So Grateful.

Thank you for all your prayers and fasting. Braydon is finally starting to feel better! :) THANK GOODNESS! We were going crazy there for a while, two months of pain and ribs popping in and out every time you move is waaaaay too long!

It is still sore and he still has to be careful but it has shown definite improvement. and we are so Grateful!

He has been taking lots of cartilage pills and resting when needed but I know for sure that what really helped it to start healing was the fasting and prayers,  Honestly ever since we fasted as a family it has speed up the recovery like crazy...

I am so grateful for the power of prayer and fasting, it is amazing what a little faith can do.

life is hard.

It is hard to be motivated to update your blog when you dont have amazing fun wonderful news to share, or fun pictures to post.

The last couple of months for us have been kind of crazy... I want to make sure to document them because hopefully somewhere down the road we will be able to look back at these experiences and be greatful for what we have learned.

Horrible experience #1. CAR CRASH

we were driving home from selling one day and out of the blue a car slammed into the side of our car.and dented it all up and bent the wheel. we were going about 50 mph and luckily no one was hurt. Our car was shaking a little and looked very sad. Luckily they had insurance. The cops in cali refused to come out unless someone was injured so we just prayed that the ppl that hit us would tell the insurance company an honest story so we didnt have to pay anything! afterall it wasnt our fault!

The accident eventually worked itself out and after a lot of paper work and dealing with insurance companies we are finally getting out car fixed.

$3800 + in damage.

Finally in the shop after 2 1/2 months of dealing with this.

At the end of summer, we had just got done selling pest control for the summer and got to go to oregon for a family reunion. a 2000 mile round trip adventure with a shaky little car, we only got stranded once with no gas and had to sleep at a mcdonalds one night. But it was so much fun seeing everyone and it felt so good to be up in the mountains just relaxing for a few days. Family pic at the reunion.. :) I love my family!!!!!!! (fyi: we had cousins and aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpas there too, it wasnt just us)

anyways. After the reunion we were able to drive up to seattle and spend some time with braydons family. His parents recently moved to seattle, and are so far away we hardly get to see them so this was a lot of fun!! after the visit we drove to the oregon coast for the Hood to coast race. (that is a whole other post and maybe someday i will get to that) Overall it was a great experience just a little crazy with 5000 ppl in the mountains on a two lane road. for 36 hours straight. After being away in cali and driving 2000 miles we were ready to be settled. Provo was our next stop. School was starting the next day so we rushed home and stayed the night at my parents.

Horrible experience #2 APT FROM HELL.

