Happy Early Birthday!

Our birthdays are 5 days apart, and they aren't for another month and then some! haha.... BUT we saw this bean bag and needed it! It is 6 ft long. It came in a HUGE box! It was so heavy. We are really excited about it. Who doesn't love a nice big bean bag to sit on while you watch movies??

Del Valle

Last weekend we went to the lake with the W family as well as the V family! We had a great time! The W family has paddle boards and they let us borrow them and ride the waves. It was harder than I thought it was going to be. I didn't fall in at all and Jake fell only once! We all packed picnic lunches and soaked up the sun. We are excited to go back soon!

K & I out on the water

I felt so much like Pocahontas!

Jake and JV and cute little K

The boys out on the water

I adore this little guy! M and I are BFFs! Being an aunt is so much fun!

Our Trip to Sacramento

We wanted to go to the temple, but our temple (Oakland Temple) is closed for maintenance so we drove up to Sacramento for the afternoon. Jake also got a gift certificate to Cheesecake factory so we stopped there for dinner as well. We live in a smaller city and so the closest Cheesecake factory to us is about 45 minutes so we thought stopping there after the temple was a fun idea! We enjoyed the drive and we were able to chat about so many things. We are grateful for the beauty of the world that Heavenly Father has made so accessible to us! We are excited for another temple trip soon!

Here is a picture that I took of the Sacramento Temple! There was a wedding there when we went! It added to the fun of it all!

Jake's Red Velvet Cheesecake

My Oreo Dream Cheesecake

Another picture of the Sacramento Temple

Also, Manteca is so patriotic. Each Holiday (That is somewhat patriotic: Flag Day, President's Day, Fourth of July, etc.) Manteca lines the streets with flags. It was so awesome to see all the main streets lined with flags. It made us so grateful for the land that we live in and the freedoms that we have. 

Santa Cruz

We went with Jake's brother and his family to Santa Cruz over the weekend. It was quite an adventure getting there... The traffic was bad, but we made it okay. It wasn't too hot and the ocean breeze made it just lovely! We walked along the boardwalk and the pier. We saw pelicans, sail boats, and sea lions. Jake and I are so grateful that we get to live in such a beautiful place. We are so grateful for God's beautiful creations.

Va - (and stay) cation!

Well! More blessings have come our way! I found a job and we found an apartment all within about 2 weeks of living in CA. We are loving it! It is hard to be away from home and what I am used to, but this is a new adventure and we are making new memories and new friends. We love our apartment and we love our jobs! We love being so close to J (Jake's brother), K, and M. It has been fun for us to all hang out together and to get to know each other better. After being here for almost a month I headed back to UT for a few weddings. Jake stayed in CA and his parents came up for a visit. Here are some pictures from our time apart.

The photo booth pictures at N & D's wedding

With the stunning bride

The bride and her maids

C and I with N & D

Classic Us....

Wedding Party

C and I

This is the beautiful Salt Lake City LDS Temple where both couples were married!

Cousin J and his new wife W. So lovely!

My mom and siblings at the reception

Little cousin D and I at the Temple

Mom had a birthday the day Jake came to pick me and the car up so we went to the zoo!

At the zoo

I also got to see T. I missed him so much! What a fun young man he is turning out to be.

Jake went to the Redwoods with his mom, dad, J, K, and little M. 

Spending time with family is so nice. We cherish it more now that we are further away from the ones we love. We feel blessed to be close to Jake's brother J and his family. We are  excited to see what adventures CA has in store for us!

Catch Up!!!

I have really been a slacker about blogging, and in a minute you will see why! Jake was offered a job in California and we are now Californians. It has been a crazy month and a half, but we feel so blessed and so loved by our Heavenly Father. Everything has been working out!! We have been here just over a week and we have already found an apartment that we LOVE and I also got a job!! yay! :) Things couldn't have worked out better if we had planned them out. We are currently staying with Jake's brother J, his wife K, and their son M. We love it here and feel so lucky to have family close by. We can already tell that being in California is going to be a blast! Here is a recap of the last couple of weeks:

I GRADUATED!!!! YAY!!!! I am officially a Social Worker and I am so happy to be done with school. I am not sure whether or not I will work in the social work field in the future because California does not have a Bachelor's level license for social workers... I would have to go to grad school, and I am not really wanting to do that right now! Jake's parents came up for graduation and we all went out to eat afterwards and had a great time!

Jake is close to graduating and so he will continue his schooling online through his current University. He can't wait to be done! He and I are going to out a schedule together and get it done ASAP!

After graduation my parents took Jake and I (along with B) to Florida for a week! It was so much fun! We went to Universal Studios 3 days in a row, Black Hammock for gator huntin', and spent a day mini golfing, playing tennis, paddle boating, and swimming. We also did a puzzle, found a yummy ice cream shop, visited the temple, and watched movies. It was a fabulous vacation!

The whole reason we went to Florida is to see "Minion Mayhem". B LOVES Despicable Me. Going on the ride, meeting the minions, meeting Gru, and seeing Gru's house was a dream come true for him. He was in Heaven and happy as could be. It was fun to watch his reaction!

I loved The Wonderful World of Harry Potter. I had been before and was excited to go with Jake. I was nervous that he wouldn't enjoy it, but he did! You feel like you are in Hogsmeade with the attractions and the scenery and that impressed Jake. A new part of the Harry Potter park opened up just after we left... guess we have to go again!

We had lots of fun and enjoyed spending time with my parents and B before we moved to California! I think everyone's favorite part of the trip was the air boat and gator watching. It was neat to see alligators in their natural habitat, and actually holding one!! Their skin is a lot smoother than Jake and I thought it was going to be. If you haven't done it yet we definitely recommend it!

Thesis

I have been working on my honors undergrad thesis for two semesters and finally I finished it and defended it! I am so happy!! Jake has been such a trooper through the entire thing because I was not always a delight to be around. Jake helped me with the stats and would sit next to me when I opened the editing emails from my committee. It was a rough two semesters, the hardest of my college experience, but now it is over. I am done. And I proved that I can do hard things!

This is the poster I created for the poster presentation during Engagement Week

Me presenting at Engagement Week!

Thesis Defense

Thesis Defense