Bay Area

Marcie, Jeff, and Auntie Val at The Cheesecake Factory


My wonderful Mother-in-law and Me

Ella swinging with her Grammy and Auntie

Ella loves her Grammy

Jessica, Colby, Brent, Sarah, Josh, Ella, and Jordan


Silly Face!

Memorial Day weekend, we headed up for last minute trip to the Bay Area. Jordan's Grandma Jean had recently passed away and family was coming into town. I got permission from my OB and with an hour to pack and leave, we were on our way. We stayed with our wonderful friends Josh and Sarah who were soo sweet to lets sleep there, especially on short notice. While we were there, we visited family and a few friends, along with a little shopping of course. We enjoyed spending time with his family espcially when we surprised Ella's Grammy!

Summer time is here

Ella has always been afraid of the water and didn't like to be in it. She used to scream when we put her in the pool. This year is different, she loves the water. We got her a life jacket and she feels comfortable and secure. The last time we went to the pool, Jordan got her to move her hands across the edge. She moved around the whole pool all by herself. She thought she was soo big and it gave her a lot of confidence. We signed her up for swim lessons and she will be starting in a week. Maybe she will be swimming by the end of summer. We'll see.

Marcie, Jeff, and Drew

Drew, Ella, and Marcie at Little Corona (Corona Del Mar beach)

Drew pulling Ella on the Boogie Board. She thought she was "hot stuff"

Playing in in the sand


The gang hanging out in the morning

Marcie, Jeff, and Drew came down to visit us for the weekend. While they were here, we went to the beach. It was supposed to be really hot where we live which is inland, so we thought it would be a nice sunny day at the beach. It turned out to be FREEZING! The sun did not shine the whole time. We stayed at the beach for a few hours. The boys went boogie boarding while the girls sat all bundled up. we still had fun. We left the beach and visited the time share in Newport where they had a pool and spa. We warmed up in the spa however, I could only put my feet in but it was better than the freezing beach.

Padres Game

Our only Family pic. Ella looks silly

John, Christy, and baby Abby


Jordan and John

Our awesome seats!

A while back ago (end of April), We visited some friends John, Christy, and Abby Vanderwerken that were in town from Texas. John and Jordan were mission companions and they went to BYU together. In fact we stayed at their place when were were only married for 2 weeks waiting to move into our place. Christy's from San Diego, so we made a quick day trip down there to visit them. While we were there, We attended the Padres game. We had lots of fun and our seats were really good. Too bad they lost and it was soooo crowded that you had to wait an hour to get some some food. We ended up leaving a little early and ate some good Mexican food elsewhere. We had lots of Fun!

Pepperdine University

Jordan got accepted to Pepperdine University School of Law for their Masters program in Dispute Resolution. Pepperdine is in Malibu and looks right over the ocean. It's a beautiful campus. We are soooo proud of him. Pepperdine has the #1 ranked dispute resolution program in the nation. He starts the end of May. I know you might be thinking, isn't he still in law school? Yes, he still has 1 year left, but he plans to attend both schools at the same time. Yeah, I know, he is crazy, especially since we will have a new baby soon, but I know he can do it. He is very excited about this. He plans to complete law school a year from this May and his master's by the end of next year. Then let's hope he can get a good job to help pay off our loans.

Princess Party

Last Saturday, Ella and I went to a Princess Party. A ward in my Mom's stake was doing a girls camp fundraiser and threw a princess party for kids. It was very cute and well planned. They had a great turnout, too. The girls had modest costumes of all the Princesses along with face painting, dinner and a show. Brandon and Maylan also went with us. They had Jack Sparrow there for the boys. We had lots of fun and we were glad to be part of it.

Knott's Bubble Farm

Last week, Ella and I went with my mom, Wendy, Brandon, and Marissa to Knott's Berry Farm in the morning. I was able to go, but I needed to walk short distances while taking several breaks, and I couldn't ride anything. They had a Spring Safari exhibit going on with a bubble area. The kids got to play with bubbles that covered their whole bodies. Ella and Buddy thought it was pretty cool and were soaked when they were finished. I thought they would be sticky after but they weren't. We had lots of fun hanging out in Camp Snoopy.

Newport Beach

The family after spending the afternoon in Laguna Beach. It was the only picture of all of us. Climbing the Rocks
Riding the Merry-go-round in Fashion Island with Grammy.
They had a giant chess board on the pool ground. Ella had fun moving all the pieces around.

Over Easter weekend, Jordan's parents came down to visit us. We spent the majority of the time in Newport Beach. We stayed at the Marriott Coast Villas Resort. It was soooo nice and relaxing. Jordan's parents liked it so much that they bought a time share there so now we will be able to visit the resort for a week every 4th of July. The Resort had soo many things to do, including swimming (4 pools), golfing, children activities, arcades, volleyball, basketball, tennis, and it looks right over the ocean. It is the perfect place for a family vacation and we are so excited to spend our future 4th of July's there.

While we were there, we spent a day in Fashion Island, which is a huge outdoor mall, and a day at Laguna Beach at the tide pools. Ella and Jordan enjoyed climbing on the rocks. We ate at very nice restaurants and the weather was beautiful. It was a perfect weekend. Thank you Steve and Marjie for spoiling us!

Easter

We were in Newport Beach with Jordan's parents for Easter. We had a little Easter egg hunt for Ella in our hotel room. She loved it because all the attention was on her. She got a lot of Dora the Explorer items since she loves Dora. Her Papa and Grammy got her a Webkin's Lamb and a magic wand that she also found on her egg hunt. She thought she was hot stuff and loved being with her Papa and Grammy.

Friend Easter Egg Hunt

Hannah, Ella, and Aidan
A few days before Easter, we had a little Easter egg hunt with some friends in our ward. Ella loved hanging out with her friends and eating the candy from the eggs. This Easter is very different from the last one because she knew exactly what to do and she found the eggs fast. She also knew they all had treats in them. It seemed like she found all 12 eggs in about a minute so I could only snap a few pictures.