Happy Mother's Day!

I really wanted a picture with my girls on Mother's Day...and it was much trickier than I anticipated...

This is the only one where Anna is smiling at the camera...figures.

Close.

Almost.

Really, Mom? Another picture?

I love this girl!!!

The Perfect Curl

This is honestly what Cate's hair looked like the other Sunday...all on its very own. I'm so jealous.

Anna Photo Shoot

The other day Anna had on her totally adorable "Anna Louisa" t-shirt that one of my clients sent to me when she was born. I wanted to catch a few shots of her in it, and the lighting was so perfect, I WENT CRAZY. This is just a handful of the shots I took. I told you I went crazy. If you're not a grandmother or Paula (she ordered the shirt, which also came with matching burp cloths), then you are probably going to get bored...sorry!

Hello, my name is ANNA LOUISA! :)

I like winking...


...and looking cute...

...and laughing...

...and drooling!

She was out like a light by the time I put the camera away.

Monterey, Pebble Beach & Carmel

A couple weekends ago we took to the road and drove down to Carmel, via Monterey & the 17-Mile Drive, which takes you by Pebble Beach. It was a beautiful day. Perfect weather, so clear.

Here's Pebble Beach. Seriously so pretty. Oh yeah, and we drove out on an access road that took us right on the course (um, definitely not a public road) and accidentally honked the horn. And yes, there were golfers on the course when that happened. We laughed SO HARD...while we tried to get out of there as fast as possible. Woops.
Who LIVES in those houses anyway?!?!

The 17-Mile Drive around Monterey Peninsula (where Pebble Beach lies) is worth every penny of the $9.25 you have to pay to drive it. AWESOME.

Carmel was, of course, charming. We found a beautiful white beach with hardly anyone on it. The sand where the waves hit the beach was SO STEEP and tall. It was like a mini dune or something. Here's a picture of Cate sitting on top of it...

And here is Nate peaking from below...

The coast in Monterey was so pretty...there was a whole stretch just blanketed with these flowers.

Moving!

Here are a few shots from the week we moved...

Goodbye party with my book club - it was SO FUN. We had another goodbye party with our church friends, but I didn't take any pictures...although, our friend Brittany took about a billion, so I'm sure I'll have some to post eventually. :)

Cate LOVED the hotel room we stayed in on our drive up. It was really cute. Both girls crashed that night...which was awesome. We got some good sleep in before the long drive. Shoot, Cate kept calling our hotel room something cute, but I can't remember it. 10 points for writing things down when they happen.

Having kids is great...we didn't have to drive at all. Cate just took care of it.

Here's our new place! We're on the 1st floor...

Lots of windows in the living room and kitchen, our patio is great, it's a great apartment for a lot of reasons. The neighborhood is the best...quiet street, we can walk to restaurants, the library, the grocery store, Trader Joe's, and on and on. It's a great place! And my landscape architect friend Christy has drawn up some plans for our little planting area and planter boxes...that's next on the to-do list! I just noticed today that the vine by our front door is jasmine, and there's jasmine all over the place...it's starting to bloom and the air smells sweet. I'm so happy!

beautiful baby

cutie pies

since we don't have callings (assignments) at church yet, and it still kind of feels like we're on vacation in our new town...we were bad today and ditched church for a drive down the coast. we got as far as carmel. it was a perfectly beautiful day. monterey, pebble beach, carmel are seriously so so pretty. nate and I will be retiring to the central coast in california in the winters and prince edward island in the summers...if any of you want to make travel plans for 40 years from now. ;)

of course we have zillions of pictures, but not enough time to go through them right now...so here are some sweet ones of the girls.

We really are here!

I have so many pictures to post and things to write about, but our house is still a disaster and my freelance work is picking up, so I just can't spend time blogging today. But I wanted to post SOMETHING...and since our apartment is still not presentable, here's a shot from our trip up to "the city" on Saturday. It was SO HOT AND SUNNY. Very unusual, but made for a great view of the harbor from this vista point by the golden gate bridge. Markus and Sarah were great tour guides - it was such a fun day. Can't wait to do more exploring...seriously, there is TOO MUCH to do up here. We need to stop going to church and stop working so we can fit it all in.

Here are the happy tour guides! We're so happy to live close to them again! :)

Happy 4 Month Birthday, Anna! (The time sure does fly...)

reporting from menlo park

we moved to the bay area just in time to protest the olympic torch in san francisco today. just kidding, but we really are here and we really are watching protesters on the news - what a perfect way to start life in the bay area. :) anyway, our neighborhood RULES and our apartment is great. cate is a wee bit (well, a lot bit) emotional...we're trying to be patient with her knowing this is a major transition, but it's been challenging. she does like our new "house" a lot and shows a lot of enthusiasm about making new friends. anna is blissfully unaware of the craziness surrounding her and is sleeping oodles of hours at night. we are so lucky.

nate started work on monday and that is going well. it stunk having him go to work on monday - our house is still in shambles, but i am SO CLOSE to getting everything unpacked. we had so much storage space at UCSD housing it's getting a little tight here in the closets, even after throwing out even MORE stuff. all we've seen so far are parts of menlo park and palo alto, so i am DYING to get out there and explore the area. already i can tell that there is going to be more to do than we can ever hope to cover. it's going to be a very fun place to live.

we miss our san diego friends dearly. again, i just felt so blessed our last weeks in san diego...i can't believe how much love and support so many of our friends showed. it was amazing. thank you everyone! :)

once the house is cleaned up and i find my camera cord, I'll post some pictures!

packing, packing, packing!!!!

we're almost ready to go. crazy! we're hopping in our moving truck tomorrow night and taking off. sorry I've been neglecting the blog...I have SO MANY PICTURES and things to write about - the PhD defense, visiting family, anna's blessing, easter, good-bye parties, etc, etc, etc...but it's just been crazy. anyway, just thought I'd post so you know we're still alive and well...so sad to leave san diego, but excited for our new adventure!!

we are amazingly blessed to have such great friends here in SD...I honestly don't know what we would have done without them the last few weeks...packing, babysitting, box gathering...seriously, I am feeling so grateful right now.

good night. :)