Cali Part 3- California Adventure!

The next day we wore our matching Yellowstone T-shirts 

that Anders got me from his recent trip there.

Yep, we were that couple. 

But I think it is necessary to be cheesy every once in a while.

We quickly ran straight to Carsland once California Adventure opened up...

Us and everyone else in the park!

I stood in line for the Racers ride while Anders stood in line for a fast pass.

Best decision ever.

When we went back to redeem our fast pass,

it only took us 5 minutes to get on the ride (when there was a 2 hour wait).

Anyways, that ride was a blast!

And Carsland is fantastic.

I felt like I stepped into the movie.

Very well done.

We continued to ride as many rides as we could before the rush hit.

It usually hit around 11am.

We rode Tower of Terror about 3 times in a row.

NO line. It was awesome.

By lunch time we were starving and filled up with a burrito 

at a delicious Mexican restaurant in California Adventure. 

We also went to the sourdough bread factory

and tried to go to the Mission tortilla factory 

but they changed it to a Ghirardelli chocolate shop.

Soooo naturally we had to get ice cream!

If you know Anders and I at all, you know how much we love our ice cream.

 

When we saw Chip and Dale walking across the street
I got really excited and started running towards them screaming,
"Chip n' Dale! Chip n' Dale!"
Now, being the Vegas native I am I heard the words coming out of my mouth
and immediately thought of the strip show Chippendales.
I suddenly felt like a pervert and just walked away.

As mentioned in Part 2, we found this hilariously awesome Disney club.

We made it a priority to go again the next day.

^^The step sisters loved Anders!^^

^^Cat fight^^

^^Walked by Vince Vaughn and quickly turned around 

to stalk him like the weirdo I am.^^

Our second day at the parks we went to Disneyland for the second half of the day.

We saw everyone walking around with sweet celebratory pins so we thought we

would check to see if they had any just engaged pins.

Well, a nice Disneyland employee snuck us the last couple pins they had.

Apparently they are discontinued because too many people get engaged at Disneyland.

We promised to never tell anyone that he gave them to us.

So for the rest of the trip whenever anyone asked us about them,

especially the employees, 

we just made up a lame story.

HOWEVER, we got the best treatment having these cutesy pins plastered on our shirts.

For example: We got our own boat on the Small World ride.

See picture below. 

Everywhere we walked someone was shouting "congratulations!"

We didn't mind it at all!

That night we explored every inch left of Disneyland that there was to explore.

Being thoroughly exhausted, we called it a night.

On Sunday we went to church in Mission Viejo and hit the road!

 

We made it to Vegas just in time to eat dinner with my family.

This last New Years Eve when Anders came to visit me for the first time
we wrote each other letters that we weren't supposed to open for 6 months.
8 months later we remembered to grab them.

That night we sat alone and read our letters to each other out loud.

It was so sweet.

I'm so glad we made it this far.

I couldn't have asked for a better person to spend the rest of forever with.

Monday morning we hit the road again.

This was our final stretch to Utah!

It was sad to come back from such a perfect vacation.
It's always hard to come home after a vacation.
But we had some wedding planning to do!

Till next time.

The 224

Last night I said goodbye to the apartment I considered home for the last 2 years.

I randomly found this place 2 years ago, 1 month before school was about to start.

I didn't know any of my roommates but I didn't care.

I knew I was supposed to be there.

The last 2 years have been extremely significant in shaping my adult self.

The transition from teenager to adult 

(although I still shy away from the word, adult... I'm only 22 for goodness sakes!! I don't want to pay bills! Anyways...)

was a rough one but these past couple years are when I really came into my own.

So many friends have come, gone, and stayed in this place.

There were the boys who have knocked on that door to pick me up on a date,

and the last one who ever would :) 

So much happened there.

It is bitter sweet.

Bitter because I loved it there.

My roommates went from strangers to best friends.

And sweet because it is time to move forward.

I get to choose my roommate for the rest of my life.

I can't wait to spend every second I can with him.

Sometimes in life change is unwelcomed and forced,

sometimes it is wanted,

and sometimes it is just the next step.

Goodbye, home.

Cali Trip Part 2- Disneyland!

We started our morning pretty early so we could get to Disneyland just as the park opened.

We ran straight to Space Mountain, got a fast pass, and rode the ride.

I hadn't been to Disneyland for about 4 years but I was way more excited

to see Anders experience it for the first time!

