owen.:.alyssa

Christmas 2011

2012-01-13T19:44:00.000-08:00

We were able to spend 3 weeks for Christmas in Arizona. Like usual, we got plenty of family, friend and yummy food time.

Once again, reunited with our dog. He misses us. I just know it.

Drove up to Sunrise for a day of snowboarding with Rob & Courtney

Saw my most favorite band, Jimmy Eat World

Saw the Arizona temple lights

Celebrated Christmas Eve at Uncle Dewight & Ginny's

Watched The Grinch on Christmas Eve, a yearly tradition

**I didn't get ANY pictures on the actual Christmas day. For some reason, I never do. It was spent at church, talking to my brothers on missions, gift giving, Christmas dinner and family time. I love being with my family on Christmas.

I had a fabulous girls lunch with high school friends

Took an extra long lunch break from work and went horseback riding with my mom

We went to Sunrise again with Emily and Levi. Owen was so excited to try out his new Christmas presents.

I spent New Years Eve making tamales with my mom. Another yearly tradition.

Rang in 2012 at the Yeager's party with friends

We spent New Years Day at the Cardinals Game. A first for Owen and my dad.

Spent our last day in Arizona with my family at the temple.

I can't believe I survived 2011! I only say that because living away from my family/friends with a traveling husband was hard. Do-able, but not always fun. We had so many great adventures in California, though, and I would not trade anything for the time we have spent here. We have made some great memories together. I am excited for all of the fun changes 2012 has for our little family. Every year with Owen gets better and better!

Change #1 is MOVING back to Arizona in few weeks! Owen's work is moving us back there. My prayers have been answered! It will be so nice to live next to our friends and family again.
2012, I love you already!

December in San Francisco

2012-01-12T21:10:00.000-08:00

Pictures of the one whole week we were home in San Francisco for the month of December:

SET UP OUR LITTLE CHRISTMAS TREE IN OUR TINY APARTMENT

SAW THE OAKLAND TEMPLE LIGHTS

STROLLED AROUND UNION SQUARE FOR SOME WINDOW SHOPPING

SAW THE PLAY 'A CHRISTMAS CAROL' AT THE A.C.T.

WENT ICE SKATING IN DOWN TOWN SAN FRAN

SAW OUR NEIGHBORHOOD CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Thanksgiving in Texas

2011-12-08T17:15:00.000-08:00

We arrived back home to the Bay Area in the middle of November, just in time to see the leaves change. This is why Northern California is so pretty! They have mini-seasons where the leaves change with the season. The fall colors lined our street and neighborhood. We were home for a whole week to enjoy my fall/Thanksgiving decorations, then we were off to Texas to spend the rest of the month with Owen's family.

We stayed with Owen's parents. Lydia and Cherry live there too, so we got to be with lots of family and our cute nieces and nephews. Being with the Allens = lots and lots of activities going on ALL of the time! These people don't ever stop! So we had plenty of fun for the week and half we were there.

Fort Worth Zoo with the Liddles

We did lots of baking/food prep the day before Turkey Day

Helping Grandma make pies

The little chefs taking a break

Family Turkey Trot

Thanksgiving Day consisted of family and yummy food.
I truely am thankful for the 2nd family I have. It's such a blessing to have great in-laws and sister in-laws. They have always made me feel like I am a part of the family and we love every single one of them!

Settlers and Card Games all week

Owen putting up Christmas lights

We saw lots of movies. Loved Arthur Christmas! Great holiday movie.

Big Project: I scanned all of Owen's mission emails, pictures and anything else mission related. Owen's mom was awesome and kept EVERYTHING related to his mish. So my next project is working on a giant mission book for Owen.

Went to the Dallas Temple

Made Christmas trees with the kiddos

I got home and put up our little Christmas tree that night! I love one holiday after another. We've been so lucky to spend them with our great family and friends!

Our Life : September/October

2011-12-07T16:32:00.000-08:00

The last 3 months consisted of lots and lots of traveling for us! We've been home for 3 weeks out of the 3 months. Luckily, our time away was spent with family and friends. Here has been our crazy lives documented in, of course, iphone pictures.

SEPTEMBER - Surf Trips

At the end of September, we drove down to Southern Cali. and stayed with the Cliffords. Owen wanted to get a few more good surf seshs in before the even more freezing cold water hit. Owen loved having a surf partner and we loved being with good friends all weekend long!

We stopped in Hollywood on the way back home to see what it's all about. We fit as many touristy things you could within a few hours. My conclusion about Hollywood Land = not so glamorous as it looks on TV :)

Owen's friend Alex came to San Fran for a few days. Owen always wanted to surf under the Golden Gate Bridge and decided he was finally going to do it.

Owen surfing under the GG Bridge.
I was having a heart attack! There were some scary rocks and he was out there all by himself. But he did it and we have some awesome videos. He was happy to check that one off his list.

OCTOBER - Halloween in Arizona

Owen worked in Mesa for two weeks in October, then traveled the other two weeks, which meant I got to spend the entire month in AZ! Thank goodness my work/office is in Arizona too, even more of a reason for me to be there. I was so happy to be able to spend my favorite holiday month at home.

I got addicted to Last Chance, thanks to the Queen of Last Chance, Emily! Standing in line before the store opens is totally worth it.

Celebrated Ashlyn's 9th Birthday

We went to the 13th Floor Haunted House with the Yeagers. Not the greatest haunted house ever, but still entertaining.

Made yummy carmel apples with Erin

Had a spooky Halloween dinner with the Howeys

Wednesday nights were family dinner nights. Also meant craziness in the house with all of the "grandpups".

Carved Pumpkins. Not sure why Owen decided to go the Blues Clues route.

We had a couple of fun Halloween parties during the weekend. We went as Dora and Diego!

Yeates Halloween party

We took the Howey kids to the State Fair. I loved being there for their first fair experience!

Indian Fry bread at the fair

Owen and my brothers stood in line for this lovely game. Who knew he was such a video game nerd? I sure didn't.

And we kicked off November with fall weather, food and fires.

Pictures of our Thanksgiving in Texas coming soon...

Cruising

2011-09-15T22:40:00.000-07:00

At the end of August, Owen and I finally went on our cruise to the Bahamas. We booked it forever ago for our anniversary/birthdays so it seemed like the time was never going to come. We looked forward to it ALL summer long.

The week before our cruise, Hurricane Irene rolled through the Atlantic and made us really nervous. It went right over all of the places we were going. Luckily, everything was back to normal and mostly cleaned up by the time we got there. I guess that's the risk we take for booking during hurricane season.

So we flew to Miami on Sunday. My little sister, Jessica, and her husband, Jake, came along too. Monday morning we all got on the boat in Miami and sailed away. We spent that day exploring the ship, eating all you can eat ice cream cones, getting settled into our tiny rooms and avoiding the crazy lightning storm outside. (I couldn't believe the kind of rain storms Florida had...it was kind of scary).

That night we went to the first formal dinner. We had the early dinner and our table consisted of us 4. The food was yummy, but kind of too fancy for my taste. I honestly would have been happy eating at the buffet for dinner every night...they had a lot more choices of food and you didn't have to dress up :) That night we played cards, went to a bingo game (and lost), watched a comedy show and watched a dance party. Cruise ships make for great people watching.

Leaving Miami
Owen was sad that people didn't wave us off like in Titanic. He he

The greatest thing about cruises is you drive through the night to your destination and by the time you wake up in the morning...you're there! Our kind of vacation...no effort at all for us. Every.single.morning Owen would jump out of bed and look out of our little fish bowl of a window to see where we were. And we could never get off the boat fast enough. Funny boy. So Tuesday morning we woke up in Nassau, Bahamas. We had tickets to go to the water park at the Atlantis Resort. It did not disappoint! It was our favorite day by far. I would have been happy just staying there for the rest of the time (maybe another trip?). The hotel was huge, the beaches were gorgeous and the sun was shinning and warm.

The water park was the best! It had lots of fun body slides and tube slides. I have been to quite a few water parks but the slides at this one were crazy. Super steep, super fast and super long. I screamed like a scared little girl in all of them. And maybe Owen too :) Everything around was was so tropical. The best part of the park was the lazy river. Hands down. It was a mile long, full of river rapids, it had tracks that took you up to slides and big waves rolling through. I almost died laughing on this thing. So fun. We also checked out some of the private beaches at the hotel. The water was amazingly warm and really clear. The sand was almost white. I love a good beach.

Atlantis!

You would go through fish/shark aquariums while going through the slides...
How cool is that!?

One of the beaches

Look how happy he is

One of the attractions they had at Atlantis were the dolphins. They were crazy to watch! I can't believe all of the tricks they learn and how sweet they are. They are amazing creatures. Jessica and Jake forked over the extra cash to swim with them. Even the baby ones. I about died of cuteness when Jessica told me how she swam with the baby dolphin.

Goodbye Atlantis!

Tuesday night on the boat consisted of a buffet dinner, around the world ping-pong, karaoke, more cards, hot tubing, and a sweet game of speed on the basket ball court. The best part of the night was laying on the top deck under the stars at the front of the boat. It was so neat to see nothing but the dark ocean everywhere with the moon's reflection shinning down.
Cruise Tip: Go on a cruise with people you know! That way you always have people to do things with. Never a dull moment when you go with others.

The boys' favorite : unlimited pizza bar
We had to stop by here every night for their midnight snack.

Wednesday morning we arrived in Coco Cay. It is a little island in the Bahamas that is owned by the Royal Caribbean cruise line. It also happened to be Owen's birthday day! So birthday boy woke up and got his presents, then we were quickly off the boat and on the island. They had beach chairs all around the beaches, hammocks were hanging on the palm trees and there were lots of activities to choose from. We were excited for a chill day on the beach.

