Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

wedding festivus

every time somebody gets married, two single people die.

at least, that's the way I normally feel. not too many of those feelings at my cousin Brooke's
wedding this past weekend.

isn't she darling?

also brookie remember the time we were playing truth or dare and we dared you to pee your pants (like any good cousin would) and you said you would, but that you needed to do it in private? and then you DID?

so glad you grew out of that phase.

Jake and Brooke got married in the Los Angeles temple last Saturday, and then had their reception in Thousand Oaks. I loved the whole thing.



My parents flew into town Friday night, and my older sister Jaclyn drove down from Utah via a mini trip to Las Vegas.

It was so fun to have them here visiting for the weekend--plus hotels are fun. They just are.

Brooke and Michele are almost the only cousins we have our age--and are both such amazing girls! Brookie just got home off of her mission last year (maybe the year before) after serving in Chile. She's also been living up in Logan, UT for the past few years, so not too close.

Her and Michele have always been such amazing examples to me though, and it was fun to be able to spend that day with them!

The reception was in this especially magical restored barn--somewhere in Simi Valley.



here is where they held the reception--everyone just take a very good look at my sweet madre. I would just like to tell you I have asked her many a questions on life, said some promiscuous things at the dinner table (I even got excused last year at the tender age of 22)
--and some of those questions/statements may or may not have embarrassed her to the point of being speechless.

Well this weekend was her turn. (She is not going to be thrilled about this post.)

After leaving the continental breakfast with an apple in my hand and a banana in my skirt pocket, she turns to me and says,

"is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

and then started laughing. hysterically. probably more at the face I made.

Jaclyn and my jaws dropped open, and she just lost it. She was laughing so hard she had to cover her mouth, and then tried damage control. "I'm sorry! I heard that in a movie once!"
Oh geez mother. I love her to pieces. But we can't take her anywhere.


a very fantastic wedding.



my dad is definitely wearing a neck cord for his sunglasses. no need to squint.
he is also sporting the matrix sunglasses.
Dad, why couldn't you wear your aviators NOW instead of 15 years ago when they were so not cool? Ever since they came back into style he gets to tell us he's a trendsetter.
Thanks for nothing Ray Ban.

side note: my Dad has to google everything on his phone now.
I tried recommending a few places to eat after they flew into LAX, and he just said he wanted to google it, and then put it into the GPS. He's also a huge fan of the texting these days, although he doesn't get my text humor. They grow up so fast.





Aidan and Treyton made friends. Even though Trey kept calling him "Adam" all weekend.
He's a boy, you're a boy-- he likes dirt, you like dirt. You make barfing noises, he makes barfing noises. Life was so much simpler back then.





these are not the best pictures. I know we can't all be Mike Cunninghams, but I wasn't exactly working with geniuses either. 4/5 pictures taken when handing my camera to someone else turned out like these:



Awesome. What the freak is happening here people? My mom loves the zoom feature by the way. We erased those.




I love this little boy.
Except he has been holding a double standard. Every time we got into the elevator, he would grab onto the steel railing and tell us "hold to the iron rod!"
and then I caught him drinking. Twice.



You can't tell, but she's got a baby bump. You also might not be able to tell, but we are related.

I miss all of them already. They're crazy.


Friday, April 9, 2010

easter bunnies wear stretch pants

This past weekend was so fun.
Since I haven't been in town one weekend in March, why would I start now? It has been crazy.
New York. Check. San Diego. Check. Arizona. Check.

I got back from San Diego with Brittany realllly late Monday night, and then left after class on Thursday for Gilbert, AZ. We all piled into Benita's car
(Benita driving, Megs in the front seat, and Court, Lola and I in the back).
All snuggled in.


We left around 5:30pm and arrived in Paige, AZ just around 11pm I think.
We stopped other places, but Paige gets an honorable mention because Maverik provided us with the most delicious ice cream cones EVER.
That's right Benita. EVER.

(Benita insisted on wearing a snuggie the whole time. It was really weird.)

I may or may not have purchased Hot Rod for $7.99 too. That's a steal.
We pulled into Gilbert around 2am and I don't remember much after that...
until we ate lunch on Friday at Oregano's.

Okay. New favorite restaurant. Megan and I have our staples...but if Oregano's was here I'm sure it'd be one of them.


Soups, pizzas, salads, wraps, BBQ wings, garlic bread, and the largest Diet Cokes I've ever seen in a glass. With free refills and to go cups.
Oregano's: Where Sizes Matters. Seriously.

And here is where we picked up our friend Dustin. So nice to have you.
I know Court was grateful.


Later we went and did some verrry light shopping at the mall, picked up a few things. Matching boyfriend sweats from Victoria's Secret...not a big deal.


then to Swirl It...not sure why but I'm never going to be sick of frozen yogurt or new yogurt places. There are so many. Red Velvet and Pistachio really hit the spot.

