Utah Trip

So, we went to Utah last week for several days and visited briefly with some great friends and grandparents up north, and then spent a few days down south with Jeremy's family. It's really tough to have only a small amount of time to visit for traveling so far. I wish the kids and I at least could have stayed another week. Not sure that we'll be able to get back there before our next planned trip to Utah in July 2013 for a reunion on my side. It's a sad business living far from family and friends, but we are very happy that we have a good job, home, ward, and growing opportunities here in California that were just not available to us at the time in Utah. Someday, things will work out for us to have it all, I guess. :) Anyway, the kids had a BLAST playing with their cousins and fishing with their uncles. There was some altitude sickness and general travel grumpiness, but overall, not a terrible experience. I kind of wish the kids could be seen on their own turf, then our family could really get a glimpse into who these little people really are. As always, I'm trying like mad to devise some way to get to visit more people more often...video calls are great, but not enough for me. Growing up in San Diego where all my closest friends were my cousins and all the important adults in my life were my aunts/uncles and grandparents and every holiday, birthday, and sunday was spent just enjoying each other's company, it makes me long for my kids to have those same kinds of relationships.

Nora & Grizzlies game

My baby is turning 2 this week. My goodness how quickly time passes and how big babies get. She talks a lot. She is potty trained! She feeds herself. She is very independent. She plays with dolls and likes to play dress up, too. She is a little girl. We need to stop calling her Baby. We went to a baseball game last night to celebrate. She a pretty good time drinking soda and eating cupcakes. Happy Birthday this Thursday to a stinkin' cute girl!

Morro Bay & Pismo Beach

We went to the coast for our anniversary and spent a Friday and Saturday at Morro Bay and Pismo Beach. We have not been away on a trip overnight without kids since Paul was 14 months old. It was time to have some personal time. We had so much fun! We scouted for shells on the beach, sat on the warm sand, explored around, saw lots of different beach and sea animals up close, went to lots of little trinket shops, ate GREAT food at local places right on the water, tried a bunch of different kinds of salt water taffy, watched boats and surfers, appreciated beautiful landscape, walked on the pier, swam in a heated pool, and R-E-L-A-X-E-D. One night was not enough. Now I can't wait to plan our next trip!