Babies, Graduation, Employment, and California

I have so many good explanations as to why I haven't posted in over two months.  I won't go into all of them, but just know that they're definitely real.  In the meantime, however, so much has happened! I don't even know where to begin, but here it goes anyway (don't mind that this will be completely out of order, I'm a little bit scatterbrained lately).

First of all, meet my newest nephew Daniel Joseph Drake! Isn't he just an angel? I can't wait to go home this June to meet him!  I've got to hold this sweet little baby.

Proud Papa, baby Daniel, Emily, and first time big brother Clark!

Other big news - Johnny and I graduated from BYU on April 20th!  He got a bachelor's of arts in secondary education, English teaching.  I got a bachelor's of science in family life with a human development emphasis and a minor in gerontology.  It's basically the weirdest thing in the world that we are done with college, but we're enjoying post-college life so far.  Here's a million pictures that are probably basically the same.

We were so happy to have my parents come out for graduation.  They stayed with us for a whole week!  It was basically a dream come true for me.  It was quite the busy week.  We did a lot of moving, cleaning, taking finals, and having fun with family.  Margo, Daren, Mom, Dad, Johnny and I also went to the Bountiful Temple (where we were married a year ago) and it was a very sweet experience. 

We also moved to Layton!  Provo will always hold a special place in our hearts and it was so great for the time we were there, but we were excited to try something different.  Johnny's grandma (Sarah Allred - funny, right?) has a farm house in Layton right down the street from Margo and Daren.  She is currently living with her children so she's letting Johnny and me stay in her place.  How nice is she?  It's a super old and super cute little farm house and I absolutely love it!  I was so excited that my parents got to check it out before they went back to Arkansas.  We're so grateful for this opportunity to live close to Margo and Daren and to save a lot of rent money!  

Isn't our little yellow farm house so cute? 

Also here's finally some pictures of our place in Orem.  This was our first place to live together and we definitely loved it.  

We were just basement dwellers in this house here.

Our last cousins dinner.  We already miss these people!

Sorry to do this but there is definitely more to write about.  The day after graduation, Johnny and I drove to Northern California for a graduation/1-year anniversary celebration!  We got to see some of the places that Johnny served on his mission and we also met a lot of people from that time.  One family let us stay at their house for a couple of nights and treated us like royalty (thank you Bobergs!).  After our stay there in Loomis, we drove to San Francisco for our first anniversary! Isn't it crazy that a year has gone by already?  I promise this whole marriage thing just gets better and better with time!  Loving it.  

Get this - while in San Francisco for our anniversary, Johnny and I each got job offers within an hour of each other!  He is the newest English teacher at Fremont High School in Plain City, Utah.  Everyone told us it takes months to get a teaching job after graduation, but Johnny managed to do it on the first business day after he graduated!  He actually had this interview (his first and only) the morning of our graduation, then had to race back to Provo in time to walk with me.  Apparently they loved him almost as much as I do:)  I got a job at the place I really wanted to work, Legacy Village of Layton, as a recreation assistant.  It is a continuing care senior living community that offers retirement living, assisted living, memory care (for Alzheimer's), and rehab services.  I'll basically work in all of the areas and I think it will be part-time.  I had my 3rd day today and I love it so far!  Johnny is working at Durk's Plumbing in Layton for the summer and that's going well too.  

This is us right after we found out we had grown-up jobs.  So happy!

In San Francisco we did lots of fun things.  We checked out Pier 39 and lots of the other piers, Ghirardelli Square, Boudin at the Wharf, the Golden Gate Bridge, and some of downtown.  Here's more pictures!

After our visit in San Francisco, we drove up the coast to a  little town called Fort Bragg.  The coast was absolutely beautiful! In Fort Bragg we stopped at Mackerricher Beach State Park to check out the tide pools.  Everything was so beautiful!  From there we drove through the redwood forest and it was gorgeous. Once again, here's lots more pictures.

We got there just in time for the seal birthing season!

Tide pool searches.

A ring for every year of its life.

Oh, also on our way to San Francisco we stopped by the Jelly Belly Factory for a nice tour and some free samples (not to mention a huge bag of belly flops).

That's it! Thanks for making it through the longest blog post ever.  I think that pretty much gets us up to speed on our lives at this point.