May Madness Part II

Our second half of May was pretty busy too! We flew back from California on May 12th and then we headed back up to Logan. During our last week in Logan we spent some time with friends, cleaned like crazy, and tried to prepare ourselves for our big move.

The morning of May 17, Petey and I had family pictures down in Payson with my side of the family. Later that day my parents threw us a 'going away' party. We had a lot of family show up! It was an extremely bittersweet day. We are so grateful for our family and friends and their endless support during this crazy process. Here are a few photos from our family photo shoot and from our 'going away' party:

The Newbold family, minus Elder Newbold!

 Once we got back to Logan on May 18th we had a BBQ with some friends AND we sold my clunker car in the same night. I've had my Ford Taurus since 2005 and my grandparents owned it prior to me. I had some good times in that car and spent countless hours in it driving to Payson and then back to Logan. It had over 208,000 miles on it and we sold it to a great Logan couple. We were so happy we sold it, we were starting to get desperate! And we were happy that it went to a couple that was in Logan, because lets face it...that car is old and probably shouldn't travel long distances. The following day, May 19th, we had the packers and movers show up at our apartment. Chevron paid for people to come pack and move all of our things to Texas! It was kind of awkward because Petey and I needed to be in the apartment while they packed up our things, but we just sat on the couch doing nothing while they worked hard. We felt really lazy but I'm so glad that we didn't have to pack everything! That was quite the stress reliever. The scene outside of our apartment that day was pretty funny. There was the 18-wheeler moving truck (we don't have near that much stuff but that is what the moving company uses), a van full of boxes and packing gear that the packers came up in, and another van which was for the men that built the crate for our television. Everything was all packed up and moved out of our apartment in about 3 hours. Later that night we met up with Brian and Megan (Petey's brother and his wife) for a last hoorah dinner and then I met up with some of my lovely friends for some dessert. The next morning we cleaned like crazy people and officially checked out of our apartment. Leaving Logan for the last time was weird!! I made Petey take me to Old Main on USU's campus so I could take some pictures. Old Main is one of my favorite buildings of all time and the building where I spent most of my college classes in. We also stopped at the Logan LDS Temple so I could get some pictures there. On our way down to Payson we stopped in Bountiful to see Petey's family. We had a nice dinner with Petey's mom, grandparents, an aunt and uncle, and some cousins. It was nice to see them!! Here are some pictures from that stretch of our May craziness. 

I love these ladies SO much!

Goodbye Aggie Village 23-F. You've been good to us!!

We spent 5 days in Payson before we headed for Texas. During those 5 days we spent a lot of time with family, watched my cousins baseball game, had a fire with s'mores in my parents backyard, went to Spring Lake and the boys fished while my mom and I fed the ducks, got amazing snow cones from Glacier Pass (best mainland snow cones I've ever had...but no comparison to Hawaii haha), we got brand newI-phone 5S cell phones YAY!!, went to a Salt Lake Bees game, visited my grandparents grave, and much more. I had such a wonderful last few days in Utah! Here are some pictures:

At the SLC Bees game.

Snow cones!

The night before we left I spent quite a while talking with my mama. Neither of us wanted to get ready for bed because we knew when we woke up in the morning that Petey and I would be leaving. I slept horrible that night!! I was nervous for the long drive and DREADING saying goodbye. But of course morning came too quickly and it was time to say goodbye and see you later. Saying goodbye to my parents was sooooooo hard!!!!!!!!! I had done pretty well at controlling my emotions until I hugged my parents and then the tears flowed. My parents both cried, and it kills me to see them cry. It just made me cry harder haha. Once we got on the road I cried on and off for the first 2 hours or so. Our first day of driving was really pretty since we drove down through Moab, into Colorado, and then into New Mexico. Our first night we stayed in Albuquerque. We went and ate at a really nice restaurant and then relaxed at the hotel. We drove almost 9 hours that day! I also made Petey drive me to see Walter White's house from 'Breaking Bad,' because lets be real....what else do you do for fun and entertainment in New Mexico?! It was fun seeing the house. The house is real with a family that has lived in it for 20+ years. They probably get annoyed of people coming by and taking pictures in front of it...but oh well. Day 2 of driving we drove from Albuquerque to Abilene, Texas. It was far less eventful then driving through Utah and Colorado. A whole lot of nothing. We had some crazy weather during our drive and the weather that night was absolutely insane! There were tornado watches, a severe thunderstorm, and an unreal lightning storm. Petey and I watched the lightning storm for a good 30+ minutes from the window of our hotel room. The lightning and torrential downpour lasted for over 4 hours. It was nuts!!! Day 3 of driving was a shortest distance, which meant we were only in the car for about 6 hours. YAY!! It rained like crazy during our drive, but we made it to Houston safely!! We stayed in a hotel our first night in Houston and the next morning the diesel showed up with all of our things. Once again Petey and I felt lazy while the lone truck driver hauled in ALL of our things. Then we got to work unpacking! Pictures from our wonderful days of driving:

 

The New Mexico sing. You can't really tell from this photo. 

The 'Breaking Bad' house!

Insane lightning!

Unpacking is so fun {sarcasm}

Our first few days in Houston weren't very fun. We had to do a lot of shopping, get our car inspected and registered in Texas, and get new Texas drivers licenses. And trust me.... going to any government building in Texas is torture and the lines are horrendously long. So awful!!!!!!! We did go to a Houston Astros baseball game for fun though! And it is sooooooo humid here. People told me that it was humid and disgusting in the summer, but actually being here and experiencing it is a whole different story. We don't want to go outside. It is a bummer because Houston has quite a bit to do outside...but we'll wait until it cools down (which wont be until October-ish) to do the outside things. Petey started at Chevron on June 2 and is really enjoying his new job! I think he has been a little overwhelmed, but that happens with all new jobs. It just takes some time to get used to your new job and get comfortable. I have an amazing hubby and I'm so proud of him!!!!!

Welp that was the summary of our May Madness Part II! 

May Madness Part I

May was such a crazy month for us! Petey graduated from U.S.U., we went on a fantastic {and much needed} vacation to California. We watched our apartment get packed up in Logan and saw it loaded onto a semi headed to Texas. We had a a going away party with my family and had a couple last play dates with friends. We said goodbye to Logan and then spent 6 days in Payson with my parents before we headed to Texas. We've been busy since we've gotten to Texas, but this blog post is going to focus primarily on our Cali trip! There will be an embarrassing amount of pictures. FYI.

Petey's last final was on Friday, May 2nd. We are BOTH so relieved to have him done with school! He has worked so hard and I'm extremely proud of him! Congrats hubby!! U.S.U.'s graduation was on May 3rd, but Petey didn't care about walking (I tried to talk him into it, but it didn't work) so we ended up flying to California the morning of May 3rd. Our California trip was jam packed!! Here is a recap:

May 3rd: We flew to California, picked up our rental car that only had EIGHT miles on it (it was nerve-wracking the entire trip driving a brand new vehicle), did some shopping, and then went to the Angels vs. Rangers baseball game. We had awesome seats at the Angel's game - 3rd row!! The Angel's won 5-3 and there were fireworks that night. The other fans sitting next to us provided a lot of extra entertainment since they were out of this world drunk. We had a great time!

May 4th: This was our San Diego Zoo day! Petey and I have been to the S.D. Zoo before but I am always amazed by the size of it. It is huge! And it is hands down the best zoo I've been to. We loved seeing the koalas, the famous panda bears, giraffes, orangutans, and all of the big cats! We had such an enjoyable time at the zoo and the weather was perfect! After the zoo we headed to Old Town San Diego since Petey was craving some Mexican food. Old Town was INSANE since it was the weekend of Cinco de Mayo. We ate at a restaurant called Cafe Guadalajara and it was pretty good. 

May 5th: We didn't really have plans for the morning/afternoon for this day so we looked at some pamphlets and decided to go and do the Warner Brothers Studio Tour. We had a lot of fun! The tour was 2  hours and we got to see sets and props from many famous tv shows and films including: Pretty Little Liars (that show is my guilty pleasure), Friends, Heart of Dixie, Gravity, the Harry Potter films, Gossip Girl, Chuck, The Big Bang Theory, and much more! After the studio tour we headed to the Angels vs.Yankee's baseball game. Our seats were 11 rows from the top, but we didn't care! I cheered for the Yankees and Petey cheered for the Anglels. We were rivals that night! It was awesome to see Derek Jeter play since this is his last year before he retires. The Angels won 4-1, so that was a bummer for me :)

May 6th: Our first day at DISNEYLAND and CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE! This was our first time back to CA Adventure since Cars Land opened, so we went there very first! We road Radiator Springs Racers 2 times within 2 hours. Cars Land is super cute and I loved it :) We were kind of bummed because a lot of the rides we like were closed on this trip like Indiana Jones (closed the first day), Pirates of the Caribbean (closed all 3 days), Ariel's Undersea Adventure (closed 2 days), but we still had fun! We had go eat the corn dogs at Disneyland because they seriously are the best ever. We ate yummy churros and then enjoyed World of Color. World of Color is amazing and I love it so much! We had a great first day at Disney!

