I’m thankful for this:

(That is not a double stroller-ha!)

(Lucy decided that clothes were overrated when we met up with Josh and Parish)

WONDERFUL FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!!!!

The weekend before Lucy and I left for California we went on our first Idaho camping trip.  We went about 67 miles away but it took a good 3 hours to get there because 50 miles of that looked like this:

Dirt road!!!

On the way up we saw a heard of deer!

Shaun thinks that big one is an elk.  I have no clue.

Our camp site was right by the river and incredibly remote.  We saw 4 other cars on the main road all weekend!

On Saturday we went on a beautiful hike.  I was 100% sure that I would die on the drive to get to the hike but thankfully we didn’t.  That road was scary!!!

I did get some beautiful pictures of flowers!

 

There was still a lot of snow!

The river was the focal point of our trip!

Doesn’t Lucy look jazzed?!?!?!  (she had just woken up from a nap)

The whole family

Sawtooth hiking!

Awesome sights!

River crossings!

Our destination was a big, beautiful meadow.

Lucy loves camping!

Mommy loves camp cooking-cobbler!!!

Men playing dominoes.  Aren’t they manly?

Lucy and one of her favorites-Miss Sarah!

Lucy got over her fear of dogs this trip (there were 5!).  It was great.  Here she is hand feeding Mateo:

Her first s’more!

It was an awesome trip!  Numerous times while we were in CA, Lu asked to go camping-she loved it.  We’re off for another one in a few weeks!!!

Tomorrow? Disneyland!

Today I’m thankful for my Mom friends that I met because of Lucy.  I talk to some of them every day and I don’t know what I would do without them.  They help keep me sane.

I saw?!?!

 
(Photo courtesy of KERF)

I was only a little over an hour away from Kath and since I snubbed her on my East Coast visit 😉 (we really had a jammed pack schedule and we couldn’t fit any other visits in), I decided to jump in the rental car and drive over to see her.  We were do for our fourth annual visit ;). I’m glad I did!  We had a blast and I got to eat this:

 
(Photo courtesy of KERF)

And drink this:

(Photo courtesy of KERF)

And eat with these lovely people:

(Photo courtesy of KERF)

It was the perfect way to end my crazy day! I presented from 8 am until 4:30 pm.  I’m lucky to have a voice and it was getting weak by the end of the day.  I have to do it all over again tomorrow :-/

Throughout the day I got picture updates from my sister about Lu.

Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to get the MMS’ off of my phone?! BUT in trying to figure it out, I found this gem:

(I apologize for the poor quality-it was taken with my phone!)

My parents took Lu to Fred Meyer to buy some Skechers Light-Up shoes.  Tessa had some and Mimi thought Lu needed some.  Evidently she did.  Too bad they are so GAUDY!  She loves them though and they’re perfect for her.

I MISS my baby!

I can remember as a kid REALLY wanting to play soccer but it never seemed to work out.  I used to kick the ball against the garage hoping that I’d become such a phenom that my parents would HAVE to make the time for me to play.  Yeah…that didn’t happen.

Well…

I played my first game of soccer last night!  I joined an adult soccer league here and I’ll play every Monday night.  I was extremely nervous going into the game but I did okay.  It’s a co-ed league and it’s really just an organized pick-up game.  It’s perfect for me to learn.  My team REALLY wanted me to score and tried their hardest to get me to score but I kept getting really flustered.  I did assist a few times and that was fun!  Everyone was surprised that it was my first game ever and I call that a success.  And, HOLY, you run a TON when playing soccer and you run HARD.  There were many times when I felt like puking-but I didn’t!  Overall, I had a blast and I can’t wait until next week.

In other news, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do and numerous people have asked me for pictures.  Are you ready for picture overload?

On August 29th (yes, almost a month ago) we went to the Idaho State Fair!  It was fun!

A loaded potato that Shaun got (it had a breakfast sausage stuffed in the middle?!?!):

I guess it’s actually called a “Tater Pig”:

The girls shared HALF a pound of fries.  They normally don’t sell half pounds BUT it was the last day of the fair and they took pity on me:

My sister got the requisite funnel cake:

Which everyone, but me, enjoyed!

Shaun got a fancy, smancy beer-Fat Tire:

I love that Fat Tire is right next to Pabst:

Next up was the petting farm!

Why, hello mister!

Lissa and Tessa having a good time:

Lucy was a little timid at first but ended up LOVING it!

After washing our hands REALLY well, we went on a pony ride! Tessa’s always up for anything fun!

Here’s Lucy’s first time around:

And her second time:

And her third:

She LOVED it!!!

Let’s see, next up in my pictures is Shaun mowing the lawn with Lu on his back.  It was the day before we left for Pennsylvania and I had a late meeting.  Super Daddy!

Next up on the camera is Pennsylvania!  Shaun’s family lives North Eastern Pennsylvania.  The “big” cities around are Wilkes-Barre and Scranton (yes where The Office is based).  They live about 45 minutes from WIlkes-Barre, in the mountains by lots of lakes.

