Part II: California

I drove from AZ to CA with my parents and spent the week hanging out until Brandon got there the week later.  First on the list of things to do was see my good friend Sarah and her Husband.  They have a new little guy that I hadn't met yet so it was fun getting to catch up and just chill... As a side note, it's Sarah's birthday today so HAPPY BIRTHDAY friend!!!! :) You'll forever be older than me. heehee ;) Anyhoo... Sarah is great with cutting hair and took the liberty of giving me a new do! :)

Happy day!

After the haircut Sarah's parents took us out to In-N-Out for dinner.  They're so great! :) The rest of the week was pretty chill, taking prego pics of my cute friend Meredith, check them out here if you haven't seen them yet, along with hanging out at the mall with her.  I also took pics of Sarah and her cute little family.  Then I spent time with my parents going to Sushi and the movies, we saw The Other Guys, kinda funny but more ridiculous than anything!  But needless to say I was a busy little bee and tried to cram a bunch of stuff in.  I was also very blessed to attend my friend Jen's wedding while I was in town.  I was so bummed I was going to miss it but turns out by miraculous circumstances I was in town!   There were 27 weddings going on the same day, I had never seen the temple so crowded or have heard it so loud inside from all the people visiting and waiting.  The ceremony itself started an hour late.  It was crazy!!! But I'm so glad I got to be there!  Here's some shots from her big day.
    

  

Totally opposite from the wedding I was at the week before in 100+ degree weather!

I'm pretty sure I would have cried if the temple was like this on my wedding day. :/

I love you Jen! I'm so happy for you!!!

Next, Brandon came to town and we spent the week in Corona.  Funny story about that... Brandon friend requested this guy named Greg thinking he was someone else.  Greg emailed him back saying, "Do I know you?" yeah a bit awkward.  But Greg got to looking at Brandon's Facebook page and noticed they had a lot of mutual friends in the Wakeboarding world and then he noticed he was LDS and it just so happened Greg is too!  So him and Brandon became instant friends and they offered Brandon to come out and wakeboard for the week.  So we stayed with them (Greg, his awesome wife Rachelle and their 3 super cute little boys Zachry, Colin and Asher) for the week having fun wakeboarding everyday and going to dinner and renting movies, playing with the kiddos and Rachelle and I reading books and talking about anything and everything.  Basically Greg and Rachelle are Brandon and my twins.  It's like they are us just 8 years further down the road.  So it was a blast!

                  
  

Their dad promised them they would go fishing.  The guys got back later than expected and the poor kids waited so patiently all day.  So... Wha-LA! They went fishing. :)

Colin REALLY liked his dinner...

Yep I got rocked by an 8 yr old in Sequence

Poor Zachry ate it on the skateboard and the asphalt won.  And of course this happened right before they were supposed to leave for a wedding...

My husband, killin it!

Eric Nolan, one of the greatest friends ever! He got up before the sun even came up just to come chill on the boat and spend time with us since he knew that was the only chance he'd get to see Brandon before he went back to FL.  Eric you rock and we love you!!!

Can you tell he's tired?

Greg Solesbee, Brandon's brother from another mother

Now can you tell Eric is tired? haha

Self-portrait

Colin. Such a stud!

Brandon coaching Colin. Both Zachry and Colin got up!

Zachry in Brandon's hat

I'm so happy to be awake and on a boat at 4:30 in the am

 

 One of the best mom's I know! 

Good morning boys!!!

And that pretty much concludes our CA experience! It was a blast seeing all our family and old friends and at the same time making new friends!  Thanks again to Greg and Rachelle for being so hospitable and so awesome. :)

The Judd's Travel Log

Alright I've got some catching up to do! I know some of you have been wondering where on Earth I've been the last month, I think I will break these posts up by each state. So without further adieu...

Originally my trip was supposed to last just a few days while I went to my cousin's wedding. You already saw my awesome 1st class flight :) So we'll just start out after landing in AZ.

Photoshopped by me. Pictures taken by who knows.

I landed and then waited an hour for my parents to drive in from CA, they left late (what else is new?) but it was only an hour, lets be honest we all know it could have been A LOT worse. ;) We drove straight from the airport to the bridal shower. The next day was the wedding. I think I heard we missed the hottest day of August by 1 degree. Awesome. The sealing wasn't until 4:30 in the afternoon (so it would be "cooler") and they had a wedding planner so we basically had the day to chill. Mike and Emily decided to come last minute so I was excited to see one of my siblings while I was out west. (Little did I know I'd see all my siblings but one on my trek)

The happy couple

(Picture not taken by me, they took pictures a couple days before, and in the morning when it was in the 80's. My cousin is so smart!)

Stacie's brother, Ryan, is on his mission in Ukraine so they had a life size cut-out :)

It was so hot outside we decided to go get something refreshing to cool us off. One of my cousins told us to follow them to according to him "the best gas station" I didn't know there was such a thing. It seemed like we drove forever and we began to wonder how great this place must be for us to be driving so far just to get some drinks. Finally we made it to QT and we were not disappointed! It was the best gas station I had ever been too!

