The Nutcracker

Earlier this month, we had the best date night ever. Mike took me to see the Nutcracker at the San Francisco Opera House. The music and dancing was simply stunning. I loved every second of it. My favorite part was the Snow Queen dance with the snow falling onto the stage. It was a beautiful performance, and quite possibly a new Adams family tradition.

{excuse the blurry phone pics...they don't do the theater justice}

gingerbread houses

Last Sunday we made gingerbread houses with our friends Brad & Kelsey. Growing up my family made gingerbread houses each year, and so I wanted to start carrying on the tradition. I made homemade gingerbread and we designed our house, all while eating way too much candy. Afterwards, we went and checked out the biggest gingerbread house in the city (22 ft tall!).

grateful

This Thanksgiving I feel so blessed. I have a wonderful husband, an awesome job, live in a beautiful city, and have such supportive and loving family & friends. This year we stayed in San Francisco for the holiday, and enjoyed time with just the two of us. Since we both work so much it was nice to have a few days off to explore the city and get some much needed R&R. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my cousins in San Jose, and spent the rest of the weekend doing fun things in the city - black friday shopping in union square, the tree lighting, movies, restaurants, etc. There's something magical about Christmas in the city. I love it!

miss ellie

Last week I went to BYU for recruiting (love my job!) just in time for my niece's birthday party. I had to put up some pics of the kids (sorry for the blurry ones), they are just too cute. I did fail to get pictures of all 9 adults and 5 kids doing the hokey pokey, playing pin the tail on the donkey, and competing in the limbo. Next time :)

ellie

blakey

katey

our halloween

Our halloween was pretty low key this year. On Saturday we made tons of cornbread and helped decorate the "spook alley" for the ward party. Peter & Wendy made an appearance at the party, and the little primary kids loved it. Monday night was spent eating TJ's pumpkin bread (delish) and watching Casper & Hocus Pocus on television (ABC family knows how to celebrate!). It turned out to be a fantastic holiday; now I just need to make a trip to Target to buy some discount halloween candy...

Peter & Wendy

off the grid

Last weekend we went to 'off the grid' with some of our friends. It's basically a food truck extravaganza. It was awesome. We had yummy fish tacos, garlic noodles, creme brûlée, pork sandwiches, and cupcakes of course. This may become a new friday night ritual.

pumpkin spice, salted caramel, red velvet

off the grid crowd

garlic noodles

fish taco

sam, reagan, katie, jon, mike

pumpkin patch

Fall is my favorite time of year - changing leaves, perfect weather, football games, and of course halloween. We discovered a cute pumpkin patch in the city near golden gate park. Last Saturday we spent the day picking out a pumpkin, and hanging out at the beach. It was a perfect day.

blue angels

The blue angels come to San Francisco for Fleet Week each year, and put on an awesome air show over the bay. It was a gorgeous day, so we rode our bikes down to the wharf to watch the show. It's so much fun watching them fly over the golden gate bridge, and weave through the sailboats. I'm definitely my father's daughter when it comes to my love for the blue angels.

Beautiful day on the wharf

Blue angels!

Me & my man

utah visit

While in Utah, we spent hit up our favorite places to eat, made lots of visits, and went to a BYU game. It was nice taking a little break from work, and spending quality time with friends & family.

Mike & Grandma Adams

Back at BYU!

Cheesy BYU pic

Chili's with the family

grandma

My dear grandma zwick returned home to heavenly father. She was one of the most christ-like women I've ever met. She always made everyone around her feel so loved. I especially love that she always made me feel important, and never missed a state tennis match, musical play, birthday phone call, or countless other special occasions. She sewed my baptism dress and made the best texas sheath cake ever. I miss her so much, but I know she's continuing her service on the other side. I can't wait to see her again.

Mike & Blake

All the grandsons

My family

Me & Grandpa

my tough mudder man

{crawling through mud, swimming through ice water, climbing up a rope, running through electrical wires, balancing on beams, jumping off a plank, bobbing under water barrels, swinging on greased monkey bars...}

These are just some of the obstacles my tough hubby went though, all the while running 12 miles up and down the mountainous squaw valley terrain. 

It was so much fun spending time in tahoe with some of our friends. We all stayed in a cabin together, and while the guys were proving their toughness in the race, us girls hung out and took the gondola up to watch a few of the obstacles. They did so great!

All the guys at the start

Team cheer

Everest

Rope climb

Walk the plank

Underwater tunnels

Balance beam

Electrical wires

Tough Mudders at the finish line

Yay Mike!

mike is 25!

Mike's birthday conveniently fell on labor day this year which means we had birthday celebrations all weekend long! The family came in town from AZ to celebrate with us. It was a fun-filled weekend - beach, shopping, pedicures for the girls, golf for the boys, giants v. dbacks game, and LOTS of yummy food. Unfortunately I was lame and only took a couple pictures with my phone...

Mike & his delicious birthday cake from Suzie Cakes.

The whole gang out to dinner at Bobo's. Best. Steak. Ever.
Thanks for coming to visit Adams Family!

*And for all you Bachelor/Bachelorette fans out there...
When I picked up mike's birthday cake in the marina, I spotted this lovely guy, and took a pretty obvious paparazzi pic with my phone - at least he looked :)