as my time in indiana winds down, and i prepare for my return trip to the city of angels, i thought i'd take some time to sit down and document my annual holiday pilgrimage to the midwest. it's been a wonderful Christmas spent with friends and family, where i've visited several of my "homes," and traveled through missouri, indiana, kentucky, and tennessee--when i head back this way, i really try to make it count.

my holidays began before i left los angeles, with some presents, parties, ice skating (outdoors in santa monica, complete with palm trees!), it's a wonderful life watching, and verrrrry serious apartment decorating, evidence of which you can see below...



my flight to st. louis was thankfully uneventful, and i loved the subsequent car ride with my good buddy, kyle, and the frigid wintry air biting at my nose!!! spending a few days at my first stop in missouri was amazing. i love my cape families, and my best friends from high school--we always seem to pick up right where we left off! we celebrated with a baby shower for kelly, and got some cute pictures. i know i'm probably a little biased, but i think we're all aging quite well ;) here we all are with kelly and baby!!



then, of course, we had to take our signature staircase picture at meredith's house. if you've known me since my high school days, you may have seen our almost full decade of pictures on these stairs. if not, maybe sometime i'll scan a series of these. that would actually be pretty hilarious--proms, Christmases, bad hair, babies, spice girls...these stairs have seen a lot, let me just tell you...



after the shower, mom and i headed to evansville, where i spent the next few days relaxing and enjoying having television and my huge queen sized bed, and staying inside to avoid the inclement weather! hanging with the family was, of course, a favorite part of my trip. and, i had fun with my "5/3 family" at my mom's work Christmas shindig (shoutout to all you guys!). next came Christmas and KY with extended family, delicious food, and spirited board games, to name a few fun things! here's a little family pic for ya:



another fun outing in kentucky was our annual Christmas trip to the movies...except this year was sort of more exciting because i had my "big screen debut," haha! ok, so not really, i was just an extra and barely even saw myself, but! we went to see adam sandler's "bedtime stories," which i was VERY briefly in earlier this year. if you go see it, i'm in the pier/beach scene riding by on an orange bike. blue tank top and red shorts. i seriously had to strain to find myself. it was a bit like "where's waldo," so good luck! maybe this time next year i'll have been in something where i actually have a line or something (gasp!), but until then, thanks to my friends and family who joined me in the trek to the theater to see even my blurry premiere.



all in all, the holidays have been excellent, and i'm relishing in my last moments here, while also looking forward to going back to california. i hope you all had blessed Christmases (or other holidays), and were able to escape the craziness of the season to experience the heart of the holiday. this will most likely be my last post of 2008 (wow), so i wish you all a great last few days, and an even greater 2009! something tells me it's going to be another good year...

take care.
lp

i just experienced the most beautiful thanksgiving of my life. i have about 500 photos i would love to post here, but i know that's much, so i'll refrain, and just post a few of my favorites. and, i'm going to try to post a couple videos later (courtesy of my flip camera from ellen!) this post may be extensive, so be forewarned! ok, here are the highlights of the trip:

cambria, ca
on thanksgiving day, parker, holland and i drove up the coast to cambria, california. we met up with about 30 people from our church at a hostel, where we had an amazing potluck meal (complete with post-meal food comas), met great new people, walked around the quaint town, and played some rousing rounds of taboo and phase 10.







monterey, ca

after staying the night in cambria, we split from the rest of the group, and the three of us headed farther up the coast on our way to monterey. my cousin, brad, is in air force intelligence training there, so we made it a stopping point on our journey. it was great to see family for the holidays!

the weather couldn't have been more ideal the entire trip. it was sunny and fairly warm each day, and brisk at night. as you'll see, the scenery in northern california is breathtaking. we were so blessed by God's gift of nature. on our way to monterey, we stopped to take pictures at some vista points, and to see the famous elephant seals, which were both incredible and disgusting!! as you'll see below...





we met up with brad for lunch, and then headed to big sur to set up our camp.





big sur

we camped friday night at fernwood in big sur. this region is filled with redwoods, creeks, the beach--it's just gorgeous. we enjoyed our camping, cooking dinner and breakfast on the fire, playing cards, and hiking to a waterfall. holland really got to put her new camera to good use on this trip-all the photos are from her and park's cameras--they're both talented photographers!







