its been awhile

SO i should probably say "whats up" to all my fans. ;) well its been a stressful few weeks... jake is in summer school... still... his second session of summer school actually. blah. he'll agree with me there, too. and i'm going to be taking the state property & casualty insurance test tomorrow to get licensed to be an insurance agent. really, i'm just trying to secure my job... as i'm not planning on being here for tooo much longer... we're still in need of my income for a little bit. i had to go to insurance school for two weeks. monday, tuesday, thursday, friday from 4:30-9:30. sucked since i still had to work all day on top of it. and its SO much information to retain. but hey, i did it and graduated. :) i reeeeally just need to pass the test, though. and its stressing me out big time. my company is paying for it.. but if i don't pass on the first try i'll be paying for every time after that. talk about pressure.
we had an awesome fourth of july with jeff, rayni, & aurora coming down from st george and jake's cousin clark and his friend stephanie coming down from slc. went to hoover dam and played in the sun.. watched the best firework show ever in boulder city. man it was great to have some favorite friends here with us. they are seriously the coolest people ever to want to come see us. the oddlings that we are. jk! (right?)
vegas is hot. like the blazing pit of hell.. which it can definitely be comparable to in many other factors besides the temperature. but hey, we're healthy! haha... na, i mean life is crazy right now- yes- but we're doing good. going on a trip to island park, id the weekend of the 31st, so that'll be a FANTASTIC break. jake and i are going to sneak off to yellowstone on saturday to see the sights- it's 35 miles from the cabin we're staying at. so talk about heaven for us..... we'll get to see BUFFALO and MOOSE and OLD FAITHFUL.. everything anyone could ever need in life! so i'm hoping to take a plethora of images to display to the world of cyberness. so stay tuned.

and since everything is better with a picture, i'll share these images with ya'll. (i'm not at home, so i don't have any of the 4th of july or "goings on" pics..) but a lot of you know this gorgeous gal... jena asked me to take some prego pics of her and these are a couple from the session. isn't she beautiful?! she had her baby boy, kade, a couple weeks ago! seriously good looking family. :)

um... photos.

So i have another lovely spattering of images for ya... since I'm just now getting around to showing you the pics of our CA trip, I thought I'd throw in a few more so ya'll can see what we're lookin like these days. First we'll start out with the most recent of Lauren and Jake pics... then a few of the "Gornichec Sibling" photoshoot.... then we'll be on to the second star to the right and straight on till morning............ (what?)..........







Wishing all of the wonderful mothers out there an exceptional Mother's Day!!!

Vacation!

California was SO GREAT. Fantastico!! Went to San Diego where we hung out with my dad and mama ganda for a minute. They worked all weekend, though, so we didn't get to see much of em this trip. :( Both Saturday and Sunday we went to the beach and just laid. It wasn't super warm, so half the time we were bundled in our clothing, but it was still absolutely perfect... just laying there, listening to the repititious rumble of the waves... birds chirping above... children digging in the sand and laughing... all whilst we drifted in and out of a slumber. Awww..... Vonderful.. Monday morning we drove up to Anaheim to our happy spot. DISNEYLAND. It was pretty busy all day, it being spring break and all, but it was just Jacob and me so we had a blast. Soaked it all in. Didn't have to do too much rushing around... just enjoyed the perfection of that place. I mean, sure the lines totally suck, but there's something about it that makes you breath a little easier. I might not completely mean that one day when I'm dragging my own kids around.. making them enjoy themselves damnit! Sorry... jk. Monday night we stayed at the Convention Center Hilton. It was really nice... the bed was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo comfy. Especially after walking around all day long. Tuesday we woke up and went to California Adventure for a few hours and rode all the good rides before we had to come home to this stupid desert. Far cry from Disneyland, that's for sure.. boo. It was a very nice vacation. I love hanging out with Jake. Sometimes we get so caught up in our work and school lives that we're stressed and forget how much fun we can have together. That's why we try to vacation often. :) Alright, well I tried to add a couple pics from the weekend, but apparently the format they're saved in is too big so its not loading. Always bloody something. So I'll add em later. Sorry, I know you were all on the edge of your computer chairs just a waiting for some California images of your two favorite people... CHEERS!

