July 26th 2012 ~ Watermelon Chucking!

July 26th ~ Watermelon Chucking!

My mom bought Lucas and I a watermelon when we first got married, along with some other food items, and we just never got to cutting it and eating it...so as all food does it started to rot and get soft. Instead of just throwing it away we thought it would be fun to chuck it off of a cliff and see if it explodes, like we have seen on TV. We were like myth busters in a sense and the myth wasn't busted!! We went to the cliff my VOTECH high school off of Mountain Vista Road, we parked in some of the business area parking so we could get as close to the cliff as possible and Lucas chucked the watermelon off. He was aiming for a huge sharp rock at the bottom of the cliff and he nailed the rock and the watermelon exploded, just liked we had hoped! It was a quick but exciting sight to see the watermelon explode and make a loud noise. 

Lucas chucking the Watermelon off the cliff!

July 24th 2012 ~ Dinner at Milos

July 24th ~ Dinner at Milos

     July 24th Lucas and I were able to go to Milos at the Cosmopolitan.  Which is an extremely nice restaurant that we can't afford. The only thing we had to pay for was a tip, 20% which ended up being $40 (to give you an idea of how ridiculous the prices were). The restaurant alone looked extremely expensive. There was a stand that was covered in ice and fish and lobster and crab and all sorts of sea creatures. At first we thought the wall was for show but then we saw customers going over and picking the fish they wanted to eat…it was so cool! I thought the fish and lobster were dead but every now and then a worker would spray down the fish and lobsters and the lobsters didn’t like that…one tried to crawl away even! We had a 5 course meal, each course looking more delicious and beautiful then the next. The 5 courses were planned out already for us, which was nice because I would have had no idea what to order, and we had our own chef that would bring us the course and explain what everything on the plate was. We also got drinks made specifically for us which was fun! I had asked for a virgin Miami Vice drink, which is a strawberry smoothie slushy type of drink with pina colada mixed in but they had never heard of that drink so the bar tender created a drink for us that was, what he thought would be, similar to the drink I wanted. The drink was a lemonade drink but it was really sweet with a sour kick at the same time, it wasn’t that close to a Miami Vice but whatever the drink was it was really good, but no worries, we told them like 5 times that we don’t drink!

We started off with the Milos special, which according to the menu was a “lightly fried zucchini and eggplant with tzatziki and kefalograviera cheese.” The tzatziki is a Mediterranean spread that consists of Greek yogurt, cucumber and garlic. It was so so so good!! Who would have guessed that fried zucchini and eggplant with a really good dip would be so good…if only I knew how to get a hold of the dip or make it!

After the Milos special we had another course that had octopus and two different kinds of mushroom. I didn’t hear the chef and his description on this plate and of course Lucas wouldn’t tell me it was octopus until I had tried it first. I had had octopus before but how they prepared it made it taste different and it was really good.

The next plate was the main dish and boy was it good! I unfortunately didn’t get a picture of the fish on the plate because the chef came with the cooked fish on the plate and actually dished us up, which was nice but ruined my picture opportunity! The main dish was a big eyed snapper fish from the Mediterranean that was seasoned really good and you could tell it was fresh because it didn’t taste like fish sticks or fishy at all for that matter. It was served with a tomato salad that was really good also! The tomato salad, according to the menu was “English cucumber, red onion, green peppers, olive oil, oregano, Santorini capers and barrel aged feta cheese.” I am glad they listed everything so specifically in the menu cause it was a really good salad and seemed like it wouldn’t be that hard to make! Which now that I have been married and am cooking dinner now I have been finding myself eating food at restaurants or peoples house and analyzing the dish and wondering if I could remake it.

Then finally my favorite part, Dessert!! The dessert was a really really rich chocolate mousse cake. I love chocolate, and I mean I love chocolate and this cake was too rich for me to finish, so that is saying it is really rich! But the bites of it I did have were good. 

It ended up being a really fun night out with my husband and it will be a night I will never forget; having my own personal chef, being catered to, having my table wiped clean of crumbs after every plate, having a 5 course meal and of course having it be practically free!

July 18th 2012 ~ Jet skiing and Cliff Jumping

July 18th ~ Jet skiing and Cliff Jumping

Sadly this is the only picture we got with our fun adventure on the lake together but we were just having so much fun I didn't even think to get a picture until we were in the car going home!! 

