CA Trip

If I don't get a few things posted about the summer it is never going to happen...we spent a month in California - split between San Franscisco and Bakersfield. San Franscisco has much better weather, but it was good to visit family in both places! Here are a couple highlights...


Our visit to the ocean in Northern California:
The ocean was COLD! It was a beautiful day but VERY windy - you can see Bella & Clark in their jackets but Clark still wanted to do a little wading in the frigid water!

San Franscisco visit:

Lombard street - I really enjoyed driving down it and checking out the cool houses; I don't know if the kids really were all that impressed!

At the Pier...we saw the sea lions, alcatraz and I got a sour dough bread bowl with hot clam chowder. YUM! (The rest of the family ate too, but personally I thought they were missing out since they didn't get the bread and soup :)

What is a visit to San Francisco without the Golden Gate Bridge? We drove over the bridge (and we have a lot of driving pictures on the camera thanks to Clark) and took these pictures on the other side looking back at the city. It was a really fun visit!

Bella's 3 Year Old Pictures

I am trying to do better about taking consistant pictures of my kids - so at least one good picture a year. I got Bella's pictures back yesterday from the photographer and I think they are cute. I could post several of them, but she made this cute little collage of some of the best ones, so I am just posting it. You can go here and see a few more (they posted some on their website). We are so glad Bella is THREE!! What would we do without her!?!

FAQ

This post is for the benefit of all those who do not live close...most of our family, many friends, etc. Since it has been almost 10 years since I have been pregnant there are a couple common questions I get so hopefully these will help out.

1. Q: Do you look pregnant?

A: YES! What do you think this basketball is that I am carrying around! :) And I am even posting a picture, even though I really am not a fan of self portraits. I look like I am going to fall over backwards but anyway, here it is.

According to a lady in California when I was there in July, she didn't think I was going to make it till October and thought I MUST be having twins. But most other people don't seem to agree with her appraisal.

2. Q: How are you feeling?

A: OK overall. I certainly can't complain and know it could be much worse but I have to say that doing this 10 years ago was definitely easier! I am grateful for this miracle, so I am just going with it!

3. Q: When are you due?

A: Technically, October 11th but Clark was 2 weeks early...can't I hope for that again?

4. Q: Do you have a name picked out?

A: No...still a work in progress. If you have any suggestions that are not currently on the top 10 list of names for girls, please leave them in the comment section. (I really like many of those names but when you have a last name as common as we do we have to try and find some originality somewhere else!)

Within the next month we should have pictures of a new baby and a name for her so even though I have been a terrible blogger as of late, check back sometime!

Happy Birthday Bella!

How can our little Bella be THREE already? Time goes by so fast! She had a fun day - playing with a little friend and having balloons and cupcakes with the family.

Three fun things about Bella:

1. She loves to talk. (Don't we already have a kid that does that too?) When Ryan comes home they both will talk away - at the same time - but that doesn't seem to bother either of them. She will also sing and make up words and tunes but we aren't quite sure what they are about.

2. She loves to dress up and do her hair like a princess. On any given day she has hair that looks like Mulan, Cinderella and Belle - all at the same time. Or it could just look kinda crazy because we haven't done it yet either!

3. She likes to color and has a strange fettish with taking the paper off the crayons. I don't know why but she really doesn't like the paper on the outside so we find piles of very small paper pieces around the house.

I didn't get really great pictures of her day, but here are a couple of fun ones: