Mt. Timpanogas

Last week three of my cousins and I hiked the formidable Mt. Timpanogas. We left at midnight and hiked for over 8 hours. It was exhausting but I now count it among the coolest experiences I have ever had. We all got to bond and see each other in a whole new light and it was awesome. It was also very beautiful and I can't wait to do it again!

Harry Potter Premier

I forgot to mention that we went with Mike and Clarissa to the midnight showing of Harry Potter 6. It was crazy good and if you haven't seen it yet you should go buy your ticket now. We dressed up which was fun. I was Ginny and Ionut was Harry. Clarissa was Hermione and Mike was Ron. There weren't very many people dressed up, but we had a laugh.

Tagged: Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley

Summer fun

Okay, so we have done a million things in the last two weeks but I will try to summarize. To start with, our friend Teo from Romania came to visit for a month and having her was awesome. She was with us in all of the following adventures. First we all went to a family reunion in Beaver with the family that Ionut lived with in Arizona. We had a whole ranch and the reunion was with the extended family, so there were hundreds of people. It was loads of fun! Next we drove to San Diego and on sunday the family got together and celebrated Buck's birthday. It was really nince and my mom even made chocolate roll (Buck's favorite cake). The next few days we filled with beach beautifulness and other such goodies. Then we decided to play tourist for few days and drove to San Francisco. We had an amazing time. It was so nice to just relax and visit different sites without worrying about work or anything else. First we walked across the golden gate bridge, and once we finally made it across the girls decided to have the boys run back across, get the cars, and pick us up because that thing is long! Next we went to fishermen's warf and toured around and visited the aquarium and ate delicious clam chowder in bread bowls. Then we walked over to Ghiradelli square (where we did not eat any chocolate- weird right?) and from there over to China town. It was like we walked into a different country. Very neat! After that we went to a restaurant and then home. Very fun and very looong day. Excersize is great and we got lots of it. The next day was a little more relaxed and we started it by going to the Oakland temple. It was stunning and the grounds were the nicest I've ever seen. Then we went to a science museum (for the boys) and that was really cool too. Next we went on a cruise to Alcatraz and it was awesome. We all got so interested in the story that we went home and rented a movie called Escape from Alzatraz. It was old, but very interesting and I definitely recommend it. After the cruise we went to the rainforest cafe and that concluded our little trip. The next day we drove back to San Diego and the day after that we made our way back up to Provo. Now we are nice and pooped out and ready to get back into a routine. But the trip was amazing and I'll never forget it! Hoorah for summer and vacations!

Chillin with the Elephants at the Rainforest Cafe

Trying to fit in with the Gorillas

Alcatraz

If you go to San Francisco dress warm (yes-even in the summer)

Academy of science museum. I wanted a picture with the Lion King

The beautiful Oakland temple

Ghirardelli Square

Braving the wind at the Golden Gate Bridge

Immigration woes

So this week Ionut and I have had to do a lot of research on immigration and I still have lots of questions. The problem is that the U.S. allows dual citizenship but Romania doesn't. That means that when the time comes Ionut is going to have to choose between becoming American and getting the benefits that come with it, or keeping the citizenship of his home land and not having full benefits here. Originally we were going to have him keep his Romanian citizenship and just be a legal resident here, but now there's another situation to factor in. Ionut's sister, Alina, is the only one in her family who hasn't moved to America, and the poor girl is all alone. Of course she wants to reunite with her family here, which is what we want too, but we can only help her if Ionut is an American citizen. Even then the waiting list is a few years because over 1.5 million siblings are on the waiting list, while only 65,000 can come each year. I understand that the law needs to be strict, but right now it just stinks. It seems like families should be able to reunite without so much hassle. Ugh. Other than that life is great. We're counting down the days to our visit in San Diego and can't wait to see everyone.
Sidenote: Even if boys say they're not interested in things like blogs, I think secretly they are. I showed Ionut ours and because he didn't like our background, we had to spend an hour looking through hundreds of them so we could find one we agreed on. He'll probably never see the blog again, but he still wanted to make sure that it represented both of us. Boys...

Doing my best to look bad on my ATV

Ionut taking a little nap on a tree

We tried to get the lake in the background but only semi succeeded

Yep, these pictures pretty well sum up our wedding in a nutshell

Anniversary!

Tomorrow is mine and Ionut's 2 month anniversary and I'm super excited. It seems like such a short amount of time, but I love any excuse to celebrate, so celebrate we will! We're going to get some Cafe Rio (our favorite) and go eat it at the park. Then, as if that wasn't enough we are going to the dollar theatre, which will make the day complete. We live a pretty lux life :)