Anniversaries Past

1st Anniversary: Disneyland
Things I remember: Being so nervous to ask for time off work my second week working; having to wait FOREVER to catch the shuttle from our hotel to D-Land; my first visit to CA Adventure--we LOVED Soarin' Over California; It's A Small World was closed.

2nd Anniversary: Half Moon Bay
Things I remember: We drove down Saturday morning and spent the day at Pigeon Point Lighthouse and watching the seals on the shore; we ate somewhere weird for dinner--I don't remember why it was weird, but I remember we were laughing at something a lot; when we checked into our hotel they only had smoking rooms left and the heater was broken--the lady at the front desk gave us a Glade Candle to cure both those problems; the next day we spent watching surfers.

3rd Anniversary: Napa Hot Air Balloon Ride
Things I remember: Blake totally surprised me with this one; we had to wake up super early to drive up to Napa and be there on time; watching the balloons get blown up is pretty incredible; when we took off I felt like what a balloon looks like when you let go of it and it flies off--it is just so smooth and peaceful; there are some really, really big houses in Napa; we got so close to some of the vineyards I thought I'd be able to reach my hand out and touch the vines; landing is scary and a little bumpy; free breakfast was included with our ride; we spent the rest of the day driving around Napa and then went to Point Reyes to watch the whale migration; to get down to the lighthouse to watch the whales, there was a lot of stairs.


4th Anniversary: Cliff House
Things I remember: We had new baby Max and didn't want to go away anywhere; I picked a fancy dinner at Cliff House--we'd always wanted to go; it was rainy; we decided we weren't dressed fancy enough for the real restaurant and ate at the Bistro; it was really, really good.

5th Anniversary: Hearst Castle
Things I remember: When we got there, Blake had to negotiate us some tickets since we didn't pre-buy any; the house was HUGE; the dining hall in the Harry Potter movies was based off one of the rooms in the main house; we couldn't bring our stroller, but they had baby backpacks we could use--I think Max spent maybe 2 minutes in it and Blake carried it the rest of the time; they had a little toy room where Max could play; when we drove home, we decided to drive up the 1--I got a little car sick.

6th Anniversary: Hornblower Dinner Cruise
Things I remember: We were running late and almost missed the boat; trying to take some pictures before our camera died; making Blake buy the super expensive picture of us by the Hornblower life preserver in case the pictures on our camera didn't work out; hitting the dance floor.

7th Anniversary: Staycation and Wicked
Things I remember: Actually, I didn't remember what we did last year. I had to look on the blog. Sad? But I do remember that the fun plans that fell through were renting a little beach house in Bodega Bay for the weekend.

Can't wait for #8!

A Simple Comparison

Max: thick, wiry hair
Jack: thin, baby fine hair

Max: right-handed
Jack: still-trying-to-decide-handed

Max: daredevil
Jack: cautious

Max: will try any food at least once and mostly likes everything
Jack: super picky eater

Max: can watch movies all day
Jack: can watch movies for maybe 20 minutes

Max: good sleeper
Jack: not-so-good sleeper

Max: can have loads and loads of food shoveled in his mouth and he'll just keep fitting it in there somewhere
Jack: has to completely finish chewing and swallowing before he'll allow another piece of food in his mouth

Max: not ticklish
Jack: very ticklish
I'm getting so excited to see how another brother fits in with these two dirty blonde, blue eyed, very silly boys!

There's No Place Like Home

Our Relief Society Activity this month was based on the scripture found in Luke 10:27 and D&C 59:5 both of which basically say, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, might, mind, and strength." And since the scripture happens to correspond perfectly with the Wizard of Oz a theme was born. We had mini classes about building strength--literally a workout, keeping your mind sharp and being a life-long learner, and then made fleece quilts to donate to a local homeless shelter to exercise our hearts. Plus there were super, super cute paintings of Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion on the doors that the classes were held in, plus a yellow brick road to follow from room to room. Everyone ended up in the Emerald City to feast on green food after a successful journey. The night went absolutely perfect and my only regret is not taking a picture of the Emerald City where sweet Hillary spent the day with me blowing up lots and lots of green balloons, hanging green twinkle lights, and moving tables all around. I have one very, very fabulous ward!

Yucky Water

Today after drinking the sacrament water, Jack announced to the rest of the congregation in his not-so-reverent voice, "Dat's yucky water!" The guy across the aisle from us whispered back, "Thanks for the heads up, buddy." Yes, thank you Jack. Thank you.

