Toddlers to Temples

This weekend was so exciting because I got to see one of my oldest friends get married! And even better, Emily tied the knot to one of Jeff's mission companions! {Small Mormon world} We drove through rain, sleet, and snow to get to Arizona, but it was so worth it! It was so nice to get away and visit with friends.  We stayed at Jeff's friends Hunter & Lacy's house.  Hunter is in dental school there, so it was fun to see them talk about everything dentistry. Anyway, Congrats Emily & Kenny!

Friends since we were babes!

I can't wait til they move to Arizona so we can have some weekend getaways!

Yummy cake!

Snow in Cali! This is like 10 minutes from our house...

Jeff swears his eyes are open. Poor guy was running on 3 hours of sleep.

{No pictures from staying with Hunter & Lacy, but they were such great hosts! Hope to see them again soon!}

And there went January...

I’m not exactly sure what has kept us so busy this month, but I feel like we have something every single night.  Between Jeff’s 4 basketball and 1 soccer intramural teams, youth group, school, and work, we have still managed some excitement.  A few highlights: Jeff reclaimed his championship title in the Stake 3 on 3 basketball tournament! For all the juicy details about the take down, check out Erika's Blog.

Shirts and blue ribbons for Jeff, Nate, & Drew!

 We had the annual Youth Retreat for the teenagers in our ward, but this year was even better because Jeff got to come since he is in Young Mens! Quite a different experience than last year. This year it snowed on us and was freezing, where last year we had really warm weather.  It was wonderful and the kids had a blast.  

Sunrise! Look at the ice on the tree!

Jeff was really in to ping pong. He was the champion.

Our awesome banner for this year's theme of "Stand Ye In Holy Places"

 We also got to attend the wedding of our friend Belkis.  Jeff baptized her on his mission and we were lucky enough to get to go to her sealing in Newport Beach!  We love her family and had so much fun talking and dancing with them at the reception.

Newport Beach Temple

Belkis & Alex!

Last, my friend Elisabeth from MO came and stayed with us for a few day while she scoped out the area.  We will be lucky to have her and her husband so close in the near future! 

We came out in matching blue pants one morning... No worries, I changed.

Here’s to February!

December Review

Wow, I have been horrible at keeping up with this during the holidays.  December flew by! So here is what we were up to:

We celebrated our 2^nd anniversary.  

 We took a quick trip to Las Vegas to visit some of the families Jeff taught on his mission.  We got to go to the beautiful temple and enjoy home-made tortillas!  Sadly, we had to get 2 new tires for Jeff’s car while there, but luckily they didn’t go flat while driving on them! 

Then we took a long Christmas vacation to both Missouri and Seattle.  I got to help with my friend Emily’s bridal shower, whose future husband was one of Jeff’s mission companions {small Mormon world}.  I visited with old friends and got to spend time with my family.  

Emily, Me, Elisabeth, Rachael

After Christmas, we headed to Seattle. Jeff wore this the whole plane ride:  

Keeping with the ugly sweater tradition.  Since the twins are on their mission and we were in Missouri for Christmas day, everyone had to mail them to their sweater recipient.  Thus, Jeff wearing his on the plane.  I'm not as fearless as Jeff, so I didn't wear mine on the plane, but this was it:

 While in Washington, we took a trip to central Washington to watch Trevor play in a basketball tournament.

So pretty on the drive there!

Trevor's cheering section! 

Jeff, Trevor, and Bry

  

It snowed while we were there!! :)

We spent New Year’s Eve as a family seeing "Parental Guidance", eating, and playing Scene It. We all wore New Year's hats to eat.. and through the movie :-p

Happy New Year!

The next day we went to this cool restaurant called XXX. Sounds scandalous, but it was totally retro and delicious! 

Then, I had to go back to work, but Jeff got to stay a few more days to play.  And then our Christmas vacation was over. Bummer.

Utah Thanksgiving

Since this was our first year not having an "official" plans for Thanksgiving, we decided to hit the road for our long weekend and head to Utah. We got to see my brother, Jeff's cousin Jamie and her beautiful new baby, Bishop Stokes (our bishop from when we were dating), the Wilson clan, and our long lost friends The Swindles! Such a fun, low-key weekend. The Wilsons' were so nice and let us and my brother tag along for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. We got to play lots of Ticket To Ride, see the lights at Temple Square, and take a beautiful hike overlooking Salt Lake with the Swindles.  We decided to head home Saturday night, instead of Sunday, because of the horrible Vegas traffic back to Cali. Luckily, we got to spend the night with the Suazo's (family Jeff baptized on his mission) and catch up with them since we hadn't seen them since we were engaged! It was so nice to have a great Thanksgiving even though we weren't around official "family."

Davey

Baby Mahki. 

Bishop Stokes

Cute little name tags for Thanksgiving. 

Jeff and Andrew loving the gelato.

Temple Square lights.

Don't mind the sweat...During our cold morning run.

Pretty leaves on our hike.

"The Living Room"

Miss these guys!

 Thank you to everyone who make our Thanksgiving so wonderful!

Mud Factor

We finally got to do a mud run together a few weekends back! We had lots of fun, and of course got muddy! Only minor scrapes and bruises later...

Free beer after the run. Classy.

Clean

Girlz Gone Muddy (girls from the Drayson) and the VWs!

He didn't want to kiss me. Punk.

The only logical way to get clean after...A giant glass shower with strangers..

That hurt! Longest slip-n-slide I've ever been on!

Lots of hills and other obstacles!

Our finish photo. Love the VWs.

Joshua Tree

Joshua Trees for those of you who have never seen them (I was included until last weekend)

We went on our first camping trip together this past weekend.  Some of our friends are big campers and invited some of us less “campy” people to join.  We went to Joshua Tree which ended up only being a little over an hour away.  We don’t even own a tent, so luckily our friends had an extra. We got there Friday night and had s’mores and hung out by the bonfire.  Saturday we got up and went climbing in the park.  This was only my second time climbing real rocks and Jeff’s first time.  We had great weather and enjoyed just getting away.  You would not believe the beautiful stars we could actually see!

Our little tent!

S'mores

All cuddled up to stay warm.

Me and Rachel

Part of the group

The packed car with the VanWickle's and our stuff.