The first thing we signed up to do in the ocean was the jumpy playground. It had giant trampolines, slides, and other fun jumpy toys. We were planning our obstacle course and getting really excited to play in the water. Now this is when the day started to turn bad. I was the last one to swim out since I ran back and got my camera. As soon as I reached the ball that Owen was on, my entire body felt like I got paper cuts and then it started to burn. I knew right away it had to be a jelly fish because I could feel the nasty tentacles brushing on me. So I told Owen and everyone else (who were already on the bouncy things) that I got stung. And guess what? They didn't believe me! Owen told me it was probably just grass. Seriously? Grass? And they happened to leave me in the water since they couldn't pull me up on the jumpy ball. Jerks. SO I swam back to the beach. I noticed my brother in law was not far behind me and he said he started to get stung too. Jessica and Owen were still out on the trampolines, but we realized no one was in the water at all. Jess and Owen said they looked down and saw jelly fish EVERYWHERE. Like every two feet there was a jelly fish. Sick. Next thing I know Jessica is getting a ride on a kayak by the life guard. And Owen is swimming through the jelly fish invested waters with a family of hysterical Mexicans on his back. They were all crying and scared so he took them all and brought them back in. It was kind of funny...it reminded me of the pioneer boys taking kids across the cold river :) So everyone ended up getting stung like crazy. Luckily, they were mild stinging jelly fish so the stings weren't that bad. I guess the current from the hurricane brought them in. But it scared us bad enough that we did not want to get back in the deep water.

Then to make the day more exciting, it started pouring rain. There weren't too many places to keep dry and the rain would not stop. We eventually just sat in the ocean (since it was pretty warm) and tried to wait out the rain storm. But it didn't pass so we got back on to the boat. We ended up taking a wonderful 3 hour nap then watched movies in our bed. What an exciting day in CoCo Cay. I just felt bad for Owen since his day was ruined, but he didn't seem to care at all.

Right before the jelly fish attack began

Chilling on the boat after our nap

Wednesday night we had a special birthday dinner at Johnny Rockets for Owen. It was special. because it was the only restaurant on the boat. But with the $5 cover charge and all that yummy food, we were in heaven. We ate lots of onion rings, burgers and shakes. We then went to the Love/Marriage game show that night which was surprisingly hilarious. At midnight, they had a buffet at the pool. The best part was the huge table of fruit and chocolate fountain. Delish. Then came the white out dance party by the pool. We got our white on and danced like crazy people. I guess that's one of the good things about now knowing the people around you. It turned out to be a lot of fun and probably the best night on the ship. Owen loved his 'birthday dance party' and it ended up making his birthday day really fun.

Waiting for the show to start

Midnight buffet

Yea, that's my 27 year old husband.

Thursday morning's stop was Key West, FL. We had reservations to go snorkeling here, but we didn't want to commit to 4 hours of it away from the island, so we bailed on that idea. We ended up renting little scooters and cruised the island. This place was awesome! I couldn't believe it was a part of Florida. The water was turquoise blue and the island was so chill. It made me want to live there. We checked out town, spent the afternoon at the beach and finished the day with food and shopping. And I also had to get the local Key Lime Pie. Yummy! I wish I could have brought some home with me.

After our Key West adventures, we got on the boat for our last dinner. We went to a few shows and played more games.

Friday morning we were back where we started in Miami and got off the boat bright and early. We decided to stay in Miami an extra day so we weren't flying home until the next day. Naturally, we headed to the beach. We went to Miami Beach and spent most of the day there. This beach was a million times better than the beach we live by in California. It was my first time on the Atlantic coast and I loved it. The water is so much warmer and clearer. I love. We layed out in the warm sun and snorkeled in the water. But as soon as we started seeing jelly fish in the water, Jessica and I stayed on our rafts. I wasn't about to get stung again. We left the beach when the afternoon Miami storm rolled through.

The best part about the end of our trip was our last minute visit to Arizona. We had a stop in Arizona on the way home, so we decided to just get off the plane there instead of going home to Cali. I got to spend my birthday in Arizona, we got to see our puppy, we spent lots of time with mine and Owen's family, we got to meet our new nephew Mason AND we had a great Arizona Labor Day. It was the best.

We loved our cruise! It was a great little vacation for us (and actually pretty cheap). Now that we are 'experienced' cruisers, we know what we want for our next one!

Atlantis

2011-09-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

Just a sneak peak of some of our adventures from our cruise to the Bahamas a few weeks ago.

This is from our stop at Atlantis. We spent the day at the resort's AWESOME water park
*lots and lots of pictures coming soon*

Happy Birthday To You

2011-08-31T21:20:00.000-07:00

So lucky to have this boy.

So happy we get to celebrate his birthday today. 27 years young.

Happy Birthday Lover.
xoxo

Summer Pictures

2011-08-25T22:02:00.001-07:00

I tend to use my iphone camera to document our lives. Here is the rest of our summer in randomness pictures:

Mothers Day Flowers

Memorial Day Carnival

Monday Nights : The Bachelorette and a puzzle

Local farmers market

Lunch date in San Fran

Alameda County Fair : Petting Zoo

Usual weekday night

Weekday driving range sesh

Sunday bake day

Saturday beach day

Weekday temple sesh

Saturday date night

Walk on the golf course

Weekday pool days

Anniversary Date Night

I don't think we are ready for summer to almost end.
We <3 Summertime

Happy 2 Years to Us!

2011-08-20T17:07:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe our two year anniversary is already here! It feels like I was just writing a post for our one year. This last year has gone by so quick with all of the changes in our lives. I can not even imagine my life without Owen and I love how he has been apart of it for so long now. He is my everything and he always will be.

In honor of our anniversary, I listed 20 things (since our wedding day was the 20th) about Owen and I as a couple:

1. We are both Virgos and our birthdays are 5 days apart.
2. We both come from families of 6 kids.
3. 95% of the time Owen wakes up first and goes to bed last.
4. We share the same Great, Great, Great Grandparents.
5. We are both so competitive against each other. Cards, board games, sports: We don't like to lose.
6. We both have hazel (green, sometimes brown) eyes.
7. We once lived in the same ward boundaries. He moved out and I moved in a month later, just missing each other.
8. I am the cooker, cleaner, laundry person and grocery shopper. But Owen does the ironing.
9. We finally figured out to share plates when we go out to dinner. We usually like the same things and I could never finish an entire plate by myself.
10. We grew up with the same mutual friends for most of our lives, but never met each other until he was 23 and I was 22.
11. Owen is ALWAYS the first to say 'I'm sorry'.
12. I am the spender. Owen is the saver.
13. Owen can live the rest of his life without making our bed. I cannot! It's the first thing I do when I get up in the morning.
14. We still love playing Guitar Hero together.
15. Owen tickles my forehead or arm every night to help me fall asleep.
16. We both love our reality TV shows.
17. We love going to concerts together. It's one of the first things we would do when we met.
18. We are both obsessed with dogs (especially our dogs)
19. You can find us at the beach or pool almost every Saturday. We love our sun.
20. We have been married for two whole years and still love each other as much, if not more, than our wedding day.

Now since we love each other so much we are off to the Bahamas in a week (finally) to celebrate! Yay for anniversaries!

Sausalito Date Night

2011-08-16T21:32:00.001-07:00

Sausalito: is a San Francisco Bay Area city. The community is situated near the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and prior to the building of that bridge served as a terminus for rail, car and ferry traffic. It has been developed as a wealthy and artistic enclave, a picturesque residential community (incorporating large numbers of houseboats), and a tourist destination. It is adjacent to, and largely bounded by, the protected spaces of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Saturday night we had a chance to go to Sausalito for an evening out with some friends. This quaint little town is right across the bay from San Francisco and has a great view of the city. There are yummy restaurants and boutiques on Main Street, a boat harbor and more restaurants on the water. The homes all line Main Street and all were so unique. We checked out the shopping, gawked at the sail boats/yachts in the harbor, ate at a yummy little Italian place and had ice cream cones for dessert. I'm glad we had a night with friends to enjoy this beautiful city.

Oregon or Bust

2011-08-04T15:03:00.001-07:00

This past week my entire family {minus the mama, she was in DC} came and visited Owen and I in San Francisco. We had my aunt and uncle's 50th Wedding Anniversary/family reunion in Oregon that weekend, so the family came early to spend some time in Northern California.

It was so great having everyone stay with us. Even though it was super crowded in our 700 sq. ft. apartment, we managed to fit all 8 of us and have a good time together. I loved being able to show everyone my new home and taking them to all the places we love around here.

Piled air mattress' in our tiny living room

Wednesday we headed to the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom park. It was a theme park/zoo combined into one. The roller coasters were a bit disappointing (they were nothing like the coasters at Magic Mountain), but it made up for it by the fun animals all around. The great thing about my family is we can make any situation a good time.

Thursday we took everyone to our favorite beach down in Santa Cruz. This was my favorite day. We stayed on the beach near the boardwalk, so we jumped around from hanging out on the beach, playing arcade games, shopping, eating yummy food, lots of smash ball and surfing.

Friday was San Francisco day. We were in a rush on Friday since we had to leave to Oregon this day, so I tried to fit the fun, touristy stuff into one afternoon. We rode the trolley up to Union Square for some pizza and shopping, walked around Pier 39 to sight see and eat the fresh sea food, headed over to Ghirardelli's for some ice cream, then drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. I wish we could have had more time since there was so many more fun things to do, but maybe next time :)

Friday afternoon/night, we made the 11 hour drive up to Oregon. We made it there at 3AM and stayed with my cousin, Sue and her family. The next day we celebrated my Aunt Arlene and Uncle Paul's 50th Wedding Anniversary (my mom's sister)! What's crazy is I remember my grandparent's 50th Wedding Anniversary when I was 6 when we had it in Oregon. I've always loved visiting my aunt's farm so I'm glad Owen got to meet a lot of my mom's family and see Oregon.

My Uncle Paul and Aunt Arlene and their daughters
Owen and I at the plant nursery,
Me, my mom, my sister

Owen and I at the party
Lots of card playing
Delicious smoked BBQ
Playing the Bean Bag Toss (boys were obsessed with this game)

More card playing. My family LOVES playing cards
They made card decks with my aunt/uncle's wedding pictures on them...great idea!

Family picture
Looking out at the farm from the front porch
Cousins

Owen and I on the farm
Fresh blackberry pie
My aunt's cabin
Beautiful green Oregon trees

More cabin fun

On Monday we made the drive back down my house, and everyone flew home. I just finished doing loads and loads of laundry from everyone staying here AND getting caught up with work, but it was totally worth it. Thank you family for taking the time to stay with us...you are welcome back anytime!

