i heart disneyland

Remember when I talked about wanting to learn more about shooting on film?? WELLLL two weeks ago we took a road trip out to California so of course we brought Drew's Nikon so I could get some more practice! Drew was very patient in teaching me all about the different settings and such on his camera, and I am actually pretty pleased with myself with how most of them turned out! 

Our first stop was obviously DISNEYLAND. And when I mean first stop, I mean we literally woke up in Mesquite at 4:30 AM, were on the road by 5, and drove straight to Orange County so we could get to Disneyland at a decent time. Tell us we're crazy and spontaneous and fun! Really we're just two Disney-loving nerds.

If there is one thing I have learned in the few times I have gone to Disneyland, it's that NO ONE IS TOO COOL FOR DISNEY! You can quote me.

Space Mountain is always a must, I don't care how long I have to wait in line!! (jk my limit is anything over an hour, but luckily we didn't have to wait that long)

First time experiencing the It's a Small World ride and definitely my last. So photogenic but wow that ride is hella creepy.

Okay this one makes me laugh because I took it in line for Thunder Mountain and I noticed how cool it looked as soon as the line started moving pretty fast. So I literally just snapped this without adjusting or focusing anything and starting running in the opposite direction to catch up with the line. I looked so stupid I'm sure, but it actually turned out decent! LOL guess you had to be there...

The next few were taken in one of the many sit down cafes in the park that neither of us usually go to (we are corn dogs + dole whips all the way), but it gave me some time to ~experiment~ with settings and such.

Many more pics from the rest of the weekend to come!

winter break: so cal

Guys. Last week I started my last semester of my undergraduate studies...EVER! I cannot believe I am graduating from this wonderful university in April. So many uncertainties ahead! But a lot of exciting things to look forward to as well. Nervous, but excited for sure.

Rewind to winter break, when I celebrated the holidays without my parents for the first time in my life. Most of the time, being married feels no different than dating, but then the holidays came around and I remembered I wouldn't be going home to Lancaster at all and got a little depressed. My house is the best place to be for Christmas. Seriously. My mom always puts up the cutest decorations, I get to visit my Lancaster friends, home ward, and my mother's cooking is second to none. I was definitely homesick for a good chunk of my break. However, trading the bitter cold of Provo for sunny southern California definitely helped.

After recuperating from finals week, we had a lazy weekend in Provo before flying to Yorba Linda for six days of movies, eating, and my favorite event...Disneyland! We decided to go on Christmas Eve and no one else wanted to go with us because everyone thought it would be too busy and figured it would be better to go after Christmas. However, Drew and I left a few days before everyone else (the Monday after Christmas), so Christmas Eve was our only option, because Christmas day would've been a nightmare, and so would the weekend. So, we just ventured by ourselves. SO GLAD WE DID, because it was the least crowded I have ever seen the park! Honestly. The longest wait was probably 45 minutes and since we finished all the attractions at Disney by about 2 PM, we decided to upgrade to a park hopper and head on over to California Adventure for the rest of the day, which was even LESS packed. It was my first time ever going to California Adventure too! Best decision of our whole trip. 

I had to include that ridiculous picture of me on the right to mourn my long hair. Last week I got my annual haircut and I always have a hard time with short hair for the first few weeks, but then I get over it. In other words, I am slowly but surely starting to hate how short my hair is less and less.

The Haunted Mansion decked out with Nightmare Before Christmas decorations was my favorite holiday change to the park.

California Adventure did not disappoint! I'm a big roller coaster person, so naturally we had to ride California Screamin' three times.

Christmas day was equally as wonderful, the highlight was definitely talking to Nic! That kid is such a riot and I miss him lots. He is doing great and although he wanted to talk about Yeezy boots and rap music, he is also improving a lot in his Mandarin and I can tell how much he loves serving the people in Melbourne. He even developed a little bit of an Aussie accent and uses the lingo which was so weird/funny to hear. Less than a year left until he's home folks!!

Elder Padilla probably talking about Kendrick Lamar

Getting married meant gaining this cutie as a nephew and I love it. Look at him in the onesie I got him for Christmas!! I cannot. He is in a huge Toy Story phase right now and he watched Toy Story 3 at least five times that week. Here he is hanging out with his friends aka Toy Story toys in a box.

The rest of our trip involved watching tons of movies, reading up on fan theories after watching Star Wars (please discuss with me because I'm not over it), visiting some friends, and hanging out with Harvey a lot. We flew back to Provo for a hot second (just long enough for me to remember how much I hate the cold and snow) before road-tripping to San Francisco for our friend's wedding! Pictures and stories from our Nor Cal weekend coming soon <3

cloudy california

SCHOOL'S OUT, SCREAM AND SHOUT! loljk spring term starts tomorrow :( BUT winter semester finished up last Wednesday and after a week of zero sleep, lots of Monsters, 4 final exams, internship interviews, packing up my house, and being homeless for a few days, I took a much needed trip to California with Drew for the weekend. It was the perfect break that my brain and body needed in between semesters.

We flew in on Thursday, and from the time we arrived up until the day we left, the weather was cold, dreary, and as un-California-like as possible. OF COURSE. Just our luck :( I was banking on at least two full days at the beach and I got zero. But we still made the most of it! On Thursday we drove down to Balboa Island for treats at Dad's, ( I can finally say I've tried the frozen banana and hippo cookies!! Just as delicious as anticipated). Then we roamed around the beach looking at all the pretty houses and choosing which one we'll buy one day. After grabbing some dinner at a Greek restaurant I don't remember the name of, we drove back home and Drew gave me the full Yorba Linda tour, showing me his old high school, his favorite hang out spot as a child (the library), friend's houses, and some other special places that held fond memories for him. It was so fun to get more acquainted with his childhood home! I think my favorite part of the day was saying the name of every single street we drove by in my best Californian voice.

