Henry Cowell Redwoods

We decided earlier this week that we would do a family friendly hike in the Henry Cowell Redwoods yesterday. Terrel and Jenn drove up from Monterey and joined us for the adventure.

Cute cousins starting off the adventure hand in hand.

We named this the "Tree Cave." The bottom of the tree had
been burned out a bit from a forest fire 100 years ago. Definitely
says something about the amazingness of Redwoods that it's still
standing after all of this time.

Our family +1

Terrel and Jenn's family +2

Terrel bet Jenn that he could walk out further on this fallen
tree than her. He started to get on and chickened out. Then Jenn
walked basically the whole tree. Apparently this is a common
situation in their marriage.

This tree is known as "The Giant"

Look how it towers over our girls. It's about as high as a 25-story building

Cute Couple

CHEESE!!!

Us with "The Giant" at an angle that makes us look giant ;)
I could have easily asked Terrel and Jenn to take a picture
for us. What can I say, old habits die hard.

There were 15 numbered stops along the mile walk and we had a little brochure that would talk about each one. We made it a game for the girls, "Who can find the next number first??" When we started getting close to number 12, Robert started making a big deal about how it was the coolest one and we had to take a picture of it. Then we got to it and couldn't see anything spectacular about it, especially after seeing "The Giant" a little bit before. Then we read the brochure. This was the stop that talked about Banana Slugs, Robert's school mascot. Robert insisted we take a picture because this was "his" stop.

Then we found a real banana slug!! We all thought a real banana slug was a little cooler than Robert the banana slug ;) This was actually on my bucket list of things I wanted to do while living in Santa Cruz - see a live Banana Slug in the wild. Check!

Such a weird college mascot to have.

Thanks for the adventure Henry Cowell! It was a fun time :)

March Madness

This post will just cover a few tidbits from the first part of March since it isn't quite over yet. :)

Early Church

I was very worried about switching to the 9:00am block of church this year, but we've LOVED it. We go, get there on time almost on time, then the girls normally fall asleep on the way home or shortly after (the only day Lydia semi-consistently naps anymore). Robert and I nap or play board games until dinner. Then we eat, and while we are eating Mary and Lydia usually wake up. We feed them and then we play all together or Skype family members. It's always the best most refreshing day of the week!

Beating Robert AGAIN at Settlers ;)

Surgery Recovery

Taken on March 7th, the 2 month mark.
Hair is coming in great. Soon it's going to be a fun,
noticeable, little poof back there when I put my hair up
in a pony tail :)

Copied from an email I sent my family and some friends March 3rd: "As far as where I am now, life is good! I had my 6 week post-op check on Feb. 20th where the doctor cleared me to drive and resume all my daily "mom" duties as long as I'm careful. I feel completely back to normal and have for a week or two. I go days at a time without having to take any pain meds and when I do it's just over-the-counter stuff now. My energy is almost to normal. I still have to somewhat pace myself. Like I try to switch off - one day super productive then one day kind of relaxed etc. But for the most part, I'm back to my old self doing ALL my motherly duties, Primary chorister duties, teaching piano, etc so Robert's not having to pick up my slack anymore. It hasn't been that way for a good 6 months, and it feels GREAT! Granted physically there are still things I can't do - run, jump, or anything that puts my neck at risk for whiplash. My neck muscles are still healing and won't be strong enough for me to do stuff like that for another few months, and even at that point I'm supposed to only slowly work up to full activity over the next year or so.

And that's where we are. We feel like it's behind us now and that feels great!"

Lydia's Gymnastics

We've enrolled Lydia in her first gymnastics class. It's a toddler class offered by parks and rec. She's enjoyed it so far and is a complete natural. She definitely doesn't get that from me :)

Apparently, bending over the side of the donut is the funnest
thing to do during free time at gymnastics. 

  

Out With the Old

I've been doing a major overhaul of the apartment. Completely cleaning out every nook and cranny. Getting rid of a ton of stuff and organizing the rest. It was much needed. Lots of hidden messes after me not being at 100% the past 7 months. I should have taken before and after pictures, but I didn't so suffice it to say our little apartment is starting to feel a lot more comfortable with junk gone and everything organized. It's great.

One thing that was thrown out was this old infant carseat. This carseat expired a few months ago. I demolished it so I could throw it away (I saw online that that's what you are supposed to do so that it's not used or sold by dumpster divers). I totally bawled the whole time! I brought both of my babies home from the hospital in this seat! It's amazing the sentimental value we can put into "stuff."