Pioneer Children

2011-07-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrate Pioneer Day. And so in church today the theme of the talks were 'Pressing Forward'. We often hear this phrase when speaking of our pioneer ancestors. What great strength, dedication and faith they must have had for their cause. I feel forever indebted to the Mormon pioneers for the sacrifice they made not too long ago.

For Christmas this last year, Owen's parents gave us some great family history books. Owen's family is amazing at compiling his family history. These books had stories, pictures, time lines and so many details about his ancestors, many of them being pioneers. Side note: This is why journaling is so important. Anyways, we got these books for Christmas and I finished reading them that night. They were so interesting to me.

It started to make me wonder about my own family tree. I went on to newfamilysearch.org (it is a family search/tree site from the LDS church) and created an account. My entire family tree popped up. It shows names, birth/death dates, marriage/sealing dates...basically a ton of information. The internet really is amazing. I compared mine and Owen's family trees and this is what I found:

Do you see it!? The names highlighted in red...we share the same great grandparents!! I was honestly in shock when I saw that, what are the chances!? This made the books I had read even better, since it was my family I was reading about too. I knew we both had ancestors from Snowflake, AZ, but I did not realize it came from the same great grandparents, Jesse Nathaniel Smith and Emma Seraphine West. Who knew that Owen and I are long lost cousins :)

Below is some information about our (mine and Owen's) great grandparents that came from these amazing books. They were truly pioneers and I am grateful to my ancestors. Especially these two people since Owen OR myself would not be around if it wasn't for them :)

Jessie Nathaniel Smith was the third child of Silas Smith and Mary Aikens. Silas Smith was a brother to Joseph Smith Sr., father of the Prophet. Jesse Nathaniel's father and mother joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1835 and 1837 and were baptized by Hyrum Smith, brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith. They first lived in Kirtland, Ohio then moved with the Saints to Missouri and then to Nauvoo, Illinois. They had three boys, Jesse Nathaniel being one of them. When all the Saints were expelled from Nauvoo, Illinois in 1846, Jesse Nathaniel's family crossed the plains in Parley's Company and arrived in the Sale Lake Valley in September 1847. In 1851, the family was advised by Brigham Young to go to Parowan, UT and assist in establishing that community. It was in Parowan, UT that Jesse Nathaniel met Emma Seraphine West (the first of Jesse's five wives) and were married then sealed on May 13, 1852 by Apostle George A. Smith.

Jesse Nathaniel and Emma Seraphine had 8 children together. In 1878, Jesse Nathaniel was asked by the President of the Church to preside over the new Eastern Arizona Stake of the Church, which would include the Mormon settlements in northeastern Arizona. He would need to take his family to live and help build Zion in that area. They were called to pioneer again and establish a new community in Snowflake, Arizona.

In October of 1879, Jesse Nathaniel, Emma Seraphine West, Augusta Outzen Smith (another wife) and nine childern started out in three wagons all loaded with household needs and provisions. They had six horses, two mules and two cows to help pull the wagons. At the time of this move, Jesse and Emma were nearing middle life. They had made such a permanent beginning in Parowan. They owned a comfortable home for that day, and had to leave many friends and relatives. They left Utah on April 6, 1880 and arrived in Snowflake, AZ on May 22.

Jesse Nathaniel and Emma settled and raised their family in Snowflake, AZ. He had a total of 5 wives and 44 children. In 1884, he was assigned to a committee for the church to purchase land in Mexico for Mormon colonization. He also served as the first Stake President of the Eastern Arizona Stake from 1879-1887 and as the first president of the Snowflake Stake from 1887 until his death. In 1882, he predicted that a temple would be built in Pima, Arizona. Now, the Gila Valley Arizona Temple is being built, which is between Pima and Thatcher.

Pioneer : One who goes before to prepare or open up the way for other to follow

I hope to follow in our ancestor pioneer's faithful footsteps.

Quick AZ Trip

2011-07-21T10:47:00.001-07:00

This last week I was able to make a last minute trip down to Arizona! I dropped Owen off at the airport Monday night for him to go to work and I thought:

I really, really don't want to be here alone all week again. If only there was a way I could go to Arizona...

So I woke up Tuesday morning, packed the pup in the car, and headed down to AZ. I figured the 11 hour drive by myself was a lot better than staying in California for 4 days by myself.

And I was right...totally worth it! I loved being home, I loved going to work at the office and having people there with me, I loved playing games with family at dinner time, I loved visiting friends, I loved eating at my favorite places. I LOVE ARIZONA!

It sometimes gets lonley in California only because I am home ALL of the time for work, and Owen is out of town half of the time. It's been the biggest adjustment for me to be alone a lot of the time...I'm not a fan! So a trip to see friends and family is just what I needed. I would probably go every month if the husband would let me :)

Can you spy the pup? He was a great little travel companion.

Visiting the Howeys! I miss living close to these guys...

...and I love this little girl!

Owen flew into Arizona on Friday night to spend the weekend in Arizona with me. It was so nice to have him there the rest of the time. It would not have been the same without him!

The thing Owen wanted to do the most was an AZ lake trip. So we headed to Roosevelt Lake on Saturday for an all day lake trip with my cousin and his cute family.

Lance, Stephanie and their adorable kids!

Little bro. Sterling

That's the hubby...he was so good

That's me. I'm still SO ridiculousy sore from that day.

The only bad parts about the trip:
*We got a flat tire in AZ and ended up getting all new 4 tires (blah...so expensive).
*I missed the Haboob dust storm! It rolled through the day we left...I was so bummed.
*We left our pup in Arizona! My parents were kind of enough to take Jax in temporarily. We have a few other trips coming up so now we don't have to worry about finding a place for him when we leave. We do miss him though.
*I only ate at 6 out of the 8 places on my food list. Tia Rosas and Neds...I'll come next time.

My ENTIRE family is coming out to California to stay with us next week, so I'm counting down until the AZ people come to us. I.Can't.Wait!

Red, White & Blue

2011-07-05T12:06:00.000-07:00

4th of July

happens to be my favorite holiday.
I grew up doing the same thing every 4th of July up until 4 years ago. I'm a girl of tradition, so being away from my family for the holiday was a bit sad.

However, Owen and I decided to make the best of it. We both had a break from work and a long weekend ahead of us. We decided to stay home and celebrate, and I'm glad we did! It ended up being great 4th of July weekend with just the two of us.

FRIDAY
We kicked off the weekend by seeing Transformers 3 on Friday night.
Does any one else wish that Transformers were real? I think they are awesome...I wish I had a car-friend like Bumblebee.
And I got to eat my favorite dinner of Movie Popcorn, Jalapenos and Junior Mints

SATURDAY
On Saturday, we spent all day in Mountain View, CA for the Vans Warped Tour.
There's something about the craziness of Warped Tour that I just love.

I'm really glad my hubby and I share the same likeness in music and concerts.
And even though I only really liked 4/40 bands, it was a fun day.

The only bad part of the day was at the end when I realized how much my feet and back actually hurt.
I might be getting a little too old to be standing and pushing my way around crowds all day.

SUNDAY

Sunday consisted of a sick husband, me teaching our very empty primary class and sitting on the couch all day watching this in honor of the upcoming 4th of July:

If you have Netflix you HAVE to watch this. Its American History class all over again, but a million times more interesting. It really does make me proud of our American heritage and the country that we live in.

MONDAY
HAPPY 4th OF JULY
Monday morning we woke up nice and early and headed down to the Santa Cruz beach for an all day beach sesh. We got there at 9:00 AM and stayed there all day long.

It was nice and hot at the beach. The water was even tolerable without a wet suit.
We set up a little BBQ, ate food and played at the beach.

After we got home from the beach, we headed out to see the fireworks. Our city was putting on a big Firework show at a park that is 2 minutes from our house. Even though we probably could have seen the show from our balcony, I wanted to join the 4th of July crowds. So we headed to the park.

We found a spot front and center, put our blanket in the grass and watched the show.
I love a good firework show!
It was perfect ending to our fun 4th of July Weekend.

My Summer Must Haves

2011-07-03T11:48:00.001-07:00

It's finally starting to warm up here in the Bay Area. I was honestly worried for a while that summer did not exist here. It was pretty cold up until a few weeks ago. Now it gets up to about 90 degrees and I'm loving it!

Now that it's officially summer time, I've started to obsess over a few summer items.

Essie nail polish in Turquoise and Caicos
Target
It's on my nails now and I can't get enough. After two layers, it's the perfect bright, summer color.

Straw Hat
I got this one at Nordstroms but I've seen similar ones at F21
I've never really been a hat person, but lately I've started to embrace them and add hats to my wardrobe. I love wearing this one with anything white. And I love wearing it on our beach days.

MAC's Haute & Naughty Lash Mascara
I've always refused to buy mascara anywhere else but Target. I did not think that just because a mascara is more expensive, it is that much better. HOWEVER, I recently discovered that is not the case. I am not blessed with long, thick lashes (like my husband's...I hope our babies get his lashes). Mine are basically non-existent. So I finally caved and tried this mascara from MAC and it's amazing! It has duel brushes, so one lengthens and one thickens. I promise you it's worth paying the $10 more.

MAC's Skin Finish Natural Bronzer in Sun Power
This bronzer is perfect for the summer time. My face never tans as well as the rest of my skin, so adding this gives my face a sun kissed, but natural looking glow. This along with my mascara is all I need for my low-key week days.

Keratin Hair Treatment
This last week when I got my hair did, I had my hair girl do the Keratin Hair Treatment to my very processed and damaged hair. It is similar to the Brazilian blow out, but without the harsh chemicals. My hair is not curly, but it does have a natural wave and some major frizz going on. I have to put lot and lots of product in to make it smooth and manageable. This treatment did wonders to my hair! It's now so smooth and healthy looking. I can get out of the shower, not put a drop of product in it, and it will dry straighter and smoother than ever before. It's has been perfect for air-drying days or days at the beach or pool. I'm hoping it will stay long enough for our cruise in August. I want to keep the smooth, silky hair for the Bahamas!

Library Card
I recently signed up for a library card at our local library. After buying books new and then finishing them 4 days later, it was getting pretty pricey! The girls in my Book Club suggested getting a library card. Why hadn't I thought of that before?? It's a great system...you can search and request a book on line from your house, the library will find it on the shelf and hold it up front for you. I have my copy of Juliet ready for pick up today and I can't wait! The card is free so you can get book after book for reading at the pool or the beach.

