California Trip Shutterfly Book

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Update!

So much has been going on lately - it seems like summer is just flying by. Too fast. Much too fast. Good thing I'm going to have a summer that never ends as soon as we move to Arizona I guess :).

I don't think I ever even "announced" on here that we are officially going to Arizona for dental school. Brian will be attending Midwestern Dental School, Glendale and we are thrilled! We are also on the "alternate" list for the Navy HSPS scholarship. To make a complicated explanation short, that means that he will either A) receive a full 4 year scholarship starting in October (we would get back-paid for tuition) B) Receive a 3.5 year scholarship starting in January or C) receive a 3 year scholarship and we would be responsible for paying the first year's tuition.

Obviously we are hoping for alternative A! We are trying to get out of this dental school party with zero debt. I believe they will let us know next month which one we are getting. Cross your fingers (and toes) for us!

Many people ask me what I am going to be doing in Arizona while Brian learns how to inflict pain on people's mouths (kidding, kidding...). Well, with the Navy scholarship comes a lovely monthly living stipend that should be enough to cover our needs. Consequently, this momma isn't going to have to work for the first little while! I am relieved and grateful that I won't have to put our newborn baby girl in daycare. I do plan on going back to work in Arizona, but just not right away. So, I will get to stay home and kiss her chubby little cheeks all day long! I am worried about cabin fever, but more about that some other time.

My last day at the NICU is going to be July 16th. While the prospect of sleeping in past 5 makes me very happy, I am seriously sad about leaving my job. It is such a great job! I love who I work with, the patients I care for, feeling like I'm making a difference, and bringing home the bacon! I don't think I'll ever find a unit quite like the NICU where I work and I'll really miss the friends I've made :/. Luckily there are several NICUs in the Phoenix area, so I should be able to find a job out there with babies. Sorry, adults, but babies are where it's at!

We've had a few adventures this summer already with the latest one being a trip out east to visit Dan & Laura and go to Dan's graduation! We stayed in Princeton, NJ during the graduation shenanigans and then traveled up the coast through New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and into Massachusetts where we stayed for a few days in Cape Cod. We felt very spoiled. Brian, Dan, and I hit up New York City on the way back to Princeton - My first time in a big city like that. Definitely an experience worth having.

Pregnancy is still going great! Brian felt her move for the first time last night and I was glad to finally be able to share that with him - it's my favorite part! I imagine it will be less favorite once she gets bigger and starts kicking my ribs... but for now it's just so cute! She's around 11 inches long nowadays and growing like crazy! I must say, it is a little strange taking care of babies at work who are just a tiny bit bigger than her. We have our fair share of 24 weekers in there. Yikes!

Anyway, this is getting long and I'm going swimming - hopefully I can update more soon!

I love them!

the graduate!! so proud!

Bear Lake Adventure

Life has been a lot of fun the last few months :)

A while ago, during Nurses' Week, I was oh-so-lucky to win a prize! At work, we are encouraged to donate a themed "basket" of some sort to be put in a raffle for someone to win during Nurses' Week. There were all kinds of baskets ranging from spa days to gardening kits to movie nights, etc etc. I think we each got 4 raffle tickets (or more if you donated a basket) and we got to choose which baskets we put them in. I was real excited when I saw one for a Bear Lake vacation. Brian and I had spent part of our honeymoon there and went back for our 1 year anniversary to get their famous raspberry shakes! 

We really do love it there.

We hadn't ever been there in the winter, however, and I was THRILLED when I won the basket! It included some ski/snowboarding passes, pancake mix and delicious syrup, a spatula (which we actually really needed), a gift card for a restaurant there, and a 2 night stay in a cute little condo! It was donated by the sweetest girl at work - thanks again, Erin!!

So, that was back in the spring and we'd been looking forward to going ever since. So, once Brian got done with classes and finals, we were off!

And let me tell you, it was no picnic getting there. I was afraid for my life. The roads were terrible. Every other small car we saw turned back or were slid off the road because they couldn't make it up the mountain. We also didn't make it up one of the mountains the first 2 times we tried. But, we were determined to go on our vacation and went really fast in order to get up the mountain. To say I was terrified would be an understatement. Brian was driving or we would have never made it. Want to see what the roads looked like? Check it out:

I was terrified

Anyway, we were SO grateful to make it there and settled right into our cozy condo :)

Isn't it cute?! For dinner we decided that we'd grill some hot dogs on the grill outside (the blizzard only made that more adventurous and fun). We wrapped them in bacon and they were pretty good despite the burned hotdogs. Sorry, hun.

For the next few days we got to relax, play in the snow, rediscover the town in the wintertime, go sledding and snowboarding, and eat delicious food! We felt very spoiled. It was a much appreciated vacation after Brian's super difficult semester!

The perfect little winter town - looks like it came right out of a Christmas card.

We were the only ones in the whole restaurant! Aaaand... the raspberry shakes were as good as ever!

All the boats beached for the winter...

We saw some real live moose! We were just out driving around looking around town when we saw an emergency vehicle go zooming past and up to this huge cabin. Using the zoom lens on the camera, we were able to see that there were moose in the cabin's yard! They came running down the hill right towards us and we were able to get a few good pictures. They were really quite cute... though I've heard they are super not the cuddly type. More like the attack you type. Especially because it was a momma and her baby! My first moose siting!

We can't wait to go back!

C.A.L.I.F.O.R.N.I.A

Oh how I miss California.