south on highway one

we stopped to see the elephant seals, yet again, as we headed back south on saturday. and, we took a tour of the hearst castle, which, again, was stunning! it was william randolph hearst's estate, and it was massive!! kind of like the west coast biltmore estate, if you've ever been there. then, we made the 5-ish hour trip back to la, home sweet home. it was certainly a very full three days. we experienced so much, i feel like. i ended the weekend grateful, tired, and enriched.





i hope you all had equally enjoyable thanksgiving holidays, and i hope you like all the pictures! take care ~lp

the past week has been very busy here in la la land! holland's friend from home, stephy, was in town, so we got to do lots of fun things! we tried a really nice new restaurant in santa monica, went out dancing, and saw a movie, among other things. here are some pictures that holland shot down at the santa monica pier with her new camera. they were too pretty not to post. i'm consistently amazed at how time continues to pass and i still find myself saying "wow, i actually live here."





this was also an exciting weekend for the ole box office! some of you may have heard of the twilight book series. well, the first film came out this weekend, so a bunch of us (readers and non-readers) got all dressed up to go see it. i've read most of the books, and, i liked them, but i'm not obsessed. they're pretty entertaining...but the movie, well i don't want to ruin it for anyone, but i'll just say this: it was hilarious! (unfortunately, not intentionally...). no, but we had a fun time making an evening out of it.

holland, stephy, and me representing our respective twilight characters! (go jacob!)

rivals!

parks had never read the books, but willingly came along! what a sport!

all our twilight shirts. nate (what an amazing artist!) hand-drew his shirt! and there's me, the lone supporter of team jacob cowering away from edward's team.




after twilight on friday, i had a busy saturday, too! park and i went on a sailing lesson! isn't that the best birthday present!? we had fabulous fall weather in marina del rey, but not a ton of wind, so we didn't go out onto the open seas. we both had an amazing time and learned so much. it was the two of us and our instructor, craig, on a 22 foot sailboat. the lesson was so hands on; we both steered, worked the sails, perfected our new skill of knot-tying, and learned the proper vocabulary for the anatomy of the ship. it was really fun, and i can definitely see enjoying sailing as a hobby! the evening was capped off with a gorgeous sunset, that looks almost too beautiful to not be photoshopped--i know it looks like a green screen, but it's real, i promise!!



and, here's me steering the ship through the marina!



well, hope everyone has an excellent thanksgiving week!! eat lots, be grateful :) i'm heading with friends up to cambria, ca, monterey, and big sur for camping...i can guarantee there will be lots of pictures, and perhaps even some video from my new flip camera (courtesy of ellen!)!! check back soon, goodnight all!

well well well!! a lot to write about indeed!

i'm hoping that some of you might have seen the previous post, and tuned into today's episode of ellen. it's actually pretty funny and kind of exciting (wow, what will happen when i actually get a real role on tv!?!) to get calls and messages from people who saw me on the show! friends of friends who were watching at home or at the gym have called their friends that know me to see if lauren parrent was indeed to tv. what a globalized world--news travels so fast!

anyway...if you didn't get to watch ellen today, the video is actually already up online on her website! i thought i'd have to wait to watch it on a friend's dvr, since we don't have cable, but luckily i got to see it online! if you go to her site: ellen.warnerbros.com, and then click on gallery, then video gallery, right now it's the first video that comes up. although, i'm sure that will change very soon (i.e. tomorrow), so you may have to search for a video about musical chairs...that'd be my guess anyway.

the whole story

my friend, mj, was able to get tickets for my roomie and me to be in the audience of the ellen show last week. so, we went on thursday and while we were all just waiting with the other audience members to be let into the studio, a p.a. (production assistant) from the show came and asked me to come with them. after being reassured that i would still get to sit with my friends, i followed her, shortly joining a group of about 25 young women in another room. we were asked our names, and i guess they were checking our appearances and confidence, because somehow they dwindled the group to about ten. next, we each told them our occupations and where we lived. without going into too much detail (i'm probably releasing confidential information here, and the ellen poice will be showing up at my door any minute!)...we were asked if we'd all be willing to be potential audience participants, and we even got to practice our reactions for if we got called on. the just wanted to make sure we were up for anything, and were spunky and energetic!

when the show started, as many of you have or will see...ellen came out and announced that for starters, she was going to have a game of musical chairs, but not just normal musical chairs, a version with "hunks" sitting already in the chairs, to go along with her naughty november show theme. i'll let you all watch the video for yourselves and i won't spoil the ending!

i will however tell you i won a flip mino camcorder! and, we also got other gifts just for being in the audience: the ocean's dvd trilogy boxed set, and a gift card to a certain chain of malls. not bad!! the guests on the show were heidi klum, seann william scott, and susan lucci. holland even had a nice long conversation with seann william scott at a restaurant near the studio just before the show!

so, please go have a look at the video, i definitely ham it up, there's lot of dancing, laughing, and musical chair action, so i highly recommend it! AND, i think i'll use my new camera very soon to post a video blog :)

let me know what you think!!

