Capitola beach dream

Yesterday my new friend Jaclyn and I took the babies to Capitola just for the afternoon. In my mind Santa Cruz is like 2 hours away instead of 45 minutes so I wasn't sure about a whole day affair. But once we got down there and set up our beach spot, I didn't want the day to end.

We ate a yummy lunch and had desserts at Gail's bakery right off the freeway. They had the coolest mosaic tables that we were all freaking out about. 

We parked in an all day parking spot for $10(which is soooooo worth it because you have to move your car every 2 hours and you don't even save any money so yeah)

Then we walked around all the cute little multicolored houses on the coast. Every single view of the houses was so iconic.

It was most definitely the best Monday of 2015! (so far)

Monterrey or Monterey? you decide

ROAD TRIP!

jk

DAY TRIP!

jk

HALF-DAY TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike and I were so excited to drive down to Monterrey and have a super awesome day filled with a lovely aquarium visit, perfect weather and a relaxing loop down the famous 17 mile drive. 

well..

HERE'S A PIECE OF PRICELESS ADVICE FOR YA: never set high expectations.

Mike and I have been totally honest with our expectations about everything under the sun. We always talk about how we will expect the worst and then everything good that happens is just a bonus! It's been such a great 10 months dating him because we are always optimistic and realistic. 

SO. This weekend though I had big expectations. Mostly I just wanted us to utilize most of our time down in Monterrey because it's a 2-3 hour drive and I really wanted it to be worth our effort. So when Mike's car broke down the morning we were supposed to leave it just reminded me to set low expectations all over again. We fixed the car battery cause we're a BOSS MECHANIC COUPLE and decided to leave the next day for our Monterrey trip.

We saw the Monterrey Bay Aquarium first and it was absolutely beautiful. It felt SO CROWDED though. Like we were at 11 and every parent and their eight children were there. I don't know how many people I expected to be there but it definitely was not THAT many bodies trying to pet the sting rays.
Anyway, we watched the otters flip and eat which was adorable to say the least.  The jellyfish were absolutely FREAKY. I loved it.

But our absolute favorite was the octopus. It was sucking on the glass pane and making creepy eye contact with all the little kids staring up at it haha it was SO AWESOME!!

Now onto describing the famous 17 mile drive:

BREATHTAKING

BEAUTIFUL

MESMERIZING

JUST SO RAD

I like self timer photos WAAAAAY better than asking strangers to try and capture all of our candid, awkward but cute moments. Actually I just set up my iPhone, press record and then walk back and pose at certain moments to go back and pause and save later. yep that was way too long to explain that. 

anyway we loved Monterrey!! 

current favorite moments and feels

the smiles right when your mom answers your Facetime and exclaims "hi how ARE you!!"

the moment after the last guest leaves the bangin' party you just hosted. chillin' on the couch surrounded by confetti and half eaten dessert plates. relaxed, exhausted in a good way and filled to the brim with content

catching sight of swaying plam trees EVERYWHERE. even at Costco

Sunday morning after you eat brunch. full of yummy food and snuggling in a soft blanket.

catching him smiling at you during card games with friends

driving around with the sunroof open, laughing at nothing and taking crappy sunset pics through the window.

cuddling a sleepy baby who just woke up from his nap.

the breath in between kisses

walking around Ikea asking each other 'obvious' questions we don't actually know the answer to but feel like we should

butter sizzling in the pan while you double crack two eggs like the pro you are

sneaking just ONE more rasberry

finally getting over food poisoning knowing you won't be barfing again all day HALLELUJAH AMEN

feeling like you have all the time in the world to do nothing all day

conference weeeeekend

 I LOVE CONFERENCE WEEKEND! so much time to chill and feel the Spirit and cuddle up to my man.

This crazy april fools day week began with Monday night yoga. Our Stanford singles ward hosted a yoga class and a ton of people came! We all stretched and sweated for an hour in the gym and it was GLORIOUS. Then Tuesday night my nanny family took Mike and I out for a delicious dinner and a drive in a Tesla P85D (see video to see what it was like to drive in that thing)

Here's how my April Fool's Day went down:
went to work like any other normal day
then I burned my finger on making kids oatmeal
went to Safeway to grab some items for my boss
checked out at cash register but my card was declined
super annoyed and confused, had to leave bag of food there and call my bank
had to go back and pick up Jack while baby was crying in backseat from being in the car too long
drove back to Safeway with two sleeping boys and had to wake them up to go back and buy my bag of things
card worked-YAY
putting stuff in car and realize there's a random misplaced jar of canned Beets in my bag
??!?!???????!???@?@?#?@?@!?
unbuckle poor whiny kids ONCE AGAIN to go back and return misplaced jar of Beets
finally on our way home when baby shoots out a poop rocket (and I don't have any diapers) and Jack and I gag the entire way home
AND ALL THIS HAPPENED WITHIN THE HOURS OF 8AM - 1 PM WHEW
needless to say it was an insane April Fool's day.


The rest of the week was full of working, planning and playing. Mike took me out to Umami Burger for Friday night date night and then to Country Dancing at a country club in Fremont! IT WAS A BLAST!!!!! But it started out pretty awful thanks to me. here's the story:

So i'm in the middle of getting my CA driver's license and have my temporary paper license right now until they send me my actually license in the mail. I took my old VA license and put it in my diary because it's expired but I still wanted to keep it. On the 30 minute drive to the country club I vaguely thought "hmmm maybe I should have brought my actual license......" but didn't do anything about the feeling. When we tried to enter the club we were turned down rather rudely by the bouncer because my temporary paper license wasn't going to cut it. I was devastated. Mike had planned this night to take me to dinner and dancing and here I was ruining it with my forgetfulness and disregard to plan ahead and just bring my old license. I wanted to cry because Mike and I carpooled with some friends so we couldn't just drive back and get it. I was so mad at myself and couldn't get over it. I was in a total buzz kill mood and Mike was the one trying to cheer me up when he should've been mad. looking back on it I see now more than ever the kind of man Mike is and how blessed I am to be his girlfriend. Mike was such a gentleman and sat with me in the car for an hour while we called friends who might be coming to the club later that night.

Later that night Mike's roommate got into my car, found my license in my diary, and drove up to dance with us and brought it with him. We were elated that an hour and a half later we could enter the club. I tried to make up for my bad attitude earlier by being the best dance partner Mike could wish for. We danced and laughed and did some flips(and got in trouble) and had the best time together. We were completely exhausted and worn out from so much dancing--it was such a wonderful night and we're definitely planning on doing it again.

now we are taking it easy and watching conference all weekend, soaking up the Spirit and finding ways to improve ourselves. Honestly the gospel makes everything better. even a crazy, awful, up and april fools week.