The End of 2009.

Nik and I had an awesome opportunity to go to California for New Years. It was made possible because our friends decided to get married in San Diego and so we wanted to go support them and make it a fun trip.

Tuesday after Christmas we drove over from AZ to Oceanside, CA. (Sidenote: I drove the WHOLE way and that is a big accomplishment for me! Just sayin.) We got there around 7ish in the evening and met my good friend, Terri, and her fiance, Brandon, at Red Lobster. Being so close to the ocean made my cravings for seafood sky rocket. It was so fun talking with them and meeting Brandon for the first time.

That next day we woke up and walked down to this little restaurant for pancakes and eggs. It was such a nice walk right there next to the ocean. The weather was awesome and it was a great way to start the day!

After breakfast we went back to Nik's Aunt Macy's house (she was so kind to let us stay with her and Uncle Jim while in CA) to get ready for "Our Day in Oceanside." We went out to The Pier and walked around. There were fun little shops and food and we just...just had a blast being together with no worries for the day. There was a lite drizzle the whole afternoon which made for awesome cloud cover. Geez...it was just so fun! Here are some pictures of this fun day we had in Oceanside:

Me out on The Pier.
Look! Someone that donated money for The Pier has the same spelling as me! That is so awesome and rare I HAD to take a picture! woot woot! There were like 6 other Donna's on that pier...but mine was the best!

Us again. I love him!

Here is the Pelican Nik wanted as a friend. This picture was taken right before Nik almost got his hand bitten off. Pelicans are not friendly. whoops.

Nik and his new guitar we bought at one of the shops. Those are sprinkles in the picture so we had to hurry and capture this moment.

After we had fun on The Pier we were treated to dinner with Aunt Macy and Uncle Jim. We went to a pretty chill Mexican Restaurant for Happy Hour. It was nice getting yummy food for half off! They have really good nacho's there.

Uncle Jim, Aunt Macy, me, and Nik after dinner.

That next morning was New Years Eve Day so we were headed out for the wedding down in San Diego. Nik and I left early in the morning because we were afraid of rush hour traffic...but since it was kinda a holiday, there wasn't any. So we ended up getting to the San Diego Temple a whole hour before the bride and groom even showed up. It was a great day for Janessa and Travis and Nik and I were so happy to be a part of it!

After all the festivities were over it was time to ring in the New Year! Bring on Twenty-Ten. All us friends wanted to go out to dinner. There were 3 vehicles following each other around to find a place to eat...and when Josh's GPS sent us driving on the WRONG SIDE of THE ROAD...we lost one of the vehicles because they were actually paying attention to what was happening (unlike Nik and I) and made a quick turn to correct that bad decision. It was pretty scary seeing all these headlights coming towards us and a median to keep us from getting over easily to the correct side. So we did a quick U-ey. The other car with our friends decided driving around wasn't worth it and went and did their own thing. Josh and Kylee kept in front of us because they had the GPS with Sam and Bobbie...so we were following behind them thru 20+ minutes of driving and 8+ U-Turns trying to find a California Pizza Kitchen but the only ones around were at the Airport and Mall and we didn't want that. So finally we passed a Cheesecake Factory and decided that would end it all. No more driving! Well the wait was too long there so we went across the street to PFChangs. We waited about 30 minutes there and were seated. THANK HEAVENS. We had a FEAST and ate it ALL! What a fun night.

Josh and Kylee! (Thanks for the help, Josh in finding this place. It was quite the evening! Fun times in Cali.)

Sam and Bobbie!

Me and Nik!

The whole gang with our feast!

After dinner Nik and I went back to Oceanside and rand in the New Year there. That next morning we headed back home to Utah. It was a great trip. We had so much fun catching up with family and friends and we enjoyed getting away from the snow.