Adventures in Moving

Four days after my graduation I made another big leap in my life...we moved to Oregon. We set out on the open road on Tuesday and, after multiple gas stops, too much fast food, along with achy joints,  made it to our new home on Wednesday evening. It took us a total of twenty-five hours of driving time, traveling fourteen hours the first day and eleven the next. On Wednesday we unpacked the entire truck, filling our apartment with boxes, then unpacked a majority of the boxes.  Needless to say we got a lot done giving us time to tour our new city on Thursday and Friday.  My mom and stepdad Dave were kind enough to travel with us and drive DJ's car.  We were so grateful they came along for the fun.  They were great company on the road, awesome unpackers, and fun tourist companions.  

 DJ had fun driving the truck for the first couple of hours,and then he decided he liked is Honda much better.  He felt cool because the truckers would speak to him in trucker talk (they'd put on their flashers to signal he was clear to switch lanes), which made him feel like part of the gang. haha 

This is how we started out the drive...

but, after a couple of hours we felt like this!

We enjoyed lots of beautiful orchards and vineyards throughout California that made our drive a little more pleasant.

Mount Shasta was also beautiful. 

But, once we crossed the border into Oregon everything seemed to get ten times prettier and ten times greener.

Here is the view of our new home on the third floor.  We were really lucky to have gorgeous, sunny weather to unpack the truck in.

Since we got so much unpacking done the first night, we decided it would be fun to explore the area while my mom and Dave were still visiting.  We went to check out our school and then did some exploring in downtown Portland.

The campus is gorgeous, so different from ASU and so much smaller.

Portland was a fun place to explore and we even found our little Lukie a birthday present.

There's this really cool bookstore called Powell's Books,that takes up a whole block.  I ended up finding a $5 copy of the Hunger Games, and enjoyed searching through what little books we got to...again the store is HUGE!

After all the fun we had it was time to say goodbye.  There were big hugs and lots of tears, as we were sad to see them go.  We were so grateful for all of their help and all of the fun we had on our moving adventure.  Thank goodness for FaceTime!

(We all randomly ended up wearing plaid this day) 

Even though it was hard for my mom to leave us, she got to talk to this handsome Elder the next day which made her one happy mamma!

We've been in our new home for about three weeks now and we're loving it so far.  DJ started classes this week and has been a busy bee,coming home in the evenings for an hour then off to the library to study. We miss our family, but are enjoying our new adventure here in Oregon.  

Class of 2012

How did my senior year go by so fast?! I'm officially a college graduate!  I completed my bachelors degree in Speech and Hearing Science from Arizona State University on the 4th of May.  The four years really came and went so quickly.  I'm grateful for all of the opportunities I had at ASU and for the many friends I made. 

I attended both the big ASU commencement and my individual college ceremonies.  The first ceremony took place on Thursday.  Even though I didn't have Callie along side me (she graduated last year the little smarty pants) it was so fun to have my best friend Emily there with me on the field.  I also got to sit next o my friends Jessica and Kahoku.  Tom Brokaw gave a great speech and we ended the night with a celebratory ice cream cookie treat.  I was so grateful to have my family there supporting me.  I love my family so much and I'm so blessed to have them in my life.

Emily and I

Jessica

So happy this pretty lady was there!

I got to walk at the ceremony on Friday.  There was a total of one speaker and then they started to read off names.  Graduations are occasions to be celebrated, but when it comes to mine I like them short and sweet.  I had fun sitting next to all my speech and hearing friends and enjoyed chowing down at Oreganos afterwards.  

Dad and Kathy

SHS friends

I'm excited to have finally accomplished this goal I've always had for myself.  I'm grateful for the experiences I've had as an undergraduate student and look forward to my next chapter in life as a graduate student.

Time

There never seems to be enough time in the day to accomplish all that I need to and then all that I want to.  Blogging goes into the "want to" category, hence the reason why I haven't updated the blog in months.  I'm hoping to not let that happen again and to finally get the hang of this whole blogging thing.  Even though I haven't been blogging, life has still been going on and lots has happened!

First off, DJ got accepted to PA school!!!  We couldn't be more excited!  We will be moving to Oregon in May where he will start school at Pacific University.  I'm so dang proud of him and knew he would have no trouble getting in once he was interviewed.  You can't help falling in love with him when you meet him and I knew the people of Hillsboro, Oregon would be no different.  We're excited to embark on a new journey and continue to accomplish our goals.

How could you not love this face?!

Second, Mason is on his mission!  Can't believe December 7th came so fast!!  We dropped Elder Price off at the airport and said goodbye for two years (yes there were lots of tears).  We miss having him around, but I'm so happy for him.  He has written a few letters and says he's doing great and loving the MTC.  He says the language is hard, but that he's already learned A LOT.  I'm so proud of him and know he's where he needs to be, doing the Lord's work.

Next on the list,  we had a fabulous holiday season (from Halloween to New Years)!  The holidays always seem to fly by and they were no different this year. 

If you can't tell we were Flinn Ryder and Rapunzel for Halloween (DJ sewed his own costume)

Our ward put on "The Grinch" for our Christmas party.  Guess who played the star of the show??

This little boy has been my favorite lately!

For Christmas we got my mom and Dave a cardboard cutout of Mason!  It's hilarious and awesome!  They loved it and have been brainstorming lots of photo opportunities in the near future.

It's a new year with new goals and new adventures!  I can't wait to see what 2012 brings!

This 10 lb. Christmas gift from the hubby is definitely the perfect start to my new years resolution of obtaining a six-pack...

25

Last week we celebrated DJ's 25th Birthday!  We had lots of fun celebrating and spending time with family! The theme of this birthday seemed to be dinner and a movie.  We went out to dinner twice and saw two movies in one weekend!

On Thursday we went out for sushi, at Got Sushi, with Amber, Gary, Luke, Sherri and Brady.  We always have fun with the bunch of them.  (I unfortunately didn't get a picture with everyone).  The food was great along with the company.  The women who work there were really friendly.  They loved little Luke and kept trying to soothe him in their little asian accents when he was crying.  They also sang happy birthday to Deej when they brought him some ice cream.  They were cute.  After dinner we had birthday cake, then we went to see "The Help".  It was a really good movie that we both enjoyed.  It's one that will make you laugh one minute and make you cry the next.

DJ requested a marble bundt cake this year and that is just what he got

Then, on Saturday we celebrated with some of my family.  We went to a Korean BBQ where you cook your own food at your table.  It was really fun and yummy!  We definitely plan on going back.  After dinner we met up with Sherri and Brady to see "Planet of the Apes".  Not one that I was thrilled about seeing, but DJ was really excited to see it.  It was a good movie for what it was, but I don't plan on watching it again. 

We had such a fun weekend and loved being able to spend lots of time with family.

I'm grateful for this wonderful man in my life and the fun we have together.  I love him so much!  

He got new Ray Ban Aviators for his b-day 

 

California

DJ and I got to spend all last week on the sunny beaches of California.  We went with my family on their annual family vacay to the San Clemente Inn.  We spent most of our time at the beach and loved every minute of it.  We were sad Tanner wasn't able to come this year, and that Cal had to leave early for Hawaii (she wasn't too sad about it) but we were glad to be able to spend some time with the family. 

We enjoyed:

-tanning on the beach
-skim boarding and boogie boarding (DJ's first time)
-napping on the beach

-reading books 
-gelato in San Diego
-Venice Beach
-the Santa Monica Pier
-the 75 degree weather!