This and that...

Well, the school year went by, just like we knew it would, and here we are in the middle of summer. This last year of teaching was much easier than the first and I think it will just keep getting better. There's nothing like those last few weeks of school. Everything is winding down and there is a feeling of excitement in the air. Oliver and I have enjoyed (for the past 2 years I've been at Mountain View) the final school assembly. It's a talent show at 8 am. We think it's hilarious that it's so early in the day. He comes and watches it with me. I was quite put out that there was no bacon left by the time I got to the food at the faculty end of year breakfast. I will miss some of my students. I love teaching 10th grade. They are sweeter than 11th graders...well, it's really a case by case thing, but generally I like 10th grade more. I got in a full-on fight with a fellow teacher after the last parent teacher conference over who got to use the life of Pi books. I think we can both look back and laugh about it now. I'm excited to teach a semester of humanities and a semester of creative writing next year in addition to my English classes. We are in the process of choosing new books for 10th grade. It's harder than it sounds. Oliver is heading in to his last year of school:)  Okay- so that's it for the school year.
As far as the summer goes, we have been enjoying the heck out of it. The first part of the summer was very busy with moving. We moved in to the Belle Monet condos in Pleasant Grove. We love love it here. Our place is so nice and has awesome little perks like stainless steel appliances, jacuzzi tub, walk in closet, 3 bedrooms, etc. Plus, we are loving having a pool and a raquetball court right across the street. I've always wanted my own pool and one day I will have one in my back yard, but I've actually really enjoyed sharing a pool because I always seem to meet someone new or make a friend when I take Gabe down to go swimming cuz there's often other  moms down there with their kids. I've decided that swimming with a child is a very different animal than swimming with other adults. Obviously it's much more fun to swim with other adults cuz you can play all kinds of games, but it's nice to take Gabe down and he loves it. Once in a while Oliver and I will sneak down by ourselves:) We also go play raquetball often during Gabe's nap. We play 3 game tournaments and the winner always does a fun victory dance involving their raquet. Am I not spelling racket right? oh, well. Another thing that we have had more time for this summer is FHE and dates. FHE with Oliver is the best. We love conducting it as if it's a grand, formal affair and it's a great time to go over the calendar and upcoming things. Then we take turns giving the lesson and planning an activity. Activities have included: board games, sing-alongs (with Oliver accompanying, of course), reading on the porch together, swimming, walks, and crafting. I would love to hear any and all ideas for things you have done with FHE. Soon Gabe will be involved more in our FHE. We have had good intentions for dates like going hiking and exploring new things, but for the most part we are tired and just want to relax when we go out so we end up going to movies or dinner. We did go mini-golfing on our last date, though, and it was quite fun. Yesterday we went back to school clothes shopping pretty much all day with a break in the middle for Gabe's nap. He loved playing at the mall playground and can now go down the slide by himself. He's way too big. Oliver and I both had to stop ourselves multiple times from going over and helping him when other kids would be not that cool to him, but we wanted him to be a little bit independent and he did great. Oliver is loving having more free time this summer and is a little reading machine. He has gotten in to the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I listen very politely when he tells me about it;) We are using our library cards constantly. What a wonderful thing: the library. We are always amazed that we can use all this stuff for free.
Gabe, as I previously mentioned, is huge and smart and really just getting cuter than anyone has the right to be.
We recently got back form a trip to California. 

