Beach Day

We got to enjoy one last beach day before we head off to New York! We spent the day at Corona Del Mar enjoying the sun and sand, and then a bonfire with hot dogs and s'mores! It was such a nice day down there, and surprisingly warm that night! 

Jon showing off his mad skills

Sophie being very brave screaming "I'm swimming! I'm swimming!" and jumping over and through the waves in the FREEZING water

Hitchin' a ride

Cute little Owen playing in the sand

Feeling a little sad that we're not going to be here to hang out at the beach all summer!

Me & Dad

Ryan & Karen

The fire was a little hot, but Ryan was a trooper with the hot dogs

S'mores!

Moving Day!!

We had a week and a half from the time we got home from New York until the movers came to pick up all of our stuff. Ryan was out of town for 5 of those days so we really only had about a week to get everything ready. Instead of just worrying about packing up our apartment and getting that ready I also decided to refinish 4 pieces of furniture and make a new headboard! (Another post on that with pictures once I get there and can take some pictures of the finished product!) Needless to say it was a very busy week but we got it all done and our stuff is in the truck headed to New York!

Ryan is in Long Island working this week so on Friday he'll go "home" to an empty apartment! We're hoping that our stuff will show up on Monday, thats when my mom and I are heading out there. So Ryan is going to try to keep himself busy this weekend by doing a little shopping to get a few necessary things like an air mattress so he has something to sleep on, and maybe even doing a little painting for me to pass the time!

The Apartment Hunt

We went to New York in the middle of March for a CRAZY 3 1/2 days of apartment shopping! We walked about 15 miles a day (and I'm not being dramatic when I say that!) The good part about walking so much was that we got to know the city a little bit better and will have a least a little bit of an idea where we're going when we move!

This was after walking ALL day on Friday... In my clothes that I had traveled in ALL day on Thursday! My flight out was horrible, we sat on the plane for an hour at Orange County where they took my bag that I was carrying on because there was no room overhead due to a full flight. Then they took us off, made us wait for 2 hours, then decided that our plane was no longer going to JFK so I was "lucky" enough to get shuttled over to LAX for a flight out. My luggage however was not as lucky. It didn't make it until Friday night, about 24 hours after me! I was so glad to get out of those clothes when it finally did arrive!! (Ryan had been in New Hampshire working that week so he met me there on Thursday night)

Friday night we met up with a friend of Ryan's from college and got to check out their apartment and they even took us to get some New York Pizza!! After we left them we walked around just trying to check out the area. That was most of the weekend, walking around looking at areas trying to figure out where we wanted to live! 

In front of the temple where we will be going to church!

The Lincoln Center

The security guard took a picture for us..I'm pretty sure that people will think I'm a tourist the whole time we're living there because I always have my camera out!

Hailing a cab, I was pretty great at it!!

Central Park

 We left on Sunday with no apartment, a few options but we hadn't decided on anything. After a stressful few days trying to make the decision we picked an apartment (on the upper west side at 101st street) sent all the paper work over to receive an email from our broker that said "sorry, someone already has papers in on that one" LUCKILY the apartment next door was available so she went a checked it out and we decided to just go for it! From the pictures it looks a little bit nicer than the other one, the kitchen and bathroom were just redone so its all brand new, so it will be nice and clean!! It was a little complicated trying to sign the lease and take care of all the money and paper work from across the country but we finally got it all done and officially have an apartment!

Visiting Kat

The end of February Ryan went on a snowboarding trip with his brother and some friends to Tahoe so I headed to Oregon to visit Kat. It was such a fun weekend just hanging out and catching up. I loved Portland- the city was so different but had such a good vibe. I also got to see my Uncle Jeff and Aunt Mary while I was there, it worked out perfect that they were both in town that weekend! 

PORTLAND, OREGON

Getting attacked by Ben

Hanging out at the coffee shop

In the coffee shop they had these old library drawers that people can write notes and leave them in there. It was fun reading through a few of them!

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

We headed up to Seattle on Sunday and spent the day there. The two hour drive up there was absolutely beautiful! We watched the sunrise through the mountains and fog. So worth getting up at like 4:30am!!

Conversation with Michelle (Kat's roommate) and Kat before we left for Seattle:

M: "Have you ever been to Seattle?"

W: "No this is my first time to Oregon"

M: "So have you ever been to Seattle?"

W: confused by the question "No, I've never been to Oregon"

K: "Whit, Seattle is in WASHINGTON!!"

The Troll Under The Bridge 

(As seen in 10 Things I Hate About You) 

It was so neat to go see this, its just a huge troll underneath a bridge crushing a VW Beetle! It even had a heart beat...

I definitely came home and watched "10 Things I Hate About You" 

so I could see the part with the troll!!

My street

The Space Needle 

Back In Portland...

Voodoo Doughnuts 

On my last night it Portland we went downtown so Kat could take me here. Its a famous little doughnut shop with CRAZY doughnuts!! Things such as the bacon maple bar (a maple bar with bacon on it) And lots of others, many of them being inappropriate!! 

The before..Kat got the classic "Voodoo" and I went for the "Old Dirty Bastard"

The Voodoo

Doughnut with chocolate glaze and Oreo chunks then drizzled with peanut butter

So good...

"I think I'm going to die" 

And that was only after eating less than half!! It was so rich but great. But its probably the ONLY doughnut I will eat in all of 2010 so I'm glad I went for a good one!