First Temple and San Fran Trip

We finally made it up to Oakland for our first temple trip. I ran a few errands and then waited outside with the girls while Robert did a session and next time we'll switch. I love this temple! It's beautiful and it's built at one of the highest points in Oakland, so it has a gorgeous view. I had a blast outside with my girlies, taking pictures, and teaching Lydia that this building was called a temple. Trying to teach the important things while they're young. :)

The view. I would love to see it at night sometime.

Once Robert got out, we headed across the bay to San Francisco for lunch. We ate at one of the restaurants on Pier 39, Sea Lion Cafe, and then just browsed, people watched, and took some pictures.

Golden Gate

Alcatraz

Street Performers

We were stopped by a group of Asian tourists because they wanted to take pictures of our girls in the double stroller. You know your kids are cute when... Robert and I have actually been too Pier 39 once before at the same time. It was back in high school for Chorale tour. Robert hated me at that time, so we had fun recalling our memories from that trip since they were so separate from each other. :) We hope to eventually be perfect tour guides of the Bay area as well as Santa Cruz. We both have sisters that are seniors in high school and will be coming on the same San Francisco Chorale Tour in March. We hope to have a favorite restaurant to take them to when they come. Such a fun area!

Big, Big, Big, Big Water

(Darn! Now that song is going to be stuck in my head. It's from one of the zillion Land Before Time movies)

I never would have guessed how much I would LOVE living so close to the beach!! It's a little too cold now too take our little kiddos, but we squeezed in several trips before it got too cold. I can't wait until it warms back up enough that we can go all of the time again. Don't mistake that for complaining about the weather. "Cold" here is in the 60s. That's BEAUTIFUL compared to the Utah fall and winters I've gotten used to. Anyway, here's some fun pictures from an outing we had on Natural Bridges Beach, and also when we went  to watch the sunset at West Cliff which overlooks Lighthouse State Beach.

Robert gets a kick out of running away from the water. He's the third kid in our house. :)

All my children ;)

We're so lucky to live in paradise :)

Mary at One Month

I'll hopefully be posting Mary's Two Month post soon, so I won't say too much right now. I will say she is the PERFECT baby. Until lately, she's always been a 100% happy baby as long as she's not hungry. She is so sweet, so cute, and we are blessed to have her in our lives. Here's some pictures from her first month. Like I've said before, I've been seriously lacking in the picture department, so this is basically every picture I took of her in her first month. I'm trying to do better, I promise!

Four days old. Yay for being able to bring out old favorite outfits from when Lydia was a baby :)

Two weeks old. Our first Sunday in Santa Cruz Ward.

Bath time in the sink :)

Traditional monthly photo shoot. My Aunt Pam gave us the outfit she's wearing. It says "I love you cherry much." So cute.

Being Bashful :)

4th Annual Hall Family Reunion

Thursday night September 15th, 8 days after we had just finished the big move drive, I turned to Robert and said, "Robert, I want to go to my family reunion this weekend." As if our lives hadn't been crazy enough, right?? After a couple minutes of discussion and clarifying that I was being serious, Robert said we could go and 12 hours later we started the 12 hour drive to Mesa, AZ.

A few hours into the drive, Robert woke me up and said, "Heidi, it feels like the car is throwing up!" Confused and still half asleep, I said, "What do you mean 'throwing up?'" Robert clarified, "Like it's heaving." I asked, "How much gas do we have?" Right after I asked, the engine choked and we coasted to a stop, completely out of gas, surrounded by nothing but peach farms.

Robert started to walk to the closest gas station, but when he got enough service on his phone to look up how far away the closest gas station was he called and said the closest one was 1 and 1/2 hours walking distance away. I said, "Well, I saw someone drive by on a tractor on that peach farm right there. Maybe they'll help." So Robert hopped the fence and found a worker that knew at least a handful of words of English. They ended up letting us use some gas from their motorcycle, gave us a fresh bag of peaches off the farm, and we were on our way. The whole adventure took just over an hour. I'm glad we weren't stranded for too long. Now, it's a funny memory to look back on instead of a horrible experience :)

Finally, we got to my parents' house that evening. We only told 2 of my sisters we were coming, so it was a complete surprise to everyone else. Here's my dad holding Mary for the first time, and baby Bryson. His 25th and 23rd grandchildren.

Lydia and Alena were so excited to see and play with each other. You'd think it had been ages since they saw each other instead of just over a week and a half

After a fun night of surprising both of our families, the next day we headed up to Camp LoMia for the Hall Reunion. It was a fabulous time, as always. Aunt Pam and family did a wonderful job in charge this year. Here's the mommies and 3 new Wilcken grandbabies - Katie with Bryson, Becky with Annie, and me with Mary. They were all born within 3 weeks and 2 days of each other.

Aubrie and Cami loving Mary while Sasha loves Bryson.

It's no secret that Lydia loves being the center of attention. During the Sunday program she kept going up to the stage and trying to lead a song or say a prayer. It was too cute if I say so myself.

