A Much Needed Vacation

Greg and I had the best vacation ever. It really was just so awesome. And very much needed. I mean, we've been working nonstop, and I've been going to school all summer. It was time to take a break. So we did! For two weeks! It was great!

My parents came up at the beginning of August to bring my little sister, Ann Marie, up to Utah State. She is playing soccer up there on the women's team. We are so proud of her! She is going to do great! It was really nice to see my parents and sister for a couple of days. We had dinner at Janet and Martha's on the Sunday they were here, and boy that food was delicious! As always!

I shouldn't say that the ENTIRE break we had was great.  The Friday night/Saturday morning before we left to California, I got REALLY sick. I thought it was food poisoning at first from the Los Hermanos Mexican food we ate the night before. I was sick for a couple of days, all the way until Sunday night, and even Monday it was still lingering. But then Greg got the same thing on Sunday night. That's when we knew it wasn't food poisoning. It was probably the flu or something like it. Let me tell you, it was MISERABLE. We went to a Livingston family picnic one of the days I was sick and I felt terrible. A word of advice: never get sick. If you can help it.

My poor Greg, all sick and feeling terrible.

Well, luckily by the time Wednesday came, we were both feeling a lot better! I took a final at 8am and did really well, and then we got in the car and started driving to good old CA! You can imagine how excited I was.

Unfortunately, when we got there, my parents were out of town at Girls' Camp for a couple of days, so we didn't see them right away. But we had the place to ourselves! PARTY! Just kidding :)

I should've pushed him in, huh?

While we were down there, I had about a thousand errands to run for a bridal shower I was throwing for Leah Hicken. She is getting married to Pedro Mendoza on September 21, 2013, so I decided to throw her a little shower with some of her girl friends.

We went to Downtown Disney (Disneyland: so close, yet so far), where we walked around and I got Greg an anniversary present from one of the stores (to be announced later in this blog post).

This was made out of Legos, of course, at the Lego store. So cool

After our long day of running errands, we went down to Huntington Beach to eat at Ruby's at the end of the pier. I've been telling Greg how much I have been wanting to go there, so it was great!

I just love the Pacific ocean.

 

The next day (Friday) Greg and I got everything finalized for Leah's shower. Seriously, I could not have done it without Greg, my awesome husband. He helped me SOOO much. We just had so much to do. We made a bunch of food, like fruit kabobs, homemade guacamole with chips, cookies, brownies, homemade strawberry lemonade, and some other stuff. We decorated as much as we could downstairs with games, streamers, and signs. Here are some pictures of the decorations and stuff.

I think it went pretty well, despite there not being very many people there. A lot of people told me they were coming, but only like half ended up showing up. Bummer. But it was fun anyway.

Saturday night in California, we went to my friend Seth's wedding reception. He married this cute girl named Kjiersti. It was so much fun dancing and joking around with my old friends. We even got a picture together with a lot of us (some of our friends weren't there and some are on missions). It was a great reunion. I really enjoyed it.

I know this is kind of a freaky picture because everyone's eyes look like demons, but it's the only picture I have. Still fun to see everyone though!

Sunday, we went to church, and who met us there? None other than the amazing Greg, Karina, and Savannah! I was in HEAVEN. Seriously, I could not get enough of little Savannah. I haven't seen them all in a while, since last December (I actually saw Greg in April), and I definitely have not heard Savannah talking. She was talking SO much! My heart was melting. After church, Davy, Kelly, Lucy, and Chuck came over, so we just had a great time with everyone, and the cousins played together. My wonderful mom made us all dinner (Cafe Rio Pork Burritos - YUM!). Chuck and Lucy are so incredibly cute! And so blonde! They are getting so big! I seriously am away from my family too much. I miss them all so much! Here are some pictures of us all playing and having fun:

How do you think Uncle Greg was feeling at this time? Even though Chuck is ADORABLE!

And what about this Uncle Greg? I'm pretty sure he was loving it and Lucy was WAY over it. Also, Lucy is such a cute and pretty little girl. All of the boys are going to be chasing after her and giving her dad a run for his money.

Just look at that cute kid!

Savannah. I just think she is so darling!

What's wrong, Uncle Greg? You don't want kids jumping all over you?

HAHA! Seriously SO CUTE!

Greg and I went to Little Corona Beach, which is in Corona del Mar, a little south of Newport Beach. As always, it is absolutely gorgeous there. And not crowded, which is a huge plus! Huntington is just way too crowded, which is partly why we came here instead. I really missed the beach, so it was great to be back! 

 Life is just hard sometimes, you know?

 Greg had to check out the tide pools.

While we were at Little Corona, Greg and I went into the water pretty far out from shore. Greg had gone spearfishing with my dad out there a couple days before, and he found a group of lobsters under a reef. He came home, and he and my dad constructed a lobster snare. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to have one of those in California, so don't tell anyone. When Greg and I went out in the water, Greg went down and caught a few lobsters! We didn't keep them or anything (you can't keep the lobsters until October), but it was fun seeing the lobsters up close! Greg's a good lobster catcher, but not a lobster keeper.

 So after we were forced to leave California (slight exaggeration), we went right up to Park City after resting for an hour from our 9 hour car ride from CA to UT. Greg's sister, Alisa, was on her mission in Nicaragua, but sadly, had to come home due to some back issues and get an MRI. We still are kind of uncertain of what the problem is exactly, but we are hopeful she will get better soon! It was super awesome to see her, but a little strange (just because it was kind of unexpected that she came home). Anyway, we had a nice evening chatting with her and looking at some of her pictures of her adventures down there.

