Santa Cruz

We decided to get out of the neighborhood a couple weekends ago and drove for 2 hours to Santa Cruz. It was a lot of fun. The Area itself I couldn't call my favorite, but it had the beach and you couldn't go wrong with that. I was nervous it was going to be cold because we froze at San Francisco the first week of July. The morning was foggy and I actually wore a sweater, but by noon it was beautiful and sunny. We actually got a little sunburned.

Santa Cruz has their "boardwalk" which is basically a mini theme park, with theme park food (and prices) and lots of rides. It is right along the beach. We spent an hour or so exploring and letting Anna's big eyes try to soak it all in. She rode on a ride all by herself (See below) and couldn't have been prouder. We were also smiling ear to ear and laughing at how cute our BIG girl is.

Just before the ride started. She chose the dragon ride because she is really into princesses, castles, and magical things...

I LOVE this photo. We were laughing so hard because she has pulling the handle that lifts the dragon off the ground and she kept bouncing crazily rather than moving up and down. She put her hand out as if to say, "I don't know what I am doing" and I caught it on film. I am still laughing.

Just after the ride. My two cuties!

I LOVE THE OCEAN! The water was FREEZING, but some managed to get in.

I think this was after Dave put Anna's feet in.

CHEESE BALL!

Of course, what is a photo shoot without the silly face.... it is EVERYWHERE!

We spent quite a while running away from the water and getting Anna used to getting dirty in the sand.

Family photo, I'll have to see how I can crop it.

Prego Pants and crazy girl. Man I love those hugs!

We walked down the beach, stopped and watched a ton of volleyball players (there was a whole set up of about 15 courts), heard some crazy things by "beach bums" (one conversation we walked by ended with a girl saying, " I only take it to open my mind...."- see why it isn't my favorite spot?) hmmm? Then we walked down the wharf.

On the way we saw Spiderman playing the guitar...makes perfect sense right?Many little shops, but our favorite was the sea lions!

They were all laying under the wharf, this one was trying his hardest to get up. It was very interesting to watch them jump. We never actually witnesses a successful jump, but definitely saw some bloopers!


Then we headed down the coast (or up?) a little to town called Capitola. It had much more of a quaint beach. We watched surfers for a little bit, walked through the mini town, found some delicious pizza for dinner and ate it by the beach.

Dave captured the one beauty of Capitola in this photo.

We had a great day! We have learned and try to avoid the sentence"Modesto is great because it is close to everything," simply because it implies there is nothing in Modesto, but we definitely have reaped the benefits of a city like it! We don't know how long we will be here so we are trying to live it up!

This is for my own recollection....

So far since June we have been to Yosemite, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Yuba City, Fairfield, Santa Cruz and Capitola (not to mention Utah and Colorado.. and a couple cities Dave has driven to), and this weekend we are headed to Monterrey Bay! We also have plans to visit Palo Alto sometime, head back to Yosemite, and see the red woods... and I hope southern California, but that might have to wait. So in about 13 weeks we have been on about 9 adventures! Not bad. I love traveling!

Exploration of Nor Cal

Dave has had many meeting all over the place.
Last Friday we came along for the ride. We went up to Yuba City (sounds exciting - huh?) where Anna and I found a fun park to play at for the hour of Daddy's meeting.

Then all three of us headed down to Old Town Sacramento. We had fun exploring the town for a little bit, including Pizza at Round Table and free candy samples at a nearby candy store.

Then we headed to Fair field where we explored the Jelly Belly Factory. Anna and I went on a factory tour while Dave had his meeting. (Dave had gone on the tour when he came out to interview so it worked out perfectly). It was amazing to see how each Jelly Bean is made (over the course of 3 WEEKS!). Then we all headed home. There was quite a bit of driving, but it was fun to be together and get to explore our surrounding areas.

Our very own!!!

When I worked as a Nanny in Michigan, the families I nannied for always introduced me to treat I never thought about buying.

