October's Festivities

So.... this month has been full of ups and downs. There has been a lot going on, and I haven't had time to post. But here we go! Jake and I both had our birthdays. For Jake's birthday we had dinner at his brother's house with some friends. It was a blast! We are grateful that we have great friends! I also made Jake sticky buns (at his request) and snickers cake (his favorite).

For my birthday Jake gave me a shower speaker and so now I can jam in the shower! I LOVE it! We went out to Famous Daves and had some delicious food! I love the grilled pineapple!! Yum yum!

This month we also went to a corn maze for FHE. It was a lot of fun! We got COMPLETELY lost and it was PITCH black, but we wandered around until we found our way out. (Next year we are going to go during the day). We also had a Halloween party with our ward. There was a chili cook off, carnival games, and a trunk-or-treat. We had a fun time! 

The corn maze!!

Me and my good friend M, she looks so good!

A nerd and a black widow! Love him!

Labor Day

We went down to Vegas for the holiday weekend. It was a quick trip, but we had a great time. We live in CA and were definitely going to get caught in the traffic to Vegas with every other Californian so we went up through the Sonora pass. It was BEAUTIFUL! I think Jake said, "wow this beautiful" at least every 5 minutes (he is so adorable!). The drive was a little longer than we expected because the mountain was very steep. We enjoyed our ride down though! These are a few pictures from our drive through the "back streets of CA."

Harley Davidson

Once we got to Vegas we spent time with family and had a great time! We were able to meet up with one of Jake's mission companions and his family. I was nervous because they only spoke Spanish, and I don't speak much... really none at all! But it went a lot better than I thought. I had such a good time and I feel that they became such dear friends so quickly. The language barrier wasn't really a barrier at all. 

We got to spend time with our niece and our nephews while we were there too! We went bowling, played hide and seek, and everyone came over for a big delicious breakfast! We had so much fun. We wished we lived closer to our family so we could see them more often. It was such a fun trip. On our way home we drove through SoCal (Jake wan't thrilled by the idea of driving through the steep mountain again). Can't wait for our next trip!

Jake recently started calling me Kimberlina and then we saw this road sign and thought it was funny!

Please disregard the bug guts on our windshield!

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!