Summer Lovin'

We love summertime in California! We have been having a blast and have stayed very busy. Mike is still working away at his internship and has been putting in lots of overtime. He is loving the purchasing department and is about to be moved into the logistics department which will give him some good experience. He just had his 26th birthday last weekend and got very spoiled. I am working away at JC Penney and feel like I live there most of the time. A couple of weeks ago, I went to Utah/Idaho to visit my family and see my best friend Janelle get married! It was beautiful and I am so happy for her. Other than work, we have had the opportunity to visit Disneyland, Hollywood, Solvang, Morro Bay, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Laguna Beach, hike one of the seven sisters, and see Les Miserables! Here are some pics of our adventures:

Beach, Beach, and More Beach!

I just wanted to write a quick update to let everyone know that life is great! We love Cali, the beach, and just life in general. Mike has really taken off in his job and is enjoying every minute of it. Last week they had several corporate executives from Atlanta come visit the office and he was included in all the meetings and discussions. It was a great experience and he is impressing people left and right. I was able to get a job at JC Penney's here in Santa Maria. It is perfect and a complete blessing! It gets me out of the apartment and adds a little extra change to my pocket to buy clam chowder from Splash Cafe in Pismo Beach...which I am absolutely addicted to! We spend our free time playing on the beach and have explored many different ones, finally finding our favorites. Unfortunately, Mike's favorite is different from my favorite, so we have to alternate. Besides work and the beach, we just play and enjoy each other. The other young couples in our ward have been very friendly and accepting and we have been invited to several beach bonfires and BBQs. The area that we live in is well known for their farmer's markets and stands. Last week we drove down to San Luis Obispo with some friends and went to a farmers market that really resembled an Idaho County Fair. The only thing is that they do it every Thursday here! The food was incredible and the whole experience was just fun. I am tempted to make it a Thursday tradition. I would love to write more but it's really not that interesting, and I'm headed to, you'll never guess, the beach!

One Crazy Fun Month of May!

Well, time sure flies when you are having fun! May was a month full of travel, fun, and family! We were able to spend time with the Hoggans and the Maxfields and were spoiled very much and are grateful for wonderful families that we love so very much! After visiting family, we headed off to California, arrived safely and soundly, and moved into a cute little studio apartment. I am surprised to say that I love my studio apartment more than I have ever loved any of my other apartments. It is cozy, easy to keep clean, and pretty much just wonderful-except for the fact that I have a mini-oven that doesn't fit any of my cookie sheets in it... California is fabulous and I have become a regular beach bum! Mike started his job and loves it! He is working for a company called World Minerals, which is a subsidary of a company called Imerys. They have treated him very well and have given him many, many projects to start working on. He is very fortunate to have gotten this job because they only took 9 interns this summer and Mike was told that they chose him from a stack of hundreds of resumes. He admits that it is a little overwhelming, but this opportunity is giving him excellent experience and is quite a resume booster. All the ladies in the main office love him already and everyone else will as soon as they realize what a hard worker he is! I am so proud of him! Since we have arrived, we have just been exploring everywhere! We have visited several beaches, found a library close by for me, a movie theatre for Mike, and spent time with family in Riverside. We hope that everyone else is doing well, we love and miss all our family and friends, and will keep you all updated the best we can!

