ANTI + SOPHIA ARE HERE!

My mom, my aunt Anti, and cousin Sophia are here for the week so I've been playing tour guide showing them around! 

Yesterday we walked around Temple Square, went in the Tabernacle, and took the tour to the top of the Conference Center to see the view of downtown. I always love the view of the city from the gardens up top. The running water in the rooftop garden and seeing the hustle and bustle of the city below is a fun little mix.

Today I think we're going to the Great Salt Lake after I get off work, and then we go to Riverdance tonight at the Eccles theater at 7:30pm! I'm so excited! I've loved Riverdance ever since I discovered the VHS tape of it at my Grandma's house when I was about 3. I would watch it on repeat over and over and admire all the dancers. I've seen it live once before when I was 18 when they came through on tour to Modesto, California so I'm excited to see it again! And I'm excited to see it in the lovely new Eccles theatre! 

Photos of all that tomorrow. :)

DNA RESULTS ARE IN!

So I bought myself an Ancestry DNA kit because how fun is it to find out what you really are! I got my results back on New Year's Eve but realized I never shared the results here!

I grew up my whole life answering the question "what are you?" with the same answer every time. "I'm like half Spanish, half German." I mean my mom's side migrated to the US from Spain hundreds of years ago, and my dad's side has a lot of German, Scottish, etc so it was the easiest answer; especially when you're a kid.

Now that I got my results back, I laugh because despite having the most German last name possible, I'm hardly German at all! Who knew all those little charts I made throughout elementary school were so inaccurate!

It's fun to see the actual percentage break down of everything that makes up my DNA and all the little surprises to it! I never knew I was so Irish/Scottish/British! Or so Native American for that matter.

It's crazy the different results each sibling can get! Granted my brother David has a different dad, but his came back with 55% Great Britain which seems like so much! I can't wait until the rest of my siblings and parents get their results in to compare! 

It's just so fun to finally find out what composes your DNA. Now I know!

THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS.

My dear cousin, Oscar, passed away on Sunday. He was young, happy, full of life, and left our family way too soon. It made me really realize just how important my family is to me, and just how fragile life can truly be. Oscar was only 46 years old, and I think we all go through life assuming everyone will be here with us until they're old and grey, but sometimes that isn't what happens. 

The older I get, the more I realize that my family and friends are the only things that truly matter in this life. Everything else that I think is important in the moment falls completely short in comparison. Our relationships with our loved ones, and our family bonds are really all that matter in this life, because it's all we take with us to the next life, whatever you believe that may be. 

I love my family! I admire each one of them and the positive impact they've had on my life. My Espinoza family and Schultz family are all so funny and happy, and I feel so lucky to have been born into such a good bunch of people. 

I always make it a point to take a family group picture anytime a lot of us are together. No matter how much push back I get in the moment for trying to stop conversations, round kids up, and gather this many people at once, I won't stop doing it because these are the photos that make my heart the happiest, and these are the photos I will look back on when I'm older and be so glad we took it!

Hold your family tight. Let go of grudges quickly. Don't waste time not loving your family and friends with the capacity of your whole heart. Nothing else really matters anyway when you stop and think about it.


If you feel like donating, or praying, or sending happy thoughts to his children, his siblings, and his Mom, everything helps.
All donations will go towards helping his family pay off medical bills, funeral costs, picking up the pieces, etc. 

Oscar's Go Fund Me Link: gofundme.com/oscars-medical-fund

LABOR DAY WEEKEND IN LA!

I went to my aunt and uncle's house in Southern California for Labor Day Weekend! It was a relaxing weekend to escape to. We went to the beach, collected sea glass in the sand, went to the Oxnard Farmer's Market by the harbor, went boogyboarding, viewed model homes in Ventura, ate the yummiest food, played games, and just relaxed together.

My mama + I spent some time looking for sea glass together on the beach and we found some really fun pieces! I found a yellow one which my aunt said is really rare! She said she's been looking for seaglass for years but she has never found a yellow one before. I guess the ocean just knew I love yellow!

