Aloha, part one...

Patrick and I were lucky enough to spend a week in Hawaii! My parents scored a sweet deal through a travel agent that their friends from the ward knew and they decided to take all their kids along for the trip. It was fun to be in a place that was new to everyone and to have the Portela family all together.

 Here we are on one of our flights. We had a brief layover in LAX.

Enjoying breakfast by the pool.

The hotel we stayed at provided complementary breakfast including bagels, donuts, muffins, danishes, fruit, cereal, miso soup, rice patties, and lots more. They even gave each room a lunchbox so you could fill it up and eat on the beach or have extra snacks for later.

The view from our room. We were on the 15th floor.

We went to a swap meet that was huge. It wrapped around a stadium. After we were done we went wandering over a crosswalk to get a better view.

 

Then we hit up a Japanese noodle place for lunch. Everyone loved it and it was served cafeteria style.

I was really excited about trying my dish. You ate it by taking the noodles from the wooden bowl and dipping them into the sauce in the little bowl.

Along with our noodle dishes we each had some tempura.

Here we are ready to go on our second day. Since it was Mother's Day my mom picked the agenda and we were off to the North Shore area.

At the Dole Plantation.

I had no idea how pineapples grew so I was excited to find out.

On the Pineapple Express where we learned all about pineapples and got to tour the pineapple fields.

The plantation had a large koi pond. We loved watching the fish go crazy as they were eating.

My mom wanted to eat at a shrimp truck so that is what we did. Here we are waiting.

Danielle and Chad eating the delicious shrimp. It was quite messy but good.

Because it was going to take so long to eat my dad bought some barbeque corn for us all to try. After eating lunch Patrick decided that he wanted a little more.

Here we are at the temple. It was beautiful and more amazing than any pictures I've ever seen of it.

We stopped for a little break on the drive back to the hotel.

Happy Anniversary...

Patrick and I have been married for two years! How awesomely amazing is that? We are so excited and look forward to the changes this year brings.

Pinning...

 As part of graduation from nursing school there is a pinning ceremony. It was about a week after graduation. Patrick got to "pin" me and we took lots of pictures afterwards. And you've guessed it, headed to the Sagebrush Cantina to celebrate!

Waiting in line at the pinning ceremony.

 

  

Receiving my nursing pin.

With my nursing friend Brenda.

With  Amanda, Jenn, and Brenda. The four of us sat together and did tons of group projects and papers together.

Graduation...

On Saturday the 28th I graduated from nursing school!  Patrick surprised me with flowers the night before and then on graduation morning the apartment was festively decorated and a delicious chocolate raspberry muffin was waiting for me. I had bought a new dress to wear but with the temperature being less than 40 degrees I opted for tights and the warmest dress clothes I could find. My parents and Taylor joined us for the commencement ceremony. After the chilly ceremony we headed straight to the Sagebrush Cantina for a celebration lunch! Because it was so cold we decided to take pictures in my cap and gown another day.

 

My favorite flowers from Patrick. We enjoyed an early celebration dinner the night before graduation.

 

 The stage with a bagpipe band playing. My favorite OU tradition.

  

Getting the diploma...case!

  

Flowers from Linda.

Ann Arbor...

Patrick and I have talked about visiting Ann Arbor ever since Taylor moved there to go to the University of Michigan in the Fall of 2010. Although Patrick went there every Wednesday for a few months for GMAT classes that didn't really count and we wanted to explore the town. So Saturday I surprised Patrick by taking him there. We woke up early and headed to the farmers market. They have a bit of everything but mostly greens and flowers. We explored shops close by and downtown as well. We bought some rye bread and spices. Then we met up with Taylor and enjoyed lunch at Zingerman's Delicatessen. 

It was amazing. Zingerman's is a must hit place while visiting Ann Arbor. We each picked a sandwich for lunch and split them. They have multiple stores there including the deli we went to, a coffee house, bakery, and roadhouse. The best part is that you can sample anything from their store. Anything at all, the cheese, meat, jam, olive oil, ice cream, and chocolate. So after lunch we wanted to try some things. We started by trying the gellato. Then we each picked a chocolate we wanted to try. We tried a Mexican cinnamon chocolate, dark chocolate bacon bar, and some sort of pistachio goodness.This turned into quite the chocolate sampling experience with the worker trying them with us as she described their unique flavors and made suggestions of what we needed to try.  She had us try a $20 hazelnut chocolate bar followed up by chocolate bar topped with coco nibs. It was awesome! We were so distracted by the fabulous chocolate tasting that we forgot to sample the cheese, bread, and oils next store. While there we drank tons of their unique soda pop and finished up the trip with dessert of course!

We brought the camera but forgot to take pictures. Taylor snapped one of us across from his dorm at the end of our visit.

Freezer Meals...

My mom talked with Patrick and I about making some freezer meals so over General Conference weekend we made some. My mom picked out recipes she found on pinterest and we divided up the shopping list. It was nice that we had all of the meat we needed already in our freezer. When Sunday came we turned on conference and cooked up a storm. We made orange chicken, stuffed peppers, pot roast, meatballs, manicotti and barbeque pork. Patrick cooked the orange chicken and served it over a mix of onions, peppers, and snap peas. We liked it and are excited to try more.