HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A HOTTIE!

Happy Birthday Lars!

You are a wonderful husband and a good friend.

You make me happy when I am sad and make me laugh when I am too serious.

I am so grateful and blessed to have you in my life.

I love everyday of life because you are in it with me.

Have a fantastic birthday and many more to come old man!

Love you!

The Beach and I

The beach and I have a love/hate relationship. Not just any beach, Huntington Beach. I am not sure what to make of it because I love going to the beach, it is beautiful, I love the sound of the beach, I have fun when I am there. First, in January I went to this beach and broke my fingers. Then on Memorial day we went to that beach, the night before I had a lot of weird dreams that something bad was going to happen. I figured it was all in my head because of my first accident and this beach. We got there and started having fun, then I got hit in the face really hard with a beach ball, I thought I broke my nose but I was fine. Stephanie-1, Beach-1. My beach yips are over. No beach can one up me. I am back in the game, or so I thought.

A month ago our friends Brandon and Melissa were in town and we were taking them to Newport Beach. We weren't able to find parking there and Huntington Beach is just down the road so we ended up there and I didn't think twice about it. It was my first time swimming in the ocean and I was super excited. We took pictures then we jumped in the ocean and swam and jumped over the waves coming in. It was a lot of fun except for the salt water. The waves were really pushing us around and it was wearing me out. We had only been swimming for maybe 10 minutes when I took a break for a while then jumped back in.

The first wave that came in after my break was HUGE! I mean huge, taller than anything, and massive. We all jumped and here is what I remember happening. I think I jumped to early and the wave pushed me into the water where it spun me around into a somersault and slammed the back of my head against the bottom of the ocean while pushing gallon after gallon of water up my face. I didn't loose consciousness or anything so I knew I was fine, but I was cooked. I rose out of the water and announced that I was done. Lars took one look at me and said get out of the water now, you are bleeding. I had blood running down from the top of my head to my chin. I didn't feel anything except for my mouth and nose swelling up like I had just gone to the dentist and got punched in the face. Lars checked to see if my nose was broken and it was still straight. We then walked to the showers and I rinsed off to see if there was anymore damage. The blood was all coming from my nose, how it spread around my face and head is beyond me.

Then we walked to the life guard tower to get checked out. They looked at my face and said this, "I don't know how your face looked before, but you look fine to me." Then I told them my neck hurt and that's when they panicked. They asked me a bunch of questions and had someone look at my neck and move it around then offered to take me to the hospital. I was fine considering I had just got done walking around after the accident, so I declined. They gave me some ice and we went back to our towels and just relaxed. I was bummed I got hurt again during all the fun. A while later some dolphins swam by, it was so cool. Man I love the beach, but it doesn't seem to love me. Before we left for home I put my feet into the water just to warn the ocean that I would be back.

We actually had plans to go back to that beach the next week but we cancelled. I will go back but not for a few weeks.

I was feeling fine, just sore, swollen, and tired. But my face looked fine. This was a Saturday, by the middle of church on Sunday I looked like this:

My top underlip and inside of my nose was completely bruised and scrapped up. My teeth hurt so bad like I had braces and surgery at the same time. I looked like a battered wife from a Lifetime movie. Poor Lars got a lot of crap for it too. My neck was sore and it hurt to turn my head, thankfully that went away after a week. It hurt to breath, eat, and talk, three very important things. Luckily I had some pain pills left over from when my fingers broke so that helped a lot. But for the next two weeks I was on a liquid diet and had a lot of pain. At the time I thought it was the worst pain ever. But now that I am healed and can breath and move my nose again it feels like nothing. I guess I am stronger now because of it. It still sucked at the time, but I am grateful that nothing worse happened to me. Every now and again I replay back in my mind the accident happening and think about how I could have and maybe should have been hurt a lot worse, like make a broken neck or cracked ribs or something. But I didn't get hurt. God does have Angels look after me. And for that I am so thankful.

No worries anymore because my beautiful face is back and here to stay, at least until our next beach adventure.

Summer Comes & Summer Goes

This summer has flown by so fast I didn't post much as we did it. So here is a recap of our summer.

