south padre island

Have I mentioned we are just 90 mins from the beach?  Definitely taking advantage.  Padre Island is a small strip of land that runs along the cost of Texas.  We hit up South Padre Island on Sunday celebrating TJ's birthday!  The water is super warm, the waves are pretty small, but you have to watch out for jellyfish.  Luckily no one was stung this time!  And here's an overload of beach pictures:

Padre Island is that long little strip of land.  We drive over the bridge at Port Isabel to get there.  Since we're way down by Mexico. :)

watching the boys play frisbee while laying out.  i love the beach.  and i'm liking this mint nail polish for summer!

hey babe, let's just hop on those jet skis and ride away into the sunset.

hair in my face! and gotta love dustin's v-neck/farmer tan. we're working on that.

trevor kept throwing food at the sea gulls and they would catch it every time!  he is the bird man.

cute tj & emily

the dude squad

they crack me up.

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

my trip to utah

Being away from Dustin SUCKS but is sometimes necessary.  Like now.  I had to make a trip up to Utah to go in to work for a few weeks (basically to keep my boss happy so she will want me to come back in September).  However, this trip was extended when she needed me to work a few more days, and then extended again when I decided to come a few days earlier for my cousin's wedding.  I felt like I would regret not coming for the wedding, since the whole family was going to be in town, and my grandparents were coming up, and my grandma is dying and I wanted to see her and everyone else.  And I am really glad I was there for it.

So we are both staying busy and trying not to let missing each other affect what we are supposed to be doing.  Poor Dustin had to move all of our stuff by himself yesterday when the office relocated to a different city in Texas.  I think we're halfway there - only 10 days to go till we're together again!

But I have been really busy and I've had a lot of fun in Utah with my fam and friends!  Here's what I've been up to:

relaxing at the pool with my mom : mother-daughter bonding, talking, drinking fresca, reading trashy magazines, etc

the happy couple!

married in the draper temple june 1st 

my cousin jordan and his gorgeous bride katie

me and my dad

lookin so fly in our sunnies

the whole fam-damily

all of my dad's siblings and their spouses 

and his parents

me and my mom

my adorable cousins tori & jocelyn

my grandparents: wilma & bud

cousin alexis & aunt elizabeth

some of the flowers, and they had mad-libs on the tables which i thought was a cute idea!

my cousins made all those pretty ribbon chandeliers!

cousin caitlin & i

my sis-in-law korinne left on her mission to spokane, washington!

bubba & tigger

one night i was the only one at home, and the kitties followed me all around the house!

they love me because i feed them 

(i stole these pics from christine)

my good friends from high school - matt & bree - got married!

so fun spending time with my girlfriends last weekend!

my good friend leigh was in town from canada so we threw her a baby shower!

i love all these girls!

my little cousin baby Grayson was blessed

a family favorite

i went at least three times while in utah, naturally

bo

One of my best friends growing up - Bo Pennington - passed away two years ago today.  When I found out, I was in Puerto Rico with my family.  We were leaving on a cruise to the Caribbean the next day.  Dustin arrived later that evening and I was so incredibly grateful to have him there to comfort me.  We missed the funeral but I heard it was really nice.  However, that week on the cruise, I got engaged to Dustin!  So this was a really poignant time of life for me.  

My brother Trevor was on his mission at the time, serving in Malaysia, and I wrote him this email:

Mom told me she wrote you an email about Bo yesterday. It really hit me hard yesterday. I was crying for a long time and then I talked with a bunch of my friends. I called bean first and told her and we were both crying. It was just such a shock. Especially since I just saw him Wednesday night at an institute fireside. I talked to him for a while and he said he was going to start coming to my singles ward. He was even joking with me about needing to play my harp more.

I have so many memories of Bo and I know you do too. 

playing street hockey
running the race for the cure
helping him and kasey pass Spanish in middle school
boating
driving you to school when he was a sr and you were a soph and blasting josh groban every day
when he taught everyone how to hold hands at jp's house
making cookies
when he taught me how to wakeboard
eating at cafe rio
the big jumpy thing in our backyard in the rain
choir tour
he made me lots of mix cd's
getting snow cones
john schmidt concerts
jericho road
his summer of corn throwing
youth conference
stake dances
"i like the way you move"
stake dances - we went to A LOT
pool parties at his house
high school dances - halloween dance soph year and jr prom!
going for drives in the "rabbit"
swing dancing - we won a cafe rio gift card once!
him singing to me and playing the piano for me many many many times
trek - he carried me across the sweet water river 
when i carried his big head poster around for a week when he ran for sbo pres 
taking walks in our neighborhood
lots more. 

Bo had a big heart and was kind to everyone!  He really influenced my life and I will miss him and I feel awful for his fam. It will take me a while to really get over this. I know that he is in a better place though and I'm so grateful for the plan of salvation.

shayna in ukrayna!

My sister is in Ukraine!  After being in the MTC for 9 weeks, she made it to Ukraine with all of her luggage (unlike some of the other sisters traveling with her!).  She has been there over a week now and is loving it!  Right now she is in a tri-companionship and she says the language (Russian) is coming slowly but surely.

She said last week they were at a choir practice for an upcoming celebration of the 20th anniversary of the church being in Odessa, Ukraine.  The choir director was a recent convert and pretty serious about the music.  So she made Shayna and her comp stay after for extra practice and she was yelling at them in Russian!  Poor girls didn't understand most of what she was saying and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  I had a few Russian teachers when I was studying music in college, and let me tell you - they are all intense about music!  Like way intense.  But Shayna is a tough cookie, so she can handle those crazy Ukrainians haha.

I love reading her letters though - she always shares cool stories about the people they are teaching, and her experiences with the culture.  And she always sounds so positive!  So proud of her!