Stay-cation {Adventures} - Orange County

Last weekend Kenny and I went on a "stay-cation."  We found out that one of our favorite bands was playing in Orange County (about an hour and a half from where we live) and we knew we wanted to make a trip out of it. We had a GREAT time! Our weekend consisted of taking long drives and walks to explore new places, ravaging through antique and thrift stores, going to farmers markets, eating excellent food, playing arcade games and riding the ferris wheel on the boardwalk, and of course enjoying great music.

Life is great when you are married to your best friend!

Random Provotian {Adventures}

Do you want to know a funny thing about Kenny? When we had been living in Provo for about a week he decided that it was necessary to come up with a term for all these Provo people around us. The term he so proudly coined was "Provotian." Well, we say it all the time now. One would use this word to describe something that the people of Provo do... "That is so Provotian." or it could be used to describe these crazy driving, walk across the street when I am driving near you, college kid kind of people..."There are so many Provotains on the street." You feel me?

Anyways...since we DO live in Provo, I guess you could even call us Provotian..although at times I am not so sure it is a compliment. :] Long story short, we have been up to some good ol' Provotian fun lately. Here is what we have been up to....

We have gone ethnic with our food intake. You don't realize how big of a deal this is!! Kenny dislikes Chinese food, and slowly but surely I have been changing his mind. (Muahahaha) A couple weekends ago we went on a date to a Chinese restaurant in town, and it was SO GOOD! I am glad that Kenny is changing his mind about some of my favorite foods.

We tortured ourselves by going to the humane society and looking at dogs. I say "torture" because we want a dog so bad, but we can not have one because of the apartment complex we live in. I am almost tempted to send emails of bribery to the landlord just so we can have a cute little 3rd member of the family in our house....however I am not so sure how that is gonna work.  Needless to say, despite the fact that we know we can not have a dog, we enjoy looking at and playing with them anyways.

We stopped to take pictures of the crazy rainbows in the land of Provotia. :] There was even a double rainbow!!! These rainbows occurred while I was waiting for Kenny to pick me up from campus one day; he said that everyone was pulling over and driving ridiculous because of it too. Not surprised. But I guess you could count me in the mix too because I took about 10 photos in the street just to capture this beauty!

We have been indulging in FREE ice cream. It is free because of a gift card my sister gave to us, and we were not complaining when she handed that bad boy over. Have you ever had rocky road ice cream from Coldstone?! It is my favorite! No really...it is my favorite. Although, I am always reminded of my lactose intolerance after I splurge on that dairy....but who cares?! It is dang good ice cream!! 

Moral of the story? We are having fun here in Provotia. :] And I do have to say that it is even more fun having my sister here! She must take after me, because she is a crack up.

Relaxation {Adventures}

Once we got back from Vegas we had two glorious weeks to enjoy before school starts again. (I say "we" because I would like to think that Kenny enjoys my time off as well :] ) In the two weeks I got a lot done, and boy did it feel great! I am actually pretty excited to start school on Monday! 

Here is what we were up to for the last 2 weeks...

Kenny brought back an amp from our Vegas trip. That means that more guitar time for Kenny.

Having the extra time, I was able to make some pretty legit dinners. I made Cuban food...legit right?! 

We had fun being silly. 

Kenny played guitar. A lot.

We went for drives and were "inspired" by YOLO graffiti. (YOLO means "You only live once" its a popular phrase these days) 

I cut myself making dinner. That's what I get for being so domestic! 

We hung out with siblings. ...and Kenny played more guitar.

Other things we did (that were not photographed) include: organizing our closet and all of our important papers (You should give me TWO high fives for this one, I have wanted to get this done for a while now), cleaning the house, celebrating Kenny's birthday with trips to guitar center and fabulous Mexican food, visits with family, attending fabulous fondu parties (thanks roommates for inviting us!), and of course there was some school preparation.

We have had a great two weeks. ...Now bring on the school!!!

Las Vegas {Adventures}

 

This weekend we took a road trip to Las Vegas to meet up with Kenny's parents. Vegas is the half way point between Provo and San Diego, so it was the perfect location for a weekend getaway for everyone. Summer semester ended on Thursday, and so we were itching to get away! We had a great time being with family and even some friends who happened to be in town!  One of our favorite things we did over the weekend, besides spending time with family, was going to a concert. A band that Kenny has been wanting to see perform just happened to be playing in Las Vegas the weekend we were there...AND the venue was just a few blocks from our hotel. It was meant to be!! We sure do love going to concerts! :]

We had a great weekend. Now, back to reality!! I have a two week break before Fall semester starts, and so I want make the most out of those two weeks. Here is to hoping that I am bouku productive!!

("Bouku" is a slang term that Kenny uses, I am trying it on for size lately :] )

Exploring {Adventures}

I love wandering around with no agenda, Kenny and I have become quite pro at it. Today we explored Bicentennial park in Provo, Springville City, & Spanish Fork. I feel blessed to live in such a beautiful place. I also feel grateful to have a husband that encourages me to get out and enjoy the place we live in.

Utah Lake {Adventures}

Kenny's parents were in town this last weekend and it was GREAT. One of the things that we love about having them in town is exploring and "playing tourist"- we always seem to wander around with no plans and see where it takes us. It only seemed right to swing by Utah Lake and see what it had to offer us (we had been talking about going since we moved here). We had a blast strolling along the sandy "beach" (that's what the signs called it, but I find no comparison to the beaches I love in San Diego ;] ) and enjoying the beautiful scenery of nature all around us. If there one thing you want to know about me it is that I love nature! Love love love it! Perfect weather, combined with beautiful nature, combined with people that I love, equals one really content Ashley. We had a great day, and it made me even more excited to get out and explore more nature this summer. I foresee a few hikes and picnics in the mountains in these upcoming months.

Visitors!

Last weekend we had a great time with Kenny's parents. They had been planning this trip before we even moved to Utah land, and so we have been counting down the days till their arrival for quite some time now.  We had a great time with them! (Of Course!) We showed them around "our" town, we traveled to Salt Lake City and Park City and played tourist - checking out all of the sights. By far, my favorite thing we did was venture to Park City.

On the way up the canyon we stopped at the Olympic Park, something I never would have thought to stop at and explore. This is one of the sites for the winter olympic games in 2002. It was kind of fun to walk around and see all of the same things we saw on tv. They even had some luge races going on while we were up there. How many times in your life do you get to watch a luge race on an olympic track?! It was one of those "once and a lifetime" type of experiences. I am so glad we decided to go out of our way to see what Olympic Park had to explore.

Everything in Park City is so quaint and beautiful. We walked up and down main street, looking at all of the little shops and exploring all they had to offer us (which of course included eating chocolates at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, and looking for little Utah license plates with the name "Phil" for my mother in-law). We stopped for lunch at a cute little cafe and they sat us right next to the window, we got a great view of the mountains and we even got to people watch. (That's my kind of lunch :] ) I can't believe the perfect weather that we had that day too! It was a little warm (for Utah standards) which was great weather for walking around, but once we went inside to get lunch it started to lightly snow. It was perfect! By the time we were done with lunch, it was done snowing and we were able to travel safely on the roads down the canyon.

We had a great time with our visitors and we can't wait until they come back! Although, I have a confession....I have been home sick ever since they left. I better find a way to get back to San Diego soon!