Exciting Times

Last Friday, April 24th, 2009, I graduated! I am officially a college graduate. I got to walk with my friend Carol which was way fun. There were a whole lot of people graduating in the Social Sciences though...it took forever for everyone to go! I got to shake an apostles hand which was so cool, especially since I took a Teachings of the living prophets class this last semester and got to learn all about their lives. It was D. Todd Christofferson. My family came down to watch me and afterwards we went out to eat. I love my family! They are so supportive and loving!

After eating Jared and I took off on our wonderful vacation! The first stop was St. George where his aunt and uncle let us crash at there house for the night and in the morning she made waffles with fresh strawberries and mangoes on top. YUM. It was so nice of them! Then the next day we drove to Vegas where we went to a chocolate factory which was actually quite lame... but they had a cool cactus garden there also which was fun to look at. Then we went and checked into our hotel and began our long trek down the strip. Now I don't know if you know how long the strip is, but it is very long. We stayed at the Sahara which is clear on one end by the Stratosphere and walked clear down to the MGM where we had tickets for a show at 7:00. It took us probably 3 hours of almost straight walking to get from one end to the other. By the time the show started we were so glad to be able to sit and relax in comfy chairs. We saw KA, which is a way cool show! The acrobatic stuff they do in it is AMAZING! They played loud drum noises and our baby would start to kick when the noise happened. Hopefully she wasn't too scared :) We were very happy that we went to the show. Afterwards we ate at the Planet HOllywood hotel and the food was very good.

The next day we drove to California and went to our cute little beach condo. It was about a five minute walk from the beach. We loved the laid back atmosphere of California. We both felt like we wanted to be healthier there for some reason :) Like wake up early, exercise and eat lots of produce. The lady who owned the condo was all about "being green". She gave even took out the garbage disposal because it's "not green". I don't know about not having a disposal...it is pretty handy. But good for her :) While we were in Cali we went to sea world which was pretty awesome. We saw Shamu's show twice. Whales are huge! We also got to go on the daily walk around the park with the flamingos. We also got to see and amazing dolphin show, and penguins!! They were so cute :) We enjoyed Sea world...we were sad though because that morning we went to Alberston's to specifically buy food for lunch so we didn't have to buy it in the park. When it was lunchtime we went out to our car all excited to eat our hoagie sandwiches...and we forgot the bread. It was pretty sad. We brought everything else, except probably the most important ingredient in a sandwich. So we had to eat in the park after all.

The next day was my birthday and Jared was in charge of the day. We started out by getting a yummy smoothie at the smoothie shop below our condo. It was so good. Then we drove to Balboa park, which is a huge park right by downtown San Diego...it has the Hoagle Zoo in it. We spent the morning walking around the park looking at the pretty gardens and then we had a picnic. It was kinda overcast in the morning, but then the sun came out by lunch time so that was nice. Then we went and took a ferry to Coronado Island to eat dinner. It was a dang cute island. The houses are all very small, but very well taken care of. The yards were amazing with perfect grass and tons of bright flowers. I fell in love with that place. We walked across the whole island in like 20 minutes- it is about a mile wide is all. We ate at this restaurant that a couple who lives on the island recommended to us. Rhinoceros. When we walked in it was this cute little restaurant with candles on the table, and we were the only ones in the entire place! It was so cute and romantic to have our own private romantic dinner on my birthday :) Our server was so nice and probably filled our water like 10 times since they were so empty. Later after we were done eating she brought me a piece of amazing chocolate cake with whipped cream, carmel, cookies and a candle on top for my birthday! It was so good!! I was very happy with our choice of dinner. It was the perfect birthday!!

The next day on our trip we just spent the day doing relaxing things. Our feet were tired from walking around so much the rest of our trip. So we started the day by going to the San Diego temple which is probably my favorite one. It is so pretty! Then we went to Coronado Island again and went and laid out on the beach. It was a very nice beach. Later we went and checked out mission beach which was fun. It seemed like the water was more warm for some reason at that beach and we had fun splashing around. I think that the beach is one of my favorite places in the world. They are so fun and relaxing and pretty! The next day we drove all day back to Utah. Jared was wonderful and drove all the way from San Diego to St. George, so I only had to drive 3.5 hours. He is so nice :) Our trip was so much fun! We were glad to be able to do something like this before our lives will change forever when our little girl is born and it won't just be me and Jared anymore.