Some much needed R&R

Brian and I decided that we would like to take a little trip before Baby is born. We were originally going to go to Washington, D.C. but flights just didn't work out. We decided we'd try for the West coast instead. The Atlanta Braves made the final decision on where exactly we were going. "How is that?" you ask... The Braves were playing in San Francisco on Memorial Day, thus our decision was an easy one! ;0) (You should have seen Brian's smile when their schedule and our schedule matched up so perfectly!!!)

We flew out Sunday, the 24th, and spent the next two days sightseeing San Fransisco, attending the Braves/Giants game (of course), and going to the cemetery where a couple of Brian's extended family members are either buried or honored. (More on that later on.) It was so neat seeing where Brian's Grandma grew up and seeing such a great city.

Alcatraz in the background. Wish we could have worked out a cruise tour to see it, but the timing wasn't right.


We went to Coit Tower. The inside of the tower was completely covered with these murals based on the years of the Depression. So many talented artists were involved and their work was amazing.



Coit Tower with the statue of Christopher Columbus in the foreground.

Here's the "Crookedest" street. There was a HUGE line of cars waiting to drive down it, so we settled with just a picture! :0)

On Memorial Day, we visited Golden Gate National Cemetery where Bri's uncle is buried and his great-uncle's marker is (he was a pilot during the Korean War and was MIA). This cemetery was amazing. It was beautiful and the uniformity of it all was very breathtaking. This picture doesn't do it justice, it was HUGE!

Brian by his Great-uncle, Keith's, marker.

Bri by his Uncle Timmy's grave.

Later that day, Bri and I went to the Braves/Giants game. The AT&T Park is so neat and the location is amazing. We had seats in the upper deck so we could look out onto the bay. It was a beautiful day!

Can you spot me?!?

We went up to Pier 39. Besides finding the best fudge shoppe EVER, we spotted this store. Bri had to have his picture taken in front of it. :0) This store had knives, scissors, pens, etc. made just for left-handed people. It was pretty crazy.

One of the amazing churches in downtown San Fran.

Here are a couple pics from the drive from San Fran to Monterey. We took the scenic route and we weren't disappointed!!

We also made a little stop at one of the Redwood National parks in the area. Bri insisted that I be the one in this pic. He said, "You look small compared to the tree!" Thanks, honey!! :0)

Here are the stats of the largest tree in this forest.

I think if we come out here again, we'll have to make it a camping trip. These trees are absolutely beautiful and the camp sites were great. There were many trails and even a swimming hole there. The kids would LOVE it!!

We took this one for Paige and Austin to see. They thought it was so funny that Daddy was inside the tree!

We made another stop at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. It would definitely be a great place to take the kids! Brian remembers going there when he was a little boy and loved it. The beach was crowded but nice. They had some awesome beach volleyball courts all along the beach and oh, how I wish I could have played!!!

This is what you see when you first go down Cannery Row in Monterey. I loved this place. The buildings were so neat and I loved finding more about the history of the place. Throughout the whole vacation I was reading "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck and it was fun trying to imagine this place in the 1930s.

Down by the Hopkins Marine Station there were so many harbor seals just lounging on the beach. They were so stinky that I thought I was going to puke, but they were fun to walk by every day we were there. :0)

Brian was down at this beach quite a bit when he was studying here for a quarter while we were engaged. It was fun seeing the places he went and some of the things he did while we were away from each other for 7 very long weeks during our engagement! :0)

We went to the Point Sur light station just south of Monterey. You can only visit this light station by guided tour. It was a very interesting tour and I'm very glad that we went. We had to walk up to it and I was a little worried being quite pregnant, but it wasn't bad at all. I wasn't even the only prego there. There was another lady there who was due only 6 days before me. We stopped many times on the way up to discuss some of the history, vegetation, etc. I would recommend this tour to anyone who's visiting the area.

