SNOW

In Las Vegas! It was pretty amazing, actually. Biggest storm here since 1979!! They let us go home early from work, although we probably should've left earlier... You see, down here in good ole southern Nevada, they don't have plow trucks or vehicles that drive around and salt the road.. So you just have to kind of make your way through it all. My car handled quite well, and I made it home in one piece.. I LOVED IT actually! Made this place look quite beautiful! :)

Jake took this picture yesterday afternoon- He took Bug out to see how she liked the snow. Don't think she did, really..

To Zion We Go...

Well... to Zion we went, rather. Jake and I headed up to St. George a few weekends ago and had a blast! It was Rayni's baby shower, so I was able to get up there in time to take part! It was a lot of fun and Rayni is just about the cutest pregnant woman I've ever seen! Afterwards Jake and I headed up to Zion's for a night of camping! It was a little chilly. But ah... it was gorgeous!! So here are some photos of one of the most beautiful places on Earth!!

View from our campsite

He's so hot right now...

Jake is cooking. Look at those trees!

                                               See.... I was there....

We couldn't get over how amazingly beautiful it was. I mean, we've both been to Zions like a million times before.. but I guess it was just a particularly incredible trip. That's what happens, I guess, when you're spending time with the love of your life... :)

Halloween! Finally....sorry.

GHOSTBUSTERS!!!

That's RIGHT everybooody.. we were out bustin the ghosts this Hallows Eve... And yes, our costumes are homemade (for the most part).. INCLUDING those mad rad looking proton packs!
We're battling the Fairly Odd Parents! (Luke & Michelle..er.. brother and SIL)

We threw a Halloween party at a park for all of our family. It really was a lot of fun...except I didn't get to bob for apples. Which is really what I wanted to do the most... Still, the kids had a blast!!

The Best.

So Jake made me some acorn squash last night.

It was really good... and i want everyone to know how much i adore my husband. He's my sunshine & my shelter when the sun is too scorching! I can't tell you how much better my life is now that he's my other half. I'm in love with him. And most likely, he'll never read this... but I just wanted you all to know that. Haha....

Halloweens a comin

Evenin ya'll. So I just wanted to check in and give all of my daily readers some eye candy. ha... er... Jake and I made a last minute trip down to Disneyland last weekend due to the very much appreciated invite from his parents! We spent all day Saturday playing at the happiest place in the universe! My mom and stepdad were down there as well, with my little brother Kaden. Kind of crazy that we'd all decide to take a Disney vaca at the same time. Kirsten and Ben even showed up for the day!! Of course, they live like 10 mins away, so how can they resist, right? Lucky punks. :) I was really excited to see em, though. This weekend we'll be searching madly for the completion of our Halloween costumes.... you'll have to wait for those photos to know what we're dressing up as. (only because if we can't find the entire costume essentials, we'll have to change ideas at the last moment...) Well other than all that, life is pretty much the same as usual. Jake's been studying madly and writing a paper. He's a much better student then I... although I am getting through my class okay. Yay me! Hope everyone's doing GREAT and I want to talk to you guys so call me or email me when ya can k? Miss my people.
Love ya, La.

I've decided to have a bit of a showcase of our Bug....







Bug.










Ain't she pretty?


And a few others for the helluvit....








Ty and "Butch"





Ew... kissy kisssy!

Soldier's Angels!

Hey guys! This is pretty cool... and is a good way to help out our country's soldiers...

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/194264.php

Love you all! Will post a good one soon!!

Update

Hey everyboooday...
Been a while... and I know I said I'd post some Lake Powell trip pictures, and i'm sure you've all been anxiously waiting, as most "Lake Powell trip" photos look COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from family to family..... but I just don't have them here on my laptop and I don't feel like kicking Jake off the Mac to access em. I do, though, have some other photos from our doings lately. I will post em in a minute. So the summer is winding down somewhat here in the Las Vegas valley. Jake and I are back at school. He's at UNLV and I'm at CSN. We're both still working full time... BUT I got a new job at an insurance brokerage firm. I actually enjoy quite a bit at the moment... I do miss my people over at the old office, though. They were really pretty rad... Sometimes you just have to move on, though. So I'm on my second week at the newby and we'll see where it takes me. Our good friends Chase Harbour and Shalesa Leavitt got married over the weeked. Yes, we've been to our fair share of weddings this year. We were able to be there at the temple which is always pretty sweet... they looked pretty gorgeous, too. Both of em! So best wishes to them and all that crap. :) We know they'll have an absolutely wonderful life together. Here are some photos from the weddin:


<------- Ahh.... coming out of the temple as Mr. and Mrs. Don't you love her dress? So "Jackie O"!












