California Dreamin'

All the leaves were green....


And the sky was blue....

That's right! Jayson and I took a trip to sunny California! It was such a nice get away from the cold winter in Utah. We picked the right week to go too, I heard it was FREEZING out here. We've been wanting to take this trip for quite some time, but we kept putting it off, saying we couldn't do it for one reason or another. But, when January came and I found I had 80 hours of paid vacation time instead of the 40 I was expected we jumped on the opportunity. We knew if we kept putting it off we'd never do it, so we just went for it.



This is the harbor right next to our hotel. I love harbors. This will be making an appearance again in this post.

Told ya.

This was our last night there. We watched the sunset on the beach (this beach was also RIGHT next to our hotel). It was so beautiful and romatnic.

We also saw the San Diego temple and Jayson turned into Popeye.

We played in the sand too...oh how I love beach sand. Yes, that is a Stegosaurus.

We played right there for forever. It was absolutely blissful. It was chilly that day, so we decided not to swim, but we did plenty of playing in the water still. Jayson ran towards the water and then back again, racing the waves. I just jumped around in the waves like a kid in a candy shop. I cannot even express to you how much I LOVE the ocean. I love it more than anything else. I cannot figure out for the life of me why I wasn't born closer to it. It part of my very soul.

See?

We saw sea lions in their natural habitat! Funny little things. They sleep on the shore like this and when the waves come up high they just let them carry them out to sea. They don't even flinch. So funny.

Birds of Paradise amoung my top five favorite flowers. They're SO cool. They are also EVERYWHERE in California. I love it.

Jayson loves the Shark tunnel at Sea World!

This was our favorite of the shows. It was hilarious!

The sea horse is one of my favorite animals.

I am both enchanted with and frightened by these creatures for the very same reason: their gigantic size! They are so big! It's almost unfathomable.

Jayson got to pet a dolphin...

AND SO DID I!!! This has been on my bucket list since I discovered that dolphins existed! I was like a kid on Christmas morning! It costs $6.00 to pet the dolphin and feed him. I did it twice.

Confession: My secret ambition since I was in middle school is to be an animal trainer at Sea World.

CALIFORNIA ADVENTURES!

The Beast's Library!! This was SO cool. It was magical.

Aww...

I told you I love sea horses.

DISNEYLAND!!!! (when we got there I was seriously more excited than any child I saw.)

Waiting in line for the Indiana Jones ride. One of our favorites. Although, Space Mountain is my #1 favorite...you feel like you're flying through the sky!! Space Mountain ties for #1 with Indiana Jones for Jayson. It's nice and convenient to like the same rides. The Peter Pan ride also rocks.

I also LOVE Small World. I love how all of the cultures come together, all wearing white at the end. I love how it shows that although we're different, we can all be friends.

And some lovely pictures of our really awesome hotel.....

This was our view from the hotel. It was BEAUTIFUL! You better believe that I went out there ever morning when I woke up. We ate out there sometimes, and I had a lovely evening read out there. It was positively wonderful. I never wanted to leave that view.

Do you not LOVE the yellow walls?!

groovy, no?

We stumbled upon this right after I got done proclaiming that this was the best day ever. It's funny because I love cheese almost as much as I love the ocean.

The outside of our hotel.

Not pictured:

World of Color show at California Adventures. If you go there you HAVE to see this.

I was seriously blown away. It was so amazing. They do this beautiful water show, that would be cool by itself, but they use light to give the water all sorts of brilliant colors that go along with the sounds and songs. They also project scenes from movies onto the water. Sigh. I am such a water person anyway, so this was incredible for me.

The fireworks at Disneyland!
MY favorite part of the evening. I had never seen the fireworks at Disneyland before that and they did not disappoint. I may or may not have cried. I love the message….that dreams come true! I think every person should know that imagination is golden
and that dreams come true. You just have to know that dreams to come true! It’s a beautiful truth we still have in this world that so many seem so intent on destroying. This firework show gave me hope and reminded me of the true magic that is Disney. I love that they use a voice clip from Walt Disney himself during it (or was that during Fantasmic?) We also saw Fantasmic, which was fabulous! It was fun seeing so many characters performing. My favorite part was, of course, when Peter was fighting Captain Hook on the ship.

