Staycationing

Dear Kate and Riley,

We are about to have some big changes around here. A few months ago Dad started working some extra hours at a small firm just in the evenings for a little extra cash. Well, I guess he did too good of a job because they offered him a full time job a few weeks ago. So with MUCH sadness (at least on my part!) Dad said goodbye to Sunstone (and the Marriott discount--sob!) and will head back in to the world of public accounting, starting Monday! I know he's excited but I'm a little scared.

To help make the sting of switching jobs a little less, Dad took off this week before he starts at the new job. We debated going somewhere but decided to stay local. We "staycationed" at home for the first half of the week and spent the second half of the week close by in San Diego (hey that Marriott card is good until the end of the year so I have a few trips left!). Our WONDERFUL friends, the Bowens, took Zach for the last few days so Dad and I could have some alone time, it was great!

We went to Disneyland twice, the beach once, the pool a few times and to Sea World! Then Dad and I got to spend some alone time at the pool and got to see my favorite Neil Diamond cover band, Superdiamond! It was lots of fun. We were spoiled all week to have Dad around so much and it will be hard to give him back!

We already went to Disneyland on the rainiest day of the year, I think we may have also hit the hottest day of the year!

Zach was a trooper, with no nap he still lasted until 10:30 that night! He fell asleep for a bit in his stroller but was awake (and relatively happy) for the most part. He LOVES Dumbo.

The beach with Dad is so much more fun. He digs big holes to sit in.

Our first night down in Coronado. We went for pizza with a great view.

View of San Diego from Coronado

Sea World
So how is it that my kid who gags on juice downed almost this entire thing of frozen lemonade!? Next thing I know its going to be diet coke. Heaven help us. This is before the dolphin show where we got SOAKED!

Of COURSE the splash pad was his favorite part

Zach and Addie loved the little kid playland too. No big kids allowed. They would set up the soft blocks...

and then knock them over. Apparently it was really fun!

Megan took Zach home from Sea World for the rest of the weekend so Dad and I were on our own. We went to a sweet breakfast place in Hillcrest called Hash House a Go Go. Look at that pancake! It was banana brown sugar and it was delicious! (and no I didn't finish it)

Superdiamond was giving a free concert after the races on Friday so we caught the last couple horse races before the concert. I'm making such a lovely face in this one.

Love,
Mom

Aunt Jenny

Dear Kate and Riley,

I have a lot of stuff to catch up on but not a lot of energy to actually write about it all. I'm going to just hit the big ones.

A few weeks ago, we got to have Aunt Jenny come to visit. It was so much fun (for us, not so sure that Jenny had fun!). Zach LOVED Jenny (je-je) and did whatever she wanted him to and followed her around all day. We went to the beach a couple of times, the water park, and the Spectrum. I thought that my life was pretty fun until I realized that for someone without kids getting to sit at a table and drink a diet coke while watching Zach play in a fountain was not exactly the most thrilling thing on earth. Funny how quickly things change! Jenny, someday you will RELISH the day you can sit at a table for 2 hours with nothing to do!

I was sad when Jenny left because it was really nice having an extra set of hands around and nice having someone that Zach would actually listen to! But we decided if Jenny actually lived here Zach would eventually stop listening to her too.

Beach with Jenny

Look how happy he was!

At Wild Rivers. Zach loved the little slides that were just his size.

Besides Aunt Jenny, Zach's true best friend is Jack. Jack is a year older than him which apparently makes him MUCH cooler. He LOVES Jack and copies everything he does. And yes, my kid is eating cheetoes. Don't judge.

Of course at Wild Rivers Zach loved the splash pad the best.

Can you tell these pictures were all taken with my crappy camera? I'm no photographer but I can sure tell the difference between these and my good camera!

Love,
Mom

More Summer Fun

Dear Kate and Riley,

I have been WAY too lazy about posting lately. All of our summer fun is taking it out of me! But when I saw these cute pics on my friend Lisa's blog, I had to steal them and talk about one of our favorite summer activities.

The Irvine Spectrum is our "outdoor" mall. I love it for shopping and Zach loves it for playing. I mean really where else can I go to all my favorite places-- Target, Nordies, Rubios AND sit and relax while Zach has HOURS of fun at the splash pad? I really think its one of the best things to happen to our summer. I love that I can get a little shopping done then sit at a table in the shade with a huge diet coke and chat with my friends while Zach has the time of his life. Dad thinks it is trashy to let your kid play on the splash pad but I don't think he gets that it was made for that express purpose (I think he pictures me letting Zach play in the water fountain or something).

