Once again, it has been a while. But this time I actually have stuff to share! Even pictures! So, two weekends ago I went to St. George with 4 of my friends, Chandler, Mike, Jessica, and Casey. The main reason we went down was so that Chandler could attend the marriage and sealing of one of his mission companions, so we just decided to make a fun trip out of it. We were in St. George for a total of about 24 hours, but it was a really fun trip. We stayed with his great aunt and Casey stayed with his dad and step-mom. So, Friday night, we went out to dinner with Aunt Shirley and then went to Casey's house and watched The Next Three Days out on their back patio while soaking it up in the hot tub. Then on Saturday we went to breakfast and this yummy restaurant called The Egg & I. We then went to the outlets for a little bit and then went and played pickleball with Casey's dad and step-mom. We were out there for a couple hours so I even got a little sunburned. Then we headed separate ways. Mike, Jessica, and Casey went back to Casey's house and took naps while Chandler and I went to the temple. I met up with my cousin, Tyler, and we did baptisms while Chandler was in the sealing. The temple was gorgeous and there were some cool things inside. We then had dinner with everyone and then headed back home.
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| Mike and Chandler |
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| Jessica |
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| Casey and his step-mom, Theresa |
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| and me. |
The next adventure was California! After just 3 full days, we were in the car again and heading to California. This time it was Chandler, Mike, Casey, and my old roommate, Chelsie, who came along. We went headed straight through, only stopping for gas and food until we made it to Mike's house in Simi Valley, just outside of Los Angeles. We made it there pretty late so we just headed to bed. The next day was FULL of adventure. We went to Zuma Beach and played in the sand and water and took a long walk down the beach.
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| The beach! It was such a beautiful sight! Although the water was VERY cold. |
We even found a little crab, Henry, and brought him back to our castle for him to reign in.
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| The sand castle that Chelsie and I made. |
Next, we went to the Santa Monica pier at Venice Beach. There were lots of vendors and food places and it was just a nice, calm, relaxing place to be.
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| Santa Monica Pier |
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| One of the vendors drawing someones name. She did is so fast and was so talented! |
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| A view of the beach from the pier. |
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| This guy apparently appeared on Jimmy Kimmal and some other late night show. It was cool to have so much going on around and it was good to see everyone using their talents. |
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| This guy was an AMAZING artist. He did this painting within ten minutes, mostly using just his fingers. All he used the brush for was to draw the palm trees. He makes them in to magnets and this is the one that Chelsie bought for about 3 dollars! |
We then went to Mike's grandma's house in Los Angeles and showered up and had dinner with Mike's parents and her and a few of Mike's friends. We then went back to Venice Beach to watch the sunset.
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| Chandler and I |
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| Chelsie watching the sunset |
After the sunset, we went to the Los Angeles temple and went through the newly remodeled visitor's center.
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| The whole crew - Mike, Chelsie, Casey, me, and Chandler |
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| All of us at the Los Angeles temple - Casey, Candler, me, Chelsie, and Mike |
The next day we went to the outlet malls. There were TONS of them! I have never seen an outlet mall that big before! I got good deals on a couple shirts, but remembering that I am a college student and that my mommy taught me good money skills I didn't buy much.
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| Eating lunch at the outlet malls, yes my mouth is full...of cinnamon pretzel bites. It was worth it. |
Next we went back to Mike's house and changed and then went to dinner at a place called Islands. It was super yummy! The fries were amazing, even more amazing than the fries at Lazy D's! Then we were on our way to Costa Mesa for the main attraction of this trip, the Broadway Play, Wicked. It was held at the Orange County Performing Arts Plaza in Segerstrom Hall. It was an amazing play and well worth the money! Words really can't describe how good it was! I absolutely loved it!! I will put some pictures up that we took there later because I do not have them yet. The next day, Sunday, we had planned on going to sacrament meeting and then going up to the Hollywood sign on the way out but it was very rainy and there were rumors of a snowstorm in southern Utah so we decided to just head home as soon as we could to beat the storm. After about an hour of driving the rain stopped and it was smooth sailing, other than high winds, the rest of the way. We stopped in Las Vegas and went up to the temple.
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| Las Vegas Temple |
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| Me in front of the Vegas Temple |
Once we got to St. George, we decided it would be fun to stay the night and head back in the morning and make it just in time for my class, which wasn't until 11. So we had another movie and hot tub night at Casey's house after we visited the St. George temple. Yes, three temples in one trip! It was the best! Too bad it didn't work out that we could actually go in and do baptisms.
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| St. George Temple - Me, Chelsie, Casey, and Mike |
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| St. George Temple |
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| A cool picture in the tree - Chelsie, Mike, me, and Casey |
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| Mike, Chelsie, Casey, and me in front of the Visitor's Center |
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| Mike, Casey, Chandler, and me in front of the Visitor's Center |
We didn't end up going to bed until really late and couldn't get ourselves up in time to make it for my class. But, it turned out alright. We ran into some pretty crazy snow from Cedar City through Provo, but the worst of it in Cedar. And after that, it was back to the real world. School is going well, we have about 3 weeks left of classes and we are starting final projects in about half of my classes. I am currently planning on staying in Salt Lake for the summer, finding a full time job, and taking 5 credits so that I will be able to take the classes I need to in the Fall so that I can stay on schedule.