The Big Move

Since our time in San Francisco is slowly, yet so quickly, coming to a close, I thought I'd probably start doing some reminiscing on the blog if I feel so inclined. You know, for posterity's sake. So, to start the trip down memory lane, it was exactly seven years ago last week (Thursday, January 3, 2003) that we packed up our little Wymount apartment ready to begin on our big city adventure. And when I say "we" I mostly mean my parents packed up the place. Blake and I were gone getting the U-haul.
Thursday night we drove up to Bountiful to stay the night, then Friday morning we started the long drive to San Francisco. Blake and I drove the U-haul and towed our car, and my parents followed us in their car. Our U-haul only had a radio, so during the barren Nevada drive, my parents shared their music with us over the walkie-talkies. A road trip just isn't a road trip without some John Denver! We had planned on staying the night somewhere near Oakland and then driving into the city the next day. When we got to the Carquinez Bridge, we thought we were crossing the Bay Bridge and had gone too far. We ended up staying the night in Emeryville--with a view of the REAL Bay Bridge.
The next morning, the four of us loaded into my parents car and drove into the big city to find an apartment.
Blake had done a little research on Craiglist and we knew we wanted to live near the school and church, but other than that, we knew nothing. Our plan of attack was to call a couple places and then walk around the city looking for "For Rent" signs and then call the number. Our only criteria, besides a clean, one-bedroom, was that we needed to be able to move in that day. Minor details...
We went to several open houses and almost got a place on Van Ness and Filbert. It was nice, but now that I actually know the area, the apartment would have been awful for us--busy street, not within walking distance from school, and limited street parking. Needless to say, it was a long, long, long day.
But finally, about two hours after this picture above was taken, the manager of the building just across the street from this one called us to come look at an apartment and it was perfect for us. A block away from the church (yay for parking!), good price, a large outdoor patio, and we could move in that day! Hooray! We celebrated by going to eat at Pasta Pomodoro while they checked our credit.
After we knew it was a done deal, we drove back to our hotel in Emeryville to pick up the U-haul. I remember Blake was a pro driving the U-haul through the San Francisco streets. I however, was not. At one point I needed to move the car out of the church parking lot and just drive it around the block. I turned left out of the parking lot, right at the first light, then right again onto Franklin--going the wrong way on one of the busiest one-way streets in the city. A man jumped out and stopped traffic so I could pull into a driveway and turn around. Welcome to the big city, Addi--I didn't drive again for at least six months. We spent the rest of the evening unpacking.

The next morning my parents left for home and Blake and I started our new San Francisco life. Our new house ended up being close to the bus that took me to work and close to the school. Cable was included and there was laundry in the building. I remember we had an ice box in the fridge that kept everything frozen, except ice cream. So, when we bought ice cream we would eat the entire carton. And once, there was a leak from the unit above us that drenched our apartment. It was so bad we had little mushrooms grow in the carpet. We lived in that apartment for two years and five months and it was perfect.

Two Boys

So, a couple months ago Max and Jack thought it was pretty funny to pee while they were in the bathtub. Super funny, right? So, to wash them off (and teach them a lesson) we turned the shower on them. Unfortunately, Max thought it was fabulous, but it sure worked on Jack. Actually, it worked too well. Ever since then, Jack has been scared to death to get in the bathtub. I mean he screamed bloody murder when I put him in, clinged to my neck, all while trying to climb out. It was really such an ordeal that usually required two people to give this little guy a bath. The only thing that could coax him in was bubbles. This boy loves to "pop! pop! pop!" bubbles. Well, I ran out of bubbles. So tonight, while only Max was taking a bath and Jack and I were putting toys away in the boys room, Max yelled to come and see what he had done. Max had made his own bubbles by dumping the entire bottle of soap and the entire bottle of shampoo in the bathtub so Jack would get in and play with him. He is a nice boy.

On another bathtub note, to get the boys to lay down and wash their hair, I say something like, "I need two boys to lay down and get their hair wet." Well, now Jack will say to Max, "Let's do two boys! Two boys! Two boys!" then they'll both lay down and laugh and laugh and laugh. Oh how I love my two boys.

Greatest Snow on Earth

The best thing about Utah at Christmas has got to be the snow, right? Well, as long as it's just while we're visiting and Grandpa takes care of the shoveling and snow blowing. :) This year Grandpa was lucky enough to have a little shoveling helper. And after they were done shoveling, Grandpa gave Max a ride on the sled and they got to test out the snow ball throwers the boys got for Christmas.
Poor Max fell off the sled and couldn't get back up. I love it!
The snow ball bulls-eye for the day went to Grandpa. The wind up:
And the direct hit:
Grandpa and Max were out there FOREVER! Poor Grandpa was chilled to the bone and kept asking Max if he was getting cold, but Max kept saying he was just perfect and played and played and played. I guess when you're having so much fun you don't even notice that ice chunks are forming on your gloves.
After we saw how much fun Grandpa and Max had in the snow, we planned a sledding trip for the entire family (except Tony who must have been off wooing some girl!). Before we headed to the hills, Max gave Jack a lesson on using the snow ball throwers. Jack loved it. But please, what's not to love?

Then we hit the hills. All the boys LOVED it. Even Jack, who was pretty hesitant last year, requested AGAIN after his first ride.

Everyone had so much fun. In fact, I can only think of one major problem that occurred when Max realized that Jack was getting pulled up the hill and he had to walk. So, then Max got a turn being pulled up, too.
And the other greatest thing about the state with the greatest snow on Earth is all the churches with large gyms to go play in when you're done with all the snow.

Utah sure is a slam dunk! :)

01-01-10

We rang in the New Year with sparklers around 8:30 last night, put the boys to bed, played the Wii, got silly non-sleeper Jack up to join the festivities, and finally watched the ball drop and kissed at midnight.

I am so excited for 2010. It seems like the past few years my New Year's posts have been hoping for cousins or people to move closer to us, but this year is all about us. We'll be adding another little guy to our family and we'll be the ones to make a big move. I can't wait to see what else is in store for us! So, welcome, welcome 2010!

And a special HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY wish to the bamsanfran blog! Has it really been three years?