Hollywood

More hiking! This time we decided to hike the Hollywood sign. It is a beautiful view when you get to the top, one direction looking over downtown LA to Catalina Island, the other side overlooking Burbank. It is a cool hike. There is an insane amount of security around the sign, cameras everywhere, so the closest you can get is the trail above the sign. But its still a beautiful view and a great work out!

The cousins

Kathy Hansen, a good friend of the Westons, led the hike up to the top. Little did we know that once we got to the top we would have to do little arm exercises to make sure we got a full body work out. Which was followed by a spiritual thought. Physically and spiritually fed in the Hollywood Hills.

Jeffrey's mom and Kathy

[Hollywood sign fun fact: It was originally built as "Hollywoodland" to show a new housing development in the '20s. After the hype of the housing development declined, the sign was to be removed. They took away the -land part of the sign, much to the disappointment of the Hollywood residents. At this point, local celebrities thought the sign was a staple of the area and decided to buy individual letters to keep the remaining part of the sign up. Just a few years ago they wanted to remove the sign again due to its huge expense. Hugh Hefner, Gene Autry, Alice Cooper, and many other (random) celebrities bought the letters again to keep the sign up.]

The Move

Anyone who has moved before (which is everyone) knows how annoying the whole process is. Packing up in an organized fashion while uncovering things we had no idea we owned (I had a really nice food processor still in the box... along with 4 cake platters and a lazy susan I had no idea I owned) is a hard task. Thankfully my mom was able to come out to Utah and help with the cleaning and organizing. Moms really do have that special touch that makes everything just that much cleaner, that much more organized, and that much prettier. Jeffrey and his cousin Zando helped with the moving and packing of the Budget truck, which was no small task. With the smallest rental truck and a lot of crap in our apartment it really was like tetris trying to fit it all. We were awarded with our last meal: Cafe Rio. Well worth it. It was a long few days, but we're finally here in LA and couldn't be happier.

Also if you ever move I recommend having a large family all within 25 miles. We had the Wards, Bentzs, and Westons all moving us in. What took Jeffrey and I one week was compressed into 6 hours. And our apartment was completely set up by the end of the day.

Ugh. Looking at this still overwhelms me, even though its done.

My little movers. Oh, PS. It was 105 degrees out. A great last impression of the Utah desert.

Zando was carrying down my shoe rack and got it stuck on that big head. It was hilarious watching him try to get it off. I even got a video.

My mom and I were in my car, Zando in this car, and Jeffrey drove the truck.

What better way to celebrate the end of moving day than with a trip to Titos for some real Mexican food. (Please keep in mind I had another bean rice and cheese burrito later that night. And the next afternoon. I missed refried beans!)

3 Things I'll Miss

For the last couple weeks I have had a terrible attitude towards Utah. I just hit a wall with living there and I needed to move. That being said, I didn't want my last post about living in Provo to be a negative one (though I'm well on my way...) so I wanted to share 3 things I'll miss about Utah.




1. Those mountains! It really is incredible how gorgeous Provo is. It sits in this half-basin of beautiful craggy mountains, including Mount Timpanogos which Jeffrey swears is equivalent to the Swiss Alps.

One time I was watching a home BYU game on TV and the announcer from another school said that this is one of the most scenic stadiums in the country. So true.

Also Utah has some of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. Here's one during the BYU v.s Utah game last year.

2. I'll miss all our friends that live in Provo. Jeffrey and I entered Provo as single people and both had really fun groups of friends. It will be sad to not be able to see them everyday.

This is a terrible picture but Jeffrey and I went up to Nicole and Ryan's cabin right before we left. So fun to go to Sundance or Park City whenever and enjoy how beautiful it is.

3. Although our landlord might have been a direct descendant from Satan and though I might have wished bad things upon he and his wife at times, I will miss our apartment. It was our first apartment as a married couple and it was definitely a good one! Right next to BYU, nice and spacious, dirt cheap compared to any apartment in California, it was a very good place to live.

Though we will miss Provo we're definitely excited to start a new chapter in our lives by living in Southern California! Both families are closer and we get to go to the beach! I'll take it.

[Note: I started this post with 10 things I'll miss about Provo... maybe talk to me in a year and I will have thought of 7 more.]