Dear Gabey,

To my beautiful boy,

You are 2 and a half years old. You have my whole heart. Did you know that? You hold it in your sticky, little hand. I know that your heart is full of buzz, elmo, and barney, but I’m pretty sure there’s also a big place for me and daddy. Nothing in this world makes me happier than seeing your face when you see me. The other day we were at Hannah and jake’s and you stayed behind while I went to the store. When we got back, you didn’t see me right away. You just saw Hannah and you smiled politely at her, but seemed a little sad. Then I said, “hi gabey”, and your little face lit up with joy and you said, “mommy” and I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. The next day, daddy and you and I were singing “the wheels on the bus” and you were singing so loud and emphasizing certain words and getting really into it like you do, and then you just squeeled, “mommy” and threw yourself at me for a big hug. My heart could have burst. I closed my eyes and buried my face in your neck. Your little face and body are so kissable. I cannot get enough of your soft skin. I kiss your tummy and your face so much that I just know you are thinking, “aaaww, mom, come on, stop.” But I won’t stop. I will never stopJ you loooove to sing. Music always calms you down. But you absolutely hate when daddy plays the guitar. We think that it’s because you don’t like to share his attention. It’s pretty funny. I love to watch you and daddy play. You are so lucky to have him. He will sit with you in your “fort” under the table for hours. He will chase you down the hall endlessly. He will keep you company in the middle of the night if you can’t sleep. How I ended up with the 2 sweetest boys on earth, I will never know. I can only thank God. These are your favorite things to say, “are you ok?” “are you ok, gabey?” “whasa matter?” “come on”, “swinging?” (swimming). “is ok”. You are now sleeping in a big boy bed and you seem to love the independence it gives you. You get out of bed and play with your toy and we’ll just hear you chattering away to yourself in there.  the other day you had been napping for so long and I hand’t heard from you, so I went in to make sure everything was okay and you were just laying in your bed completely naked with your arms behind your head looking like hugh hefner stretched out by the pool. you make me laugh so much. Thank you for that. You like to read books and say ‘the end” at the last page. You love ice cream and scrambled eggs and café rio and you looove cheeseburgers. You love the slide and swimming and playing with blocks and marbles. You have decorated every inch of our patio with your chalk art. You are so smart and sweet and kind. you can count to 20 and sing the alphabet. You always like to share with us and give us bites of things and  offer us little bear’s tail, which is your favorite thing in the world. You are so good. And, baby, life is good and hard and every other thing. I want to help you be strong, ethical, a free and critical thinker, kind, hard-working, caring, and happy. I want all of the best things for you. But, right now, while you are small, what I really want is to fill you so full of love and kindness and attention that it colors your view of the world. I want our love to provide a safe place for you to venture out from and always fall back on.  I want you to have a reserve of love inside so that you can share it with the world, and know that you always, always have a safe place to land if the world sometimes does not act the way you wanted . You are my beautiful, beautiful boy forever. add more about his singing, having us kiss stuff. etc.

All my love,

Mommy

All the things...well, actually just some of the things. 2012- present

here is part of a blog I wrote a loooong time ago, but never posted.
I'm guessing Dec, 2012

We had a great thanksgiving. The first night of break, Oliver and I went on a fun date to see the movie “Lincoln”. It was very good. Then, Greg came to visit and boy was he a sight for sore eyes. I was actually a little nervous about seeing him cuz it had been a while and our phone conversations had started to become awkward and stale, lol. But my worries were nonsense and I should have known that greg and I are an unstoppable force of fun when we get together, no matter how much time has passed. I thank my lucky stars for a brother like him. The first day he was here we went to the nickel city, obviously. The best game at nickel city is deal or no deal, again, obviously. We won big. That evening we made dinner, went to have a chat at starbucks, and went to hobby lobby in search of a Christmas craft. We bought copious amounts of felt and spent the rest of the evening happily creating colorful christmas garlands.They will add a real Christmas cheer to our house. On thanksgiving day we spent all day playing games, well, specifically we spent all day playing nertz. Very addictive and very fun racing card game. We could not get enough. Then we went to find someplace to have thanksgiving dinner but no place was open and if it was open, it was full. So, yeah, we had thanksgiving dinner at ihop, it’s not something we’re proud of, but it happened and it is what it is. I don’t think I need to tell you that it was sub-par at best. While at ihop, we went through the black Friday ads in the papers we had brought. Disappointing selection of items this year. Nothing worth getting up at the crack of dawn for. So, we left ihop feeling a little embarrassed and a little queasy. Then, oliver had to go to work, can you believe that? On thanksgiving day. I should probably explain that oliver recently got a seasonal job at target. (babies don’t come cheap when you have to pay to force your body to do what it should do by itself via expensive pharamacueticals and many many ultrasounds. Hashtag- anyone who suffers infertility to any degree should have a free pass in all other areas of life) FYI- if not already obvious- we are trying for another baby. Go us!  anywho, one thing I love about oliver is that he has work ethic coming out of his ears. Wherever he works, he does his best always and even takes pride in the company. He also looks great in the tan pants and red shirt, and, like a boss, he personalizes the ensemble with a white thermal under his red tee, a nice addition and a little shout-out to the 90s all in one. His bosses say he is “extremely thorough”. I believe it. He mostly works in the shoe section and he leaves no shoe unstraightened. Let’s be honest, if you have to be walking around a store for 6 hours, target is the one to be at. Target is a wonderland of products. But, back to my point, he had to work at 8:30 pm on thanksgiving day cuz target opened at 9. greg and I went out to observe all the crazies do their black Friday shopping. I was shocked, (really seriously shocked, I couldn’t stop saying how appalled I was, greg started to get annoyed, lol) at the line wrapped around target. It was insane. Greg and I drove around and around just staring at people and trying to figure out what awesome deal motivated them to come out on thanksgiving night. Most people were buying either fake trees, tvs, or foosball tables. Friday, we kept playing games, crafting, and munching the unbelievably delicious peppermint jojos that greg brought from California. It was a great break and great quality time with some of my favorite people.