The next day, we went to Deer Creek Reservoir to go boating. Fortunately, Lance and Diane were generous enough to let us have a fun time out on the water! Unfortunately, it started raining an hour in, and we had to call it quits. We are going tomorrow though, so it's all good! Here are some fun pictures of the lake!

Sammy - what a cutie!

 Excited for some fun times!

Best looking boat driver I know.

 Shaun and his girlfriend, Wave, came, but we couldn't pull right up to the shore to pick them up. So, Lauren got on the tube, swam over to them, and they all swam back on the tube (Shaun had a cell phone he didn't want to get wet, otherwise I think they would've just swam over to us). It was pretty funny watching them all try to maneuver the tube.

 Lauren and I were the first ones to start tubing. We had SO much fun! We were both just cracking up the entire time.

 Perfect landing. Onto the water.

 Surprisingly, Lauren never fell off.

 Dat leg.

 Shaun, Sam, and Wave went next. Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of their tubing, but they had a lot of fun! Sam didn't want to go faster than 15 mph. I don't blame him. It's crazy!

 Unfortunately, Greg didn't get a chance to get out onto the water because it started raining and we had to stop. But he was a great boat driver!

After boating, we went straight up to Logan to watch Ann Marie's first home soccer game and spend the weekend with my mom. It was a blast! Greg and I decided Logan was just a bigger version of Heber, with a Rexburg feel to it. It was a cool town, and very beautiful.

Welcome to Utah State territory.

The Utah State soccer field. Go Ann Marie! (I can't say "Go Aggies" because that would be a disgrace to BYU, of course).

Some guy, Garrett, who likes Ann Marie came up to support her. It was pretty cute. He got her flowers and everything. I'm just not sure Ann Marie feels the same way.

Totally random, but while we were up in Logan, my dad babysat Savannah for a night so Greg and Karina could have one last nice date before their new baby comes (she's having the baby this Sunday!). He sent us these pictures of The Cutie. She's such a doll!

Back to Utah State. Here's a nice picture of Mom and Ann Marie in front of her school. Cute.

Although this picture doesn't really do it justice, Logan does have some pretty sunsets.

We seriously had so much fun with my mom! I just love her to pieces! We cracked up at everything.... Crag... (only Mom and Greg will get that one). She is such an awesome mom. The best. I loved every minute of our time with her! And it was great seeing Ann Marie! She's a special, awesome girl. We actually even saw Lexis Hicken for a little bit. She's awesome too! Logan was a blast!

Our anniversary was on August 26th. 2 years, can you believe it?! Time flies when you're having fun. We went up to Bear Lake (30 minutes away from Logan) to go jet skiing. I had never been jet skiing before, so it was a new experience for me. It was a BLAST! I was really nervous that Greg was going to tilt the jet ski at first with all the crazy turns he was doing, but I loosened up and got used to the sharp turns. It was awesome! And Bear Lake was absolutely beautiful! The water was just so blue, and the lake itself was gigantic. Almost intimidating. But beautiful none the less. It was a great activity for us to do on our anniversary!

Just look at that blue water!

Happy anniversary to us!!

So beautiful.

What's Bear Lake without a famous raspberry shake?

Delish!

The pretty view driving through the canyon from Bear Lake to Logan.

When we got back to Logan after jet skiing, we went and got my mom a birthday present (her birthday was the next day). We could never repay her for everything she has done for us, but it was the least we could do. We love my mom!

We drove down to Salt Lake that afternoon, checked into our hotel, and went to Rodizio Grill for dinner. Rodizio is a Brazilian restaurant where a bunch of servers come around to the tables with different types of meat. It is soooo good, but very expensive. We decided to splurge for our anniversary :)

Rodizio makes these super delicious limeade drinks. They are to die for.

My favorite part about going to Rodizio is not the all-you-can-eat different types of meat, no. It's the grilled pineapple. BEST THING EVER.

They were coming around with chicken hearts, and Greg dared me to eat one. So I did. At least part of it. It was nasty. My face doesn't show how nasty it was.

For our anniversary, I got Greg a really nice leather wallet from Fossil (remember how I told you we went to Downtown Disney and I got Greg an anniversary gift? Well, this is what it was). His old wallet was falling apart and was super dirty (it started out white when he got it and now it's gray). I think he really likes it.

Here's us at Trolley Square in Salt Lake City, where Rodizio Grill is.

While we were at dinner, Greg gave me my anniversary gift. They were diamond earrings! They are absolutely beautiful! I LOVE them! Greg found this website where a company synthetically makes diamonds, like they have the same chemicals or compounds or whatever as diamonds found in the earth. In fact, these synthetic ones are even more pure than the ones found in the earth. Anyway, they are WAY cheaper than diamonds found in the earth, even though they are pretty much the same thing. So, he got them at a VERY reasonable price, and I couldn't be happier with them!

Some snacks for our anniversary!

I was so sad to have to come back home, go back to work, and prepare ONCE AGAIN for school. I feel like school is all I've been doing! Along with work. But I am so grateful for the vacation that we were able to go on. We are pretty lucky to be able to do all of the things we did. I love my family so much. I love Greg immensely! Our vacation was an awesome vacation, one that we will never forget!