My {Nicholas Sparks} Obsession

I am a huge sucker for anything romantic...stories, movies, books, songs, you name it..but there is nothing that can beat a Nicholas Sparks book. I love getting wrapped up in the characters' love stories and his writing style makes women create a higher expectation for the men that they fall for. Yes, I know that they're all pretty much the same but that's what I like about them. When I pick up one of his books I know the feelings that I'm going to experience while reading his books. The story line is predictable...two people fall in love even though there is an obstacle that should be stopping them. Then there's always another tragic or dark aspect to one of the characters' lives that makes each book different from each other. There's enough variety in his books to make them exciting and interesting, yet there's a familiarity in one that when you go to pick up the next one, you know you are going to be captivated by the passionate love story he writes about so well. 

I have this problem of finishing books at rapid speeds. I start a book and then I get so hooked I physically cannot put it down. I have to know what happens, which results me finishing a 300 page book in a mere few hours...then I'm sad that I've finished it already and now I'm left to search for another good book. It's a vicious cycle really. 

I may or may not have a slight obsession with him considering I've read all but three of his books (Nights in Rodanthe, The Wedding and Three Weeks With My Brother). Steven bought me these last ones but I've been holding off on reading them because once I finish...what  in the world am I supposed to read? I'm so so so happy that there's another book, The Longest Ride, in stores September 17th! I seriously don't know if I'll ever find a writer I like that even compares to him. He just has this style of writing that makes everyone who is already in love fall a little deeper, and those who have yet to find it wish they were. 

Although I cannot say that there is a single book that I don't like, my favorites are At First Sight and Dear John. If you're looking for one last quick summer read, I promise you that these two will have you swooning for more! 

I'd love to hear about all y'alls favorite authors as well! I'm on the hunt for more good books to read! 

xo

My Boyfriend {Jumps} Out of Planes

Steven had three 3 week periods this summer. The first period he had a program called ESET which was basically survival training. The second period he had leave (the best time ever) and the third period, which he is finishing up this week, was jump training! 

At first I was a little scared about the idea of my boyfriend jumping out of a plane by himself 5 times, but then after a little reassurance from the man my nerves calmed down. Also, I figured the government isn't going to throw something that they've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in if they don't expect it to survive...right? Steven has been tandem skydiving before so he had a little bit of background on the whole jumping thing as well. 

He had done a lot of prepping and memorizing of emergency procedures before his first jump in case *god forbid* something was going to go wrong while he was mid-jump. So, I was super excited for him when he got to do it for the first time last Friday! He was a total natural, as always. Seriously, there's nothing that guy can't do well(Why can't everyone have that trait?!)! The next four jumps went without flaw and my man officially has his wings! 

(After 5 solo jumps you get a pin to show that you've completed the training called your "wings"...I love those cute Air Force traditions!) 

It just so happens that Steven fell in love with skydiving even more these past few weeks and is now going to try out for the jump team! He tries out in a week or so, so send him some luck! If you want, you can send me some too because this whole "Bye, love you! I'm going to go jump out of a plane now!" thing is going to take a little more getting used to!

Hope everyone had a great weekend 

xox 

{Cancun}

Steven's grandma has a beautiful timeshare in Cancun and was so sweet to invite his whole family and me to enjoy the week in paradise! When we got to Cancun, we slowed wayyy down. There were days when we didn't even leave the pool, and we were oh so happy with that! We lounged around, swam in the ocean and pool, sipped fruity drinks, it was perfect. 

The spectacular view! We were so lucky!

One evening, we took a fun trip to a place called Mercado 28, which is a huge outdoor market. They sell a huge variety of things and we had a blast wandering around and looking at all of the pretty things! It's a tradition in my family to buy a Christmas ornament wherever we travel to to hang on our tree the next year. So, Steven and I bought a beautiful ornament to bring home! We also bought my mom a hand painted spoon rest that she loved! We had so much fun bargaining the prices too. Steven was cracking me up with his strategy to make them lower their price. After dinner we went to an awesome authentic Mexican restaurant called La Parrilla. It was delicious and had a super fun atmosphere! 

We were in Cancun for the 4th of July but that definitely did not stop us from celebrating! That night after dinner, Steven and I took a walk on the beach over to the Ritz Carlton to take a look around. It was a beautiful hotel. We were walking down on the beach in front of the hotel, and all of a sudden huge fireworks started going off right in front of us! They were lighting them about 100 feet away from us and it was so awesome to be so close (a little scary too!). We laid down on the sand and watched as the fireworks went off above our heads. It was a perfect evening! 

Please take note of Steven's shorts...very patriotic ha! 

To make that night a little more memorable, while we were walking home from the Ritz Carlton, we literally almost ran into a giant sea turtle!! It was frightening at first, but then it was the most amazing thing. We continued our walk down the beach and ran into about 6 or 7 more along the shore, digging holes to lay their eggs in. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures in fear of disrupting the turtles, but it was an experience that I'm sure we will never forget! 

Our trip to Cancun was a blast, and I had so much fun spending time with my man and his awesome family!

{Ohio} Part 2

On Thursday, we went to a huge amusement park called Cedar Point. I like roller coasters, but I had never been on anything like these rides. They were huge. I was terrified to go on the first one because of course, we chose the most frightening looking one ever, but it ended up being a good one to set the tone because we all had a blast! It was a great day. The park was practically empty and there were barely any lines! Steven's family said that they had never seen the park like that before. The weather probably had a little bit to do with why the park was so empty. It was a pretty day all day, but at dinner time it started pouring. We were caught in a huge thunderstorm and it was actually really scary. The thunder was shaking the chairs and sounded like the storm was on top of us! When it finally passed, we snuck in a few more of the best rides. One of my favorite parts of the day was at the end when Steven and I were dancing in the middle of the park. I had a pretty bad headache that day, so all of the crazy rides weren't really helping that situation but I was having too much fun to miss out. So, when bubba's family went on our last ride a second and third time, S and I sat the last 2 out. We danced to the sweet country music that was playing around us, it was the perfect ending to our exciting day! 