Two of our favorites that I have been buying lately are Nutella and Snapea Crisps! LOVE THEM ! (Especially the first part of my pregnancy I couldn't get enough of Nutella!) So today we celebrate opening our FIRST container of Nutella... and our probably 10th bag of Snapea Crisps!






While I was taking the photo of the bag Anna was at my feet asking, "I want some!!"



This face actually reminds me of one I took of Fiona, one of the girls I Nannied! Made me laugh!

Anna Moments

I know this blog has a LOT about Anna, but I realized I have only been posting what we have done, no updates. So to keep a record for myself I thought I would jot a few things down. There are SO many funny things I want to remember about this time. I think this is the FUNNEST age yet! Anna makes me laugh or smile ALL DAY LONG! (no exaggerating). She is getting so big and learning so much each day.

So of my favorites as of late:
* LOVES the gingerbread man story. It is her bedtime story every night. (Well until Saturday, when she asked for the "bear story that JoJo told her")
* Learning to sleep in her Dora bed. She wakes up and exclaims... I slept in my Dora bed all night! Then sometimes she will say (in her funny "asking" voice) now I get to eat some candy. Because ONE time I bribed her to take a nap that way.
* She sings ALL DAY long! We joke that she is an Alto, because on some songs she screeches at the high notes... I LOVE it! She will sing anything from "My Bonnie" to "Jesus wants me for a Sun- Beep!" or "I'm trying to be like Jesus" to "It's a Jolly Holiday with Mary or Spoon full of Sugar" to Princess songs. Sometimes she makes up her own renditions and laughs at herself.
* She recently learned the joy of chocolate milk
* Uses her stools to be big girl and turn on lights, go to the bathroom by herself, or dance on. (she set them up the other day facing my curio cabinet with a mirror and asked me to come dance with her... it was a joy!)
* She mimics her cousins, saying Sydney and Cait did this, or Logan said that.
* She is an observer and keys into other's emotions. Yesterday she was in the middle of a memory game with Daddy, I was cooking in the kitchen and dropped a piece of apple, as I said, oops she ran in, saying "what happened" then when I explained she said, "that's okay."
* She has learned about farts and will be sitting there and say, "it's stinky in here" so people better watch out around her. I have taught her to say excuse me and she will say it on occasion. Dave was helping her go to sleep the other night and in her half drunken state she said, "excuse me" as she "tooted."
* The other night Dave's blackberry vibrated from a message he received, it was on a table against the wall that is adjoined to her room. We thought she was asleep and she said, "excuse you mommy!" We laughed SO HARD!
* She can have an attitude sometimes...This morning I woke up to her saying, "COME!!" and when I half asleep replied, "what?" She said, "COME HERE NOW!" At the park she was very determined to tell Daddy something and finished the sentence I cannot remember with ...."FOREVER!" Which I guess was suppose to really set the record straight! (: She also told me the other day from the other room, "Listen!" when I didn't she came into my room and said, "you better listen or I am not going to do it ANYMORE!"
*After pushing away from the table with her feet and making the chair topple over we talked about the proper way to learn the table. The next day, without a reminder she said, "may I be excused from the table"
*She has a brilliant memory. We were listening to the Children's Songbook songs and "Follow the Prophet" came on, she said, we sang this at Hannah's baptism! Mind you this was back in May and we haven't listened to the song since.
* She loves to help me cook and will push a chair over, climb up, and pull out "the measuring."
* She will refer to my tummy as "Your baby"
* Still cannot pronounce L's instead she says a "w" and if you say the word the way she does she will correct you and get mad that you are saying it wrong. She thinks she is saying it. I hope she corrects it over time, but right now it is cute. Example: "I wub to see the temple."
* VERY into Dora and Princesses. She will play all day with the princesses and help them get dressed to go "dance with the prince."
* Loves to use her fingers for explain numbers, especially to tell others that she is two!
* Will answer any question with a quick, "I know" (though she means I don't know) then she will respond with the correct answer
* Slides- She used to be afraid of them, she really likes to be in control. Recently she has learned how to climb up them (without socks or shoes of course) and that has mad her more daring. Yesterday she chose to go down the biggest slide at the park, it is probably 15 feet high and windy, but she would only go down on her stomach with her hands squeaking the WHOLE way down. It was an achievement... a funny one at that!
* She loves to play with "babies" and is very unique in her naming, "Big baby, brown baby and little baby!" She refers to Grandma's babies as "orange baby (hair), yellow baby, and little baby."
* Refers to any time in the past as "Yesterday"
* "When I was a Baby.." is her new way of explaining things.
* Loves Nursery and really listens. After church we asked her what she learned and she said, "about Heavenly Father, Jesus Smith, then corrected herself, Joseph smith and Jesus."
* She has one volume
* Loves Meat like ribs, steak, and marinated chicken
* Picks out her own cereal every morning, which includes two or three (this morning) choices.
* I wanna watch Dora the exborer"
* Is very detailed in her story telling and remembers TONS of details
* Loves to read and asks details about all the people in the story.