St. George + Photography

Hello my friends... Jake and I popped up to St. George real quicklike this weekend to surprise my mum who's choir had a big concert Saturday night. (sorry SG friends... didn't really tell anyone we were coming.... family trip I guess. Catch ya next time for sure.) We drove up Saturday morning and went hiking in Snow Canyon with my sister and her kids that were up hanging out with my mum for the weekend. (they're from Vegas also) It was a gorgeous day!
For those of you who don't know, I'm finally taking a photography class and learning a ton.. I LOVE it. I have an assignment due tomorrow, so I decided to walk around downtown St. George on Saturday afternoon, after hiking, to shoot some photos of a town with character. (Vegas has a lack of that.... well, classy character anyway..) It's pretty fun to learn more about what I love to do. I'm seriously loving every minute of it.
We're heading to San Diego on Friday! Can't WAIT! Jake's spring break is next week so we're taking Monday and Tuesday off work and making it a long weekend. Going to see my pops and mama ganda and enjoy the beauty of Southern California. We Pricelined a really nice hotel in Anaheim for Monday night. The Convention Center Hilton, I think. We got really lucky.. it was our first time with Priceline. So ya, we're hanging with Disney both Monday and Tuesday so life is good. I'm really just feeling anxious to have some beach sand between my toes...
-----Some shots of the weekend-UNEDITED-----

Lauren.... who?

Er... yes. I'm here. I suck at blogging. I sit in front of a computer all day so I don't feel much like sitting at one once I get home. And I know I could at least write something when I'm at work.. just to keep ya'll updated on our ridiculously crazy and exciting lives... but we all know these suckers are just better with pictures. So I guess I'll post a few. As for an update... welllll, I'm still working.. Jakes still working and going to school. I'm taking a photography class which I'm loving and Bug is getting pretty big. She's so stinkin cute... It's pretty nice weather down here in Las Vegas.. but I wish there were actual parks with big trees and lots of grass where we could go enjoy it. But alas... there isn't really. So I enjoy it from my car. :) Oh, I know something cool... Jake and I had our FIRST anniversary on March 1st! So hell yes for us, right?! We spent it in Zion. Stayed at the Desert Pearl, which is so rad.. Hiked Angel's Landing and it was amazing as always. So ya.. nice trip. And that's about it, I guess. We enjoy our everyday lives.. I mean, apart from the whole "work 40 hours a week or else starve" thing. That kinda sucks and gets old by about Tuesday. But ya know.. such is life! Hope my lovely family and friends are diggin the spring weather and I hope to maybe see you soon??
Oh! How could I forget... my amazing and INSANELY good looking husband turned 25 on February 13th! So yay! This is Bug celebrating a little with a balloon...
















Aw sweet.... she loves him.























Jeff & Rayni had their beautiful baby girl!! This is Aurora Kimberly Dean with {Auntie} Lauren...














And these are Aurie's feet...
























This is little Hailey Sue Casto. She just turned one on Monday. Isn't she beautiful?












Valentine's Day, Jake and I went to Red Rock and hiked around a bit. It was pretty incredible with the snow.









































I apologize for the spatter of random images..

E.T.

So I've been terrible at this blogging thing the last month or so. And I'm still not going to give you a very good entry myself.... I'm going to give you the link to my brother and sister in law's blog as they have documented our most recent brush with extraterrestrial life. Please refer to the link below for the 411:

http://deepthoughts-lak-n-chelle.blogspot.com/2009/01/getting-in-and-living-to-tell-about.html

I'll post soon.

SNOW

In Las Vegas! It was pretty amazing, actually. Biggest storm here since 1979!! They let us go home early from work, although we probably should've left earlier... You see, down here in good ole southern Nevada, they don't have plow trucks or vehicles that drive around and salt the road.. So you just have to kind of make your way through it all. My car handled quite well, and I made it home in one piece.. I LOVED IT actually! Made this place look quite beautiful! :)

Jake took this picture yesterday afternoon- He took Bug out to see how she liked the snow. Don't think she did, really..