camping at san mateo.

this weekend luke and i went camping. it was super fun! every year during spring break, my cousins go down to San Clemente to camp, and this year, my family went for a couple night as well. luke and i weren't able to be there the whole time because of work and school, but we were able to go down for one night. on thursday evening luke got out of class at 9pm, so we got down to camp san mateo pretty late. luckily most everyone was still up, roasting s'mores around the campfire and just chatting. we had a lot of fun just catching up and talking about weddings since my cousin just got married a few months ago and my brother is getting married next month. we set up our tent in the dark, and it was pretty chilly.
the next morning we hung out around the camp for a while until my cousins had to go. we played phase 10 - one of our favorite games. my mom won, though we didn't get to the tenth phase. and then we packed up and headed to the beach! even though we were so close to home, it was still way fun to get out of the house and made me remember how much i enjoy camping.

it was really foggy in the morning

inside the tent. slept in socks because it was so cold.

 girls still sleeping friday morning

three tents. luke and i had the one on the right. the view was so pretty.

 super excited. we really did have fun!

 jodi (sister), torra (friend), sarah (sister)

 they were a little sun burned from the day before

i found sarah checking her phone like this.

 gourmet camping. breakfast was so good.

that little black thing is a spider. it wanted some good food too.

sisters

my sisters found this nest close to the ground. i think the chickies were hungry.

 yellow flowers

 my husband is a cutie

 dad

 mom, dad and sarah

clean up time

wetsuits were hiding

 she likes ed sheeran

 cute little lady bug

 bronzing in my new suit

 stoked on life

 there he goes.

birthday #24

i turned 24 on march 28th! luke always calls me and old lady because i am 5 months older than he is. he thinks he is so funny. but he has always called me that every birthday since we were like 16 or 17 years old. tradition right? i think i am done aging though. i just want to stay in my early 20s for the rest of my life. but at the same time i look forward to growing old with luke. i love him soooo much.

we didn't do much for my birthday this year, it was super low key. on my actual birthday luke was studying for a mid-term ALL day, i was at work, then had class afterwards. at work my boss bought me a cake from corner bakery! yummmmm. i also had a lot of really nice texts, calls and facebook messages from people! then when i got home, my visiting teachers had dropped off some cup cakes! and i walked in to find these things waiting for me...

                                                                                my very own orchids! i've always wanted some of these:)

aren't they beautiful!

some gourmet chocolate. my husband knows me too well.

i love creamy milk chocolate!

luke was able to sneak out during his studying to get me a few things:) what a sweetie. when luke was done with his midterm we went over to my parents house for some late dinner and some cheesecake! i love cheesecake. then on friday (the day after my birthday) luke and i went and got some thai food, another favorite of mine, and then we went and saw the movie "the host" in theaters. i had read the book like 5 years ago when it came out and it was actually a really good movie! so i had a great birthday! thanks everyone that made me feel special on my day, i really appreciated it!

christmas

 I never posted anything about christmas! this was our first christmas as a married couple. i remember last christmas when i was still able to be a part of luke's family festivities, but i wasn't a member of the family yet (luke and i were talking seriously about getting engaged though). so this was my first official christmas as a facer and part of the family, and luke an official part of mine!
I love christmas time, all the family is together, and we do a lot of fun activities, such as....

-gingerbread house making (ours roof was sliding off the whole time, and made it a little messy!)
-a special FHE with some neighbors (we had a puppet show and the neighborhood kids were mostly involved and i was laughing because they were being so silly! most entertaining puppet show by far, and made me excited to when we have kids of our own and can do fun things like this!)
-Christmas caroling (not all of us were excited about this, mostly me. i just feel awkward, but we ended up having fun! i mostly liked visiting with the people for a couple minutes afterwards:).
-christmas eve festivities  (my mom's side of the family always gets together and we have a late lunch, games, visiting, and a gift exchange! i look forward to this every year! we have a large family, iso i love being with all my cousins and aunts and uncles! unfortunately, luke had to work on this day since this is one of the busiest times for apple, so he didn't get to come).

luke and i decided that we would have our own little gift exchange christmas morning and then we would go to our families afterwards. our christmas morning ended up being about 5 hours of just opening presents! best christmas ever! we woke up super early to open our gifts, because my family gets up at 6:30am to open gifts...so i believe we got up at 5:30am. after going to my parents we went to luke's parents house. we both felt super grateful for all the nice things we got! i don't think either one of us has ever received so many presents.

we also went surfing! and i even went out in the water. i've been such a baby this winter, i have hardly gone in the water because i get SOOO cold! and i was absolutely freezing christmas day, but i still went!

 i made some stockings for us

luke's mom, mindy, made us an advent calendar. 25 stockings, and each one had 2 pieces of chocolate and a scripture in it for us to read every day. we loved it!

 our very first tree!!!

our instagram photo

christmas morning at our little apartment!