FRIDAY WAS FOR DISNEYLAND. OK, so we were not initially planning on going to Disney because it would be too expensive and we already had a jam-packed weekend ahead of us. But Friday morning rolled around and even though we had plans to spend the day in L.A. visiting LACMA, The Getty, and other sites, Drew successfully convinced me that Disney was the better option. AND IT TOTALLY WAS. I've only ever been one other time when he took me last May, but with the chilly, rainy weather, it was far less crowded and we were able to go on so many more rides! We even finished everything we wanted to do by dinnertime, so we went home, had dinner with his mom, and then went back for round two! And by that I mean we got back with just enough time to ride Pirates of the Caribbean again, and then watched the fireworks. It was such a fun spontaneous day and just as magical as Disneyland should always be. YOLO amiright?

Sorry for the picture overload from our Saturday morning spent at LACMA. This was such a neat art museum and I loved exploring it with Drew. Even though he's lived less than an hour away from L.A. his whole life, he's never even been to it! Andy Warhol is one of my favorites, so this was pretty dreamy for me. This past semester I took a Western Humanities class and when we learned about modern and post-modern artists, everyone was hating on not only him, but pretty much all artists of this era. I felt personally offended by my classmates' views on this movement in art as a whole, because I think modern/post-modern artwork is so innovative and just the coolest. So this is my shout-out to Andy and his fellow artists of that era: U ROCK, DON'T EVER CHANGE. Before we left L.A. we grabbed lunch at the yummiest Thai food truck I've ever experienced, Arroy Food Truck. This place was the bomb and Drew (the french fry connoisseur himself) stated that their garlic basil french fries were the best he's had in a while. I completely agree. Yes that's right, Thai fries are a real thing and for that I am grateful. If you are ever in the area, track them down and you won't be disappointed.

The main reason for our California trip was to get our engagement pictures taken by our dear friend Meredith. She is a super talented, up-and-coming photographer in the Orange County area and we figured it would be the perfect opportunity to spend some time with her, while also checking something off the wedding to-do list. We originally planned to take them at sunset on Saturday, but of course the weather had other plans. With the torrential downpour and crazy winds at the beach, we rescheduled for early Sunday morning, just before we left for the airport. And let me tell you...they. were. perfect. Seriously. Meredith is a dream to work with and also the nicest and coolest gal pal. Check her out (and follow her!) on her photography site, Facebook page, and Instagram! Here's just a lil taste...but perhaps another post will hit the blog when I get them all back...who knows?!? (LOL me. I know. Of course there will be because I'm obsessed).

photo cred: Meredith Chapman, you rock my socks off and actually make kissing pictures look good.

Thanks for reading this monstrosity of a post. I had the best weekend and I look for any excuse I have to visit California. Hopefully I'll be back very very soon!

nothing comes close to the golden coast

This past weekend I was ~*C@Li4ni@ dR3@miN'*~ and by that I mean I road tripped to California with Drew, Desireé, Andy, and Thaddeus. I've never been to southern California before this trip so I was super excited to leave Provo for a weekend of daisy dukes, bikinis on top. Just kidding, but I still had a blast with this bunch on the legendary #CAroashram2k14.  

This is how we feel about being at the beach in CA instead of work in UT.

N*gg@$ in Newport

Earlier last week Kishi Bashi released his newest album 'Lighght' and I listened to it non-stop at work that day. I found out a while ago he has a show at The Urban Lounge in Salt Lake City this month, but it's a 21+ venue so I just became even MORE bitter that I couldn't go after listening to his new music. I checked his website in the hopes that by some miracle he changed venues or something and saw to my happy surprise that he was playing an all-ages show in L.A. on Friday. HOW LUCKY IS THAT?!? I freaked out and told the rest of the crew so we could buy our tickets. So after leaving the beach on Friday, we drove to L.A. for the concert and it was absolutely incredible. It was so fun singing and dancing to his electro-poppy, violinist sound that is unlike anything I've ever heard. My favorite song of the night (and in general right now) was The Ballad of Mr. Steak and Drew deemed that song the summer jam of 2k14 which I agree with wholeheartedly. Since the Fonda Theatre is on Hollywood Boulevard, we walked around after the concert looking at the Walk of Fame. I was determined to find Audrey Hepburn's star because duh, she's my favorite person. I finally did and it was the perfect ending to such a fun, jam-packed first day in California.

Did you know I've never been to Disneyland?! Well, Drew did so he took me on Saturday for my very first Disneyland experience because he's the sweetest and it was the best day. Not pictured is the pair of Mickey Mouse ears I purchased and wore around the park for three minutes. But I did document how calm, cool, and collected we were on Splash Mountain. 

I may or may not have teared up during the fireworks show. Sorry that Disneyland

 is the happiest and most magical place on Earth.

After attending church at Drew's home ward with his parents, we made one last stop before 

the drive back to Provo at the Newport Beach Temple. This is one of the prettiest temples

I've been to and I love the peach color of it, making it unique to most other temples. 

The #CAroashram2k14 crew. This weekend was the chillest and I had the best time with these kids. It was so sad coming back to work and back to Provo on Monday. Hopefully I can go back again soon. However, I'm still excited for the rest of my summer here full of more adventures, trips, and summer lovin'!