2 Down, AT LEAST 48 more to go!

Mike and I have officially been married for 2 whole years! Time sure flies by...Our anniversary this year was amazingly fun! Mike really went all out and arranged an adventure for the two of us. For those of you who are familiar with the story of our anniversary last year (remember: Bad Lands, Bad Movie, Bad Restaurant, and Bad Bad Bad Bad Hotel ran by people from India), it was not that kind of adventure and I must admit that this year totally makes up for last year! So no more laughing at our expense! This year, we got to spend a couple of days in beautiful Sun Valley! Mike surprised me with reservations at this really charming Bed and Breakfast called the Inn at Ellsworth Estates. It was built in 1915 and since then has had quite a colorful history. There are many weddings, anniversaries, and other events held there. It has the charm of an earlier era and is one of the few homes of that quality and size which were built in frontier Idaho. Needless to say, I LOVED it and would highly recommend it to everyone I know who wants to have a romantic get-a-way for a couple of days! We spent a lot of time walking around Hailey, Ketchum, and Sun Valley. There are a lot of fun shops and some great restaurants. We ate dinner at a really yummy restaurant called the Sawtooth Club, which I think was the highlight of Mike's trip. He loved his food and talked about it the entire way home and has mentioned it to everyone he has come in contact with since! We were going to rent bikes in order to use the bike pathways that run all over the mountains and connect Ketchum and Hailey, but this really neat couple who live in Hailey loaned us their bikes for the day. This was so nice of them and really made our day because bike rentals are about 25-30 dollars per person for a couple of hours. We spent an entire day just riding around and exploring. It seems like everyone there uses bikes instead of cars to get around, which is so cool! Mike and I have decided that we absolutely LOVE the Sun Valley area and are going to build a house there someday! All I have to say, is if you have never been there before you are missing out and should make plans to visit soon!



A little taste of the cute town of Ketchum, which was my personal favorite out of the three!



The historic Inn at Ellsworth Estates

Our room at the Inn, there are eight others to choose from and they all are very unique.

This is our table at the Sawtooth Club..the food was fantastic and the atmosphere very romantic!


Beautiful...Need I say more?

This one is for Mike, he loves taking funny face pictures for some strange reason.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Christmas is a wonderful time of year! I love the snow, the presents, the family-time, the lights, the music, the tree, my nativity set, the food...everything! And this year has not let me down! We spent our Christmas in Burley with Mike's family. Since Mike's mom is from Colombia, we decided to do Christmas Colombian-style and open our presents at midnight Christmas morning. We spent Christmas Eve eating great food, playing games, sharing our goals for the next year because none of us we be there for New Years, and when midnight rolled around, we dug into the pile of presents under the tree! Here are some pictures of all our festivities...

Our Christmas Eve started out with lots and lots of snow! Mike's house was covered so much!!!

Our Christmas tree!

I can't believe this happened again, but Mike got caught cooking part of the dinner for Christmas Eve! His mom looks shocked. He is getting really good at garlic cheddar biscuits so if you're hungry you know who to call!


Mike read the Tale of the Three Trees and Dad Hoggan read the story of Christ's birth from Luke, it was a great reminder of what Christmas is really about.

The entire Hoggan family!

Everyone looks excited except for me...and I don't know what face that is exactly.

Mom and Dad Hoggan, aren't they cute?

Mike's beautiful twin sisters, Liz and Lynnette.


That was a huge pile of paper, bows, and bags. Everyone got so spoiled. Me, especially. We are so grateful for family! We have been blessed with two wonderful families who love and support us. We are grateful for this wonderful holiday time to remember all our blessings and our Savior Jesus Christ. We know that He lived and that He lived a great, perfect life. We can only hope to be more like Him each day. Thank-you to all our family and friends for everything you do. We love you, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and we wish you the best!

Happy Turkey Day!!!

So, I know that it is almost Christmas, but I figure I better write about Thanksgiving first! We went to Utah to spend time with my family. It was relaxing. We both were burned out and it was a great way to recoop so we could make it two more weeks until Christmas break! Here are some pics to show you what we were up to...


One of the first things we did was have a sleepover at Kyle and Christian's new house in South Jordan. We played lots of games, and yes...Mike and Kyle did cook Christian and I breakfast. Kyle is a good influence on Mike! We should hang out with them more often!


On Thanksgiving Day, all we did was eat, eat, and eat some more. There were many, many little kids running around everywhere making lots of noise, football games, and lots of fun. We went and saw Twilight and loved it. Mike even went with me and liked it so much he is reading the books now...although I am not sure if I am supposed to say that!

For an early Christmas present, my parents got Mike some really great seats at a Jazz game. I won't bore you with anymore details of our break, but I do want to say how grateful we are for all our wonderful blessings. We have a happy life full of love and laughter and have much to be grateful for.