Long Marine Lab

The Long Marine Lab had a free community day a couple of weeks ago. It's basically a mini-aquarium with lots of interactive things for kids to do. It was a lot of fun and we snagged these pictures on the way out.

Cute girls!

And of course Robert wanted to be goofy and join in the fun too.

February in Fast Forward

Holy canole folks!!!! March has already almost come and gone. Can you believe it??? I'm pretty sure somebody pressed the fast forward button of life for February too. I cannot believe it's already been a month and a half since I've posted. Long story short... time flies when you are having fun :) Normally at this point I would do a dozen posts to catch up the blog. In the interest of time I think I am going to do all of February in one post. Are you ready for this?? Buckle your seatbelts! And here we go...

My Little Helper

Lydia LOVES when I let her do anything in the kitchen with me. She has a BLAST, and as long as I'm patient I have fun too :)

Mary always watches from close by, looking cute as ever. I cannot believe how big she is getting. Soon she'll be in the kitchen helping me too.

Aunt Aly Came to Visit

Aly came out for a week at the beginning of the month to help out with the girls when I still didn't have the energy to keep up with them. She was a HUGE help and the girls adore her. 

Lydia and Aly spent hours making these decorative chocolates together. Nearly every time we've mentioned Aly's name since Lydia says, "Yeah, I make chocolate with Aly."

Mothers' Group

We have a Mothers' Group in our ward that gets together once or twice a week to do little play dates with all of our kids. It was raining on this day so we went to the church house to let the kids go free with their wheeled toys and bouncy balls. Lydia is getting pretty awesome at her bike.

Lydia and one of her BFFs, Ada

A couple of dads also came to this play date, so they were able to take the lead on supervising the kids while the moms sat and visited. I love my Santa Cruz ladies!

  

Ring around the Rosey!

Making Spotting Scopes for FHE to "Spot" Things We Are Thankful For 

Our New Friend

This is Mr. Bobcat. He's been hanging very closely around our apartment. There was one day I knelt down to clean fingerprints off of our back sliding door and there it was, scratching at our back door. I might have peed my pants a little.

Love Week

Valentine's Day to our anniversary on the 21st is what we call "Love Week." We had a lot of fun spoiling each other the whole week with presents, going on a couple kidless dates, having a family BBQ, and going out to breakfast and celebrating the 4th birthday of us on the day of our anniversary. Robert put a lot of thought and planning into everything, including getting me 2 bouquets of tulips :) I love that man!!

Robert had a little present for me every day the whole week. This is the one he made the biggest deal of which normally means it's going to be the simplest one, and this was no exception. This is a movie we got on Black Friday for Christmas, but when it came time to get the Christmas presents out we couldn't find it anywhere. So for this day's present he found it for me. He cracks me up!!

This is Robert's "I'm a MAN doing MANLY things" pose

Runnin, runnin...

And runnin, runnin

Like Mother... Like Daughter

Robert was very proud of his hamburger. He had to document it.

  

Santa Cruz Diner is AWESOME!

  

Oh, and Lydia got eaten by a shark.

She helped me frost the cake and was quite proud of herself.

Happy Birthday to US!!

I wish I looked this cute when my face was that messy.

    

Singing and playing duets - one of our favorite things to do!

K'Nex rock!

Random Tidbits

Mary conquered her fear of the swings! She loves them now.

Awesome pic I took of a rainbow on a drive back from Monterey

I was finally cleared to drive again!! Yay!!!

Lydia can successfully catch a ball that is tossed to her. Robert beams every time :)

Lydia accidentally bumped Mary.
Mary fell and started fussing.
Lydia went to say sorry and give her a hug.
Mary says "A-PRIZE!" (surprise) and tackles her.
The little sneak!

I turned this...

Into this and the girls love it :)

The girls both want to help me vacuum every time. It's cute MOST of the time ;)

Mary's Officially in Nursery!

At long last, both girls are in Nursery. Just like Lydia, Mary had no trouble going and loves it every week.

My cute 18 month old!

Family Outing

We've decided at least once a week, aside from Family Home Evening, we need to have one planned ahead of time family outing. Something out of the ordinary, meaning going to the grocery store or Mothers' Group doesn't count. Our first of these adventures was going to the "ice cream store" for frozen yogurt. The girls thought it was the best night of their whole lives, especially Lydia.

There you have it! That was our February. On to March!!!