Greg and gabe

So, now we are 2 and a half weeks away from Christmas break and I could not be more excited.  Our days are busy and mostly good. Oliver recently finished up a field experience in a 5^th grade class. He got to work with a nice male teacher and a great class. He really liked it and one of the kids from the class even happened to be at my parent teacher conference with a sibling the other day and came up to me and told me how much he liked Mr AJ. Oliver is in a cohort with lots of crazy girls. It’s fun to hear all the strange things they say. Oliver got called to the Sunday school presidency and is excited to help transition to the new curriculum. It seems like a great change and we think it will be effective. As for me, my classes are going well and I was surprised to find that I love teaching 10^th grade. 10^th graders are silly and not quite “too cool for school” yet. Teaching is just such an odd job. Everyday is so different. So, let’s talk Gabe, shall we? He is mi vida, mi corzon, mi muneca, mi amor. (my life, my heart, my doll, my love). He has recently turned into a mama’s boy and nothing could please me more. He follows me like a puppy and reaches for me when other people hold him. My heart could burst with joy. He’s a snuggle baby. He eats everything now. He loves music. He loves other kids.

gabe

Other than working, school, and gabe, we don’t have too much time but we have managed to do a few fun things. We have taken up racquetball and it is so fun. We play about 2 times a week and are about at the same level so it’s fun to play with each other. Oliver has the absolute best victory dances when he wins. Oliver really enjoys playing the piano, especially when he is up at night doing homework or tending to gabe. It’s so fun to have a piano, just like it says in the movie “prodical son”, “mom always said, a piano really makes a home”.  For a while there, we were on a ticket to ride kick. We played every Sunday night.

Ticket to ride

I swear I could spend every minute with oliver and not get bored. Last night we went to see the lights at temple square with Hannah, Jake,  Mal, Wren, Maddie, and Carolyn. to kick off the Christmas season. It was beautiful, albeit and little drizzly. We discovered the most delicious hot cocoa at blue lemon and sang Christmas songs on the drive.

We are really looking forward to spending Christmas in California with our families. I like blogging- it helps me remember all the good things in life.

Dear Gabey-

I have especially loved being your mom these last few weeks. I have loved crawling around on the floor and making you laugh. Dad and I made a game where we crawl into another room and then burst out and crawl toward you. You added on to the game by giggling and crawling away from us and then looking back with the cutest, expectant look on your face. You laugh so hard that you fall over when we start crawling toward you.  I have loved looking at books with you and that you are starting to actually pay attention to the pages for a few minutes before you try to eat them. I have loved holding you and singing to you until you fall asleep and how you cling on to me even in your sleep. Today, I marveled at how the light fell across your face as we sat in the rocker together. You are one year old now. You were not really that interested in the cake at the birthday party that you shared with Christmas. You are my beautiful boy. 
Mom
Dec, 2012

 
here is part of a blog I wrote in May of last year, but never posted.
Well, the school year went by, just like we knew it would, and here we are in the middle of summer. This last year of teaching was much easier than the first and I think it will just keep getting better. There's nothing like those last few weeks of school. Everything is winding down and there is a feeling of excitement in the air. Oliver and I have enjoyed (for the past 2 years I've been at Mountain View) the final school assembly. It's a talent show at 8 am. We think it's hilarious that it's so early in the day. He comes and watches it with me. I was quite put out that there was no bacon left by the time I got to the food at the faculty end of year breakfast. I will miss some of my students. I love teaching 10th grade. They are sweeter than 11th graders...well, it's really a case by case thing, but generally I like 10th grade more. I got in a full-on fight with a fellow teacher after the last parent teacher conference over who got to use the life of Pi books. I think we can both look back and laugh about it now. (side note that I'm adding on feb 4, 2014: I am now really good friends with that teacher. We are even having a girls night next week. Ain't life funny?) I'm excited to teach a semester of humanities and a semester of creative writing next year in addition to my English classes. We are in the process of choosing new books for 10th grade. It's harder than it sounds. Any suggestions? (we picked them: the help and Miss Peregrine)  Oliver is heading in to his last year of school:)  Okay- so that's it for the school year.