May 7th: Today we went to a taping of Jimmy Kimmel's late night show! I have to be honest, I was a little annoyed at first because our email told us we had to be in line by 1:45 pm and when we got there they said that the show is actually being filmed later in the day and we didn't need to be in line until 3:00 pm. So Petey and I just walked around Hollywood Boulevard for a while. I hate Hollywood Boulevard!! So we went and got in line at 3:00 pm and we stood in line outside for about 90 minutes before we headed inside and waited in line some more! I was also annoyed because we can't bring food into the taping, which we knew, but since the taping was a lot later than we had thought we didn't eat enough and I knew that we were going to be dying of hunger! At 6:00 pm the taping began. Jimmy's guests were Pharrell Williams and Jon Favreau. Jimmy Kimmel is super funny and we had a good time! One cool thing about the night we went was that Pharrell was doing an outdoor concert so we got to see him perform 5 songs. It was awesome! Once we hopped back in the car we scarfed on some snacks :)

May 8th: Disneyland and California Adventure day 2!! We did our Magic Morning on this day which allows us to get into the part 1 hour before the park officially. It sounds pretty cool and Petey and I enjoy it, but a lot of the rides are closed until the official opening and A LOT of people do the Magic Morning so it is still crowded. Petey stood in line with me so I could get pictures with Aurora, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. He's a good hubby and tolerates that I'm a 5 year old on the inside :) We got a lot of rides in, ate more corn dogs and churros, and enjoyed Mickey's Soundsational Parade. 

May 9th: SeaWorld! The only reason Petey and I did SeaWorld is because it was included in our City Pass. We both enjoy SeaWorld, but besides the shows there really isn't much to do AND we have to drive from Anaheim to San Diego. We really enjoy the One Ocean (whales), Blue Horizons (dolphins and birds), and the Sea Lions Live shows. I do like seeing all the animals especially the flamingos and penguins. 

May 10: Universal Studios Hollywood! Similar to Seaworld, Universal Studios isn't the most exciting park for Petey and I, but we still had fun! They are currently building the Harry Potter wing of the park and when that is the park will be wayyyyyy more legit! Petey and I were kind of bummed that the Jurassic Park ride was closed when we were there. We rode the studio tram and saw sets from Psycho, War of the Worlds, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Desperate Housewives, Jaws, and much more. We rode the Transformers ride twice and went on The Mummy. We also enjoyed Shrek 4-D and the cute new Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem ride. We watched the Water World show and the Animal Actors show as well. Once we headed back to Anaheim we went and walked around Downtown Disney and I was able to get my souvenirs :)

 May 11th: This was our last day at Disney and it also happened to be Mother's Day! Today we got some pictures with characters, watched the Aladdin production, walked though Sleeping  Beauty's Castle, had an AWESOME spot for the 'Magical' firework show...and it truly was magical!! We {of course} ate churros's again, rode Indiana Jones and Tower of Terror as many times as we could, rode the cute Storybook Land ride, and I finally got to go on my favorite kiddie ride Ariel's Undersea Adventure because it was finally open on our last day! Since it was Mother's Day we left Disneyland for about 2 hours and headed to our hotel because my missionary brother was calling. We couldn't get our Skype to work due to connection issues, so my mom held up the phone to the computer and we were able to {kind of} hear what my brother was saying. It was SO good to hear his voice and that was the best Mother's Day gift my mom could have asked for.The 2 other times I've been to Disneyland with Petey we have made it a tradition that the last ride we go on is Peter Pan's Flight so we continued with the tradition and did that as our last thing in the park. 

May 12th: We flew back home and began the craziness of getting ready to move. We had such a fabulous trip and I'm so glad we were able to do this to celebrate my hubby's graduation and to get a fun vacation in before he starts his real grown up job!!!! I love him and I'm so proud of him!