Surprise!

Last week I was lucky enough to go home to Utah for a surprise visit. The trip was last minute and only a handful of people knew about it beforehand, but I was so excited. The main reason for my visit was for my nephew Kayden's 6th birthday. He had a big Star Wars birthday party planned and lots of (constantly changing) ideas for what he wanted for his birthday, but when his mom asked him what he wanted more than anything, it was for me to be able to come to his party. And who am I to deny him that? Not to brag, but I don't blame him. After all, I'm his favorite aunt :) Lucky for Kayden and myself, Lindsay was generous enough to fly me home for the weekend. Kayden had no idea and it was so much fun to surprise him and the rest of my family. I don't have a picture of us from the party because 1. I'm not the best at taking pictures, and 2. It isn't easy trying to get a 6-year-old to hold still for even a second at his own birthday party...but here are a few pictures so you can see how cute this little man is.

I love this kid so much. He's growing up waaaay too fast, especially now that I don't get to see him very much, but I'm so happy I was able to fulfill his birthday wish (mostly thanks to his mother...thanks Linds!!!) Happy birthday Kayd!

Days Off

Joe's work schedule is kind of crazy these days. For the next five weeks he is teaching Saturdays and Sundays so weekends for us are now Wednesdays and Thursdays. It throws off our week a little bit, but it actually works out fine for now since I don't have a job (and that is the ONLY good thing about not having a job yet, but that's a whole other story). Anyway, this was his first week of teaching, so after working ten days straight, he was ready for some time off and I was ready to finally hang out with him!

Wednesday was wonderful. I started the day off with a job interview. I won't get into that, I'd rather just celebrate when I actually do get a job. After that we headed into the city for lunch at Barney's - a really yummy burger place here. I'm not a huge burger person, but this place is delish and their sweet potato fries are to die for!

After lunch we went to the social security office to...drum roll please....CHANGE MY NAME! I'm now officially Kara Brooks Jeppson!!! To be honest, it doesn't feel too different because I've been telling people my name is Kara Jeppson since day one of our marriage, but it does feel nice to make it official. The whole process was quick and easy...not at all what I was expecting.

After the name change was the best part of the day: Joe and I went to the Oakland Temple! It was my first time there and it. was. amazing. It was so beautiful and I'm so lucky to have a husband that can take me there. Luckily, the Oakland Temple is only about 35-40 minutes from our house so we'll be back very soon.

Next we headed to Berkely to La Mediterranee, one of my favorite restaurants here in Cali. It's authentic Greek food and I love it so much! We finished the day off with some yummy ice cream from Ici, a little shop in Berkeley. They always have new, different flavors to try but the best part is the fresh, handmade cones with chocolate poured into the bottom. So so so good. Such a perfect day.

Halloween

I love everything about Halloween - the costumes, the cooler weather, the spookiness, and the abundance of my favorite food (candy). For Halloween last year I was still in college, and amidst deciding what to dress up as and which party to go to, I was also getting ready to say goodbye to Joe. He moved to California on Halloween day last year...talk about scary!

Halloween last year. I was a hunter, he was a deer. Turned out it wasn't as obvious as we thought it was..

Anyway, I knew Halloween this year would be very different than past years. We didn't dress up or go to any parties but I did buy candy in the hopes that some trick-or-treaters would come by! (Unfortunately, we were gone when any trick-or-treaters might have stopped by so I guess I'll be forced to eat all that candy myself...) Instead we went out to dinner to celebrate the anniversary of Joe's big move! It's amazing that a whole year has passed since then but I couldn't be more pleased about where we are in our lives now; and I'm SO SO happy that the long distance part of our relationship is over. My ideal fright night didn't quite turn out as I had planned (we didn't even watch a scary movie because someone doesn't like them), but this Halloween definitely beats last year!

Oh, and it's still 75 degrees here, so I guess I can't associate Halloween with cooler weather anymore... I think I'll be fine.