*The Rhoades*

Monday, March 21, 2011

Another trip down...

Over Preston's spring break, we had the awesome opportunity to go visit my grandparents, Grandma Bev and Grandpa Don. Grandma Bev is my mom's birth mom and Grandma Bev found my mom when I was just a baby so I have been so lucky and blessed to know her my whole life. She is one amazing woman with such a great heart. Grandpa Don is so great. He always gets the crowd laughing and is such a sweet man. The two of them are such a happy, loving couple. We spent 3 days with them and it wasn't long enough! We learned a new game (I'm racking my brain trying to figure out the name, it has totally slipped my mind) but take my word for it, it's so much fun. We had a day where we checked out a beautiful park with so much greenery and had a little farm there, later that day we went to Berkley Marina for lunch that looked over the bay and the weather was perfect. We also had a day where we spent the day in San Francisco with Grandpa Don and their friend Ernie who grew up in San Francisco so he was able to show us around. Preston had never been to S.F. so I was really excited for him to check it out. Again, we lucked out with perfect weather! One of the nights we went to dinner with my Aunt Treacy, her hubby Uncle Jay and my awesome cousins! We Skyped the ones we weren't able to meet up with. We spent a rainy day at their house playing that game I can't remember the name and enjoyed a great lunch at one of their favorite restaurants and even went along for the drive for the group they volunteer for, Meals On Wheels. Later that day it was still rainy so we spent the evening by the fire with a delicious home cooked meal watching American Idol. We made some more great memories with them and we hope to make it back to see them sooner rather than later!

Now for the pictures (Sorry mom it's taken me so long to get them up!)

Whats better than taking road trip than loading up on all your favorite junk food?! Nothing! Here is Preston pulling a Kramer and doing the cigar/beer trip except obviously with Sun Drop and a Slim Jim (gross!!)

I, of course had my staple snack, skittles!!!

At the mini farm. I love cow's I think they are so cute! This cow even smiled for this picture. "Happy cow's come from California"

Our afternoon at Berkley marina

We met a lot of these cute little guys! I know, I know... don't feed the animals, but they were just too cute and probably hungry. A few chips won't hurt, right?!

And to your left, you have the Golden Gate Bridge.

Dinner with the clan. What a great, great time!

Aunt Treacy and myself, she would be my mom's half sister! Resemblance? I think so!

My adorable and funny cousin Hollie. I love this girl!!

At the top of Lombard street (a very windy, narrow street)

At the bottom of Lombard street.

Coit Tower

Alcatraz (we'll be making that stop on our next trip)

The inside of Coit Tower have murals like this covering every space. Amazing details.

I shouldn't have to tell you what this is ;) (Grandpa Don, my hunk of a husband, myself and good friend, Ernie)

This is a replica of a cable used on the bridge. If you click on this picture to make it bigger, it has all the details of it.

This building was for watching over the bay for predators. Out of those window's used to be cannon's.

They had these all along the bridge with a phone to call for help..

Starting the mile walk across the bridge.

I collect shot glasses, this is my newest addition.

Sutro Bath House ruins. One of my favorite parts. This just takes me back in time for some reason. Google Sutro Bath House in S.F. Some cool history!

enjoying the scenery and breathing in the great ocean air!

What a view!! This is on top of Twin Peaks.

What a great trip. Sadly, it ended and school and work started back up so fast! We're so glad we were able to make this fun, fun trip! Thanks again Grandma Bev and Grandpa Don!

Monday, January 31, 2011

Oh how I am loving AZ.

Really, both Preston and I are really loving Arizona right now. The weather is amazing (for a couple more months atleast.. I hope..) It has been in the 70's for a few weeks and the next couple of weeks will be in the 60's. Perfect!

Preston and I were itching to get out of the house and do something active and enjoy the weather. We've never been able to say we can go hiking in shorts and sweat it up in January. Fantastic!

Hardest part of the hike. Almost straight up. It felt more like rock climbing but without all the gear.

