Our 2 year wedding anniversary was a few weeks ago (Aug 13th) and we had a fun time celebrating! We started the day off by heading to the farmers market, one of my favorite activities. We get roasted corn on a stick every time we go to munch on as we walk around.

 After buying some snacks, we headed to Shoreline Lake park for a picnic. This is where Derek proposed to me so it seemed like an appropriate place to go. Shoreline has been my favorite park since I was a kid and my mom would take us kids there.

We ended the day with dinner at Left Bank, the French restaurant where we had our first date. They gave us a complimentary dessert with a candle on it; it felt like celebrating my birthday all over again. 

HAPPY 2 YEARS MY LOVE!

San Francisco

Last weekend we spent all of Saturday in the city.

 It was pretty nostalgic being there, especially for Derek since he lived there for a couple of years. 

He was living there when we were dating and I remember some of our very best dates were in the city.

We drove up then took the muni to Embarcadero to spend the morning at the farmers market. 

We sampled delicious peaches, nectarines, plums, etc and then got some lunch.

After letting our stomachs settle a little bit we went on a 9 mile run that Derek plotted for us. 

It was by far the most BEAUTIFUL run I have ever done! 

The weather was perfect, 75 degrees with a slight breeze to keep us cool. 

I loved running by all of the charming homes and everyone seemed to be out on picnics or walking their dog.

After our run we headed over to Tony's Pizza (after we showered at 24 hour fitness, in case you were wondering). Tony's is one of Derek's absolute favorite restaurants. He was in heaven.

After this trip I was a little more convinced that I could live in the city, even for just a year. It might have just been the beautiful weather though...I forget that it's "hoodie weather" about 95% of the time.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Derek has been at his internship for a month already and time just keeps flying by! I have been enjoying my weekends in California; it feels like I am on vacation every weekend! We have all of our weekends planned already to ensure that we can fit everything in. This past weekend was our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I have been several times and have fun memories of going to the aquarium on school field trips, but this was Derek's first time. He had never been to Monterey before and was very impressed. He even said he "could live there." Although he could live almost anywhere and be happy, so I'm not sure if that is saying much.

I am so impressed every time I go to the aquarium. They do such an amazing job with their exhibits and you can really tell how passionate they are about the ocean and marine life. My favorites are the jellies, sea otters and stingrays. 

After a few hours at the aquarium we were ready for some food, so we walked down Cannery Row and ate dinner at Bubba Gumps. This was also another first for Derek.

We're planning a trip to Carmel with my family this month so we hope to be back near Monterey soon!

LinkedIn

February was a busy busy month for Derek and I--well mostly for Derek. He went to California 3 separate times to interview for summer internships and he went to Philadelphia another weekend for a business competition. We were at the Salt Lake airport at least once a week. We are both so happy to have all of that over with and that Derek has accepted an internship at...

                

LinkedIn was Derek's #1 choice for his internship this summer so we were so excited when he got the offer! He will be doing product marketing for one of LinkedIn's products and it seems to be a great fit for him. We are so excited to be going back to Mountain View for the summer! Unfortunately, I will only be able to spend half of the time in California and half of the time  in Utah as I still have to work. But I am so grateful that my company is trying to be flexible with me so that I can spend as much time in CA as possible. The good news is that I will get to hang out with Sally when I am in Utah which I am really looking forward to! I imagine our time will be spent cooking and sewing all day long... :)

We contacted our old ward in CA and were able to find an apartment to rent while the family is away for the summer. We will be back in our old ward and living only a mile a way from LinkedIn which is awesome! I am so proud of Derek for all of his hard work and diligence when it came to finding an internship. It was extremely time consuming and he also had to juggle his school work on top of that. Here is my cute husband after his interview and after he got the offer:

Congrats Derek!!

New Job

I have been at my new job for about a month and a half now and I am loving it! I am working as a health coach for a corporate wellness company called Orriant. My coworkers are great and I truly enjoy what I do. Orriant's clients are companies around the United States and the participants that I work with are employees of those companies. Each company sets "company standards" for their employees based on BMI (Body Mass Index), body fat %, cholesterol, glucose, and triglycerides. Each employee who would like to participate in our program takes a health assessment and if they don't meet their company's standard, then they are required to work with a coach. That's where I come in! I provide education and counseling to my participants and help them set and achieve their goals. Since we have clients all over the U.S. (we have clients in every state!), we do all of our coaching on the telephone. Although I--and all of my coworkers--would prefer to coach face-to-face with our participants, this method allows us to reach many more people.

I love the atmosphere at work. Everyone is passionate about health and the office is very "health-friendly." Some of us even sit on a stability ball instead of office chairs! Here is a quick look at the office:

                                                           

 I feel very blessed to have gotten this job. It is so fun to work for a company that you believe in!

One Year Older...

Last Thursday was Derek's 28th birthday! We usually like to make his birthDAY into a birthWEEK, so we really celebrated the whole week. We started out the week by playing in the snow (sledding and snowshoeing), but then it got way too cold to be outside. So on Thursday we went to see a movie, ate some delicious Cafe Rio for lunch, went to a BYU basketball game, and tried a new restaurant for dinner.

On Saturday we threw a little birthday party for Derek. Brian, Meredith, Sally, Danny, Ashley, Anabel, Gibran, and Sam (Gibran's girlfriend) all came over for dinner. Sally made one of Derek's favorite dishes, brisket, and everyone else brought a yummy side dish to enjoy. Later on in the evening we invited friends to join us for some cake and ice cream. We had a great turn out and it was so much fun to catch up with friends.

Derek even made a time lapse video of the evening on his GoPro. I love to see how much fun he has with his new toy, he's like a kid in a candy store!I think you should all expect lots of videos from us in the near future :)

Christmas 2012 Highlights

I have been counting down the days until Christmas since September, so I was so excited when December finally rolled around! Our Christmas celebrations started the day after Thanksgiving this year as we celebrated with the Pando side of the family. Alina made a delicious Cuban style dinner for our "noche buena" and we sang Christmas songs. Sally started a new tradition of reading a children's Christmas book together now that we are introducing little ones into the family. She read "The Christmas Train" by President Monson. In the story, he recounts an experience he had in his childhood. It is a beautiful story about giving and the true meaning of Christmas. The next day was our faux Christmas, so we opened presents in the morning after having some delicious bubble bread (a family tradition). We also got to see the lights at Temple Square while Marina was in town. We had a great time until if started pouring on us!

The rest of December we spent seeing more Christmas lights, going to Christmas parties, watching Christmas movies, drinking warm apple cider, and hanging out with Santa Claus.

We spent Christmas with my family at my brother Javy's house in Bakersfield, CA. He and his family just moved into a new home and just had a new baby, so it was a very exciting time! I LOVE my little niece, Haven, and I'm convinced she is the cutest little girl in the world.

New baby Hudson is also just the sweetest little baby. I almost cried when I first saw him. He was only two weeks old and I was overwhelmed by his purity and innocence and felt gratitude to our Heavenly Father for placing him in our family. He also makes a cute Santa Claus.

Christmas morning was as magical as ever. It is so much more fun with kids around. You can see the excitement in their eyes and they are so easy to please. Sean was able to come celebrate with us as well, which was so fun. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!