California Adventure of a life time

On Wednesday Michael and I took work off and went to California Adventure and Disneyland. We were fortunate because Michaels Aunt Judi knows someone that has worked there for 24 years allowing him to get us in for free! We were so excited to go. I had never been to either and Michael had never been to California Adventure.

We went on almost all of the rides, I think it would be near impossible to go on every single one in just one day. So we went on as many as we could. My favorite was the Toy Story Mania 3D shooting game. Where you ride around in a cart and shoot plates, ring aliens, and pop balloons. Another good one was Tower of Terror, the feeling of free falling will never get old.

This was us on the tea cups before the ride started. We ended up spinning so fast that we felt sick and extremely dizzy!

It was such a beautiful day we could not have asked for better.

On the King Arthur Carrousel

On my White Stallion on the King Arthur Carrousel

Waiting in line for the best ride ever ... Toy Story Mania in 3D! Woot Woot

Happy Valentines Day

Hello February!

Wow how the weeks have flown by... There is so much to catch up on.

For our 1 year anniversary Michael and I went to a place called Huntington Library,It is right next to Pasadena, CA. It was breath taking. We were there all day and did not ever see half of the grounds. We visited 3 of the 6 art galleries, the Japanese garden, The bonsai tree garden, part of the Australia garden (the third meet the parents movie was being filmed while we were there so we could not tour the whole garden), The Lily Ponds, and the desert garden. Which the desert garden was not that interesting because it looked like California. The other exhibits were fantastic and it was so nice to enter into a new world at every different exhibit.

This room to the left was my absolute favorite!!! It was the Library. This place is amazing ... they have the original Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Jane Austins, Lord Tennyson, first publications of the blood lines of numerous countries, journals from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln on top of the Gutenberg Bible. The Huntington's devoted their life to finding rare and significant writings. The Huntington library is closed on certain days of the year to allow scholars to come and study the books and scrolls that they have in their collection. To say the least it was extraordinary!

Our trip was wonderful and we were so glad that we were able to take it. We have been so blessed in Michael's job. He really enjoys it and they are good to him. We are so thankful for all that Heavenly Father has done for us. Even though we may not see it at first. Recently I have received a new calling in our ward as Primary Chorister. I was VERY hesitant and new that the calling was coming. I was so worried when they finally extended the call to me ... I just wasn't sure if I could do it. But after much praying and pleading with my Heavenly Father I realized that he is supporting me 100% as is Michael and the entire Primary Presidency. I am so glad that I had the courage to accept this calling I have already felt the growth.

Jet skiing in fall colors

Over Thanksgiving weekend we did things a little different. I had some time off of work so we decided to go to my grandparents river house in Lake Havasu. We left Wednesday night and got back Monday night. It was nice to just get away together and relax. And yes we took Sage with us too. She really enjoyed it. I think she might have enjoyed the water more then us.

We played on the Jet Skis, went under the London Bridge, went for golf cart rides ( sage's favorite part of the day), and went swimming. We had a great time, other then it being a little windy and temperatures in the 60s.

The London Bridge at night

Look what we found under under the London Bridge

Ministry of Magic please.... or at least she wishes. She has never used the visitors entrance before...

Brandee on the jet ski

Michael and sage

Sage playing in the water

Us on the Jet Ski

Sage relaxing

Our Apartment

Well, we've been in our apartment since June and we still haven"t put up any pictures so here you go. We have a two bed one bath apartment. We love it. We made the second room into our office/storage, Here are the pictures:

Here is the living room

Here is the Kitchen

Here is the eating area

Here is the hallway

The office

The bathroom

And the bedroom

Welcome to the Family

Well, I know what you are thinking .... what happened to seeing the new apartment, right? Well those pictures are just being finished up and they will surely be the next blog.
It has been a while since we have blogged and that is only because we have not had the Internet until about a week a go. So I have been trying to catch up on everything that I needed to. So finally its time to blog.
Since my parents have moved away I have been missing them terribly and the adorable puppies they took with them. Barkley and mischievous little fellow and Sadie my long time best friend. So lately I have been feeling like I want a furry friend too and after much deliberation and much talking and bargaining with Michael he finally decided to let me have a dog :-D

This is Sage our newest member of the family!!

We decided to try and rescue a puppy from a shelter because there are A LOT out here and many need good homes, and since it was our first dog we knew it would the most cost efficient way to go. After much thought and research we finally found a place that would work with us like we needed. Out here you have to fill our 5-7 pages of paper work just to be considered for an adoption. I thought that was insane. Every place we went it felt like they were trying to make it so difficult to adopt. So we finally found a place that worked with us to find a dog and that made it convenient. After all shouldnt that be their goal. Make it convenient for people to adopt a dog and they will otherwise they will just go to a pet store pay their $2,000 dollars for a dog and be on their way.
Sage is spunky and a ball of fun. She has so much energy, she is a rottweiler/shepherd mix. So far we love her.

She was so tired after we brought her home yesterday evening
and after a long drive in the car

This morning she was so full of energy and excited to see us!!


She was extremely tired after our walk this morning.

An Answered Prayer

An Answered Prayer

I know the picture doesn't look like much and not everyone will look at it and see beauty. But I do! We received rain yesterday in California. It wasn't a lot but it sure was beautiful. It has been kind of foggy every morning for a the past week and every morning I pray for rain. Yesterday morning started out with the same fog and but it was a little colder than normal. So once again I said my prayer to let us receive rain . . . and we did! Everything was so beautiful after the rain. The pavement was sparkling, the trees looked a little greener, and the grass seemed to stand taller than it had before.

Nothing I have seen in California is quite as green as things in Minnesota so it is a little depressing every direction you look. Even though I have been in California for a while I still miss the beautiful green summers and chilling white winters. Michael on the other hand has lived in California his whole life except a two year break to South Africa/Botswana. Which really does not count considering the climate there is the exact same as Southern California. But as we talk about life and the future I find that we want the same things and our goals meet. He as well wants green and a white winter. It is very exciting for me to know that I will not have to stay in California forever. I plan to take what I can from it while I am here and then once we leave it will be alleluia!!

The picture is of the clouds in the sky over on the mountains. Michael took the picture while he was at work, I am sure he had a great view of the rain from his office window. I thought the clouds looked so cool. It amazes me the shapes they can take turtles, hearts, faces, elephants with wings but what ever shape the clouds really do have a mind of their own.