Random stuff you probably don't even want to read

I don't have the pictures off of taylor's camera from the last few days yet, so I'm just writing down a few things that have been dancing around in my mind lately. 

Taylor and I have a new favorite word

Adoration: 

1   : to worship or honor as a deity or as divine

2   : to regard with loving admiration and devotion

3: to be very fond of

Who could ask for more? We have decided we will not date, kiss, or especially marry someone who does not absolutely ADORE us. There is no better definition of love. 

TO BE LOVED IS TO BE ADORED 

(for the right reasons of course) 

Sisters, hmmm touchy subject

I love my sisters, with all my heart. They are my permanent best friends, they aren't going anywhere. So what happens when you fight? You suck it up and apologize, even if it kills you. They are with you for the long haul. I'm very blessed to have such wonderful sisters who share my same passions, experience my same heartaches, support me in anything (even quit my job, pack my bags, and move to a city where I don't know a soul), and NO ONE will come between us. I love you Ash, Mikayla, Kassidy, and Hope. Miss you guys

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is typically defined as the process of concluding resentment, indignation, or anger as a result of a perceived offense, difference or mistake, and/or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution. 

I've been practicing this as much as I can. I have a lot of crap that people have to forgive me for, but lately I have just been tested on this a lot. I'd like to think I'm doing pretty well. 

CTR

WWJD

The thing I need to work the hardest on is my initial response. I tend to freak out for a good hour, then I'm fine. I want to cut that completely out. The only person that can make me miserable is me, I'm a firm believer in that. I am in charge of my own happiness, and if everyone took an extra minute to contemplate how their reaction will effect the future, we would all be a lot happier. I'm getting there though. It's a personal goal I've set for myself, and it is definitely being tried. The future is bright despite everything.

DISNEYLAND

LITERALLY 

Can you even think of a more magical place? This place is fantastic! I had a rough day yesterday and honestly didn't think anything could make it better, my day was shot; 

I WAS WRONG.

 I get a text from Mikayla (little sister), she is flying in for a cheer competition and is going to DISNEYLAND!! Best news ever, seriously an answer to my prayers. I get ready, Tay gets ready and we start driving, we park, get out of our car, walk to the escalators... it's raining. Uh-oh, I don't do well when I'm cold. Oh well, I want to see Mikayla. I don't even debate it. We get inside and decide that we are going to go on Peter Pan since we hadn't been on it since we were little kids. THE GREATEST.

FINALLY Mikayla gets there, it is pretty much in the ocean now it's raining so hard (exaggeration). Seeing her made my day though, I needed it so bad. I love her, we are the most alike in my opinion. We were all laughing and having SUCH a good time, you wouldn't have even known it was raining. We were drenched, freezing, and singing ha. It was the best day. I loved it. Tay loved it. I assume Mikayla loved it ha. We actually stayed for quite a long time, and we weren't even complaining. It is exactly what we needed, thanks Mikayla for answering our prayers even though you didn't know you were. Love you.

The Clean Diet

Clean Diet Basics

The Clean Program helps to restore the ability of the body to heal itself by several methods.

1. Reducing the load on the digestive system.
2. Protecting you from the damage of circulating toxins.
3. Delivering specific liver detox nutrients.
4. Promoting gut repair.

Taylor and I decided we were going to practice self-control, and she wanted to see if this would help her feel better. She has consistently not felt well after eating. Sounds great, who wouldn't want their body in it's best shape? JOKE, we went and spent a bunch of money on disgusting foods that we were allowed to eat. We decided it didn't matter how much it cost, we were gonna do it. Bahahaha, we are the worst. Day 1: eating a meal replacement shake for breakfast, eat raspberries when I got hungry. Crap, I'm still hungry and craving chocolate. Well Taylor is at work, so I drive to Walmart and buy nearly 20 reese's peanut butter eggs. I hide them in my purse and then in the little cubby thing in my car. Well funny thing is, when she finds this out she tells me she went and bought some too, and wasn't going to tell me ha. I am NOT doing a cleanse. I can finally admit, I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER MY BODY. Lovely. 

THE BEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES

So, I'm obviously a little behind on the blog, we've been here more than two weeks and I think I've got to day 4? Well here is the update in pictures. Pictures are worth a thousand words anyway right?

THIS IS OUR "ROOM" 

We honestly love it

This is the birthday card our Chiropractor friend Ryan gave Taylor on her birthday, look closely at the card and you can see, he knew her very well.

They also made her a cake:) And then we went 80's dancing!

Next day Korby and Jason took us on a double date rock climbing!! 

We sucked

 bottom line

But it was fun

DUH

BEST

Beins and Maverick joined the crew and immediately became best friends with our boys. 

Beins had NEVER been to Disneyland, WTH. So basically this was the best day of his life, and we got to share it with him:)

CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE

In line for Pirates of the Caribbean

 

 End of the night, messing around

 Then, the club. 

Waaaaaayyyy fun. 

Love getting all dressed up and dancing our pants off.

