Rockets and Giant Trees

This weekend we got to do some really fun things. We started off the weekend by going to RocStock, a very nerdy gathering of people in the middle of the desert. We drove out to the middle of a lake bed where people lined up to launch their rockets of all sizes. We watched rockets being launched for about 4 hours and never got bored. It was really cool, and Kent's dream come true...obviously!

We drove back home to go to church on Sunday because I had to teach. On Monday, we drove 3 hours to our campsite just outside the park where we spent the rest of the day. Camping on a Monday night in November was pretty awesome. The campground was basically empty and it was not too cold. The only downside was that it was pitch-black by 5:00. We roasted some marshmallows and then decided to just go into our tent and play cards the rest of the night.

Kent making us some marshmallow roasting sticks.

The beautiful river we got to camp by.

On Tuesday (Happy Veteran's Day!), we got to go to Sequoia National Park (Our 6th National Park together!) We have both wanted to see those giant trees since we were kids, so it was really cool to be able to realize a lifelong dream together. It did not disappoint! Pictures do not do these majestic trees justice. Standing in the Giant Forest was a surreal experience.We hiked to General Sherman, the largest tree in the world (by volume)! It was so awesome! There were a lot of trails going off in different directions so we hopped on one and walked into the forest. General Sherman was awesome, but when we walked off by ourselves into the quiet forest, it was absolutely breathtaking.

Kent and General Sherman

Me and General Sherman

Kent exploring a fallen tree

I mean...

Kent really loved these trees!

Feeling like a member of the Keebler family.

Beautiful

The trees get burned and keep growing. Fire is even beneficial to them being able to reproduce!

Just hanging out inside a giant tree

Our beautiful drive back to Rosamond

California Fall

I know it's been a while since our last post. Here's a little bit about what we have been up to:

-I got to go visit my family for about a week in September to attend Time Out For Women with my Mom and sisters. It was such a fun visit and I loved being back in Utah and seeing my family even though Kent and I missed each other a lot!

Checking out the ducks at Willow Park Zoo

The cutest puddle jumper

The coolest little lady and her coolest Mama

Love holding that tiny hand :)

The best haircut cheerleader!

Love these ladies so much! (And that precious baby Max!)

-We got to speak in sacrament meeting at the beginning of October. Kent was called as the Sunday School President and I was put in as a Young Women's Advisor. Here in Rosamond, being a YW Advisor means I teach every other Sunday and that's it. I am still getting used to teaching. It's something I've never done before, and I really hate public speaking in any form, so it's been kind of hard for me. We are also on the Ward Christmas Party committee.

-Fall has brought us some chilly temperatures near unto 80-90 degrees, and our nights have been getting down to 40's and 50's, so Kent decided we should build a cover/heater for our pool.  So far it has brought our pool temperature up by 7 degrees...the perks of having a smarty pants engineer husband. :)

Our supplies

Putting it together

The best guy :)

The finished product...yay!

-We drove to Valencia to get some Cafe Rio! That makes the list because Kent is obsessed with Costa Vida and has missed it so much. Our nearest Costa Vida is about 4 hours away, so we decided an hour to get Cafe Rio was very doable! And it was delicious!!

-We got to go to the beach again this week. We chose to go to Santa Monica, and we really loved it! The pier was fun and busy. Crowds are not our thing, especially for Kent, so we spent most of our time walking down the beach. We found a nice little spot to be by ourselves and watch the sunset. It was just perfect.

That's basically all we have been up to the past little while. We are counting down until Thanksgiving when my parents and Brianne are coming to visit! Wahoo!

We Found the Ocean!

After what seemed like forever (but was really only three weeks), we finally got to drive to the coast. And guess what? There really is an ocean out here! We have been waiting to feel the sand between our toes since we came house-hunting in July so we were excited.

We decided, with the help of the Goog, to visit El Matador beach in Malibu. We were told there was a little parking lot you could pay to park in or you could park on the street and walk in. During our drive, we discovered that, with both of our wallets combined, we had a total of one dollar. High-rollers, are us. So, a passionate discussion ensued, led by Robyn, about how you should always carry cash monies because you never know when you're going to need it. How could we be so stupid, and now what are we going to do?! (Guess which one of us had the dollar? Not me.) So, we decided street parking was for us. Until we actually parked on the street. Super sketch. We were barely off the road. Long story short: we decided to check out paid parking and guess what? It actually really IS 2014! Welcome to the modern world, Kent and Robyn, you can pay for parking with your card. So, as Kent so eloquently put, if you don't need cash to go to the beach, you don't need cash. (We'll see about that.)

The beach was picture-perfect. There were quite a few people afoot, but we found a little spot to sit and pretend it was just us and the ocean. I think we have just been spoiled by the nearly empty beaches of Kauai so we will have to get used to California and all of it's people everywhere, and also get a better feel for what beaches are more our style. :) Our favorite thing about this beach were the brown pelicans. What a boring sounding bird, right? Not! They got gypped on their name! They are awesome. They fly over the ocean scanning for fish and then when they see one, they hover over it for a second and then literally dive into the water. So cool! Also, they are the bird from Jumanji!

Brown Pelican mid-dive

Innocent looking seagulls that just viciously ripped into a bag of Cheetos that washed ashore.

Brown Pelican

Also, we got a fridge. A real-life, adult fridge! After a trip to Costco to fill it up, we are eating like kings and putting ICE in our drinks. :)

Remember this little guy?

Huzzah!

To end on a high note, here is one of the many spiders we had to kill this week. Enjoy.

Desert Dwellers

We did it! We are officially California residents. And, yes, it is definitely an accomplishment for us. The first three weeks here have been, to say the least, very stressful. One car, no internet, and Kent immediately having to go to work for 9 hours a day made it very difficult for us to get ANYTHING done. And we had a lot to get done! We are loving living here, and Kent's job is an incredible blessing for us so there are no complaints here, but I will just say this: moving is STRESSFUL! :)

Unfortunately, as we had feared, the owners didn't leave us a fridge. Wah wah :( But Kent has a wonderful mini fridge that has been doing the job. Also, we are used to the mini-fridge world from living in a hotel for 2 months!

Three days after moving in, our water was shut off. It was a trial to get it turned back on due to Kent's schedule and my lack of car. It ended up taking 3 (not fun) days to get it turned back on.

Then, Kent had to take off a day of his first week of work so that we could go to the DMV. Where we spent the ENTIRE day. We both passed our written tests and got our brand new driver licenses and little Yoshi passed his tests as well and earned himself some shiny new California license plates.

We didn't have internet for the first three weeks so we had to bum off the free McDonald's wifi. I don't know what we would have done without it!

This week the last couple things fell into place. We finally got internet AND our mail key so we are feeling pretty settled now. And it is awesome.

Kent is loving his job. It's been stressful at times, as starting a new job usually is but he is really liking it and is nerding out about a lot of cool stuff he gets to do. I started school this week. I will be taking one online class from USU and then next fall I am going to start taking classes from a university here in California.

Rosamond is treating us well thus far. We live in a very nice, quiet neighborhood that we feel safe in. We've been enjoying our pool and spend a lot of time in there on Kent's days off. Our little frog neighbors love it too. We've found quite a few of those guys swimming around in there. We also found a giant spider that we swiftly dropped a brick on after rescuing from the pool.

Packing up

Kent stretching his legs during our hour and a half construction wait

Unpacking!

Hmmm this looks like the perfect size for our little fridge ;)

We can get used to this kind of sunset

Our tiny little frog friend

Our unwelcome pool guest

Kent ridding the pool of creepy giant spiders