San Francisco Trip

Last weekend we went on a trip to San Francisco. It was so much fun! We got to visit a lot of our friends, see some sites, and go to my friend's wedding. My favorite part was being with Nate and Scott the whole time. Even when we are just driving in the car, it makes me so happy to be with my little family.

We left to make the long drive at 2am on Thursday morning. We thought that if we left that early, Scott would sleep for at least 5 hours in the beginning of the drive. This was the first of many "you know you're a parent when you're willing to ___________" moments on the trip. This worked to an extent... He did not sleep 5 hours, but overall was a pretty good boy in the car. He did indeed watch a lot of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes. One thing we've come to accept while traveling with a toddler, is you have to take a lot of stops for stretch breaks. We found a really nice outlet mall in Sparks, NV that had a splash pad. Scott had so much fun playing that he wore himself out and slept another 2 hours in the car afterwards (win-win)!

Our first stop was in Elk Grove (just outside Sacramento) to visit Nate's best friend Ryan!

Ryan and Nate 10 years ago...

 Ryan and Nate today...

It just so happens that I love Ryan's wife Kaylee and Scott loves their daughter Avery. We stayed with them Thursday and Friday night. The first night we all went to Chick Fil-A. Can I just take a moment to say how much I LOVE Chick Fil-A? I won't deny it was my idea.

I also won't deny that Scott had a complete melt-down at Chick Fil-A. 
Must have been the whole waking up at 2am and being in the car all day thing...

The next morning Scott was himself again. Avery and Scott are the best of friends! They play so well together. 
Nothing like having a friend to explore, jump on the air mattress, and share fruit snacks with ;)

On Friday we went to feed the ducks at a park by Ryan and Kaylee's house. 

Later that afternoon after the kid's naps, we went to the playground. 

That night we went and got ice cream at Leatherby's...

We always have so much fun with Ryan and Kaylee! Nothing like good friends where the conversation could go on all night. 

On Saturday morning we woke up early and went to the Jelly Belly Factory. I am definitely a nerd for that type of thing. In college I took a class where each week we would tour a different food factory and loved it. After the tour we got a bag of "belly flops" - discounted irregularly shaped jelly beans!

After that we drove to Pleasant Hills to visit my cousin Dallas and his wife Kirsten! They just had an adorable baby boy named Daxton. We got sandwiches and hung out at the park with them for a few hours. I'm so happy we got to meet baby Daxton!

That afternoon we drove around (for an long time...) so Scott could get a nap in the car. Our last stop of the day was to visit the Rich family! Nate and Stephanie were friends their freshman year of college. Stephanie and I have been "blog friends" for a few years. So it was fun to meet her and the family in person! We walked around the mall and ate dinner at The Counter. 

On Saturday and Sunday night we stayed at a hotel in Pleasanton. Sunday morning we got breakfast at the MOST amazing bakery in San Francisco called Tartine. I had the best chocolate croissant I've ever had in my life. I totally recommend it to anyone visiting San Francisco! We also went to church with some of our friends. They meet in a building next to the Oakland temple. It is so gorgeous there!

Sunday afternoon we hung out at the hotel so Scott could take a really good nap before being dropped off at Caroline and Aaron's during the wedding. We were so grateful Caroline and Aaron could babysit! They are the best! 

It would have been tough to bring Scott to the event.

The wedding we went too was for my friend Erica. We worked together in San Diego and I just love her! 

She looked beautiful and Nate and I are so happy for them! 

The beautiful bride and I!

Nate, Scott, and I drove back on Monday. Nate had a business meeting on Monday morning so we didn't leave until 11am. I cannot believe how long the drive felt on the way back! We didn't get home until 2am. The trip was totally worth all the driving. We loved seeing so many good friends. I also can't believe how good Scott was on the trip! He slept so well in so many different places and was such a good boy in the car the (especially on the way back). In a lot of ways, the older he gets the easier it is to have fun with him. 

Next time we will have to do more of a site-seeing tour of San Francisco. There are so many more things I want to do there!

No Bottles for Big Boys

Scott became a big boy the past few weeks. He parted with his dear friend, the bottle.
He surprisingly didn't have as hard of time with it as I though. To be honest I think there was more of a parental attachment to his bottles. He would only have one before his nap and one before bed. I loved rocking and cuddling with Scott while giving him his bottle! He has had sippy cups with meals for a few months and now he has his sippy cup of milk while we read books before bed.
Luckily there is nothing that Scott loves more than reading books. So I still get my cuddles :)

And I should add that all of Scott's stuffed animals are getting plenty of cuddles (and sips of milk) as well.

Celebrating the 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July this year! Provo really does know how to celebrate the 4th. And on top of that John and Vanessa came in town on Monday night and stayed with us through the 4th. Since Mike and Emily live here, it was fun to hang out with 4 of Nate's 6 siblings!
I am so lucky that Nate's siblings also happen to be some of my best friends. I feel like that rarely happens, but we all just like each other!

 Scott is so lucky to have such awesome aunts and uncles! He loves playing with them and the feeling is mutual!
While they were here we went to the pool...

Scott LOVES jumping into the pool off the side! My arms were killing me after the 5th time. 