At the top of the lighthouse. The only picture we had taken of the two of us without one of us holding the camera! Can you tell? :0)
We were able to time the tides right and visit the tide pools. Brian had to teach me to look beyond the obvious and then I'd be able to see all the amazing creatures in the tide pools. He was right. I couldn't believe all of the crabs there. They are very smart and fast buggers!! ;0)

Do you see the seal?

I was so proud of myself for spotting these sea stars, which are actually bat stars. Who knew! It took us forever to find some, but I found the first one! ;0) Can you tell I was pretty proud of myself!?!?

We went to the Aquarium and this is when we were really wishing that the kids were with us!! We just kept saying to each other, "Paige and Austin would LOVE this!" These sea otters were so cute! I couldn't believe how playful they were during their feeding session. (This was before the feeding session and they just wanted to lounge around and relax!) :0)

A few of the jellies on exhibit. Much better in person, I must say.

Just a few sardines! These fish are what made Cannery Row what it was in the 1930s!

This little creature is called a weedy seadragon

The seahorse exhibit was so neat. You have to love any species that has the males carry and birth their offspring!! Here's the cousin to the weedy seadragon...the leafy seadragon.

This freshwater otter was so funny. It was trying so hard to find a comfortable sleeping position. This is when it looked like he was yawning. Trust me, otter, I know how you feel!!

The bay at Monterey. Here's a shot of my 30 week belly! It was pretty funny hearing some of the comments that were made to Bri and me when people found out that this was our 3rd baby. It was a whole different world out there when it came to opinions of family size and such.

It was finally warm enough to put on our swimsuits and go to the beach. Too bad it was only warm enough to last about 30 minutes! ;0)

We stayed at the cutest "bungalow-style" inn. The rooms were small, but oh so cute! When we come back, we'll definitely look into staying here again.

Here's another lighthouse, Pt. Pinos. We didn't take to time to go to this one, but it sure was beautiful by this golf course.

On our last day in Monterey, we decided to do the "17-mile drive" and see Pebble Beach golf course and the famous "Lone Cypress" tree. It was a beautiful drive and we couldn't believe the golf courses and houses, actually mansions, along the whole drive.

It took us a few tries to get Bri, myself, AND the Lone Cypress in the same picture! ;0)

This is the best we could do! :0)

This vacation was so much fun and so unbelievably relaxing for Bri and I! It was fun to just spend time together before Baby girl joins our family. By the end of the week we were missing our kids A LOT, though. It was good to come home and see how happy Paige and Austin were to have us back. I have to give a HUGE thank you to my sis, Kandra, for watching the kids for most of the week and also to my parents and brother and SIL for watching them in between our reunion and when Kandra and Brandon watched them. We owe you BIG TIME, especially when we found out about how many pooping accidents Austin had while we were gone! Good news with that, though. We think he finally made a breakthrough and is now officially potty trained. He's had #1 down for quite a while, but he now has #2 down. Thank goodness. It sure was a long 3 months!! :0)

I'm not improving!!

I keep telling myself that I need to go downstairs and update my blog, but I either think about it when I'm doing something else that is needing to be done or else I'm just too tired to go down, sit at the computer and try to think of something clever to say in my post! So I have to apologize! My SIL said that her kids were needing a Paige and Austin fix, so here you go, Em!! :0)

Here are a few things we've been up to! We went to Yellowstone with Brian's parents, even though Brian couldn't go. It was so fun!! The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast. Paige and Austin still talk about the geysers, especially Plume geyser because it surprised our pants off when it went off suddenly when we were walking past it, the bears and the buffalo! Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Paige and Austin LOVED throwing snowballs at us. I love this picture of Austin throwing one at Grandma. He thought it was the funniest thing!!

Here's our little group at the Upper Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.


