Davey Croquet

Since yesterday was a beautiful 60 degree day here in Provo, we spent the afternoon playing a little croquet and bocce ball. You know, your typical lawn sports. It was my first time playing croquet and I was quite horrible. Dave and Tom can play a mean game of croquet. I was pretty impressed. But when it came to bocce - Katie and I showed the boys up.

In other news, Halloween was pretty uneventful. Dave spent the night studying until 12 a.m. for an OChem test he had the next day, and I went grocery shopping. We are pretty hip these days. We did make it to one Halloween party that our friends Sara & James hosted. We carved a "Go Mitt" pumpkin, which later died an awful death when a friendly neighbor decided to stab it. They even left the knife stuck in it. That was exciting.

Election day on Tuesday! It was interesting to me that despite all the political hype going on, not a word of it was mentioned in our whole three hours of church. It was a good reminder to me that the world will keep turning, and the Lord's work will keep progressing no matter who wins. We live in a great country. We are blessed.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and I am getting way stoked because the Facers and McAffees will both be coming up to Utah. I'm pretty sure we are having three Thanksgiving dinners. Wednesday. Thursday. & Friday. Bring on the lbs!

Fall-ing

One of our favorite things to do last summer was to go wake-surfing with Uncle Dave and Aunt Kat. Luckily, we were able to get out on the boat at the very end of summer before it got too cold. It was the perfect transition from California to Utah. My surfing this summer seems to have made a difference, I was having so much fun out there, and did better than I had a year before. Woop woop. Dave always kills it, and it is really fun to watch him.

We've enjoyed a bikeride and a drive through the canyon. The Alpine Loop is a favorite. The fresh mountain air gets me every time.

Spent an afternoon with my lovey Clare. We diced and canned beets with Grandpa and Grandma Facer, and spent some time in their garden. There are so many things I want to learn!

Our friends are in a super rad band called The Strike. It's like a 9-person set up and sounds so sick. This show was on a nice summer night in Tom's backyard. So many people came! Sean and Jenny were grill masters and it was good to see them too.

Some of my girl friends started a monthly craft night, so I have been getting my craft on. Which has led me to start some projects around the house...more on that later.

And lastly, we enjoyed a wonderful conference weekend with all my family in town! It was awesome. I'm already looking forward to Thanksgiving.

Hope everyone is enjoying the fall changes! Say yes to sweaters.

oh hello world.

So I am crawling out of my cozy spot under a rock and I might actually start blogging again! Usually when people go absent from blogging for long spells it is because they have gotten pregnant or had a baby. Well I am here to inform you that neither of those is the case, we just had a crazy awesome summer in California.

California? Really? Yes. And it was crazy awesome. I got offered a job to nanny hang out with two rad kids in San Clemente for four months. Little skater-dude-surfer-groms, whose love of rocks and all things "boy" were right up our alley. We learned a lot, played a lot, and napped...a lot. Boys are exhausting!

Dave was down there shadowing, teaching surf lessons, and finding other odds and ends to keep busy and prepare for the scary of scary semesters (OCHEM!!). When not doing that, he was surfing, or with me, or surfing with me - just lovin life guys.

Outside of work we tried to live it up and soak up all that California had to offer - which was a lot. Family, surfing, and adventuring filled our days to the brim. The first half of the summer, my hours were lighter while the boys were in school. That meant we were surfing 3x a week and even squeezed in two road trips - one to Encinitas, and the other up and down the California coast. Serious memories were made. The computer I uploaded our pictures and videos on crashed, so I am anxiously waiting to see if I have any record of it. So sad.

The second half of summer things got super busy with work and I was working around 60-70 hours a week. Nutso. Instagramming even stopped (gasp!). But we made it out alive and still are so thankful and had so much fun.

Just for my own memory's sake, and for things I might elaborate on later, here is what we were up to from April to September...

APRIL
- Finished winter semester and my last ever BYU class
- Moved to California

MAY
- Kari & Luke's wedding (25th)
- TWO year anniversary for us (28th)
- Celebrated our anniversary in the radical Encinitas (I would love to end up there someday)

JUNE
- Birthday Bonanza: Mine (17th), Beaver's (18th), and Dave's (20th) - since our birthdays are three days apart, we have gotten in the habit of combining them...and we have done the same thing 4 years in a row (minus 1). We spend the whole day at Doheny. Surfing all day & night, and capping it off with a bonfire with friends and family. One of my favorite days all year.

JULY
- Tom & Katie Hall's wedding in Sacramento - roadtripped up the coast through Big Sur, Carmel, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, San Fransisco, and other cool scenes. The loveliest road trip of my life. Big Sur stole my heart.
- We left for our roadtrip on the 4th of July, so we got to see how different cities celebrated it on our way up the coast. We stopped in Ventura and ended up in Cayucos for fireworks and a bonfire with new friends.
- Dave did a 10-day work gig in central California, being apart is the pits.

AUGUST
- Work work work
- Last minute bucket list check marks

SEPTEMBER
- Back in Provo
- Me starting a new job, and Dave starting the hardest semester to date. Three cheers for Dave!

We are getting back in the Provo groove, and I have to say - It's good to be back. Utah is beautiful this time of year, and I can't help but get excited for what lies ahead. I mean let's be real...I'm already listening to Christmas music...I'm one of those people.

Hopefully I will be back on here more regularly. In the meantime - cheers. And thank you to our families back home who hosted us this summer and made us feel so loved. We love you back.

sun sun sunday

It feels like summer today. We got to go over to Tom Hall's casa today after church for lunch. I drove there and back in Dave's car. Why the big deal? I spent two hours yesterday learning how to drive stick so I will be able to drive our car finally. And by George I think I've got it! But put me on a hill and all confidence in my driving abilities end. I will get better though. It's pretty fun!

Anyways, at Tommy's we had lunch with him and his fiancée Katie. She is rad. Hoagies were prime. Weather was prime. 60s all week people! We dragged out the futon mattress to the backyard and just laid in the sun for a while and poked bugs with sticks while we talked about life and marriage. I love days like this.

I can't wait for summer...