A Birthday, a Holiday, and a Graduation

First off, I need to express our appreciation to Jesse and Mallory for letting us stay with them while we made our transition from AZ to CA. And for storing so much of our stuff for the summer! We wouldn't have survived without you guys, we owe you big time! So here is what has happened since then.

We arrived in Rancho Cucamonga Saturday evening and went straight to the pool to enjoy a wonderful meal provided by Roy and Megan. We couldn't stay long however since we were pretty sure our pets were freaking out in our new appartnemt. So we hurried home and finished unpacking. The next day was our 1 year anniversary!! YAY! It's surprising how fast the year went. We didn't really do anything special since it was Sunday, but it was nice to get settled into our place and spend all day together since I was flying out to Utah the next morning.
So Utah! I had such a wonderful time. It was so so so so nice to be with my family, it's been too long! My mom and Syd picked me up and we spent the day in Salt Lake. The week was pretty uneventful (but still awesome) since everyone still had school and work, but on Thursday my brother Taylor came! Taylor and I haven't had a chance to be one on one in a long time, and it was so nice to sit and chat and joke about the good ol' days.
Saturday was a momentous day. We were celebrating my grandma's 90th birthday. It was like a family reunion! I got to see lots of family from all over, who I probably won't see again for a long time. And to top off the day, Emma decided to let us take Emery (my niece) for the night! I hadn't seen her since she was a month old. It was fun to see her smile and laugh.
Memorial Day was one of the best days. My family went on hike! It's been so long since we did something like that. We were sad Rory wasn't there though. There were tons of people and we were all pretty gross and sweaty by the time we reached the waterfall but it was worth it! At home we had some hot dogs and ice cream to complete the perfect day.
And on Tuesday my little sister graduated. Congrats Syd! We're all super proud of you. But graduations are really boring, and she was the last one in line.
I flew back to CA the next morning. It was really hard to leave the comfort of my family, but I didn't feel complete without Jake. And he missed me tonnage so it's nice to be back :) Sorry for the hecka long post, now for lots of pictures!
My grandma is such an awesome lady. She raised 11 kids! And my poor grandpa was in a car accident a few days earlier. He's about 95 and going strong!

Cute little Emery! She has eyes only for her dad!

I was trying to get her to smile for the longest time! So I asked Taylor to help, and as soon as he said her name, boom. She smiled. So precious!

Hike Montage

Carson's moment of glory

A Day With Choncho

This is Choncho. Jake found Choncho running around our apartment complex on the day we were moving, and brought him home. I was just a tad irritated. How are we supposed to move THREE ANIMALS to CA and back? All the while keeping him separated from Jitters because neither of them are fixed. Oh and worry about feeding him and watching him, and making sure he gets along with Jesse and Mallory's dogs while we stay with them. And wondering if he'll attack our cat or not. And getting him to the vet to see if he's diseased. AH! All of these questions were running through my head while we drove back home Monday night. Turns out Choncho is fine with other dogs, he didn't eat or drink anything, he's house trained, and he was fine being locked up all night. But I had to put my foot down. We can't afford another dog right now, and I don't want to live with three animals in an apartment. So the next day I dropped Jake off at school and Choncho and I returned to the apartment to finish cleaning. He sat and watched me while I cleaned the bathroom, followed me everywhere, played with the vacuum, and helped me sweep. Seriously. I'd set some treats out for him on the kitchen floor, which he didn't eat. When I started sweeping he picked up the treats and moved them onto the carpet, out of harms way. And that's when I started to like him. He was just a good natured, jolly dog, but I knew if we kept him I'd go crazy. So when Jake finished school we took him to a shelter. Jake went in first because I knew I'd cry if I went, but he didn't have his license with him so I had to go in too. We waited in line, and just before our number was called a couple walked in the door. The man walked passed us but turned around right when our number was called and asked, "are you giving away that dog?" We said yes, so we walked with them outside and told them how we found him and how he was really nice and playful. They were looking for a small dog as a companion for their dog. It was perfect! I was so happy to see Choncho go to a family rather than to a cage. We walked around the shelter afterwards to look at all the dogs and it was so sad. I never would have been happy with myself knowing I'd confined such a good dog into such a sad and scary place. So it was a happy ending. But Jake and I decided that the next dog we get will be from a shelter. There are too many good dogs out there just waiting for a home.

This is what happens when grocery stores double bag. And when two people get very bored on a Saturday night.

News Glorious News!

Ok well we don't really have glorious news, just a few updates here and there.