As far as the summer goes, we have been enjoying the heck out of it. The first part of the summer was very busy with moving. We moved in to the Belle Monet condos in Pleasant Grove. We love love it here. Our place is so nice and has awesome little perks like stainless steel appliances, jacuzzi tub, walk in closet, 3 bedrooms, etc. Plus, we are loving having a pool and a raquetball court right across the street.  I always seem to meet someone new or make a friend when I take Gabe down to go swimming cuz there's often other  moms down there with their kids. I've decided that swimming with a child is a very different animal than swimming with other adults. Obviously, it's much more fun to swim with other adults cuz you can play all kinds of games, but it's nice to take Gabe down and he loves it. Once in a while Oliver and I will sneak down by ourselves:) We also go play raquetball often during Gabe's nap. We play 3 game tournaments and the winner always does a fun victory dance involving their raquet. Am I not spelling racket right? oh, well. Another thing that we have had more time for this summer is FHE and dates. FHE with Oliver is the best. We love conducting it as if it's a grand, formal affair and it's a great time to go over the calendar and upcoming things. Then we take turns giving the lesson and planning an activity. Activities have included: board games, sing-alongs (with Oliver accompanying, of course), reading on the porch together, swimming, walks, and crafting. I would love to hear any and all ideas for things you have done with FHE. Soon Gabe will be involved more in our FHE. We have had good intentions for dates like going hiking and exploring new things, but for the most part we are tired and just want to relax when we go out so we end up going to movies or dinner. We did go mini-golfing on our last date, though, and it was quite fun. Yesterday we went back to school clothes shopping pretty much all day with a break in the middle for Gabe's nap. He loved playing at the mall playground and can now go down the slide by himself. He's way too big. Oliver and I both had to stop ourselves multiple times from going over and helping him when other kids would be not that cool to him, but we wanted him to be a little bit independent and he did great. Oliver is loving having more free time this summer and is a little reading machine. He has gotten in to the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I listen very politely when he tells me about it;) We are using our library cards constantly. What a wonderful thing: the library. We are always amazed that we can use all this stuff for free.
Gabe, as I previously mentioned, is huge and smart and really just getting cuter than anyone has the right to be.
We recently got back form a trip to California.
(K, it's me now, back on Feb 4, 2014) And that's where the blog stopped. I guess I got distracted. I honestly have not recollection of a trip to Ca this summer, but I believe myself that we went. I'm sure we had a lovely time. See, this is why I need to blog more often. Chunks of my life are erased from my mind if I don't document them.

 Gabey is now 2 years old. Oh, Gabey baby, how we love you. Here's some things I remember about the last year or so since I've written.

1) We went on some fun dates. Some of my faves were:
tubing the provo river: here we are afterward:

hiking the famous Y mountain and eating at the BYU creamery. Classic Provo date.
eating at Tucano's and going to comedy sportz. Another classic Provo date and my b-day celebration.
a "statycation" date. We played raquetball and watched a movie in the theater room in our condo clubhouse.
night swimming
seeing In the Heights at Hale theater- it was sooo good
seeing A Christmas Carol at Hale theater- it was sooo weird 
baseball games
2) I've spent more time with the Abbott girls. They are fantastic. I'm so glad I got 4 sisters as an added bonus when I got married. And lots of sweet cousins:) A couple gatherings I really enjoyed with them were: 4th of July everyone came over and went swimming and then played games and right before Mal and Wren moved, they came over and we ended up singing some songs. It was so fun. The Abbotts sang some Ben Folds, Les Mis, and Joe Jackson. I love when they sing Joe Jackson. It always makes me feel nostalgic even though I didn't sing him till I married Oliver. I guess I feel nostalgic for them? Anyway, it was great.Also, I really enjoyed our evening together at Maddie's new apartment playing cards against humanity (who would've guessed it could be fun with just us girls? and talking) They are just so great.
3) Oh, I remembered our trip to California. The highlight was staying at a beach house with Emilee and Shane. It was right on the coast and there was a hot tub on the balcony. I mean, come on. We played games, sang songs, hot tubbed, talked, went to the beach, and played with the babies. It was great. We just love them. Oh, another thing we did in Ca was purchase our first car together. Greg was a lifesaver with this process. He found the car for us, took me to San Fransisco to buy it and helped me through the whole thing. (ollie had not come out from Ut yet cuz he met me at the beach cuz he had to stay and work) Sooo, we got a pretty, silver prius:) We love it.

4) Then school started again. It is relentless, I tell you. This year I am teaching Eng 10, 11, Humanites, and Creative Writing. I have some really awesome and mature students in my humanities/creative writing classes. It has been fun getting to know them. I'm also in charge of prom this year. Yikes. I'm not sure what made anyone think that was a good idea.

5) Gabey dressed as a teddy bear for haloween. Josie was a pumpkin. They were quite a cute pair. He got the hang of trick or treating right away.