Fairy Tale Town

Last month we went Fairy Tale Town with Amy and Todd. Anna LOVED it! It is a little "theme park" full of things representing different, obviously, fairy tales. Anna's favorite was the castle. See if you can guess what they are before I tell you. (:


"There was a crooked man who walked a crooked mile... he had a crooked house....
Pooh's corner- Anna was trying to blink like the owl
Inside the princess Castle

Anna said, "It's Sleeping Beauty!!!" She is SO into Princesses right now it is a blast! Sitting in the princess chair.

Jack and the Beanstalk

The Little Engine That Could- Isn't Todd the cutest thing... I LOVE those big brown eyes!

"The Cheese Stands Alone" - or the Yellow tunnels as Anna called it

This was by the cheese, I actually don't know if the slide refers to something else.

Cinderella's carriage

Another view. Anna thought this was awesome. It made me miss Evergreen park!

Anna thought this Hippo was funny, we sometimes call her a hungry hippo so it made sense.

Reminds me of the Lion at the Hogle Zoo.

"There was an old woman who lived in a shoe...." Anna just watched others go down the slide (including Amy and Todd) as she is a little fearful of big slides!

This Solider was actually a garbage can and Anna was afraid of it. She made me touch it first. She went through a phase about scary men and this was one of them, I guess.

"Happily Ever After"- I took this because Anna is so into the princesses and is funny about when and who can say this phrase at the end of the story. Such a two year old!

We had a fun day! Thanks Amy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK... to me!

I had a different, but great birthday this year... I had one appointment. Anna and I went to Library Story time and sadly returned Mary Poppins and went and got Wendy's. Then I got to go to the DENTIST... if you knew me, you would know much I LOVED that! Thanks again honey for scheduling it. :) Then the Piano Tuner came and sadly we learned that this baby...Isn't tunable. I appreciate Dave's thoughtfulness in getting me a Piano. He searched and searched with many scenarios in mind. However it seems it is not meant to be right now and we will be getting rid of it. I am okay with it though. After some packing and Anna's Nap, we had a tea party with Dora and her friends. I spent most of the rest of the day packing.

Then, later that night we went out for the highlight of my Day... Dinner at Tahoe Joes.. It was FABULOUS!!!! What could be better than Steak, Chocolate cake, and these two?

Oh, add Strawberry lemonade and a mason jar... Yum!

And Anna Hugs...

And Silly Faces....

Again, Chocolate Cake was fabulous. Look at this thing, I ate more of it at 4:00 AM the next day before I got on a plane. It was THAT good... oh and I am pregnant, so it was GREAT!

The next day the two of us

Said a tearful goodbye to Dave and headed off for a week of Utah! We had a Lot of fun. I will post more later. During the week I was spoiled with yummy meals, a pedicure, purse, jewelry, cake stuff, and lots of other great memories! What a great birthday!