You are appreciated

Every year Olive Crest shows its appreciation to its staff by taking them to Knotts Berry Farm.  The fun filled day starts with a "delicious" (depending on who you ask)  breakfast. During breakfast they normally have someone that Olive Crest has helped come and speak to us. It is always really cool to see someone's who's life has been changed due to good ole OC.  I guess that is what makes this job worth doing. 

april, alice, laura

raul, refugio, me, jaire

Following breakfast all the employees hit the park for a day of rides, sun, and fun.  The park is normally empty due to it being a weekday so we get to walk on basically all the rides.  After I went on a few of the top rides there. I went home and felt my really appreciated as I went for a long bike ride in 85 degree weather.  

Hmmm... which one of these are not like the others. 

The boss and me, Susy-Me-Jessica

Wraparound gearing up to ride this coaster.  Please refer to the video below. 

The boys of wraparound. 

Getting ready to peace on out... 

Watch this video closely.  If you pay attention you will see Alice is trying to keep her hair on!

Thanks Olive Crest for a great day at Knotts!

Resoluting

Now that my five week of chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool has come to an end I am excited to get back to life, back to reality. I was so burnt out after last semester that I pretty much took a hiatus from everything. So now that I am starting to make my trek back out to fullerton twice a week I have decided to finally set some resolutions from 2009. So here they be...

#1. Keeping my priorities straight... I would like to go here...

At least once a month.

#2. I will study these...

Everyday.

#3. Look more like this

Or this...

And less like this...

By summer time.

#4. Do less of this...

(I know... its a sad story. I am not going to stop traveling but just be more selective and try to limit it to one vaca a month)

And do more of this...

And then there were 5

I know that I JUST blogged about my love for the Bachelor but you can never get too much of this stuff.  Tonight's episode was painful to watch.  Seriously, I don't think that I have ever been more embarrassed to be a girl than I was tonight.  From the emotional break-downs to the pathetic attempt to win him over by bossing him around to the girl with the side burns it was one humiliating moment after another.  On one hand you kind of feel for the girls.  We all have our weak moments in which we aren't are best selves.  I just hope that when I have those moments there isn't a camera in my face to broadcast it to the world.  

Anyway, after tonight's show these are the three that stand out to me.  

I know there are a lot of Jillian fans out there and while I think that she is great, I like Melissa the best. I know that he has a thing for Molly but I think that she kinds of bugs.  I mean seriously... I side pony-tail to the rose ceremony??  

Back to school

The time has come...

The Bachelor

The start of the new year also means a start of lots of good TV.  Which embarrassingly enough I am really excited about. Of course near (if not the) top of my list is the Bachelor.  The season has been going on for about 3 weeks now and I am hooked.  First of all I love the Bachelor: Jason Mesnick.  He is a single Dad who is looking for love. 

 But even more than I love the actual show I have been LOVING the company with which I am watching it.  The first episode it started with just six of us girls but as the weeks have progressed more and more have joined us. It is so fun to have a girls night each week where we can sit, throw our hair back and analyze/critique each episode.  Oh how easily I am entertained.

Christmas Babies

December came and went in a blur.  Between moving, the holidays, and traveling I barely had enough time to finish my finals for school. But I did find a few spare hours to help two of my dearest friends celebrate their birthdays.  

Miss Adrienne Curry reached a quarter of a century this year.  We celebrated by heading down to Laguna Beach and enjoyed some sushi and 80's dancing.  

In that same week Holly finally turned 18.  To celebrate this occasion we had some people over to her house to eat treats and shower her with love.

I seriously love both of these girls and are so grateful that they were born so that I could have them be a part of my life. 

Bringing in the new year

I always love the new year.  Its a time when you get to take the slate and wipe it clean and start all over again.  This year, although actual new years eve was nothing to write home about, the rest of the week was a blast.  My good friend J R Hancock came to town and we had a blast from the past and spent a week of just the two of us hanging out.   December had be.  So we decided that we were going to do everything we could that was fun in a matter of en crazy town for both of us, as we are both working on our masters and working full time, along with trying to have a social life, maintain family relations, and not gain a million pounds. So we decided to spend the first few days of the new year unwinding and just having selfish fun.  I didn't take pictures of most of it (because to be honest we looked homeless most of the time) but here is a brief overview of how I brought in the new year.  