6) We had thanksgiving with Gregory again. It was very similar to the account of the previous Thanksgiving that I wrote about above with the notable exception of having thanksgiving dinner at a slightly less humiliating place this year: Chuck-o-rama. Yep, we really know how to party. This year Maddie, Carolyn, and Nate came with us. We sang Christmas songs back at our place afterward. I also could not get over how delicious the hot wings were at Chuck's. Nate agreed. Gregory and I spent loooots of time at Starbucks. We also checked out the outlets in Lehi where we debated the merits of the fine leather goods at Calvin Klein. You see, Gregory needed a new computer bag, and there was one on sale there. He ended up purchasing it, but then returning it at the outlets in Vacaville on his way home. lol. Oh, he is the best.

6) Christmas happened. Our tree is still up. Gabe has taken to playing with the ceramic nativity that is also still up. It is feb 4. mmhmm. He loves putting the baby Jesus in and out of Mary's arms and the manger. Um, we stayed in Utah for Christmas. I missed my family about a 6 out of 10. I always love going to grandma's for Christmas eve. We got Gabe a bunny for Christmas. We got rid of the bunny 3 days after Christmas. Not one of our best ideas.

7) I have fallen into a severe winter funk.Any ideas of how to emerge from it? I feel like I'm just hanging on till spring.
8) We went to Ca a few weeks ago for Maddie and Nate's wedding. What a sweet couple. Gabe was an angel in the car. He was a hellion most of the time in Ca. My favorite times of the trip were: the actual sealing- so beautiful. Maddie looked beautiful and so happy, decorating for the reception, getting to visit Jenni, staying with Micheal, and sitting on the porch reading Oliver's journal from when he was a kid. Hilarious. He really did coin the term "yolo.

April 10. 2014
Spring Break. Have there ever been 2 more beautiful words in the English language? My Oliver is the best dad in the world. He stepped up and took care of Gabey all weekend till Tuesday so that I could go visit Greg. I can't believe how great he is. He said that he and Gabe were in their "fort" almost all weekend.

 I was so happy to see them when I got home. My favorite was kissing Gabey all over and he would just giggle with this totally content look. The weeks previous to spring break we had just been working so hard. It felt like the grind would never stop. This break was exactly what the doctor ordered. So, my trip. Highlights include: beautiful hikes in Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz right along the ocean.

Exploring the city. Gregorio informed me that locals call it "the city" instead of San Franscisco or San Fran, or heaven forbid, "Frisco". So I, of course, began referring to it exclusively as Frisco. haha. He is considering moving there so we dedicated a day to exploring the neighborhoods, especially the Castro where he was considering moving. (he decided probably not the castro, but maybe the mission) Anywho, we walked pretty much the length of the city from Noe Valley to Fisherman's Wharf where we refueled with clam chowder.

Greg came with me to this church where my current favorite author Anne Lammott goes. I met her. I acted like an idiot. It was wonderful. I have spent many happy moments reading her books this summer. I'm so glad I went. The whole experience was great.


I also got to meet Greg's awesome friends. It made me happy to know that he has good friends there that care about him. We also ate some dang good food. We ate out for every meal. I was so upset when I came back and had to start cooking again. Actually, the first day back I decided I could not cook so we went to eat at Costco and poor Ollie had been eating pizza all weekend, so he had to get a salad. His semester ends in a few weeks and he is currently in business mode. In fact, he went to bed at 7:30 tonight so that he could get up really early and finish working. That is the absolute earliest I've ever seen him go to bed.Ollie's cohort:

Back to School, Back to School

We made the trek back to Utah and moved back into Greg's house. What a nice guy to let us stay there. We immediately went to work unpacking, shopping, decorating, and generally making the place a place we love to be. We are actually still in that process. We are now in the finishing touches stage. We need to make pillows for the couch, find a beautiful mirror for the living room, frame some pictures, hang some curtains, etc. It has been fun to work on the house together. Also stressful for me cuz the sad truth is that if I buy one couch it means that I don't get to buy the other couch. Same holds true that if I paint the wall blue, I cannot paint it light violet and I am a terrible decision-maker and I just know that if/when I paint that wall blue, I will forever be haunted by light violet and how life would have been so much better if I had just chosen light violet. Well, that's how it goes, though, so I just have to get over it. This saturday we plan to work on all the finishing touches and will, hopefully, be totally done within a week or so:)
Ummm, lets' see, what else..school started.  I just love teaching. Having the summer off is amazing. It's been a great experience going back to school this year because I had only a fraction of the nervousness and stress that I had last year right before school. What a difference one year of experience can make. Even though I am teaching 3 different classes (humanities, English 10 and English 11) and I have 3 times the lessons to prepare, I just feel so much calmer and happier going to work. I looooooooove getting off at 2:45 every day. I have been leaving no later than 3 (one time 4) and getting home by 3:20 and Ollie, Gabe and I have all evening together. It is the perfect schedule and I am so grateful. Last year I was pregnant and tired and stressed and, at the beginning of the year, especially, I felt like all I could do was go to work and sleep. It felt like that's all I had the energy for. This year is a whole new ball game because when I come home so early I feel like I have a whole day left to do whatever I want and I usually have the energy to do it. Another good thing about his year is that (so far) I have not had ill feelings toward any of my students. I am really trying to see them as God sees them and just be kind to them and patient with them. I know that many of them are dealing with things that they really shouldn't be having to deal with in their personal/family lives and I want to be a safe place for them and show them love and kindness. Last year I was so stressed about making sure the lesson went right and being observed and doing a "good" job that I sometimes found myself losing patience and not being as nice as I could have been. Everything feels better when I choose to be kind. And that's no small feat when you talk to 150 teenagers every day:) The lame-o thing about coming back to work has been that my bff in my department left cuz she got a job in Colorado. And my other friend also moved to Indiana. So so sad. I now eat lunch by myself and no one really talks to anyone else. It's pretty grim. I am going to keep trying to form some friendships. We will see.
Oliver started school this week and Gabey started going to day care at UVU some days and to Susan's house on some days. He seems to enjoy hanging with other people besides mommy and daddy. Every day when I come home and see his adorable face I just laugh and have to hug him to me. He is a doll.
Well, I will write some more about what we've been doing in a few days when I have collected pix. xoxoxoxo

California here we come, Right back where we started from

 We left for California on friday, june 8 after I was done with my meetings. Our plan was to drive through the night so that Gabe would sleep the whole way. We ended up staying the night in Battle Mountain, haha, guess we had drastically overestimated our energy levels. Guess what, though? Gabe was silent the entire way. It was actually kind of weird. We thought he was sleeping the whole time cuz he was so quiet, but sometimes we would look back and his big eyes would be wide open just looking at the world pass by. We just laughed at our good fortune that we have a 5 month old that didn't make a peep on a 11 hour drive. We had a good drive, chatted and sang along to songs, but we were sooo happy when we saw the "welcome to Chico" sign.

We got to Chico and went to my cousin Johnny's mission farewell on Sunday. He is going to Guam and he is going to be the best missionary since Oliver. It was so fun to see him give his farewell talk and be so mature and prepared. He and his sister and brother are the kids that I remember being there when they were born and seeing grown up so it was so nice to see him before he left.
Here's Gabey with my Grandma Seipert. He looks so big next to her.

 We drove to Oakdale that night. On Monday, we went to the farm to see Oliver's grandparents. They are lovely. I love riding around on the golf cart and seeing their pretty property. They have a grandchildren's grove where they have planted a tree for each grandchild. I love that. They also have a bamboo forest and lots of fruit trees. Gabey met their dog, Minnie. I think he is gonna be an animal lover.

 Tuesday we had dinner with Jenni's friend, Jack and his daughter, Molly.  It was nice to meet them because we had heard a lot about them. After dinner we played pit and had a good ole' fashioned sing-along. We lost Molly at the sing-along, haha. Like pretty much any normal 15 year-old, she was not about to sing along to the oldies with a family she is meeting for the first time. It was a fun and interesting night. On Wednesday, we went swimming at Oliver's aunt Amanda's house. It was Gabe's first time swimming. He was not all too sure about it. Actually, he didn't really have a reaction to it. Just had a blank, kind of concerned look on his face. I loved it. Swimming is my all-time favorite activity. It felt great to dive in. Oliver and I came up with a very fun game. It's kind of like horse but with diving. One of us jumped or dove off the diving board a certain way and then the other had to duplicate it or get an H, O, etc. My favorite jump was one that Oliver came up with  called the "good day sir" where he jumped off and tipped his hat before landing in the water. We also found all the albums of pictures we could and looked through them. We wanted to compare Gabriel with Oliver's baby pictures.

I think there are some similarities but Gabe is definitely a mixture of Oliver and me. Thursday evening I went to relief society. They had a Shakespeare expert come and talk to us. It was pretty interesting and fun to see how passionate he is about the subject. The point of the activity was not necessarily to learn about Shakespeare but to encourage lifelong learning about whatever it is you are interested in. It was an "English Tea Party" and each table had a tea set and pastries. You may not know this about me, I have an affection for tea sets and have always wanted to host a tea party but don't think any of my friends would come or if they did they would make fun of it, lol. I told Ollie about it and he said he would have tea with me and even talk with a british accent, so we did and it was veeeery fun. One thing we've been doing that I absolutely love is getting up early (anywhere between 6:30 and 9) and exercising (either running outside or using the eliptical machine that is out back or a combination of both). It energizes us for the day. After my work out I go out on to the front porch and read scriptures and write in my scripture journal and sometimes my "I'm crazy and I need to figure out my life and why I feel so crazy" journal (although being here in California on pretty much an endless date with my honey had all but eliminated the need for that journal for the time being. Don't worry, though, it will fill up fast come the fall:) I cannot tell you how much I enjoy my mornings of physical and spiritual exercise. It is the perfect way to start every day.
On Friday, we went to Chico. We swam at my Aunt Laurie's house and this time Gabriel seemed to enjoy it more. He splashed about.

