We put the 'must' in moustache

As much as we love football games, we haven't been locked in a tailgating time warp for the past four months. We've actually just been too lazy to update the blog. So we'll catch you up on what we've been doing:

Celebrated Christmas...


Rung in the New Year Greek-style...


Discovered Los Angeles mountains and great hiking trails...


Got artistic for Stephen's homecoming...


Visited Solvang and Santa Barbara with friends...



Road trip-ed to San Francisco...

(Biking around town and across the GG Bridge, about 12 miles in all)

(visiting Austin's high school buddies in SF)

Taking the long way home on PCH
No this background is not fake (and neither is the wicked sick 'stache)

And most recently, hiked with Austin's dad in Topanga Canyon...

Game On!

Saturday is for college football, and we spent this last one cheering on our new team, the UCLA bruins.

UCLA plays in the Rose Bowl, which sounds great until you realize that it's all the way across town. BYU's LaVell Edwards Stadium was just across campus, and there wasn't any traffic.

The drive wasn't bad though, and it gave us a chance to do some tailgating with our ward friends.
We got to use the grill that G&B gave us!


Of course we wore our new UCLA shirts for the occasion.


The student section was, well, different that at BYU. But our seats were pretty good.


The girls enjoyed the game from a little different perspective than the guys.

Games here are quite a bit different than in Provo, but we still had a great time. And it didn't hurt at all that UCLA won.

One question is still nagging us: If BYU plays UCLA, who do we cheer for?

All Aboard!

"Why don't they have a subway in LA?" You ask.
Well they do! It's just not entirely done yet!

This week they completed the Gold Line extension from Downtown to East LA. As part of celebration they let everyone ride the new line for free on the first day.

Everyone else must have gotten word of the special because there was a loooooooong line to catch the new subway at Union Station. We waited 40 minutes.

And I thought LA traffic was limited to driving a car!

Enjoying the ride!

Technically it's not a true "subway" because it surfaces and travels at ground level for a couple miles. It's still pretty cool though.

Partying with the mariachi band at the East LA Civic Center!

Now they just need to extend the subway westward so we can ride. The current projected completion date for that end is 2030, so we might be waiting a while.

Turkey Trot Training!

You don't wanna mess with this! We may not have the altitude advantage anymore, but we're a force to be reckoned with. Check out that stance. Yow!

Fright Night Delight!

We've been laying low for the past few weeks, trying to stay on top of things at school. This last week brought Halloween and memories of last year's, which we spent with Greg and Brianna.

Now it's a new year, in a new city, with new friends!

We had some of them over earlier this week to carve pumpkins.

On Halloween we stayed inside and made caramel apples with some more friends, while passing out candy.

It's funny though; kids around here don't say "trick or treat" when you open the door. What's up with that?

Bike Rides!

We have been enjoying a new hobby whenever Austin needs to take a break from school. We pack up our bikes, take them over to the beach, and ride as far as we want! Today we rode north for about 4 miles, and 4 miles back.

Mystery Spot

This weekend, while exploring downtown LA, we stumbled across a spot featured prominently in one of this summer's movies.

Panorama of the view from the spot (taken with Austin's phone).
Can you guess the movie this location is from?

Just in case you need more help...
Here we are at the spot

And here's the spot from a little farther away.

Good luck!

Back to School

Guess who just started her classes as a structural engineering graduate student?

Updates

Just a few updates on us, nothing too amazing:

Schools continues on for Austin. It's a lot of work, but he loves it.

We just got him a new laptop to stay on top of things (see above).

He just applied for selectives (that's what they call electives in medical school).

He's hoping to work in the bone marrow transplant center, but it's on a lottery and probably not too likely to happen.

Even though we live close to family now, Stephanie is the only one who likes us enough to come visit.

We went to In N Out with her this week. UCLA has one of only three uniquely laid-out In N Out locations. The one here was designed by Kanner Architects.

Amid all the craziness, we still find time to go to the beach (not that hard when we're only a 10 minute drive away). Here's the amazing sand castle we made on Saturday.

Med School - Week One Done

Austin finished his first week of medical school! He was really excited to start and is loving it so far. There are many things to get during the first week like books, scrubs, a stethoscope and other scopes, white coat, badge, etc.

Here is Austin trying on his scrubs:

This is his favorite part about them:

On Friday night there was a White Coat Ceremony in Royce Hall at UCLA. This is when the students receive their white coats which represent humanism in medicine and also take the Medical Oath.

Here is Austin receiving his white coat (aka "being cloaked"):

The two of us after the ceremony:

Lots of family came to support Austin (including Ryan and Christian who were more interested in finding the food than taking pictures):

I'm so proud of Austin--he has worked VERY hard to get here!

No Summer Bummer For Us!

We've had several people visit us here at our new home.

Greg and Brianna stopped by on their way through California. The wanted to show us some property they're thinking about buying...

After BH, we went down to Universal Studios and caught a taping of the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. So Awesome!


Then Jeff and Stephanie came up to check out the Museum of Tolerance, and other sights too.

We visited Griffith Park...

... and got really close to the Hollywood sign.


Jeff actually hiked up to within a few hundred feet of the sign, but was turned away.

We've been having a great time playing around in LA since we moved in. Now we're trying to squeeze every little bit out of these last few days before school starts for Austin on Monday!