We started new years day by taking my car for its first ride up to big bear where we met up with some good friends.  I was so excited to snowboard and it couldn't have been a better day.  Spending time with good friends, snowboarding in warm weather, with super short lines!   

We filled the rest of the week with activities such as swimming, hot tubing, hiking, bike rides, rollerblading (yes... and proud of it), attending the temple, buying a bike, buying couches, attending a BYU-H reunion party, plenty of trips to yogurtland, and lot and lots of guitar hero world tour. 

It was so fun to have Julie here. We spent pretty much the entire 5 days together and we didn't get in one fight.  Miracles really do happen.   

Chrismukkah

This year the Goosetavason family did Christmas a little differently than normal. Since my sister Amber couldn't travel and we all wanted to be together we decided to have Christmas in So Cal (I kind of hate that phrase) instead of going to our home sweet home.

So my generous parents rented a beach house on the peninsula in Newport and we all camped out together. We were hoping for sunny beach days and instead we got rainy windy days. But in true Gustavson/Baltzer/Lawrence fashion we found many other ways to entertain ourselves.

1. Jason and I both got Shaun White Snowboarding games for Christmas so we spent a lot of time playing on the Wii. We even taught the little ones how to do tricks off the jibs to get more points. Someday this little guy will shred the gnar (actually probably not... he is a gentle little boy... if you know what i mean)


2. The little kids were obsessed with the cameras and they took tons and tons of pictures. These are a few of their more "artistic" ones. I think Livi really might have a knack for this. (Luke on the other hand was trying to take pictures but kept taking pictures of himself and couldn't understand why it wasn't working... I love that boy)

3. Of course you know we rocked out on the Karaoke machine.

4. We played with our new toys. Jason was the only one brave enough to weather the storm surfed on his new foam board. (Check out the view from the house...)

5. We spent a lot of time tending babies and just laying around. :) These two little guys are only about two weeks apart.

6. We did traditional Christmas stuff like getting a christmas tree (who knew Home Depot shopping karts were that much fun) decorating cookies, walking around Balboa to check out the lights, and reenacted the Nativity scene.

8. Lastly, I taught my family the art of the tim-tam-slam. SOO funny to watch.

Zion... (or so they say)

In december I met up with some of my Arizona friends in Utah for a snowboard trip.  We met up in Park City where were stayed and rode at the Canyons.  It was a busy but very fun weekend.  We spent Friday and Saturday riding the two runs that the Canyons had open followed by soaking in the hot tub and roasting in the saunas.  Friday night we ate and enjoyed the scenery of Park City.  Saturday night we ventured out to Salt Lake where we enjoyed the Christmas lights of Temple Square and then feasted on more meat than any non-meat lover could every imagine at Rodizio's.  

The girls enjoying the hot tub!

Jeremy, Eric, and I super excited to hit the slope... Thats right.  Just one slope.

Me and Jared

Ran into this familiar face on the mountain. He was so excited to see me he 

couldn't even keep his eyes open for the picture. 

Me, Maryann, and Julie freezing cold at temple square.

Celine Dion

At this beginning of December my good friend Adrienne and I took a trip out to Arizona to begin her birthday celebration.  Last year he Dad had boughten her tickets to the Celine Dion concert thinking that it was for last year. It wasn't until she was getting ready to go to the concert that she looked at the tickets and realized they were for 2008.  I was very grateful for this mistake because it meant that I got to go with her.  

I had heard about Celine's show in Vegas but I had no idea how good this concert was going to be.  She has an INCREDIBLE voice and was extremely entertaining.  I loved every minute of it. 

And for all you Titanic fans....

Thanksgiving

This year I spent Thanksgiving at my sister Ambers house.  My roommate Laura joined the family.  It was a great day of spending time with family, my babies, and delicious food followed by one of my personal favorites: the name game.  

I have so much to be grateful for!