Happy Summer Everyone!

Texas Trip

2011-06-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

This past week Owen and I got to go to Texas and visit his parents. It had been almost 2 whole years since we had been there, so a Texas trip was long over-due. Luckily, Owen was working there that week so I tagged along too (one of the perks of working from home...I'm able to bring my work with me). We stayed with his parents and were there for over a week! I fell in LOVE with Texas. The warm weather, the gorgeous houses, the wide open spaces: I did not want to leave! I officially want to live there. Even though we were both busy with work, we managed to have lots of family and play time.

Owen's sister, Lydia, surprised us and came down to Texas for part of the week. What a great surprise! I missed her girls so much and I loved seeing them. They are 3 of the cutest things ever. I couldn't get enough!

We spent lots of time with Cherry's kids also (Owen's other sister). We don't get to see them too often since they live in Texas. We had lots of fun hanging out at the pool all week with these fun kids.

Father's Day ladder-ball game

Texas Sunset

Our Love Story : Part III

2011-05-25T19:43:00.001-07:00

I couldn't believe I was actually going to live in Atlanta for the summer. At the time, it made perfect sense to go so Owen and I could be together. Kind of crazy looking back on it now. I finally told my parents my summer plans: live in Atlanta with people I've never met while selling security systems door to door. Of course, they were not happy...mostly about the knocking doors part. But I was going no matter what. I could not imagine staying in Utah all summer without my fiance.

After Owen's last final, we packed up the car and headed East. We were honestly so poor leaving Utah. We literally had $20 between us when we left. I don't even know how we did it. We made a stop in the middle of the night, sleeping in the car at a rest stop in Colorado (super sketchy). We drove the next day to Texas to visit Owen's parents for a few days. It was so nice to be back in Texas to visit and see his sisters there as well.

During our drive, we went through: Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and finally Georgia. That's 9 states! Its was a super long drive.

We had finally made it to Atlanta! We met up with the rest of the APX group at our apartments in North Atlanta. Our apartments were awesome: brand new and crazy nice. We met our room mates and the rest of the office. It was a bit scary joining an office that was already close to each other from previous summers. It was mostly married couples and young families, but we quickly made great friends with everyone. Owen's internship with GMAC wasn't starting for a month, so he was able do full time APX with the rest of us. It was starting to turn into a great summer.

I was SO nervous my first day of knocking doors. I honestly had no idea what I was getting into. Our days consisted of: going to the morning meeting, driving to our areas for the day, knocking on door selling alarms ALL day long. They literally don't stop until it gets dark. LONGEST DAYS EVER!

Luckily, I had Owen to help me. He had knocked doors for two summers before, so he knew the ins and outs of summer sales. We actually made a good little team. People loved hearing we were newly engaged and getting married at the end of the summer. It helped us get into houses, which meant more sales :) It also helped that people were curious why a little white girl was wandering around their neighborhood. We were a great little team. Even though the days were long and sometimes frustrating, I loved spending the time with Owen. It was such an adventure being in Atlanta doing something random like knocking doors, but I loved every part of it with Owen.

Some days, we needed a little break so we would sort of, kind of ditch work and play. We would sight-see, visit fun places and see movies. We saw every single movie that came out that summer. Those were my favorite days.

OLYMPIC PARK, DOWN TOWN ATLANTA

TOP OF HYATT HOTEL, DOWN TOWN ATLANTA

Back at our apartments, we would spend any days off at the pool with the rest of the crew. Nights were full of game nights, watching DVDs and going out to eat with the others. Sundays consisted of church (our ward building was right next to the Atlanta Temple - awesome!) and more BBQs at the pool.

We ended up in some scary parts of Atlanta, that's for sure. There was one area that Owen and I went to that was something you see in the movies. Scary people. Scary streets. Sometimes, we didn't even get out of the car. These people definitly needed alarm systems (even though they couldn't afford them half of the time).

Flat tire in a scary part of town.

Atlanta Aquarium

About a month into the summer in Atlanta, we found out the North office was closing. People weren't doing as well as they wanted to, so they were moving on. We were panicked at first...there went our free housing and a summer job! Luckily, we found out there was a South Atlanta APX office. We quickly made arrangements to move down to their office for the rest of the summer.

We packed up our car again and headed to South Atlanta. We went to a small town called McDonough. It was about an hour south of where we were living. Rather than the city, we were now living in the suburbs. And again, we had to make new friends with the new office. The South office was full of a few married couples, but mostly single guys and girls. This office actually had quite a few other girls selling, so I was excited about that part. We got adjusted into our new apartments. Owen's internship was starting about now. I continued to sell and Owen drove up to Atlanta everyday for his GMAC internship.

Working seriously sucked without Owen. This about when I my work dedication quickly went away. I would get dropped off in my area (by myself) and walk to the closest store (WalMart, Grocery Store, ANYTHING) and hang out until Owen picked me up after his internship. Every once in a while I would still go out and sell, but it was hard and kind of scary doing it all by myself. Definitly wasn't a fan of it. The only days I would really sell is when Owen would come with on Saturdays.

We still managed to fit in time for fun between Owen's internship and my knocking doors.

ATLANTA BRAVES GAME

Any down time in our new apartments were spent at the pool or playing tennis, or both.

It was in the South office that we found our pup, Jax. We had been talking for a few days about getting a puppy (mostly because EVERYONE had puppies at this office, so we were puppy hungry). We drove in the the Wal-Mart parking and saw this cute guy for sale. It was love at first sight!

4TH OF JULY

Our office went river rafting together in Tennesse one day. It was super fun, except for when our raft tipped over in the rapids. Not cool, but makes for a good story now.

We spent our nights playing tennis at the courts at our apartment complex. Puppy Jax loved tennis too.

Atlanta was definitly an adventure. A really good adventure. I'm glad Owen and I had the enitre summer together. It made us grow closer together and rely on each other more than ever. I knew I could count on Owen to take care of me out there, and he did. I loved that summer with Owen. We made awesome friends in both offices and made the greatest memories together.

I spent the last part of the summer trying to plan our wedding that was coming up in August. A few weeks before our wedding, I flew home to Arizona to make final wedding preperations. Once Owen's internship finally ended, I flew back to Atlanta to drive back home with Owen and our puppy. There was no way I was going to let him make that long drive alone. On the way back, we stopped by Owen's parents in Texas again for another quick visit. We finally made it to Arizona a week before our wedding. I couldn't wait to marry my best friend...we were so ready for it. I couldn't wait to be Owen's wife.

SF Adventures

2011-05-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks we have been able to do more fun activities:

We visited my cousin and his family who lives North of San Francisco. They took us to some nearby wineries to check out. The vineyards are beautiful! I can't wait to go to Napa sometime and see more. I hear they even have Sparkling Apple Cider for those who don't drink wine. Perfection!

We then headed to a Redwood National park. The forest is so green and the Redwood trees are HUGE...Both around and tall. I have always loved the redwood trees and I'm glad Owen got to see them too. Northern California really does have beautiful sights to see!

I spy a banana slug:

Last week we were invited by Owen's manager to go to a Giants baseball game at AT&T Park. And even better, they were playing the AZ Diamondbacks! However, I quickly decided my new allegiance lies with the Giants, only because the fans are AWESOME and I no longer knew a single player on the Dbacks team.

The game was really fun...probably the most fun baseball game I've ever been too. It's great to have an exciting crowd who was excited about the game. The Giants were the 2010 World Champs after all! And I loved sporting my new Tim Lincecum hoodie.

This last weekend Emily and Levi came back in town and stayed with us all weekend long. It was Emily's 25th Birthday so we celebrated! We did lots of sight seeing, shopping, eating, laughing and enjoying eachother's company. I loved it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY! Best friends for 22 years and counting!

Fiesta

2011-05-05T21:56:00.001-07:00

mini sombreros

margaritas
enchiladas
pinatas
bean dip
spanish music
dirty mustaches
carne asada tacos
key lime cup cakes

HAPPY CINCO de MAYO!!
amor, el allens

I Love Tuesdays

2011-05-03T19:13:00.001-07:00

I love Tuesdays when they feel like Saturdays.

Owen and I worked in the morning then headed to the beach for the rest of the afternoon.

The high was 75. The sun and sand were nice and warm.

Smash Ball + Surfing + Sun = A Perfect Beach Day

We decided we will definitely be making more weekday beach trips.

Our Love Story : Part II

2011-04-28T21:15:00.001-07:00

Owen and I realized we didn't want to do a long distance relationship. We didn't even want to try it. After spending every day with him for the last 2 months, I could not imagine being away from him for any amount of time. I decided I was going to Utah.

It was two weeks before Christmas (and two and 1/2 weeks before Owen was leaving to go back to Provo) that I finally told my parents my plans to move up to Utah. Even though I didn't have a place to live yet OR a job, I convinced them it was a good idea and I was going to be okay. I was so nervous to go. I was 23 years old and had never, ever lived anywhere else besides Mesa, AZ.

Two days after Christmas, I packed up my life into my little Honda Civic, then Owen and I drove up to Provo. I was going to stay with his sister, Lydia, until I found a place to live. Owen had already had a place to live with his roommates at Highland Park. Everything was so new and exciting for me! It was so fun being there with Owen. And I knew he was going to take care of me.

Owen started school at BYU right away. I got busy looking for a job and an apartment right away. Within the first few days in Provo, I found a job doing administrative work for a company. (I only did this job for a few weeks then found a better job doing insurance work). I took me a few weeks to find an apartment I liked. But the one I found was perfect. It was a Belmont which was right down the street from Owen's apartment. It took about 3 minutes to walk back and forth between our places. The girls I lived with were super nice. I'm glad I got so lucky with a great place to live. I was finally starting to feel like I had a life in Utah. The only part I really did not like was the snow and cold. I was not a fan of it. I hated driving in it. Those cold, snowy days is when I missed Arizona the most.

Owen and I spent any extra time we had with eachother. There were days I would go to school with him, and there were nights he would sit a work with me.

We spent weekends going on dates or out with friends or just hanging out between our two apartments.

Owen took me to all the fun places you could see around Provo and Salt Lake. I loved the dating period in our lives. It was fun and care free.

