From "The Bubble" to "The OC"

This weekend, Labor Day weekend, Jed and I drove out to SoCal to visit my sister and her family. The drive out didn't seem very long, thankfully. We left early afternoon on Friday and got there that night.

Saturday morning we went to Balboa Beach and hung out there for a few hours. (See MY SISTER'S BLOG POST for pictures) Jed LOVED playing in the waves and I had a blast myself. We (meaning my brother-in-law Nathan) built a sweet castle that lasted a few minutes, long enough to start on the moat, before Hurricane Eli fell on it. :) We had lunch at this really yummy place called BJ's on the way home - I recommend it, it was really good. That night Laurel and Nathan went to Laurel's best friend's wedding reception and Jed and I watched Eli (and got some In N Out, of course!).

We went to church on Sunday and found out about Proposition 8 and how we can help support it (go to www.protectmarriage.com). It was really interesting to hear that the Church is asking people to volunteer as poll workers and other things. We are not involved in anything like this in Utah, nor do I think we ever will be... :)

After church, we met up with Nathan's dad and went to see Laurel & Nathan's top 3 picks for the new house they're planning on buying. California architecture is different from Texas, Ohio, and Utah homes. All the houses we saw were pretty different, but similar at the same time. I'm really excited for L & N and I hope they can get into the one they like the most, but if not, the two other choices are great too! This was our one-month anniversary, so Jed and I celebrated by looking at houses we can't afford in an area we don't live in. Haha. No, it was a fun day. :) That night, we played Settlers of Catan and had a Hold Em tournament. Jed and I lost to L & N, but it was still really fun for us.

The next morning (Monday) we pretty much got up and left. We had to hit the road early enough because it was a long drive and we added an extra hour with the time change. The drive home wasn't bad - there wasn't very much traffic going our way, but going the opposite direction (Vegas back to Cali) was packed. Jed had to make a stop at this roller coaster we saw just outside of Vegas called the Desperado.

It was pretty cheap (only $8 per person) and the drop (the one on the left, going straight down a million stories) was *insane*! The coaster would have been a lot better, however, if it wasn't so jerky and it didn't pull you around. That kind of hurt...but it was fun regardless and worth the stop. In Vegas, we stopped at this fast food restaurant which I was surprised Jed had never been to before, but he loved it. Do we have one in Provo? I don't even know. We were going to go to In N Out, but we couldn't find any on the GPS and we had had it in Cali and there's a place just like it in Orem that we go to. So it wasn't a huge disappointment.

Anyways, we got back safe and sound and refreshed. School started for BYU today, but neither of us have classes on Tuesdays, so we don't have to worry about that yet, which is nice. Tomorrow, it begins. Wish us luck. We'll post pictures from the trip as soon as we can.