Zach with Quinn and Landon

Zach is FEARLESS with the fountains, it is hilarious to watch him get sprayed in the face, but he loves it!

He usually fights other kids for a spot on one of the turtles

Quinn is very lady like and uses the bucket like a purse

Zach is more of a maniac and runs around with the bucket on his head! He seriously did that a ton that day and actually did a pretty good job of not running into other kids or falling down. Quite impressive.

Thanks Lisa for letting me steal your pics and your cute post!

Love,
Mom

Beach Days

Dear Kate and Riley,
I think Aunt Stacy said it best on her blog-- it's a rough life, but somebody's got to live it! Zach and I are certainly having the summer of a life time. I just can't help but know that this is the easiest I'll ever have it and I better enjoy every second of it. Zach is happy and easily entertained, and with just him, its pretty much a cinch for us to go out and enjoy summer all day every day. Plus then we come home and he (usually) takes a really long nap where mom can catch up on some rest too. Living where we do it seems like a shame to do it any other way. I just realized though that I need to be better at documenting it. So hopefully this will be just one of a few posts about our fun summer days.

we are working on our surfing skills

realizing that the fat thighs get less of a rash with no swim suit

being overly brave about the water some days and a little more cautious on the days after a wipe out

sometimes have to find a little bit of shade with our other friends who think swim suits are for wusses

and definitely love to enjoy a refreshing piece of water melon after all that play!

(and no, mom will not be pictured in any of the summer fun photos due to the least favorite state of pregnancy, the--I do not look pregnant, just like a tub-o-lard state)

Love,

Mom

*And since Megan asked why the beach is empty, well my friends, its only when you have connections to the exclusive gated community beaches in Laguna that you get empty beaches, rock star parking, a playground on the sand, showers, bathrooms and we seriously are starting to think-- some kind of imported sand that cannot be found on any other beach in CA! We are lucky to have been invited a few times and now we're spoiled rotten! Believe it or not the day these pictures were taken we thought the beach was crowded!

OC Mud Run

Dear Kate and Riley,
A few months ago I signed up with some friends to do the OC Mud Run. It was just a 5k and since I had been running so much before getting pregnant I didn't think it would be a big deal at all. But, since I've been having a few problems the doctor has told me no heavy exercising for a little while (hopefully I can start back next week!). I was just going to bag it but I thought, Hey, I paid my money and I want my t-shirt and my roll in the mud! Some sweet friends were nice enough to hang back with me so I could take it easy and make sure I wasn't doing anything too strenuous that would hurt the baby. It ended up being a great time despite the heat and the crowds! I can't wait for next year when I can actually run the whole thing.

Pre-mud looking clean and nice in our "lead pipe" shirts

Finish line. This was gross. Really. And people kept finishing and splashing mud all over our faces. Nasty.

Post run in all our glory

Love,
Mom

The Deets...

Dear Kate and Riley,
I had to let that last picture speak for itself for a while but since I'm sure you are wanting some more details (or are you up there playing with him or her and really know more than me!?), I thought I'd add some more.

YES, I think this baby is an Italy souvenir. I'm not going to go back and figure it all out because, well its just more romantic to say that it is.

NO, I don't care whether its a boy or girl. Of course I want to know I'll have another girl SOME day but for now this baby will have to share a room with Zach so I wouldn't mind a boy but I'd be happy with a girl too.

Due date-- Feb. 6th 2010 which puts me at 11 weeks. I didn't plan to "announce" so soon but I got that picture back from Lisa and it was so adorable I had to post it right away.

OF COURSE this baby is already causing drama. Like you girls with your shared placenta and Zach with his low fluid, apparently I am never meant to have an easy care free pregnancy. Everything looks fine so far despite the scares we have had but I will ask everyone to keep this new baby in their prayers and maybe pray for my sanity as well. I am sad that I can't just be someone who gets pregnant, goes in for scheduled appointments, and pops out a baby in the end. I wanted this to be my "enjoyable" pregnancy but I guess that's not how I do babies. The one good thing to drama-- lots of ultrasounds. And the office got a new 3-d machine, it is SO cool.

I've actually been feeling decent. I'm not nearly as sick as I was with you girls or with Zach. I am a little sick but as long as I eat lots of carbs very often, I feel decent. I'm just exhausted and I'm sure Zach has a little something to do with that. But we haven't let it slow down our summer of fun (beach, pool, etc.) just don't look at my kitchen.

