Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend was a blast! We met up with one of my best friends (Allison) and her hubby Rod, Eric and Gretchen (Jimmy and I met at their wedding), and 2 other couples. We went to the boardwalk in Santa Cruz, the Mystery Spot, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, saw the Elephant seals along the beach (they smelled horrible by the way), drove the most beautiful drive in the country (Highway 1...a 2.5 hour drive along the cliffs off the coast of California) stopping for tons of pictures along the way, Hearst Castle (and we saw wild zebras--no joke!), and to a few California missions from the 1700s. It was an amazing trip and so much fun to be with old friends and enjoy the beauty of CA.

Jimmy and Rod singing at the Kereoke Bar
The whole gang singing "The Love Shack"

CA sunset on our way home

So these random zebras were along the side of the road. They are wild and tend to hang out with the cattle.

You'd think were were in Africa or something

Here is an indoor pool at Hearst Castle (the floor is made of gold)

Dining room

The beautiful Hearst Castle

One of the pools at Hearst Castle (me and Gretta)

One of the guest houses

One of the bridges along Hwy 1

another CA mission

me with all the nasty elephant seals along the coast

Beautiful drive

CA mission

Cathedral

I didn't know they had whtie-sand beaches in CA

my cutie hubby

us at Carmel

This looks like Sunset Beach in Hawaii

some of the pretty fish and kelp forest at the aquarium

This little sea lion was tapping his blue ball on the window. It was so cute!

The jellyfish were the coolest! Jimmy, me, Allison, Rod

The mystery spot

I'm actually standing on a ladder against the wall here...

Jimmy inside the myster shack...for some reason he didn't fall over (Allison in background making a weird face)

Here's Jimmy walking against the wall of the mystery shack

The whole gang. Basically the mystery spot is a place where due to optical illusions and the theory of relativity, things aren't as they seem. You can walk on walls, stand crooked, balls roll uphill, etc. I still can't quite figure it out!

My First 5K

If you know me, you know that I hate to run. I like to exercise and play sports such as volleyball, softball, water sports, etc. that involve quick sprints or no running at all.

Well--we decided to do our first 5K for Breast Cancer (a close to home cause). I have never run 3.2 miles at one time in my whole life so my goal was to:
a: run the whole time
b: run it in under 32 minutes.

Jimmy's goals were the same except he wanted to run it in under 30 minutes. Here are the before pictures:

the sun is in my eyes!

Friend Janelle, Jimmy, Me, sis. in law Karen

There was a huge turnout of 20,000 people that attended and we ended up meeting our goals! I ran it in 28 minutes flat and Jimmy did it in 26 minutes!

Here is the after picture of us in our apartment parking lot. Karen, Jimmy and I.

p.s. I just updated my mom's blog with a funny video about her...check it out www.rubbingrock.blogspot.com

Locks of Love

So--I finally did it. I cut off 10 inches of my long, curly hair. As you know, my mom has been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer and is completely bald. Although my hair will go toward a wig for a child, I felt that somehow I would be helping my mom by donating my hair.

So if anyone is looking to get a cut for summer--maybe cutting it a few more inches would provide a wig for a child with cancer. (visit http://www.locksoflove.org/). The minimum length for a wig is 10 inches.

Here are some before and after pics...

Before

After

Look how much I cut off!

2nd Article of Faith

At church a little 3 year old ran up to the primary president to pass off the 2nd article of faith. Here it is:

"Sister Nelson, I learned the second Article of Faith. We believe that man may be punched for his own sins and not for his madams transgressions."

hahaha! I kinda like this way better ;0)