Poor Mans Hawaii

This has been something JR and I have wanted to do for sometime now and we finally did it! This past weekend we went to Catalina! We got up at 4 in the morning to get to long beach by 6. Talk about an early start! We went on the first boat out because we wanted to make the most of our day there. Originally we were thinking about staying the night there but things came up and we decided just to make a day trip out of it! On the boat ride over I couldn't sleep, I was too excited. We saw seals in the ocean and there were tons of little dolphins jumping out of the water. Nature is a beautiful thing! Upon arrival we set out for a nice walk around part of Catalina, after our little walk/exploration we eat breakfast at this restaurant that was literally across from the ocean. Seriously there wasn't even a window. We were completely stuffed from breakfast so we checked out the shops and a street fair that was going on. From there we went snorkeling. The water was so clear and there was plenty of fish to see! It was cool though because we met this guy who was snorkeling also and shared some of his fish food with us and showed us how to feed the fish. Those crazy little fish went wild over that food. I was surrounded by fish within a couple of seconds. I tired grabbing them, but freaked out once I felt their slimy bodies. From snorkeling we headed to this little beach and fell asleep in the shade. I loved taking a nap with JR with waves in the background! Once we woke up we rented a kayak for an hour. I was excited because I've never kayaked before! We ended up snorkeling one more time, and this time we saw a stingray! I can't believe how amazing the ocean is, what a whole new world it is down there! We wanted to go on a hike before it got dark so we headed out on this small trail( We saw a Deer with her baby)and we met this couple who offered to take us around town/trails on their rented golf cart...so we spent about an hour with them. It worked out great because we wanted to rent one, but they were kind of expensive, plus we met some very nice people. Wow this is getting to be longer then I thought it would be! :) Anyways to make a long story short, we went out to eat for dinner, brought a small souvenir and then waited for our boat to arrive at 9:45pm. While waiting for our boat we saw a flying fish! I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my day!


BreakFast







Breath Taking View!

August Happenings

Wow a lot has happened in august! I started up work again in the the beginning of the month. School started early for our district... talk about a short summer. For those of you who don't know, As of last Sunday I became our wards new Young Women's president! I thought our bishop was joking when he asked me(turns out he wasn't!) :) I'll admit it really caught me off guard. I'm am excited about my new calling and hope that I might influence the girls in our ward. I've been really busy with my calling. We are planning like crazy, our goal is to plan our activities for the rest of the year this week. JR has been preparing to put in his next rounds of applications and still trying to find another job. Hopefully this round will be better! We have looked at a ton of houses, but no luck. We aren't in a hurry to get a house, but if we find something nice in our range we will try and take advantage of it. We actually put in two offers but were out bidded. Oh well I guess it wasn't meant to be. I've had tons of family come down in august. My cousin came down from Idaho and we camped out in San Onfre, then spent the following day in Laguna Beach. That was a lot of fun! My sister Serena and her family came down from Utah and we got to spend time with them swimming and hanging out. lastly my good friend Vanessa(back from young women's) came down with her husband from Utah. She invited JR and I to the famous Magic Castle in Hollywood. We enjoyed watching the magic shows and trying to figure out the tricks of the magicians. JR was a lot better at that then I was. It was cool because Vanessa's dad has performed at the Magic Castle for over 3o years. He is the ghost that plays the piano. He showed us behind the scenes and gave a brief tour/history of the Magic Castle. We got to see private rooms where the guest with money eat! While in line Rick Fox was right in front of us ( He used to play for the Lakers). Over all August was packed with fun activities and outings.
Here we are at Laguna Beach


The Magic Castle


Vanessa and Ramsey

JR and I

Our ward Luau

I wasn't ready to come home!

