A Post with a Mini Blast from the Past

Yesterday I got to go to the pre-ysa conference activity for the singles wards in Huntington Beach with my friends Kelsey and Noelia. We were only there for about an hour and a half, but it was the perfect amount of time because we got to eat plus do all the activities we wanted to! First thing we hit up there was the mechanical bull! Noelia opted out of this activity but Kelsey and I rode it!

Yee-haww :)

Kelsey on the bull

I definitely stayed on the mechanical bull longer than I did at grad-nite last year, so that felt pretty good! I just wish I had a cowboy hat on, then I would have felt somewhat legit and my pictures would look cooler haha I also managed to hit my jaw on the bull while getting whipped around, so that was not cool haha After the mechanical bull we went and got dinner and enjoyed our food on a little bench. The activity was at the stake center and the park behind the stake center so it was a nice venue and the little bench was in the middle of the upper section of the park. After finishing our dinner, we decided to get a little crazy and try some axe throwing!

I was pretty much pro at it, no big deal haha Before we headed out, we stopped at the sumo wrestling station where Kelsey and Noelia had a showdown!

After the activity we saw Hunger Games at the Bella Terra in Huntington Beach. It was seriously such a nice outdoor mall! I definitely want to go back and go shopping there sometime, plus there was a Huntington Surf and Sport store there, which I have always wanted to go into!

Today I had the opportunity to go to the farewell of my friend Tanner from BYU and it was my first missionary farewell of the summer! 8 months ago I would have never thought that I would be going to the missionary farewell of the kid I was squished next to in the back seat of Amanda's car haha. I can't believe he and his roommates actually stayed friends with us because we looked freaking ridiculous after the 80's dance (which is when I met him)...

...and we pretty much picked them up off the street and took them to the malt shop with us.

Malt Shop group (minus Tanner - he was m.i.a. I guess)

Except for the fact that Annabelle knew Steven and invited him and his roomies to come to the malt shop with us. haha so that's how I met Steven and his roomies, and therefore Tanner! haha I don't have a pic from today, but here's a pic of us from that post-dance malt shoppe adventure!

Yepp I look pretty attractive...not haha but that was okay because we had a picnic the next day and we all looked normal :)

Sorry for that blast from the past, I guess I just wanted to give that little back story so you could know how I came to be friends with Tanner! haha Anyway, since his building was only 30 minutes away it was totally worth the drive to Huntington Beach to go hear his farewell talk! Today I also came to appreciate the fact that the Church is the same all across the globe! Even though I was by myself in a building and ward I had never been to before, I still got to participate in the same sacrament meeting and I still got to hear about the same principles and values I have been learning my whole life. That is one thing that is so cool about the LDS church! The church is exactly the same wherever you go and there is no other church in the whole world that is like that! yay for being mormon! I love it! haha but anyway, that's it for this post! peace out :)

Let's Get Crafty

This week I decided to re-kindle my craftiness. I had started working on a denim patch blanket last summer and my goal this summer is too finish! On Tuesday I finished sewing all the rows together, so I am like 75% done!

Woohoo! I am definitely making progress! I also whipped out all of my scrapbooking stuff and got fancy with some letters I was writing to my friends Hunter and Christian. It was so nice to scrapbook again, even though it definitely was not my best scrapbooking job haha I didn't get to bring any of my scrapbooking stuff to college with me and I am grateful I had time this week to scrapbook again! I feel like I have lost a little bit of my scrapbooking skill since I haven't done it in over year! I mean I didn't have too much skill to begin with anyway, but I am definitely going to have to practice some more if I want to become a better scrapbooker! Besides getting crafty this week I did some other things too! I think I will just list them off because I don't feel like explaining all of them/writing paragraph form and some of them are simple ahah I guess I just feel kinda lazy!

• I had 2 job interviews this week (Camp James & CampCo Day Camps)
• I showed up for a third interview and the guy forgot to email me that he postponed my interview. Basically wasted an hour in the car. Not cool.
• I stepped on a slug this morning.. in my house!!! Totally gross.
• Bought my brother a Perry the Platypus blanket. It was only $5 a Target! What a bargain! I just love that place haha
• I went to a bonfire last night with a whole bunch of kids from Tesoro. It was awesome to hang out with friends and just chill! Bonfires are one of my favorite things about summertime in southern california! Bonfires just aren't bonfires to me if they are not at the beach! The best is when you get their in time to see the sunset! Okay I know I just explained this one, but whatever. It was worth explaining and I do what I want haha
• Also hit up the beach today with mi amiga Kelsey. I saw some awesome beach houses! Remember my last post and my obsession with beach houses? yepp I was pretty happy to see walk past some pretty beach houses on the way down to the beach. I also got sunburned, but it's cool because with some aloe vera it will turn into a tan!
• I've been listening to 90's music this evening. I secretly love 90's music and I am grateful for my 90's pop music station on Pandora!

And that's about all I can think of for this week! Unfortunately, it wasn't too exciting! haha anyway, peace out :)

Museums, Arcades, Beach Houses, and More!

