Jake's Birthday + California

This week was SUCH a busy one, but it was also incredibly wonderful!

On Monday since it was Memorial Day I had no classes, so I stayed home and worked on homework, packed for my trip, and did some organizing for our move in two weeks. While Jake was at work I made him a birthday cake and started dinner in the crockpot, ran some errands, and then came home to start setting up for his "surprise party".

When Jake got home from work and was in the shower, I finished setting up the living room. I hung a "Happy Birthday" banner on the wall, got out our folding table and chairs, and covered it with a tablecloth and got his birthday presents out. When he came out of the bathroom I shouted "surprise!" and blew a party horn I had bought, and Jake nearly jumped out of his skin! It was too funny. We enjoyed our Crockpot Pesto Ravioli (the recipe is on my Kitchen Adventures tab) and then had a cherry chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Tuesday was Jake's birthday, so I woke up early and went to the donut shop to get him a maple bar for his birthday breakfast. Anyone that knows me well knows how much I despise donuts, and how I usually try to avoid donut shops. So this was kind of a big deal! Jake was very happy with his yummy breakfast, so it was worth the trip.

I went to my classes and then came home to finish packing for my trip to California, and then Jake took me over to the pick-up location for the Salt Lake Express. I rode the bus for several hours, just listening to my iPod and reading for one of my classes. We were just passing into Utah when we drove by another Salt Lake Express broken down on the side of the road, and pulled up to help. Their bus had completely shut down and there was a busload of people needing to get somewhere, so our driver took them onto our nearly empty bus. It was a group of foreigners going to some convention, and they spoke absolutely NO English. A translator with a microphone was yelling at them for the next TWO HOURS of our trip, until we got to the Salt Lake Airport. He was so loud that even with my headphones in and the volume turned up all the way I could still hear him! That was the longest two hours of my life. Ugh.

My mom's cousin Elaine picked me up at the airport around 10 pm and I stayed the night with her, and then came back to the airport Wednesday morning. I flew from Salt Lake to  Las Vegas to Burbank, and when I got off the plane Carly's parents were waiting for me at the baggage claim area. We got my luggage into their car and then headed over to Carly's terminal to wait for her to land! All day Tuesday and Wednesday I had been praying that my flights would be on time, since I was scheduled to arrive just 40 minutes before Carly did. So if either of my flights got delayed, I could miss her arrival! My prayers definitely worked, since I wasn't on time--I was 20 minutes early to Burbank! It was such a relief to get there in time.


We waited for what felt like years, and then finally we were told that Carly's plane had landed! Passengers started getting off, and then finally Carly was there!! She walked through the gate and I ran up and we hugged each other and cried (of course).

I hadn't seen Carly since September of 2013, right before I left for my first semester up here in Idaho. 21 months. I am so incredibly proud of how hard Carly worked as a missionary! She has changed so many lives, and gained such a strong testimony of the gospel.

We went to In n Out for lunch after leaving the airport, and then back to Carly's house to meet up with her grandparents and open presents. Carly LOVED the embroidery I made her, which made me happy since I had worked on it so hard!

On Thursday, Carly and I went with her mom to the Los Angeles temple and did a session. It was so special to be able to go to the temple with Carly, since I hadn't taken out my endowments before she left for her mission, and she was gone when I was preparing to take mine out. So we FINALLY were able to do a session together! After the temple we went to the Glendale Galleria and Americana for some shopping, lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, and just laughing and having fun together.

On Friday we went to Disney California Adventure since Carly's mom had won tickets for us!
Neither of us had been in about 3 years, so it was super fun to go see all the new stuff that had been added since we last went and just explore. Cars Land was one of the new things we hadn't seen yet, and it was AMAZING! You felt like you were really inside the movie.

Saturday I went over and watched Frozen with Carly; her first "real" movie after coming home, and then I had to head home to finish packing and get on my flight back to Salt Lake City. It wasn't as hard to say goodbye as I thought it would be; it didn't really feel like I was leaving, so that made it easier. And we have texting and FaceTime now so the distance won't be as difficult as it was when she was serving her mission.






When I landed in Salt Lake, Jake was waiting for
me. I was SO HAPPY to see my husband again! I missed him so so much, and just hugging him again made me feel 10 times better and like everything was ok again. We went to Ross and Ulta, and then over to Temple Square to meet up with my girls Kasey and Kenzie! It was so fun finally getting to meet them!

















After Temple Square we went to Target, and then over to Jake's Uncle David's house to spend the night.

We were up (sort of) early on Sunday morning to get back to Rexburg, and it feels so good to be back home. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed tonight; something I always take for granted and miss SO MUCH when I'm gone!