The Early Days

So we got married, had a four day honeymoon in Carmel, California, and then went our separate ways. Yes, really. Wayne had a job in California and I had another month of school to finish at BYU-Idaho, so we got home from our honeymoon and said goodbye. I've decided that I couldn't do that now after being married for a year and a half. I thought it was hard at that stage of our marriage, but now I think it would be torturous. I guess that's a good sign.

Just after I graduated, I moved to Corona, California to join Wayne in the Promised Land. (HIS promised land, not mine. That's why we live in Alaska now.) However, we really enjoyed living there. We met some really fun people and had a great time trying new things...like planting a garden on our balcony and doing triathlons.

This was our first farming attempt. We planted peas, carrots, cucumber, zucchini, lettuce, strawberries, and a palm tree. It started out as my idea and Wayne got me all the supplies for Christmas (you can grow stuff in DECEMBER in California! Growing up in Alaska, that idea was unfathomable...) I was all for it for about a week...then I got bored with gardening and Wayne had to save our poor plants from death and destruction. (That's why we don't have any children yet...Wayne seems to think "it will be just like the plants.")  Lucky for me, he really liked it and gladly took over. He would come home from work and go straight for the plants without so much as a hello kiss. For ME at least...the plants always got one. I can't be sure, but I'm almost positive I heard him singing them the theme song from Titanic one night. Whatever he did, it worked. The veggies were excellent come harvest time. 
This was our first triathlon on April 7, 2007. Wayne beat me. I know, shocking. We had a lot of fun and--with the exception of all the salt water we swallowed--it was a good experience. We decided to take a step up from pizza and celebrated that night with a steak dinner. 

Since we lived in California, the beach was obviously a regular attraction. Here are a few pictures from Santa Monica.

I love this picture of Wayne with the waves crashing behind him. He's so GQ...

We rode the ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier...the view was incredible!

The famous Hollywood sign. I got so sick driving up the windy hill I had Wayne pull over two different times so I could get re-calibrated. I seriously thought I might have been pregnant. Speaking of pregnant...

 Surprise! JK...some of our friends threw a "White Trash" party, so Wayne went shopping at the Salvation Army and found us some sweet outfits.

That's right...Wayne is wearing duct tape suspenders and I am wearing size 3X Winnie the Pooh overall shorts. Oh, and I was pregnant. The funniest part was that almost everyone at the party thought I actually WAS pregnant. We walked in and they said, "Wow, I didn't think it had been THAT long since we saw you last!" Apparently it was pretty convincing. Oh, the jokes you can play with a little bit of batting. :)

For our 6-month anniversary, Wayne took me to see Wicked. Actually, I took us to see Wicked. I kept dropping hint after hint after really obvious hint, and he just wasn't getting it. (Well, he was probably purposely ignoring it. They just pretend that they don't know what we want when it's not something THEY want. That's what I think.)  Nevertheless, we ate pizza (surprise???) and went to see Wicked and it was spectacular. I don't have any pictures, I just wanted to tell you about it. Oh, I almost forgot...Wayne took up quilting!

Okay, my friend, Sarah, and I convinced our husbands to help us make a quilt for our soldiers for a Relief Society service project. But secretly, I think they liked it. 

We had a lot of fun in California...there were so many cool things we did and awesome friends we met, but this post was supposed to be a brief overview of our year and a half there, so I'm going to have to move on to the next phase. Refill your hot chocolate and read on!