So just to give you a heads up, this post is going to have a lot of pictures!! haha At Del Cerro Elementary school,  the third graders choose a city in Orange County and do a report on it. All of my sisters and I have done our report on Newport Beach because we used to go there a lot when we were younger. Well this year it was my brothers turn to take on the "challenge" of the Newport Beach report! haha Yesterday I got to take him on a little tour/adventure in Newport Beach and Balboa. While I had a job interview at Camp James on the Newport back bay, I dropped Melissa and Christian off at Fashion Island to get some pictures, fliers, and just look around! After my interview we went to the sports museum! They had a whole bunch of signed jerseys, trophies, footballs, etc. They also had a a mini basketball court and some other displays. It was pretty cool!

My favorite display room was the Quicksilver Roxy one! It had a whole bunch of stuff from the athletes they sponsor as well as a wall of surfboards!

After the sports museum we went over to balboa island and rode the ferry over the fun zone and pier!

Before we could have some fun in the arcade, we had to visit the nautical museum since it is a "point of interest" haha. Christian, surprisingly, wasn't too interested in it, but we got some pictures that he can use for his project anyways.

 After that we got to hit up the arcade for a little and played some classic arcade games like Whack- a - Mole and SkeeBall! Nothing beats spending time in the good ol' arcade and getting prizes for your tickets! haha

Christian was super excited about all the tickets he won! haha and then of course we went and turned in our tickets for prizes! I love how arcades are such a rip off but they are just so great and people still go to them anyways! haha Before we went back to the ferry, we walked over the pier and snagged some pics!

Also my hair is kind of all over the place in this picture, so just don't mind that! haha I wish we had time to eat at Ruby's on the pier! I remember eating there as a little girl and it was so exciting to eat at one of my favorite restaurants on the end of a pier! I loved it when we got rooftop seating and you had a great view of the ocean and Balboa! After that we headed back to the ferry and said good-bye to Balboa!

As we were walking from the ferry back to our car, I took a whole bunch of pictures of beach houses! Wayy more than I took when we first parked! haha I just love beach houses a whole lot! I love their architecture, size, and the fact they are on the beach! Or harbor, in this case! but anyway, here are some of the cute houses I saw! We even found the home of a BYU fan!

See the little BYU address sign right above the tree/bush thing?? haha

I guess I kind of have a secret obsession with beach houses haha. My sister said I looked like a tourist because I was taking pictures of a whole bunch of houses! haha After Balboa we made one last stop at the Newport Beach Temple!

We even had a little fun at the temple! Christian was showing me something cool about the fountain and how you could have your hand gently floating on the surface, and it gave me the perfect opportunity to splash him! I know I probably shouldn't have, I mean we were on the temple grounds and I guess you could say it was "holy water" haha but his face was like 5 inches from the waters surface and it was the perfect opportunity!

He wasn't very happy about it, but oh well, he can deal with it! haha after that we headed home and feasted on some tacos, watched 17 Again, and then that was the end of our Saturday adventures! :)

P.S. Happy Mothers Day!

Microbiology - You Should Take It

Today was my third day of shadowing, and each week I am more grateful that I took Microbiology last semester! I had to take it as a pre-req for PA school and boy am I glad I took it before I started shadowing! Out of all the classes I need to take for my major/PA school I am glad I took this one before shadowing because I think it is the most helpful for my shadowing! When they talk about specific antibodies, as IgM, I know what they are talking about! When the doctor says there's no medication for viruses I know exactly why! When they talk about the different antibody and bacterial tests, I know what they are talking about! When different bacterial strains or diseases are mentioned, I am not completely lost because I learned about it in microbiology and I can ask more intelligent questions! haha I am surprised that microbiology is not a pre-req for med school because it is SOO applicable to health care! I mean microbes are one of the main reasons we need to go see doctors right??
Basically, I have concluded that you should take a general microbiology class in college if you.....

• are going to shadow any kind of health care provider
• if it is required for your major! (kinda obvious reason haha)
• If you want to be a Physician Assistant
• If you want to go to Medical School
• If you want to go into ANY kind of health care for that matter!
• If you want to learn about bacteria, antibiotics, your immune system, viruses, diseases, and MORE!

It's an awesome class and I learned so much! It was definitely an interesting, useful, an applicable class, especially now since I am shadowing Dr. Shannon!  So if your are thinking of taking microbiology, as Nike would say, JUST DO IT! You won't regret it!

All Work and No Play. Wait, Switch That to ALL Play and NO Work!!

I finally had a fun, busy day that was not focused on getting a job! This morning I went up to LA to meet my friend Cooper from BYU. We met at the LA temple so we could carpool to the Santa Monica Pier. While I was waiting for him to arrive, I got some pics of the temple!

I never realized how pretty the LA temple was! But I am glad I had some time to walk around and get some pics! I hope I have time later this summer to go there and do baptisms! That would be awesome! If you want to learn more about temples you can click here! :)  Anyways, once Cooper got to our meeting point, we hopped in my car and headed over to the Santa Monica pier!

