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

Reunion

I had a reunion with my girlfriends that I hung out with in high school! We got together and had some dinner and talked and laughed all night. It was a blast! We hadn't all been together since my wedding, so..... over a year! It was time! One of our friends had just gotten engaged so it was fun to hear the story! She asked us all to be bridesmaids and then we rushed off to try on the dress she wanted us to buy! Here are some fun pictures!

This is the dress for the bridesmaids! The one without the dress is the Bride.

 Nat and Cass came to my Zumba class. I loved having them there!

Nic, Nat, Me, and Lex 

All 5 of us! It is crazy to see where we all are now. We have been graduated for 5 years almost. Two already graduated from college, the rest of us are this semester. One married and divorced, one married, and one getting married. So much has happened in our lives! It is crazy! I am still a little surprised that no one has moved away yet. Hopefully not!

After seeing the dress with stripes Nat decided that we looked like we escaped from a fancy prison and went with solid grey! haha! I think they will be adorable either way! Their wedding is going to be a blast!

February Date Night!

I gave Jake a package of dates - one already planned, and paid for, for each month of the year. February's date was one that I knew Jake would love! We had a nerf  gun war (which I won!) and then grabbed some pizza and watched a Bourne movie! We had a ton of fun. We moved our mattress out into the living room so we could watch the movie on the big screen from our bed. It was tons of fun! Also, our apartment is tiny and yet we still lost at least three nerf gun bullets.... Today we are going to clean the apartment really well, so hopefully we find them :)

Life is treating us well and we are so happy. Two more months left of school! Then a trip to Vegas and then off to Florida! YAY!!!

Blessings!

Jake and I were sent some coupons from the local grocery store in the mail. There were coupons to get FREE things. Not buy one get one, but totally and completely free! How incredible. I was able to get some great things for only $18. The Lord is truly aware of our needs! I am feeling very blessed today!