Luckily, Brian and I got to go and visit! I scheduled myself at work in a way that allowed me about 8 days off in a row and we took off for an adventure! I love California, I love adventures and I love Brian - so it was a sure recipe for success.

We drove out to Yorba Linda for the first night and stayed with my awesome aunt, uncle and cousin (thanks again for letting us visit!!). They fed us the best dinner I've had in a long time and we really enjoyed catching up, hanging out with their dog (who snuck into my room that night and slept next to me), and getting thoroughly destroyed in ping-pong by Matt. Watch out Forrest Gump.

This is what I found when I looked over the side of my bed in the morning :)

Knotts Berry Farm the next day was just as fun as I remembered it. Even though we were there during the hottest week of the year (I know, poor planning), we were able to keep cool by repeatedly going on the water rides - we were soaked!

Next stop: Oceanside! We couldn't get enough of the beach, boogie boarding, playing in the sand, watching the surfers, looking for shells, and eating Starbursts (a great way to get the disgusting ocean taste out of your mouth btw). Ruby's, a restaurant out on the pier, was super delicious. If you're ever in Oceanside, I'd definitely recommend it!

mermaid!

We stopped by Balboa Park and Old Town on our way down to El Cajon. Old Town was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We bought some homemade flavored tortillas (strawberry, chocolate, and cinnamon) and then left for our (gross) hotel. Luckily, we spent little time at the hotel because we had a packed schedule! We went to the temple and did sealings, ate at the best pizza place in the world (BJ's), visited some places from my mission, and ended the day in La Jolla Cove. We hadn't planned out where we were staying that night very well... So we ended up camping in a trailer park! Hahaha. Good times. Minus the fact that we were too lazy to put up a tent and we woke up soaking wet. At least there were hot showers available!

Next day we went to Sea World! I'd never been before and it was super fun. Oh how I love polar bears and penguins :). And sharks!

Hey mom! This is what a beluga whale looks like :)

Then we were off to Pacific Beach where the waves were ferocious (at least to me). I may or may not have lost my swimming suit in one of the wave attacks. We showered off at the showers there and got ready in the car to go visit a family from my mission. We accidentally locked the keys in the trunk when were stopped on the side of the road trying to change our clothes and had to drop down the back seat unpack the suitcases until we found them. Good times.

At the Mormon Battalion in Old Town

It was so great to see the Tacon family! We visited and went out for some delicious Chinese food, went to church the next day after a scrumptious breakfast, and visited for a while afterwards. It was sad to leave again! But, we drove out to St. George and stayed with Brian's aunt and uncle's house for the night and then took off for Provo the next morning. It was quite the trip!

Haha.

It was so nice to be able to be distracted from all the stress and worry of the last few weeks. Don't know what I'm talking about? Click here.

So we're back in Utah and Brian is getting reved up for school! He started Monday and I am a little really really sad about that. Where did the summer go?

our first anniversary :)

Brian and I had a very eventful weekend! 

We had thrown around a couple of ideas as to what we wanted to do for the big one year, but still hadn't decided on anything as of Saturday. Friday night we went on a campout with our ward and that was lots of fun... but then... I got food poisoning.

Ew.

So, I spent Saturday morning ralphing and Brian went and took a practice DAT exam (which he did well on, by the way :)). By Saturday night I was feeling better (and significantly more thin - the only benefit of food poisoning) and we decided it was time we made some plans! So, we looked into a few options and decided that we just wanted to get out of Provo at all costs!

We ended up going to Logan to the Anniversary Inn (yes, you may roll your eyes and gag at this point because of the unoriginality of this idea)... and let me tell ya, it was awesome! Maybe it's because Brian and I are such kids at heart, but we thought the themed room was so much fun! We stopped by Brian's uncle's house (Martin) on the way and picked up the amazing wedding video he made for us last year. We had actually never seen it because our copy never made it from the reception, and it was neat to watch it! I may or may not have gotten a little teary-eyed. He did such a wonderful job - THANKS MARTIN! I tried to figure out a way to post it on the blog, but no luck so far.

Monday we hung around Logan for a while and then headed up to Bear Lake where we had spent the majority of our honeymoon. We took some cheesy pictures: 

I got the idea off of Pinterest (where else?) to take a photo on every anniversary and then it will be really neat to look back and see how we've changed as the years go by. I'm sure we could do that with normal pictures too, but I think it will be really fun to do it on our anniversaries. So, we took a few and we'll decide which one is our favorite later. Probably not the kissing ones, but because this is a blog post about romanticy things, I just couldn't leave them out, right?

We, of course, went and got the famous raspberry shakes that Bear Lake had to offer. We got our two favorites from last time and man alive, they were tasty. I could've probably eaten 10. The first picture is of Brian eating the deliciousness last year and the rest are of this year. Still delicious.

I simply had to pose with the same ferocious bear too... again, last year on top, this year on the bottom.

After hanging around Bear Lake for a while and reminiscing, we headed back to Logan where we ate at the oh-so-delicious El Sol (not to rub it in your face, mom), and then went to my grandma's for a visit and to stay the night. I worked Tuesday so we got up a the crack of dawn and headed to Salt Lake where I put in a full day of work and Brian put in a full day of studying! It was a very eventful day at work, but I'll save that story for another day :).

I really can't believe that it's been a year since we got married. It has been such a great year and I am so grateful that Brian asked me to be his wifey. We have learned a whole lot this last year and I love him more than ever before. Here's to many more years to come! I blogged about our wedding and honeymoon here, here, here, and here

And some wedding pictures for good measure :)