Preston and I are feeling more and more like home here. We of course still miss UT and all our families and friends like crazy but we have found our nitch here and are making some amazing friends. We love that we're finding more and more couples and families to hang out with. We have been meeting life long friends and making great memories.

(Pause, The Bachelor is back from commercial)

And, I'm back!

Preston and I have been super busy between school, work, making sure there is time for just us two, and church stuff.

I am loving my job. The girls I work with are awesome and hilarious. Preston is of course doing great in school and keeping up on all of his work. We are both teaching the 11 year old's in primary. It is so fun and we love those kids. They are so much fun and they teach us a lot.. a lot of patience! But really, they are so smart and they really do teach us a lot about the gospel and they are just great to have in our class. I am also in the Activity Day's. I love the girls in that program. Such sweet, loving, smart, cute and funny girls. I had the opportunity to give a little talk at our ward's "8 is great" fireside. I talked to the girls coming into Activity Day's this year and what it's all about. They are all so excited to be joining all of the other girls. I am also in our ward Choir which I love. We sing some awesome songs! Our choir has been asked to sing in Stake Conference which is very exciting and I also have the opportunity to sing with a smaller group in one of our sacrament meetings coming up. It's all accapella and I have never heard the song before, so I'm a bit nervous especially because I'm singing soprano and we have a super super high note that I have to really work on. But it'll turn out great.

There is just a little re-cap of what we've been up to and our life in Surprise, Arizona! I love Preston and love how hard he works for us and I couldn't be any happier right now in our lives :)

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Our Merry Christmas in UT

Beware, this is long!!!

Preston and I were able to head to Utah for about 9 days to spend Christmas with both families! We had a great time, we had snow and cold weather which was fun but I have to admit, as much as I love winter for Christmas, I was getting ready to come back to the warmth. I sure don't miss driving in the snow! We drove down on Wednesday before Christmas, the next day we just hung around SL and went to lunch with my parents at one of my most favorite resturants.. The Jasmine! Dang good sushi! We stopped by my old work Dental Select and said hi to some good friends and just hung around at my parents. Friday (Christmas Eve) we went to my grandma's out in Erda and had lunch with her and spent a couple of hours with her and had a great time seeing her and spending time with her and my family. She's such a sweet grandma. I miss her lots. After that, we went to Oma's and Opa's for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner, singing, performing, FOOD, food and more food presents, the Christmas Story, and great time with all of my dad's brothers and families (except for Curtis and fam who live in N.J. and David and Carole who weren't there) Christmas isn't Christmas unless we're at Oma's and Opa's on Christmas Eve. The atmosphere is great. Lots of laughter (sometimes until you cry) the spirit is always strong that night as we sing Silent Night or Stile Nacht for our last carole we sing of the evening. Oma always has the most delicious food ready for us to eat and it's such a great time. That night, Preston and I drove up to spend the night at his parent's and Christmas morning we woke up with his sister Jessica and her husband Theron and Preston's grandma who also spent the night. It was so fun having Christmas morning with them. We got great gifts, a great breakfast and had so much fun. We spent part of the day up there then wen't back to my parent's for Christmas dinner.. My dad's Prime Rib!! YEAH! The Elder's were even able to join us. Sunday my nephew Stockton was blessed by his daddy Chase.. it was so great to be there for that. The rest of the time we were back and forth with both families, we got to hang out with our besties Shawn and Katie, Preston had a guys night with his buddies while I went to my sisters and played with the kiddo-s and watched a movie. We also got to go spend some extra time with Preston's grandma at her house! We got to go to breakfast Monday morning with Jess and Theron and Theron's parents and brother before Jess and Theron left back to Montana! We were supposed to leave Thursday but due to the storm coming in, we waited until Friday and it still took us longer than normal to get home due to icy, very icy roads, so icy that we had a detour in Fillmore because we thought something was wrong with our car because we could not stop swerving on I-15 and only being able to go 25 mph when the roads seemed okay. We ended up gettting 2 new tires and headed back on the road. Needless to say, we got home around 9 on New Year's eve. Ordered pizza, unpacked a little and went to bed at 11. Happy New Year for us haha. And, now... here are all the pictures!