24

I turned 24 in Texas!  Woot woot!  My birthday was on a Saturday which was kinda a bummer because that is Dustin's loooong day of work selling alarms (9am - 9pm).  But it was still a really great day.  Emily and I met the guys for lunch (sushi yum) and then we got pedicures and frozen yogurt!  After the guys got home from work (around 10pm) we went to Wing Stop for dinner.  The next day we went to South Padre Island one last time and Emily made me a pink birthday cake!  We also celebrated again when we got back to Utah - we had a luau for all the August birthdays on my mom's side of the family.

This birthday was infinitely better than last year's because last year we were in the car all day long driving home from Texas, and then I was sick that night, and then the next day we had to move into our new apartment where we didn't have hot water for a few days.

It was sooo nice just coming back to our apartment with all of our stuff there just as we left it.  Not having to worry about finding a place to live, or moving all of our stuff was a million times less stressful than last summer. We (or rather I) have been having fun rearranging things and redecorating our little home, so maybe I will post some pics soon. We totally love the area, ward, neighborhood we are in and will be here at least until the spring when Dustin graduates.

Anyway, I love birthdays and getting older, and I am excited to see what 24 brings!

sushi lunch

wing stop with the browns for our late night dinner! we love the lemon pepper & honey bbq aaaand the drink machine where i can get cherry vanilla diet coke :)

our last trip to south padre island, with whataburger of course.

birthday luau with the fam

fourth of july

Fourth of July 2013 started out on a low note.  I was in a car accident.  No one was hurt!  But it was still a major buzz kill!  I was backing out of a parking spot and someone was driving too fast and hit me from behind.  There were big trucks on both sides of me so I didn't see him and I was going way slow!  Unfortunately, the person backing up usually gets blamed.  Just my luck.  Still dealing with the insurance stuff bla bla, such a pain!  But everyone is a crazy driver here!  Luckily the damage wasn't too bad, my back bumper is just a little banged up.

ANYWAY, then we had a bbq with the whole office and then all the guys played softball!  It was so fun watching and hanging out with all the wives.  It was a perfect summer evening, and we even saw some fireworks.

the classic flag cake i make every year

us

my brother, dustin, and his brother

so fun having them out here with us!

the guys playing softball

me and em

vivint wives club

nice photobomb trev haha

i love these girls! little parker was trying to grab my necklace in this pic - he has a thing for necklaces and hair.

texas fun

It was nice being in Utah for a few weeks, but it was sooo nice coming back home!  Reunions with your love are the best.  Dustin was so sweet and romantic about it too - he got a haircut, bought me flowers and my favorite blue bell ice cream, and took the next day off so we could just be together!  I am one lucky girl!

When I came back to Texas, the office had moved to Mission so that's where we are now!  If you're wondering where that is, it's basically Mexico.  I'm serious, I think the border is like 10 minutes from where we live.  It feels more like Mexico than Texas here.  Hot, humid, palm trees, 80% of the cars have Mexican plates, and 99.9% of the people here speak Spanish.  Some speak English as well.  Should be a reason for me to practice my Spanish, but for some reason I kind of just get annoyed that no one speaks English, I mean we're still in America people!  Ok enough ranting.  Our apartment is really nice, we have a nice pool here, and we're in a pretty nice area, considering.  We are super close to Wal-mart, HEB (kind of like Harmons), Target!, an outlet mall, and tons of restaurants.  And gas here is pretty cheap.

As always, we have fun wherever we are!  Just enjoying another summer adventure. :)

schlitterbahn!  a big water park on padre island.  pretty sweet because you never have to get out and stand in lines for slides.  there is a huge lazy river that you float around in that all the slides are connected to.  we went with another couple and all the single dudes here! oh my, and after we went and ate at this mexican restaurant that was right on the water. gorgeous.

sometimes i surprise him with cool treats.  mtn dew is his fav.

chewy!  my friend emily's dog.  

aw just look at that face!

emily had her golden birthday! 24 on the 24th! we celebrated by going to bj's and getting pizookies. i die for pizookies.

vivint gives back. every year every office does a day of service.  we picked up trash at a local park.  but mostly this is just me checking out dustin's butt instead of picking up trash haha.

hey stud!

we like each other

galveston

On Saturday, Emily and I took a little day trip to Galveston!  It was about a 2 hr drive from Beaumont.  Galveston is a coastal city with a lot of little brightly colored old houses but it has had a lot of damage from hurricanes over the years.

