The City by the Bay

I love being a bargain hunter! I have tried to embrace the idea of not missing out on opportunities that may not come again and have had some wonderful experiences because of it. Josh and I got to have another one of those experiences. I found some RIDICULOUSLY cheap flights to San Francisco and after joking about it for several days we realized we should actually take advantage of it and go! We didn't think Josh could get a day off work with it being busy season but we took a risk and booked the flights anyway and then hoped that his boss would allow him a day off. And he did! Josh had been to San Fran twice in the past but I never had so this was my first time there. I have always found it intriguing to actually be in a place that I have seen in movies and pictures a lot. It is fascinating to me to see things in real life, not just in images. It's always a very different experience to feel and hear and smell things in person! We found a wonderful place to stay in San Leandro which we will definitely stay at again if we ever have the chance to go back. It was on a marina and our room had a little balcony that overlooked the boats that were docked. It was so nice.

We spent the whole first day at Fisherman's Wharf. We toured all of the museum ships that were docked there and enjoyed getting our fill of the sourdough bread from Boudins. We were able to continue our tradition of visiting the museum ships in the area. We found out the Musée Mécanique was filled with antique arcade games and we cashed in a bunch of dollars and had a ton of fun playing some of them.

 

 

We went to church on Sunday in San Lorenzo and ended up meeting someone who went to school with a coworker of mine. It's a small world. Another one of my favorite things about travelling - meeting people you would never have encountered otherwise. That night we went to the Oakland LDS Temple and enjoyed the amazing views and beauty of the temple. We spent some time at the visitor's center and watched the Meet The Mormons movie that they were showing.

 

On Monday we toured the USS Hornet and drove around the city and across the Golden Gate bridge and then got on a plane for home!

Regency Romance

Last Valentines Day we went to the Regency Romance Ball for the first time and we had such a good time that we hoped we would be able to go again. And we did! I only had a week to get us ready last year and having never gone to anything like it before I had to work really hard to figure out how to pull it off! It was so much easier this year as I now knew what to expect and how I could put together a costume for Josh. A good friend let me borrow her beautiful dress again and the awesome girl in my ward that did my hair last year came and did it again for me. And thanks to my Mom who found a vest of my Dad's that totally worked and one of my grandparents' old pillowcases that I sewed a cravat out of I was able to put together a costume for Josh so that we didn't have to rent one! And he looked great!

We were able to spend the evening with several friends and just really had a fun time!

 

We also struck up a conversation with a couple that was seated across from us at dinner and ended up talking with them for a really long time. Somehow we don't think it was a coincidence that it happened as they ended up telling us of their personal experiences with adoption. We are pretty sure it was a little blessing that was waiting for us :)

Toy Story

I still have a majority of my old toys that I have been packing around with me all these years. What is great is that they are getting played with again and we have found that the consensus is old toys are pretty cool! For Christmas this year we broke with tradition and gave our local nieces and nephew a big "group date" for their gift instead of "stuff". Same idea like we do for their birthdays. It included all the traditional things we do on their birthday dates like staying up late, playing in the tub with the rubber duckies, lots of movies, orange rolls for breakfast, and playing with all our old toys.

We made places for everyone to sleep in our room which was pretty cozy with all five of us and the big activity was playing glow-in-the-dark pirate-themed mini golf and a big pizza party. It was a fabulous weekend and we learned some new things along the way i.e. our water heater runs out of hot water when you fill two bath tubs up back to back and our backseat has become too small for long car rides with three growing up children because they all have to touch each other and that's not cool ;). Our one downfall I guess ha ha!

 

The kids "helped" Josh put together a model fire truck he got for Christmas too. :)

Happy 2015

This New Years was the first that Josh and I spent at home. Up until this year we had always been out of town visiting family so we had a much more low key holiday. We missed being with other relatives but look forward to our next trips out to see everyone!

