Monterey Bay Aquarium and Carmel

Over Labor Day weekend, we went down to Monterey Bay and Carmel to see some of the many sights that are so close (within 2 hours, at least) to home. This post has a bunch of pictures from our trip. Most of them are from Monterey Bay Aquarium. I love this shot of the penguin. Enjoy!

The day after the Aquarium, we headed to Carmel where we walked past way-too-expensive shops and went to play on the white sand beach. For all you golfers out there, the beach we were at runs right along a couple of the holes at Pebble Beach. We had a great time (except when Anna got sand in her mouth and gagged so much she threw up!). We feel very lucky to be close to so many fun things. I LOVE MY GIRLS!

He is too... only not very often

Yes, I am NOT going to post about ANNA tonight, nor am I going to post a million photos from one of our many vacations, though I have a few to catch up on. Tonight, however, I am going to boast about my wonderful husband... in a different sort of way.

I am known as the clumsy one around here, especially now with this belly, which I keep running into doors, tables, or Anna's head. opps! Do I really have two more months of growth!? I have also been known to have some "Heidi -isms" which many of you know are a bit funny and stupid. (Ironically my placenta brain hasn't increased them lately. Thank goodness.)

I just have to say, Dave makes mistakes too! Here was our adventure last week. He dropped the Jar of Jam while trying to put it away. You can see it made quite a mess in the floor, but if you glance closely at second photo you will realize what a project it was to clean up!

Yes, it splattered across the whole kitchen, about 15 feet an up along the ceiling! What a mess. And a loss of Yummy Raspberry Peach Jam. Mom and Dad I might be raiding your newly filled cupboard again sooner than later!

At least I got to teach Dave how to use the Mop! Ha! (It's a new swifter) I am only giving you a hard time because I love you babe! You work so hard and we are grateful for all you do! Now can we go to Disneyland? (:

Mornings

I have never been a morning person and frankly waking up early (like 7 or before then) is hard for me, but Anna wakes up perky and ready to play. This was Labor day. If I didn't have this cuteness to wake up to it would be a lot more difficult! She makes me laugh! I introduce you to Pippy...

And her favorite routine... Picking out cereal out of the pantry and sitting up at the table. This cereal is known as "Daddy's cereal," though Anna ate her fair share and luckily the box is gone so Anna will go bad to less sugary cereal... which she DOES like, but who can pass up Marshmallows and the "green girl" aka Lucky the Lephrecaun?

The baby I am sporting

....Or supporting. However you want to look at it. It is crazy being pregnant a second time, it is SOOO much different than the first. I already realize that I spoil Anna with my time. Especially documenting life. I did a lot of blogging when I was pregant with Anna, kept a calendar of differnet thoughts and physical experiences throughout the pregnancy, then kept things up when Anna was born.

I am afraid I am already neglecting Baby #2. (Besides of course her food intake, which she should be enjoying emensely!) I wish we had a name for her, I wish I had dreams about her like I did Anna, and I wish I documented how I felt being pregant with her. But none of these things happen as I run after a 2 year old, am in nesting/project heaven, and am trying to get acclimated to a new state.

So In hopes to be better I write this blog post. I CANNOT wait to meet you darling girl. Keep kicking me inside (even though sometimes it makes me a little sick) and keep growing (even though I shouldn't get much bigger). I am excited for you to come. Your room is basically ready, clothes are sorted (though they are in Utah), and Grandma (and other family members) has her plane ticket. Despite the readiness I feel please feel free to stay warm inside for 10 more weeks or more. Though we are excited you still need to grow! Today we hit to 28 week mark and you are the size of a Chinese Cabbage and by now you have eye lashes! I am feeling more uncomfortable and tired these days, but can deal with it a little longer.

I love talking and dreaming about days to come with Anna's little sister. What an amazing day that will be!

P.S.
I typed this a few days ago and haven't posted yet, because I wanted to put a "belly" photo up. Unfortunetly there hasn't been a good time to do so, so I will post it anyway. I had an appointment today and got to hear her heartbeat... how amazing!! We'll been able to see her on a detailed ultrasound in a couple of days, thanks to her big sister's footsteps. With Anna only having a two vessel cord, among other complications, and not being able to find the third vessel in this umbilical cord we will have a Neonatal Echo to make sure everything is okay. I think it will be, and am excited to see her once again!

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!