We're heading off for the weekend (this time with family!) and I'm excited knowing that I will finally get some free time to start a new book that I was just recommended, The Poisonwood Bible (I'll let you know what I think!)

It's safe to say that this winter has worn its welcome in our home, and it's amazing how much more cheerful I feel just knowing that the sun is out for an hour longer!

Hope you have a happy spring, and a happy easter weekend :)

xx

balboa island, ca

When I was younger, my best friend Betsy and I would cut up magazines and spend hours picking out our favorite homes, dining rooms, husbands (male models in a JCPenny catalog... you know). I always thought I'd want to live on the east coast somewhere, maybe Boston, and have a big yellow house with black shutters and a wrap-around porch. That never really changed growing up, but 15 years later and I've decided to change my mind.

Last weekend, we took off for another last minute trip (literally last minute, because as we drove to Salt Lake at 2:15 PM we turned the car around at 2:18 and decided to pack our bags and go!) We met up with some of our friends already in Vegas, and off to sunny California we went. The first night we were there, we stayed in Laguna beach and were able to drive up the coast to Newport and Huntington, and take one tiny detour to a little town called Balboa Island thanks to Max insisting that we stop by.

I just about died. Something about small beach towns, especially when they're homey and quaint (quaint meaning tiny homes but $100,000 dollar cars in the driveway) makes me fall in love. The ferry, the carousel, the American flags hanging on the porches, and sail boats lining the shore just seemed to come straight out of one of those magazines I used to cut up when I was nine years old. So it's settled. When we make our millions one day given our sad economy, we'll head back to Balboa island.

In other news, I spent two hours one morning during our vacation making a pro and con list of a day in Disneyland vs. a day at Six Flags. Just to give you an idea of what it looked like, Six Flags had 2 pros, Disneyland had 11. I was outnumbered when voting, but I'm thinking any excuse to go back to CA and the happiest place on earth (they're one in the same now) is okay with me.

in my absence.

The last month of our lives have been chaos. Apartment hunting, job hunting, packing, moving, life changing, everything changing, and in a nutshell, a bullet point list:

• Changed our living plans... half a dozen times. 
• ... if you need any information on any apartment from Provo to Bountiful, call me.
• Found the most wonderful one bedroom for two.
• Fell in love with our one bedroom apartment for two!
• Purchased our very first television!
• Had a small house warming party... which meant eating on the floor with our friends.
• Had every meal over the last two weeks... on the floor with each other.
• Lived in my grandparents basement for a weekend.
• Loved living with my grandparents for the weekend.
• Picked my family up from the airport (they're home!!)
• Celebrated Valentines day with Subway sandwiches (this is called budgeting).
• Furnished our bathroom.
• Began to furnish our living room.
• And felt like newly-newly weds all over again.

I am all the more convinced after this last month of chaos, that if you really, really pay attention, you'll be able to see that life always turns out better than what you had thought it would in the first place.

Someone's looking out for us, that's for sure.