Top Hits of 2017

New York City Trip
Our good friends Shane & Amelia were amazing hosts, and showed us around New York! It was our first time to the city, and we are itching to go back again.

Oliver Rios
Our first nephew Oliver, was born on May 17th! He is the cutest nugget ever, and we are so grateful to be able to live so close and see him as he grows.

Yosemite National Park

Back in August Ryan and I went on a trip with my family to Yosemite National Park, since Ryan had never been. We stayed in Curry Village (which is now Yosemite Village) and went on a hike to Mirror Lake then biked around the ground floor. It was BEAUTIFUL. How would I even be able to explain the grandeur of all the mountains and trees? That's why I took lots of pictures ;)

Unfortunately since it was towards the end of summer, there wasn't enough water to fill up the lake or to do some river rafting :/ We still had a blast by driving up to Glacier Point to check out the view of Half Dome from the top of the mountains. Then we hit up our reservation at the Grand Yosemite Hotel for their amaazzzinnggg brunch. OMG. It was delicious, wish I could eat that all over again! 

After hiking, biking, and brunching; we decided to make a detour for our family trip and hit up Santa Cruz which was only a 2-3 hour drive from Yosemite. I'll save that for another post, but in the meantime, here is a huge picture dump ;)

^ Of course I needed a picture of my mountain-inspired nails next to Half Dome. All the hardcore hikers thought I was crazy haha

^ Half Dome!

^ Where we had brunch, it was breathtaking. A massive grand hall with all-you-can-eat brunch, live piano music, and a view of all the trees outside. All the heart eyes! 

Santa Monica Pier

This past Christmas break was a blast and much needed. Evan, Ryan, and I drove down to stay with my parents and we just crashed. Almost immediately after Christmas day we all got sick with some form of the cold or flu. It pretty much sucked,  but it couldn't have come at a better time. We got to chill on my parents couch watching movies, taking medicine, and just getting some (apparently) needed rest. 

My mom asked at one point "are we going to do anything this break? Or is everyone going to stay sick?" Towards the end of the trip I was the only one who was still sick, so I brought a bag of cough drops and some medicine and we went to the Santa Monica Pier. 

No one in my family had been before besides myself, which I think is crazy cause we've all lived in CA for years and years! It was a pretty chilly and busy day (we went on a weekend), but we rode the ferris wheel and got the most gorgeous views of Malibu and Santa Monica. 

Ryan enjoys ruining my pictures, but he's cute when it counts ;) We had a blast and since Ryan has never been to the tourist-y things of LA, we are going to make it a point to hit something new every time we're down there visiting. Especially with Ryan's favorite team, the Rams, moving to LA I have a feeling we'll be making weekend road trips down a lot more often for game-time :D

Grossman/Rios Family in Hawaii

A little late posting these pics...about 2.5 months that is! It's been that long since our family Hawaii trip and I can't believe how fast the time flies. I had everyone to get dressed up and asked a random lady on the beach to take our family pictures. It was a little risky, especially since she was holding the camera all crazy ways; but they turned out and that's all that matters! Glad to have more pictures to fill my frames with :)

Pearl Harbor

It's crazy that we've been back from Hawaii for only a week! I feel like it was a lifetime ago. The first day we flew into the Honolulu airport on the island of Oahu, and drove right over to Pearl Harbor because it was so close to the airport. 

It was a gorgeous day, the surroundings beautiful, and the area felt so sacred. Watching all the videos about the day Pearl Harbor was bombed and reading all the names of lives that were lost were very humbling. It made me feel so proud to be an American, and to be part of such a great country. 

After our visit to Pearl Harbor we ate at Zippys (plate lunch is delishhh), and started to make our way to the house waiting for us on the other side of the island near Laie!