Me snuggling my baby. She's too precious!

We got a couple more days of visiting in, then headed back to Santa Cruz before Robert started school. It was a whirlwind of a trip, but totally worth it! If for nothing else, my parents got to meet Mary while she was still in her newborn stage. I love my family!!

The Big Move

Welp, Tuesday September 6th was the big day. Aaron, Robert, Devin Curry, and Mom all loaded up the truck and car while Aly entertained Lydia and I got together everything from inside the house. It really is nothing short of a miracle that we got everything to fit in that 10 foot truck and the back of our Blazer. I wish I had gotten a picture of how full it was. There really wasn't an inch to spare. Side note: "I wish I had gotten a picture of..." that's a phrase you'll probably be hearing a lot of in the next few posts. I've been severely slacking in the picture taking department. Before I knew it we were on our way. Here's the 2 kiddos ready for the big drive ahead. They were both troopers the whole time!

We drove from Utah to Reno the first day and the rest of the way the next day. About an hour and a half before we got to Santa Cruz we drove through Danville. We're Phineas and Ferb (a cartoon on Disney Channel) fans so we had to take a picture by a Danville sign. :)

After months of anticipation and preparation, and a very long drive we finally arrived at our new home!

But boy did we still have our work cut out for us!

Aly, Mom, and Robert worked like machines! Before going to bed that night they moved all of the boxes into their corresponding rooms and got the kitchen unpacked enough that it could function, the whole while I was barking orders from a chair feeling lazy. They wouldn't let me work. Some nonsense about how I had just had a baby 10 days before or something. ;)

Aly and Mom's flight left the next afternoon, so after getting a little bit more work done Thursday morning we took a well needed break and decided to explore Santa Cruz a little bit before they had to leave and headed down to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

Aly and I played in the water.

Mom eventually couldn't resist joining in on the fun.

I love these next 2 pictures. I feel like they could be posters advertising for a movie. Like this one "A woman, a sailor, and a love that spans the ocean." Am I right or am I right??

Then this one, "A baby, an ocean, and the diaper that would last through it all!" I think we have the makings of a blockbuster phenomenon ;)

Lydia loves the wet sand, and she loves it more and more every time we go to the beach.

After the beach it was time to say goodbye to Aly and Mom. They were SOOOOOOOO much help! They did in a few hours what it would have taken me days to do. We were so grateful. I have the best inlaws!

The Catch Up Begins!!

Hello world!!! Did you miss me? I missed you! I'll slowly be catching up on all of our past 2 months of adventures in the next few days. Already posted:

Out of the Box! Out of the Box! - Packing adventures
A Baby Story - Mary's labor and delivery story
3 Minutes - The scare Mary gave us in her first few minutes of life
Welcome Mary Eliza! - Pictures from Mary's first few days
A Week in Limbo - Our time between Mary being born and moving to California
Farewell to Provo - A shout out to our Provo experience and a few things we'll miss about it

Still to come: The Big Move, Hall Reunion, Mary at 1 Month, Our New Home, Santa Cruz Adventures, and more!

STAY TUNED!!! ;)

Farewell to Provo

I never thought when I moved to Utah after Robert and I got married that I would love Provo as much as I did and still do. There are so many stories I could tell about the people, places, friends, and family we love there. It's where Robert and I started life as a married couple. It's where we started raising our family. It's where I learned to appreciate, and even somewhat look forward to snow in the winter ;) I could go on and on and on about what we loved and what we miss, but instead I will just touch on a couple things that I don't feel like have been touched on enough yet.

Provo Peak 4th Ward

PP4th was our second ward in Provo. PP11th Ward was our first, and it was wonderful too and we made many friends in that ward that we are still in touch with. But PP4th holds a special place in my heart. We moved in to this ward less than 2 weeks before Lydia was born. Before we left church the first Sunday we were there we were asked to speak the next Sunday and the Relief Society President had given me a "Daddy's Hospital Survival Kit" for Robert which contained (along with snacks and other things) a card that had the number of who we needed to call once the baby was born to get meals organized for us. It's hard to describe how wonderful this ward was. I think the story that best illustrates this happened last summer 2010. We were struggling to make ends meet financially. We didn't know how we were going to make it to the start of school when Robert would start working for BYU again. Then one morning there was an envelope on our doorstep with our name on it. Inside there was $100. I told Robert that I had a few guesses who would have left this for us. Robert said he did too. We both listed 2 or 3 different couples/families. They were all from our ward, and neither of us guessed the same people. That's how AMAZING the people of this ward were. I'm so honored and grateful to have been a part of it.

Trent and Natalie DeVore

Trent and Natalie are great people and irreplaceable friends. They are the kind of people that will give you the shirt of their backs if you need it. They are there for you at a moment's notice and were for us several times. Their son, Logan, was Lydia's best friend. We will miss the late game nights and conversations we got to have with them on a regular basis and look forward to future ones even though they might be years apart. I'm crossing my fingers that our paths through life lead us to living in the same area again someday.

