new car + road trip 2of4!!!

we got to raleigh, nc at about 1:30am. at this point we'd been up for like 20 hours. we were staying at my friend jessi's house who i love so much!!!!!!!!!! we met when jon and her boyfriend at the time were in bootcamp and we've keep in touch ever since. she has visited us a few times because she is a flight attendant and can do things like that. i'd never been out to see her, so we planned our trip so that we could stop at her place. when we got there, she had a pilot friend sleeping on the couch and one in her room and had a blow up bed for us on the floor. by the time the pilots left at 6am, jon and i were sleeping on the hard ground with no air left in the mattress. i quickly got into bed with jessi while jon slept on the couch. 

 i know these are horrible out-the-window pictures, but raleigh is so cute!! who knew???? also, how dare you have such green grass in the dead of winter!!

 as you can see, we went to the flying biscuit cafe in the morning. i love being with jessi, she has such a positive outlook on life and she is theeee funniest! she is not lds and she grew up in nauvoo, a mormon town. she very kindly told us that we are her favorite mormon couple (eye roll). she followed up by saying, "no, i know a lot of mormon couples! i see them every once in awhile. when they ask me how i'm doing i say "good. still drinkin' and swearin'."" my goodness does that woman have a mouth on her, but it makes her that much funnier. i really did not want to say goodbye to her, but we had a long day ahead of us...

 here she blows!!! isn't it so cute!!! we stopped to get gas at this teeny tiny gas station where everyone knew each other but us. this is when i started to drive for the first time. it is such a smooth ride and gets up to 83 miles per hour quick! so quick that i didn't even see that cop with his radar! needless to say, that 45 minutes was the only time i drove the whole road trip and yeah. i do have a north carolina speeding ticket i still need to pay off.

our friend aaron is from asheville, NC so we decided to stop in and see his stomping grounds! it reminded me a lot of park city, ut with all the cute little shops and sub zero temperatures. he was so excited to see pictures we sent him. it was fun but would have been much better if he and ashton were there to show us around. we got four little meatballs from the mellow mushroom. (turns out we have one of these in san antonio too!)

 our next stop was the tomato head in knoxville, tn!!!!!! i can not explain to you how cold it was here. it was very difficult for me to pull my pants down (tmi?) to use the restroom and this is why:

ice. along the walls and floor in the bathroom.

knoxville was really cute, i'm glad we stopped there for a couple hours. the square was dead because the weather was so bad. while we were driving, we were getting text messages from family asking how we were doing because that part of the nation was experiencing arctic chills. there were signs all over telling people to stop driving and stay inside. luckily, all was well for us although we were very, very cold.

next stop, nashville!!

travels.

well, i havent updated in awhile. i look back at all my pictures from the past little while, and they are all of jon and i. funny...seeing as how i only see him once a month:)

in september, i went out to see him at camp pendleton in san diego, california. he was at marine combat training for 4 weeks. we got to talk every weekend he was there. it was oh so good to finally see him and get to squeeze his little self!

this is us at ruby's on the pier.

i got there on saturday and he was able to stay at the hotel with me saturday night. we went shopping and we went out to eat for our 6 month anniversary at a nice restaurant. we didnt take very many pictures.

he had to report back sunday afternoon. we were late of course and he was riled up of course but we made it on time and he didnt even get in trouble!

sunday night, amanda and nephi came to the hotel to hang out with me! we went off base to oceanside and ate pizza and ice cream and were really nice to nephi like we always are!!!

monday morning, my dear friend gabes came to hang out with me! i wish i would have gotten pictures of me with my guests. we went out to eat on base and marveled at how bland that place is. and how sweet all the marine boys are for staring at us like we are the first girls they've ever seen <333

this is us at his graduation! not as big of a deal at boot camp graduation was, but now he knows how to combat..........or something.

who looks cuter holding the gun? and who looks like they know what they're doing? annndddd whose guns are bigger?

after graduation, jonathan got on a bus, and i drove to the Vigil's. they took me to the airport where jon was waiting for me :)

he got to take me up to my gate (he, of course, had to flash his military id in order to do so...). we hung out at my gate for a couple hours. finally when it was my time to go...we hugged goodbye....until the plane guy called my name and said it was time for me to get on the plane. i was the last one on.

i came back to utah, and jon went to north carolina for his Marine Occupational Specialty something or other. aka school. so he's in NC for school...

this is him at school. SOMEone makes him stay up late and talk on the phone. funny. poor boy is so sleepy.

lucky me...i got to go visit him again last weekend!! he had 72 hours of free time....so me and his roommates girlfriend decided to surprise our boys and come visit! well...turns out we can't rent a hotel room on base if we arent a marine. so we had to tell them we were coming. but they were still surprised because we told them two weeks before we were coming. it was the longest two weeks ever, but we finally got there!

we got there friday morning. hannah and i met at the airport, and took a taxi to the hotel room. unfortunately, we couldn't check in until jon got there since the room was under his name. so they said that they'd be there at noon. hannah and i waited around until they called....and when they called they told us that their leader inspected the rooms on their floor and they failed. so they had to clean the entire floor again and get it inspected again and hope that they pass. so they said they'd be there at 2. soooo we waited some more....2 o clock came and went....3 o clock came and went.... and finally. FINALLY at 4 o clock they came! as soon as i saw him i forgot how mad at him i was...ha. and we went shopping and ate and checked into our room and tried to nap. hannah and i had been flying all night so we were super tired but we couldnt sleep. finally after filling our bellies, we all fell asleep that night at 8:30.

on saturday we went to the beach! it was sooo beautiful and so warm. the waves. were. HUGE! we got tossed and turned all around, it was so funny. jon's pale skin hasn't seen the light of day in MONTHS, so he was as red as a lobster right where a t shirt would be:)

this is jon and his roommate, brandon. we shared a room with him and his gf, they were really cute and fun! this is them with a washed up blow fish...yummy.

we went out to jacksonville for a night, it was so fun! we saw couples retreat which was supperr cute. i recommend it...even though its a bit dirty...

the rest of the weekend was fun. it was low key, lots of shopping and eating on base. it was a lot prettier than camp pendleton.

finally on monday we had to say goodbye. it was awful. it gets harder saying goodbye every time.

he is the sweetest boy, these pictures dont really do our vacations justice...but its the best i can do. things between him and i couldn't get any better. its pretty cool that he's in the military, i get to go to all these fun places chasing him around...so i'm not complaining one bit!!
last picture. i showed this picture to my dad and he said "Well that's disgusting." i said "What is disgusting?" laughing so hard and he replied "His eyes!" sad!!