Montana Wedding

Last weekend, Jeff ventured to the far off land of Billings, Montana for his friend Brad's wedding.  Brad was Jeff's last mission companion and then they lived together at BYU until they both left for dental school. Jeff flew into Billings, where the temple is and then everyone drove back to the bride's home 2 hours away after the ceremony. (Sounds similar to our wedding!) However, they got to have their reception in her family's huge barn!  The boys' boutonnieres were made of daisies and real fishing lures (since Brad loves to fish).   Jeff had a great time out in the middle of nowhere with some of his closest friends. Here are the pictures he took:

The Pink Temple

We are so blessed to live in an area with so many temples near by {4 within 1.5 hours}! Since we moved here, I have wanted to go to all of the temples that are close.  However, until last weekend we had only been to the Redlands one that is 15 minutes from our house.  We had a free Saturday and decided to combine our beloved beach day with a temple day too! We decided to go to the Newport temple since we like to go to Newport/Huntington beach anyway.  This is a very unique temple because it is PINK! {History Lesson: The members of the area asked and funded the temple by themselves, unlike any other temple}.  It was so gorgeous inside!! I encourage everyone to see it at some point in their lives.

In pictures, you can only barely see a pink hue. Still very pretty.

So after the temple, we headed to the nearby beach.  Unfortunately it was crazy packed and we drove around for an hour looking for parking.  We decided to head down the coast a bit to Huntington and alas, we found parking! It was a beautiful day with some great waves.  We even got to see the beginning of a white trash chick fight. hah.

Soaking in the rays.

We both had sun screen on and weren't out super long, but apparently sun screen only helps where you put it:

You can't tell very well in this picture, but apparently I striped Jeff's back... ooops.

I guess rubbing the spray sun screen around after you spray it, doesn't cut it!

Fashion statement?

1,000 Steps Beach

Saturday we finally ventured to the beach! We decided on Laguna since we had never been there before and heard good things.  We ended up going to 1,000 Steps Beach (although it is only technically 218 very steep steps... I counted).  Because of the steps, it is way less crowded than other beaches and it has decent waves.  The weather was hazy but warm, so it felt great to be in 70 degree weather instead of 98 degrees with no air conditioning.  It was fun to play in the waves and we got to play some bocci ball with our friends the Swindles!  Successful trip to the beach.  

Everyone thinks we are twins. Yes? No?

Champion.

This picture cracks me up. The boys trying to decide who's ball wins.

I was obsessed with all the dolfins swimming so close!

Right by the shore!

Poor Jeff had to carry the heavy bocci set up the "1,000 steps".

Jeff now vows to go to the beach any weekend that we don't have plans.  I concur.

Brooke's Wedding

I was lucky to get to go to my friend Brooke's wedding this weekend up in Oakland.  Brooke was my first friend at BYU and we have stayed pretty close since then!  Randomly, we figured out that her aunt is in my ward, and it worked out that we could drive up together.  During the weekend, I got to see inside the beautiful Oakland temple and meet some amazing people from both her and Hunter's family.  It was a beautiful ceremony and I feel very lucky to have been there.  

Oakland Temple :)

I even got to see a bunch of other friends from BYU!

4th of July

We celebrated a low-key 4th of July this year.  Mainly because we were still exhausted from our trip {pictures to come}.  We both woke up around 2am on the 4th due to jet lag... Needless to say, we both took a nap.  Later, we went to a fun BBQ with some of our church friends and then watched the big firework show put on by the University of Redlands.  I think it was the best finale I have ever seen!!

I only got a picture of us laying down watching the fireworks... Until next year!

Training Complete

As of June 2nd, my running training is over! Wahoo. My body must have aged a lot since I was 20 because it was so much harder to train this time around!  I have a lot of excuses as to why this race was not ideal, but mostly I didn't train enough.  I now realize it is so much harder to find time to run when you have 2 jobs, a Young Women's calling, and a husband.  But such is life and now the race is over!  I think it may take me a few years to forget this half marathon experience, but here are some pictures that my sweet husband took for me.

Happy before the race began.

Getting on the bus so they could drive us 13 miles up the road, only to have us ran back to where we started.

Still smiling at about the 6 or 7 mile mark.

Uncle Doug (and Clark) ran the race too!

Look at that hustle at the end.

Finally done!

So in my defense, I was sick the week leading up to the race, so I didn't run for over a week before and my body was tired.  And, it was a straight line for the last 7 miles with only dirt on both sides of the road and the sun in my eyes.  I told you I was full of excuses, and that is only a few :-p

May?

Where did May go? I can't believe a whole month passed so quickly. Here are some of the things that kept us busy: I got to go horseback riding for the first time in a very long time! A friend from work has a horse and offered to reteach me how to ride. Apparently I am a natural, because I learned how to trot and cantor pretty fast. It was a blast, but I definitely had some bruised knees from holding on. I even got to wear spurs!

I went to Las Vegas for a dental training for work. We were there for 3 full days of jam packed learning. It was Michelle's birthday while we were there so we surprised her with balloons and a dinner at Roy's. Nicholas Cage was sitting in the booth next to us (see picture below with the blurry man with glasses in the background). He totally caught on to us taking his picture.

Jeff got to be a handyman! A previous dental student owns a house near us and rents it out, so occasionally he calls Jeff to do some maintenance. This was a longer job than normal. He got to unclog a very nasty, hair filled sink, put some closet doors back on track, and give the flower bush a "buzz". It has been a great learning experience for him and I am exciting he is learning how to do all these things on someone else's house before he does it to our future home :-p

 

 We also got to visit Missouri over Memorial Day weekend. It was a very quick trip, but so great because it was the first time all of my siblings and our families were together. We initially decided to go because my sister's family would be visiting at the same time and we rarely get to see them. I was kind of mad at my brother for not wanting to come, but he ended up driving all night from Utah to surprise us. We got to go to the new Kansas City, MO Temple with my sister and Rad. It was so beautiful! We had a little birthday party for Jack and went down to Branson to break up my sister's drive back to Mississippi. My friend Rachael also came back from Nebraska to visit! So many fun things in such a short amount of time.
 

In between all of the fun things, I did a lot of running and Jeff did a lot of studying!
 

Bring on June!!