A Whole Year

Us at a stop while driving Big Sur

Yes, it has been a whole year since we got married! We made it! We have enjoyed out time together and look forward to many happy years to come.

This year for our anniversary we were thinking about renting a beach house for a weekend up in Stinson Beach. That was until we had to take Mika to the emergency room and pay $800 because she had eaten some moldy food left out in the garden here. So, the next plan was just to go somewhere for a couple of days and we still wanted to go to the beach so we decided on Carmel. If you don't know where it is, it is by Monterey and Big Sur (between them actually). It is the most picturesque town you'll ever see, at least in the town area, other parts were just normal. It made me feel like I was back in some English countryside village. The place we found to stay, because Nathan insisted on a beach view room, was a block from the beach and we could, of course, see and hear the beach from our room. It was wonderful. The weather while we were there wasn't super great, it was overcast most of the time, but it wasn't warm and it wasn't cold.

The view from our room

We went to some really nice and expensive restaurants while we were there and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We left on Friday afternoon and left the puppy at home, though we should have brought her because Carmel is the most dog-friendly place you'll ever go. We checked into our hotel/B&B called the Sandpiper Inn and then promptly went to dinner. We went to Flaherty's, a fish house, on the recommendation of one of Nathan's co-workers. It wasn't amazing but it was pretty good. Then we relaxed the rest of the night. The next day we wandered around the town and found some interesting shops. Most of the places are art galleries or boutiques where you can buy a t-shirt for about $120 or so. But, we did find a candy shop that sold British candy and bulk candy so we of course bought plenty to snack on for the rest of the day. We ended up going back for some more later, though only a little more for us, because we decided we should get a thank you for Ben, Nathan's brother, who was taking care of Mika while we were gone. We also stopped into this shop, I don't know what you would call it, but it had a lot of spreads and things. They were mostly out for sampling so we tried just about everything they had there and Nathan decided he had to have some of this garlic tapenade, which was really good. I was partial to the apple butter myself, but we decided we could have the tapenade with some crackers for lunch and so we did.

Carmel Beach

We went to the beach that afternoon but it was still cloudy and the water isn't quite as warm in Northern California as it is in L.A., so we just walked along the beach. There were some people who braved the cold, like two guys, and others who had on wet suits and were trying to do a little bit of surfing. Mostly there were a lot of people playing with their dogs and we had a good time watching them and wishing Mika were there with us so we could watch her run around. We drove down to Big Sur, with is arguably the most beautiful coastline, and the highway runs right along it. We made some reservations at a place around that area and were pleased with what we found. Our table was right by the window and we could see out to the ocean while we were eating. Apparently you could see whales out there sometimes, but I we weren't that lucky.

Some of the Big Sur coastline - blue, blue water

A funny sign at the restaurant we ate at

We also drove up to Monterey and went to the famous aquarium there. There were lots of fun things to look at and there was even a shark! While we were watching the big shark, there were lots of little tiger sharks, we were thinking about how Cameron would be freaking out right now and kind of wished he was there. One of the fun things we did while we were there is see a feeding/training session with the sea otters. The trainers did tricks and played with them and those things are just so darn cute you can't help but have a huge smile on your face. I think Nathan said his favorite part was the jellyfish exhibit. They just have something majestic and peaceful about them, despite their evil, stinging nature. We also got to touch some bat rays, like mini sting rays, while there and that was fun.

My favorite house in Carmel - they had lots of fun ones

Valentines Day

So a year ago this time we got engaged! I can't believe it has already been a year. It seem so long ago and, at the same time, like it was yesterday. We decided to do something similar to what we did last year so we made a reservation at Chef's table, a super fancy restaurant that just happens to be like a block away. While I didn't have any plans to get an outfit, like we did last year, Nathan surprised me an we went shopping. He bought me a really nice trenchcoat and a cute outfit to wear. Here are the pictures:



We didn't do much of anything else that night, but the next night we got dressed up again and went to the Cinderella ballet that BYU was putting on. Nathan didn't really want to go in the first place, but he is a sweetheart and decided that he wanted to do something artsy fartsy for me. I expected better from BYU, but I guess when the dancers are full-time ballerinas I can't expect too much. It was kind of fun. The stepsisters were the best part, they were full of humorous movements, for lack of a better way to describe it. I think you just had to see it.

The weather has been warming up a bit so we've been going out for runs and walks. Here are some pictures of us having fun at the Provo River trail.

My first book

Hopefully this time it will work...

So it has been forever since I last posted. Definitely a lot as been going on. However, I won't bother really with trying to catch upon the past. Now that I am out of school, I might have more time to blog since no one wants to give me an internship. So here is what has been happening in our lives:Mika is the same as always: energetic and loving. It has been hard for her to stay cooped up inside while we have been wimps and wanted to stay inside where it is warm. She, I believe, could care less about what it was doing outside, as long as she is running around. Lately, when we've taken her to the park she whines and whimpers as we pull into the parking lot because she is SO excited. I feel bad that I don't take her out more, but when it snows 1/2" overnight (though it has mostly melted already) it doesn't make me feel like tromping around outside.

Mika likes to cuddle

Nathan is still working hard at school. "School for life," he says. He has also been working on an iPhone program, a game, and is enjoying doing that. He tries to spend a couple of hours each week on it. He asked me if I wanted to help do any artwork for it, but I have no skills in that sort of thing, so he talked to an old friend in Livermore who said he is excited to work with Nathan on it. Nathan wants to make a million dollars off of the game, but if it sells at all we'll be ecstatic (not that it will be bad, Nathan never does anything halfway, but who knows what the market will be like).

