The beginning of a new semester...and other happenings

We are finally back in Utah and loving the weather up here. California and Arizona were getting a little too hot for us. School has started and we are very busy! We both have five classes plus institute and Logan works every morning. I had a job interview yesterday so hopefully that means I will start working mornings as well. It's great though, we like being in school and having something to do rather than sit around and stare at eachother!

A few things we've done since leaving California and coming to Utah...

We went four-wheeling with Logan's family up in the mountains of Koosharem and had so much fun! We were covered in dirt from head to toe-including in my ears but still enjoyed every minute of it. I think it took 2-3 showers before we were completed clean! We celebrated my birthday-the big 22 by going to PFChang's with some family and friends. We saw Julie and Julia this past Saturday and let me tell you...I loved it! It was hilarious, even Logan enjoyed it. I highly recommend it. I got strep throat over the weekend and thank goodness for my mother-in-law who had medicine for me. I've been on antibiotics for a few days now and feel so much better, my throat is almost better.

We've been staying with Zac and Kara for a week now til our apartment is ready this weekend. We are so excited to move in, unpack our stuff and just have a place of our own. Not that we haven't love spending so much time with our families this past little while...but it's time for our own space :) Our apartment is in Pleasant Grove and it's right off the freeway, so it may sound far but it takes about 7 minutes to get to school. Not bad at all. Plus they are new apartments, that was the selling point for me!

Other than that we've been busy buying books, doing a little homework and getting used to being back in school. So if you're ever in the neighborhood stop by and see us!

Zac, Kara, and Lola's visit to California

Last week Zac and Kara came to visit the whole family for his birthday. It was so much fun! Especially because it was a chance for the whole family to be together before we all leave for school. We spent a lot of time here on the mountain for the first few days and enjoyed the company. On Friday we went down to Irvine and stayed in a hotel. We had dinner at one of Zac's favorite restaurants, Javier's, swam in the pool for awhile and got some rest. Saturday we woke up and get everything ready to spend the day at the beach. We spent about half of the day at Crystal Cove, swimming, eating, sun bathing/burning, and relaxing. Later that evening we finished up the trip with a stop at In-N-Out and headed home. Zac and Kara left on Tuesday, thanks so much for coming! We had the best time with you :)

Swimmin' at the pool

The whole family at Javier's

Ryan buried in the sand by Zac, Blake and Logan

Me and my wonderful sisters-in-law Kara and Lani

One last pic of the whole family after quite a long day at the beach

Logan and I are moving back to Utah in about a week. We have had such a great summer here in California-thanks to all our family for supporting us all summer long.

Busy Busy Busy

We've been quite busy lately. Driving A LOT-working, visiting family and just having fun! Two weeks ago Logan's parents came to visit us for a few days. We had SO much fun! The first day they were here we stayed on the mountain and gave them a tour. We went to the Village and fed the ducks, got some candy and went in a few shops. There's a video at the bottom of a duck that wouldn't leave me alone! I would turn away from it and think it got back in the water but nope he just stayed right there and waiting for me to hand feed him!

On Friday we went snorkeling/kayaking in La Jolla. We had a waterproof camera and I have yet to get it developed so there aren't any pictures of that. Logan and I enjoyed it more than we ever thought we would. We learned what California's state fish is, who knew! It's a Garibaldi, a gorgeous bright orange fish. We saw plenty of them while we were snorkeling, I have never seen this bright of fish in the ocean, I thought they were only in tropical places. Logan saw some mackerel and some other fish too. We kayaked around for awhile and saw some caves and sea lions. We just snorkeled right off the kayak-so fun! We saw a lots and lots of sea kelp and sea grass. We got to this one part where you could snorkel and see leopard sharks-that kindof scared me so I stayed in the kayak and let Logan go without me. Luckily he got some pics of them cause there was no way I was getting close to them! On our way back to change out of our wetsuits I started to notice how red my legs were. Yep we were all fried! You'd think I would know by my age that I have very fair skin and burn easily! Well it turns out I put sunscreen in all the places my wetsuit covered-genius! I'll post pics of the fish and all of us in our kayaks when I get them developed.

After snorkeling and kayaking we were starving! We drove a little farther down the coast to San Diego to go to another restaurant from Diner's, Drive-In's and Dives. It was called Pizzeria Luigi-oh my goodness. It took me straight back to Italy. The pizza was sooooo good! After eating we went to Seaport Village-I walk of shops and restaurants right on the ocean.

Excuse how terrible I look, we didn't get to shower after snorkeling!

There was a little pond in the middle of the village and there were some baby ducks! They were so cute!

