Disney Photo Friday: Modeling The Frontier

If you ever have the chance, stop by the Frontier Tower of the Disneyland Hotel. There's a fantastic model of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad on display in the lobby. You can see all the little details you may otherwise miss while riding. 

It also serves as a great testament to the incredible work imagineers do to create these attractions. 

Disney Photo Friday: Keep It Beautiful

Disney fans have a thing for anything around the parks. But, I guess that's a testament to the level of themeing the Imagineers put into their work. One thing is the trash cans. Have you ever noticed that even the trash cans are themed? Check this one out from Buena Vista Street. 

Disney Photo Friday: Splashes and Sunshine

Here's a shot from a while back of Splash Mountain. I really can't wait to get back to Disneyland to get more shots. I also really just need to get back into the swing of posting more photos in general. 

Sprouling and Hollaring Along The Coast

This last weekend we celebrated not just our anniversary, but the anniversary of two other close friends. How do we do that? Rent a condo at the beach and just relax. It honestly was very much needed and a getaway with friends to spend time just hanging out, playing games and not doing much but just talking and laughing made for a great time.

Mine? 

Concentrate...

It's amazing to see the color gradient in the water. 

SEEEELFIE

derp.

And Baby Makes Three..

Well, now that it's out in the open and 'Facebook official', we're pregnant! Well, Hailey is. I'm just along for the ride, trying to make sure she gets what she wants with her cravings, or add a pillow to help her sore back. I'm a pregnancy assistant.

It's really crazy. I won't lie, there's days I still don't think I'm a dad, but I am. I've been told, and I believe it, but it'll snap into my head the closer we get to the due date in July.

So far, we've had a few appointments since the announcement (if you wanna watch the video, it'll be at the bottom of the post). Baby's doing good, mom's doing good (despite feeling pretty bad during the first trimester). I'm doing great, but who cares about me, it's about momma and the kiddo, right? Heartbeat has been rising more and more each time we've heard it, and the last two times we've had an ultrasound, the baby's been moving nonstop!

Seriously, if the kid moves as much out of the womb as it does in it, Hailey and I are gonna be rocking and rolling non-stop, which I'm excited for anyway. It'll keep me young and moving.

That said, I gotta write about an experience I've had today.

Today, I tried to do some research on gender reveals. Did you know that there's only about 20 ideas for a gender reveal, and every mommy blogger from here to Gymboree reposts them as 'the best ideas of *insert year here*'?

Because that's basically what it is. I want originality, or at least an idea I haven't seen before. But balloons out of a box, colored cake, silly string...blue or pink, blue or pink....it's dizzying.

The trick that makes it hard is the fact Hailey and I want to be surprised with everyone else. So outside of cutting a cake or just opening an envelope...how do we do that without knowing before?
It's a quandary, and gets hard to find a good idea that isn't the norm that everyone else does. The search will continue...we've got a month before we find out, anyway....

Now, here's that video...

The Year in Review: 2015

Well, I keep saying I should blog more, then I don't. It's terrible that I'm not able to bring this good habit up to be more dominant, and yet I habitually bite my fingernails every day. I should try to write a post for every time I catch myself biting my nails. Then I'd actually get something done...

Eh, we'll see how it goes. For now, this is what I have to say.  I thought about it the other day, and I'm amazed at how great this year was. I remember as a kid when families would write notes out along with their Christmas cards and send a written year in review to friends and family. Well, this is the digital age and thankfully, you not only don't have to read my terrible handwriting, but you also have the option of reading this or going back to skimming Facebook and arguing politics with that one weird family member you keep around just because you can't quit them and their 'terrible views'.

And with just a few days left, I'm writing out some of the fun highlights of what Jake and Hailey Williams were up to this year. We survived the first year of marriage, went on a few trips, kept up with college, and just had an all around fun time with everyone in our lives. So, here's our year in review.

Really, it was a fun year.

Enter the time machine, and let's go WAAAAY back to the beginning.

Headed out to a party in Long Beach. 

Steampunk Family. THE BEST. 

Oscar Party, themed food. Is there any other way?

The wit behind everyone watching this show was amazing. 

Pretty sure that this is out of order for some events. That's because Jake was lazy and didn't save these photos as they happened...

Journalism convention in LA

My lady and I

The view didn't suck, either.

She's so cute. <3

Dinner at one of my favorite places. 

'cause when it rains in LA, you use your sun visor to shield yourself from it.

NOM.

Oh, and we won some things. 

Professor and the awards. 

Really, this year didn't suck. First few months started off with a major bang! Not done yet, though. 

More random stuff. Like shooting Steampunk Theater's Amore show! 

Did I mention how crazily talented this group is? 

'cause they're crazy. And talented. 

Only acceptable time to go to Marie Callendar's is National Pie Day.

Excited to keep reading? Good. 'Cause the next batch of photos is a doozy. Or boozy. Boozy doozy? That a thing? I don't know. Whatever, here's photos of Hailey's 21st birthday in Las Vegas. 

Something pretty about the desert..

What you lookin' at, fish? 

YAY VEGAS

Planet Hollywood. Great place to get a view like this. 

St. Patty's day B-day!

Can't not take lego jake and hailey with us! 

WHOOOOO. 

We fancy. 

Midnight strikes, and she got her first drink! 

Minutes later...

Oh, and she was surprised by a friend who was here at the same time, too. 

Sums it up. 

Free driiiiink.

NOM NOM 

I know you're wondering, but that bacon right there...yea. 

DUCK BACON. 

Jameson. On St. Patty's day. Is there any other way? 

They had their fun, and I played DD. 

But I couldn't not sit in the shoe. 

Great, you're still reading. I was worried you'd gotten bored and went back to BuzzFeed to see which Friends character you are (PS you're totally Janice) ((PSS: I know, I know, I'm a jerk.)) 

Bed and breakfast..

One of my favorite views

But this is my all time favorite view. 

Now that was another celebration...full year of marriage. First year down, and a lifetime to go. 

First tattoo! 

Our cousin Levi was born! 

Summer baseball game...

And only one of two Disney trips this year. 

And since this is slowly coming to a close, here's another big event to read....

We moved into a bigger apartment!

Out with the old, in with the new! 

Now, with what's left of whoever is reading this, props to you for sticking around. I know this is very TL;DR, but we had a big year. I'll wrap it up in the next three or so events. 

WE GOT A PUPPY

Meet Winifred. She's sort of the cutest thing in the history of ever.

Vet visit. 

I started a new job at CSUB as the Alumni Engagement Assistant.

SUCCESS.

I love this city. 

Can we have more architecture like this? 

MORE NOM MORE NOM.

ALL THE LIGHTS.

Insane. Sheer insanity. 

I've never done Fremont before, so this was really cool.

Sad hailey is sad. 

WHAT? 3 cocktails for the price of 1?! 

This is how our road trips work. 

To wrap this up, the last big event of 2015 for us was camping out for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

When you wait 3 hours on cold concrete..

!Well, to wrap this up, thanks for reading, and if you haven't seen literally anything we've done this year, I hope you enjoyed this long little post. We had a great year, and we're excited for 2016. Big things are lined up to happen, and it's going to be a great ride. I hope your year was just as, or more exciting than ours. Here's to 2016....

- Jake and Hailey