Swimming in the Ocean

On Sunday Steve and I flew into Ontario, California, got a rental car and drove to the ocean. We drove to Newport beach and then drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to Laguna Beach where we stopped to go swimming at Crystal Cove State Park, it was a blast! The temperature was in the upper 70s, it was a little hazy in the morning, but it cleared up by afternoon and we got to enjoy the beautiful mild Southern California weather! We had tons of fun, had a little picnic on the beach, swam in the ocean, and then drove back to the airport and flew home. We left at 7 am and were back home by 8 that night. It was soo much fun, and the most relaxing day we have had for a long time, and well deserved especially since Steve starts the toughest semester of his college career today. It was the perfect ending to summer! We might do it again next week!

The beach we normally go to- Lake Tahoe
While we were flying, Steve said we should flying over Yosemite soon, we looked out the window and right then, sure enough, we were flying over Yosemite, Half Dome was underneath us, but you can see El Capitan in the pictures, it's on the right side of the canyon.

Rich people's houses in Laguna Beach

Steve getting ready to go swimming

The Pacific Ocean

A really cool house on a bluff above where we were swimming

More rich people's houses

The beach we swam at, the house pictured above is on the cliff where you can see the top of a big rounded tree

Steve after we went swimming

Pretty flowers on a tree

More of the flowers

Esteban!

Me all pregnant and windblown

Me

Some really nice car, not sure what it is

Another picture of the beach where we were swimming, this one taken from the car while driving

Palm Trees!

More Palm Trees and the Pacific Ocean!

I went shopping today...

I went to Ross today to kill time after work and bought a few new tops for myself, one outfit for baby, some cute Wilton cookie cutters for Halloween, and this fabulous pitcher that was only $4! I only took pictures of the pitcher and cookie cutters. Maybe someday there will be pictures of me and baby in our outfits.

Steve's 27th Birthday

August 19th was Steve's real birthday, but the 20th is when we had the party. I got to be in charge of it, which makes sense because I am his wife, but I wasn't expecting to because normally Steve's mom does everyone's party. So I planned his party, wasn't so sure how it was going to turn out, but actually was fun. I brought him home balloons as a surprise on his birthday since we didn't do anything really that day! And his birthday party was pirate-themed complete with pirate-ship pinata!

Steve in his pirate mask with balloons I brought home to him on his b-day

Another picture of the balloons, I was really excited about them

Some decorations (they weren't as cool as I wanted because I ran out of time decorating, there were supposed to be crepe-paper streamers everywhere)

Me working on the cake. I made a German chocolate cake (per Steve's request) and it almost was a disaster. My first real cake experience, the first layer split into four pieces when I took it out of the pan and flipped it (I didn't cut the top off to make it flat first). Then I started the second cake for the top layer and forgot to grease the pan, whoops. It actually did come out of the pan, in one piece, just had a crack down the middle, but turned out nice, then I covered it in frosting and no one could even tell I screwed it up so bad! Next year's will be better.

Me in my cute apron Mel gave me for my birthday, and Grandma who kept me company in the kitchen while I was destroying the cake.

The cool pirate-ship pinata and the pirate masks

Steve with the pinata

Most of the family on our new sectional!

Steve's presents and the awesome parrot I bought for decorations!

Steve's cake, see it turned out okay... right? The frosting was really darker green.

Renee and I bringing the cake to the birthday boy!

He got them all in one breath, hope he wished for something really good!

Wok and kitchen tools from Melanie and Jared

Root Beers

Crayons, Indiana Jones coloring book, and pirate sword and gun

Most of the family in our intimidating pirate masks!

Mike and Melanie

Amy, Renee, Melanie, and Me. Scary pirates, don't mess with us!

Me getting the pinata ready to get busted open!

Steve ready to attack the pinata and get his "booty" or loot.