      Taralyn and Jordan invited Lucas and I to go jet skiing and we went jet skiing over by Neilson's Landing so we were able to cliff jump while we weren't jet skiing! It was so much fun!! This was actually the first time Lucas and I had been jet skiing or at the lake together even. He had never seen me on a jet ski...boy was he surprised!! I am usually more on the cautious side but with having water everywhere I am more of a dare devil. I have grown up driving a jet ski and boating and tubing and all of that fun stuff so you could say I know how to have some fun on a jet ski :) Lucas was caught of guard by my dare devil personality on the water and he was thrown off the jet ski pretty quickly because he wasn't expecting it. Taralyn's jet ski flips kind of easy also so the second time around we were both thrown off and we flipped the jet ski over completely...but luckily we got some momentum going and we were able to flip it back over. By the end of the trip Lucas warmed up to the jet ski and threw me off once or twice. It was really fun just being with my husband out on the open lake jet skiing and getting a little wet every now and then. It was a really fun trip, getting to know Jordan (soon to be my cousin-in-law) and just spending the day with my fun cousin Taralyn and also Emma and Sophia came! Man, I was surprised with Sophia, she has no fear with jumping off of cliffs. Just picture this cute little 8 year old girl jumping off of a10 foot cliff with no fear and working her way up to a 15 or maybe even 20 foot cliff. 

July 12, 2012 ~ USA Basketball Team

July 12 ~ USA Basketball Team

July 12th we went and saw the USA Basketball team annihilate Dominican Republic in an Exhibition game for the 2012 Summer Olympics and it was awesome! Sam, Jordan, Tony, Lucas and I were all able to go to the game together so it was fun because they are just fun people and Tony always has interesting facts about sports up his sleeve. I have never been to an NBA game (and technically still haven't) so it was awesome to see all of the best players from the NBA on one team and playing together dominating! The NBA team, to give you an idea of how good of a team we have, consisted of: Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Tyson Chandler, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Andre Iguodala, LeBron James, Kevin Love, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and Deron Williams. Some of these names have no significance to me because I don't know who they are but I figured I would list the whole team for memories sake. Even though we were dominating the whole game it was still fun to watch because it was pretty much a dunk contest for the US team and boy was there some pretty awesome dunks! Our seats were nosebleeds but the seats were only $13 a piece and we could still see the game and it was the best of the best playing! I have stated how much we dominated throughout my post, so i saved the best for last! Dominican Republic scored a whopping 59 points, or should I say the US team allowed DR to score a whopping 59 points and the USA team scored a total of 113!

 Lucas and I wore Red, White and Blue to support the US!!

 We brought binoculars just in case we couldn't see the game...that is what is hanging around our necks. 

July 9th 2012 ~ Pinball Hall of Fame!

July 9th ~ pinball hall of fame

An overflowing cup of spare change plus some spare time equals pinball hall of fame! I had heard of the place here and there but on July 9th 2012 I finally went to the pinball hall of fame with my new hubby Lucas. It was so much fun...a lot more fun than I thought it would be!

They had Tetris, packman, the classic shooting games, table hockey, bowling, tons of pinball machines and lots of other old games I had never seen before. At first we tried lots of games, considering it’s a warehouse of old arcade games with isle and isle of games, but then we found out what we liked. Lucas really liked the shooting game and this one game where you have a ball on a pole that you control by moving each side up or down and you have to get the ball in numbered holes in order that are among a maze of other holes, it was a really fun game actually. 

 Lucas looked really cute while he was playing the game because he was so into the game so I just had to take a picture!

 Table Hockey!! Tony won table hockey championship game!

But we both really like this game that only cost a nickel (instead of a quarter) and if you scored 240 points you got your nickel back and could play again, I think that was the concept that made it addicting! In the game you would pull a leaver that would fling the nickel and the nickel would slide down and fall in the closest spot, each spot being different amounts of points. The goal was to pull the leaver slower or quicker in order for the nickel to get in the higher pointed slots. Like I said it was addicting and the time flew by, especially with having no clocks in the whole place, and we ended up spending almost 2 hours in the pinball hall of fame, but it was a fun night of competitiveness and cheering with victory!

The nickel game we both really liked!

July 4th 2012 ~ Family Fun & Baseball Game!

