Sister Weekend

My older sister and I have always been quite different.  She's always been very petite (even after having 4 kids), she has blue eyes and used to have blonde hair.  She likes vanilla, I prefer chocolate, she only ate dry white meat while I love juicy dark meat. For her birthday dinner she would always want vegetable plate (just a gigantic platter of seasoned vegetables) and I always asked to go to Tony Roma's for a big plate of ribs. I could go on all day it seems...

She went off to school and got married at 19 while I took a longer route and waited til I was almost 24. She was 27 with 4 kids and I'm 26 with none. I know I don't have kids, but it seems that every mother deserves a break every once in a while.  When I asked my sister if she had ever spent a night away from her little family she said "No, never...well wait, I actually have, when I was in the hospital giving birth." as serious as can be.  That definitely does not count so for her birthday we convinced her to come out and visit.

She was so excited to be here we went straight downtown for a boat tour and Mexican food.

On Friday morning I got to show her a lot of the scrapbooks I've done from my senior year of sports, my study abroad in Mexico and my mission.  These were all such huge events in my life and since she was married and in school with children while I was away from home, I've never gotten to sit down and tell her about any of them.  It was fun to share those years of my life with her.

Then I took her up to the river and we went floating.  I'll never forget turning around after I went down the chute to see her coming down towards the rapids with her eyes all big and her mouth wide open in scared anticipation.  She definitely got a mouthful of gross river water to start the day off.  I wish I had taken my camera on the river, it was such a relaxing and beautiful float.  I had so much fun just having sister time talking and laughing in our comfy tubes without a care in the world.

Saturday morning we made her our famous Texas-shaped waffles and showed her where San Antonio is.  Then we took her to see our beautiful temple.  I loved showing her around inside since it's a place that we've become so familiar with over the past 2 years.

That afternoon we went out and shopped til we dropped!  Our loving mom sent us both a gift card so we went a little crazy.  I learned we have very similar shopping habits which is awesome!  We went through tons of stores and found some really cute stuff.  It was so fun shopping with my sister and having that girl time (although I love shopping with my husband, but he just has a biased opinion.  Even if I try on the ugliest thing in the store he will still say I look smokin' in it).  Since we're moving this next weekend, Carrie really wanted to help get us ready so she helped us pack and do some cleaning.  It was so fun cleaning my apartment and having my sister there helping, I've never enjoyed cleaning so much.  It made me sad that we couldn't do this more often!  She helped a ton, and I'm grateful for a sister who was so eager to stay inside and help us clean on her vacation.  She's so wonderful!

I enjoyed hearing her have little realizations like when she got up in the morning saying, "I can't believe I slept through the whole night without anybody waking me up!" or her being able to go into the bathroom without any little ones following her in there.  Although I could tell that she was missing her little family like crazy, I think this weekend was just what she needed!

I know it sounds weird, but since we haven't had one on one time since we shared a room ten years ago, I was a little nervous about not having too much in common to talk about for 3 full days.  But we were laughing and talking like best friends the entire weekend. I loved it and I love that we're so much closer now!

So sad to see you go!!!

Utah Trip

Living far away from family can be tough for many different reasons.  Every time I see one of them calling on my caller ID, I can't keep from smiling.  I'm always excited to hear from them.  It may sound weird, but I always feel like I need to answer the phone...I mean you just never know if it's an emergency.

The other day I got some horrible news that my Uncle had passed away suddenly.  All of my uncles are a lot of fun, but Rick was the crazy one always wanting to play, stay up late with us kids and loved telling jokes and pulling pranks.  He was full of love for his family and friends.  Eventhough I only saw him once or twice a year, he was always quick to bring up an inside joke we had or a funny/embarrassing memory we shared to break the ice.  At a reunion many years ago he actually bribed me into riding The Colossal at Lagoon (something that my parents could never get me to do) by offering me cotton candy and $5.  After my mission he loved talking about other people in Spanish with me, he never said anything mean, he just loved to tease.  Everything was more fun when Uncle Rick was around.

I made a quick trip up to Utah for the funeral, missing most of the 2nd annual Roderick Roundup.  So many of my cousins were there including most of my family.  It was 2 days of crying because we missed him being there with us and laughing because of all the fun memories we have of him.  We all just loved him so much and you could feel that every time we gathered together to talk about him.  It was a very spiritual funeral, and another witness to me of the importance of the Gospel in my life.

Something I learned with this experience is that I never got to accept or realize my Grandpa's death 4 years ago.  I was on my mission and it was quite unexpected.  Since I was far from home and family and didn't know how to deal with it on my own, I just brushed it off as though it didn't happen.  This trip was great because for the first time I brought it up to my dad and got to hear all the details.  My Uncle was buried right next to my Grandpa so I got to see his grave site and I feel so much more at peace with it all.  I'm sure my Grandpa and Rick are having a great time together right now and I can't wait to see both of them again someday!

To finish the trip I got to see my beautiful cousin Robin (from my mom's side) who's living in Salt Lake right now and her cute little boy.  She showed me around the new mall there downtown and it was so nice to catch up with her and reminisce about childhood memories.  Also, I got to meet up with my two best roommates there to do some shopping.  After living with these two for 4 years, I miss that girl time!

After that, my dad and I rushed off to the airport and said our goodbyes. (our flights left at the same time)  It was an amazing 2 days and I'm so glad I got to go.  It's nice to know that even though I'm far away, I'm still a part of the family.

