happy december everyone!!! i can't believe it's here! time continues to fly. but i have to say, i'm already ready for it to be 2010, no reason in particular ;)

anyway, this is the official thanksgiving blog!! we had a lovely potluck thanksgiving meal at my house this year, and (grandmom, i hope you're proud!) i helped make the turkey!! josh and i actually made it, and as you'll see, it turned out GREAT! we were so happy! it was lovely to celebrate being grateful for all our blessings with our wonderful friends. i hope you had a thankful day, too!

enjoy the delectable photos!

josh "chef boyardee" sneider



a dancing turkey!



we stuffed butter and garlic cloves underneath it's skin--YUMMMM!



boys being boys



hooray ali and her delicious pigs in blankets!



SUCCESS!! look at that bird!



turkeyyyyy!



nice plate, parky!



my plate's not so bad either!



ahh fun! please check out josh's face, he looks beyond full!



i am so thankful for friends, family, a wonderful house, an amazing fiance, provision to live where i do, sigh...just everything really! what are you thankful for this year?

my goodness!!! i can't believe it's almost the end of the year. wow! i ALSO can't believe that i turn 25 tomorrow!!!!! yikes! no more of this "early twenties" business...

so on the eve of my quarter century, what is there to write about? lots, actually.

a) wedding planning is going well! we finally picked a date and secured the location. it'll be in april 2010, and we're getting married here in the la area! neither of us can wait! :D our wedding website is currently under construction, but when it's ready, i'll surely post a link to it on here, so keep an eye out for that! we took a few engagement pics with our friend, jer, but the weather was bad, so we plan on taking some more. here is just a little taste, though...




b) last weekend, parker and i went to visit his parents and family in virginia! it was just the perfect dose of fall that i always crave this time of year (especially since living in la, where seasons don't exist). we did a ton of hiking, eating, and good old-fashioned hanging out. it was so crazy and wonderful knowing that i was sitting around a table with my future family-in-law!!! i couldn't be more blessed, though--i've said it before, but i'm inheriting the best family!




there are more pictures that i haven't gotten ahold of, but it was just beautiful and we were so spoiled! also, parker's older sister, molly got engaged to jesse, while we were there!! so wonderful to be a part of that!



c) i just made some changes to my professional website: laurenparrent.com. i added a bunch of links on my reels page to videos that i've done the voiceover work on! i've also been doing weekly improv with monkeybutlercomedy.com and i'm LOVING it! i've only been taking the class for about two months and i just got word that i'm getting promoted to the next level! i've always loved comedy, and feel that it's my forte, so it's exciting to see another route of acting being set in my path. hopefully there will be updates on this front soon!

d) we just finished celebrating one of my favorite holidays--halloween!!! i LOVE dressing up and trick-or-treating was always a huge deal for our family growing up. anyway, parker and i had two halloween parties, and thus, two costumes! let me tell you, we used a TON of cardboard! anyway, here we are as 1) the geico gecko and the money you could be saving with geico, (along with jon who was the geico caveman), and 2) ms. pacman and inky the ghost!




e) my mama is here for a visit!!! i can't wait to do a bunch of fun wedding and non-wedding things with her! hooray family!

ok, more soon i hope! take care!

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