I pretended that I was the owner of their beautiful home and read US magazine on a big floaty. It made me want to say things like, "someone bring me a frosty beverage" and "darling, should we summer in Europe or Hawaii this year?" We are so lucky to have such nice and generous family who share their things with us.

After swimming we ate burgers at only the best burger joint anyone's ever been to. Burger Hut. Then we went for a long walk through beautiful Bidwell Park (I have serious Chico pride. It is my hometown and, in my mind, will always be kinda magical) and ended up at a downtown concert. Now, let me explain a bit. Chico is a bit of a hippy town. It's got some natural vibes, it's big on barefoot, whole foods, swimsuit optional at the creek, etc. So, imagine our delight when we stumbled upon a concert with a big group of mostly middle-aged folks just lettin' the music move them. They were free-flowing, barefoot, flowy skirts, just living in the moment and I loved every second of it. It didn't take long to us to join them and show them what the Abbotts have got. (we have been brushing op on our moves by playing Dance Central)
The fun dance crowd

Then we had fro-yo at the best fro-yo shop anyone has ever been to-Jon n' Bons yogurt shop. We sat at the same booth where we sat 7 years ago on one of our first dates (prior to our 4 year sebattical) and just reveled in the fact that we are together. Then we walked home and watched House Hunters-my new fave show. Saturday, I went to Alisa's baby shower. She is a great, great lady. I love that she is still kinda the same as she was in high school, but even better. She is having baby boy #3 soon. I also saw Angie. I love her. We ate at a delicious taco truck and then went home for a nice, quiet evening. Oh, I guess I should mention that my parents were out of town, that's why I haven't mentioned them, we stayed at their house. So, we looked through the game/book cupboard and found some fun games we hadn't played in a while. Guess who was my fave, we decided that most of the people on the guess who board appear to have had pretty rough lives. The main expression is one of concern, disgust, or faint amusement. lol. We also decided that we want to make our own guess who boards featuring people we know. How fun would that be? Then we decided to read some of the kids books that we found in the cupboard to see if we wanted any for Gabe and, let's face it, kids books are just fun to read. My favorite was "Lyle, Lyle Crocodile". It was legitimately funny and made us laugh out loud. We also liked "Guess how much I love you". Oliver is just soooooooooooooo fun to be with. I have not gotten tired of him and it seems like the more time we spend together, the more fun we have. He has been loving being in a house with a piano. As I type this, I am listening to him play and sing in the other room. When we got back to Oakdale from Chico, it was Sunday and we had missed church:( so I decided to listen to some talks on LDS.Org while Oliver went to see his dad (it being father's day and all). I listened to several talks by Elder Holland cuz he is the bomb and after I listened to one I decided to just stick with him and I sewed on the stocking that I am making for Gabe. I will finish that thing before Gabe moves out to college- I swear:) There was some tension in the house that night and I was glad that I had spent the afternoon filling myself with peace and calm to be able to handle it well.
Monday I went to Grass Valley to see my Emmy. We ate fro-yo and went to a very cute shop in the very cute downtown area of Grass Valley where I purchased hair chalk. Then I took a tour of her new house and we went swimming at the river (Yuba River). It was soooo pretty and refreshing.  The drive home from Grass Valley was terrible. I hated every second of it. I kept being unsure of where I was and felt lost. I made it home, though and Oliver had prepared a wonderful FHE for us. He even had typed up a program and included everyone in the house. Have I mentioned how awesome he is? Then we ate fro-yo (yeah, i've been eating a lot of that lately) and watched the bachelorette.
Yesterday we ran errands during the day. It was not so much fun. Too hot and too much driving. Then we went to the Oakland temple. It was one of my favorite temple days I've had. The Oakland temple is unique and beautiful.

We had not noticed this statue of some kids and a puppy before. It is at the entrance to the roof in front of a scripture where Jesus invites the children to come to him. Fun and sweet.

On the drive home from the temple Oliver and I had some great conversation. I learned more about him that I had not known and everything I learned made me love him more.
California is being very, very good to us.