"While there is still imagination in the world, Disneyland will never be complete." -Walt Disney.
And thank goodness, because they're building a Little Mermaid ride!!! Little Mermaid was my favorite when I was little.

All in all, it was a fabulous trip. It was so so so nice to be able to spend time with Jayson, just the two of us, for an entire week. It was nice to feel the warmth of the sun, to see the blue skies, to relax, and have some fun. Well worth it.

Lost Without My Navigator

This is a story of how one became two.
It all started at a restaurant called Su Casa in Midvale where I used to dip my tortilla chips in my water because the salsa was too hot for my little mouth.
Enter my best friend Marni, who did the exact same thing. Seriously. I know, I know, you're thinking that we must have taught eachother, because how could two little girls come up with that exact same thing? Who dips chips in water anyway?...especially at only one restaurant...the SAME restaurant. It's not even a big chain-type place.
Well, my thoughts exactly. How indeed.

But, it was what it was. That's why we're convinced that we used to be the same person. They claim we were born just a mere month apart, but it simply can't be. We were the same.

Then came dance class when we were about 4. This is when we became seperate people and, unbeknownst to us, a beautiful friendship began. To be honest though, I have absolutely no recollection of her from dance class, although I do remember being friends with a girl who had an odd name--one I'd never heard before. She remembers a girl who used to stare at herself in the mirror during class instead of dancing. (Yup, don't even worry, that was me.) But, alas, our dance teacher had a baby, she stopped teaching, and we all went out seperate ways.

In seventh grade we were re-united. With a lot of my best friends I recall a few key moments where we became friends, but with Marni it was different. I don't really remember how it happened...it just did. I know that we had common friends, we had classes together, and there was only one locker between ours. I do recall a certain day in English class that we were paired together to interview each other or something and she told me about her turtle. I remember thinking that she was hilarious. Maybe that's where our friendship was re-sparked. All I know is that it definatley happened, and we've been friends ever since.

In eighth grade (I think) I had to do a report or a spotlight or something on myself. I brought with me a picture to school of me from when I was about four......
Yup, you guessed it, a group picture from my dance class. Marni saw me in the hall when I had it and said, "Hey! How did you get my picture?!" or something like that. I'm sure I said something like, "What? This is my picture" back to her. We both looked at it, and in an instant we realized what happened. We had been in the same dance class. In that moment we knew that we were friends for a reason, that the fates had brought us together.

I am not entirely sure, but I think that the true greatness of our friendship started sophomore year when we were intant messaging each other one night. I was trying to find my niche in high school and I knew Marni was usually game for random things, so I asked if she wanted to try doing lacrosse with me. I expected her to say yes, but she said "No, let's do water polo instead." I was a bit taken a back by this, but I agreed. That summer, to get us in shape for water polo, we swam and we ran cross country (along with Vienna). I am pretty sure that was the greatest summer of my life. Marni, Vienna, and me. It was blissful and it was perfect. Working out, Disney songs, Jamba, Cold Stone, and really good food.
That summer Marni taught me one of the most meaningful things I've ever learned. She taught me endurance. She is one of the most determined people I know, and it rubbed off on me. She gave me such strength, such power. During swimming and cross country she really pushed me and I reached heights I never would have thought possible.

But then, junior year came and Marni left me to be a foreign exchange student in Italy. I cried when she left and smiled like a giddy school girl who just talked to her crush when she called me. I attribute her being gone to the fact that junior year was my very least favorite year of high school.

Senior year was our year. There were some really hard times about it, but we were inseperable. We worked at the Desert Star together (I was her ride, so naturally we had to work the same shifts most of the time), we swam together, we played water polo together, we rode to school together, she was there the first time I saw/touched the ocean, we went to Lake Powell together, we took our first road trip without parent together (to the far off land of Logan, UT)...We were basically together every minute of every day. I was the driver and she was the navigator. Without her I never would have gotten anywhere and I probably would have never attemped to drive on the freeway...although, now that I think about it, I'm not sure I'm entirely grateful she taught me to drive on the freeway...

