here are some pictures from the weekend.

i kNow, i kNow...

so much has been going on lately! my goodness. i have so many pictues, so i apologize in advance for how long this post is going to be...

one night while dave was on pager, jordy and i got to go see cats at a local theater here. not gonna lie, super strange play, but fun to spend time with the jordster. we figured out what was going on during the play by reading the synopsis on my phone during it. we did love the music and the dancing though. funny to see people wiggle their bodies like cats. jordann had a good time trying to act like them. the outdoor theatre here has grass seating so we sat up in the back and had a subway picnic.

October 1 was dave's 30TH BIRTHDAY!!!! i begged him to take the day off so we could have a fun day of suprises i made him cinnaman roll cupcakes (his favorite) and we went to disneyland. then i took him to a pirate dinner show and we had so much fun.
probably the best ride at CA adventure!!! Then the next day we had a party with the families. dave requested a 3 layer cake (3 layers in the shape of a 0...haha) with the middle layer chocolate chip and the frosting fluffy. easy order, huh? but super fun to be creative. and it turned out good. well...good tasting. on the drive from our house to his parents, it started looking like a dr seuss cake. then a few days later, i went to the wild animal park with ammer. we can't believe we have been friends for more than 15 years! it was such a great day!yes, we made the other kids wait so we could take a picture. haha. a little 10 year old girl even offered to take the picture for us.

The next day, i tried a new bread recipe that an older lady that works in the temple gave me. it was SO good and she taught me how to braid it like a pro. just for fun, here's a picture of the dough, pre rise and pre bake. just cuz it's pretty.

and since there was a request to see our tile, here are a few pictures of that (i had the camera out at home... disregard the lack of baseboards, that's another project. :) ) Didn't dave do SUCH a great job!!!?

For dave's birthday, i had wanted to take him to a super good shaved ice place i discovered in San Diego. But since it was south instead of north, we went a week late. it is a fantastic hole-in-the-wall Hawaiian food restaurant and the shaved ice was almost as good as Shimazu in Hawaii... made us want to go back for another visit...Then we went up to visit with Elida for her 91st birthday! she joined in on the singing and we had a good time with family... and since i'm sick of dragging pictures down the post, i'm gonna do another post with the rest.