The highlight was going to see the Lemurs movie at the planetarium. We had been talking about going since I think October and we finally did it! We have thought lemurs are pretty cool ever since "meeting" a bunch of lemurs several years ago at an exhibit at the State Fair. We definitely have a penchant for exotic animals :)

Last year when we were down South for the holiday we got to enjoy the traditional New Years dinners of various relatives so I had fun trying to recreate one of the main dishes we had. I had to make some black-eyed peas for good luck too :) It was so yummy and I'm kinda craving it again as I type this. Hmmm.

Merry Christmas!

We had a very nice Christmas season and enjoyed the opportunity it gave us to spend time with family. We stayed overnight at the parents so we spent Christmas Eve and morning with them and then we all gathered at my brother's to enjoy the rest of Christmas day. We had a lot of delicious food and excess amounts of dessert :) and reveled in hugs and fun! And after having absolutely no snow it turned out to be a beautiful white Christmas - a rare event for Josh!

My Dad has always been a really good gift giver and this year was no exception. He got us the complete set of Beatrix Potter books and he looked for a set that was as close to her original versions (size, etc.) as possible. It was an awesome surprise! And coincidentally we also got a set of homemade bookends from our siblings so it was the perfect match!

Earlier in the month we went to Josh's work party and enjoyed walking through all of the festive displays at the Grand America Hotel. I had no idea it was so decked out inside for Christmas. We really need to remember that for next Christmas!

 

Every year all of us girls go to the Nutcracker ballet while the boys do something manly together. The little girls always get a new Christmas dress to wear for the occasion and Grandma really outdid herself this year - they were gorgeous.  



Also earlier in the month I took a day off of work so that Mom and I could do some holiday baking. We made 7 batches of cookies/desserts and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Some of the things we made were recipes of my great grandmother's so that is always a nostalgic experience. I literally didn't have enough Tupperware to store it all in so we had to be creative in order for Mom to transport her share home :)

Thanksgiving

November was a big month for us as we finally completed a major goal, and right before the holiday. So we were very thankful this holiday because we had finally made it through the adoption approval process! Hooray! A big goal that had taken a lot of effort to come to fruition!

We had a different sort of Thanksgiving this year and it was fabulous! Because the poor newlyweds were having trauma over how to celebrate with both of their families we ended up having one gigantic Thanksgiving dinner with all of us and their in-laws! Jimmy's family hosted and we had TONS of food and a really really great time.

And Josh needed a St. George fix so the next day we headed south and spent a few days in one of our favorite places :) We went to the St. George LDS Temple and got some serious exercise in Snow Canyon.

 

I love going to Snow Canyon - it is easy to get to and is beautiful and we have really enjoyed the time we have spent there the last couple trips down.

Randomness

The logical side of my brain would like this blog to be in chronological order but I'm trying my best to ignore that side and just focus on the fact that considering how hard it has been to get in some sort of "habit" of blogging I should just be happy for whatever actually gets put on this site and call it good! So....here is a bit of randomness from this fall....

I realized I never documented our last birthday date of the year. Probably because it was a photo fail unfortunately. I need to be better at snapping a few pics! But we had the girls over for the weekend and the highlights were getting to see the new American Girl movie Isabelle and Sophia Grace and Rosie's Royal Adventure. We had never heard of S G & R before so it was a new experience. I think it was the only time in his life that Josh was glad he had finals to study for and could use it as an excuse to get out of watching! I got to experience both of the movies multiple times during the weekend though. And our ward did a clothing swap that weekend so I took the girls to see what we could find and I scored some amazing things for them! They went home with a huge bag of clothes and were all decked out in new jewelry so all in all it was another successful birthday date! I did snap one pic at the clothing swap so I guess one is better than none!

I left work early one day after one of my deadlines that required some long hours and we went out and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather. We went to a little museum, got some dinner, and went for a walk to feed the ducks. The weather was perfect and it was a good way to wind down from the stress.

Another week we went to the Zoo and again the weather was awesome!

Josh doesn't like snakes....

And we had a double-date with the newlyweds :)

Not a ton of randomness I guess. Maybe my brain can handle it after all :)