:.Sundance Film Festival.:

We spend a lot of time with Owen's roommates. I'm glad he lived with such fun guys. They really made that semester a blast.

:.Owen's roommates.:

We spent a lot of time with Owen's family too. It gave me a chance to get to know his sisters better. We were always at Dan and Lydia's playing games or watching the girls or hanging out.

:.Lydia's House.:
The best thing about that winter semester in Provo was having our season passes at The Canyons in Park City. We would always go snowboarding at least once a week. Owen bought me a brand new snow board at the beginning of the season. He was a lot better than me at the time, but he was always so patient with me on the slopes. Little things like that showed me how much he cared. I loved it.

.:The Canyons:.

.:The Canyons:.

We went back down to Arizona two different times for weddings. We drove down with friends both times. It was such a good break from the cold and snow. And it was nice to see my family again. I loved these little road trips with Owen.

.:Arizona trip.:

Some of my other favorite memories of that Winter semester in Utah were:
..going to dollar movies Monday nights..
..watching tv series all night long with Owen and his roommates..
..Wendover trips..
..going out to lunch everyday: especially jdawgs..
..FHE Monday nights with Owen's ward..
..poker games with Owen and his roommates..
..80's night in Salt Lake..
..concerts..
..hot tubbing it up at 24 Hr. Fitness..
..cooking for Owen and his roommates..
..going to church with Owen..
..late nate ranchiritos..
..dance parties..
..games at the Liddles..

.:General Conference:.

By this time, Owen and I had talked about getting married. We looked at rings and talked about it all the time. We knew we would eventually get married, we just didn't know when. Owen wanted to get married sooner than later. I had mixed emotions. I knew I wanted to marry him, but I felt like I had just gotten out of one so I wasn't in a rush.

On Easter Sunday, Owen had the idea of hiking the Y in Provo. I had never done it before (since it was snowy since I got there) so I was excited to go. When we got to the top, there was a Easter basket sitting on a boulder. Owen told me to go look inside. I don't know why I didn't catch on...but I didn't for a while. I kept telling Owen it probably belonged to someone so we shouldn't mess with it. He kept insisting we look in it. So finally I did. In one of the eggs, there was a pretty little ring. Owen got down on his knee and proposed. Of course, I said yes. I definitly wasn't expecting to get engaged that day...what a surprise! But I was so happy. I was so happy to know that Owen would be mine forever.

.:Engaged:.

The school semester finally came to and end. The snow started to melt and Utah suddenly become warm and beautiful. Owen had an internship set up in Atlanta for the summer. Again, I was faced with the decision to stay in Utah (pretty much by myself), go back to Arizona (where I had no job) or some how go to Atlanta with Owen so we didn't have to be apart.

.:Spring Time in Provo:.

The week before Owen was leaving for Atlanta, we took our engagement pictures in down town Salt Lake.

.:Engagements:.

At the end of April, Owen and I left for Atlanta. I decided to go with him. I got the bright idea to do APX summer sales in Atlanta with an Atlanta office. That way, I could have a job and have free rent for the summer. But most importantly, be close to Owen. Everything totally worked out! We found out that the North Atlanta office for APX was about 10 minutes away from Owen's intership office. Also, Owen worked out a deal that he would work for APX (since he did it for the last 2 summers) until his internship started and then on Saturdays. That way, he could live for free at the apartments as well. It was seriously perfect. The only hard part was telling my parents I was leaving my newly established life in Utah to knock doors by myself in Atlanta. They weren't happy at all. But I still went. There was no way I was going to be away from Owen for the whole summer, especially now that we were engaged.

So our next stop...Atlanta for the summer.

Easter

2011-04-25T21:52:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter Everyone!

Easter holds a special place in our hearts. It was two years ago on Easter day that I found a lone Easter basket on the Y mountain and Owen proposed. What a special day.

I love how I follow the exact same Easter traditions that I had growing up. Easter just wouldn't be the same without them.

Owen and I spent Saturday night dying Easter eggs together

{Such concentration}

We woke up Sunday morning and hunted for our Easter baskets. Mine was hiding in the dog house. Owen's was behind the couch pillows. Our hiding spots are pretty limited in our tiny apartment.

After church {and our fabulous Primary Easter lesson} I made a yummy Easter dinner {I LOVE Easter dinner} for the two of us: Honey Ham, Cheesy Potatoes, Deviled Eggs, Asparagus and Rolls. Yumm.

Also on Easter morning we found out that Owen's sweet Great Grandma Watkins had passed away. What an amazing women she was. She spent her 100+ years of life being a living testimony of a faithful latter-day saint women. She left behind a legacy that I hope to follow. What a great example she was and I'm glad I got to know her for a short amount of time.

Even though her passing is sad, it is a great reminder of the message of Easter:
Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord. He is a resurrected Being. He lives today. His resurrection means that life does not end at death, for he promised :
"Because I live, ye shall live also".

Friends + The City

2011-04-20T21:33:00.001-07:00

This is why I love my BFF {emily yeager}. She calls me Sunday night to tell me that her and her hubby {levi} missed their flight out of Maui and are getting on a new flight that will put them in San Francisco for a lay over on Monday. An ALL DAY lay over. This meant they were coming to San Fransisco for a day to play. I love how spontaneous they are. Love.

Owen and I ditched work Monday and picked them up from the air port nice and early Monday morning. We went down town and had breakfast and saw a few touristy spots: Coit Tower {which has a great 360 degree view of the city and bay} then went down the famous Lombard Street {the crooked street}. Then we headed over to Union Square for some quick shopping.

At Union Square we jumped on a good ol' San Francisco trolley to take us to Fishermans Wharf.

Who knew trolleys could be so fun!? They really do let you hang off the sides while driving through the streets. We could've spent all day riding those things. It was so cool to see all of the homes and apartment styles throughout the city. It really is a one of a kind place!

We got to Fishermans Wharf and grabbed some lunch {clam chowder + fish & chips of course}

Even though it was a bit rainy, we decided to do the bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a 8 mile round trip and I almost died. Those hills are KILLER on my little legs. But we made it. And what a sight it was! It was unreal to be riding across that bridge looking down at the ocean.

We finished off the day {and our bike ride} with some cold, delicious Ghirardelli's ice cream.

Owen found his new favorite: The Peanut Butter Hot Fudge Sundae. It was a pretty dang good sundae.

I loved my play date in San Francisco with my love, my bestie and her love. I cannot wait until they come back for more!

Our Love Story : Part I

2011-04-12T18:25:00.000-07:00

I wanted to document the start of Owen and I...the start of us. This is for blog book purposes...like always. Plus, I don't think people really know our story. So I figure every week I will document a portion of our life together starting from the very beginning.

So lets start in 2007, shall we? It was in 2007 that our story really began.

We originally met through mutual friends in December, 2007. I went to a friend's birthday party and he was there. I had always known who he was, or I guess you can say I always knew his name. Only because he went to Mountain View HS for a semester when I was a sophomore. But the last thing I heard about him was he moved far away to England, and I never heard about him again. So in 2007 I was introduced to him, but I was married at the time so I couldn't think anything of it. He said that when he saw me at first it was love at first sight: I was short, blonde and from Arizona (haha nice). BUT, I wasn't available so he didn't think anything of it either after that.

Fast forward 5 months: I was no longer in a relationship and we came across each other again. Once again, through our mutual friends in Utah. We ended up going to the Saosin concert in Salt Lake City with our friends. Because I was recently single, I wasn't looking for anything serious. I just wanted to have fun with my friends. It was, however, fun being there with Owen too. I liked how we liked the same music. I liked how funny he was. I liked how nice he was to all of the girls. BUT, I lived in Arizona and he lived in Utah. And I wasn't looking for anything serious.

Saosin Concert.:.SLC

After that, I went to Utah a few more times to see my friends who were going to BYU. It was a nice, quick get-away from Arizona. Everytime I went, I always ended up running into Owen. It was then that we started to become real friends. He was easy to talk to and easy to get along with. He was caring, understanding and always made my laugh. I would get excited when he called or texted me. I loved being around him and I loved how he made me feel. BUT, I lived in Arizona and he was going to Texas for the summer, so we continued to stay long distance friends.

The summer of 2008 was a good one. It had been 3 years since I was single, so it was a big adjustment to get the hang of single life again. I was so afraid that I would be the only divorced person out there. I quickly learned I wasn't alone and made great friends. And luckly, I had my best friend Emily as my side kick. I don't know what I wouldv'e done without her! I loved that I was able to meet and hang out with new people, and not have to date. It was exactly what I needed. We went to concerts, spent days and nights at the lake, went to dance parties, went to pool parties, went to Lake Powell and played all night long. I literally spent that summer working hard, but playing harder.

Owen started the summer in Virginia with APX selling alarms, but then moved to Texas shortly after to work with his dad. He lived at his parents house in Texas and also made new friends for the summer. We texted and talked on the phone a lot, but we spent the summer having our seperate lives in seperate states. Still, everytime he would call, I would get butterflies. There was something about him that I couldn't not let go of.

Me and Emily.:.Dance Party

Summer Concerts

Emily's Birthday Party

Lake Powell

Owen came to Arizona a total of 3 times that summer. Each time I would always end up seeing him. It was never as much as we wanted. He would go back to Texas, and we would continue to talk and text.

Warped Tour in Arizona

Erin's Birthday Party

Summer Lake Days

Summer Friends

The summer was starting to come to and end. I was going to start school full time in Arizona. Owen was going down to Uraguay for a month and a half for an internship. During that month and a half, we talked on Skype every.single.day. It KILLED us to not be able to text or talk whenever we wanted, like we had all summer long. Now, we talked every chance we had. I would be going to bed at 2AM and I would call him. He would wake up at 7AM and call me. I think it was during this period that we realized our real feelings for each other. Owen talked about coming to Arizona to stay for a few months after his internship. He didn't have to be back to Provo for school unitl the Winter semester. I told him to do it.

It was October 16th that he finished his internship. He flew home to Texas for a day to pack some things up, then came straight to Arizona. He came straight to me. I picked him at the airport and we had our first kiss. It was everything we thought it would be. The next day, he came with my family up to the cabin to celebrate my dad's 60th Birthday. I was SO nervous bringing a new guy around the family, especially since I hadn't dated anyone all summer. But my family loved him right away and he loved them. It was a great fit.