Like i said we had been living in cali all summer and didnt really have any way to look at apts in provo. thus we thought it was a good idea to check out craigs list and go off of the pictures online.... (never ever ever ever do this) The add said it was BYU approved, students were in the area, it was a great price, only a 6 month lease, so we did it! I sent her the $200 deposit and she held the apt for us. First day in provo braydon went to school and i didnt have class so i drove over to our new home and met the landlord at her house to sign the lease. I being a silly, trusting, nieve girl signed the lease before checking out the apt, Braydon still needed to sign it on the main line so i wrote mine at the bottom not on a line. I gave her $500 cash and happily took the keys. :) So excited to see our new apt, i drove around the corner and pulled into the driveway of our new place. Hmmmm first impression not to bad. i mean it was backed up to the freeway, which seemed a little noisy. & it was a little further from the school than I had hoped. But what the heck it was cheap and there were other students around.... right?? I started unpacking the car. neighbor #1 pulls up in her car. (it was a fourplex so we had 3 close neighbors) she gets out and grabs her grocerys. I looked at her, guessed she was prob about 50, a rather large lady. I smiled and she smiled back. "Hi Im your new neighbor" i said. She looked at me for a moment and said "oh". "well your going to have lots of fun around here" That had to be a good sign right? She started walking up the stairs with her hands full of bags, i thought oh i should go help her! but then i paused a moment and noticed how slowly she was walking up.... right foot. two bags swing forward and land on the stairs. left food. left hand swings forward and the other two bags land on the stair. Right foot again. (1 and 1/2 stairs conquered in 1 minute).....On second thought, I think i will let her get the excercise. I continued to unpack my car, neighbor #2 comes out of his door. He looked about 45, a little scruffy. I said Hi, and told him me and my husband were moving in to apt #1. He welcomed me, as he pulled out a cigarette. (HEY DUMB WOMAN THAT POSTED THIS ADD, THESE ARE SOME GREAT BYU STUDENTS) I decided to ask him a few questions.. "so how long have you lived here?" ....."almost two years now" he said. "oh so you must like it.... is it a good area?"..... "yea, its good. Just make sure you lock your door...and shut your windows..... Oh and we like to park our car out front so we can keep an eye on it. There are a bunch of little trouble makers that run around here, and sometimes like to cause. problems............(are you freaking kidding me!!!)...... "ohhhhhh right. yea okay no problem. thanks for the info" I went inside and looked around. something just didnt feel right. I texted braydon. "hey... the toilet is clogged, and i met our neighbors. they are wierd"..."I am kind of really wishing we would have signed the other contract instead of this one". Braydon texts back.. "is it really that bad".... me: "I dunno i guess not, (since i couldnt say anything else. we were STUCK there). I dropped my phone and sat on the ground and started to cry... This was going to be a loooooooooooooong six months in this dive. An hour later I picked up braydon and we went back to see the apt. He walked inside.. this isnt bad. and the inside really wasnt.. it was the area! We decided to go for a walk to check out the neighborhood. after our walk we new we couldnt live there. It was not safe! we called the landlord and insisted she gave us our money back. Afterall I never signed the line and Braydon still hadnt even signed it. She of course said Nope. Your wife signed the contract. We were stuck. We slept that night at my cousins house, Thank you mike and brittany! The landlord said she would help us sell it but if not than we were stuck paying the rent, and she still had our $700 dollars. I went to BYU upset and asked them why on earth they would approve an apt in that area! They plugged in the address and were confused..."we dont approve anything in that area" they said. They asked to see my contract, I told them i still didnt have a copy. The man helping me said well if she used our BYU contract saying it was approved the contract is not valid. I looked at his copy and part of it did look familiar. I immediatly let our landlord know that i needed a copy of this contract asap! She taped it to her door i went and picked it up and sure enough it was the same one they had showed me at BYU. and better yet she had forged my name on the signature line where braydon was supposed to sing! How dare she! So excited I ran back to byu and took the contract to them. they laughed and said yea, this is not valid she legaly cant use this contract. YAY! so legally we were not bound this contract.. but how the heck are we going to get our money back. straight $700 cash. Braydon called her up. no answer. I called her, no answer. We decided we had to go to her house if we wanted to get anywhere. We pulled up and knocked on the door no one answered. We waited and noticed some guys around back. braydon walked back there and asked where the lady of the house was. All the sudden i looke through her glass door and saw her! She started backing up and shaking her head no. So i walked to the door and waved motioning the older lady to come out. (this was the landlords mom) She finally did and we asked how we were going to get our money back and the contract was not valid. She said i dont have the money.. lisa does. Braydon finally talked her into trying to call lisa because she wouldnt answer for us. so she did and she was not home, we then talked her into calling lisas husband. And the older lady didnt know what to do so she asked lisas husband to just talk to braydon. Braydon got on the phone and i was so proud of him! he was mature about it and didnt swear or yell. He told him we needed our money back today. and the guy said what money?? anyways, he had to talk to him for about 15 min before he got anywhere the guy was being an idiot and said he didnt have the money either. Finally they agreed to meet that night after he got off work and he would give us the cash. We were very sceptical that he would show up but he actually did. and the conversation went like this...

They both got out of their cars... Braydon walks up to him. and holds out his hand for the cash. The guy says give me the key. So braydon gets the key and they switch off at the same time. Braydon started counting the money to make sure it was the right amount. The guy says "Your money, your envelope" Braydon says he just wants to make sure. He then says to the guy, "Im sorry that it had to turn into this....." then he paused... "actually you know what. Im not sorry. I am just sorry to people your age lying!". He was dumbfounded. and literally just stared at braydon and didnt say a word. He got in his car and slammed the door. and we both drove away :)

what a crappy experience but we def learned a lot! and we got our money back!!!!!

Horrible experience #3 Broken Rib

On a whim one weekend in september we went to boise with some friends to go wakeboarding. Braydon is an amazing athlete and wakeboarding fits right in there with the sports he rocks at. He was wakeboarding and all of the sudden crashed, it didnt look like a very bad crash but when we pulled the boat around he was sitting there stiff, saying that he thinks he broke his rib. Josh our friend pulled him into the boat and his rib popped back into place. he could tell it was broken by the popping in and out. He sat down in the front of the boat. Worried because Pole vaulting started that monday. Talk about horrible timing! Two months later, 3 Doctors later, $1000 in bills later, we are still stuck in the same spot.

it has improved a little but very very slowly. the drs cant do anything. he just has to rest. He broke the costal cartilage, so it has to heal cartilage to cartilage which some say never happens.... He is doing his best to rest and be careful but as you can imagine this is driving him crazy. It has been such a hard challenge and niether of us can wait until it is over. I just hope and pray that it will heal completely, He is starting to wonder if it ever will. :( I really do feel like it will heal for him and he will be able to get back to those things that he loves. 

even it it does take a miracle.

