And We're Back!!

Ryan and I were able to travel to San Diego over the holiday weekend, thanks to my Aunt and Uncle who gave us use of their time share as part of our wedding present.  Its funny because we have basically had this trip planned since right after we got married, since we needed to give them a heads up of where we wanted to go on the list of available places they gave us so they could make sure it was available.  So we have definitely been looking forward to this trip for almost 10 months! :)

We left Friday after noon and the drive was not bad at all,  by 6pm we were both getting hungry but we decided to just raid the grapes and crackers I had packed in the cooler and eat when we got to San Diego.  We always try to find restaurants we want to go to before we actually get there,  I know I have mentioned this before but we love to eat good food.   Well we looked up the Studio Diner which was featured on Triple D and since we both pretty much hadn't eaten all day we headed there with empty stomachs!   Unless something really pops out at us we normally try to order what was either featured on the show or what is the most popular and in this case we got both.  Ryan ordered the fish and chips and me the monte cristo

The food was huge,  I got through 1 1/2 of the sandwich wedges and Ryan got through a wedge of my sandwich and not even half of his fish.  But man it was good!  

Saturday we woke up early to make it to Sea World when the park opened.   I really thought with it being a holiday weekend it was going to be miserable,  but even though it was packed we arrived 30 minutes early for each show and got pretty good seats.  Sea World is very different now than when I was a kid,  they have like 5 shows now, including one that is pattered after a Cirque show in LV, it was interesting.  Unfortunately the lamest show was the Shamu show,  they do not let the trainers in the water with them whales anymore I guess do to a death a few years ago so now basically the whales swim around do a few jumps and splash water at the crowd.  It was a disappointment, obviously I do not want any trainers getting hurt or even killed but if that is going to be the signature show they need to re-vamp it somehow.

I think the Sea Lion and Dolphin show's were my favorite of the day,  all in all we had a great day and didn't leave the park until around 6:30-7pm.  We rented a movie went back to the hotel and I don't even think we made it through half before we were asleep!

Sunday we woke up early again (I know not very fun for vacation) we wanted to be to the Zoo when it opened.  I have to say the San Diego Zoo is my favorite zoo and if you have a chance to go there I would definitely recommend it.  We took the guided bus tour first which is about 35-40 minutes and it gives you the layout of the zoo.  When I was a kid and we used to go to the San Diego zoo they did not have a few things they have now,  like the Express Bus that you can hop on and off of OR the escalator's that take you up to the top of the zoo,  let me tell you what a difference those two things make.  The zoo is big and on a pretty steep hill so by the end of the day when I was a kid we were tired and would stand at the bottom of the hill and say "Do we really need to see ____?"  But now you still do plenty of walking but being able to hop on the bus at the giraffe and take it up the hill to the polar bears is amazing!

I think the polar bears were my favorite this time,  they were VERY active, we got to see them swim, eat and play with each other.  It was a great day and Ryan and I had so much fun.  We got to watch all the little kids be so excited to see the animals and we can't wait to go back to the zoo once we have a family.

Monday morning we woke up and got the timeshare ready for my cousin Alicia to come use it and then headed out to get some food before heading home.   After we finished breakfast we decided we weren't ready to go home yet, and since it was Memorial Day we headed down to the dock to tour the USS Midway Museum.   I had been there before with my friend Jaime, but this was Ryan's first time.  I think it is a cool museum showing what life above a naval aircraft carrier is like. There were a lot of veteran's there and we talked to at least 4-5 of them about the difference carrier's they flew.  It was very interesting and we even had flyover planes. It was funny because when I went with Jaime we are both very short and had no problems walking up and down any of the hallways or staircases, but Ryan being over 6ft had a different experience.  

SIDE NOTE: I left my camera at home today so there will be a part 2 of this post with all the pictures I didn't get to upload, including Ryan squeezing into one of the officers bunks,  looks cozy :)

Anyways,  we had a great trip.  We are two weeks away from our 10 month anniversary,  time is definitely flying by.   I am so grateful the the opportunities Ryan and I have had to travel in this first year of our marriage,  these are the times we will look back on in years to come and be glad that even though it hurts the pocketbook a little bit that we took the time out to enjoy ourselves and enjoy each other.  Everyday our marriage gets stronger and I know I made the best decision of my life marrying him. 

Catching Up!

We are already into the middle of May,  I cannot believe how on somethings I feel like time just flies by and somethings I feel like time drags.  Ryan and I hit our 9 month wedding anniversary mark on Saturday the 14th,  I didn't even realize it until I looked at the phone as we were walking into Home Depot.  So romantic I know :)  My parents are celebrating 33 years this Friday,  only having been married 9 months, 33 years seems like forever :)  Their marriage is an example to me of what a marriage should be,  through thick and thin there is no doubt in my mind that they are made for each other.

