Where did the Summer go?

February

We celebrated our one year anniversary in Puerto Vallarta. I can't believe how fast the year went and how much we have grown in a year! We love Mexico and decided to go somewhere we had never been to celebrate. It was our first time to Puerto Vallarta and we were both obsessed! Our only complaint was it was a little tricky to find the secluded beaches that we love so much. Once we did find some, our favorite was called Conchas Chinas. Our favorite place to eat was called Republica Taco and our favorite excursion was an island called Las Marietas. You snorkel off the boat through a cave that opens up to a donut-like hole on the top. 

March

 I had the chance to go to the finale of the Bachelorette with some amazing girls. Somehow we managed to get a tour of the Bachelor Mansion by Chris Harrison himself and get complete V.I.P. treatment when we went to the show. It was hilarious and extremely entertaining to be there on set and provide over-the-top reactions to everything. We had such a fun girls trip, complete with an accidental run-in in our rental car at LAX approximately 10 minutes after arrival. Always a good time and even better memories on those girls trips!

April 

I did my first Trail Ragnar race in April and was un-pleasantly surprised at how difficult it was. We felt decently trained for the race until we actually realized that we were literally going to be running up mountains. Our team did win 1st place in our category though, so you can't really complain there! Luckily we all won belt buckles and medals, so I'd definitely do it again for that I suppose...

May

Something totally out of my comfort zone (but was a great excuse for a girls night), was this blogger inspired event called Cachella. Basically to sum it up it's a festival with tons of gals running around taking selfies and getting their hair braided. Like I said, that sort of thing isn't really my jam, but we had a great time singing to Spice Girls and eating tons of shaved ice and cookies. 

June 

Mark got a haircut after I cut my finger open when attempting to "texturize" his one day... His hair had been getting gloriously long and I tried to play the "wife of all trades" cards and it didn't go over so well. Anyway, June was fun as I won a sales competition at work and got a weekend getaway to the Montage in Park City. We relaxed like it was our job, strutted around in robes and slippers, and expensed an insane amount of BBQ. It was pretty great, honestly. 

July 

We had been planning an overly-patriotic trip  to celebrate the fourth and were stoked to head down to Mark's parents for a full week.  It's always a fun time because it's a double-whammy with Mark's birthday. We spent the week at the beach and eating Acai bowls at all of our favorite places. The evening of the fourth we went to watch Fireworks on the U.S.S. Midway. It was a really cool night and felt extra patriotic! 

We also headed down to Tijuana to see the new LDS Temple there and just spend the day. The temple was gorgeous and I loved being able to walk around on the grounds! 

 We made a weekend trip up to Santa Barbara and I really fell in love. Mark had been there a few times but it was my first time. I loved how small and quaint it was. The architecture was also amazing and it was so magical just walking around looking at all the gorgeous buildings and homes. Reality check, unless we have about $15 million, we will never live there. #Outofourleague

On our way back down from Santa Barbara we stopped in LA at our favorite taco place (and to watch the Dodger game with our friends (and super fans) Leigh and Rudy. We love that our trips overlapped enough to get together for a game. Mark semi-jokingly asked Leigh to give me an overview of the fundamentals of baseball. I think that I was given enough information to be an announcer after that. She knows her stuff (especially anything Dodgers-related). 

August 

We went on an extremely impromptu trip to Moab  and it will probably stand as one of my most favorite memories of this summer. Mark had been wanting to do night photos with the Milky Way down in Southern Utah for a while and one Sunday afternoon we decided we would just go for it and make a "day trip" out of it. We literally left at 3 PM, started the hike around 6:30 PM and were there until about 11:30 PM. We hiked back in the dark, saw a coyote dart in front of us and drove home. We got home at about 3 AM and I went into work at 7 AM. We know that these types of trips won't always be possible, so we try to do it all! 

We had the chance to go down again to San Francisco for one of our good friend's weddings. Mark and Ksenia had a gorgeous wedding in Finland and then had their celebrations in San Francisco. We spent the few days before the reception in Santa Cruz with them and had a blast!  Their reception was in Portola Valley and it was gorgeous! Together with several friends we somehow got a free car rental and hotel room (Yay for points) and had a blast that weekend. We made our way to the city for the classic stops at the bridge (of course, Carl decided to make an appearance that afternoon so you literally couldn't see anything haha), Boudin's, Bob's and Fisherman's Wharf. We even managed to stop at the Oakland Temple on our way to the airport. Such a great time! 

September

Mark's little brother got married at the beginning of September, down in San Diego. That was the last of the Tuttle kids to get married and I'm so excited about my new sister in-law, Aubrey. They had a gorgeous wedding at the San Diego Temple and a stunning reception in San Clemente. We love having our family in California and hope that they stay there forever.