so long sweet summer...

does that picture not just scream summer? if you say no, you are nuts. this is crystal cove beach at sunset. so my summer is over, but man, it was prolly the best summer ive had in a long time.

as you know if you happen to read my sporadic and spastic posts, i LOVED my externship. fun people and my ideal job. i cant believe i just said that. i actually know what i am going to do with my life, weird. the best part? going to lunch with the attorneys just for fun! its strange, realizing i have friends that are professionals...am i really not a teenager anymore??

my externship ended just in time for my brother Christian to come home from his mission! ugh, it was sooo good to see him and chill with him again. he has a weird accent (still, 2 months later) but he still giggles like my brother.

at the end of july, my whole fam went to our condo in newport beach...aaaahhhhh, i love california. and the beach. and pretty sunsets. and sun. and, and, and...and it was exactly what i needed. it was so much fun! we took surf lessons and hung out at the beach and pool and just enjoyed each others company. the only bummer was that brian had to leave early for work-it was the first time we had been apart since we got married! i missed him so much, and when i came home, he had a dozen roses waiting for me! what a sweetheart-i guess he did miss me after all :)

august was spent catchin up with friends and hanging out in the yard while brian got his portfolio ready. he was in the visual arts BA but wanted to get into the BFA for graphic design and had to work on some stuff. after weeks of sitting on the couch wondering if my talented husband would ever emerge for the cave he was living in, his portfolio was submitted, reviewed and....ACCEPTED! there are only about 18 people in his program so he is super stoked to start school again. of course this means he will go from full time to part time at his job, and a sudden drop in our income, but so be it. one day he will bring home the real bacon. and the steaks. and the ribs. and more steak. mmmm....

besides all the big stuff, we did alot of other fun stuff too. we went camping, to a bees game, to raging waters, to the salt lake, timpanogos, and redlands temples, to a baptism, and just chilled. the way summer was meant to be i think.

now im back in school. and while i was sitting on the couch catchin up on the 7 or 8 shows that i watch habitually [yeah, yeah, i know im a lazy butt], i kept thinking about how i should update the blog but just didnt want to. and now that im busier than ever, i finally do it. i guess i really like my life to be crazy.

just a few pictures....for more, check out my facebook

brian and i on the condo balcony in front of the view of laguna beach

surf lessons...i got up!!

riding the quads up af canyon while camping

me and christian. we havent changed much.

brotherly love

for those of you who dont know, i have a younger brother named christian. he is exactly 14 months and 6 days younger than me. all our lives, we have been treated like twins by our parents since we are so close in age and the next kid is 7 years younger than us. actually we look quite a bit alike too...but thats not why im writing this.

my brother is currently in sao paulo, brazil on a two year mission for our church. he has been there almost a year and a half and in july he will be back. for those of you who DO know us, and have known us for many years, know that we used to fight like cr

azy. but now he is one of my best friends. weird huh? i still remember the day we made the transition from siblings to friends...i was a freshman in college and hadnt really talked to him in the 4 months i had been at school...this was mostly my fault, as every time i called home i would tell my parents to tell my baby brother that i missed and loved him but not christian. when they asked if i wanted to talk to him, i would shrug and say "nah." but one day, i was walking through the grocery store when my phone rang. my brother was on the other end, bawling his eyes out. it turns out his friend had gotten in a really bad car accident on the way home from school and crashed headon into the county district attorney. the woman was killed instantly but his friend was in a coma and would be charged with reckless drive and vehicular manslaughter if she came out. i cried with him as i walked down the ice cream freezer aisle and asked why he had called me. my parents were out of town and he had no one else he thought would understand. he broke my heart then, because even though i had been a total brat to him, he still trusted me with him inner most feelings and trusted me to care for him when he was vulnerable. after than, things changed. we became friends and while both of us were at byu, we would text little raps to each other, go to dinner once a week together, and i would meet all his friends who didnt understand why i called him christian when they called him scott (christian is his middle name).

anyways, point is, i miss him alot. its been kinda hard with my family moving and getting married and him not being there. but every week when i get an email from him i feel so proud of where he is at in life and how awesome he is. i am so lucky to have such a great relationship with him. before he left on his mission, my mom asked him who he would miss most, anticipating that he would say our dog since he has claimed sole ownership of him since he was a puppy. instead, my brother said "im gonna miss everyone but you know who im really gonna miss most? my sister." i realize just what a cruddy sister i was when we were kids...being the older (and usually taller one) i figured it was my job to push him down stairs and take his fruit snacks so long as i managed to stay out of reaching distance of the jabbing fork he threatened me with. now i see how wrong i was-instead of being a good example to him, i was his worst enemy. i regret those years when we fought with so much angst towards eachother, but during this holiday season, when we all reflect upon the blessings we have in life, i am thankful for my brother, who saw through my flippant attitude to his loving sister beneath, and gave me another chance to see him for who he really was. im so grateful for his strength and his example to me, and im so excited for when he comes home to see the guy he has grown up to be. love you cheech!

and yes, i will beat up any girl who messes with him