BFF's

DORK

DAY TWO: Settling... or not

Definitely slept in today 2 GOALS: 1.Find a place to live 2. Get a job. Well not when you don't know anybody, and have to use a GPS to get to the gas station. After an entire day of driving around to various places we had looked up online, we weren't really feeling it. It was a pretty scary thought; up until this point, things had fallen into place... and this, was not. Then on top of all that, things turned bad with the place we were staying. Now what? Seriously I have never been more scared in my life. I couldn't go back home now, we had come so far. I randomly decided to get a hotel, let my brain slowdown for a bit, and figure out our next move. (Obviously this is what the random $100 was for as I walked out the door, love you Dad) I get online and book a hotel called the Radisson in Whittier, California. Turns out the whole thing was an answer to my prayers. I just chilled out, took 2 or 5 showers, watched some CSI, chatted on Facebook, and didn't think about my problems. "Hey how are things going in California?" chats a different friend Jeff. I tell him what's up and he has this bright idea to check out Huntington or Newport, basically a little ways South anywhere.I don't know why I did, but I loved the idea. Right after, I texted Taylor and told her what he had proposed, and we decided to check things out. So about 2AM I feel at peace finally and fall asleep. 

DAY 3: Change of plans....

I wake up, take my own sweet time to shower yet again, dress in some chill attire, don't brush my hair, and put on muh trusty fedora. On the road yet again, (Every time you go anywhere here, it turns into a road trip because of the traffic)ready to pick Taylor up and start this new adventure. Bronson answers the door, in his underwear... don't worry Taylor and Cody were both wide awake but made him answer it anyway. I come in, we chat for a bit and head off... Orange County. We don't understand why we feel so good about it but we do. We are Praying in Gratitude for the trials and blessings we had received so far. Great start to the day. It's getting warmer.... GREATEST THING EVER!! It's starting to look more like the California you always picture. We are so excited when you can finally see the beach! 

THIS IS OUR BEACH

How could we want to live anywhere else?;)

Why didn't we think of this before? Downtown is so dirty and sketchy, we were afraid to walk to our car... this was the best decision we had ever made! Only one problem, we don't know a single soul. Literally, we had no plans. All of sudden my friend,

Dr. Brock's 

name pops in my head. 

He had lived here a while back working as a doctor. I send him a text and ask him if he knows anyone that might be able to help us. Being more than glad to help, he makes the phone call for us, tells us to meet up with him so he can help us out. So we head to 120 17th Street, Huntington Beach, CA. WTH, the beach is still within view... he can't live here. But he does. This guy named Kui, (pronounced Ewwy, but with a K)is the greatest guy ever. So surprised to find he is LDS, like actual LDS, strong active member LDS, so we feel like we can actually trust him.

 He immediately starts contacting people in the ward, trying to find us jobs, and finding a place to live, finding girls we could room with etc. We are both just in shock. Literally how is this even happening? How did we get so lucky? This wasn't luck. Taylor and I have both felt like there is a reason we are supposed to be out here but we didn't know what yet. Then we meet most of the roommates, Austin, Josh, Korby, Matt, Kyler, Ben, and Randy. All the greatest guys ever. Very active household. Such a relief. Shows how much of a support the church can be. They are all just 100% ready to help us strangers. We were amazed. And it just so happens that Austin, who lives in the little shanty on the roof, is headed Utah for a few weeks. He offers his little place, free of charge, while he is gone, so we can find jobs and a place to live.... WHAT!!?? So what you're saying is we can live less than a block from the beach, FOR FREE???!!! 

Doi, no brainer. 

Now we have 8 older brothers... we have to check in every hour, be home by curfew, etc etc. Never been so intimidated or excited by or about anything. 


That night we head to a "house" party. We didn't know there were houses where you had to go through 3 gates to get to. There are, apparently they are in Irvine, CA. 

This was the master bath.

This house is incredible. There is even a faucet that is a 

DRAGON... 

who has those?? 

The guy that owns this house made his living building assisted living homes! Ahhhh this is what I want to do! You mean if I do what I've always wanted to, and do it well like I plan to, I can have a house like this? Duh, just made me want to achieve my goal even more. This house was BIG, this house was breath taking.

DAY FOUR: Day before Tay's 21st!!!


Today is the day, Tay's last day as a child. She will officially be 21 years old in less than 24 hours. She wakes up to these beautiful flowers from a good friend! Good start to a birthday eve. 

We decided that since at midnight she would be allowed into clubs and parties, that we would venture up to downtown LA/Hollywood. So we call up Jef and Cody to see if they know of any places that would be good to check out. Of course they do, so we plan on meeting up with them around midnight. Once we get there they are with some friends, who quickly became our friends too. 

Jason was hilarious and kept insisting Taylor was not white. He was trying to convince the world of this too. 

Quite humorous.

It was such a blast! We went to a brand new club that was just opening and then stopped by a different place before heading back to LA. By this time it was 3-ish so we just crashed at Cody and Jef's place, and that ends our 3rd night in So Cal.