Paige couldn't get enough of the snow. She was already in it before we even thought of putting her snowpants on. (We seriously didn't think she'd climb through it and play in it like she did.) She didn't mind the cold wetness until she was done playing and then she lost it (maybe that is because she was a little tired!) ;0) We had to strip her down and cover her in a blanket in the car. We didn't have a change of clothes with us, so we put one of Austin's pull-ups on her and then her snowpants until her clothes were somewhat dry. She thought it was so funny that she had to wear a pull-up!

Austin and I at Artist Point in the Grand Canyon. We took about 5 pictures because Austin refused to look at the camera. Luckily we got this pic. He sure is my handsome boy!! That smile melts me every time!!

We went to the grizzly and wolf discovery center in West Yellowstone a couple of times. Paige learned all about the difference between grizzly and black bears. I'm always amazed at how well she remembers things and can think things through so well. I love that she enjoys to learn about new things and makes everything fun! Paige and Austin got a kick out of this wolf. It was as fascinated by Paige and Austin and they were of him! Paige's favorite part of the wolf section was the National Geographic video that they had showing. We could hardly pull her away from it!

Had to put this pic in to show you my belly...kind of. :0) I'm officially in my 3rd trimester now. Crazy!!!

Here's a few Easter pics. I realized afterwards that we didn't take pics Easter Sunday with Paige and Austin all dressed up. Oh well! Just know that they looked cute! :0) Paige and Austin were very excited for Easter this year. Besides loving the Easter bunny, they really loved hearing about Jesus and the Resurrection. It makes me so happy seeing their little testimonies growing every day. They have such innocent, simple faith. I really need to try to be more like them in this aspect!!

We had us three pregos together part of the Easter weekend. It's so fun having a sister and SIL pregnant the same time as me and especially due so close together. Kandra is due Aug. 2nd. I'm due Aug. 7th. Bekah is due Sept. 2nd. Crazy, huh?!? :0)

Pics from our Easter egg hunt!

During General Conference weekend, Brian had his mission reunion. It was fun being there with him and meeting some of his companions and his mission president and wife. It was especially fun to see some of his companions that I knew back at Ricks and BYU. Yes, I actually worked with one of his comps at Ricks and when I met Brian I found out that he was Bri's trainer. Such a small world!!

For family home evening one night, we decided to enjoy some nice Spring weather and go out to the Snake River. The kids were in heaven! They threw rocks into the river THE entire time. They definitely take after their daddy with their love of throwing rocks! :0)

Paige had to climb up on this really big boulder. She is definitely our little Monkey!!! She said that she was the highest of all and when she was so high she could see "all of the land". It was so cute. I have a video of her talking about it, but for some reason I can't get videos to load on blogger. Very frustrating, but oh well!

My sweet little boy!!

Trying to catch up

I really hate it when I get so behind that it's overwhelming thinking about posting anything! Life has been good, but very busy, thus the lack of posts! So, here are the main events that I'm needing to post about...our Big Sky trip, Brian's, Austin's and Paige's birthdays, the results of our ultrasound...is that it? Probably not, but at least it's a starting point! :0)

Brian's birthday was on the 24th of Feb. and he is now 31!! I was actually going to write a lovey, dovey tribute to Brian for his birthday on here, but as you can see, that didn't happen. I'm sure he's happy that I didn't embarrass him on the WorldWide Web!! :0) The kids loved giving him his presents and singing Happy Birthday to him. We didn't give him a big party because we decided to celebrate his b-day with our Big Sky trip. We were able to meet up with 5 other Optometry couples from Ohio State and it was like we just left Ohio recently instead of almost 2 years ago. We just picked up right where we left off. It was so fun meeting Daryn (John's wonderful wife) for the first time!! She fits right in with the group!! :0) The only thing that would have made this trip even better was if I was able to go snowboarding with everyone else!! It was very nice, though, just being able to relax without any kids and no set schedule! Thanks to Brian's parents for watching the kids for us!!

Here's 4 of the 6 couples. The Hardy's and Brian went skiing/snowboarding, while the Passeys, Heningers and I went out to lunch!