Since that day, we were inseparable. We spent all day, every day together. We spent that fall falling in love. It was quick, and we fell hard. I couldn't believe I had such strong feelings for some one so fast, but with Owen, it came easy. I loved how he was my best friend before anything else. I loved the way he made my feel. It was something completely new and I couldn't get enough. We spent equal amounts of time with our friends, with our families and with just each other. That fall in Arizona was perfect for us.

Halloween Party
Saosin Concert

Hanging out with Friends

I met his entire family for the first time during Thanksgiving. We drove out to Texas and spent the week there.

Thanksgiving in Texas

Thanksgiving in Texas

The holidays came and went so quick. We spent them going back and forth between our families.

Temple Lights

It was December and the time was coming for Owen to move back up to Provo to finish up at BYU. I had told him that I would go up with him, but honestly I was so scared. I had never lived anywhere besides Mesa, I had just started a new job, and I wasn't sure how my parents would react when I told them I was moving to follow Owen up to Utah. That fall was so perfect but had gone by so quick, and now I had a big decision to make. Either stay in Arizona and try to do a long distance relationship, or do something crazy, that I had never done before, and move my entire life for a guy.

To be continued...

Santa Cruz

2011-04-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a good weekend for us in Northern Cali. Even though the high was only in the 60's, that didn't stop us from heading to the beach. We slept in Saturday morning, got up, threw on our swimsuits, loaded the dog and surf board in the car then headed down to Santa Cruz. It's about an hour drive from our house...totally worth it. It was so fun. I know I always say things are fun, but this time I really mean it.

It was fun.

We passed the boardwalk and pier and headed straight to the beach.

Owen surfed.

I sat on the beach and read my new book...

...and hung out with the pup.

Santa Cruz had so many fun things to offer:

A boardwalk full of fun rides
A boardwalk full of yummy food
A gigantic indoor mini-golf/arcade casino
Lots of surf shops
A pier with seafood stands and a chocolate shop
Beaches for laying out and surfing

We ended our beach day with food on the pier. And of course I got clam chowder. We sat in the cafe, ate our food and watched the surfers out the window.

Then I discovered a chocolate shop with the most delicious chocolate covered strawberries (my favorite) I have ever had. They were epic. I can't wait to go back for more.

Owen and I have loved discovering all of the fun things to do around the Bay Area. We decided that Santa Cruz is our favorite place so far. I'm pretty sure you'll find us there every Saturday.

Spring Showers

2011-03-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today is another rainy, gloomy day {week} in the Bay Area.

It does, however, make everything look fresh and green. And the rain outside smells lovely too.

It gives me an excuse to bundle up in my BYU sweats and hoodie for the day. They are oh. so. comfy. and I even sport them while walking the pup.

Jax doesn't mind the cold, wet outdoors either.

These past few nights we did have a few friends come through town and stay with us. First was Trevor, Heidi and McCoy Wood then the next night Brock and Liz Mason. YAY VISITORS! Even though they were short stays, it was nice to have friends over.

And on a side note, I found my new love in The City. After we ate in Little Italy with the Masons we headed over to Ghirardelli's Square at the wharf. The hot fudge sundae was to.die.for. It's was honestly the most amazing, delicious chocolate I have ever had. Now I can't wait to go back again and get my own rather than share with Owen. Yum.

I left my heart in Arizona...

2011-03-19T18:50:00.001-07:00

...for 3 weeks. 3 whole weeks we were visiting! It was fabulous. Arizona in March is the greatest. The high was in the 80's and the smell of orange blossoms filled the air. We had a variety of events to attend to during the 3 weeks, and Owen got lucky enough to work there for 2 of them, so the timing was perfect.

One of the main reasons we went down was for my friend Erin's wedding. Her missionary got home a few months ago and they got engaged right away. I am SO happy for her and Shawn. They make a great couple and I know they'll be loving married life.

Wedding Day : Mesa, AZ Temple

The beautiful bride!

Congrats Mr. & Mrs. Nimmer

Bridesmaids

We spent the weekends seeing our Arizona friends that we've missed so much. We are so lucky to have the greatest friends!

Kava night at the Rogers'

Saturday morning Softball Game

And now some not-so happy news:

Yup that's right. Our little puppy Jade got out of my parent's backyard and never returned. We thought at first someone would definitely find her and call us (since she did have her collar on), but now we are convinced that they couldn't deny her cuteness and kept her for their own. We did everything we possibly could to find her, but no luck. We are hoping that whoever has her wanted her bad enough to take really good care of her. Returning back to CA with only one pup was really sad though. Tear.

We were able to go to Braeden's Pine Wood Derby race and watch him win 1st place...go Brae!!

Pine Wood Derby

During our last week there I ended up getting the cold/flu thing that was going around. Ahhh. So. Miserable. It didn't help that I was at work ALL ALONE for the week while my family (which means our entire office staff) partied it up in Rocky Point, Mexico for Spring Break.

I had to do some major stocking up on sickness supplies to make it through the days.

I did manage to go to a super fun girls lunch...

...and hang out with Dawn and Stephanie's families at Peter Piper Pizza for a dinner.

Loch and Ash

Kennedy

Irelyn

My family got back from Mexico the day before we left back home to California, so we were able to celebrate my mom's birthday with a yummy dinner and delicious cup cakes.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

It was really a great trip and we are very much blessed to be able to stay in Arizona to see our family and friends. We made it back to our home in California (and the rain and cold), but I'm already looking forward to my next AZ visit.

Our Love (Temple Sealing) Story

2011-03-08T15:57:00.001-08:00

**I mostly wrote this entry for my own documenting purposes. But I wanted to share this special day...so I've included some (not all) of our temple sealing details.**

MARCH 5, 2011

Today is a day that Owen and I have been waiting for a long time. We were finally able to get sealed in the Mesa, Arizona temple. We started the cancellation process of my previous temple marriage almost 2 years ago, so it was a relief that everything was FINALLY finalized so Owen and I could get sealed. One thing that this process taught me was patience. There were so many frustrating times and feelings of doubt when we went through this process. Even though it should have been no problem to get my cancellation from my ex, because we had previous debts filed in our divorce papers, we had to get those taken care. Who knew the church was so picky about this! So we knew what we had to do, but at the same time we felt that everything bad was happening to try to prolong the process. We felt that we hit every single bump in the road that just made the entire process more difficult than it had to be. It was so discouraging! Up until the week of our wedding, we still had hopes that we could get the cancellation done in time. However, we found out nothing was able to be submitted and we would have to get married civilly, then continue to wait for the cancellation. When our wedding day came on August 20, 2009, we were so happy to be getting married, but we were a bit sad that we weren’t able to get sealed that day. We found out there was still a long road ahead of us to get to that point because we were trying to work with my ex-husband. Even though we were both still temple worthy, we felt like we let down our families by not being able to get sealed that day. It was a bitter-sweet day.

After we were married, we had a goal to go to the temple for an endowment session every month. Every time we went, all that I could think about is the significance of being sealed to your spouse. It broke my heart that Owen and I weren’t sealed yet. I loved him more than anything and I couldn’t imagine not being with him throughout eternity. We were always so scared that something would happen to either of us before we could get sealed together in the temple. More than ever, I realized how important it was to be sealed to him. And I knew I didn’t want anyone else, just him. Owen was so patient and understanding throughout the whole process. It made my love for him grow so much. However, I felt so guilty for not being able to get sealed on our wedding day. I felt I was taking something away from him that he had worked for his entire life. It killed me. It killed us. We both wanted it so bad. I would just imagine about the day that we could finally kneel at the alter together in the temple as husband and wife, being sealed for time and all eternity. I would literally get tears in my eyes just imagining what that day would be like. One thing that I am truly grateful for is how this process really helped me understand the importance of a temple sealing and what it really means for your family. I think that being married for a year and a half helped me realize more than ever, even more than before our wedding day, that Owen was the one for me and that we would make an eternal family together. That feeling of surety was so comforting. While in the temple sessions, I would look over at Owen and know without a doubt that he was the one that I needed to be there with.

It was in September of 2010 that I got everything worked out with my ex-husband (because of our previous debts, I couldn’t even file for the temple cancellation until everything was taken care of. That was the main reason the process took SO long). We were finally able to apply for the cancellation and know that it should be approved by the First Presidency. We worked with my bishop for 4 long months (long because my ex-husband decided to all of the sudden not cooperate with the process. Again, so frustrating). We got papers and documents submitted and the interviews taken care of within those 4 months. At the end of December, my Stake President submitted everything to Salt Lake to be reviewed. We were so anxious to get that cancellation letter back. On January 31, 2011, my dad called me and told me I got a letter from the Church. He opened it and it read that my temple sealing to my ex was cancelled effective that date, and I was able to get re-sealed. Finally! I was shaking from excitement. I finally felt free of my ex-husband and I couldn’t wait to be sealed to Owen. I called Owen to tell him and we celebrated. It was such a great feeling! Finally all of our hard work and patience paid off. We felt like this day would never come. We called our family right away to make plans for a date. We were living in California by now and wanted to get sealed in the Mesa, Arizona temple. So the next day, we set a date, time and reserved Brother Perkinson as our sealer. We quickly met with our new bishop and stake president in California to get our Living Ordinance Recommend to be sealed. We were so happy to have a date to look forward to.

We decided on March 5, 2011 as the date. We invited our family and close friends for this special day. Owen and I drove out to Arizona the week before. We had to be in Arizona for other events anyways around this time, so it was perfect date for our sealing. Owen’s parents flew in from Texas for the weekend. Even his sister’s from Utah, Emily and Lydia and their families drove down for our sealing. We had other family and friends come in from out of town as well. We have such great friends and families who love and support us…we are so blessed. I felt like it was a wedding celebration again. The night before our sealing, I did not sleep well. I was so anxious. It was a weird feeling…like I was getting married again. Except this time I already had Owen sleeping by my side and he was already my husband for a year and a half. I couldn’t help but feel that this marriage ceremony was the real thing. It was the one that mattered, and I couldn’t wait. Our sealing was scheduled for 9AM, so we had to be there at 8AM. We went together to the temple with our parents.