I love beach scenes! It is just one of the perks of living in southern California! Nothing can compare to the beauty of the ocean, the waves, and the sand! I love it! I loved just walking along the pier and looking at everything! It was so relaxing! There we some cool entertainers/ people on the pier too! Their was this one guy who made this amazing artwork with mostly his fingers! It was ridiculous and so cool to watch! I also saw this really cool piano on the pier!

Super random, but way nifty! :)  After chilling on the Pier and enjoying the scenery for an hour-ish we headed over to the famous Diddy Riese in Westwood! Apparently it's a popular place for post-LA Temple refreshments and all of the UCLA kids; and now I can understand why!

If you've never been there, you should make a trip, because it is delicious and pretty cheap for an ice cream shop! You can even make your own ice cream sandwich! You choose the kind of cookies and the kind of ice cream! I broke my no sweets and no desserts thing for my chocolate chip cookie & mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwich!

Since the day I started my no sweets & desserts I planned on breaking it when I went to Diddy Riese with Cooper. So I made it a month and a half and I am starting over tomorrow! I am going to try and make it until my birthday, July 28! So that's over 3 months, but I think I can do it! After Diddy Riese, Cooper and I said our goodbyes and we will see each other again in 2 years when he gets home from his mission! As soon as I got home and ate lunch, I had to leave again! My family and I went to go see The Avengers in IMAX!

My brother was so excited to go see it! He even wore his Captain America shirt - it was so cute! haha The movie was definitely way good! I really liked it! If you haven't seen it yet - GO! It is a great movie, and it even broke box office records! so if you don't believe me that it's good, just look at the stats and box office records that it broke haha anyway, that sums up my busy Monday that instead of "all work and no play" was all play and no work!
peace out :)

I kinda just love marine biology...

 Besides being a pediatrician/ pediatric physician assistant, my dream job would definitely have to be a marine biologist or be a marine animal caretaker! From ages 8 - 12 I legitimately wanted to be a SeaWorld trainer. No Joke! ask anyone who knew me, and they can probably verify that I was destined to be a SeaWorld trainer! I had annual passes there for a couple years so I became pretty fond of SeaWorld haha I even remember dreaming that I had a pet beluga whale when I was like 8 or 10. We had a big tank in the middle of our house and I had beluga whale that I kept in there, and I even taught it some tricks! Basically marine mammals were, and still are my favorite. I still would love to work for SeaWorld in the Animal Husbandry or Rescue department. Especially if I could take care of these little cuties...

Yep, Commerson's dolphins! They are one of my favorite animals in the whole world! They are found in the waters south of Africa and are only about 5 feet long! Basically the cutest dolphins ever! Whenever I go to SeaWorld, they are one of my favorite animals to see! But I also wouldn't mind working in the wild arctic exhibits. I mean who doesn't love beluga whales and polar bears?
Lately I have totally been reminded of my love for marine biology, ever since I have been home, I swear the ocean and marine life has been all around me! The first week a dolphin was stranded in the Huntington Wetlands for over a week, so that was all over the news.

"Hopeful Signs for Wayward Dolphin" by Pat Brennan - OC Register

Also, right around the time I got home from school, a gray whale was caught swimming really close to shore (right off Three Arch Bay) and the Ocean Institute posted these awesome pictures!

I would have died to be at the beach that day and see this! I probably would have been freaking out!

The next week, the Ocean Institute posted this video and this really reminded me of how much I love marine biology and marine mammals! 

Where was this video taken? Right out side the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, where I interned last year! A gray whale same into the harbor and decided to say hi!  I totally wish I could have seen this in person! That would have been so cool! Just to stand on the OI's dock and watch a gray whale swim by! But that's no big deal right? haha no, it's a big deal! haha Also, Friday and Saturday I had to drive up to Long Beach harbor for some work stuff and both days I saw sea lions! Soo cool! I just love seeing marine mammals in the ocean and not at SeaWorld. SeaWorld is cool, but it is way cooler to see them in their natural habitats! Especially since you aren't expecting it half the time! In a couple weeks I am going to the tide pools in Dana Point to teach my brother's cub scout troops about marine life and to show them all of the different animals you can find in the tide pools! Hopefully a lot of the animals will be out! Here's some of the pics I took for my AP Bio photo journal junior year!  I went to the tide pools with my friend Lindsay over spring break to take these pics and it was quite adventurous!

I am touching a sea anemone in that last picture, just in case you were wondering about my ridiculous face haha. One day I want to volunteer at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach. You can check out their website here! It's a great place and how cool would it be to help take care of and rehabilitate seals and sea lions?? I think it would be awesome! But anyway, I just love marine biology! I wish I could just hop right into the field and not have to get a degree because I don't like being tested about water quality and plants. One of the many reasons I changed my major to Physiology and Developmental Biology. Because I am also interest in human biology and I don't mind being tested on it! haha but that's it for today! happy sunday and peace out :)