Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful day. Mine was very nice. We started the day off with a good old indoor soccer tournament at my Cousin Sam's house. Which to me indoor soccer is more fun to play then soccer outside. It was a blast! :) We played for over three hours. I felt like I did awesome and played hard. I scored many goals and felt like I was a contributor to my team. ( I also sweated my butt off and got in a really good workout). I am pretty sure though that I might have broken my toe or I did something to it. It is really swollen and has hurt all day even though I took IBprofen. I like to think that by playing indoor soccer all morning that I was preparing for the huge meal that we were going to consume later. Well after that I was already so tired.
I love to see the temple. After church we went to see the Newport Beach Temple. The one I hope to get married in one day. A pretty new temple. It was only built a couple years ago. It was finished the summer we moved to Utah. We were lucky to be apart of it. To participate in the Temple Celebration and I got to work there for the open house. A very beautiful temple in it's own unique architecture. It is a very small temple. 
During my first trip to California. My sister, her boyfriend Ross, and I decided to get away one Saturday. So we loaded up the mini van with some bikes and drove over to the California coast. We spent the day bicycling along the Newport Beach Coast. It was a beautiful sunny day (well is there anything else in California). What a beautiful and refreshing site it was to see. The ocean and all the activity around it. We cycled down streets where we use to live and got to stop at the Balboa pier and walk to the end of it. We saw a seal- thanks to Haylie's good eyes. Which I had never seen before on the pier- a seal. It was right below us. So clear- It was awesome. And on this little bike ride we got to stop by Haagen Dazs and have one of my favorite shakes. A Bailey Shake. It was so much fun, more fun then I have had in a long time. And didn't cost any money- can you beat that. Nope, I don't think so.
Last month in October I grabbed a flight one tuesday night leaving the next morning from Salt Lake City to John Wayne (Orange County, California airport). I had found out that my Grandpa Swenson had 24-48 hours to live. I immediately started looking at every possible flight leaving that night or the next day. Wow, the feeling I got when I heard my Grandpa was sick. It was more of a shock. I had had this idea that he was going to live forever. It had felt like it anyway- him being 85 and so active and young at heart. My Grandpa- he was like my father. I felt like he claimed me as his own child. He was always there for me. Not only did he bless me as a child. He also allowed for me be born in his home. I still don't know why they had it that way but just from that I think there was this special bond between my Grandparents and I. He also baptized me when I was eight. I still remember my mother asking me who I wanted to baptize me. And I responded quickly by saying my Grandpa. How blessed and lucky was I that my parents made a special trip from Oregon down to California ( a 23 hour drive) just so that my Grandpa could baptize me. He was there when I graduated Middle School and high school. My grandparents also made a trip to Utah to be there when I got my patriarchal blessing. I felt like I was very close to my Grandpa though- more then a lot of people. I don't know if it was because when I was a kid I was always with him but our birthdays were just days apart. His birthday was two days after mine. I always remember it because it was so close... Poor Grammy, I always forget which day hers is on. My Grandpa we loved each other so much. We shared some really special memories. My favorite- something I remember the most is as a kid being glued to his lap while he ate (or read the paper, or watched the TV). And him sharing every other bite with me. Our favorite treat I think was peaches sprinkled in sugar in milk.
Well today was my birthday... I am 19! Wow, ha ha I am still so young. It is exciting to think what is ahead of me. The years to come. I started the birthday day (12:00 am) with a bubble bath and got in bed and snuggled with the covers and watched one of my favorite movies "The Devil Wears Prada". I woke up only to start on piles of laundry that have been sitting for weeks that have needed to be folded (because of all the travels and being so busy I haven't had time.)It was a very uneventful birthday. I was lucky to have a birthday cake though (thanks to Katie) which was a great way to end the birthday day.