We went to Pleasure Pier, which was just built a year ago.  The pier had previously had some rides and attractions but had suffered significant damage from hurricane Ike in 2008.  Now it has a bunch of rides, restaurants, gift shops, live entertainment, and lookout telescopes.  We were impressed with how clean and nice it was!

We went on a HUGE roller coaster (I'm talking six flags quality) called the iron shark (which was pretty cool because you were flying over the ocean), shared a funnel cake, sat on some rocking chairs and enjoyed breathing that ocean air, and had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp, Co.  A lovely day on the pier!

another texan summer

Greetings from Texas!

We are enjoying another summer in Texas for Dustin's job.  This is his 4th summer with Vivint. but this year he has a bunch of recruits and he is an assistant manager of the office so he is working harder than ever.  I can't believe we have already been here almost 3 weeks now!  We are currently in Beaumont (90 min east of Houston) but will be moving to another city in June.

We're living in an extended-stay hotel right now but when we move we will be living in apartments which I'm totally looking forward to - don't get me wrong, the hotel lifestyle ain't so bad, but it gets old after a while.  All of the single guys are living in the Marriott hotel next door which is nicer, so we go over there a lot to use their pool, bbq area, basketball court and to mooch off the free dinners they have Mon - Thurs.

I am so beyond grateful for my friend Emily!  (Her husband is also a sales rep and the other assistant manager this year - he has sold with Dustin every summer.)  Without her to hang out with I think I would go crazy being here alone all day.  We get together and try to do something fun every day - whether it's crafts, pool time, going to lunch, seeing a movie, watching sytycd or just going to Walmart haha.

It's also been fun having my brother Trevor and brother-in-law Stephen out here selling!  They are hilarious and fun to hang out with but are both off to a good start as "rookies".  I try to have them come over at least once a week for a home-cooked dinner (although I am limited - I only have a microwave and a stove-top).

Here's a few pics from our adventures so far:

Trevor turned 22!

I don't know about you but I'm feeling 22!!

 we celebrated by going to Chili's with a bunch of guys from the office

The B&N has a huge Texas section of course

Emily and I took a day trip to Houston last Saturday!  We went to the huge Galleria mall, ate at The Cheesecake Factory there, and then checked out the Houston temple!  It was gorgeous!

This was at one of the Saturday night office dinners.  I love this handsome hardworking husband of mine and am so proud of him!  We are excited for another successful summer in Texas!

back to reality

well we made the looong drive from texas and then jumped back into our normal lives in utah.  dustin is back in school at the university of utah, and i'm back to working at the harp store, teaching, and playing at the grand america.  this was the longest time period i had ever gone without playing the harp so the first time back at the grand left me with a few blisters!  luckily there weren't a lot of people in there so i didn't have to play super loud.

it feels good to be back in utah, back to being busy, back to a normal routine. don't get me wrong, i loved my free time this summer, but i was really excited to go back to work, and likewise - dustin was excited to be done with work.

some things we've done since we've been back include:  my birthday celebrations, a hike, drive-in movie, 5k race, u of u football game, dinner with my best friends, and a few wedding receptions.

also - we moved into a new apartment and so far we are loving it!  it's a two bedroom and it has a hallway!! yes, we were excited about the hallway haha.  it's a major upgrade from our apartment last year.  we've been busy organizing, building ikea furniture (dustin), and decorating.  i'll post pictures soon. :)  it's in a charming neighborhood, we love the ward so far, and we live right next door to a gelato shop.  we're going to have to control ourselves from going every night!

our reality is looking pretty good.

san antonio again

yesterday emily and i drove another wife to the airport in san antonio.  it's about a two hour drive from corpus.  emily had never been there so after dropping off dasily, we went to the alamo and riverwalk!

i'm always slightly under-whelmed by the alamo.  i guess i just had imagined it bigger and more grandiose in my head.  or something.  what i took from it this time was that the alamo led to the independence of texas, which led to the mexican war, which led to the united states picking up texas, utah, and a few other states.  only a year later after that was when the pioneers arrived in utah.  pretty crazy huh?  oh and i didn't get a picture (no photography allowed! some man yelled at us for snapping pics with our phones.) but there was a locket on display that davy crockett had given to his gf with a lock of his hair inside! ew! i'm glad we have other ways of showing our affections nowadays.

fearless squirrel we saw by the alamo

alamo mosaic

on the riverwalk! so pretty.

we split a yummmy caramel apple. yum.

our souvenirs

davy crockett style.  we rocked the coon hats.