Summer Update!

Well, it is officially September so I suppose that means summer is over. I never really noticed it was here! I guess it really flew by fast because the second we moved here I started school and Ricardo started working A LOT. I had a 10 day break between semesters last week and that was the first time I really noticed how hot it gets here! Turns out I have led a very sheltered life since arriving in Ft. Lauderdale. Ricardo didn't get a 10 day vacation from work so he is still more sheltered than me. :)

The BIG news of late is that my little brother came home from his mission! Elder Wood is no longer Elder Wood. He came home August 11th and my parents immediately whisked him away on a family vacation to Maryland to visit my sister and her family. I had finals that week so we sadly missed the reunion, but luckily everyone is coming home for Christmas! We were able to drive up to Orlando when they got home and be there for his homecoming talk, which was really fun. That weekend also happened to be our one-year anniversary! We were excited to be able to go to the temple that morning and we actually saw a couple who were getting married that day. I told them they had made a perfect choice. :) We spent the rest of the day with my family and also ate some year-old wedding cake that my mom saved for us. Luckily my dad also made us a delicious cheesecake, so the old cake wasn't all we had to choose from! Can't believe a year has gone by already!

Ricardo had to go home to work after the weekend was over, but I stayed in Orlando until Tuesday to hang out with my family a little more, which was fun. It's still a little crazy that Trent is actually home! I'm glad I was able to see him before he went off to BYU! When I got back to Ft. Lauderdale I spent my time catching up on all of the errands we've been postponing since we moved here. Leaving home at 7:30 a.m. and getting home at 9 p.m. every day hasn't left us much room for errand running! Luckily I was able to catch up on life last week, so we finally have our car registered in Florida, etc. It's been a long time coming!

Finally, the culmination of all the excitement was...my birthday! I officially feel OLD. There's something about 23 that seems worlds apart from 22. Oh well, I guess there is no turning back now! My birthday was great!! Ricardo woke up early to make me a delicious breakfast and then he had to go to work, so I spent the morning reading (for fun! it was great!) and lazing around the house. When he got off in the afternoon we went to the farmer's market that's nearby. They have good produce for cheap, including more obscure stuff, which is nice. We got many great treats, including my favorite: starfruit! The farmer's market is in conjunction with a flea market (a very crazy one...people literally sell toilet paper) and a luxury car museum. The car museum part was a pleasant surprise for Ricardo. He thought it was his birthday when we found it! There's also a drive-in movie theater too, but we haven't gone there yet! Needless to say, we had quite the experience at this place and then headed off to the beach! This was the first time going together since we moved here, so it was quite momentous. We found out that Ft. Lauderdale really is known for its beaches for a reason! It was beautiful and we had a great time. THEN...we went home, where we made homemade sushi! I have to say that our sushi turned out REALLY well. That's probably more thanks to Ricardo than to me, but I did definitely help in the eating process. We are excited to make more soon. We finished off the night with cake and The Princess and the Frog, which we hadn't seen yet! It was a perfect birthday!

My cute husband at the beach.