We are familily...

Brothers and my sister and me!

Quick update, pictures later.

One year older and wiser too! Happy birthday to you, my dear husband!I have to admit I am probably the WORST wife in the world. Zach’s birthday always seems to fall on an extremely busy day for us and he can never just sit back and get spoiled.

We were in California for his birthday last year but he had to share that day with our friends wedding! This year we were lucky enough to go back to California for his birthday weekend. Unfortunately he had to share his special day again, this year with my best friend and a 3 year old. Thankfully we celebrated a lot in Vegas last month so we still got to celebrate his birthday there.I am so lucky to have married a selfless man.

Zach, you truly are an amazing. I consider myself lucky every day to have someone like you in my life. I hope you enjoyed your birthday weekend and I’m excited to spoil you rotten next year!

We had lots of fun on our California trip, though it was short and a little rushed it was great to see my family again. Friday we went out to lunch with my little brother and then he treated us to a movie at his theater. That evening we got to play with the Websters. We went out to dinner with the grandparents and uncle Chris and family. After dinner we played with 9 labradoodle puppies, they were so sweet! Then we came home and watched a movie with my Mom, well Zach watched the movie, I fell asleep.

Saturday my mom and I woke up early to make a yummy breakfast for Zach. Then we went to the Irvine Spectrum and went shopping with the family. We played at D&B for a couple hours and stopped by the Cheesecake Factory to pick up a yummy cheesecake for Zach’s birthday. We rushed down to dinner at North woods Inn and enjoyed a huge yummy steak. My mouth is watering just talking about it.After dinner we went over to Teresa’s birthday party. I can’t believe how big she is getting!! I just love her to pieces and it was great to see her family again. I was a little worried she wouldn’t remember me but she did. I hear she’s a big singer these days, I wonder if I rubbed off on her. I think her parents should throw her on a plane and let her come visit me for a week. *hint hint*

Later that night we stopped by my best friends’ house. That’s right; Hermana Mayans has returned from Chile and is no longer a Hermana! I’m am so happy she is home and going to be living in Utah. We came home and enjoyed lots of cheesecake and celebrated Zach’s birthday!!!!

Sunday was her homecoming and after church we headed home to take a much needed nap. We woke up that evening and went out to dinner with my parents. Afterwards we just hung around the house and I helped wash and groom all the dogs. And then I remembered why I don’t want a puppy anymore.

Monday morning we went to breakfast with my good friend Stephanie. She is about 5 months pregnant right now and it has been so hard being away from her while she is having so much fun getting ready for her first child. After that we ran down to the beach and did NOTHING. Our friends the Mascio’s came along to play. After a couple hours at the beach we ran home to shower and get ready for the baseball game. Can I just say it isn’t summer until I’ve gone to the beach and a baseball game. So I guess summer just started on Monday. That night we went to yogurtland with my friend Rhett who came down from Sacramento to see us! Then we caught an early flight home on Tuesday. It was very quick but very enjoyable trip home. We wish we were coming back sooner.

But school has now started and I wont be seeing my husband for another 9 months or so. Crazy.

See you in two!!

Elder Lyman,

You will be a great missionary and we already miss you!
We may be losing a brother, but we're gaining an xbox!

Here we go again....

Apparently "voice of the people" actually means "voice of one single judge"...
Today a California Judge overturned Prop 8. Judge Vaughn Walker says the ban on same-sex marriage violates constitutional rights to equal protection and due process. The decision is expected to reach the Supreme Court.


I have faith. I have faith that this will work out the way it is supposed to. I have faith that the church members will work a million times harder. I have faith that the "hate" will stop. I have faith that the Prophet will guide us in what to do.

It has been said so many times before that we can no longer "sit on the fence" with our choices. Now is the time to be 100% in the gospel. Though I do respect individuals lifestyle choices, I do not respect the hate. Why can people stand outside new temples with their posters, screaming hurtful and false things but we cannot take a stand for what we believe in? Why are LDS members picked on so much about this but other churches are left behind? I can promise you that SEVERAL other religions believe the same thing we do. Marriage is between a man and a woman. Plain and simple. God intended it that way, and we do too.

I am not a political person by any means but I know what I believe and I will fight to the end to defend that right.

Here is a video for the church the first time this all started.

You may recognize the girl stuttering in the end. :)

That's what you get for waking up in Vegas!

OK, so let me explain this picture a little. Having a husband that I see for only a few hours a week, its hard to always get messages to one another. So, from time to time I write messages on the "bathroom wall" with my handy dandy bathtub crayons. ( recommended ages 3+) I love them!! Sometimes its stupid jokes I heard, reminders for the day, and things of that nature. I figured we both shower at one point or another so he's bound to read the notes, and writing things on the toilet seat just isn't classy.

This time I made it a countdown to our random vacation.

This is our very outdated shower wall.

I know, I know, It's a little cheesy

but still really fun!