Life is not easy. lately it feels like everything is hitting us all at once. I keep wondering what is gong to happen next. I remember this summer me and braydon were talking about how good life was, and blessed we were. and how easy it seemed for us. NEVER EVER SAY THAT. Life is not easy.

Things happen when you least expect them.

I dont know why braydon got hurt but I just really really hope and pray that it heals soon.

I know that Heavenly Father is there and he does hear our prays. I know that he has a plan for us and he sometimes gives us challeges that are extremely hard. I do believe that he will not give us challenges that we can not make it through. I dont know what Heavenly Fathers will is for Braydons rib, but i hope it has a good ending.

Its hard keeping life in perspective sometimes. But i know whatever happens is for the best. Heavenly Father does not want us to be miserable, but he does want us to grow, and the only way we can do that is by accomplishing difficult things.

WOW!

I am so behind on blogging! :/ I will be catching up soon, our lives have been crazy! But now that we are finally settle down a little bit more I will update you soon :)

this morning we got all of this...

for only $15!! 

I love good deals. 

click here---> http://bountifulbaskets.org/ if you want to try it! 

Santa Cruz...... Here we come............................maybe.?

The team has been talking about making a trip down to Santa Cruz & the beach for a while now. So we decided that the day was July 3rd. Why we chose 4th of July weekend and the day before the 4th, still remains a mystery.....

Itinerary for the day is as follows:

-Leave @ 11:00 am ( drive is only 1.45 hours away)
-Drive for 45 min & hit stand still traffic.
-move at a gradual 0-5mph for the next 3.5 hours
-(150 degrees + no air conditioning+4 tired hot sweaty people= the longest drive ever.)
-After spending 2 hours in the car we seriously debated on turning around and just going home.
-Finally reached Santa Cruz around 3 and stopped @ Subway while the rest of the team headed to the beach
-Somehow we got lost, didn't have a working cell phone and couldn't find the team for another 2 hours while we wondered around the busy overcrowded beaches. (in this time we sat on the beach for 15 min, which was super nice, I waited in the bathroom line for 35, and we witnessed a beach front wedding in the middle of thousands of beach goers.) It was interesting to say the least.
-We finally met up the group for dinner out on the wharf we got some really good hamburgers & took some fun pictures!
-We talked to a local just as we were leaving who informed us that we were on the worst beach there, and there were plenty of private beaches just about 5 min the other direction :)

haha as you can see it was quite the day. Pretty amusing. Fun but not relaxing. But our 15 min on the beach were quite enjoyed & I guess we will just have to go back again.

here are some pictures we managed to snap of the day....

Lessons learned:

-Never ever ever travel on the fourth of July.

-Talk to the Locals as soon as you arrive.

-Always have a cell phone on you
-Leave early

-Enjoy the journey :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAYDON!!!

Braydon is 23!!!!!

Words cannot describe how much I love this man:) He is everything to me and I am not myself without him. I am so grateful to be married to my best friend. Its the greatest feeling to know we are going to be together forever. I could not ask for a better husband. He is so patient with me and loving. A day doesn't pass by without him saying 'I love you'. He has such a strong testimony and is a constant example to me. He is one of the hardest workers I have ever met in my life. Seriously he does not stop, give up or quit early. He has a passion for life and family and sports. & I love it!! He is perfect and I couldn't be happier to be his wife :)

Happy Birthday Braydon. I love you!

We spent the day....

 Saturday we all went to Lake Del Valle and hung out by the water and had a little bbq, we played some catch and went searching for a rope swing. We never did find the rope swing but we know where it is now so were going back soon!!

He has been dying to open his presents all week.. haha so I let him open 1 early, and the rest on his birthday :)

We ate an ice cream cake on Sunday and then another cake with the team on Tues!

So as you can see it was more of a Birthday week... those are way more fun anyways right?!

4th of July!!!

Happy late 4th of July everyone:)

This year was a little different for me and Braydon,

we got to work... but at least we spent the day together! :)

We were happy when we found out it was a short work day and took off immediately to Livermore to the rope swings!

When we finally found the right spot, we found out that the rope swing was a very good hike away and was trespassing. So we decided to give the "pillars" a try. (some boys sitting on the picnic table directed us on where to go) & to our surprise they were soooo much fun! 

as you can see brayd loved it! 

We had a ton of fun and hopefully we can go back soon!

its so hot here so any chance to get in the lake is one we will not miss! :)

later that night we rode our bikes down to the fireworks and met up with some friends for a bit and then went to the park and watched the show! 

Here are some sweet pictures, braydon took. He is getting good at this camera.

I love this time of year! I am so grateful for the freedom that we have the chance we have to live in this wonderful country!!! we are so blessed!