Coolest machine ever! You make your own Milkshake. It does everything for you!

Mike enjoying his Butterfinger Milkshake

Next was the reception. It was simple in an elegant and beautiful way. It was in a church building, assigned seating. And in each corner there was a white tent with a pretty chandelier hanging from each tent, under one was the cake, another they served Italian Sodas (my favorite part mmmmmm!) And awesome food, and a salad table etc. Each table setting had a piece of paper placed at it. On one side was the game that had funny sentences that sounded like common phases, you know like the game Mad Gab, they were all wedding/relationship type phrases. Then on the other side was a crossword puzzle about Stacie and Jesse. And then the best part... They played Minute To Win It games! It was awesome!

The bride and I

My cuz Mindy. I miss her!

Stacie and Jesse up against each other for the final Minute To Win It game to declare the winner. (sorry I ran out of space on my SD card so I didn't get a full video) They wound up in a draw (point-wise) so they both won prizes... I'm pretty sure it was planned that way. ha

The rest of the trip was way fun. I went shopping with my mom and sister-in-law, took the Watkins pictures which you can see here. We also got to visit with my Grandma Clement, and cleaned out her OLD camper that had every relief society roll and minutes for the last 40 years or more! My dad and brother had their own little adventure with the trailer that would take too long to tell here but it's a good one! It involves some crack heads... You know it's gotta be good when it involves crack heads. ha Also on the agenda, my Aunt's step-son came home from his mission so we went to his homecoming and made our own Cafe Rio sweet pork tacos and salads, it was truly yummy! And for the first time my cousins kids wanted attention from me :) Usually they kinda do their own thing or get attention from people they know a lot better than me, so it was fun to get to play with them.

Ashley's little boy, Slade. (my phone doesn't take the best photos)

Morgan at dinner with the cousins

I was scheduled to fly home August 8th but Brandon was going to CA for work and I really wanted to go with him, plus my sister needed me to babysit her kids at the end of the month in TX. So we decided to cancel my return flight. Bye bye 1st class :( And instead drove to CA with my parents and had my sister get my ticket from CA to TX then on to FL... So the travel log continues... in the next post!

Signs of Neglect...

I have clearly been showing signs of neglect to my blog!  I've been out and about for a month going from this place to that and it's kept me pretty busy.  I'm finally home and have plenty to post but I need to get some stuff done first since tomorrow I start my new job which means I no longer have the day to do whatever I want. :( 

In the mean time, check out Jimmie & Me for all kinds of fun updates!  I'll be back here soon... I hope! :/

Out of sight out of mind

My goodness it's been awhile!  I've been on the road... well that and in the air... I went to AZ last week for my cousin's wedding (more photos and videos to come of that trip) and now I'm in CA having fun with family and friends!  My dad flew me out on his frequent flyer miles which happened to put me 1st class!  It was quite the experience!  I felt a little silly taking pictures, hoping people around me didn't see me- all these seasoned veterans with a newbie it's just embarrassing!  I took them with my phone trying to make it look like I was just playing with my iPod or something.  I also felt a little bit like a jerk when the flight attendant didn't close the curtain between coach and 1st class and here I am sitting there in the last seat enjoying my full meal with dessert and the coach passengers in total view of my delicious smelling and tasting food!  oh well sucks for them.  In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, "Maybe they should have tried a little harder..." :)

Pasta, shrimp cocktail, salad, bread... free wine (if I drank that would be more cool but just the fact that they offered something for free was amazing to me!)

Ice Cream with Raspberry Chocolate Cheesecake pieces mmmmmmm!

Honest Abe

Basically this is mine and the hubby's favorite commercial. When we watch our shows on Hulu and the Geico guy comes on we wish and hope and pray it's this commercial and then we cheer when we find out that it is. You're welcome.

Let's get Crafty!

I ran 7.5 miles this morning. I didn't get much sleep last night, Brandon was working late as the MOD (manger on duty) since there are under age kids at the camp. I had the car because I had been at a friend's house most the day so I got to the camp around 10 pm and spent some time with Brandon. Typically when you're MOD you're supposed to spend the night at the camp but there's a coach that lives there so once he comes back for the night we take off. It wasn't until 2 am that they came staggering in after having a "few" drinks at the bar across the street. I haven't been around drunk people much in my life, but they are in fact quite humorous. However, I would have found it more humorous had it not been 2 am and I had hardly slept and I knew I needed to be up by 6 to meet my running group by 6:30 this morning. So needless to say I didn't get much sleep and then running 7.5 miles basically made me want to die. I really pushed myself this time, trying to improve myself so my body was REALLY feelin it! When I got home I showered and then started reading a book, I think I only got through a few pages before crashing for a REALLY long nap... It may or may not have been 3 possibly 4 hours long. I only got up because I forced myself too. ha!