Thanks so much to our parents, we had a great time with all of you. Thanks Lynn and Lorri for coming and visiting us. We had a blast and are so glad you put up with all the driving we did :)

A few days later we drove to Littlefield, AZ where Logan worked all week with my dad to build the clubhouse in our mobile home park. They've been working so hard and have gotten so much done. It looks great!

Only one day later my mom and I got up and drove to Phoenix. Clarice had concert tickets for Keith Urban and she invited me, there was no way I could pass up this invitation. This was the third time I had seen him and the second time with Clarice. We had SOOOO much fun. We danced and sang and laughed all night long. Thanks Clarice, I had such a great time with you.

Now just three days later we are back in Littlefield doing more work. But later today we are headed to Salina and then to Provo tomorrow. We are looking for an apartment so we can move up in a week or two. We have had a great summer and thanks to everyone who has spent time with us. We want our parents to know how much we appreciate all they have done for us. We won't know what we would do without you.

Happy 4th of July!

This year we spent the 4th of July in Lake Arrowhead. Our day started off with the pancake breakfast and fundraising auction at the church. Somehow Logan and I were volunteered to keep track of everything that was bought, how much they needed to pay and who bought it. This year the auction had about twice as many items and it took FOUR hours to get it all done. Not to mention the long line of people giving us money and asking us where their prizes were. LONG morning I must say, at least the pancakes were good! For lunch we went to Rocky's-a super super good sandwich place up here, and hung out there for awhile. After that we just hung out and played a few games til it was time to go see the fireworks. Normally we take the boat out and park it right under the fireworks in the sky. This year it was incredibly crowded so we decided to pass on the boat and watch the fireworks from one of my dad's jobs. It overlooks the entire lake so it was an interesting viewpoint rather than being right under them. But we all decided as cool as they were from above...you can't beat being on the boat for them.

This was just as boats were getting out to watch the fireworks

Logan and I waiting for the show to start

Not the clearest picture, but this was right before the show started and all the tiny red and green lights are boats on the lake. Looks pretty cool.

Happy 4th of July!

On the road again...

This past weekend my cousin Jeremy got married and they asked my dad to marry them. So we got to ride over with my parents to Arizona for the weekend. We had a great time and did so much. Benson, AZ is a tiny town where my family lives over there and there isn't much to do...but we found a lot to do this time. We left Thursday morning and got to Benson in the evening. On Friday morning we got up and went to Kartchner Caverns. It was so cool! I had been there when I was little but remembered very little about it. The first picture is of course real but since you can't take pics inside the second one is downloaded from the internet. The researcher at the bottom gives you an idea of how big the largest column in the cavern is. It was incredible.

Logan, Me, Mom, Dad and Blake

Friday afternoon we hung out for a bit and then when down to my great Uncle Donnie's house (my dad's uncle) to visit. My dad's father and all his brothers are true Arizona cowboys so it's funny to be around a bunch of old guys in cowboy hats, button up shirts and Wrangler's on while we're in our flip flops and shorts. 

Saturday we spent a lot of time playing Guitar Hero, Logan played some basketball with my cousins and hung out most of the day. The wedding was Saturday evening and it was a "Cowboy" wedding. It turned out to such a gorgeous evening...minus the wind. And once again we were some of the few people not wearing a cowboy hat or cowboy boots!

Lani, Ryan, Blake, Mom, Logan and me

Kayleen (she looked so beautiful, I wish I had gotten a better pic), Dad, and Jeremy

We had some super good pit bbq that my great Uncle Donnie made (350 lbs of beef!) and these...Chocolate dipped strawberries. Kayleen's aunt is from Sweden or Belgium I can't remember and they had the chocolate flown in from there...incredible, the best chocolate I've ever had! Nice pic of me huh?!

Arizona always has the most beautiful sunsets, the sky was like this throughout the entire wedding, what luck! Gorgeous.

Sunday we went to church with all the family I have in Benson and had some super good dinner after. That night we played Up Up Down, a card game we play all the time with family and eating lots of junk food-as usual! We also spent a lot of time playing with my cousin's little babies. Audrey and Jackie both have a baby and they are so funny! I don't think anyone gets tired of just watching a baby play.

Monday morning we got up and got ready to leave. My brother Ryan had heard that Alice Cooper has a restaurant in Phoenix and so we decided to go on our way home. It was so much fun! The food wasn't incredible, it was good though, but the restaurant was just fun. The servers even wore black make-up under their eyes like Alice Cooper used to in concert. 

Ryan got the 22 inch hot dog...it was HUGE!

Guitars signed by Eric Clapton, The Police, Jeff Beck, Paul McCartney and Deep Purple

My "rock on" face isn't too rockin'! I thought my dad had already taken the pic and I started to smile, so it's a little wussy!