Here are the Girls!! Tricia, me, Holly, Krissy, Erin and Daryn. It was so fun seeing these girls again and meeting Daryn! I'm just happy that we all live in the West and we can get together at least once a year at more CE conferences!! Hopefully we'll have more of our Opt girls with us the next time!!

Austin had his birthday on the 8th and Paige had hers on the 19th. I can't believe that Austin is 2 and Paige is 4 now. They're so big! Paige is very imaginative and loves to play games and pretend with Austin. And he's following right in Paige's footsteps. We just love Austin's facial expressions and little sayings. For instance, we went for a little drive this morning to see one of the local campgrounds and the road was a little bumpy to say the least. Austin and Paige had big smiles the whole time and Austin kept saying that the car was so big and bouncy. If anything is a little scary to Austin, he says that it's too big. Crazy boy!! :0) Paige is fascinated by our little baby. She keeps asking how the baby is growing and when and how it will come out. She takes out one of our pregnancy books and turns to the pages that show pictures of the baby and the umbilical cord and informs us how the umbilical cord feeds the baby from the mommy. She never ceases to amaze and entertain us! ;0) Anyway, we decided to celebrate their birthdays together this year. We were hoping to do it on the 14th, but we had to move it to the 21st. It was better that way anyway, because the weather was great and we had G'ma and G'pa N., Aunt Bekah, Uncle Lance, Aunt Kandra, Uncle Brandon, Sydnee and the dogs, Yogi and Ace there to help us celebrate! I have to include the dogs because they are one of Paige and Austin's favorite part of our family's visits! :0) Austin's favorite presents were his Cars umbrella and his Superman/Batman cape. Paige's favorite presents were her Belle dress and her Princess umbrella. She also got a Supergirl/Princess cape that she wears, but the Belle dress takes the cake. If you know Paige, you shouldn't be surprised at all by that!! :0) Speaking of cake, the kids wanted a Dalmation cake this year and I tried my best to make it look at least a little like a dog! Definitely NOT one of my talents, but it's fun to try! :0)

Here are the 3 Pregos (Paige couldn't resist being in the pic!) on the N side of the family! Kandra is due Aug. 2nd, I'm due Aug. 14th (they moved my due date back a week, Ugh!!), and Bekah's due Sept. 2nd. We're gonna keep my mom busy!! :0)

These are the butterfuly cupcakes we made for Paige's birthday snack at preschool. They were a hit!

Another big event for our family this month is that we bought a new vehicle! With the new addition in our family, we needed a bigger car that would actually have enough room for our soon-to-be family of 5. Brian's parents were selling their wonderful and beautiful Tahoe and it was just too good to pass up!! Can I tell you...WE LOVE IT!! :0) The kids do too, but Austin, especially, is having a hard time realizing that it's our car and not Gramma and Popop's car anymore!! ;0) (Pictures will be coming when I think to take a picture of the Tahoe!) :0)

OK, the last major thing that has happened this month is finding out the sex of our baby! There were many family members and friends that said boy, but a few that said girl. My side of the family suspected we would have a girl because of our "every other" tradition. (So far all 12 of the grandkids have been girl, boy, girl, boy, etc. CRAZY!!) Well, the tradition holds out!! We are having a girl. We are very excited and are anxious to see if this girl will be dramatic like Paige and a little more laid-back like Austin. From the ultrasound, I think she has a little bit of an attitude and will be like her big sis, but we'll wait and see! :0) She definitely didn't want us to know what she was since she kept wiggling and crossing her legs. The tech kept saying that Baby Girl was making her work for her money! :0) Does that sound like Paige to you?!? :0) At least Baby Girl gave in a little and finally let us have a peek. (Very much UNLIKE Paige, if you remember!) ;0)

Is that a good enough review of the past month? Hopefully I'll be able to fill in these big events with some "every day" events soon.