Memorial Day!

We got to go to Utah for Memorial Day and spend time with my family! It was a blast! our whole trip was planned around the food we were going to eat. Enough said!

Saturday:

We woke up at 3:00 AM to head over to the airport to make it on time to our 6:00 AM flight.

We look pretty good (and cheery!) for getting only 4 hours of sleep!

We arrived in Salt Lake City at about 8:30 AM where we were promptly picked up and swept away to Kneaders to eat breakfast. We ordered their DELICIOUS chunky cinnamon french toast!

We also met my brother J's girlfriend A (and we LOVE her!) at Kneaders which was a fun time! We all went back to the house and chatted and caught up with each other. Later I went with my Dad to take B to get a haircut. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip because I was able to talk to my Dad just him and me and we don't get to do that very much, but we got a few minutes to ourselves and it was great! After B's haircut we met up with everyone at Hokulia (Hokulia of the snow cone as Brandon calls it) and got snow cones. This is a picture of me last year when we got a snow cone:

So big. So delicious. So perfect! Afterwards we just hung out at the house and played games until we had BE (my college roommate) ad her new husband AE and our other friend BB (Jake's college roommate) over for a BBQ and s'mores. I am mad that we didn't get a picture, but it was awesome. It was so nice to see BE and meet her husband, and Jake loved seeing BB. It is always nice to see friends and to catch up.

Can't forget Soda and Harlee! Such cute and fun dogs! Love them :)

B and I on Saturday! He was so cute and would call out "Kinny" or "Jake" just to make sure we were still there! It is so nice to be loved and to be missed!

Sunday:

Sunday was glorious because we got to sleep in and mom and T made a tasty breakfast of orange rolls, coconut lime blossoms, and breakfast casserole. So delicious. We stuffed ourselves to the brim! Then we went to church and were spiritually fed in many ways! It was awesome to go to my parent's ward and see the people they work with and serve with. After church Grandma and Grandpa W came up to the house to see us and eat dinner. It was good to see them and chat. Mom made my favorite dinner, chalupas, so I was in heaven. Grandma and Grandpa brought gifts for everyone:

I got a BYU hat and a travel make up hanging bag, and Jake got a car wash kit.

After dinner our friends E and J with their cute daughters C and M came over. It had been a year since we had seen them last and it was so wonderful to get together again. We miss them so much and wish we could see them more often. They are hopefully planning a trip to come see us in August! Fingers crossed!

This is J holding C (M stayed in the car), E, Jake and I

The rest of the night we just hung around and played games together. It is always a fun time playing games and laughing our heads off. We'll leave it at mom attempting to dance the "stanky leg" :) Love you mommy!

T and I and A and J hanging out Sunday night

Monday:

Monday was Memorial Day. We went to the graves of Grandma and Grandpa C and Uncle M. It was nice to go to the graves and see them. I hadn't been in over a year since we had last visited. We shared stories and looked at pictures. Mom "introduced" her parents and brother to A and it was really sweet!

This is the hat the B got from Grandma and Grandpa W and he was loving it. He put it on crooked and KNEW he looked good! So precious!

After we visited the graves we stopped at Cafe Rio for lunch because we don't have those here in California and I had been CRAVING their tomatillo dressing. I got a pork quesadilla and Jake got a pork burrito (enchilada style, which is the only way to get it) and we shared an horchata. Delicious! After you eat something savory you definitely need a treat so we stopped at a bakery close by and tried all sorts of goodies. Jake and I had a black and white cookie with coconut frosting. YUMMY!! Dad and I shared a carmel cheesecake thing that was unbelievably delicious. I couldn't stop eating it. After we finished eating everything we could see we drove through mom's old neighborhood and reminisced on visiting Grandma and Grandpa C's house when we were kids.

.............Then we had to go to the airport............ :(

It is always sad to go. I usually cry for about 2 minutes and Jake always chuckles at me! Then we were off. Our flight home was delayed about 2 hours due to a broken brake accumulator, but we were grateful that the flight crew was taking every precaution to keep us safe! We made it home and went to J and K's to see them, M, and S, and J made some yummy pasta for dinner!

We had a great trip and we are so blessed to have the family that we have! We are hoping to come back to Utah soon so we can visit all our friends and family that we were not able to see during our quick, quick trip!

Tennis

We have picked up tennis and have been taking lessons this week! We are having a blast. It has been cool to see how much we have improved in the two weeks that we have been taking the lessons. Jake and I played doubles last weekend, and got crushed, but we still had a fun time! We are excited to learn more and play tennis as much as possible!

Our instructor starts every lesson by telling us about the tennis matches that have been going on over the past week. It is cool to see how much passion that he has for the game. 