Here’s Lu at one of them-she played for over 2 hours with almost no interaction from us-she wanted nothing to do with us!  She just wanted to watch the older kids and play with their toys.  She’s getting so grown up!

“Eating” ice cream:

Here’s the lake:

That night we went go cart racing!  Here’s Great Grandma Titus, Gram (Shaun’s Mom), cousin Tyler, and Lu:

95 year old Grandma Titus and Lu:

The guys ready to race:

Aunt Kara and Lucy watching the race:

Yes, there really is a Day Care right next to the Go Cart race track!

Pop and Lucy playing:

We went to the beautiful town of Jim Thorpe:

Look familiar?

The next day we went to Knobles, a theme park where you don’t pay to get in and just pay for tickets.

Lu wasn’t so sure about the carousel:

Nor was Jenna.  Jenna’s Mom, Stephanie and I met when we were pregnant on Baby Center.  She lives near Shaun’s family and I am so happy that I got to see her and Jenna.  Lu is 4 days older than Jenna and Jenna is about a foot taller than Lu!

They had a blast at Knobles. Flying planes:

Going for boat rides:

Driving Cars:

Riding trains:

Flying in a Helicopter with Daddy:

Driving fire trucks!

Big cars with Daddy!

Here’s Stephanie, Lucy, and Jenna:

Knowbles (pronounced Keh-Nob-Els) was a blast!

The next day we went to Uncle Ricky and Aunt Kelly’s where Cousin Tyler showed Lu how to drive his gator!

She kind of got it:

Later on in the week, we went to Hershey to visit Shaun’s friend from High School-Claire and her husband Mike and son Max:

How cute are they?

We then drove to DC to visit our friends from when we used to live there-6 years ago!  I can’t believe it’s been six years!

We went to the National Arboretum:

Which had an amazing exhibit on bonsai trees:

 

 

Butterfly!

Feeding the koi:

At the Baltimore Children’s Museum:

BIG BUBBLE!

And I’ll end with a picture of my Mommy friends that I met up with in Baltimore (again from my Mommy board) Cole, Brya, Ryan, Matthew, Jesi, Me, and the back of Lu’s head.

Whew. Are you still with me?

I’ll be back tomorrow with pictures of the birthday girl.  She’s turning 2 tomorrow!

Blueberry oatmeal with farmer’s market raspberries and strawberries.  Topped with my sister’s GF banana bread and almond butter. 

Yesterday was the epitome of a perfect day for me.  I met my sister and we walked down to the farmer’s market and got some great local produce.  After shopping, we ran into a parade.  I didn’t have my camera but it was cool!  The bagpipers and old fire engines were the highlight.  (Crappy phone pictures)

A random parade is not something I would have found in San Mateo!  After the parade we took the girls to the park where they had a blast! (I was so bummed I forgot my camera).

In the afternoon, we went over to my old college roommate (and good friend) Megan’s house for a BBQ.  I’ve written about Megan and Luke before. I am so excited that Megan and Luke live here!  And?  Luke and Shaun will be working together.  How awesome is that?  Shaun starts work on Tuesday and I imagine that we’ll be seeing a lot of Megan and Luke. YAY!

They had set up a table out in their backyard, in the shade.

With beautiful flowers from their garden.

And yummy appetizers!

Lu had a great time running around the backyard.

Dinner was served!

Chicken, steak, fish, grilled veggies and rice salad. YOM.

After dinner Lu went for a swing in the hammock.

Lucy LOVED Aunt Megan.  Lu is pretty shy and takes time to warm up to people.  NOT MEGAN.  She was like Megan’s shadow and couldn’t get enough of her.  Megan is a teacher and is going to be a great Mommy (around Christmas!).

Megan had picked up some fireworks for Lu and we were unsure how she’d react.  What do you think she thought of them?

She kept asking for “Mo! Mo! Mo!”  It was very sweet. 

At the end of the night, Lu christened Megan and Luke’s new tub-they just got a fantastic bathroom remodel and Lu had a popsicle that got all over.

Before we left, Lu gave Aunt Megan a huge hug.

We’ve made the right decision 😉

~~~~~

Yes, that is a plastic bowl and a spoon of Lucy’s up there in the first picture of my morning oatmeal.  Our stuff isn’t here :(.  It was supposed to be here by July 2nd at the latest but it is now sitting in San Francisco.  They can’t find a driver.  I didn’t even know that that was a possibility.  When they schedule a move, shouldn’t the driver be scheduled too?  Mayflower is paying us $125 everyday that our stuff isn’t here and they don’t seem too concerned.  They’ve basically told us that our stuff will get here when it gets here.  So, we wait.  I’m not very happy with Mayflower right now.

BUT

We haven’t let it slow us down.  My sister let us borrow 2 arm chairs and a table with 4 chairs.  We bought a picnic table for outside and we’re having a good time “camping out”.  I was wondering today if we really even needed our 5,000 pounds of stuff?  We do, of course, but it hasn’t been that bad. We have each other, family, and friends-it’s all we really need.