Summer

This summer hasn't been too eventful for us.  It's hard when parents or friends call and want to hear all about what we've been up to recently, so this is my attempt to remember some of this summers events.

Growing up with a pool in California, summers for me need to involve plenty of water.  For our anniversary my parents got us Sea World/Aquatica (their new water park) tickets and we're loving them.

Our first time we went on a Friday before school got out and we were able to go on every ride and see every show before 5pm.  It was awesome. On our way home Dave and I both shared our favorite part of our first day at Sea World.  I thought it was quite interesting...Dave's was having our gourmet picnic lunch I had prepared sitting in the back of his pick up truck out in the parking lot and mine was watching the Treasure Island ride from the bottom and getting soaked when it came splashing down the track. (I wish they gave discounted tickets to people who don't like roller coasters and would just like to go in and watch others go on rides)

It's a half hour drive and we've got our system down where we get to Aquatica right as it opens, run in and do all the rides that we want to with NO lines and then we're out of there by noon to go home for lunch.  I love leaving right as it's getting hot and crowded.  We don't bring in our phones or cameras, so sadly no pictures.  We're trying to make the most out of our passes.

More Water Activities

Besides hanging out at our pool here at our apartment complex, we really enjoy floating rivers.  Texas has a lot of rivers and most of them are great for floating.  Our favorite is the Comal river.  It's about 25 minutes away and has a fun little man-made chute at the beginning where you get tossed around and splashed pretty good.  Then it runs right alongside Schlitterbahn's (the famous waterpark here). This year they placed a can-ban so there is a lot less drinking and crazy stuff going on, so we try to go often.  Just last weekend we invited some friends to join us and we had a blast.  A friend found this picture online and what fun memories we have out there now!

Dempsey Reunion

Dave's mom is a Dempsey and they usually have their reunions out in a small town in east Texas, about 5 or 6 hours away from us.  There was an earthquake there recently so they decided to relocate this year to Aunt Kay's who lives a half hour away.  We couldn't have been happier, especially since Kay lives in a huge house on top of a huge hill out in the hill country.

We spent the weekend exploring the property, shooting guns, playing lots of ping-pong and swimming. I even saw a tarantula crossing the road.  I was so excited that she had a pool and it was gorgeous, overlooking so much Texas!


She actually has 2 homes on her property, so half the family stayed down in the guest house, and the Dempsey side stayed up on the hill. Most of the adults got rooms, but the rest of us got to set up our mattresses in a big sun room.  It was so much fun to have so many people in one room! Luckily I saved my earplugs from all the gun shooting we did, so I slept great. We hope it's at Aunt Kay's from now on, it was such a fun weekend!

Fresno/Yosemite Visit

I decided to spend my birthday weekend home in Fresno to spend some time with my family.

 Dave loves going dirt biking with Tom Tom at the park.  We got to hang out with my parents and eat at some of my favorite places.







Also, we got to see one of Tia's swim meets and were able to have a couple sleep over's with my nieces and nephew.   Sometimes it's just fun to be a part of their everyday activities, things are a lot more exciting in a big family and with kids around.

Moving to Texas, I've realized that I definitely took growing up an hour away from Yosemite for granted.  I wanted Dave to see it and I sure miss those mountains!  

Because it was Memorial day weekend, it was extremely crowded driving down to Yosemite Valley. We stopped at a lookout point to stretch our legs when I heard my name being yelled.  I couldn't believe it as I turned around and saw Anne (one of my close high school friends who I haven't seen in years) It was so great to see her and meet her new husband!

We stayed at one of our favorite spots, Curry Village.  They're big house tents with beds for 5 with bedding.  We managed to squeeze all 7 of us in there.  We were sure glad that we brought some extra sleeping bags because we almost froze to death!   

Once the sun came up the next morning it was a beautiful day.  

The best way to see the valley is definitely by bike! 




I especially love the fresh crisp air and everywhere you turn there are beautiful trees, wildlife or waterfalls!

If you have not been to Yosemite, it should definitely be on your list of places to visit.  It has such a unique beauty that I haven't found anywhere else.  Dave loved it and is excited to go camp there with our children someday.  What a beautiful world we live on!

Happy (future) Mother's Day

 Mother's Days have always been a little weird for me, since I'm not a mother.  But if my husband wants to serve me breakfast in bed anyways, I won't object.  Sunday morning I woke up to a picture text of this and then shortly Dave walked in with delicious Cinnamon Rolls and chocolate milk.

We had a great morning at church and then enjoyed an afternoon of no meetings.  The other highlight of my day was this delicious dinner that we fixed, my favorite BBQ ribs with loaded mashed potatoes and squash.  Happy Future Mothers Day to me! Oh, and also to my lovely mother and mother-in-law :)

2 Years!

How time flies, Dave and I have now been married for 2 years!  It's been the best 731 days of our lives and we can't wait for many many more years together.  We couldn't be happier.







We celebrated by going to Sea World. Since we went on a school day, there was hardly anybody there.  We were able to see every single show and ride every single ride, it was awesome!  When I asked Dave what his favorite part of the day was, he actually said it was our picnic we had for lunch, sitting in the back of his truck in the parking lot.  My favorite part was watching/standing next to the Journey to Atlantis ride and getting soaked every time one of the cars came splashing down.  (We're both pretty easy to please) We got season passes so I can't wait for the water park to open and for Trick-or-treating in October.  Life is so good!