Today we learned how to serve and I can serve it inside the box about 50% of the time. Jake is better than I am, but that is to be expected! I can do a backhand pretty good, when I don't miss the ball that is..... haha!

Easter

We had a great Easter weekend! We were inspired by the words our Prophet and other church leaders. It was wonderful. It was full of good friends, family, and yummy food!

Saturday we watched the AM session of General Conference at our house and spent the morning together. Jake and I did our own Easter egg hunt too! Jake hid eggs for me upstairs and I hid eggs for him downstairs. It was fun! Then we went over to our friend E & C's house to spend the rest of the day with them and their cute kids L & N.
We watched the PM session of General Conference and ate a yummy ham dinner. E and I had some much needed girl time with the boys watched the Priesthood session (and the babies) of conference. We followed that up with a s'mores stuffed cookies. YUMMY!!!
Easter Sunday we got up around 8:45 (which is sleeping in ALOT for us!!) and watched the AM session of general conference. Then we zipped on over to J&K's house to hang with them and M & Baby S. M did a glow in the dark Easter Egg hunt when it got dark. J made a yummy pork roast and potatoes. Needless to say we had a very good weekend! Jake even held Baby S.... That never happens! It was cute! He rocked her to sleep and was all smiley at her! Love it! Happy Easter!

Also, the reason for the Easter season is to remember our Savior Jesus Christ's victory over death. He paid the ultimate price for each of us and then rose on the third day. Resurrection is possible through Jesus Christ. We are so blessed to have this knowledge. Jake and I are so grateful that because of Jesus Christ we can be together forever. FOREVER. Isn't that amazing!? Remember the reason for the season!

If you want to check out what President Monson said during conference copy this link into your browser and head on over to lds.org. It'll be worth it.

https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/invitations-from-the-prophet?cid=HP_SU_4-5-2015_dPAAST_fCHNWS_xLIDyL1-A_&lang=eng

Catch Up!

We have been busy!! Things have been moving along and busy busy! Sine our cruise we have had struggles getting back into our routine and we are finally feeling like we are motivated to get back into the swing of things. Here is our update from the last month or so:
1. We didn't do anything super extravagant for Valentine's Day, but we did have a good time. We went to color me mine and made a vase to use in our apartment. We also bought our first grown up purchase....a couch! It pulls out into a bed and we LOVE it! We use it all the time. Jake wouldn't sit on our couch before because he hated it, but now he likes the couch and we can both sit on it. We pull it out into a bed and watch tv all the time!

2. I also got accepted into the Applied Behavior Analysis Graduate Program at Arizona State University and I am so excited! I love school and am ready to start going back to school again. I think it is going to be a really good thing for me and for our family! Go Sun Devils!

3. We have been spending lots of time with the niece and nephew M & S. I love living so close to family and getting to know these awesome kids. M is my favorite little human that ever lived. He and I are BFFs. And little S is so adorable and getting so big! I would be with them all the time if I could....alas. Also their parents J & K have become such great friends of ours. We are really lucky to be related to them! Yay for family! (Sometimes K has to act like our mommy because Jake and I struggle, she is the best!)

4.We recently inherited a bread machine and I am LOVING baking bread and delicious things! I have made 3 different types of bread (one was not so good!) and then I have also made cinnamon rolls. Those were my favorite. VERY DANGEROUS though because I wanted to eat the whole pan by myself. I found a cream cheese cool whip frosting that I made and that is what pulled the cinnamon rolls all together. YUM!! I made a bunch and we gave them out to neighbors, but I had to stop because Jake and I ended up eating more than our fair share ;)

5. Jake and I are moving! Just across the street, but it is still a move! We are excited for a change and for our new place. I will post pictures once we are all settled!

Thank you Santa!

Santa (AKA: My parents) gave us a cruise for Christmas! Jake had never been on a cruise before and so he was excited, and I was extra excited because of his excitement. We scheduled the time off work and were good to go! We left January 17th and drove to SoCal. We met up with Jake's friend B and his girlfriend N for a delicious dinner! There is a BBQ restaurant called Lucille's that Jake loves so we met up there. We were in practice mode for our Cruise because we ate SO. MUCH. FOOD. But it was worth it!

We grabbed some juice boxes for our drive down to SoCal. 

The following day we met up with the family and got aboard the ship! We were expecting long lines at the dock, but the lines were quick. We got aboard and then went promptly to the buffet and ate our guts out! They have a service where you pay $6.00 a day to have all the soda you want instead of paying $2.00 or whatever it is for each drink, so we got that for Jake (and Dad, T, and B) and he was pleased! We played a round of chess (J and I vs. Jake because he is more clever than us, and we still got creamed!) relaxed, and had a delightful dinner! Then Jake and I went up on deck to watch the boat sail off. It was really beautiful and the breeze was so nice!