Well, I feel like I'm writing a nove here, so I suppose I should sum it up, because this could seriously be like a bazillion pages longer. After going to the same college, midnight appointments, more summer swimming, rootbeer freezes, heart breaks, weddings, graduating, and much much more....
Marni has moved to Arizona. We've lived in different places before (different countries, twice!), but somehow, this time it feels more permanent. Her husband got a job in Arizona, so they moved out there. I am so excited for them because things are working out so incredibly well for them. I am (well, already do) just going to miss my Mar-Mar.

The point I'm trying to make here is that I love Marni. She is amazing. She's always been there for me and has never judged. There are very few people who will go as out of the way as she will to be with you when you need her. I do not exaggerate in the least when I say that I would be nowhere near the person that I am today if it weren't for her being in my life. She has shaped me, I dare say, more than any other person I've ever known (Well, ok, besides my parents, but she's definately in the top five!) Being with her is always special, no matter what we're doing. Our friendship is special. There are things about it that are unlike any other friendship I've ever had.

Mar-Mar, you have a piece of my heart for ever, and get this...It's bigger than the piece Lake Powell has!!!
This has and always will be our place.

Remembe water polo? Remember the steam filled MJMS pool, watching the sunrise on South Mountain in the summers, Our Vegas trip to the Vegas tournament, the Bear River tournament, California? I miss it all.

Who could forgot the Desert Star? The pizza, the smoothies, the flavored Mountain Dew, the ice cream, quads, the late night trips to The Belgian Waffle after work.

Happy trails to you,

until we meet again,

Happy trails to you,

keep smilin' until then.

Who cares about the clouds when we're together?

Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.

Happy trails to YOOOUUUUU

until we meet again.

I love you Mar-Mar.

And, remember, Don't Stop Believin. ;)

Mormon Mommy Blogs

I just read this article (thanks Erin) and it was a really interesting article. Apparently, there are a lot of very-much-non LDS women who are obsessed with reading mormon house wives blogs.

Give this a read, it's pretty crazy, and pretty cool.

A Great Transformation

My birthday is a couple of days and it seems that this birthday time has changed me like no other one has.

Today I found out that everything I ever knew about myself was wrong.

My personality and my future have changed forever.

I can't believe all of those years I wasted trying to be something I'm not:

a Capricorn.

Thankfully, today I came to realize who I really am.

I am a Sagitarrius.

A Few More Goals

I have a few more goals I wanted to add to my post from this morning.

• Read six books. I know, this probably doesn't seem like a lot to most of you, but it would be an accomplishment for me. I love reading, but I often let other things get in the way. I think this will be a good goal to help me have some more much needed "me" time.
• Go on a fun trip. When Jayson and I got married we decided that we wanted to do a sort of biggish, fun trip each year. In 2008 we went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for our honeymoon. In 2009 we went to Zion's National park. However, we failed to go on our trip together in 2010 becaue finances were low at the beginning of the year and when we got more money I ran out of vacation days at work because of all the family trips, trek, and weddings from the summer (they were worth it though). So, we have to keep this tradition alive this year.
• Read my scriptures in the morning.

The Ultimate New Year's Post

Reflection:
2010 was...
absolutely nothing like I thought it would be. Seriously, if you asked me at the beginningn of 2010 what my year would be like I would have given you a completely different story than what actually happened. But, with that said, it was still a pretty fabulous year.

Highlights/Major events:

• Late 2009 we moved from Logan to Salt Lake, leaving us the most poor we've ever been in our marriage (which is saying a lot) in early 2010
• By the end of 2010 we were/are more well off than we've been in our entire marriage. I'm not certain how that happens in just one year.
• I graduated from Utah State!! (wha? Did that really happen?)
• Jayson decided to stop going to school and go into business with his dad, which solved an insane amount of problems and answered an insane amount of questions for us.
• My work decided to let me work full time and thus we got good health insurance and dental insurance.
• Baby Adam was born! (the first, and only thus far, baby of the Sisterhood..so, he's kind of a big deal.)
• One member of my Sisterhood, Cameo, got called on her mission, went through the temple, and left on her mission.
• Three of Jayson's cousins, one of my cousins, and a few really close friends got married! It was definately the year of weddings, which is saying a lot because I attened a lot of weddings in 2007, 2008, and 2009.
• We went on Trek with our stake
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 was released in theaters.
• Many many camping trips with family and friends, including Lake Powell, and the blissful non-holiday weekend at Bear Lake where we got to ski and knee board to our hearts content without having to fight the crowds.
• Another member of my Sisterhood, Sarah, moved away, to California
• We found out we're getting a new nephew in May, 2011
• We decided to start looking for a house...wowie!
• Another member of my Sisterhood, Marni, decided to move to Arizona, and did so early 2011.