Anti + Greg took us up to the Father Serra Cross in Ventura which was a really pretty lookout over the coastline in both directions! There were a few couples at the top sitting in camping chairs or on the grass just looking out over the views which seemed like such a perfect way to spend a morning. I'm just a little romantic at heart, I suppose.

My elote from the Oxnard Farmer's Market! How smart is this! All the delicious things about elote without the mess! Elote in a cup is my new favorite thing. They just take one of those electric carving knifes and cut all the corn off of one grilled cob and put all the ingredients on top. This photo was after I stirred it all around. :)

I really love Southern California and each time I come back to Salt Lake City, I get a little more serious about moving there. This time I've been looking into buying a home/condo near where my Aunt and Uncle live. I just love that area and I love the beach! And I was so pleasantly surprised to find that I can buy a nice condo really close to the ocean for less than 300k. Who knew I could have been living near the beach this whole time! haha

Here's to saving all my pennies for the next few months. :)

A TRIP TO THE MOUNTAINS

I meant to post this a while ago but I always seem to step away from blog posts thinking I'll come back and perfect them later but that rarely happens. I seemed to just forget about this one so it sat in my draft posts for a while.

 This little trip was from August 8th when my brother David and his family, and my mom were in town. They were all here together for about 2 weeks and it was such a fun time! I don't really realize just how much I miss my family, and miss living near my family until we're back together again.

We went on hikes, went to the waterpark a few times, and all played black jack together just about every night. (Black jack is way more addicting than I remembered it being!) 

On this day, it was my mom's last day in Utah before she had to head back to start her school year so we wanted to do something fun as a last little hoorah. We packed a picnic and headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Albion Basin where we rented a day campsite for the evening. My poor family though, none of them had been there before so I really led them astray when I said it would be just a little cooler than it was in the city. Oh how wrong I was! I had just been up there a couple days before and it was still warm and pleasant, but for some reason, this evening got super chilly as soon as the sun started setting! Luckily I had some extra sweaters in the trunk of my car for whoever needed one. We also built a fire so that was the true lifesaver!

Jacob is the silliest boy but I made him hold still for a few seconds so I could take some more serious portraits of him.

CAPITOLA, CA

Recently, I went home to California for just about 3 weeks. My mom had surgery on March 31st so I went home to stay with her for a bit as she recovered. My obvious main goal of going home was to just be there to help her as she recovered, but I also wanted to do a few things I was missing while living in Utah. (Yosemite, going to the beach, etc.)

I really love living in Salt Lake City but I find that no matter what, a huge part of my heart will forever remain in California. I'm really enjoying my life here in SLC but I know eventually I will want to move back to California, preferably Southern California. Southern California always calls out to me so hopefully in the near future I can figure out a good enough plan to make that actually work. I'll probably stay in Salt Lake City another year or two before moving on to my next adventure.

One day while I was home, I was sewing a skirt, and my mama was watching tv in the family room and I mentioned that I wanted to go to the beach. Before I knew it she was looking up little hotels in different beach towns for that night and I started packing. I think that's something I admire about my mom. She's like me in the sense of spontaneity. One minute we're being content little lazy kids and the next we're getting ready to go to the beach that evening.

We ended up finding the cutest little hotel in Capitola to stay that night.

I tend to be an early riser on vacations so I woke up early before the sun so I could watch the sunrise on the beach. It was so peaceful to be out there before the crowds of people, and watch the other early morning people enjoy the sunrise. There were a group of surfers out on the water and it was so relaxing to just watch them paddle around and chit chat out on the water on their boards. I've never surfed but I can appreciate the skill and beauty in it.

We found a cute little candy store next to our hotel. I'm not even that crazy about taffy but I love the idea of taffy/candy shops.

Lunch on the beach from Pizza My Heart. I finally bought myself a shirt this time. I feel like I used to always see everyone at my highschool wear Pizza My Heart shirts. I'm like 7 years late, but I'm finally cool like those highschool kids! :)