J and I wandering around and discovering the ship

Playing chess

At the send off

The next day we woke up and were in Catalina Island! It is an island just off of California and it was such a lovely place. We spent the morning driving around in golf carts on a scavenger hunt learning fun and interesting things about the Island. We went back to the boat and swam (there were water slides and hot tubs - the pool was always crowded with little kids so it was hard to get a good swim in). Jake and I each had a book to read for the cruise so we spent some time reading and relaxing each day. That night was formal night and everyone dressed up for dinner and they served fancy foods. It was a lot of fun to see everyone dressed up. After dinner we went to a comedy show and laughed super hard! Also, each night we played games after dinner in the Lido restaurant and had after dinner snacks ;)

The family on Catalina Island

Formal Night

At the comedy show

Dad and I on the ferry to Catalina

Mom and me playing games

Catalina Island from the ship

J, T, and B in their golf cart driving around Catalina

The cruise ship: Carnival Imagination

The next day was Sea day so we spent the day eating brunch, walking around, reading, playing games, relaxing, and napping. There was Harry Potter Trivia, Hasbro Game Show, and other activities to do which were fun. 

B and I on deck relaxing (I was reading and he was watching a movie)

T and I at Harry Potter Trivia 

The last day we woke up in Ensenada Mexico! We had a blast! We drove to La Bufadora which is a blow hole and watched the water. We saw whales too! We went shopping in the flea market and got ourselves a very nice blanket as well as snuggled with a Jaguar! Needless to say when we got back to the ship we were hungry and tired! We ate lunch and then promptly fell asleep! We were woken up by B knocking on our door telling us it was time for dinner.....oops! We jumped out of bed and away we went! One of the funnest parts about a cruise is that someone cleans your room - TWICE - in one day! Once while you are gone at breakfast and once while you are gone at dinner. They make it so nice and tidy and leave treats and fun towel animals. We had the best housekeeper. His name was Arturo and he remembered all of our names and would always ask us about our day. We loved him!

Our little bear towel animal! We also had a bunny and a heart.

B, Jake, me, and J in Ensenada

Zeus the Jaguar. He was just hanging out on the side of the road with his owner and we HAD to take a picture with him. He was so playful - only 20 months old! He started to play bite at my leg, and that made me a little nervous, but it ended out being quite fun!

Us at La Bufadora. We had to hurry and take a picture because it would shoot the water up really high, people next to us were getting soaked!

We had a fabulous time and are so grateful that we were able to spend so much time with our family! Thank you so much Santa Claus! We love you!

Alcatraz

We visited Alcatraz this last weekend. We rode the train down to the city and spent the afternoon there. Neither of us had been to Alcatraz before so we were pretty excited to go. It was very interesting. There was definitely a creepy vibe there, but it was so cool at the same time. We loved reading the histories of people that were inmates there. This week are going to watch the movie, "Escape From Alcatraz" now that we have been there. The views of the city from the island were spectacular. You could see both bridges and all the buildings. We definitely want to go back again and do the audio tour with former inmates narrating. Our favorite part of the tour was looking at the prison cells of the 3 inmates that had escaped through the vents in their rooms. Their vents were very small. IMPOSSIBLE to fit a grown man's body through but they had stolen spoons from the dining hall and had dug their vents out and created holes big enough to fit their bodies through. Those were the only 3 inmates that were not recaptured after escaping. Super intense. It was awesome, and we want to go again!

The City

On the train to San Fransisco

Golden Gate Bridge

Bay Bridge

Me!

Prison cell. Oddly enough, this was roughly the same size as my room in my house growing up! I felt right at home!

Thanksgiving

I know that thanksgiving has been past for quite a while, but life has been crazy! We had a great thanksgiving with my family. They came to California to see us and spend some time here. It was a lot of fun! We played games, watched a movie, went to see thw giant sequioas, and saw BYU play. Not to mention, a delicious thanksgiving dinner with Jake's brother's family. We had a great time. We are grateful for the time of year when we can focus on all our blessings.

It was really fun to go to a BYU game with my family. I got way into the game and Jake wasn't annoyed with all my questions!

I think J had way too much fun at the Calaveras state park. He kept referring to himself as a spider monkey! B had a good time too! 

All my boys! Dad, J, B, and Jake! I am so glad that everyone was able to come and spend time with us for the holidays.

Walking through the streets of Berkeley! J is such a ham!

I love this man! 

Giant Sequoias! 30 ft. In diameter! I wanted to take a picture and Jake said that it had to be with the biggest tree! It was amazing. I love all the intricate details in all of God's creations.