Easter was strange and exciting at the same time. Our sacrament meeting consisted of mostly music, which is awesome. Music can bring such a sweet spirit! Our little primary class was moved into a new classroom because the nursery was split and took over our old room. So now we have a room with one of those divider things down the middle, which wouldn't bother me normally but we have to try to keep the kids extra quiet now so as not to disturb the other class. The kids were a little distracted that day, Easter is turning into a second Christmas. But Jake gave a great lesson (and our kids are so smart!) and we ate delicious sugar cookies and had a jolly good time.
For dinner we were lucky enough to be invited to Mallory's parent's house! It was fun to get to know her family better. The food and company were great (and they have the sweetest cats ever). I love being around family, even if they aren't my own.
This last weekend we got to be a part of something extremely special. Jake's dad was called to be bishop of the Maricopa 2nd ward! So we went down there Saturday afternoon, spent the day with family, and went to their ward the next day. The neatest thing was being able to see him set apart as bishop. What an amazing and spiritual experience that I hope to remember all my life. After that we went home and helped with dinner, spent time with family, and waited for the bishop to return home so we could congratulate him on his first day on the job. But he never showed! We waited until 8 that night but to no avail. These new bishop hours will take a while to get used to.
And last but not least, we made the decision to go to CA for the summer. We were on the fence about it for awhile but we thought about it a lot and decided it's the best thing to do. I'm excited to get out of AZ for the summer. It was about 104 degrees here the other day, and that is a little much for April. So hopefully we'll do well this summer and have a great time in CA!


We took a walk around the MCC rose garden a few weeks ago. It was pretty neat. It's the second largest rose garden (for variety) in the nation. How cool is that?

Family Visits

Sometimes it's hard living so far away from family. Most of Jake's family is close, which is nice, and we hang out all the time. But seeing my family is a little more challenging. That's why I was so excited when my grandparents told me they were coming to visit! They drove down from Utah last week, all the way to Tucson to visit my cousin Amber and her family. I hadn't seen Amber in years, and she had never met Jake so we decided to head down there for the weekend. It was so much fun! Jake had an awesome time playing with their two kids, Jack and Jali, and it was nice to be able to catch up with my cousin. We also walked around their club house which is INSANE. They have a water park, swimming pools, an enormous gym, tennis and basketball courts, day care centers, pretty much everything awesome. It would have been a perfect trip if our car hadn't been so ridiculous. Seriously, we have the worst luck with cars. So on Saturday night Jake discovered that our battery was dead. So the guys jump started and all was well. But the next morning they had to charge it two or three more times. So we took it to the dealership the next day and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. They just said the lights were left on, which doesn't make sense because our lights turn off automatically, and we would have noticed if they had been on. But oh well. It's worked fine ever since so that's a relief!

My grandparents visited us again here in Mesa yesterday. I helped them find their hotel in Chandler, and we went to the mall to pick up some things. It was pretty hilarious. My grandma bought us a wooden spoon and nut cracker (they gave us a bag full of pecans to crack), then they took Jake and I out to eat at Marie Callenders. Mmm!
So that's that! We probably won't see any of my family for awhile. I want to make it up to Utah before we head out to California for the summer, hopefully in time for my sisters graduation!

Our Entertainment

I think it's funny that half of our posts are about our pets. But since we don't have any kids, they are pretty much the only thing we have to blog about. I just wanted to share these, thought they were pretty funny. Whenever Jake sits down to do homework, Jitters is always there to give him kisses. And then she'll either stand there in his face so he can't see anything, or she'll lay down right under his chin so he can barely move. She is the cutest thing ever! And then Jake managed to get a video of the cat that climbs our wall almost everyday now.

Oh, and they did finally split our primary class. One of the boys, Tanner, he loves Jake so much! If Jake is out of the room for two seconds Tanner will be like, "Hey where's Rucker?" So cute! Well Tanner got put into the other class, but he didn't want to go so Jake had to carry him there and he was crying the whole time. It was so sad! Now we only have 4 kids in our class. We'll have to plan our lessons better now, since we won't need to spend half of the class just trying to keep them quiet!

Romeo and Juliet

So for the past few months we have had a visitor on our back porch every so often. And living on the second floor, it is rather uncommon for any creature to find their way into our house. We leave our porch door open almost all day because our cat likes to sit outside and relax or watch birds. Our apartment complex has several stray cats, and one of them likes to scale the stucco wall up onto our porch. It is an amazing feat, and I'm not quite sure how he's done it so many times without falling. But the most bizarre thing is how he gets back down. It's something you have to see for yourself to really appreciate it. And as entertained as Jake and I are by his theatrics, Sphynx has no interest. She hisses and runs into the house to hide. Poor Romeo. He'll have to scale another maiden's wall.

Valentine's Day

Well this year for Valentine's Day we were house sitting for Jesse and Mallory while they were in Texas. It was great to be in an actual house and have so much more space (I miss their kitchen already) but we also had two more dogs to take care of. They are quite a handful, but they love attention and would get so excited every time we'd walk into the room.
The day started out by Jake showering me with chocolate. And not just any chocolate, DOVE dark chocolate. My favorite! He's so good. All I did for him was make a card. Nothing too spectacular. Throughout the day I was greeted by other little surprises that were so sweet! It was great! Later in the afternoon we went to this cool park with Jitters and walked around for a while. All in all it was a pretty spectacular day!
Life right now is pretty slow, Jake has school every morning and he's enjoying that. I'm still job hunting and trying to teach myself new techniques on the computer (in photoshop and illustrator), and drawing every once in a while.
I don't remember posting that we got a calling, but we teach CTR 6 in church. We have about 10 kids and it is crazy! Some days it's hard to keep their attention for more than 10 seconds. The primary president is considering splitting our class, which is sad but will probably help the kids learn better, and that's the important thing!