There he goes, he actually had his eyes closed and everyone in the house was scared because were doing the pinata in the house (it was too dark out and we wouldn't have been able to see the candy when it broke)

Reno Tahoe Blues Fest

This past weekend was the Reno Tahoe Blues Fest http://www.renotahoebluesfest.com/ . Our friend Courtney gave us VIP tickets for Saturday and Sunday, so Saturday Steve and his sister Renee went. And Sunday Steve and I went for about the last three hours. It started at noon, but we didn't go until 6 because we had a busy day even though we got out of church at noon. Just so you know we totally justify breaking the sabbath for this for two reasons (and I know it doesn't change the fact that it was the sabbath and we were breaking it) but 1. We went to see Gladys Knight who is LDS 2. It's the only day Steve and I have to spend time together and the tickets were free 3. (I know I said 2 reason) Did I say Gladys Knight, hello! Anyways, we had a lot of fun. We only got to see Betty Wright and Gladys Knight on Sunday. Betty Wright was hilarious!! Gladys was incredible. Only things that bummed me out about the whole thing: 1. We only saw two people of 5 on Sunday 2. There was no encore. After Gladys was done singing the last song, and started saying good night to everyone the crowd pretty much ran out of the place, she wasn't even off the stage before everyone left so of course she didn't do an encore.


Betty Wright on stage


Gladys Knight

Google Maps

So I went to google maps just now to see how long it takes to get to two different grocery stores from my house, and discovered this cool new feature (new to me at least) called Street View. You can actually pretty much walk up and down streets instead of having the typical aerial view of things, it is like someone walked down your street with a camera. While using this feature I looked at our house, Mel's house, and Steve's parents house, and found our car parked at his parents house when they did, pretty cool if you ask me. Yep, there was our car, parked at his parents house, and judging by the picture it was last summer. Take a look and see what you can find where you live! To see our car, type in the address 3740 Comet Linear Dr, Sparks, Nv 89436 and look to the left to see our blue Taurus!

New Pregnancy Pictures!!

So I am pregnant, and have been for a few months now, in fact, I have less than 3 months left. I am finally getting to the point though that not only do I look pregnant (which I have for some time) but I am starting to feel pregnant. My belly often feels like it is going to explode lately thanks to cute little baby Buck pushing outwards on it. And not just kicking outwards every now and then, but constantly pushing outwards in one spot just to the right of my belly button, it drives me crazy! Here are my latest pictures taken earlier this week sometime. 27 weeks pregnant. Enjoy!! (I think I was feeling a little silly by the third one)

My Birthday

I just wanted to post a quick little thing about my birthday. My birthday was July 27th, but we celebrated it the Friday before. On Friday mornings Steve has to be at work at like 4:45, but before he went to work he woke up super duper early to set-up a surprise for me. He woke me up several times while getting ready because I heard him leave the house and was trying to yell at him for not kissing my goodbye, but he wasn't leaving, just planning. So anyways, when Steve left for work at 4:30 he left the light on in the living room, and when he opened the front door the bedroom door popped open and light flooded over my sleeping body. So I tried yelling at Steve but he was gone already, so I said out loud to myself about him, "You are so annoying", then I walked out into the living room to find this wonderful birthday present from him, and then said (again out loud) "You are so cute." So I looked at this little display of presents, turned off the light, crawled back into bed, and called him. He was a little disappointed when I called because I didn't sound very excited about my presents, but in reality I loved it! So when I woke up for real that morning, I went into the bathroom and there was a really sweet birthday card from him, and on the back it said go to the living room, of course, I already knew what was in the living room, but I decided to go investigate even more. So he got me a new outfit, maternity pants (super cute and comfy), three cute shirts (the two you see here, and inside the bag is a third one like the turquoise one but in light pink), a necklace, bangle bracelets, a cuff bracelet, and a cute tote! And it was all dressed up on this mannequin that his sister has, and he even stuffed a pillow under the shirt so i looked pregnant!!! SO cute, I still love it and think it was the coolest thing ever. When I went to get dressed I couldn't figure out how to take the pants off, turns out you have to lift off the body of the mannequin, then you can get to the pants, a little awkward picking up a female torso and laying it down on your couch, but I loved it!!!