~lp

i'll definitely write more later, but watch ELLEN tomorrow, monday, november 10th (i think it's on at 4ish).

I'M ON IT, making a complete fool out of myself, but yeah check it out!!!!!

more later...

this is my favorite time of the year! i love the fall already, and, i love getting to celebrate halloween and my birthday all within the course of a few days!! i had a couple of halloween parties this year, one where i actually committed to dressing up. my roomie, holland, was going as a fairy, so i decided to parade around as her dark counterpart. we went all out with glitter and makeup, haha. these are definitely not the best pictures, but i was just trying to at least capture the make up and wings.




we've been having some fallish days, in terms of weather--clouds, even some rain, which is great, on occasion. it really puts me in a wonderful mood! it's such a blessing to have some change in the weather as a little birthday gift! i get bored with routine.

my birthday weekend was so much fun. i celebrated with several friends on saturday, by going out to eat at this really casual seafood place in malibu. we had a really great time. here are some pictures from that:

talk about weather--it was a gorgeous night!! check out the drive up the coast.



and, here's the restaurant



here are a couple pictures from throughout dinner, and afterwards with our rainboots (because it sprinkled for 5 minutes that afternoon!)






and, to top off the already wonderful evening, i made a successful trip to pinkberry and then the beach (which, by the way, the beach at night is one of my favorite places to be) with holland, justin, mj, and our new buddy, dave (from my church, ecclesia, www.churchinhollywood.com). YUM!





then, my actual birthday started off with some wonderful happy birthday calls, including a very special one from parker, all the way from africa :) to all of you that wrote me notes of birthday wishes, or called and i didn't get to talk with you, thanks again so much, it meant a lot to me, and made my day even better! i can't believe i'm 24! mid-twenties--crazy! i feel old and young at the same time. but, all in all, my birthday was a day of reflection of how blessed i am with life, its experiences, and all the incredible people God has placed in my life. i'm really at a place of contentment and peace, and true gratefulness that i continue to have you all to share it with each passing day.

so...my big 2-4 is coming up soon, and as sort of a birthday adventure, my mom and i decided to meet in the windy city last weekend! she and her friends, linda and kathy, and linda's daughter, kate, were already planning on making the trip, and i just tagged along--meeting up them from the west coast!

three things you should know about me: 1) i love to travel, 2) i love the fall, and 3) i love my mama! so, basically the trip to chicago was pretty golden from the start!! we just went for the weekend, and spent the time at our hotel on michigan avenue, as well as at linda's son, miles', apartment in hyde park, where he goes to college (coincidentally, he lives two blocks from obama's house, too, which is just funny to me).

but, the weekend was great! i loved spending time with my mom and friends and we had a lot of fun in the crisp, autumn weather, walking up and down the magnificent mile, shopping, and looking at the fabulous architecture of the city. i love chicago. i think i could live there. i especially loved the smell of crushed up fall leaves everywhere. we don't get a whole lot of that out here! mom and kathy went to see wicked (which i loved, and i couldn't wait for them to see!), and the hopgood's and i went to see a performance by second city called, "no country for old white men." it was obviously a political satire, and it was really funny. it was neat to be at second city, where so many talented comedians get their starts.

anyway, it was an amazing weekend, and i loved the escape from routine, since i usually need a change from the norm every once-in-awhile! ok, without further ado, here are some pictures:

cannonball-eyes, bear, and may moger (their high school nicknames!!! isn't that hiliarious?!) at the university of chicago.



this was my first night there, and mom was out past 9:30pm and chugging her root beer!!! craaazzyyyy! joni, we're such party girls...



kate and me



trump's new building, along with some lovely gothic architecture



the rest of the gang left a day before i did, so i wandered the city streets, listening to music, and just all-around enjoyed myself! here are some pictures from that day--they're from my phone so they're not the best quality!