San Diego Fun

Busy season is in full swing and luckily for me I get to go to San Diego for a couple weeks throughout March and April. This year I took a weekend before one of the weeks and played in San Diego. The highlights consisted of the San Diego temple, San Diego Zoo, and La Jolla beaches. The temple is absolutely stunning! I highly recommend the zoo! It is definitely a full-day endeavor, but they have so many animals. I kept running through Disney movies and children's songs as I saw the animals - see captions below. La Jolla is beautiful and relaxing! Great diversion from cold Utah and the accounting busy season. Enjoy some of my favorites below!

Capuchin Monkeys (think Night at the Museum) 

When I visited these monkeys there were some regular zoo visitors who the monkeys came over to the glass to visit and perform for. 

I had never seen this animal before - an Okapi. It is related to the Giraffe!

Happy hippo

"Hakuna Matata" - Pumba in real life

Check out those eyes.

I loved this gorilla's expression - laying down with his hand on his forehead. I feel like I can relate to this some days.

"Never smile at a crocodile" - (although this may technically be an alligator)

Mommy and daughter playing on the jungle gym.

The hotel I stayed at had a private beach on the bay. 

Sunday afternoon at La Jolla.

Back to busy season! 

And a Happy New Year

As is the fashion right now I have been looking back at 2013 an all that it entails. For me I keep memories in pictures so here are some from the year. I tried to put them in chronological order, but alas, have had trouble so here they are in no particular order.

BYU basketball with these lovely ladies.

First concert ever. Wonderful!

Sunset in my new home. I am a sucker for sunsets and looking out over the city lights. This was the view from my stake center over the Salt Lake Valley. Good thing Salt Lake has great sunsets like Provo.

Imagine Dragons with my brother. Awesome concert.

Time for a new reliable car. New on the left and old on the right.

Sunset in Long Beach for work.

Lunch for Somers before she got married. Love seeing old friends. 

Ran my first 10k. Don't mind my post race face.

Freshman roommates reunited. Always go to at least a couple football games with this fantastic lady who came back from Taiwan. The only pictures I have of us over all the years are at BYU sporting events. Kindred spirits indeed.

 Trip to Arches. This was my first time past Spanish Fork to Southern Utah. Had a great tour guide with Krista.

Me inside the building I basically lived in for 3+ years. Good years in the Tanner.

Graduated from BYU with my Masters in Accounting. I also passed the CPA exam in November, but didn't take  a picture so this will have to count.

Got to be roommates with some old friends and made some great new ones.

Spending my birthday with some of my favorite people!

Family cruise! 

Spent lots of time with the fam.

Sent this kid (aka brother Gillen) on a mission. We got to talk to him on Christmas which was far and away the best gift this Christmas. Seems like talking to missionaries is always the best!

Stayed the weekend in Long Beach after a work trip and headed out to Catalina Island.

The movie theater and dance hall at Catalina Island. According to the tour this was the first movie theater to be built for movies with sound and it has one of the largest continuous ballrooms in the country/world(?). It was a great little vacation in December.

When I first thought back on 2013 it seemed rather uneventful besides moving and graduating, but I realized that I spent time with people close to me and had lots of new growing experiences.  Here is to whatever 2014 may have in store!

Meanings of Fall

Fall has meant a plethora of different things this year, but here are my top 3.

Number 1 - Concerts

Josh Groban was my first concert ever and definitely set the bar high. My friend Kacy (featured below) and I had decided long ago that the next time Josh came to town we were going. We had been looking forward to this for months. I can't say enough about how good his show was! Obviously he has a fantastic voice, but is also funny, clean, and an all around good entertainer. So good!

Number 2 - Fall Colors

I only took one official trip to see the leaves this year and it happened to be when I was home. Here are just a couple examples of the beautiful colors up Sardine Canyon by the Girls Home. I did get to go up to Park City for a couple of weeks for work and got to see some of those colors before they left as well. Definitely one of my favorite parts of fall.

Number 3 - College Football, more specifically BYU

I  love college football. I am a true-blue cougar fan and have enjoyed watching our team steadily improve, but I am also learning to cheer for other teams in the state. There is nothing quite like a crisp afternoon with you and your closest 65,000 friends cheering on your team.