At 9:00, it was time for us to join our family and friends in the sealing room. We walked in and saw all of our loved ones smiling at us. As soon as I saw his sisters crying already, I started to cry too! I knew I was going to, I just didn’t think I could be crying so soon. I literally had to tell myself to suck it up and stop, otherwise I would look like a mess throughout the whole thing. We sat down and I just looked around at the people there and I could tell they were so happy for us. I felt so much love in that room and I knew that all of our hard work and patience paid off, it was so worth it.

During our sealing, Owen and I cried together. It was such an emotional, over whelming feeling of joy and happiness. It was a perfect sealing. I will always remember the feelings of this special day. I love the feeling and surety of finally being sealed to Owen. I feel like we are complete.

We spent the rest of the weekend celebrating with our families. We took a big group picture outside of the temple then headed over to my parent’s house for a luncheon. I had worked hard all week to prepare for the luncheon, so I was anxious to get the food and décor set up. We had mostly everyone from the sealing come over, including all of our little nieces and nephews. It was so great to celebrate all in one place. We made homemade Costa Vida food (salads, tacos, quesadillas) with lots of mini desserts. We even saddled up our horse so I could take all of the kids for a horse ride.

I love my nieces and nephews to death! Look how cute they are. They were so excited to be riding a 'big horse'.

We had such a fun day and even ended the weekend in Scottsdale to have “second honeymoon”. This whole weekend was perfect. We are so blessed to have The Church, our families and friends, and of course, each other.

VDay weekend in So Cal

2011-02-16T21:29:00.001-08:00

This last weekend was amazing. It involved sunny Southern Cali, seeing our Arizona family/friends, AND being at the happiest place on earth. It all came about when some of Owen's sisters, their kids and his mom were headed over to Disneyland for the weekend. Luckily, we found out Owen was working about 30 min. away from Disneyland that week. So last minute, I convinced him to let me drive down on Thursday to meet up with him and everyone else. It was perfect timing!

So I set up arrangements with a pet sitter. (Pet sitter = someone who comes in to check in on the dogs/walk them/feed & water them). Totally worth the $20 a day to make sure the dogs weren't going crazy while we were gone.

After an only 4 1/2 hour drive, I was in San Bernadino with my love. The next day, Owen had to finish up with work, so I headed over to Disneyland to meet up with his family. I was soo happy to see a familiar faces! I've missed our families so much since we moved out here.

We started off over at California Adventures (I had never been before). The first ride I went on was Tower of Terror. Bad idea for me. I honestly hate rides that just drop. You can tell from the picture below I was scared.to.death. I have no idea how people can smile through this like it's fun or something.

I love Irelyn! I was so glad she was happy to see me too. We killed it on the Toy Story ride.

The whole group: Me, Irelyn, Dawn, Brae, Loch, Linda, Steph, Nate

More California Adventures...

Finally, Owen finished with work and met up with us for the rest of the day.

Take 2 : Tower of Terror Can you belive Owen convinced me to go on this again? Still not fun...

We finished up the night at Disneyland with Emily and Levi!

Love Disneyland Fireworks

<3

We spent the rest of the weekend staying in Hunington Beach. We met up with Emily and Levi to play on the beach, shop and eat lots of yummy food. We fell in love with this beach and can't wait to go back.

Oh and Owen finally found a surf board and wet suit he liked. Hot right? Poor kid is not a big fan of a wet suit...I guess that's what happens when you're used to surfing in Hawaii.

Thank you Southern Cali. for an amazing trip.

AND HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

Home Alone Adventures

2011-02-03T19:54:00.001-08:00

**Written 1/27/11**

Owen has been gone for 3 whole days now...sighhh. I knew this week was coming up, I just tried to not think about it too much since it is quite depressing. This is the first week Owen has left to travel for work while I'm home alone in California. I.HATE. Weeks like these are going to the worst part of living in this lovely place. First, I hate being home along since I'm afraid of um...everything! I may or may not have to sleep with the closet light on when he's gone. Second, I don't know a single person out here (besides our ward fam...but we're so new they don't really count yet). But no family, no amigos: no one! And it doesn't help that this week he's in Utah for work staying with his sister and seeing the kidos. I'm super jealous. But today is Thursday and I finally decided to venture out by myself. I headed over to the local mall to window shop. It was nice to get out of the apartment and away from work to just be around people. The best part though? This yummy treat:

CPK's Pesto Chicken Pizza and a Dr. Pepper. Delish. Every since we moved here I have cut my food spending habit. Meaning we never go out to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner (date nights being an exception). And I actually budget myself when I grocery shop. Hallelujah! I finally figured out where a ton of our money was going: food. The savings are already adding up. I. LOVE.
But today I splurged and got the mini-pizza for $9.30. It was definitly worth it because it temporarily cured my hubby-missing blues.

Date Night

2011-01-30T10:50:00.000-08:00

Last night for our date night we did something we've never ever done before. We headed over to the local Barnes & Noble for some book browsing. We picked out a few that looked interesting and sat at a table sipping our Carmel Apple Cider and Vanilla Frappuccino. I loved this! I never realized how awesome Barnes & Noble is. We could have stayed for hours just browsing and chatting and laughing. We decided this was a fun, cheap date to throw in there with the usual dinner and movie date nights.

While we were there I found The 5 Love Languages book. Have you read this? It's awesome. I've read it before and thought I knew exactly what love language Owen was (I thought for sure we had the same top 2). We skimmed to the end to take the quiz. After taking the lovely little quiz in the back I found out I was wrong! After almost 3 years together I was wrong...I couldn't believe it. I felt like a bad wife.

Alyssa's Top 2: Quality Time & Physcial Touch
Owen's Top 2: Physical Touch & Words of Affirmation

I've always been an 'Actions speak louder than words' kind of person. Owen is an 'Actions don’t always speak louder than words' kind of person. And it took that little quiz for me to really realize this. It makes perfect sense though. I love my hubby and I love learning new things about him and us everyday.

Rodeo Beach

2011-01-23T17:59:00.000-08:00

Saturday afternoon our lil' family decided to explore our new home so we headed out to the beach. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and found ourselves at Rodeo Beach.

It was SO pretty, full of people, cold and had huge waves. What a fun little beach.

The dogs loved running around in the sand with all the other pups.

And we even went on a little hike.

What a pretty place we live in. We can't wait for more Saturday beach days to come.

Officially Californians

2011-01-18T19:33:00.001-08:00

This post is for the family and friends who wanted to see our new home in California. So WARNING: Lots of pictures.

The night before we left AZ we took a farewell grandpuppy picture. Since my parents don't have any grandkids yet, this picture will have to do.
Jessica with Izzy and Lily. Me with Jade and Jax. Dustin with Squirttle

We headed out bright and early Friday morning. We drove a Uhaul and towed our car on the back. My little bro. Sterling came with us to help with the move. Thanks Ster!!

The drive went really smooth with no problems at all. It took us 15 hours to get there, not to bad since our max speed limit was 70.

Hehe. This how we brought our dogs: Stuck them in the backseat of our car (that was being towed) and loaded them up with rawhides to chew on. I think they were a bit confused about there whereabouts most of the time.

Pulling into our apartment complex early Saturday morning. Finally we made it!

Ours is the one on the top floor. Poor boys had to carry our heavy stuff up 3 flights of stairs. I felt really bad for them.

The dog house/bed. This is where the dogs hang out most of the time. I know the camo house is hideous but they love it oh so much. So it's worth having the ugly thing in our home.

Where I spend most of my days...the office area (aka the corner of the living room). I am doing insurance account managing for my uncle and dad long distance now. And I have LOVED working from home. I'm pretty productive while working in my PJ's all day.

The other side of the living room and our amazing and super comfy couch. Also my view from my desk which is another perk of working from home. And yes I was watching Dog the Bounty Hunter. Don't judge.

**Everything is super plain and unorganized still. I haven't put up any of our pictures or decorations yet. I promise it will be homey and adorable some time soon**

Our kitchen. Hmmm. I love having my own kitchen space again. I've missed my tupperware and cooking utensils.

The only utility closet in the condo. Ugh! I have to cram everything in this tiny closet (besides our walk in bedroom closet that is equally stuffed). We do have our garage below us to store stuff, but it is lacking inside storage space.

Bathroom

Bedroom

Other side of Bedroom

View from our balcony. We love our view! We definitly got the best one in the complex.

So the next few pictures is what I spend the 2nd most amount of time doing during the day: Dog walks. I feel bad for them since they are crammed up inside all day, so we go on quite a few. I really don't mind though because the area we live in is so nice and has great places to walk around.

Hanging out at the grass park across the street from our apartment

The other side of the grass park...this gorgeous view! The golf course is right below, but the dogs like exploring on the hill side.

Walking down the many paths

Trip to the Dog Park. It's only a few miles down the road. It's been nice to take the dogs there to get some energy out of their system.

We have really enjoyed our first couple of days here in San Ramon. We are so happy we chose this beautiful area to live in and feel lucky to have the home we live in as well. We are excited to start a whole new chapter in our lives being on our own in California. We've visited our ward on Sunday and I love how we can move to an entire new region, but still feel the warmth and comfort of the church and it's members. We will miss our family and friends so please.....

COME VISIT US SOON!

We promise to take you to this fun place:
(Pier 39 in San Fran, with Alcatraz in the back)

Merry 2011

2011-01-04T21:14:00.001-08:00

This post is long over due since Christmas/New Years was like forever ago. But like always, I'm trying to document our lovely lives.

So Christmas 2010 was spent with both the Allens and Masseys. We spent early Christmas morning over at the Howey's to watch the kidos open presents. Love it! It makes Christmas morning so much more enjoyable. We had a great breakfast with the Allen family.

We then headed over to my parent's house to open our presents but most importantly, talk to the twins (who are on their mish).

Christmas Morning

Talking to Preston (Argentina) while sitting around the Christmas candy table

SKYPING with Taylor (Paraguay). It was A.W.E.S.O.M.E. He loved that we could take the computer and show him our Christmas around the house.

The remainder of 2010 was a cold one. See below. That's right...it was snowing in Mesa (even though it didn't stick to the ground at all).

For New Years Weekend my parents rented a condo up in Pinetop to hang out and go snowboarding. I love mini-vacays!