We haven't been up to much,  doing alot of work around the house and Ryan was studying extra hard for finals.   Luckily all that studying paid off and looks like it's all A's and B's for this semester again!  Poor guy didn't even have a break he had his last final last Thursday and started summer school yesterday,  oh well it will be worth it come December when we are done with undergrad and moving on to PT school. He is doing amazing and every day I am so proud of him.  I really am lucky to have snagged one of the "good" ones.

As always I tried a few new recipes this last week,  I really liked the homemade Swedish meatballs from the Skinny Taste website and so did Ry.  I also joined a site my brother led me too called myfitnesspal.com that is a calorie tracker.  It is on my computer at work, home and even a app on my phone so I track all my food, water and exercise and I have to say it has really made me watch what I eat even more.  There have been a few days I have gone over but for the most part I stick to my allotted amount each day and factoring in the exercise I hopefully will see good results soon.  Being in love and getting married did NOTHING for my figure except to expand it and while it's only a few pounds I can't let the habit continue or it will skyrocket out of control.

Only two more weeks until we take a break from school, work and life to take a late wedding gift trip to Sand Diego.  We are so grateful to my Aunt and Uncle for the timeshare,  it is going to be a great weekend!  Speaking of San Diego,  I used my new found love of couponing and entered in San Diego Sea World promo codes before purchasing my tickets and found a online coupon that gave each ticket $20.00 off.  It seriously is amazing the stuff you can find online.  I am now a member of like 4-5 different coupon sites and while I can't go to the grocery store and purchase $600 worth of groceries and pay $5.00,  I am happy with the savings I am getting.  I saved $37.00 the last time I went shopping,  now I might have used that savings on clothes  but its the principle :)

Oh and my dad's still doing great,  he has rebounded so well we saw them on Sunday night for dinner and it's like having MY dad back again.  I don't delude myself that we don't still have obstacles and a long road ahead of us.  But I think after the year we had and now knowing what the worst of the treatment is,  we choose to look to the positive and live this new "normal".  I see my dad laugh again and engage in conversations and want to go to work, and want to go golfing and that was something we all missed for the greater part of the last year.   He might have to have another transplant  to kick the cancer down even further,  but I look forward to the day we hear the words remission.  And just like we were talking about at dinner the other night about Disneyland and how Ryan and I are not going until we have kids and my mom and dad mentioned they would want to come to to experience it through the eyes of their grandchildren, that I know that day will come.  I can't wait for the future and for family vacations, and future grandchildren and many many more fun times, because I might be biased but my parents and siblings ROCK. 

And because you never know what the future holds,  I choose to live everyday with my loved ones to the fullest!

Being sick SUCKS!

I am going on a week now of the most awful cold/flu/sorethroat I have had in a LONG time!  I don't remember what it it is like to breathe normal and I am pretty sure that if my husband didn't already marry me the way I looked this weekend might have changed his mind.  I am displaying the most lovely bright red nose possible :)

I probably should have gone to the doctor late last week but I just kept thinking that the worst had to be over and its a bad cold that they probably will just give me cold medicine for.  Now 4 days later I am in the same spot, my throat doesn't hurt bad anymore but I still can't breathe,  I don't know if that is worth a trip to the doctor.  I have been really good about taking my over the counter medicine and I feel like I am on the upswing it is just taking FOREVER. 

AND it ruined my Mother's Day!

  I couldn't even be with my mom on Mother's Day because I can't be around my dad.  The most I got to see her was dropping off her gift on Saturday and waving to my dad from the front porch.  It sucked, but I can't take the chance of my dad catching anything.  Especially with how good he is doing,  he is working pretty much full time right now and he does he blood work to find out next week how much he has kicked cancer's ASS!  (sorry for the swearing but that's how I feel about cancer).

Ryan's parents were out of town this weekend so we weren't able to spend Mother's Day with them either,  they were in Utah for our cousin's mission farewell.  We couldn't go because Ryan really needed to study this weekend for finals.    Ryan has finals this week so he has been studying extra hard these days,  we can see the finish line for undergrad and these next 7 months of school are going to be tough but if he gets good grades and we get excepted to UNLV for Grad school it will all be worth it! 

We are a few weeks away from a much needed weekend break to San Diego,  we can't wait!  

Hope all is well with everyone,  and hopefully next time I write I'll be feeling better!