We had a great weekend seeing all our family and going to Jeremy's wedding. Logan had the chance to meet my grandparents finally (they're too old to travel now), more of my cousins and some other distant relatives. 

Happy Birthday!

Logan's birthday was May 21 and Blake's was May 23...so they celebrated together ALL week long. Saturday the 23rd was the main event. My family went to Balboa Island and ate at Ruby's on the pier and just hung out at the beach for a bit. On Sunday we had cake to celebrate both birthdays.

Oh life...it's a long post

Logan and I packed up all our stuff and headed for D.C. for the summer. Our car was packed and we were excited to be getting away for the summer. It took us four days with 8 hours a day to get there. Our first day included a drive through the Rocky Mountains and southern Utah-I don't think there is a more beautiful part of the country. After getting through all that including 11,000 feet (elevation) of mountains we stopped in Denver, Colorado for the night. Here are a few pics from Denver.

Logan with the capital building

I thought this piece of art was really cool, we found it while we were walking through downtown Denver

The next day we drove through the entire state of Kansas-seriously the longest state in the country! It was such a change from Utah and Colorado, no mountains-literally green plains the entire way and completely flat ground. Then just on the other side of the border we stayed in Independence, Missouri.

Kansas City, Missouri

This is the crazy Community of Christ Temple in Independence, Missouri. Right across the street is a LDS Visitor's Center. We drove all around this area and there is literally EVERY single type of church-Presbyterian, Catholic, LDS, Methodist, Community of Christ, baptist, and Mennonite...plus some more I can't remember. Very interesting.

The next day we drove through Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and stayed in Columbus Ohio.

We stopped here during the drive to see the arch.

Sadly I have a water spot on my head.

Just getting to Ohio.

Well after the third day I took too many pictures and played with the camera too much so my camera was dead. On the fourth day we drove through the rest of Ohio, Pennsylvania, part of Virginia and finally into Maryland. We took a small detour up to Pittsburgh because we figured this would be our only chance to go there. It was incredible, you enter the city through a tunnel and boom there's the city. We ate at a restaurant that was on Diner's, Drive-In's and Dive's then made our way out of the other side of the city. You leave again through a tunnel and once you get to the other side of the mountain you can't see the city behind you at all. It's like a hidden city behind two mountains and surrounded by water, pretty cool. Finally we got back on the main road and got to College Park, Maryland in the early evening on Saturday. We unpacked our car and started setting things up. Logan started work on Monday and had a pretty miserable day...mostly because it was raining and had been for a week straight. The next few days we figured out that this wasn't the right thing for us. Logan wasn't feeling good about his decision and we started thinking about going home.

So we spent Friday morning at the DC temple and felt good about our decision to go home. The temple always just gives you such a peaceful feeling when you are looking for answers. After making that decision we decided to spend the day in downtown DC to see the things we hadn't seen on other trips there. 

National Air and Space Museum

The REAL Wright Brothers Plane

We had a pretty cool experience at this museum but we couldn't take pics inside.

Museum of Natural History-big Grizzly Bear

Watch out Logan!

The next day, Saturday, we packed up everything that had yes all been put away in the right cupboards and neatly organized. We still felt good about our decision so I wasn't mad that I had to pack it all up, actually it hardly took any time so we got through it real quick. Packed up our little car again and got one last night's rest in our beautiful apartment. This trip was a bit longer. Maryland to California...wooooowwww, never again will I do that drive. We wanted to get home quick so we did an average of 14 hours a day for three days. I have never been so tired of driving in my life! That's seven days of nothing but driving within a week and a half.

Our first day we got through Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, part of Illinois and stayed the night in St. Louis, Missouri.

Here's Kentucky!

The second day we got through Missouri, Oklahoma, top of Texas and half of New Mexico where we stayed in Albuquerque.

Welcome to Texas-I didn't get any pics of Oklahoma-in fact Logan hated this state...he said everyone there was rude :) I personally don't think we talked to enough people, sorry Log!

New Mexico

Finally our last day we made it through the other half of New Mexico, all of Arizona and through California to Lake Arrowhead.

We are here in Lake Arrowhead and feel it was a good decision. We have the opportunity to work for my brother Ryan with his new business and also for my dad here and there. It's nice to be closer to family and not on the East Coast. Don't get me wrong the East Coast is gorgeous, we loved every moment of it, but this is right for us at this time. 

In a couple weeks we get to go to my cousin Jeremy's wedding and we're quite excited about it. I'll post some more pictures once we do some other things.

Coast to coast to coast...done!