Peeling Faces, Aston Martins, and Ocean-ridden Sunglasses

Steve and I finally made it out to the Sunshine State of California!!! By the way, I left my heart there, and I'm pretty sure it'll be waiting there for me during this next interim period until we move out there next year (fingers crossed!). Last Monday Steve's summer culminated with him facing the OAT test he had been studying for alllllll summer long and basically threw everything the OAT fed him back in it's face haha. He was a happy boy :) The rest of the day, he kept turning to me out of nowhere with this grin on his face and would yell his score and that he was done!!! Or ask me who isn't studying for the OAT right now? HE WASN'T! Ha he's so cute....yay Steve. His chosen dinner of his dreams to celebrate was going to get a Hot-and-Ready. Yup. $5 pizza from Little Caesars. I think he was just anticipating our upcoming California trip and saw the green in my eyes when we would talk about it....smart man.

So the next day we took off. Steve refuses to let me drive on road trips for reasons he's told me that I'm not sure I believe....mostly because he's laughing and I'm laughing while he's explaining himself because I think we both know those aren't the real reasons, but hey, I accept it! I learned some new games on his iPhone, ate some In-N-Out (which is not that amazing P.S.), played the game 900 million questions (a game consisting of 900 million 'what-ifs' and 'who is your favorite...' and 'who would you rather...'), danced to my iPod, and laughed a lot. Then......

Santa Monica Pier!!!

complete with frozen yogurt, strawberry compote, and powdered sugar atop greasy funnel cake

 and a walk along the pier.

that night we ate at Katana, this place along Sunset Blvd. where everybody's clothes are worth more than our lives and the food was delicious yet overpriced (well, almost, because of how good it was), and we watched and listened to (probably the best part) the Aston Martins and ferraris driving by beneath the chic outside patio we ate on
We stayed at Steve's Uncle Dave's place and his sweet wife Michelle cooked us breakfast, then headed out to meet with the dean of admissions to SCCO, the Optometry school Steve wants to attend next year. She literally told him he has the GPA and OAT score, and she doesn't see why he wouldn't be one of the first they would want to interview :)
Then headed to an Angel's game in their awesome stadium,
then THE BEACH!!! Love Love Love.
He likes to pick me random flowers
Then had his revenge via bonfire on the plethora of study materials for the OAT he just took. Kinda like burning all the love letters and presents a boy gave you after he breaks your heart.
Bonfire at sunset at Huntington Beach mmmmmmmmm......
The next day was devoted to Newport Beach, again, Love Love Love. Notice no sunglasses? Yeah, the ocean ate them :(
Then stopped in Vegas after a tearful departure and had some AMAZING hummus...who would have thought? We're both addicted now.

Steve's done with OAT so we finally have plans to go climbing until it gets cold (once our sunburns fade and skin stops peeling!), and I get my biking partner back! I've been going alone the past few months, and I'm excited to introduce him to my recent favorite 36-mile trail here in Provo. It's not mountain biking, but it's still fun. Life continues...