The year that was - and our New Years Roadtrip to Southern California

Its quite interesting to think that we did the exact opposite for New Years 2010. We were still living then in Southern California, and we took a road trip to Las Vegas all the way to Utah. It was a very memorable one, and that road trip was very humbling. Both Carl and I were jobless and all we had were each other, and wonderful family and friends. I will never forget what our very good friend Liz said as we welcomed 2010 in flamboyant Las Vegas. She said, "2010 is going to be an awesome year!"

For many reasons, she was right. By the end of February 2010, Carl and I found ourselves packing our things and moving north to Utah - Carl was offered a job with the LDS Church Headquarters, and I was eventually admitted to BYU's graduate program. It was quite a year - and we had so many things to be grateful for. It was quite an adventure too. I had to take an emergency trip to the Philippines to renew my student visa. While I had the opportunity to spend time with family back home, Carl and I missed each others' birthdays and 2nd anniversary. When I came back, we had the opportunity to celebrate all three wonderful occasions.

The rest of the year flew by so fast... and next thing we knew, the snow has come and we were putting up our Christmas tree and Carl has learned to snowboard.

Taking the road trip to Southern California was an emotional one for me, but above and beyond that, it was a celebration of everything 2010 has blessed us with - family, friends, and countless blessings from the Lord!

STOP OVER: Circus Circus in Las Vegas, NV

DESTINATION: Disneyland in Anaheim, CA

QUICK STOP: Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, CA

A TASTE OF HOME: Jollibee in Las Vegas, NV

___oo00000oo___

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2011 IS GOING TO BE AWESOME TOO!!!

greeting the new year

JANUARY 2010

We greeted 2010 with our friends in no less than Las Vegas. Yes - a bunch of broke young adults went to Las Vegas with hopes of having fun and setting aside our stressful lives for just a couple of days. Andrew was visiting from Hawaii, and so we took him around – maybe too much. Mhar took him around San Francisco, and with Liezel and Becky he was taken around Los Angeles. When we met up with them on the 30^th, he was bound to explore Las Vegas and probably Salt Lake City in the next 2 days. Carl and Mhar took turns as we took off to Vegas for New Year's Eve. With no hotel accommodations waiting for us, we just braved ourselves and decided we were gonna have fun as we greet the turn of the decade with a bang! We walked down the strip and took endless pictures until we were tired and feet were all numb. Carl and Mhar took a nap in the car, to recharge for another stretch of a couple hundred mile drive to Salt Lake City. Andrew from the islands wanted to see snow, and Carl and I wanted to take the chance to visit Jasmine before she gives birth.

We enjoyed ourselves in the lights and sounds of Las Vegas. The boys, perhaps, had too much to see! We “partied” to the New Year!!! We left Vegas at around 3am.

We reached Draper around 7am. The Milburys made us breakfast and were too kind they let us use their bathroom so we could all shower. Carl and I were very happy to visit Jasmine before she gives birth.

We went to Provo and took pictures around BYU campus,the Missionary Training Center, and Provo temple. We had dinner at Jenneth and Daniel Hampton's home. We had a good time reconnecting with old friends like the Catahans and the Comptons from Hawaii.

We later met up with Carl's mission companion Scott Warner and his fiance Cherise.

We stayed at Shey and Micah Bybee's apartment for the night (unfortunately, the Bybees were spending New Years in Pocatello). We had breakfast the next day at ate Jan's place...and Lui prepared Curry for our lunch!

Utah friends are so awesome! Shey and Micah made it to Salt Lake right before we had to leave for California. It had been an awesome holiday weekend.

Two weeks later, the gang met up again in Southern California for Kohath's 2^nd birthday.

KC Cornelio took time off from her training in North Carolina and paid us a visit. We spent that weekend in Bakersfield celebrating with the Pascuals. Ate Yvonne and kuya Kamille prepared a feast for their little Koko. Koko had a Mickey-themed party. We filled ourselves with pork bbq, pancit, grilled squid, addobo, salad and a lot of karaoke singing on top! It was fun. Of course, no trip to Bakersfield is complete without stopping by for ice cream at Dewar's... so we did that before driving back to LA.

In LA, we took KC around Universal City Walk. It was a rainy and rather gloomy day in sunny California.

The following week, Carl started his new job with Silla Automotive in Compton. He's be working as the company's Network Administrator. You know what they say, “when it rains, it pours”? Our kind of good rain showers was about to come our way...the kind of good rain pouring – its unbelievably overwhelming...