A silly picture of our family

As for me, well, as I said I am out of school, well mostly I guess. I'm still taking one class, Bookbinding, for fun. I am enjoying it so far, although it is very frustrating as the first book I made (pictures below) I messed up on just about every step. A lot of the other kids in the class are art majors and it is a little off-putting sometimes. If I like it enough, however, it could turn into a fairly lucrative career.

We also got a new addition to our family! We recently did a full-scale cleaning on the house and discovered there was a need of greenery. We've been meaning to get an orchid for a while, but when we went to the nursery we decided on a beautiful blue hydrangea plant instead. It reminded us of our wedding and our engagement anniversary is just a few days away. I think I'm already killing it as the petals are wilting. They told us it likes a lot of water and I thought I had been watering it enough, but I just added a ton more and we'll see if it perks up. At least that is what the clerk said it would do. It is just nice to have a little plant life around.

A new haircut!

Mika

There isn't a lot to say about the perfect dog.... She's one of the best things that has ever happened to us. Sure, she destroys things sometimes, gets in the way, or is just plain annoying, but look at her face and tell me you can say no to it. Here are some pics from our life together. Nathan just took her hiking up to Stewart Falls, and while I didn't go, reports are that she had the time of her life. The video is of her playing fetch with the frisbee. She is the fastest thing you'll meet. When she's coming back to us you can see the frisbee flips up in her face and she kind of wanders around until we call her name so she knows where we are. The picture of her all wrapped up in blankets is her after we've given her a bath and she's looking forlorn and scrawny because her fur isn't fluffy when wet. I'm going to get a video of her doing all her tricks, but that'll have to wait until the next post. Here you go!

Finally

Yes, yes. Once again I am a horrible blog updater, but is that really news to anyone?

We have been super busy the whole month of August, with more than a few interesting developments in life. To begin with, just after we posted the last post, or a week before we were moving back to Utah, we got a call from our apartment complex who told us that we couldn't move in to the apartment we were promised. Apparently the current tenants were not moving out for another month and they couldn't do anything to help us move in to the apartment or any other property they owned. After many tears and great frustration we started the search AGAIN for a place to stay. It was kind of hard because we could only look at what was online until we started back to Utah. We drove back on Saturday and just stayed at my mom's place for a couple days while we started looking at places. We also stayed with Chris and Megan Bronson for a while so we didn't have to drive from Salt Lake every day to go looking. Luckily we found a place in a basement/side of a house (see pictures). We kind of fell in love with it and stayed.
In the midst of all this we decided that since we weren't going to be able to have the apartment of our dreams, we were going to get a dog. We had talked about getting a dog for a while and were both interested in doing it, but our housing wouldn't allow dogs at the time. Well, a family friend in the ward had a dog that she wasn't going to be able to take care of anymore (the husband was opposed to canines) and we jumped at the opportunity of getting a dog that we already knew and liked. Her name is Mika (mee-ka). She is the sweetest little puppy ever and we don't regret our decision for a moment, though it did make the housing search a little more complicated. She is a Cockapoo, Cocker Spaniel/Poodle mix. She is just over a year old, so she's pretty much a puppy still. She is a source of boundless energy and she certainly keeps us going. (More on Mika in an upcoming post.)

So with this place that we got, we were able to paint some of the walls. We started with little to no knowledge of how to paint and the first coat didn't look so good....but luckily I have a Dad who has re-painted our whole house many a time and we called on him for some advice. In the end everything turned out very well and now we know that in the future it is worth the extra cash to call someone else to come deal with the headache of painting. Throughout the whole month we had fun buying furniture and other things to decorate our place and make it feel like home. One other big project we did was that the backyard, while small, we wanted to have a place for Mika to run around. There was only dirt and weeds with a small cement area so we decided we would lay some sod. We got our landlord to go pick up the sod, no way were we getting that in our Miata, and pulled, tilled, and laid the sod so it looks great now. It is even starting to grow!
Unfortunately we didn't take any before pictures so you'll just have to be okay with the afters. We also don't have a camera, so iPhone pictures will have to do.

The first is of our living room. The second is the kitchen, third the bedroom, and fourth the entry hall.

Livermore Comes to an End

Internships can be weird. For a couple months they become your life. Eight hours a day, five days a week, you become totally enveloped in the working life. You work on problems that while fun are totally different from school problems. Tests go away and are replaced by presentations. Your boss doesn't care if you understand so long as everything works. And then your termination date comes and just like that you go back to the rest of life. By day lazy math student and by night lazy government employee.

The good news is that we will be coming back to Utah. Livermore is great but I feel bad that Kelcy doesn't know too many people here. Besides we're living the high life in Provo. Between the two of us we have four siblings and four siblings-in-law, two nieces, and one nephew in the Provo/Orem area. Not to mention some best friends in Spanish Fork and some parents in Salt Lake. And to top it off between family and friends we have a veritable wave of babies. Now off to make sure that Kelcy doesn't go and get baby fever...

In the meantime Kelcy and I have discovered that we are book addicts. We've been demolishing books at a rate of one or two a week. And we're not talking some pansy speed reading tear through the pages reading, but rather a read out loud to each other until we fall asleep reading. So we've been collecting a small library here in Livermore to go along with the large library we have in Utah. It's got me thinking about getting a Kindle or something.

Pros: I can't stand clutter. If you buy enough books (probably about 30) it would pay for itself and everything thereafter would be cheaper. Also think of the extinct frogs living in the rainforests. The Frogs!

Cons: You don't have the book to put on your shelf. Also it's a sizable upfront purchase.

If anyone has experience with a Kindle or whatever please let me know what you think. Thanks.