I guess this is technically Number 1 part 2. I went a little crazy on the concert kick and also went to my second  concert this month.  I went and saw Imagine Dragons up at Weber State with my brother Taylor. They were also fantastic! Definitely a different atmosphere from Josh Groban, but they rocked it and it was a blast! Again I highly recommend it - clean, quality entertainment!

(This picture was before they started into Radioactive as their closing number. That song live is absolute awesomeness! Best part of the show!)

Other than that fall has meant taking the last part of the CPA exam (still waiting to hear on scores), quilting a king-size quilt (massive undertaking - pictures to come when its done), baking more and more ( I love homemade bread), and watching my siblings play lots of soccer. It has been good thus far and I am looking forward to November and December as we get to the heart of the holiday season. Time for more baking, decorating, and Christmas music!

New Adventures

The last couple weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. Exactly one week ago I moved up to Salt Lake. It was definitely a bitter-sweet moment. Provo has been wonderful and has been home for the last 5 years. It was sad to leave people, but it was time to move on. Funny how in order to progress and grow we have to get out of our comfort zone (or sometimes kicked out).  It has also been a time of transition as my friends start going off in different directions, getting married, and having kids. Crazy! Life keeps managing to change whether I want it to or not.

On the plus side there are some things I already like about Salt Lake. First - I love that I only have to walk up one set of stairs to my house. I have my own bedroom that has a whole wall of closets. For someone who has lots of shoes (some say too many) this is absolutely fabulous! Next - I love that my commute this last week was only 30 minutes round trip instead of 1 1/2 hours.  Finally - as silly as it may seem I am excited about the food. Hear me out - I have come to realize that I love to cook and also go out and try new foods. I am setting a goal that every so often (I haven't decided how often), I want to go out and try a new restaurant or cook a new recipe. I'm sure there will be more things I come to love about living in Salt Lake, but this is a pretty good start.

As I try  new things and find some great ones I will share so if you are in the area you can enjoy the deliciousness. This last week at work we went out to lunch and tried a Korean place that is just off 5300 south right next to the freeway on the east side, it was called Cafe Seoul. It was delicious! I tried the beef bulgogi which was very yummy. I also tried sushi for the first time (a cooked roll) and it was quite good as well. It was a good foot in the door to cuisine of the eastern world.

The other place I tried was a gelato place I had been hearing about on the radio. Ever since I got back from Europe I have been craving some good gelato and not very many places sell it, let alone sell good gelato. This place in Salt Lake is called Dolcetti Gelato, it is right on the corner of 9th and 9th. It is the only thing I have had that comes close to what you'll get in Italy. It was delicious! Beware that it is on the pricier side for a dessert, but it is well worth it!

Those are my foodie recommendations for now, but I will keep updating as I find new gems. If anyone has any recommendations let me know!

Welcome to Real Life

Summer is in full swing and some pretty big things have happened.

First is that I graduated from BYU with my Master of Accountancy degree. It was bittersweet - I am glad to be done, but I love BYU and have loved my experience in the school of accountancy.

It is also weird to be saying goodbye to people that I have spent the last few years with.

Me with friends from the ward Alyssa and Hillary

Classic picture with the sign. Alyssa did a great job and got the Y and the Tanner building in the shot as well.

In the Tanner Building (the business building) where I essentially lived my last three years.

About a month after graduation we went on a family cruise to the Caribbean. It will be the last time all of us are together for a while. Gillen left on his mission in June and the twins leave next summer. It was a great time! Great food and entertainment particularly! 

Kids with our servers Aleks from Macedonia and Winston from Jamaica. They were the best! Dinner was one of my favorite parts. Choosing from a wonderful menu every night and having it served to you. Not much better!

The Johnson young men on formal night.

We saw a lot of this. We stopped in Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.

Beautiful sunset.

When we got back we had family pictures taken before we sent Gillen on his mission.

We spent most of June getting this kid ready to go on a mission. He is going to El Salvador via the Guatemalan MTC. He will be an absolutely amazing missionary, but I sure do miss him like crazy!

Since graduation I am working full time for Larson & Company up in Sandy. I am living in Provo for the summer, but will be moving up to Millcreek in August. It has been a little bit of an adjustment from school to working full-time. I really didn't realize how much free time I had in school. It doesn't help that while being full-time I am studying for and taking the CPA exam which sucks up any potential free-time. I am hoping to be done with that in October and then I will feel really done with school. That's all for now!