San Francisco Trip

I was able to take Josh and Emma on a quick trip down to San Francisco last week and it was awesome! I loved being able to show Josh a lot of places I talk about all the time. It reminded him of when he lived in Sydney for his mission. The cities are pretty similar and it was fun showing him downtown ( he lived in downtown Sydney for over a year). It was really great but we're actually glad to be back and getting into a routine.  Josh starts work in less than a week and I'm excited for him, but sad we won't get to hang out all the time anymore:( But we just had lunch with some of his future coworkers and they all really love their job. Always good to hear! We're basically all moved in and settled finally so that feels good.

June will be kind of crazy since Josh will be training for his job in Chicago for 3 weeks so we won't see each other very much. I'll be in Boise for most of it visiting family, but we'll be missing some of our big holiday's together ( my birthday, our anniversary, most of father's day ). But what can you do! I guess our month of vacation kind of made up for that.

So back to San Francisco. We were only in the city for 2 days I think but we did a lot! We couldn't really see many people I knew but I guess that's for another time. We drove all day Monday and Tuesday morning and reached Oakland just in time for lunch. We first went to Berkeley University's campus for a quick tour. That's where my parents went to college and met so I wanted to show Josh. The buildings are so unique. Josh loved looking at the library ( it was all marble inside ).

Then we went to lunch at Fenton's. It was Soooo yummy and we went all out. We skipped dinner that night because we were still full.

Yes, it is as big as in the picture...and we ate it all. No shame!

Then we visited the Oakland temple and the visitor center. Josh said it was probably the prettiest temple he'd ever seen. The weather was warm and beautiful and the flowers were blooming and all the fountains were turned on. It was cool/weird to go to the visitor center and be a visitor, not a missionary. The sisters looked so young but it was fun to have them show us all the new features ( touchscreens, videos, etc.). We spent alot of time there since we were trying to avoid rushhour traffic. Then we went to San Mateo, one area I worked in saw a few people I knew so that was fun. I wished we had more time to see more people.

View from the top of the temple. Gorgeous!

Part of the new section of the Visitor Center

The next day was San Francisco day and we did all the touristy stuff. Alcatraz, the wharf, china town, riding the BART. An exhausting but exciting day!

Emma's face most of the time on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) 

After playing a boxing arcade game that was like 100 years old. Yes, I lost... 

Boudin bread bowl with clam chowder. So yummy!

Emma had a blast at Alcatraz;)

We rode over on a ferry! The views were gorgeous!

My 2nd time at Alcatraz and still creepy. This was an isolation room and pitch black when the door closed. Freaked me out thinking about it. 

Our last morning we attempted to walk part of the Golden Gate Bridge. Emma went crazy (I think she was teething or something ) but everyone was staring at us and either shaking their head or smiling in pity. She had really lost it so I can't imagine doing that with a ton of kids. But we snapped some pictures and were on our way.

A little pouting by the wall

Yep, that last picture pretty much sums it up

We drove for a while and stopped in Eureka, CA so we could go to the Redwoods the next morning. Josh said that was his favorite part and it was pretty amazing!

This is one of the biggest trees I've ever seen. Think Avatar big tree. 297 ft tall and 19 feet in diameter. And 2000 years old. Wowsers!

We rode on the "skytrail", a gondola up through the redwoods. Emma was captivated:) Also excuse Emma's semi-gross hair. She's totally freaked out by baths right now ( who knows why ), so they happen less often than I would like. 

The huge Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox

It was a fabulous trip and I'm so glad we had the time to go and enjoy it. It's been a fun adventure this last month traveling. But now on to our next big adventure...the new job:) Wish Josh luck!

Life in Portland, Baby Gender!

So we've been here in Portland for 2 weeks but it seems like we've been here so much longer. The weather here has been incredible and we've been soaking it up.

But to start, I forgot to announce our baby's gender earlier so I'll just do it here. We did a fun little gender reveal with Josh's parents. We bought a huge balloon and stuffed it with colored confetti. We honestly though Emma would love it but when we popped it she just got scared and cried. Or maybe it was the whole fact that she'd have to share her clothes:)

We're so excited to have another little girl coming to our family! She kicks all the time, just like Emma did. I hope they become the best of friends!

Graduation was wonderful and we were so grateful to have the love and support of family. Josh was on the front page of the graduation program for his high marks so that was really cool! 

So here we are in Portland and I have a lot of pictures to post so get ready:

Here we are at the Tillamook factory. It was fun but smaller than we expected. I've been before but everything seems bigger when you're younger. We loved getting the free cheese samples though, especially the cheese curds, yum!

We took a stop at this beautiful lighthouse. I went for a little tour up top where the light is but it was so tiny I felt pretty claustrophobic. So I told Josh he should skip it since he's almost a foot taller than me.  

Here's my awkward baby bump pic, but the lighting looked cool. We were so excited to see the ocean. This was at the beach at Oceanside. Emma was in heaven and had a blast! It was so sandy and muddy afterwards. It was everywhere...and I mean everywhere. In all her clothes, in her diaper, everywhere. But totally worth it!

We went to Multnomah Falls and it was gorgeous of course. Josh wanted to hike up to the top but I used the "But...I'm pregnant!". So he'll have to do it another time. Emma and I were content to just go up to the bridge, which was pretty spectacular. Someone visiting told us it's amazing in the winter because it ices over and there are icicles all over the rocks. So we'll have to come back. Also, note to anyone who wants to visit. We went on a Thursday and it was still packed! And it's only May, so in the summer in the weekend would be a no-go. 

 

We visited downtown Portland last Friday and that was a fun adventure! We hit the famous " Food Cart Corner". There are actually food trucks everywhere but we went to the most popular cluster; A whole city block of food carts! There were a ton of Greek and Asian trucks. But we went to the " Grilled Cheese Grill"  where they serve the "Cheesus". The name alone shows they think it's pretty good. Josh and I bought one to split. And here's whats on it... A hamburger patty sandwiched between 2 grilled cheese sandwiches. Each grilled cheese had different cheeses and one had grilled onions. Yum!

 

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We also went to the famous Powell Books Bookstore. It was huge!!! I think we only made it to a few rooms, but it also takes up a whole city block. Pretty cool and you can find any book you could want. I didn't get a chance to buy one since Emma went a little crazy but it was fun while it lasted. 

Here's us by the Willamette River. We went on Cinco de Mayo weekend so we got in to a free carnival down by the river. Cool bonus!

We had a really cool day this Tuesday when we went to the Portland Zoo. It's pretty awesome! Maybe it's because there are trees everywhere, but you really feel like you're in the forest when you're walking around in there. Maybe it's because it's not quite summer yet but the animals were so close! This is Emma ( in her hat) right next to a cheetah. Crazy! And we saw a cougar up close and personal.

Our last stop so far was Cannon Beach. Seriously, we've had the best weather! It was in the 60's and beautiful at the beach. People were in their bathing suits tanning, which is not normal for the Oregon Coast. We bought some water shoes for all of us and Josh was psyched to go explore the tide pools. We saw lots of anemones, a couple star fish, hermit crabs, etc.

We bought a dollar store kite and were impressed with how well it did. It had a pirate skull on it, in honor of the Goonies. We just watched that and were excited to go see Haystack. Sadly Astoria was almost an hour away so we'll have to see the Goonie house another day.

We also ate at Mo's. After we ate there, I could see why everyone raves about it. The food was super yummy and fresh and we had a view of the ocean and Haystack Rock. Usually you pay top dollar to eat at a restaurant with a view like that!

Such a beautiful place and I'm sure we'll be back visiting soon!