Now I say "random vacation" because that is exactly what it was. My parents were planning to come at the end of July for Zach's graduation and the Powell family reunion. Plans changed and they weren't able to come. Zach and I figured since we took time off anyways, we should put it to good use. Hence we came with our random last minute vacation....

We started our amazing weekend with the long awaited

Graduation from Paramedic school

(**screaming and jumping with excitement**) Bragging Wife Alert:I think its safe to say we are both so happy that the last NINE months went by quickly. I guess its just a little sneak peak of what medical school has in store for us. I am so unbelievably proud of this guy! He works harder then anyone I know! He is incredibly smart and did I mention good looking? I watched Zach in action last month when Grandpa had his "scary middle of the night thought he was going to die thing" < that's the medical term for it. Zach completely blew my mind with his medical knowledge and how CALM he was about everything! Ugh, I wish I was more like him sometimes! In two words... He's Amazing.

P.S. He made the deans list for his THIRD semester in a row! Marriage must be good for him. :)

Shortly after graduation, we packed our bags and headed to VEGAS! Yes, we did spoil ourselves a little this trip. We justify it as graduation, Zach's birthday, and our anniversary all wrapped in one.... so we went a little crazy. Nothing wrong with that, right? The first night we stayed at an amazing two bedroom condo just off the strip. Wish we brought people to party with because there was definitely room for it! They had a free shuttle that bussed us into the middle of the strip so we got dropped off and hit the town. We started our celebratory weekend with dinner at Joe's seafood in Cesar's Palace. Which was AMAZING and I highly recommend. MmmmM, my mouth waters just thinking about it. Then we walked around the Venetian for a bit and window shopped at all of the expensive stores. After walking off dinner we landed at TI for the pirate show. Treasure Island is where we stayed for our "mini" honeymoon on our way home from California so it was a bit sentimental. After standing outside in 90 degree weather (at night) for an hour with the humidity seeping to my bones, We took our sweaty selves home and decided to call it an early night.

Saturday was a bit more eventful. We both woke up with stuffy noses and puffy eyes. Oh joy! The AC had been blasting right on our heads all night and made us both sick! We checked out of the condo and grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonald's before heading to the new hotel. We were staying at the Luxor for the rest of our trip and drove around 3 times before we found the parking entrance. HA! We dropped our stuff off at the mac daddy suite and began our day. We decided to basically walk around the strip just see what there is to do. Seeing that it was 104 degrees in the shade, we ducked in and out of casinos to stay cool.

We walked over to Mandalay Bay through an underground tunnel and realized about 1 1/2 miles away from our hotel how far we had gone. It's WAY to easy to get lost in those stupid things. Then we walked to MGM to see M&M world and the Coke store.

It was great and what I dream heaven will be like.

Inside the Coke store, we signed up for "Tastes around the World". It was actually really fun. We were such dorks pretending to taste the drinks like fine wine tasters.

I would not recommend that much beverage consumption unless you are close to your hotel room or know where all the public restrooms are along the strip. Which I now know, in case you are wondering. I know, TMI.

Anyways....On our adventure we came across a ticket booth and I surprised Zach with tickets to the BLUE MAN GROUP for his birthday! Since the tickets were at 10 that night we needed things to fill our time till then. We walked everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE! Walked all the way to the other end of the strip and crashed somewhere between the Flamingo and the Venetian. We sat inside at watched the opera singers and the other free entertainment they had. It was so fun. We watched 3, count 'em, 3 water shows at the Belligo from different angles. We enjoyed dinner at a place called San Marcos in the St. Marks square. Delish food! I was laughing all through dinner because deep inside this casino a real pigeon happened to get in and flew around inside for the next 2 days. Spoiled little bird. Then when it was showtime we collapsed into our seats and had a blast! Zach was floored at the amazing things they did! He talked about it for the rest of the night. After the show, being the cheap kids we are we decided to again... walk the 5.4 miles back to our hotel. Which made for a grand total of almost 12 miles that day.

We closed the black out curtains and didn't wake up until noon the next day. This was our laid back, do nothing day. Which I think all vacations should have. We dined on Krispy Kream doughnuts for brunch and watched Shark week for most of the day. After taking a nice nap, we dressed up to go to the Bodies exhibit. Another mind blowing experience.
We came home after and spoiled ourselves with a little room service dessert and watched more shark week. We're geeks we know!


This also being an early anniversary weekend for us Zach surprised me with something wonderful. My very own BEAUTIFUL pearl necklace! He picked out the pearl all by himself! I guess its pretty rare. 7 out of 100. This picture isn't the best but the color is amazing! Its a dark grey blue color. Thank you so much honey, you are the sweetest! I love you so much!

We drove home Monday morning. We talked the ENTIRE way home. I think that was my favorite part. We talk about the most random things sometimes but I love it. There is nothing like being/talking with your best friend for 6 hours straight with no interruptions.

How did I get so lucky?!?!?