03/03/11 THE JOURNEY BEGINS

Day one: THE DRIVE

Sad eyes:(

AU REVOIR

The plan: Leave at nine AM. Meet Jef Holm in Las Vegas around 2PM our time; Jef had to be back in California by a certain time and we had decided we had no reason to stay. Sounded easy, but why did I have such a bad feeling about it? As soon as we had made this decision we were freaking out so excited, but I couldn't ignore this gut wrenching feeling I had that we were supposed to wait. We hadn't been able to think about anything else for two weeks! 

So we ignored it and went to dinner to PF Chang's with the fam, which was amazing. If you're gluten intolerant I strongly suggest it. As if the food wasn't enough, our waiter walks out and hands both of my parents free shakes! "What the, where is mine?" The waiter says, "Well that isn't very fair is it?" We agree and he disappears. Five seconds later, two other waiters walk out with trays of shakes!! One for each member of my family and Taylor. We couldn't believe it, we still don't know what we did to deserve that, but we were more than grateful. We like to believe someone was just trying to be nice and put a smile on our faces, which worked, and in turn we decided to do the same for someone else. It's a good way to go about your day, and an easy way to change the world.

And these were our fortunes

VINTO with some of the best friends ever saying our final goodbye, making the whole thing even more real.

The VINTO was the sickest place to eat, with gluten free pizza as well! 

Jentri Jean Dean eating some effing delicious raspberry and vanilla gelato

Who knows, who cares

Beautiful sister Ash and best friend Petra just being the pretty girls that they are:)

Oh, Josh

 Sleeping was the hardest thing to do anymore, even though it's all we wanted to do to make time pass faster. Still uneasy about the whole thing I managed to fall asleep, we had talked about the possibility of waiting, but hadn't made any decisions yet. We decided we would see how we felt in the morning. ALARM: 8:30 AM. Missed text from Ashli Snow: Dan, you can't leave at nine. Jen is having a surprise party for you here at 11:40... the text is already sent out to all the workers and stuff. Well that was easy! I wasn't going to miss MY party!! I immediately text Jef and tell him not wait around for us. He doesn't respond... as usual ha. I am not complaining about sleeping in now. We have a long drive ahead of us, this made way more sense ha. Taylor runs a few errands and then we head to my work. They weren't kidding! So many of my co-workers and all the people I love including all 30 something grandmas and grandpas. 

Miss Tricky Tracky

Joe and Dan

So hard to leave

Loves of my life:)

They have a cake and a present and decorations! It would've been terrible to miss this! I was so glad I stayed. They announced during lunch that I was leaving and everyone gave me hugs and kisses and then they gave me a giant box of reese's!! When I say a giant one, I mean a giant one!! We counted this RUBBERMAID container and there were over 40 of those 8 pack of reeses peanut butter cups. My absolute favorite. I almost cried over it. I've never seen anything like it! It was the best present I have ever ever ever received! 

Stephan,

(Our amazing gluten free cook) made me this special cake! 

Made me smile:)

Can't beat co-workers like these!

So around 12:30 we left, made a few stops and were on the road! The drive was good, great actually. We couldn't even contain how excited we were to finally be headed; If only someone had recorded a video of that drive! Multiple times we found ourselves screaming "California" and then cranking the music up full blast! We made it to St. George in a little over three hours. We were going as fast, BUT AS SAFE MOM, as possible! Right after we pass through St. George I look in my rear-view mirror and see this beautiful rainbow. All I could think was it was a sign we were doing the right thing, following our <3's! And that is exactly what we are doing!

(Hope you can see it:)

As I put some change in a jar supporting a local petting zoo in Beaver, UT, the cashier says thanks, you saw the baby zebra outside?? WHAT!!??? A baby zebra??!! And sure enough, this little guy named MARTY (clever) was snacking away. So we snapped a pic.

We hit Vegas right at the five hour mark! We were absolutely ecstatic now, we were more than halfway!! We had been following the sun this whole time and it was finally starting to set.It was exciting to know that we were WAY ahead of the 10 hours and 37 minutes our GPS' had predicted. We were finally getting somewhere. Out of no where, while I'm going about 90 mph, I see my speedometer read 80000! In a panic, Taylor and I both whip out our camera's and try to take a pic before it changes and this is what we came up with ha. Not particularly important, or important at all, but kind of cool ha. 

PULLING INTO LOS ANGELES: Dying

So warm, so big,

so much freakin traffic

Pleh.

It was just our luck to get off on an exit to stop at the store where the two entrances back on were closed, but we managed to get back on, 20 minutes in the wrong direction! (Okay, like 5, I'm exaggerating) Headed to downtown LOS ANGELES now! Cody, Jef, and Brons had been out to dinner with Jef's parents, who are both angels and serving a mission for the next three years, (Congratulations). And after taking the scenic route ten or fifteen times, trying to find SBMAIN, we managed to park and are let inside their building. ANXIETY is killing us at this point. So crazy we were finally here! Soon enough the boys are back and we all go upstairs. Sickest place ever. We all talk for a bit and then head to go play some pool. Tired, we all head home and crash, and let dreams end the first night of our new adventure:)