Today we had a once in a lifetime experience....we went ocean kayaking! It was amazing, scary and wonderful! I don't have pictures of it at this point, need to develop our underwater camera which probably won't happen till next week. After that we explored La Jolla for a little while and found a place that you can design your own frozen yogurt. Pick your flavor(s) add toppings and than they charge by the ounce, it took us a very long time to decide on what combination's to create and in the end the time paid off, yum!

During the welcome meeting on Monday morning we won a $10 of gift certificate for an Italian restaurant down the beach. It was wonderful! The owners are from Italy so it was truly authentic and oh so delicious! In case you are ever in the Dana Point, CA area you should check out out, Agostino's Risotrante Italian by the Sea.
After eating ourselves full we decided a treat should be had later in the evening and fried ice cream sounded great, so we asked the lady at the front where to go for this. She looked at us really odd & said she'd never heard of this. We found in interesting, she called a few local authentic places and no one had heard of it so we started searching for it. We found it just not at any authentic mexican restaurants. It was yummy! Pictures aren't very good, we only had our cellphones.


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It is morning now & we are off to have another day full of adventure! Only 2 more days and it'll be back to real life, ready for some normalcy but at the same time I am really gonna miss the ocean crashing & the sun shining! I am not dwelling on this....I am off for a fun filled day!

Today we met up with my cousin Jenni and her kids; Dustin, Shaylee & Whitley, for a beach day. It was so much fun! Even if it was cold till about 1230, we built sand castles and tunnels till the sun came out than hit the waves on some boogy boards! Yes we are sun burned and very confused at how we got that way, we used so much sun screen!!

Mark was not sure in and out would meet his standards, it did! Good burger!!

HHHMMM, beef it's what's for dinner

After our yummy dinner we headed to Anaheim for the White Sox vs. Angels game. Even though the Sox's had a rough night it was great to support our team!

Tuesday

Today we headed south to San Diego. We did a little outlet shopping, not much we want to save money for adventures. After that we headed to the pier in San Diego and had some fresh fish on the pier!! Yum!!!!


After eating we headed to the USS Midway museum, it was amazing! So many steep stairs with chain railings, not my favorite but seeing everything was worth it. I kept wanting to run down the halls through the doorways like they do on movies, I also have the huge urge to watch the Lucille Ball version of Yours, Mine and Ours maybe when we get home. Watch the slide show for pictures & more info.

We ended the night playing pool at the Inn, it was the perfect way to spend the evening after a very fun but exhausting day!

We decided to hit the beach this afternoon and try our hand at building sand castles. I learned I am not a very good sand castle builder I'd rather play in the water. Mark & Matthew enjoyed themselves building kingdoms to have battles while Kristin & I enjoyed the waves and having the sand wash out from under our feet. The only battle that took place with the guys kingdoms was the waves washing it away, note the pictures.


After the beach we paused our fun and the guys grilled some yummy steaks, in honor of my Birthday. After that we headed down to the jacuzzi so soak out our aches from hiking the hill to eat our yummy lunch. We discovered tonight that not many people our age stay at this Inn cause people keep giving us weird looks when we are playing and having fun in the hallways. Hopefully we don't drive anyone crazy with our happiness at being on vacation. Everyone decided I needed a Birthday treat, and I didn't protest I love treats! Pie, not the usual snack but dang it sounded good. We found a Marie Callenders and enjoyed ourselves very much, lucky for me the waiter couldn't find the candle to sing me Happy Birthday even though Matthew requested it. It has been such a great day, and amazing Birthday, so can't wait for the rest of the week!

We are officially in California on our vacation with Matthew & Kristin, Capistrano Beach to be exact!! We have been here for about 24 hours and so far it has been awesome.
We flew from SLC to Long Beach, CA. This airport was so cool, the plane stopped outside & we had to walk into the terminal. It is a very little airport, like taking a step back in time 30 years with the decor. After waiting for our luggage we found the rental car place & than began looking for dinner. We ended up at some high end restaurants but really just wanted some good home cooking so we started to look in our GPS system & found a little dinner, I can't remember the name, it was so good. Thanks to the weird street set up on the coast in Cali it took us a little while to find out inn but we did & it is awesome. (thanks Granddad & Grandma) We have a room with our balcony over looking the ocean, tonight we are grilling steaks to eat out on the patio and listen to the waves crash!


This morning we got up and went to the "welcome" meeting here at the inn, we won a $10 gift certificate to a italian reasturaunt down the road. After a quick breakfast we crossed the road to play in the waves, it was a little chilly to get in all the way but the toes felt nice.

There was a flier for the San Juan Capistrano mission at our Inn so we decided to check it out today. It was really neat, the history was pretty amazing. I won't go into details, google it if you are curious. They had an audio tour, the things we have up to our ears in pictures are the "talking" guides. The original chapel was destroyed during an earth quake, the remains are teally neat to walk around in. We really enjoyed the sun & seeing all the gorgeous flowers!

After this we headed down to Dana Point to meet up with Doug, Kathy & Ben for lunch. They decieded we should eat at the Fish Bucket, which was nice cause all 4 of us are really bad at making decisions. It was so yummy, worth the walk up the hill in flip flops from our parked car. Plus the company was amazing! Thanks guys for coming to meet us! After some window shopping we decided a treat was needed so we found a gelato store, thanks to the gps. I have never had gelato....sad I've been missing it all these years, hope we get to eat more before heading home.

