august of love

Ok, here's the picture post I promised last time! Even more has happened since then, but for now you'll just have to be satisfied with some photos.

A couple days before Aubrey's wedding, Jaime, Aubrey M, Alaina, Dee, Aubrey S, Angela, and I headed up to Cheesecake Factory for a bachelorette party. That's it. We didn't even bring gifts. We just ate delicious food and enjoyed each other's company. Call us lame. That's fine. But it was delightful just the same. And that rhymes.

Then, on August 4, Aubrey and Jason got married. It was the first sealing I'd been to and I loved it. And also, I love them. And they fed us a delicious meal at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building afterwards. Totally worth taking work off.

Here's Aubrey, Erik, Braden, and DeeAura waiting outside for the couple to come out.

Sarah, Angela, and me

And then they came! And then they kissed!  

There were a bazillion other people there and it was a bazillion degrees, but they were the most beautiful couple for sure.

There are only two married girls in this picture. Blows my mind. The boys around here need to take their blinders off. I mean, really.

That unfamiliar guy in the front is their friend Tyson, who is also the friend of several of my friends. He went to St. George with my friends last year, but I wasn't on that trip so I don't know him very well. But he's fun. And nice.

This is the work of Braden. And some other guys. I was really hoping they would accidentally decorate the wrong car. I'm pretty sure they got the right one, though.

That weekend, Angela, Hailey, and I accompanied Jaime to her parents' house for their annual Zogawanna camp. They have a family campout in their backyard. Don't worry, we pulled a futon mattress out to our tent and we all shared it. Much better than sleeping on the ground.

Then we went to California! The very first day we got there we headed down to San Clemente beach.

You can't tell, but somewhere out there are Hailey and Jaime getting beaten to death by the waves as they tried to body surf.

The next day we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain, which was fun except almost all of us weren't feeling too well afterwards. Amusement parks aren't quite as easy to recover from when you're an adult. The day after that, we went boating. I didn't take pictures of any of that. Oops. But that night, we went to an Angels game. I don't have pictures of us there, but here's the field!

Our last full day there was Saturday and we headed down to San Diego. We saw the absolutely gorgeous San Diego temple.

We also went to the Mormon Batallion Museum, which was a lot of fun.

And we became honorary members of the Mormon Batallion. All the glory without the 1000 mile walk. 

The view of Old Town San Diego from the tower. Out of everywhere we went, San Diego was definitely my favorite. 

We went to La Jolla to see the tidal pools. The scene at the beachside park was just out of a movie. So Angela, Jaime, and Hailey joined in the scene. Angela's doing some yoga moves, if you can't tell.

Hailey, Jaime, Angela, and I rode to and from California together. It was a pretty solid foursome.

There are some kind of slimy...I don't know what...things at the beach that you can stick your finger in and they close up around it. Hailey, Angela, and Jaime all did it. I love Hailey's mouth in this picture. I got videos of each of them but they're not that exciting. Sorry. I was hoping they'd have bigger reactions.

Here's the whole group. There were 13 of us that drove down together, and we met Derrick Williams and his sister Jenny down there. They didn't go to San Diego with us, though. Front: Angela, DeeAura, Hailey, Cody, Jaime, me, Keith. Back: Mitch, Adam, Sarah, Merrilee, Aubrey, Erik.

I think they may have hit heads. But they just looked so happy to be together.

Are you kidding with this scenery?

The ocean is a great place to think.

I'd never been to California before so I was pretty excited for the trip. I really liked it, especially the beach. I don't think I could ever live there, though - the traffic is out of control. I'd go insane. I think next time I go to visit, I'll choose one place and stay put. There's so much to see in southern California, and we really tried to see a lot of it which means we were in the car at least a fourth of the time. I don't love the car, so I'd do that differently next time. And I'd spend way more time at the beach. But overall, it was a fabulous first experience with fabulous people!

The same day that we got back we moved into our new house. We've been here a week now and it's finally starting to look homey. There's a lot to do still, so I'll post some pictures a bit later. Last night, though, we hosted a surprise party for DeeAura, whose birthday was on Saturday.

Steve Hall, Aubrey, and Mitch

Adam Ellison and Angela

Lauren Johns and Brittany Percifield, who very recently became Brittany Shane!

Whitney and Jaime with a couple of friends of DeeAura's

Alaina, Becca, Merrilee, and Sarah with the birthday girl

Love these girls!

School started yesterday, but I only have one hour of class a week and it's on Thursday. So my life hasn't really changed except now Jaime's not around as much. I'm definitely a fan of almost being done with school.