We went to the waterslide park in Roseville. Sunsplash.I was a scaredycat and didn't want to go on the big rides to we went on the ones with no line that were not scary. Our fave was the lazy river.My parents were so nice to watch Gabe while we went to the waterslides. I liked visiting them and staying up late chatting with my mom. Also, I liked going to visit my Grandma. She is almost 91 and still the best.

The week after that we went to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. That is our special place cuz we went there on our honeymoon. The Giant Dipper is my all time favorite roller-coaster. One of our goals was to ride the giant dipper 17 times. We only rode it 4 or 5, but we got our fill:)

We also love the carousel where you grab a ring every time you go around and try to throw it into the clown's mouth. Ollie and I both made it in:)

Here's Ollie looking pensive and handsome on the carousel

Here's me on the carousel

We agree that the scariest ride at any amusement park is the hangy cage thing that goes slowly on a wire from one end of the park to the other. We like to ride it cuz it's a nice way to gaze at the ocean and smooch, but it is truly terrifying.

Here we are....scared

I went to visit Greg in Santa Clara at his new place, which is actually Brian and Lindsay's place. I drove down with Gabey while Oliver was doing some work for his dad. We had a fine time going to Palo Alto and walking around, having dinner (Teriyaki Tuesday) with Brian's fam and making up all the renditions of "Cathy Rodgers" songs to the tune of popcorn popping that we could possibly think of. I ended up staying the night and coming home the next morning. Oliver and I took at trip down to visit them together a week or so later. We went to dinner and went swimming. Our fave was being flipped in a circle by Greg and Brian.

Gabe and his cousin Milo

We drove to Knight's Ferry where spent many of his growing up years. So pretty. We really enjoyed sitting by the river.

Daddy and Gabey by the covered bridge in Knight's Ferry

We spent the fourth of July with Shane and Emily. Shane's dad rigged some seriously awesome fireworks. Gabe was not too sure of them but couldn't take his eyes off them. They are so nice and fun.

Here's a pic of us all together














We went to a baseball game with Oliver's dad. A's and Red Sox. I got super into it. The Sox were ahead the whole time until the last inning. Gabe was really good except for when he got scared after the Sox hit a home run and everyone screamed. It was so fun to sit outside in the nice summer night and watch a game.

My cuties watching the game

 Handsome Abbott men

This last 2 weeks have been busy ones. Oliver went for a very quick trip to Utah to do some business there and drove back on Friday with Kelly. While he was gone, it became even more apparent that I would be a terrible single mom. He really does so much for me and Gabe and it was so hard and sad without him, even for just 2 days. I was so glad to have him home. That weekend Micheal got married to Betsy so David, Kelly, Mal and Wren were home for the weekend. The wedding was pretty and they had yummy food. Oliver was asked to give an impromptu toast and did great. He really can do anything. We spent a lot of time with his family. Oliver even had a morning that was kinda a flashback to the past where he and his bros played nintendo for a few hours.
Then we left for Fort Bragg to spend a few days camping with my family.
The campground we stayed at is beautiful and right by the ocean. We could see it from our site. The weather was perfect and the greenery around the campsite was almost as pretty as the ocean. It was nice to have a couple days out in nature. My parents had planned the trip very well and we had great food at every meal and a warm and comfy place to sleep. I wish we'd gotten a picture of the whole fam:(

The pretty ocean

Greg, Brian, Ollie, and I braved the freezing Northern California water and played in the waves. They knocked clean over twice, which my brothers thought was hilarious.
Here we are after playing in the waves

Ollie let me bury him. He said it was relaxing, but he looks rather peturbed, lol.

Our fave things we did there were:
1) reading on the beach. We went into Mendocino-the cute little town close to Fort Bragg with cute little shops and Ollie got a new book. He is super into it. After our trip to town, we sat on the beach and read for a few hours. It was so peaceful and nice.

here's our reading spot

2) Exploring the tide pools. We found lots of cool things including Sea Enenimies (hard to say, even harder to spell), star fish, crabs, and sea lions.

Our fave was the star fish

3) Playing games with the fam and getting to spend some time with my nieces and nephews.
4) Eating smores. I perfected them on the third night. The perfect smore goes; graham, marsh, chocolate, marsh, graham. So good.
On the way home, we stopped at San Fransisco. It was a terrible drive. We were almost ready to just skip it, but we kept on. I ate clam chowder- pretty much the reason I wanted to go and we went to visit our beloved sea lions only to find that all but 5 of them had left.

Then we took a ride on a ferry that took us under the Golden Gate Bridge.

WE LOVE YOU CALIFORNIA!!!!