 The July 4th was the first holiday, other than my birthday, that Lucas and I have celebrated together and it worked out perfect splitting up the time between my family and his. We spent the afternoon with my family and the evening with his! At my parents house we had a nice lunch with all of the kids with watermelon and other good food. We were going to go swimming but it was surprisingly overcast and a little rainy. So we played basketball with the twins while it was sprinkling outside and it was fun! Then we headed over to Lucas's parents house for the baseball game! Tony, Carrie, Jeff, Lucas and I were able to go to the game and it was really fun!

We did the wave in the stands, cheered for the 51s, ate nachos, made airplanes and aimed them for the field (which never actually made it to the field but rather hit people a couple of rows down), watched a 20 minute firework show and then i finished off the night with Rolling down the huge grassy hill outside of Cashman fields.

     What really made the game fun was the people, Lucas and his family are really into sports so they were cheering for good plays and yelling at bad calls...and of course I was cheering and yelling with them! Also there were some funny people around us, the guy in front of us was way into the firework show and was laughing and had a slow clap for the whole 20 minutes of the firework show...we thought a couple of times he was going to stop clapping but he kept it up! I had never seen such a long and up close and personal firework show...it blew watchinge a 10 minute Del Mar firework show from the backyard out of the water.

June 28th to 30th 2012 ~ Monica's Wedding!

June 28th & 29th~ traveling, Monica's endowment and the Fair!

    On Thursday June 28th I got off work and mom, Anna, Luc, Jac and I traveled to the beautiful San Diego! On the ride up I worked on thank you cards for the wedding, i thought I got a lot done but I only got 20 done, which isn't much of a dent. But we stayed at aunt Catherine's 3 bedroom condo off of the Del Mar beach and it was so fun! We were a 2 minute walk from the beach and the condo was really nice, I never actually made it to the beach but it was still nice!! We went to Rubios for dinner and I was able to talk to my new husband on the phone. It was the first time I had left him since we got married and the first trip I had done without him since we got engaged...it was a lot harder to be apart from him then I thought it would be!

      The next morning mom and I went to the San Diego temple for Monica's endowment. It was so fun finally going into the San Diego temple...the temple I thought was a castle as a little girl. It was so special to be able to see my cousin Monica, who is only 6 weeks younger then me and whom I was really close to growing up, go through the temple and get her endowments out!! One of the perks of being married at a young age is that now I get to see all of my cousins and friends go through the temple and I can't wait!! After the endowment mom and I went grocery shopping and for once grocery shopping was actually really fun. There was just a lot of different food at the grocery store, food that you wouldn't be seen Vegas.

     We then went back to the condo and ate lunch with Anna, Luc and Jac, who were all sandy and wet from the beach (lucky). Then it was party time!! We went to the Del Mar county fair and it was so much fun!! It was the first time I had been to an actual fair, peach days in Hurricane Utah doesn't count. We didn't actually ride on any rides but we played some booth games, the girls got matching rings, we ate delicious fair food and I saw Mitt Romney. It ended up being a really fun night and I wished Lucas could have been there.

 Jac and Luc with their chili cheese dogs

 I know Hot Churros are good, but not too sure about the chocolate covered bacon!

 Deep Fried Butter...for $3...must be good or else they wouldn't be able to charge that much!

 Hamburger and Turkey leg :)

Mitt Romney has my vote!!

June 30th ~ wedding day!!

     It was a bright sunny day in California with a little more wind than was wanted but it was still a good day for a wedding. Monica's sealing was in the San Diego temple and it was the first sealing I had been to since my own. It was so fun to see my cousin get married and it was so fun to see all of my cousins again.

Brandilyn's cute little baby Lucas. I was missing Lucas so I just had to get a picture with Lucas.

     After pictures on the temple grounds we picked up the kids from the condo and went to a luncheon at 3pm at the institute building across the street from the chapel the reception was held at. The lunch was sloppy joes but it was like a really good pulled pork for the meat with pasta salad and potato salad. There were also toasts from the fathers and it was really sweet because you could tell uncle Stan was just proud of Monica getting married in the temple and that he just loves her so much. After the lunch we walked over to the chapel and helped them set up for the reception and helped Brandilyn, Monica's photographer and sister, take pictures of the wedding party. It was fun because I got a picture with the bride!

 Anna and my matching rings!

The fun center pieces at the reception.

     The reception was a lot different than I thought it would be because the only people I knew where my siblings and Monica's siblings but Anna and Kaniesha and I had fun talking and there was music so it was so much fun dancing with all the California Hoers! It ended up being a fun little vacation weekend to San Diego and it was fun being around family.