Blue Plate Oysterette in Santa Monica

Last month I jetted down to LA to watch the Ducks play USC. Duck Victory! We are having such a great season this year. While there, we decided to stay in Santa Monica so we could be close to the beach. We tried Blue Plate Oysterette, a restaurant on Ocean Avenue per a recommendation from a sorority sister who lives there. It was DELICIOUS. The setting was loud, chatty and boisterous, with interesting wait staff and people watching. We sat at the bar and talked, drank wine and ate yummy seafood.

We ordered a bottle of pinot noir. We never get wine by the glass anymore it seems....especially on vacation! 

on the right is roasted brussel sprouts and on the left is lobster mac & cheese. It had HUGE pieces of lobster in it!

fresh trout! So good. Sometimes I feel like trout can taste like a river (know what I mean?), but this definitely did not. It was amazing! 

This literally was the best meal I've had in a long time. If you are ever in Santa Monica you must try!

2012 Ornament Swap!

I'm super excited to be participating in Christina Orso's (from Hungry Meets Healthy) ornament swap! 

I was paired up with a lovely girl named Kat. She doesn't have a blog but is an avid reader of Christina's blog, which means we have something in common! Turns out we have a couple of other things in common too, like reading, coffee, and eating! After emailing with each other I found out that she has several dogs, loves the outdoors, animals, is a vegetarian, ect. I'm super excited to pick out an ornament to send her for the swap. BUT, I thought I would get all of my reader's opinions first! 

Does anyone have any great ideas, or better yet, a suggestion for a good place to buy ornaments in Portland? Please help!

Wrapping up college football season

Great season for my Ducks! I can't believe fall football is pretty much over!

Here we are at the Civil War this weekend at our rival stadium. The Beaver fans are usually pretty relentless and talk a lot of crap! I'm so happy we won and had such a great overall season, only loosing one game.

 With my good friend Liz. We went to University of Oregon together.

Scott and I

Saturday was actually Scott's birthday and he got what he wanted---a Duck win! We have had so much fun going to all the games this season and I'm so thankful for him having season tickets in amazing seats at Autzen.

Which team do you root for, if any? What did you do for Thanksgiving weekend? Excuse my lack of a Thanksgiving post! This year was pretty low key and I tried to stay off my computer.

Happy Birthday Dad

My family and I celebrated my Dad's 58th together at my parents house a few weeks ago. Natalie was super cute as always!

 Dad, Sara, Natalie and Mom

Sara, Dad, Natalie and Me

Happy Birthday Dad. Mom always makes you a German Chocolate cake and you usually want homemade Halupsy, a Bohemian dish with cabbage and ground beef. This year was the same. We all can't believe how big Natalie is getting and how she yells "Gwampa!" and so many other words.

LA. B&B + Duck Game

We flew down to LA to watch the Ducks play USC a couple weekends ago....Duck victory!

 We stayed in Santa Monica to be near the beach. We ran on the beach and did Pilates a couple of mornings. I could really get used to that life!

 Self-portrait

 Our friends from Oregon that we went to the Duck game with, pre-game. We had to tailgate in a parking garage:) good times

 Soooo many people were wearing the "Storm LA" shirts that Nike produced for this game. RAD!

Our view

We stayed at this cute B&B in Santa Monica. The owners were hippies and super laid back. It was cute, private and in the perfect location! I love B&B's and have never had a bad experience.

We had the most amazing dinner at Blue Plate Oysterette in Santa Monica the first night we got in. I'm posting pics soon! It was amazing!

How was your weekend? Have you ever stayed in a Bed & Breakfast? I have always wondered if people have had bad/funny experiences!

Festive Fall Fro Yo

I'm coming back from 10 days of traveling (some personal, some for work!) I'll be back soon but in the meantime, here's what I did as soon as I got home.
Got Fro-yo!
I love everything pumpkin this time of year, especially Fro-Yo

Pumpkin fro-yo with graham crackers, oreos, flax seed and candy corn.

YUM!