Our San Fran Trip

The next few posts are long and have tons of pictures of our San Fran trip highlights. Read it all if you want--or none of it. Its mostly as a journal for us. But enjoy!

What a Surprise!!

Brandon was so cute and surprised me with a 9th month anniversary present in San Francisco... a night on the town, for just the two of us, with a convertible to get us around (compliments of Justin and Katie..thanks!) and a fabulous night in a 4-star hotel!

Ok, so he hadn't planned on staying in that ritzy of place, but when he checked into our hotel, they told us they had had a fire and were overbooked. So they had us go to a different hotel which was 4-star...and even better, the night was on them for their mistake. Sweet! We love free things and good deals and this one was probably the best free things we have ever got considering the room would have cost us $459 for one night.

This was a bit of heaven after a very long night before sleeping in the car, no shower, and a long day in the city. I loved spending some quality time with just him. He was cute and even brought one of his favorite dresses of mine and his suit for us to dress up for a candlelight Wendy's dinner because he knows how much I love dressing up! He even remembered to bring a tablecloth and candles!

He took me to my favorite H&M store and even picked out some accessories for me! I love that he knows me so well. And our date couldn't be complete without a trip to the local grocery store. We love going to new grocery stores.
Thanks for a good time. Can't wait for more to come!

Shots of San Francisco

A highlight of the sights we saw in San Fran...

Golden Gate Bridge

Ghiradelli Square=Huge and Yummy Ice Cream Sundae

Stanford

Oakland Temple

Sweet Little Emmeline

It was worth every minute of the 26 hours of driving time in a 3 day period just to see baby Emmeline. She is adorable! We are so glad that Justin and Katie let us crash their Memorial Day weekend and spend some short, but sweet time together.



This was hilarious! Whenever Justin opens presents, he will only open the box a little crack to take a sneak peak before he'll open the entire thing. No one knows why, but it looks like his daughter is following in his footsteps already. :)

Homeless Moments of San Fran

Our San Fran trip would not have been memorable without the many "homeless" moments we had. To name a few...

#1 Brushing our teeth in the Wendy's parking lot. Give us a break. We had just finished our 13-hour drive through the night and needed some freshening up. What better of a place is there than Wendy's restrooms to change and then the parking lot to brush our teeth?
#2 Whoever thought California might provide some warm weather was wrong! San Francisco was so cold and windy and gloomy. Needless to say, we needed a somewhat warm place to meet up with Justin, Katie, Jean (Katie's mom), and little Emmeline. So we met in the H&M parking garage and had a picnic in the suburban.

Not Too Bad

My department at work had a Creative Job Ad Writing Competition. The winner got $250 and a paid day off. I REALLY wanted to win. I worked SO hard on writing come clever ads. And then, you know when you get that feeling when you hear someone else talking about theirs and then you start to doubt yourself and wonder why you thought yours was so good? That is what happened. I overheard my co-worker reading his to someone and I thought for sure he would win. Well, the winners were announced yesterday…and drumroll please…The bad news is I didn’t get first place and the co-worker who I for sure thought had won, got 3rd. The submissions were all so good that my boss decided to award 2nd and 3rd place prizes. I took 2nd place with my “We need a Bug Catcher” ad and walked away with $50. Not too bad. Especially since I will be in my favorite store, H&M in San Francisco this Saturday. Yahoo!

what can two do?

on a friday night
when you're not sure what to do
try taking a leisurely ride
on a tandem bike for two!

our favorite marley was in town
we're so glad he came down
to spend the night with us
on the floor and didn't even fuss.

our martha stewart sister
who doesn't have a mister
made us delicious lasagne dinner
that didn't make us any thinner.

but the bike ride that we took
along a splendid brook
was the perfect way
to end a fabulous day.








***

then comes a baby in a baby carriage

'tis the season for babies. don't worry. this is not an announcement :)

***
we have had tons of fun meeting lots of new little ones...or getting ready for them.

I loved throwing a baby shower for my friend Diana last weekend. thanks andrea for some great decorating ideas. :)

Me and my two great friends from YW, Diana and Bethi

we loved meeting Talmage Aaron Calder and are sad his family doesn't live closer :)

we are excited to meet Baby Cragun who was born TODAY!

and we especially can't wait to meet Emmeline Marilyn, our newest neice who was born last week in California. I am so excited to be an aunt and to visit over Memorial Day.

Childhood memories reborn!

Two of my childhood memories were reborn this last week. One was dreaded when I was a child and the other was fun. They both now bring me great satisfaction now that I am turning into my wonderful parents.

The first:
Gardening!!!
This is Melissa's and my garden. We are so proud to have a garden this summer and it has been so fun getting it ready and planting it. I can't wait til the end of summer to see how it turns out.

The second:
Kite Flying!!!
Grandpa and Halle flying under Aunt Rachel's supervision.
The Sky is the Limit!
Look who got the kite the highest!

Let's Get Together

Brandon and I LOVE get-togethers. This weekend was full of them...

Friday: Our Sunday School class had a party at "Grandpa Jack's" cabin in Sundance. Grandpa Jack is an older man in our ward who everyone calls Grandpa. His cabin is very interesting. It is more like a museum of antiques that he has collected over 40 years. You can kind of see the red chandelier over the table. We felt like we were in an old restaurant.

Brandon made a new best friend. Or should we say Cecilia now has a best friend in Brandon? They had a blast playing tag together.

It was so pretty and fun to be in the outdoors. I am so excited to go camping this summer!
Saturday: our good friends Annie and Scott invited us over for authentic Swiss Raclette. There is this cool grill-type thing that you melt cheese in and then pour it over pototoes, bread, veggies and grilled chicken or anything else for that matter. It was such a fun party dinner!


Sunday: we had our friends Elise and Ted Gilbert from our ward over for lasagne and games. Sorry...no pictures. We would love to see you next!