So a few weekends ago a good friend from the mission, Elder David Wyder, gave his homecoming talk in Cypress, CA, right next to Anaheim. It was also conveniently the weekend right before my birthday, so we combined the two reasons and decided to roadtrip down to play on the beach.... and to see him speak of course. But most importantly to go to the beach. Here are a few pictures, with obnoxious commentary. Enjoy.

Meet the gang:



Sharon with the aviators, me and bug guts, and Julie and Lacey. It was quite possibly the best roadtrip crew I've ever had. Sharon provided the amazingly-spacious-gas-efficient Santa Fe, Julie's always got some kind of connection, and Lacey our own personal photographer.

Julie gave us our Vegas hook-up. Not only did she help us stay in the Mariott for the Associate rate, but her friend worked at some fancy club in Vegas. We showed up, dropped a name and we were in. It rocked.

Some of our great stops included the "World-Famous" Alien Fresh Jerky, in the town of Baker California. We weren't sure if the Jerky was fresh from the Aliens, or if it was actually Alien. After realizing the deliciousness of the free samples, we thought it better not to ask.

Downtown Disney, which, compared to actual Disney, is not quite as exciting, but free. It also included the Lego Store (also, not qutie as cool as LegoLand, but free),

which as you can see, had a ginormous giraffe constructed entirely of Legos. Inspirational really.

Julie had her fortune told by an alien, which actually yelled at you if you walked past it and didn't put money into it. We bought into the scam. The fortune was lame, but entertaining

nevertheless.

Also had the pleasure of dining at Bubba Gump Shrimp, where the food is not quite so tasty, and hugely over-priced. But the staff and large amounts of random paraphenalia are enough to

distract you.

And after all fun was had, we made it to the beach. Chilly, but oh-so worth it.

After another disgustingly cheap stay at the Marriot, and delicious homemade crossaints, we arrived at the homecoming, had dinner with the fam, and then braved the 10 hr drive straight throught the night. Which lead to my first, and possibly last experience with a Rockstar. And we rounded the whole thing out with a little 2am birthday bash for my big 2-3.

I'm Not Crazy After All

So when I left for my mission I left all my stuff with my friends in Utah because I knew I'd be coming back here. So when I got back it was nice to discover that I had a lot of things that were mine. It was kind of an exciting feeling...like buying all new stuff, without spending any money. I highly recommend trying it. Kind of like one of those things...you know...what are those called? Time capsule! Yeah, just stuff it full of old crap you don't need, but like to have around, leave it with a trusted person for a couple years, then go get it, and experience the magic!

Anyway as I started retrieving things from the 2 places I left them (Julie's and Jeff's), I was getting quite excited for one particular box. The one with all my movies and books. My life. Considering I only buy movies I absolutely love, and I hadn't read most of the books in my collection, I was pretty excited to embark on the journey of actually putting my money to good use. But, after getting all my stuff, the box was nowhere to be found. Julie claimed we had brought it to Jeff's, and Jeff simply denied it ever being in his basement. He seemed pretty convincing. Plus, I distinctly remembered putting them in Julie's storage unit, but they were MIA. I even looked through all the boxes myself when she wasn't home! (Sorry Juls, not that I didn't trust you...), And after that convincing evidence, I just figured I'd lost my mind, and manufactured this extremely vivid memory. Eventually I came to the sad truth that I'd never see it again.

So then, a few days ago, I get a message from Julie yelling, "I owe you an apology! I lied to you! Call me back!" Now, Julie's never lied to me in our entire friendship...and quite frankly it sounded big. Call me a bad friend, but if it were that bad, I probably would've skipped town. So I call her back to see what the big lie is all about, and she tells me that they had a minor flood in their basement and had to clean out an obscure corner where they found...you guessed it...My Box!!! She apoligized repeatedly, which wasn't neccessary because it's not lying if you don't even know it's there! This is where I take a second to brag about her amazing BFF-ness. She rocks! She apologized for unknowingly misleading me! Who does that? I mean, I'd say "Whoops, sorry about that" and then make like it never happened. She felt genuinely bad. Rock star, I tell ya. Ok, moving on. So then, this is the best part...I get to have happiness time capsule all over again! Two whole months later! And as the cherry on the sundae - I'm not crazy after all. :)