Fathers Day

What a great day! A day to reflect on your dad :) I find myself doing this often. My Dad is the best....

 -DAD-

Thanks for being so Awesome.

you are...

Fun: I know I can count on you to go do pretty much anything with me

Adventurous:  You Enjoy new things & Exploring. I miss our horseback riding trips and being in the mountains with you. We need to do that SOON.

Brave: I swear nothing scares you.

Hard working: ever since I was little I have recognized how hard you work in everything. You push your self so hard. In Business, The Ranch, Running, Everything.

Funny: You are always making us all laugh, hahaha just thinking about the things you say right now I am smiling:)

Patient: I have very few memories of you getting mad at me, when I was little and even now. That says a lot! 

Understanding: You don't judge others and you always try to see things from a different light.

Trustworthy: I trust you with anything. & I know many other people do to.

Honest: You are 100% honest in everything that you do! Not many people can say that. 

I could not ask for a better example. You truly are all of those things and more. You are so wonderful and I love you so much! :) I try to be like you, hopefully some day I can!

I love you!!

Happy Fathers Day Dad! :)

Oakland Temple

We were lucky enough to go to the Oakland Temple this morning. What a beautiful place! It is way up on the hill, and has the most gorgeous temple grounds. The fountain isn't running in this picture but when we left they turned them both on and it was so pretty! and it ran down the middle as well through all the rocks. 

I love going to the temple. I love the spirit that is there and the calming feeling I get every time... We are so lucky to have somewhere as sacred as this to "get away" from everything. & being able to go with Braydon makes it even that much better!  We are also hoping to make it to the Sacramento Temple while we are here as well. It is fun seeing all the different Temples, & now I can finally go inside!!! :)

Fact: There was no angel Moroni on this Temple... Braydon said he was still sleeping or too cold I cant remember, (we were there early) BUT I just looked it up and its one of the 8 temples in the world that doesn't have and angel on top. Interesting....

wakeboard lake say whaaa?

Yep its true! I was searching online and stubbled upon a private wakeboard lake out here in Tracy. Yes only like 15 min away from where we live! pretty rad huh!? so me and Braydon went to check it out on sunday and he immediately fell in LOVE.... which brought us back yesterday! :)

Here are a few pics of his awesomeness 

 ps. second time hitting rails & of course he killed it!

I watched this time... :)

When he finished it was cute.. one of the little boys there asked... "Are you pro?"

new lens:)

Braydon loves his camera. He just got a new lens for it, one he has been wanting for a while! It is a 50mm, mostly used for portraits and creating depth. We are still trying to figure it out... but we took it out one night and tested it out....actually these shots I am putting up are not a very good example of its true capability because we were just messing around.. but here they are anyways! :)

                           these are really blurry, we took a picture of our reflection off the window

Braydon loves making this face, and every time I freak out because it seriously is so scary looking. I don't like it. so I tried to do it back to freak him out..... it worked even better than I thought!

              this face is actually pretty hard to pull so ill give him credit for that!

So proud!!!! :)

We finally got the official news that Braydon was accepted to BYU! I am so proud of him! He is going to start this fall 2011 and will be Pole Vaulting on the track team! :) He is such a hard worker and I know he is going to do AMAZING there! 

He so deserves this and has not only worked his butt off academically but with Pole Vaulting as well! I am always impressed with how hard he pushes himself. I know that he will do wonderful in anything that he puts his mind too. I am so grateful for all of the blessings we are receiving! 

Watch out Pole Vaulters everywhere, here Braydon comes!!!!!!!!!! 

I love you babe, and I cant tell you how excited, happy and proud of you I am. Thanks for being such a good example to me. 

Made it to California!

We are finally here! living in tracy california for the summer, we are excited to be here and so far things are going really well! :) here are some pictures of our drive down... it was long but lots of pretty things on the way

1st stop the Bonneville Salt Flats

(I had no idea what to expect... The Salt Flat's were beautiful!)

It had rained that week so there was about 5 in of water 

                  

I just love this one!

(hes so hott)

2nd stop Lake Tahoe:)

This was my first time here, Braydon showed me around & it is beautiful! Our plan is that you will be seeing some more pics of this place before the summer is over of Brayd+me+our mt bikes!

San Fran

We decided to go on a quick night trip to san francisco last week, it was a lot of fun! 

We couldn't believe how crazy steep the roads are!

We rode our bikes down Lombard Street & and all over pier 39, which was a lot of fun its like a little carnival all year long :) we got some dinner and watched the sea lions for a little bit too long. and then headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. 

& even tho we lost a $20 bill, went thru the wrong booth at the toll road (ending in a ticket which braydon went back and took care of) & I was a little grouchy, it was still a fun trip! :)