Check out his blingin ring... extremely fitting for his unique personality... -------->





<----- Okay. This is Jake's friend Devon and his wife, Darcy. Devon is a little nuts, but insanely hilarious. The child he's holding by the leg is his daughter, Madelyn. Ha.. it was actually pretty funny. He was holding her on his hip and so I was like "Oh hey guys.. let me take a family pic...." and then seconds before I snapped the shot, he swung Madelyn out by her leg.. and this is what we came out with. Priceless. (Don't worry.. he really is a good dad...)












Jake, the guys and the woman of the hour. ----->







<---- Sometime we kiss. And it was the desert... and the sunset... sorry...
















They're all "BRIGHT! and shiiiiiiny...." ------>







Aaaaanyway... hope you all enjoyed my photography. Maybe one day I'll be more thorough in my bloggingness. I love you all and hope life is spontaneous, exciting and keeping you in good health.

Los Angeles!!

So it's been a few weeks since the big trip down to L.A., but I finally got some photos from my sister and decided I should finally pretend like I have a blog. :) So it was a pretty incredible time. We went down there for my step sister, Jaymie's wedding. She was married to rap artist, Jimmy "Taboo" Gomez, of the "Black Eyed Peas". It was a beautiful Catholic wedding in a church in Pasadena. Only family and close friends were there... of course THEIR close friends just happened to include Fergie (some of you may know who she is...), her fiance- actor Josh Duhamel, fellow bandmates Will-i-am and Apl de ap... It was crazy to see them amongst all of our family members! Everyone was very friendly, though, and just as beautiful as the movies! ha. Josh especially... don't worry, Jake agrees. The reception that followed the ceremony was amazing! They had traditional Filipino dancers there as well as an awesome mariachi band! They were combining their heritage into an incredible show. There was also a surprise appearance by Frankie J who covered the song "More Than Words" as Jimmy and Jaymie danced with their moms. And to top that, BOYZ TO MEN showed up to sing to the happy couple for their first dance together. It was pretty awesome and the food was nice, too. The reception was held at the historic Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles and we were able to stay in a suite on the top floor! It was a fun hotel.. even if the bathrooms were really small. It was so wonderful to see our beautiful family... and it was an experience we won't ever forget. Here are some pictures from the weekend. Enjoy. (I accidently just uploaded all of the unmodified pictures... so the red eye and everything is right there. I could shoot someone right now... but it's too late and I'd rather go to bed. So I'll be modifying this whole post soon.... gurr.)

Our dinner once we got into town... Johnny Rockets!

The sisters!

What can I say? the men in my family are ridiculously good looking...


Mandy and Scotty.

Luke and Michelle.

Us.

I wish this weren't so blurry. They were so damn cute...

Our table. Ya.. Jake was being difficult.

Jake was having a hard time smiling... so I guess I was watching, waiting... ready to pounce on him if he wouldn't smile for another picture! And that's my dad.

Our "Momma Ganda." Gorgeous, I know.

Scott took me for a spin on the dance floor. Practically the only white people there... be wow... we really were impressive!

Ya. That's Boyz 2 Men. AGGHH!! We bout peed our pants...

So I wish I could post more pics, but it takes too much time and I'm too dang tired. Love you all. Stay posted as I will be blogging our Lake Powell trip we went on last week very soon!

So. California Trip

Last Friday we made the trip down to California for some partyin. We started by going to Costa Mesa and checking in with our lovely friends, the Tyrells. It was awesome to see them and to hang with their sweet kids Lady and Zyzzx Snowball Spazoid Furrhead.... um, whatever her full name is. We had a great time. Then we headed down to San Diego that afternoon to hang out with my family. My stepbrother, Ton, graduated from UC Riverside last week and my stepsister, Jaymie, is getting married in a few weeks to Jimmy "Taboo" Gomez (um, he's famous, you should look it up...). Anyways, my parents decided to throw them a combined party because of it all and we had a huge turn out. Great food and an awesome DJ who played nothin but the good stuff... and the company was fabulous. We're really excited to see everyone again in a few weeks for the big wedding festivities. Jake and I also were able to catch some sun rays on Sunday before we made the drive back to good ole' Las Vegas. Here are a couple shots from our weekend...