June-We went camping and went to Vallejo, CA. See previous blog from way back

July-On the 4th we just relaxed at home and went out to see a movie. Later that month we had visitors, Josh and Lori, Lars' brother and sister in law. We played with them for a day and it was a blast. We went to the beach and then to a taping of Comedy Central's Tosh.0. It was so neat to see the live taping and the show was funny. They had to do a few takes of one joke or two and when they do you are supposed to laugh like it is the first time you heard it so by the end of the taping my tummy hurt. There were a few times I tried to laugh in a loud distinct way (but not too obnoxiously) so when we watched that episode I would hear myself. I think it worked but you have to listen hard. We appreciate Josh and Lori taking the time to see while they were down here.

Excited to be at the beach

Near the end of the month Lars' sister came to Utah from Iowa. We met up with her in St. George, UT to hang out for a weekend. We went hiking, shopping, and played with her kids. Though I love all her kids, Annkia, the youngest, was my favorite. She made me feel so happy. She is so funny and smart and just the coolest kid ever. I was really sad to leave because we couldn't take Annika with us. Being and Aunt is so cool.

Hiking

Annkia points out all the dirt while hiking

Lars, Mom, Sarah

Annkia and I

Annika resting at the hotel

August-The first day of August was a lot of fun, we went to the No Doubt/Paramore Concert. It was my first time seeing No Doubt and Lars' 4th time. Paramore sealed the deal on our decision to get the tickets. We have had them since the beginning of the year. I was very excited to go. We had a good time and loved the music, No Doubt can really put on a show and Paramore was sooo cool, Haley has a beautiful voice. I would see them again in a heart beat. Though it was fun, the arena was huge. Most punk concerts I have been too have been small and intimidate. I think I prefer those venues over the large ones, unless I have like front row seats. Either way a good time.

On the grass waiting for the concert to start

On August 8, 2009 our best friends got married, Brandon and Melissa. It was a lovely wedding and reception and we are so happy that they found each other. They are a wonderful couple and deserve all the happiness in the world.

At the reception

Outside the reception there was a park with a Bison that we each took a turn riding

Yehaw!

This quick trip to Utah was specifically for the wedding and I was worried we weren't going to have any time to see family. That did stop my mom from invited all of my siblings over for a BBQ the night we drove in so we can hang out together. I was so glad she did because I really missed my family. I love living in California but I truly miss family and the convenience of getting together with them. I got to chat with my brothers and sisters and play with my nieces and nephews. Kids are so cool and have the wildest imaginations. I love how I feel when I am around them. It makes me happy when they remember me. I love being and Aunt, it is so much fun. I am sure it will be cooler to be a Mom, but until then I am going to be a rockin' Aunt.

Connor, Karen and I playing the spider game

Connor and Bronwyn

Bronwyn at the piano. She was so cute and darling. She kept saying cheese because she thought I was taking her picture. She was a blast and I love her to death.

After Brandon and Melissa married they honeymooned in Las Vegas, NV. That is honestly only a 4 hour drive from where we live so they took a few days to come down and see us. We love having visitors and had a good time with them. We took them site seeing, hung out, went swimming at the beach (more to come about that experience), annnnnddd played Rock Band. Brandon and Melissa are apart of our Rock Band Group that got started when we lived in Utah. We are the B-Sharps. I do vocals, Brandon is on drums, Melissa is on bass guitar, and Lars is on lead guitar. We had a fun reunion tour. I miss them already and can't wait until our next reunion tour.

Outside the Lego store at Downtown Disney

August 12th we celebrated our 6th year anniversary. Lars got me the most beautiful and wonderful smelling flowers and some Von's chocolate cake, my favorite. We went out to dinner and then for a walk. We even went to a pet shop and looked at puppies, something we have been considering more seriously as of late. Not going to happen for a while, but maybe in the near future. I love Lars very much and am so glad I married my best friend and look forward to eternity.

That brings us up to speed on what we did this summer. Today is Labor day! Hooray for holiday weekends. Fun weekend so far, we had a baptism, an awesome Fast Sunday Meeting, and now just hanging out with my hubby watching movies.

How was your summer?