The Beach: the Pacific and Atlantic

Thomas and I had the wonderful opportunity to spend one week in SoCal with my family and a whole month with his family in Miami. Needless to say, we spent many hours at both the Pacific and the Atlantic ocean's coasts. Both were beautiful! The water in California was chilly, dark and filled with my favorite- WAVES! And the Miami water was warm, clear, still and full of fishies! We had a blast boogie boarding and kayaking in San Diego and had fun swimming and chasing fish in Miami. Here are some pictures from both.

I'll start with San Diego, because that's where we went first. Here we are kayaking!

Me and my sweet sissy:

My great Dad, who took us on the trip: Thanks Dad!

Look at the sea lions behind us. There were sea lions, on the rocks and caves behind us. And, we kayaked to where sharks swam underneath us constantly. Then, we spotted some dolphins, so we paddled after them. But, the only animals I was able to capture on camera were the sea lions.

Then, we went to old town San Diego.

Here is my adorable nephew Krew on an old cannon:

He's so cute, I couldn't help but take tons of pictures of him.

Then, we went to Miami, where we stayed a whole month!

Here we are at the beach: It was right at sunrise and was so beautiful. It was my first sunrise at the beach, because I've only ever seen the sunset.

Here's Tom's cute parents, Juanita and Tom, Sr. stealing a kiss:

Here's my stylish Mom-in-Law, Juanita. She's a Latina babe, with a passion for fashion (literally, we shop together; it's great).

Thomas floating in the crystal clear green water:

We also went to the University of Miami game- it was great. It was my very first college football game and we did it right; we had a tailgate dinner and everything.

Here's the group we went with: Kathleen, Macarena, Jessica and Seth:

Here we are:

The U game was a blast, but it was really hot.

And, we went to Orlando! We spent most the day at the temple, but walked around outside Universal.

After a month in Miami, we flew back to Arizona, and then drove back up to Rexburg, where we started school. We've tackled two whole days of school so far and have a whole semester ahead of us. Fortunately, Tom and I are taking three classes together; badminton, broadcast performance, and of course building an eternal marriage.

Our Vacation Pt. 1

We are on Summer vacation! It's just like when I was a kid and had a nice, long Summer break, except for the fact that it's not as long. This Summer vacation has been 7 weeks long, and I haven't even updated my blog at all- shame on me. But, our vacation has been more than delightful and I will begin to divulge this vacation now.

First, we went on a road trip from Rexburg to Southern California to see my family at a beach house they rented. We drove with my sister all in one day and had a blast, until about the time we hit Vegas. Then, we spent an entire week at the beach with my whole family. It was so much fun to see all of them again. We did so much fun stuff too. We

boogie boarded, jogged on the beach, went shopping in downtown L.A., and went kayaking.

Here are some pictures from shopping in L.A. We went to this place in downtown called Santee Alley with just the girls. It was a crazy place where homemade jewelry, lots of clothing and knockoffs are sold. My sister Ashley and I bought some one dollar jewelry (doesn't get much cheaper than that!) and my Mom sprung for a couple of other things for us. My sister-in-law Ashli bought some Pink (Victoria's Secret) clothing and we had a good time being the minority down a dirty alley lane...that is, until all the shops closed down. We star

ted getting worried because things were quickly closing up and we were in one of the worst neighborhoods in L.A. We saw a drunk guy fall into the street and there weren't really any females left around. We began to fear for our lives, and we were nervous that we wouldn't be able to find the place where we parked the car. Finally, we met up with my Mom's friends who we drove up with and made it safely back to their car. It was fun and one of those things that is nice to say you have done.

This basically describes the madness of Santee Alley (mind you, this really is an alley, this is not an outdoor shopping mall):

• People everywhere
• Lots of looking around and shoppers not paying attention to where they're going
• Cheap jewelry wherever you go
• Shopowners shouting or playing rap music to try to draw you in
• We were definitely the minority
• Bright, colorful umbrellas and displays
• Crosswalks built at busy streets for the alley- weird

Me and my sister Ashley had a great time hanging out. I love her!

I'll have another post soon telling about our kayaking experience

that involves sharks, dolphins and sea lions...