Driving in the blizzard up to Pinetop. The usual 3 hour drive took us 7...Blah!

Part of the reason the drive took so long...we had to figure out how to put chains on our cars. Us Arizona peeps aren't used to this kind of stuff.

Finally made it to the condo and the hot tub. Hmmm.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! This is how we rang in the new year...playing settlers...

...and guzzling Sparkling Cider

We woke up bright and early to go snowboarding at Sunrise on New Years Day

It was -9 degrees...Oh.My.Burrrr.

Dad and Mom

Jake and Jessica

Sterling

So after a great day of Snowboarding (with no falls for me...yesss), we came home to our condo. We opened the door and water came POURing out of the front door. We walked in to 6 inches of water on the entire bottom floor. Flooded. I guess that's what happens when it's ridiculously cold outside and the pipes freeze then burst. So we spent 2 hours sweeping water out (barefoot I might add) and trying to get everything off the ground and packed into our cars.

We ended up staying at a lovely Motel 8 that night. Overall it had potential to be an awesome New Years Weekend with the family in the mountains. It was still a fun and memorable one though.

My lack of posting has been due to a BUSY December/January. We are officially moved in to our new apartment here in Northern Cali. Post and pictures of the move coming soon!

cHrIsTmAs time is near

2010-12-20T21:53:00.000-08:00

MERRY almost CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Can you believe it's Christmas in 5 days? December has been flying by and we are ready to celebrate. Owen will finally be home for the rest of the week so we can relax and enjoy the holiday season with friends and family.

I've spent the last week shopping, baking, celebrating, wrapping, working, and decorating. It's been Christmas craziness in my house. So behold...some of the craziness:

Christmas Cookie baking

Thanks to my mom for getting all of the baking supplies

8 hours and 300 sugar cookies later...

Owen's parents are in town for Christmas and we kicked off the week by visiting the AZ Temple lights. We are blessed to have so many family and friends to celebrate the Christmas season with!

Holidays and House Hunting

2010-12-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving 2010 was a great one for us. My family always hosts Thanksgiving Dinner for the Massey family. This year we had 54 people over for a Thanksgiving Feast. All morning (week) was spent preparing for the big day. I love the small traditions Thanksgiving brings: waking up Thanksgiving morning to the smell of the Turkey cooking in the oven, turning on to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade all morning, making last minute food preparations, eating TONS of food then napping in the afternoon. It was a great Turkey day.

Owen was able to play in the annual Turkey Bowl with his friends

3 Turkeys, 30 lbs. of mashed potatoes, 10 pies and a dozen other dishes later...our Thanksgiving feast!

We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and seeing family and friends. We did, however, skip out on the Black Friday shopping. My someday we will experience this crazy day, but we enjoyed sleeping in together instead.

We found a tree at the tree lot and got it decorated for Christmas

We spent the cold Arizona nights being warmed by the fire

This last weekend Owen's company flew both of us to go house hunting (or apartment hunting in our case) in San Francisco. We are moving our little family there in January so we needed to find a place new place to call home. We arrived Friday morning and spent all day Friday and Saturday looking at apartments. Before we left, I made a long list of apartments I found on line to check out. Some of our musts: allows dogs, has washer/dryer, has enough storage space, doesn't cost a zillion dollars, close to a Target (ok...that was one of my musts) , central for Owen's work, and someplace safe looking. We drove all around the bay area looking at all kinds of places. Finally, we narrowed down our search to a city we liked and then an apartment complex. So our soon to be home will be in San Ramon, CA. The city is directly east of Oakland and San Fransisco. 25 minutes to Oakland. 35 minutes to San Fran. I was suprisingly pleased with our findings. The location, apartment quality and price was exactly what we were looking for (even though rent will be twice as much as Arizona...grrr). I have honestly been really nervous about moving to a place where I know nothing about. But now that I know the city and place we will be living in, I feel a lot better. I am actually really excited for the big move. I can't wait to be in our own place again and have Owen home more often. Below are pictures of the condos we will be living at:

I loved the pretty trees in the area.

Since we found an apartment to live in, we spent Sunday playing tourists. We stopped by the Oakland Temple. OH MY BEAUTIFUL! The temple sits on a hill so you can see it from across the bay. It looks like a princess castle and I loved it.

The view from the temple grounds. Oakland is below, then San Fran in the distance across the bay

We headed down to The Wharf in San Francisco and visted the Piers. Even though it was pouring rain the whole time, we managed to see a lot fun things. I forgot how awesome it is at The Wharfs. It is a beautiful place with a lot of fun things to do. I'm excited to visit it more often when we move there. A perfect place to take our future visitors :)

Once Upon a Time...

2010-11-17T19:47:00.001-08:00

Once Upon a Time we took some family pictures at The Orange Patch in Mesa... ...and brought along our pups for a few (since they are apart of our lil' fam of course)

Now I just need to pick some for 1. Christmas Cards and 2. A blown-up family pic for our soon-to-be California home

P.S. I LOVED how our pictures turned out...thank you Alissa! Check out alissamelodyphotography.com

SpookyWeekend.:.Halloween2010

2010-11-01T21:31:00.001-07:00

Have I mentioned how much I love this time of year? The smells, the weather, the fall decor: everything! October came and went so fast...but an eventful one it was. We spent our last weekend in October with some fun Halloween activities:

We went to the AZ Scream Park with Em & Levi.:.Very entertaining and sometimes spooky

Me and my bestie

The next night we went to Jimmy Eat World's HALLOWEEN SHOW

Everything about it was amazing and we loved being front and almost-center

We celebrated Halloween at home.:.We made an entire day of it.:.the perfect Halloween!

We decorated Halloween sugar cookies

We had yummy Taco Soup

We carved more pumpkins

Owen's Skeleton.:.Alyssa's Spider

The Trick-Or-Treaters Welcoming Committee
Lily the Pirate.:.Jade the Witch.:.Jax the Bat

Yummy Candy

I loved doing ALL of the fun Halloween traditions with Owen this year

In other non-Halloween news...we FINALLY found out from Owen's work where we will be relocated too.....

......

SAN FRANCISCO HERE WE COME!

(not until after the holidays though)

October Fun

2010-10-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

This past week was a busy one for us (or me...since Owen was gone for work during a lot of it). Owen's parents were in town for a whole week so had fun activities planned for almost every night.

It all started with Owen's Great-Grandma Watkins' 100th Birthday Party! Can you believe she is 100!? She looked great and we had fun seeing all sorts of family at the party.

This is when Owen disappears from pictures since he is out of town.:sad:.

There were a few birthdays to celebrate this week. This is Kennedy's 1st Birthday Party that Nate and Steph had. LOVED the giant cupcake...so cute!

Ashley and Zach get married next month so she had bridal shower #1

Ashlyn turned 8 and got baptized! I haven't been to a baptism in forever so it was nice to go to one again. Ashlyn was beautiful...and so was the program.

Owen's BFF, Rob Wick, and Courtney got married on Friday. Owen was able to fly in and make it to the end of the reception. We are happy to have more married friends to add to the group!

Owen and I went to Hillary and Courtney's FAB Halloween Party. They had the cutest decorations and festive games. Could you expect anything less from them? I love Halloween time!
Can you tell what our costumes are?
Hint: Toystory

The Party Hostess'

Ashley Wick's Bridal Shower #2/Bachelorette Party

We ended the weekend with some more Halloween Fun. We had some friends over for a fire, treats and pumpkin carving.

The boys playing Smash Bros

Some of the girls

Our finished pumpkins!

Next up for this weekend: Haunted House, Jimmy Eat World concert, Trunk-Or-Treat and HALLOWEEN!! I can't wait for the hubby to get back on Friday to start another busy weekend. I love this time of the year!

Weekend in the Woods

2010-10-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we headed up to the mountains for a quick camping trip with some friends. I LOVE camping and it was our first camping trip ever together so it was an exciting mini-trip. We even brought our dogs along for the adventure.

My mountain man

The puppies enjoying our camping adventure. They did pretty good at staying near our campground...only disappearing for a long time once. Poor Owen was worried sick that they were gone forever.

Making our mini cooking fire

Nothing is better than a BIG, warm campfire

Eating our dinner (tin foil dinners)

Puppies staying warm around the fire

The stars are amazing in the woods!

Some of the group the next morning:

We will have to continue our camping adventures next summer since fall/winter is here and it's a bit cold to camp. We were glad to at least fit in one quick trip.

Healthy Time

2010-09-28T16:33:00.000-07:00

BOO to having a hyper-thyroid. I've recently come to the conclusion that I must cut the following out of my life:

SAD DAY!! First of all, I love salt. I crave it all day long. Sometimes I eat chips and salsa just to pour salt all over one little chip and eat it, then repeat. And I also love Dr. Pepper. Always have, always will, NUFF SAID. No wonder I have an over-active thyroid...salt and caffeine are the WORST for people with hyper-thyroidism. It makes my metabolism go cRaZy. Like way too crazy. Luckily, in a few weeks I get to take a lovely little iodine pill that gets rid of my over active thyroid for good. But still...I need to cut a few things out of my diet to get all healthy. Or as the hubs says: "get my body ready for baby making". Um scary?

Vegas Bound

2010-09-24T10:25:00.001-07:00

+

+

a FAB weekend.

Goodbye Mesa. Helloooo Vegas.

J.E.W.

2010-09-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

J.E.W. (aka Jimmy Eat World). These guys have been playing on my ipod NON-stop. At home, in the car, at work and even in the shower. My re-found obession for them started when I purchased tickets for their show here at the Marquee Theater next month. I cannot explain how EXCITED I am for this show. I am literally counting down until Oct. 30th. I have been going to their shows since 8th grade and have not missed one since. The last one at Marquee (11th grade) was epic. If you were to ask who my favorite band is, it's them. LOVE them. Not so much their new stuff...but their old music, especially Clarity...epic. I hear their music and so many GREAT memories come back to me.

I am even more excited because I finally get to go to one of their concerts with my LOVE (aka my concert buddy aka Owen). We have always talked about going to a J.E.W. concert together and how fun it would be. We went to one in Utah before we were even together and it was pretty lame...so it does not count. I love how Owen loves them as much as I do. I love that we finally get to go together. SO if you love them too, COME! We have already recruited a nice size group to go, so the more the better.