 

^^ our cute Space Mountain photo^^

I saw more characters in the 2 days we were at both parks than I have in all of the times I have been there combined! We just kept running into them. We weren't patient enough to wait in line and get an autograph but we snuck pictures of most of them.

 ^^ Mickey Mouse waiting for the parade to start. His face cracks me up.^^

 ^^ Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Anders is copying his face.^^

Halfway through the day we switched over to California Adventure.

We made it just in time for the water parade.

 ^^ And yes, Carsland is just as cool as everyone says it is. But more on that later.^^

After the parade we decided to explore every nook and cranny of California Adventure.

We made our way into the Mad T Party section of the park.

This had been added since the last time I was at California Adventure

so we took our time looking around.

As we were walking around we could hear some really loud music playing.

We followed the music to a building in the back of Mad T.

Since Anders and I are always up for a good adventure we decided to just walk in and check it out.

We were not disappointed!

We came across a Disney club where you just dance/party with Disney characters.

I could not get over the unexpectedness of this bizarre club.

This quickly became our favorite part of the trip!

 ^^Stitch almost killed Anders for hitting a beach ball at his face (on accident, of course)^^

After dancing off our exhaustion we were ready to explore some more.

We made it just in time to see Goofy lead the water show.

 Now, I love a lot of the rides at California Adventure

but my absolute favorite ride is the ferris wheel.

You have to get on the rocking carts though or it is just an average, boring ferris wheel. 

Poor Anders was a good sport.

He got a little motion sick.

^^You can see the progression of exhaustion in our pictures.

I stopped caring about fixing my hair because the next ride would just mess it up all over again.^^

We switched back over to Disneyland as the sun went down.

We rode as many rides as our bodies would let us.

Around 11pm we decided to call it quits...

until the next day, of course!

Flashback Monday?

There's no play on words but for this memory I'll make an exception.

I came across this picture today and it made my heart happy.

This was our second date (our first was just the night before)

and it was one of my favorite dates. 

We were with a fun group of people. 

I was having so much fun and Anders made me happy.

It was PACKED at Temple Square that night.

Anders was joking around with me and 

got down on one knee and said,

"what if I proposed to you in front of all these people.

What would you do?"

Little did we know that we would get married there,

in that temple,

10 months later.

Cali Trip Part 1- Beach Day

So as you all know by now,

our first leg of the trip started with Anders and I getting engaged!

Wednesday night was a special night.

We didn't get much sleep because of all the excitement,

but come Thursday morning we were ready to continue our trek to California.

After a quick breakfast with family

we were on the road again.

The excitement really started to sink in on our drive!

I couldn't help but stare at this sparkly thing.

 You should all know that I didn't want to go ring shopping.

And I wanted the proposal to be a complete surprise.

I definitely got what I wanted!

Anders, being the great guy he is, picked this ring out entirely by himself

and sneakily planned that proposal (with the help of my family) without me knowing!

It was all perfect.

 We were staying at Anders' extended family's house in Mission Viejo.

Once we arrived, we dropped off our bags and headed down to Laguna Beach.

 There is something about the salty air and slipping my toes in the sand that makes me fall in love with this coast line all over again!

I wish I could've stayed forever.

 After getting our beach fix in, we rode our razor scooters around the boardwalk.

I still think those scooters were the best thing I have bought all year.

We felt a little silly at first, 

but those feelings quickly turned into more of a giddy excitement.

We couldn't believe that we had dreamed of this trip all year and now we were living it!

Not to mention it was already much, much better than we expected.

Anyways, for dinner we ate at the classic Johnny Rockets.

 I love their ketchup bowls.

My favorite part of the day was cruising the PCH with my love.

The sun was setting and we were jamming out to Oak Tree by Desert Noises.

That song has been at the top of my list all summer. 

We ended the evening with a stroll through Balboa Island.

It's such a charming place.

We admired all of the gorgeous houses and thought we'd play house for a bit.

We picked up a listing for one of the houses on the edge of the harbor.

6.5 mill... We have quite a ways to go to work up to this place.

After the sun had set,

we made our way back to Mission Viejo.

We needed a good nights rest because we were going to the happiest place on Earth the next day!

Disneyland... here we come!

ENGAGED.

Hello world,

I'm engaged!

I'm so lucky to be marrying my best friend.

He is so perfect for me and amazing in so many different ways.
I won't bore you with all the mushy details but you can 

watch the proposal here!
All you need to know is that this was a complete surprise,
he picked out the ring by himself (and he did so good),
and my family was there.
So basically... It was perfect.

Let the wedding planning frenzy begin!