JR and I decided to take a last minute mini vacation before I officially go back to work :(. We booked a night at a really Fancy resort in Indio CA. I know your probably thinking "Indio???" right? But it was one of the nicest places I've ever stayed at. You know your on a real vacation when you fall asleep in your swimsuit and wake up the next morning and swim again! Thanks to JR parents...we booked it through their timeshare. We got a two bedroom so my sister and her family could come. It was nice not having to worry about work, church, responsibilities, and if your house is clean. We floated around in the resorts lazy river, swam, and played all day. On our way home we stopped by some outlet stores and I got myself a new swimsuit....mine ripped while we were there. It was a ton of fun and we both were not ready to come home. I'll have to post more pictures when I get them from my sister.

Pinks

I was talking to JR the other day and was saying how all these tourist come to California from all over the world to see/experience all that California has to offer and how we need to take advantage of where we live. JR and I took action, we went with our good friends to the world famous Pinks Hotdogs in Los Angeles. We waited in line for an hour to "experience" Pinks. I think it was worth it but JR's was a little spicy (he was sweating on his face) for him and it didn't do to well on his stomach. He tried the Ozzy dog(it did have a little kick to it) and I had a hotdog named after a famous conductor(soooo good!). After Pinks we hit up the famous Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Talk about feeling poor!....We all just laughed about how ridiculously rich people are. I'm excited for our next sightseeing adventure!



JR's is on the left and mine is on the right.


These things were HUGE!

Julie and Craig

I have the BEST husband in the whole world!

Last week JR surprised me and told me that my friend Julie and I were going to be having a girls get away. At first I thought he was joking with me and thought to myself..."Yeah right!" JR was like "I'm serious." So it turns out that JR and Julie's husband Craig had been talking and thought that we should spend a day away from everything....boy they were right, it was much needed! JR and Craig treated us girls to a facial, massage, and a nights stay in San Diego! It was so much fun having one on one girl time. I haven't done something like this in forever. We went to all the touristy spots. We relaxed on the beach and did lots of walking around! We checked out the famous hotel in Coronado, Seaport village, the gaslamp district, Cabrillo Beach, and saw the seals in La Jolla. While we were taking pictures on the beach two tourists thought that we were Cameron Diaz and Keira Knightley, we got a kick out of that.....and our heads got a little bigger...j/k :) On our way down we stopped by the San Diego temple and did a session there. It was neat because I have never done a session there before. I asked if we could see the brides room again because both Julie and I were married there and we both felt like so much was going on when we got married that we didn't really pay attention to all the details. Seeing the brides room brought back a lot of memories from the day I got married! I loved having that feeling again! Here are some pictures from our girls getaway!






Before the facial...

Here I am getting ready for my boob job...j/k! That's what it looks like though. haha This is just before my facial started!


Here is Julie all prepped for her facial!


After the facial...We are SOOOOO cute! haha

Fun Day at the Beach

This past week part of my family came down from Utah and we had fun just hanging out. We celebrated my beautiful Mom's birthday Friday night with some really good Mexican food! On one of the days we went to the Orange County swap meet and then down to Balboa Beach, it was nice just hanging with family and friends. It was funny though because it took us forever to get to the beach and every ones nerves started getting the best of them (That's very common in my family). When we finally got there JR went in the water with my brothers and I thought it was too cold to get in so I visited instead. I almost went in but, I didn't want to be cold the rest of the night. Here are a few pictures from the beach.







By the time Sunday rolled around JR and I were beat. Saturday night we didn't sleep much because we had to take my brothers friend to the airport early in the morning. We went to Church and came home and ended up taking a 3.5 hour nap! whewwwww Families can be tiring!

Circus

This weekend JR and I went to a Circus at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. We had a lot of fun there, but the highlight for me was the Chinese Acrobats. They were so talented at what they do. Some of the stuff they did was SO CRAZY! I've seen Acrobats before...but not like this. Thanks Tina for inviting us, we had a great time! Here we are in front of the Rose Bowl


I seriously don't know how they fit all those people onto that one bike


Balancing on their chins!

When the guys saw this one, they later told us girls that we should take some classes...guys are such FREAKS! Typical huh?