Anyway this post says it's about crafts... so enough about running. Since I've found myself bored on more than one occasion I decided to start creating stuff to keep me busy. So I pulled up the trusty ol' Martha Stewart website to see what fun things I could do. I had planned to visit my friend... the one that got me into this whole running mess... We live in the same stake and yet we live about an hour from each other. Go figure. (GPS said 1hr 25 mins but I did it 1hr and 10 mins and I didn't even speed so apparently GPS isn't always that accurate! ha) I'm still flabbergasted that someone in my stake could live so far away, it sucks because I make a friend and then I never get to see them! As I was driving I realized, "this is like me driving to LA from my parents house!" It's crazy to think of all the many different stakes and wards there are between Mission Viejo and LA compared to here. ANYWAY... we planned on going to a flea market which turned out to not be very hoppin... apparently Saturday and Sundays are the prime time to go. Why they even claim to be open Friday I don't know. But we did get some awesome DVD's for $2 each so it wasn't a total loss. After we got some lunch at Applebee's we started on our crafting! :) Then after that we watched Marley & Me (one of our $2 movie purchases) it was a super fun day and very needed so I could get out of the house. I just wish Des lived closer! Oh well, thanks for the fun time! Here's the crafts I did. They are really easy to do and fun for kids, Desiree's little girl even made one of her own.

I made these with regular soup cans and scrapbook paper. I cut the paper to size, and secured both ends of the paper with double sided tape. Then to give it a more finished look and make it more sturdy I Modge Podged the outside. (we tried modge podge on the inside and it made the paper wrinkly and hard to wrap around the can) Anyway they can be used as a pen holder, decorative piece, maybe put flowers in, or put goodies in it and give them to someone as a gift, etc.

These I think are way cool! You take pictures, these are of my dad as a kid and my grandparents, and bottle caps. Use an 1" circle punch to cut out the pictures. Then I used packaging tape because I didn't have a laminator and you laminate the pictures. Then just stuff them into the bottle cap. Get clear casting resin (which I still need to go buy, so these aren't quite finished yet) and pour it on top of the pictures, fill it to the top of the bottle cap and let dry over night. You can glue magnets to the backs, or I did thumb tacks because that's what we had handy, or you can glue safety pins and turn them into little buttons you can put on your kids backpacks or clothes or whatever. I was thinking with the magnets, besides using them on the fridge, it could be cool to stick them on a metal picture frame or something... Just some fun ideas. This could even be used as a girls camp idea... the girls have certification and they usually have something they earn, like beads for a bracelet, or buttons or something... you can put whatever kind of pictures you want in here and they could earn their pins... Just a thought. Anyway... Have fun!

Adventures!

Well yesterday was pretty uneventful... I did have a sort of job interview that was out in BFE, and in the morning I went for a walk/jog with some friends.  Other than that I did a little bit of jack and a little bit of squat.  Oh yeah, I rented a movie that made me want to commit suicide after watching.  Ok not really, but it was really depressing.  So in order to lift my spirits I put in The Office and made some dinner with a new recipe I wanted to try, some kind of corn chowder type thing.  It was alright, I think it needs some kind of seasoning added to it or something.  I needed some more cheering up and I had remembered a little treat I saw in a Costco cook book.  They suggested putting a Popsicle stick through the top of a yogurt lid and stick it in the freezer.  I had put them in the freezer the other day and decided now was as good of time as any to try it.  Well it was kinda hard to get out of the cup but with the trusty Cut-Co scissors I was able to cut it off.  Also I didn't have Popsicle sticks, just lollipop sticks which worked ok but I suggest trying it with the Popsicle sticks if you want to give it a go.  It tasted great! It reminded me of when I was a kid eating the Flintstones Push-up pops. Those were so good!  haha So in effort to get out of the house I took my treat out to our dock and ate it while reading a book and watching some of the pros that live down the street practice their wake skating.  It was nice, I just wished I had someone to join me in the moment.  (Brandon was at work)  Anyway...

 
Today however, was a bit more exciting.  Jennifer and her kids Chamberlynn and Braden and I went for a little adventure.  Jen had heard about a candy store in Polk County so we drove out there to check it out.  It was a pretty fun little place full of all kinds of homemade/old fashioned looking candy, I was just bummed they didn't have the old fashion lemon drops, those are my fav!  But we did come out with a nice selection of goodies.  I basically got sick from all the sugar though.  ha.  Then we found a mall along the way and decided to walk around, it was pretty dead but we found some amazing deals!  Earrings and necklace for $2.99! So we bought a bunch and they threw in some free earrings before we left.  Then we went to another store where we got a bunch of Buy 1 get one Free deals and since we (and by we I mean Jennifer, I was just tagging along, but Chambs did get a buy 1 get 1 free shirt so she let me get the free shirt, we got the same ones just different colors. super cute!) Anyway since we spent a certain amount they threw in a free ring!  No wonder the mall looked like it was going under, they were constantly just giving stuff away! ha  But it was a fun time.  Here's some pictures from the day.  Thanks again Jen for being awesome! :)

Chambs, Braden and I outside Webb's Candy Factory

We were a little leery about the Goat Milk Fudge... 

Braden took this pic