Here are two of the biggest roller coasters there!

The middle of the storm!

The day after that we went on a really cool 7 mile kayaking trip. The scenery on the river was gorgeous and we had a great time floating along. That night we went downtown and listened to a Queen cover band at a free concert venue! The atmosphere was so fun. There were so many people there! We also stumbled upon a really cool popcorn store that had 50 different flavors of popcorn! Of course we had to try a few and they were all sooo good.

On our last day, all of Steven's aunts and uncles came over and we had a big barbecue and bonfire in the backyard. It was really fun to meet and talk with his whole family!

Our trip to Ohio was amazing and we had the best time! The fun definitely didn't stop there. We headed straight to our next destination from Ohio...next stop: Cancun!! 

{Ohio}

Steven had 3 weeks of leave this summer, so his family planned a super fun vacation that let us visit with all of his family! Our first stop was a week in Ohio with his dad's side of the family!

I had never been to Ohio, or the Midwest for that matter (except Chicago but that probably doesn't count all that much) before this so I was really excited. We had a little bit of a travel mishap when we arrived at 1am and found out that the airline left our checked baggage where we caught our connecting flight. That was a bit of a bummer, but we luckily had enough essentials with us to get us through the night! 

Steven's roommate from last semester, Joe, lives really close to his grandma's house. So, the next day we all went wake boarding and water skiing on Joe's boat. It was really fun to meet up with him! After we had our fun on the water, we all went out to eat. We escaped the looming thunderstorm perfectly because it was beautiful all morning and the torrential downpour only started the last few minutes of lunch! We got really lucky that day. Later that day, we played mini golf with Steven's family which was a blast. That night, Steven and I met up with Joe again and he brought his girlfriend, Emily, with him. We all had a great time! Those boys are so cute. 

Steven, Joe, Emily and I were talking about the differences between Ohio and California and we were all cracking up. Here are the main things that we noticed! 

• Let's just start off with talking about how green Ohio is...like really, really green. Seriously, everywhere you look there are huge, gorgeous trees. It's not like that here in California. It's a beautiful place, don't get me wrong, but it's definitely not as green as Ohio! 
• Another thing that we noticed was that there were barely any sidewalks where Joe and Emily live. Where Bubs and I are from, it's rare not to see a sidewalk unless you're on the freeway of course. 
• This one isn't only about Ohio, but I always get a kick out of the fact that major super markets are different in different states, I'm weird..I know. In Oahu, it's Foodland, in Southern California Pavilions, Vons, and Albertsons are big. In Ohio...Giant Eagle. 
• And there's the most obvious linguistic difference as well. California- soda. Ohio- pop.

And those were our first two days in the Buckeye State! Check back soon for the next two and then our amazing trip to Cancun! 

xox

Saying {Goodbye}...The First Time Around

I'm back!! For good, I promise. It's been a crazy and insanely fun past 3 weeks with S being home. I seriously love that guy! I've missed blogging a lot, but I couldn't bring myself to sit down and try to blog creatively while there was a handsome man asking me to do fun things all of the time...hence my leave of absence! 

As always, the goodbye sucked. It never really does get easier. So, I thought that I'd do a little throwback to the first time that Steven and I had to say our first goodbye before he left for BCT. I figured that this sappy post would give a little backing to how much his leave meant to us because it's been the longest we've been together consecutively in over a year! It was flippin' awesome, to say the least. 

So, without further adieu, here's the worst goodbye I've ever experienced: 

(Okay, so it wasn't that bad but I'm currently suffering from the oh-yeah-I'm-in-a-long-distance-relationship-and-I-forgot-about-that-whole-thing-when-he-was-home blues so I'm truly sorry if I'm depressing!) 

A little over a year ago, I said goodbye to my best friend before he left for basic training. I'll never forget the look we gave each other as he got in his car and drove away from my house, both of us with tears in our eyes.

I had known that it was going to be hard, but saying goodbye to the person you love most isn't really something that you can prepare yourself for. I was so happy that he was getting this great opportunity at the Academy and I was so proud of him for all that he'd worked for to get there, but I was devastated that he was leaving. Our relationship up until that point had been close distance and the longest I had gone without seeing him was 10 days. I laugh at that number now but at the time, 10 days felt like an eternity. We would be going 10 weeks without seeing each other and I had no idea what I was going to do without him. 

After dragging out the inevitable and being overly dramatic, we finally managed to say goodbye. And you know what? We lived. Although it seemed like our worlds were tumbling down, they didn't. Yes, we were sad for a while after that goodbye. Yes, somedays I hate the distance between us. But I know that this is what is meant to be. I know that because we chose to be independent of each other and follow our own dreams, our relationship is that much stronger. Somedays I do wish that he was there to give me a hug and cuddle with me on the couch, but there's never a day when I think the distance between us has a negative effect on our relationship. This long distance has brought us closer than I could have imagined. We've learned how to communicate and how to trust. The days that we do get to spend together are the sweetest. I love Steven more now than I ever have before. It's not hard for me to be in love with a man who lives 1,000 miles away. I am so grateful for the relationship that I have with my man. I know that I will fall more in love with him everyday, no matter where we both are. 

The man behind all these girly emotions...
P.S. I'm obsesssssed with the Rhonda Designs App!