We also went to 7 peaks!

Background?

And ate delicious food like Cafe Rio, J-Dawgs, and s'mores...

One night we went and walked around Bridal Veil Falls!

On the actual 4th of July we went to Provo's 4th of July Parade in morning. It was awesome! I love parades. Scott loved the high school marching bands and would clap along every time they passed by. He also loved the horses. He has been really into saying "neigh" of all the animal noises lately. He did not, however, like sitting there while all the slow-moving cars of freedom-prize this and that winners passed by. Luckily he is easily pacified with fruit snacks. We went through 3 bags.

During the day on the 4th some of us went down to the street festival in Provo while Scott took his nap. 

We also had a delicious BBQ with burgers, watermelon, chips, beans, corn on the cob, and apple crisp for dessert! 

That night Nate had the landlord of his office building reserve a space for us in the parking lot. 

Nate's office is right next to the stadium so we had an awesome place to watch the stadium of fire fireworks!

Since there was only 1 parking spot and we had 8 people, we took Nate's truck over like this... 

We remain unsure of the laws regarding people riding in the back of the truck in Utah. Can't be worse than the laws in California though right?

Kind of a big deal...

While we were waiting for the fireworks to start we lit off a few of our own. 

Scott was mesmorized by everything. He kept saying "boom boom!" over and over. 

 We watched the real fireworks sitting in the back and on top of Nate's truck. We had to cover Scott's ears because they were so loud, but after that he literally didn't move a muscle the entire show because he was so in awe. 

It was a perfect 4th of July! Thanks for visiting John and Vanessa!

life lately, according to my phone pictures

1. Scott loves getting dum dum's from Macey's Grocery store. I don't love cleaning up the sticky-post-lolly-pop mess.

2.  Old doll house furniture. My Mom sent me 5 big boxes of my stuff because 
they are moving (tear)... but it has been fun going through it all. 

3. Scott being the over-protected child at the splash pad with water shoes, a rash guard, hat, and oversized swim trunks amongst shoeless/shirtless kids.

4. Scott's 1 year baby book! I went a little nuts and it is 108 pages long...

1. My little brother Wade is at BYU! My Mom came out and we helped move him into his dorm at Helaman Halls. 

Brings back so many memories of my own freshman year!

2. We are "babysitting" our neighbor's fish (named sushi) this summer. Scott is already very attached...

3. Never too early for longboarding...

4. Scott loves his Grandma! We had so much fun with her in town and were sad when she left. 

1. I love my sweet boy!

2. Grilled Greek chicken on pita with tomatoes/cucumbers tossed with dill and herb olive oil. 

Topped with pickled red onions and homemade tzatziki.

3. Fresh cherries from the farmer's market. 2 pounds didn't last 2 days at our house!

4. Scott reading himself books and practicing animal noises.

1. I've been really into this braid lately...

2. We've been fully using our 7 peaks passes! 

I take Scott with some of our friend's in the mornings or Nate and I go together with Scott at night a few times a week. Scott LOVES it!

3. White corn, black bean, and avocado salsa

 - mixed with lime juice/zest, cilantro, olive oil, cayenne and a dash of sugar. 

4. Smoky skies from these crazy western wildfires.

Utah Valley Half Marathon

2 weeks ago I ran the Utah Valley Half Marathon! My conclusions about half marathons remain the same as after my last one. I love them, but have very little desire to attempt a full marathon. I really like the training schedule for the half and I like having a goal to work towards to get in shape. The race itself is so fun, and just challenging enough to make me feel like I accomplished something without killing my body. Nate did all the training runs with me this time (while pushing Scott in the jogging stroller I might add)! My sister-in-law Emily also ran long runs with us on Saturdays. Emily and I are perfectly paced running partners and we ran the race together!

The Utah Valley Half was awesome! The course was ALL downhill. It started up the road a little past Sundance and ran all the way down the Canyon through Provo ending in front of the Provo Tabernacle. We did all our long training runs by parking at Vivian park and running down to different points depending on how long the run was supposed to be (Riverwoods, Magleby's, the UPC, etc.) I feel like I know the Canyon like the back of my hand now!

The only not awesome part of the race was meeting at Provo Towne Center Mall to take buses up to the start like at 3:30am.

On the bus ride over...

The race didn't start until 6am, so all the runners just waited on the dark mountain side. They had a few fires going, and all Emily and I could think about was how the scene very much resembled some kind of apocalyptic event where all the last humans had to band together for safety.

Once the race started the weather was perfect! Nate said he and Scott would be waiting somewhere near the bottom of the Canyon and it was exciting to see them about half way through. Scott got really happy to see Mommy and aunt "Em" as he calls her, then really sad when we kept running past! I felt bad, but it was pretty cute.

One part of races that will always be funny to me is being able to dramatically throw your water cup on the ground at the water/gatorade stations. Like you are too much of a big deal to use the trash can. 

I really felt great the whole run! I love the atmosphere of races too. It is so touching to see family members cheering for their loved ones and runners who are strangers helping each other along. 

Finding Nate after the finish!

 My favorite people!

 Scott was very excited about our finishers metals... 

And after happily enduring a 10 mile run the jogging stroller during training, he deserves one too!