Following frozen yogurt, we went to go see Miley Cyrus star in "The Last Song".
Oh my Nicholas Sparks. What would we do without you?
Except...Miley is terrible. She couldn't stop making this stupid face.

(I googled "Miley's stupid face in Last Song". So glad I found this)

Otherwise good though. Predictable, sappy, slightly depressing with a happy ending.
All of my favorite things. Not to mention, Liam Hensworth is DARLING.
I could look at him all day.
Too bad he's a 90's baby. Otherwise we might have a legitimate chance.

Following the most amazing day ever, and all of my favorite things, we played games at Megan's sister's, Lindsay's house. I laughed. Really hard.

"Benita has sagged into last place..."
"Ballerina. Why didn't you pick mine? I put that down, and you DID."
"When I think of Roxanne I think of stretch pants..." Nice Court.
"I don't trust Asian women."
"Red Rover? I would have picked that."
And Run Ruck Run is sweeping the nation...


Saturday we watched the first session of conference. Or at least tried.
TV fail. The channel wouldn't work so we watched it on Megan's bebis Mac screen.

No better way to cheer ourselves up than poolside tanning while it's snowing in Provo.
85 degrees in April. I WILL move somewhere warmer after I graduate.


After a few hours of soaking up some much needed sun, we went back to get ready and met up with the boys after priesthood session for dinner at Brio. Again, so good.


They played more games...I studied for a Free Expression test.
I don't really want to talk about it.

I don't think I can recall a time where I have been so excited about Easters.
I love the candy, love the decorations, love conference...but actually getting excited about Easter has been a while for me.

Megan's family has a tradition for Easter where they attach kite string, A LOT of kite string to your easter basket, and hide it somewhere in or out of the house.
We all have the same starting point, and it was a little bit like Mission Impossible for the first 20 minutes.

Benita went up the slide. Court went across the counter.
I fought with Patches the cat outside for my string.


It was seriously as exciting as Christmas. I hope the Smiths and Barneys don't mind when I steal this for my own kids. Actually, Megan's and my kids will probably be doing it together.

Love them. And I will miss my besties so much this summer.



Sunday, February 21, 2010

I left my heart in San Diego.

Valentine's Day is never my favorite. Not sure why, I have a pretty good track record of having a boyfriend. Maybe I plan it that way. Maybe not. But I have happened to spend the last 2 of 3 Valentine's days with this boy, which I'm not mad about.



Day 1: Flew in to San Diego around 11:30am, he picked me up from the airport with a huge hug and a cheesy bagel from work. Had to go all the way to the 7th floor to pick it up. So thoughtful. We went to his apartment, met the roommate, and he made me lunch. Tofu steak and broccoli. Healthy, but spongy. Maybe not my first choice again. We decided to go on a run, and did 4.5 miles along Torrey Pines, which looked a little something like this:




It was amazing. Soooo pretty, about 70 degrees, and a whole lot warmer than Provo has been treating me these days. We finished our run, walked along the ocean for a bit, and decided to call it a day. Grocery shopping, he made a quite fabulous red curry, and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

Day 2: was even better. Got up, put our running clothes on, and ventured out to start our 10 mile run. I'm training for a marathon, however, Mike is not. Very brave. We went to Balboa park, and did some very intense trails for a few hours before deciding 8.5 miles on that terrain probably equaled about 15 distance running. We laid down on the grass in the park, basking in the 75 degrees of deliciousness, when he informed me he had made Valentine's reservations. I was not even a little bit mad about this. We wrapped up the afternoon at Mission beach, changed, and went to this amazing Italian restaurant. I have no idea what it's called. We sat outside, ate our carb-loaded dinner, and watched Casablanca in black and white on a huge screen. We took a short walk after, and decided frozen yogurt was our best option, always. Pajamas and sleep made this day a complete success.



Day 3: Sunday, but had to be outside. I'm obsessed with Southern California weather, so sue me. We went for a long walk outside, Mike happens to live literally across the street from the San Diego temple. Very cliche and very darling at the same time. His roommate, Anthony's girlfriend, Maelyn, was starring in a very intriguing play called "Postmortem" in Oceanside, so we decided to attend the matinee final performance. She was hilarious. We changed into hoodies and jeans, and made it just in time to watch the sunset down at the beach. We had purchased ingredients for sugar cookies, and decided to repeat what we had done two years ago for our Sabbath Valentine's Day. Cheesy. But I loved it.

Day 4: Walking on the beach, hole in the wall Mexican burritos on the boardwalk, frozen yogurt, and back to Provo. I promise to myself to get better at taking pictures. Not nearly enough from this trip. Dang it.