I am sure there are a few things that are not on that list that I can't think of at the moment. Thus, 2010 was quite a year with a whole lot of changes.
Out With the Old and in With the New:
We've made a few new purchases that we're excited about. We've never really had nice comforter set, so we decided that since our birthdays are just a month apart we'd splurge and use this as our birthday present. It's reversable too!! It even came with cute (also reversable) decorative pillows. Observe:

We realized that since we are going to buy a house we'd want furniture to go in that house and that our one love seat probably wasn't going to cut it. Plus, we've been wanting more seating for a while. We kinda feel bad when we have people over and only two people have a place to sit. Thankfully, Jayson's brother was selling his entertainment set and two couches, so we snatched them up, because they were a good price (and buying two new couches is kind of expensive). It really gave our living room a new and more classic look. We are very pleased. Observe:

Blast. I don't know why I didn't take Jayson's shoes out before I took the picture.

Goals:

What is a New Year's post without goals, right? The word "resolution" seems to have a lot of negative connotation about people never actually doing them, so I'm going to call them goals.

• Keep my aparment clean. I have much room for improvement on this. It's clean right now and it's such a great feeling.
• Be organized. I have so many projects I need to do that have to do with organization. I have pictures, files, papers, etc. that are just piled on my shelf.
• Work out for 20 minutes, at least four times a week. That might seem like a piece of cake for some of you, but I'm lucky if I work out one time a week these days. Baby steps people, baby steps.
• Buy a house!
• Keep in touch with my friends that live far away, and spend time with the ones that live close.
• Finish scrapbooking. I planned on doing a scrapbook for each year of our marriage. That can't be too hard right? Guess how many I have done. Zero. I haven't even started. In fact, I have yet to finish our Wedding scrapbook. I want to try and do one per month, so I'll be done by the last day of March. Although, if we buy a house before then that might supercede all other goals while we're inspecting, moving, unpacking, etc.
• Learn to cut Jayson's hair. I've been intending to do this since we've been engaged, so it's high time I actually do it.
• Sew something. I don't know what, but something. Maybe two things. I've been really wanting to get back in touch with my creative side because I feel like I've been disconnected from that side of me for years. So, I've decided to start with sewing, because I think it's really practicle and I want to be able to mend or alter things when I need to.
• Be more calm. I worry so much about so many things and I really want to be more relaxed about things in general.
• Make a priority list for my New Year's goals.

I have some ideas about what 2011 will bring, but let's be honest, it will probably be completely different.

Either way, I think it is going to be a fantastic year.

I know, I know....

I've said it about a million billion trillion times but...

I LOVE these girls. I cannot even begin to comeprehend how on earth I got so lucky to be best friends with them. Thanks for being so amazing girls.

Please note the Christmas tree AND that Halloween costumes....

Yup, this was New Year's Eve of our frehsman year of college. We are THAT cool.

I got to spend most of New Year's Eve with some of these lovely ladies, which was fabulous because they all live AT LEAST an hour and a half a way, and some of them a WHOLE lot farther.

I got to see most of them a whole lot this holiday season, and I usually only get to see them for hours at a time when I see them, so it made me one happy girl to be able to see them so much.

So, thus, this is my New Year's post. My first goal I'll state is that I'd like to keep in better touch with them. This holiday season reminded me of how incredible they are and how much I love them. (Not that I completely forgot any of those things...but you know what I mean.)

As for the rest of my goals...I haven't really made any yet. I've been too busy spending time with some of these lovely ladies.