San Diego trip

Our first night in San Diego we met up with my cousin Brady and his wife Christina. They currently live in Old Town. They took us to the best Mexican restaurant. It was a lot of fun catching up with them... they also loaned us their boogy boards! Thanks again guys

We spent one morning at Seaport Village shopping. This shot shows a suspending restaurant on the coast with the bridge to Coronado Island in the background.

We spent a full day on Coronado Island. I loved this place. We grabbed some lunch at a local cafe and browsed through some of the shops. The Hotel was breathtaking. The Hotel Del Coronado is one of the largest and oldest wood hotels and has been marked as a National Historic Landmark (visit http://www.hoteldel.com/). It was absolutely beautiful with its crisp white paint contrasted by the bold red shingles. The island's beaches were the best in San Diego by far!


Chase coasting in on the boogy board

I'm all smiles here... but the previous shots were of me getting tossed around by the waves. I finally got the hang of it and had a few good rides.

The San Diego Temple holds sentimental value to us. This is where we got engaged on March 15, 2006. Here's the cliff note version of the story- I was in San Diego with the dance team and USU men's basketball team for the NCAA tournament. We arrived there on a Wednesday, giving us a free day to play before the first game on Thursday night. We spent the day at the beach. The whole time I was texting Chase, back at home, and bragging about our beach fun. Some of my teammates suggested we drive by the temple that night on our way to dinner. I was thrilled by the idea, since I had never seen the temple before. So a few of us drove over to the temple. We started walking the grounds and taking pictures. I was really missing Chase and wished he was there. I turned to a teammate and said I wished he was there with me. Just then, I turned the corner and... Chase was standing right there! In utter shock, I ran over and gave him a huge hug. His heart was beating so fast and hard. He pulled me onto the grass that overlooked the entire temple. That's where he got down on one knee and popped the question! After the proposal, we drove to mission beach and sat on a blanket on the beach. We drank some bubbly, listened to some music, and watched the waves crash in. We later celebrated by eating at the Cheesecake Factory!

So there you have it. Our engagement story. We couldn't pass up the opportunity of revisiting, and even reinacting, the San Diego Temple experience!