Camping

Ian and I both get to work with the youth ages 12-18 in our church.  Ian recently went on a camping, rafting, and zip lining trip with the boys near Sacramento.  Ian now wants to buy a similar rafting company nearby and build it into a big company.  He also wants to become a river rafting guide telling people when they get into the raft "welcome to my office":)  
 

I also went camping (or stayed in cabins in the mountains) with the girls.  I stayed with the first year girls most of the time.  We did a great hike to Lake Cachuma. 

Camp was at Camp Rancho Alegre near Santa Barbara.  All 12 girls from the ward had a really great time.  One highlight for all young women was a faith walk planned by the sixth years.  Each sixth year girl was positioned at a station in a circle on a path around a small pond.  Each had a personal story to tell of a burden they had been carrying.  All other campers were given a small backpack.  In small groups, they rotated around the pond and listened to the sixth year girls tell their stories of burdens they carried.  At the end of telling their story, the sixth year girls put a cup full of rocks in each young woman’s backpack to symbolize each young woman taking on some of their burdens.  The young women were all deeply touched by stories of loss of a parent, mending relationships with a parent, self esteem, depression, health, etc and literally felt those burdens as their backpacks became very heavy by the end.  After hearing all the stories, all young women hiked about a quarter of a mile up to the main cabin.  Once there, each young woman in turn walked to the front and dumped out their bag of rocks and was given a picture of the Savior in return symbolizing the atonement and that Jesus Christ has taken upon himself our burdens.  This activity strengthened each young woman’s testimony.   

A Few Random Events

So much has happened this summer.  Here are a few events that happened in July.  

Ian and I helped out at a local Relay for Life event.  We always love helping out good causes and this was one of them.  

We got to attend Ian's friend Whitney and John's wedding in SLC, UT.  In usual form, I didn't take many pictures so I had to steal this one from their Facebook page.  It is way better than anything I would have taken anyway.  They are a good looking couple and it was so fun to celebrate with them.

  

We got to see Brea and Michael at the wedding too.  We missed the rest of the groupie - they have   been friends since college.   

You are probably tired of seeing pictures of our garden and produce now, but we have been so excited about our garden and fruit trees this year!  Our peach tree gave us a nice crop of peaches.  

Our garden has been producing veggies like crazy.  We love harvesting in the morning and thinking up new meals we can make with them for dinner that evening.  We are hooked on gardening and are excited to start cold weather crops soon.  

Morro Bay

Ian and I took a quick weekend trip up to Morro Bay to celebrate the end of his first year of business school.  Morro Bay is a sleepy little town on the west coast about 2 hours north of Santa Barbara.  We took our bikes up with us and rode along the beach.

On our bikeride, we saw seals in the harbor.

I always love visiting Morro Bay because it gives me an opportunity to slow down and appreciate the simple things in life.

A Visit From Nate

My brother Nate came to CA for a visit last week.  It was a whirlwind trip but we fit a lot of fun things in.  Nate learned how to boogie board.  He was a natural- catching on really quickly. 

Monday we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain.  It's probably been over ten years since I was at a park like this and rode roller coasters.  Admittedly, I was a little timid to go on some of the roller coasters, but I still went.  This was one of the worst scariest rides and I screamed the entire ride!  It might be another ten years before I do this again.

Isn't my brother so cute?  It was so fun to hang out with him for a few days.  Come back soon!

Three Years

We celebrated our third wedding anniversary this week!  Ian had an extra two days off of work which meant we got to spend three days together!  With work, travel, school, and other responsibilities

this was a welcomed treat.  With so many fun things to do in Los Angeles, we decided to have a staycation and explore the city.  Here are some highlights from the week....

Monday we went to the beach with the Finlay family.  Ian had a great time with Steve and Evan playing in the waves.

The Getty Museum.  Very impressive art collection.  I especially enjoyed the garden and an exhibit on the building and expansion of Los Angeles.  The views of the city from the museum are always great too. 

The Hollywood Walk of Fame.  I couldn't stand more than about 10 minutes there because it was so dirty, but we did get a picture in front of the famous Chinese theatre and found a few famous stars' names.

Lunch at Umami burger.  Two big thumbs up for this restaurant.  Their truffle fries were delish.       

The Griffith Observatory.  We watched a show in the planetarium and toured the museum.  

We took a hike in the hills nearby.  More great views from the top of Mt. Hollywood.

From the Griffith Observatory there is a great view of the Hollywood sign.  We ate our picnic dinner out on the lawn and watched the sun set.  The Hollywood sign is the small white blob in the backgound. 

 

Once dark, we got to see Saturn through their telescope.  

 

On our actual anniversary we went to the Newport Beach Temple.  The grounds were so beautiful. 

Ian surprised me and we got pedicures.  I had to document that Ian got one as well.  

We finished off the night with a nice dinner at Roy's.  They even had gluten free dessert that was heavenly!  

Happy third anniversary!

Home Improvements

I have had a fun time slowly fixing up our home.  We have a long porch that spans the length of the house.  It was so long and empty.  For next to nothing, I was able to score this old wood bench from Craigslist.  Here are the before and after pictures of my DIY project.

Our home also came with a huge garden plot.  Ian and I have been trying our hand at gardening as well.  It's hard to believe our little garden went from this...

...to this the last few months.

While we are still novice gardeners, it has been fun to grow something in our backyard!  With the warm Southern California weather, we were able to start planting our crops at the end of March.  We just enjoyed our first meal from our garden the other night - fresh basil pesto pasta and green beans. Yumm!!   

April Happenings

April was a busy month for us.  I flew to Colorado for a day to see my brother perform in the high school play Brigadoon.  He was such a great actor!

I met Ian the next day in Utah for Brea and Mike's wedding.  This is Ian's group of friends from college that still stay in touch.

April also brought two showers.  A wedding shower for Valerie (my brother-in-law's fiance).  They will be married in July and we are so excited she will be joining the family.  Sadly, I did not take a picture of a single thing!  We also had a baby shower for my sister-in-law Megan.  We decorated onesies for her baby boy.  Again, no pictures sadly.      

The NCAA Volleyball Championships were held at UCLA this year.  I met Ian after school on Saturday and we went to the championship game of BYU vs. UCI.  BYU lost the game, but it was nice to see so many cougar fans.