We are back relaxing now, Matthew is taking a nap and Mark is out side on the balcony reading while Kris & I blog stalk. I think I'll go join Mark.

Early celebration!

Since we are currently loading the car with suitcases to take off to cali for the week :) my family came down last night to celebrate my birthday, I love having my family so close to us! My Mom & Sister made a very yummy cheesecake with chocolate crust, that they covered in fresh strawberries & chocolate sauce....very, very yummy!





Mark bought me Wii Active! I am so excited. we found the promotion version months ago in a store and I said I really wanted it. Mark remembered, I didn't. I can't wait to get back and try it!
My Mom made me a one of a kind purse from her and my Dad, I love purses....notice the shiney blue flower!
My brothers cute girlfriend, Sara, gave me one of my all time favorite chick flicks...now I must have a girls day!

Well we are off on vacation, I am going to try and post while we are gone, but no promises

Girls Day!!

Today Kristin & I headed to Layton to meet Emily, part of her bridal shower gift from us was a pedicure & shopping day. She has been in Ireland on tour since her shower & leaves for Illinois next week, so today was the day. Happy feet + awesome company = good day

Today has been a great day, it started off with me realizing that I don't have to work till June 1st, yahoo for vacations! When I got to work I forgot it was my bday Monday and my turn to be "celebarted" at work. A few months ago I got my friend Melissa really good, so today was my day. Yes I did wear the pink crown all day at work, I had a matching lei but it stayed at the office. I was spoiled by the ladies at work giving me a bag of goodies & fun to take on our trip. I felt like dancing around in my "tiara" but restrained myself. Thanks ladies I love you guys!The 2nd reason today rocked is Mark took Jess & I flying this afternoon, a first for Jess. We started taking off & flying up over our parents house, my Mom was outside waving but my zoom wasn't good enough to get her in the shot. After a few circles around the town we headed over the mountains to Bear Lake, it was so pretty! I've never seen it from the air it was really neat to see the point in the water where the bottom just disappeared! Gosh I love my handsome pilot!
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Gold star to me!

I love to wear accessories in my hair, but hate paying what they charge for them. So I have been experimenting with making my own, this weekend especially. The below items were all made for under $18, which is pretty dang awesome since the headbands run about $8 in a store and the clips range $3-$8. Jessie was nice enough to model for me, what a good sister I have!

oh what a beautiful morning!

Shortly after 6am I dragged myself & Mark out of bed to go for a early morning bike ride, hard to get up but staying in bed just can't compare with the cold wind in your face riding towards this view (see below). Hope this means the start of a great day!

Saturday

Saturday Matthew, Kristin & Axton came to play. We had so much fun! Mark & Matthew went to Star Trek while Kristin & I went shopping, a perfect day for us all. We even "ran away" from our house for dinner. It was great!!

Happy Mothers Day to our WONDERFUL & AMAZING mothers! I must admit we are extremely blessed for the mothers we have, they are always there to help us & offer much needed advice even if our problem seems silly to them. We love you Mom's! How we wish we could be with you today!!

Relief!

I've been dealing with constant headaches for about 2 months. The annoyance would start as soon as I would be around any large groups or bright lights they would turn into migraines with the nausea, dizzyness, fatigue and spot seeing that can accompany these. I finally had enough of doctors telling me it will go away or take this med. So I took matters into my own hands, okay really my sister suggested it, and had my feet zoned yesterday. I have been headache free for almost 24 hours! It has been an amazing feeling, and I have hopes it will continue to help. You can sit there and be skeptic if you want but I am turning into a full on believer of this! My Dad has gone for restless legs & my sister for circulation, both with positive outcome. If you are interested in trying my new favorite thing let me know and I'll get my zoners' info. NO HEADACHE for 24 HOURS, it is amazing!!
Explanation of Foot Zoning, from what I know if using pressure points in your feet to help your body heal itself. The put pressure on your feet in certain spots, it is kind of painful but I'll take a few minutes of pain to rid myself of whatever is causing me stress! Probably not a great explanation but the best I can do.

Wonderful, wonderful Day

Saturday was a day long in the making, Mark graduated from Collage! I don't think it seems real to either of us. I am so proud of my hubby, not only did he graduate but he graduated with honors! Enjoy the video & pictures from our special day. Thanks to all those who have supported us so much during the collage years & this last weekends festivities! We love you!

You've got to be kidding us!

So tonight after a full day of Graduation & partying with family (pictures will be up in the next few days) we decided to go see a movie. We settled on Ghosts of Girlfriends Past cause the commercials look hilarious and Mark decided to let Nat & I see a chic flick. Within seconds of the movie starting we were second guessing our decision to pay $8 a person to see this movie. I won't go into details but we left after about 25 minutes, which was 25 minutes longer than we should have stayed there. The only positive thing we learned is to check the following website for honest reviews before seeing movies, www.pluggedinonline.com/movies . It was pretty accurate on this movie, sadly we didn't check it till we got home due to no internet prior to. In short, don't go see this movie unless you want to leave feeling dirty & like your eyes and ears have been poisoned! Oh and don't be embarressed to walk out of a movie, you might inspire someone else to join you, two girls followed us out who had the same "you've got be kidding me" look on there faces.