Robert's Professors

You might think this is random for me to love and miss, but I love Robert's BYU professors. They have given Robert work experience, recommendations, and put him in contact with people that will help with Robert's future education and career for the rest of our lives. One professor in particular holds a special place in my heart. I never met him in person, but I'm so thankful for and indebted to this man. During the same summer 2010 that I just talked about, he randomly asked Robert how Lydia and I were doing. Robert said, "Well, we're your typical starving student family, living off of mac and cheese, but we're doing alright." A few days later he gave Robert a personal check for $300. The professor said, "Consider this your 'Mac and Cheese' check." He continued to give us "Mac and Cheese" checks once a month for the rest of our time in Provo. There were several times that we would not have made it without his generosity. And I personally think that we have not yet seen the end of the blessings we will receive from the experience Robert gained from working for and with this man.

Provo was a wonderful chapter of our lives. I look forward to growing a similar love for Santa Cruz, which I'm sure we will. We were where we were supposed to be when we were in Provo, and now we are supposed to be in Santa Cruz. I can't wait to see what adventures and experiences Heavenly Father has in store for us here.

A Week in Limbo

We brought Mary home to our apartment Tuesday, August 30th. We had to be out of the apartment by 10:00am the next morning. So we packed up the remaining odds and ends, I finished cleaning the fridge :), and we moved in with our good friends, Aaron and Kaci Cardon, for a week while I recovered a bit before making the big move to California. We were so blessed to be surrounded by many friends and some family. Several people were willing and offered to let us live with them during this time that we were homeless (ward members, the DeVores, Aunt Mary-Jack, and others) and we are so grateful for all of them. The Cardons just ended up being the best, most convenient option.

Life at Casa de la Cardon 

Kaci is one of my best friends. We've been close friends since high school. She was my Maid of Honor at my wedding. Basically she's like a sister to me. Since I moved to Utah after I got married we haven't seen each other as much. However she and her husband Aaron moved to Provo at the beginning of this summer so Aaron could start flight school at UVU. It was so great to spend so much time with them this summer, in a way rejuvenating our friendship post both of us getting married. We capped it off by taking advantage of their friendship and moving in ;) That's a joke. They very generously offered, and we humbly accepted. In my opinion, it couldn't have worked out better. They were wonderful hosts, and a huge help in so many ways. Lydia absolutely loved them, especially playing with Aaron. I think Lydia got used to how great it was to have 2 mommies and daddies and went through withdrawals after we left. It was a great time.

As part of our "thank you for letting us live with you," we took them out to The Mayan Adventure Restaurant in Sandy, Utah. Robert and I had never been there, but Kaci and Aaron had and we'd talked about going there with them all summer, so we killed two birds with one stone and treated them to dinner :)

Mary enjoyed her first public restaurant experience

It is a cool place! Pretty good Mexican food (by Utah standards) but the coolest part was the atmosphere of the place. Basically, if you were to make a restaurant out of the line to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland it would be this restaurant, complete with the flickering lights. To top it off, all the tables surround a 50ish foot tall waterfall and pool that performers do a diving/acrobatic show off of every 30 minutes. Super cool! I recommend it. Kind of pricey, but the entrees are big enough that you can split a meal and still be satisfied. Anyway, it was a fun night.

Robert's Family Visit

Robert's parents and 3 youngest sisters came the weekend after Mary was born to meet the new addition to the family.

Grandma with the calm one

Grandpa with the not so calm one

Aunt Crystal

Aunt Kylee

Aunt Aly

It was a fun filled visit - Swimming at the hotel, frisbee at the duck pond, Los Hermanos, Pictionary Man, Buzz Word, Shaved Ice, and more!

Mary's First Sunday

I have to stick this picture in here, because I think it is just darling! My mom made the baby afghan Mary's laying on. If you look closely you can see that it says "I Am A Child of God" on it. Also, at one week old Mary was already cracking little smiles for pictures :)

Sunday night, while Robert's family went to have dinner with the parents of one of the sister missionaries that are currently living with them, we went up to Salt Lake to have dinner with and say our goodbyes to Katie, Mike, and Alena. I surprisingly kept my composure until we got to the car. Then I bawled like a baby for half the drive back to Provo. I miss living so close to them, but we look forward to seeing them over the holidays!

Farewell BBQ at the Park

Monday morning Robert's Dad, Crystal, and Kylee headed home. Mom and Aly stayed to drive over to California with us the next day, but headed up to Tooele to visit with Robert's Aunt Velma and stayed with her Monday night. So that night Kaci and Aaron invited us to BBQ with them at the park as kind of our last hurrah. Devin and Autumn Curry came too. After eating, Lydia, Mary, and I chilled on the sidelines while everyone else played frisbee.

Then we headed back to Kaci and Aaron's to visit and play games. It was great to squeeze in one last game night and a wonderful relaxing end to the Provo chapter of our lives. :)