Tell your brother or sister to stop causing mom drama and just hang out and grow for 7 more months!

Love,
Mom

Zach has something to tell you...

Love,
Mom

(ps, I can't get the whole picture to show, you really have to click on it to see how cute it is)

OC Fair!

In case you can't read this sign, all of these foods say "Totally FRIED" at the top. I actually thought a fried s'more could be interesting. Fried hamburger? Not so much.

Dear Kate and Riley,

Today we headed out on a little adventure. We had heard from some friends that opening HOUR of the OC Fair would have FREE parking and FREE admission! Couldn't pass that up, could we? So Zach and I headed over to the fair to meet up with some friends. Little did we know that just about all the rest of Orange County had the same idea. Zach and I somehow lucked out and took so long to get there that we met up with our friends in line just in time to get IN to the fair (thanks Megan and HB friends for waiting in line for us!). It was a scorcher of a day but when its free, no one complains.

Zach LOVED all the animals which is great because, well, they too are free! We went to the "farm", the petting zoo and the livestock area. That was about all our kiddos could take in the heat which was just about perfect for me too. We had so much fun and I was surprised at how brave he was with the animals. We definitely want to go back with Dad (and to indulge in a little fair food, somehow funnel cake and fried twinkies don't sound as good when its 100 degrees outside!).

Happy we made it inside, despite the crowds

Loving the sheep. He was so brave! I think I was more nervous, I thought he was going to get a finger bit off!

What's he grinning about here? Chickens. Really. They were apparently VERY exciting chickens.

He really liked the little goats. But the big ones kept bumping into him and making him nervous.

He LOVED this pig. Loved him. It was so cute.

See?

The "wewo" cow. Zach LOVES yellow. In fact, pretty much EVERYTHING is yellow (to him). But when something actually IS yellow, well that makes it all the better.

Love,
Mom

4th of July, St. George Style

Dear Kate and Riley,

We had a fun and crazy 4th this year. Dad got off early on Thurs. and we headed out on the 6 hour drive to St. George to meet up with the entire O'Farrell clan. I was SO nervous to drive during the day but we left at nap time and Zach slept all the way to the Nevada state line, not too shabby!

Zach was so excited to see his cousins, especially the ones he stayed with while we were in Italy. It was fun to see how he remembered them and still liked to call Aunt Amy and Aunt Stacy "mom". We did a lot of swimming and playing and NOT a lot of sleeping. In fact, that is probably the least amount of sleep Zach has ever had in his life. It made for some big tantrums but he still had fun.

On the 4th we did fireworks outside the condos and Zach LOVED it. He called them wo-wowks and clapped and cheered after each one. He LOVED throwing poppers and doing his sparklers (even though I was terrified he was going to grab the sparkler and burn himself). He danced with cousins behind the "flasher" fireworks and I couldn't believe he went strong until eleven that night! (he usually goes to bed at 7:30!)

It was so much fun to spend time with Dad's family, I love to see Zach's older cousins hold his hand, help him do things and play with him. His aunts and uncles love him so much and take such good care of him. We can't wait to be with the family again. Hopefully soon!

Love,
Mom

Myra, Decker and Zach watching movies

"danger" park with Dad and Camryn

loving the park, in St. George you go to the park at like 9pm because that's when its finally cool enough! This night was the night I realized "routine" was going out the window.

Our 4th of July kid

Jumping in the pool with Dad

Throwing poppers with the cousins. He eventually decided it was easier just to step on them

The dads were having their own popper war.

Camryn, Zach and Uncle Andrew

Cam and Zach

Getting ready to do fireworks. Brianna, Cam, Zach and Sky

First sparkler, a little unsure!

Soooo tired!

Clapping for the "wo-wowks"!

I guess I am out of the home firework traditions since we've never lived anywhere where we could do them. I guess when you do the flasher ones you dance behind them. Zach LOVED dancing with the cousins (and Aunt Stacy can thank me later for not posting the AWESOME pics I got of her dancing).

More dancing

Four years ago today...

Dear Kate and Riley,

Four years ago today was one of the greatest days of my life. Dad and I were married and sealed for all eternity in the San Diego temple. It was a great day when we were promised many wonderful things. I remember all of our family and many of our friends being there with us to celebrate. I feel truly lucky to have found your Dad. We have been through a lot together in the past four years but it has made us stronger and made our love even deeper. I know we will celebrate many many anniversaries to come.

Love,
Mom