Some more photos...

By request... I've finally decided to post some wedding pics.

Bug!

So I'm breaking the so-called "blogging rules" and posting again today... Here are some photos of our little Bug... um, finally.

So the desert sucks. A MASSIVE wind spurt from an invisible blow-dryer about knocks me over every time I walk outside. It's windy, HOT and ugly enough for aliens to want to live here. (that was an Area 51 reference...) I just wanted to voice my opinion of the great land of Las Vegas. So I'm not a fan... it's cool. At least I won't be here forever, right? Right?????

That's all.

p.s. Happy Birthday Kirsten!!

The "Anthill" in the desert

A much anticipated update!

Good morning cyberspace... I don't really have any friends on here yet, so I don't exactly know who I'm talking to when I'm writing these blogs. Just opening my mind and mouth (fingers) to the blogging world, I guess. I should probably tell more people that we're on here. Hm. Well, I didn't write anything on here last month, so I decided I should put up a new post. I sit in front of a computer most of my day at work, so when I'm home I don't feel much like getting on the internet and writing about myself... but EVERYBODY'S DOING IT... so I guess I should too, ya? Well, let's see what's new... Jake and I are still happily married. He's learning how to weld just for fun at the moment and is actually quite good at it. Yesterday we were watching that Discovery HD show about the NASA space missions and we decided that Jake should find a job at NASA. He'd be really great at it. But he's great at all sorts of things... lucky chap. We've been to the lake quite a bit in the last couple weeks and I'm rockin the wakeboard. Jake's rockin it harder than me, but like I said.. he's great at most things. :) It's been fun, though. I have a wicked burn on my leggies. We're heading to Orange County to see Kirst and Benny on Friday!! Then we're off to San Diego on Saturday for an engagement/graduation party at my dad's for my step brother and sister. I haven't been there since the big engagement of our own, so we're stoked! And I keep promising pictures, so here are a couple that I have on this computer at work, but I have to be at the home computer to post the cool ones, so if I remember later on, I'll get some on here and you can see our Bug finally. Hello run-on sentence. Love you all... (again, I don't know who I'm talking to... but I'm imagining my friends who I know have a blog...)At Kirsten's wedding... yes, that's a Mickey Mouse watch on his wrist... classic.

My handsome husband. Last year in Long Beach, CA.

Bug!

We adopted our very first Casto baby on Saturday. Her name is Bug and she's a tabby/bengal mixed kitten. She is so incredibly cute... we're pretty stoked about the addition to our family! So in a couple of years, when we get a house with a yard, we'll probably adopt a weimaraner puppy into the fam... then after taking care of those two, we might be ready for a baby human being. I don't know, though. : ) Guess we'll see! I'll get some pics posted on here when I learn how to do it.
Adios!

It's begun.

Hello to everyone. We've joined the crew and are ready to set out on our blogging adventure... Randall Jacob Casto and I (Lauren Faletupe Gornichec Casto) met December of 2006. He lived in Las Vegas and I was located in St. George at the time. We started seeing each other every weekend after the initial meet and have been falling head over heals ever since. I decided to take the plunge and moved my butt down to Las Vegas in May of last year... I needed to see how things could work out with this Jake kid. So low and behold, it was greater than I ever could've imagined. He made me laugh and smile consistently and after a few months, I knew I could never live without him. 

So in November of 2007, he proposed marriage on a sunny, Saturday afternoon on a beautiful beach in San Diego. 4 months later, we were married in the St. George LDS temple. The day was incredible. The absolute best day of my life. We were surrounded by the people we loved and we were together... forever. 

Almost 7 weeks later, we're back doing our every day life kind of things and married life is pretty fun. Different... but fun. Jake is in school majoring in Political Science and working hard as an electrician. I'm over the insurance in a local dental office and hoping to become a world renowned photographer one day. We plan on being in Las Vegas for a couple more years, but after Jake graduates, we'll be on to the next big adventure. Europe maybe? Or we might just do law school... ha. You never know where life is going to take you...