"Summer Vacation"

After a summer of constant partying and vacationing last year, this summer is going to be filled with school, work, and having a baby for Jeff and I. We both went out of town for a few days last week. His trip could hardly be called a vacation seeing as it was for work, but I had a lovely visit in California. These may be the extent of our “vacations” this summer. We don’t have any others planned. But we are so excited to be finishing school for good and especially to be welcoming our little boy into the world!

Jeff has been doing research in the area of Acoustics for a long time now. He will be writing his thesis between now and the end of August based on his research. Last week, he presented his research at an Acoustics conference in Baltimore. He stayed in a town house with seven other mechanical engineering or physics students from BYU. He ended up sleeping on couch cushions on the floor because he arrived later than most of the guys there, but also partially because he wanted his own separate space from everyone. As good as Jeff is in social situations, he certainly does not pursue them! And apparently this is especially true when he is spending time around physics majors who choose to watch tennis over basketball. He spent a lot of time in the audience at other lectures and most of his free time watching Lost on his laptop or walking around Baltimore by himself. He got to reminisce about the time we spent in Baltimore exploring and going to the aquarium the day after we got engaged since they were staying in the same area. He also had an interesting run-in with a drunk man who wanted Jeff to buy him Subway and he tried to find a baby outfit to bring back, but they were all too expensive. He even went running twice! Jeff hates to run, but he didn’t want to go the entire time without any exercise. And of course, he presented on Thursday. Obviously, I didn’t get to see his presentation myself, but I’ve seen him present before and he is an awesome presenter so I’m sure he did great (and I’m not biased, he won an award for his presentation skills for his capstone project)! He was just happy to be done.

When I found out about the conference, I was bummed Jeff was going to be out of town and I would be left home alone. I’m a bit of a scared-y cat when it comes to sleeping alone in a house and I miss Jeff like crazy when he’s gone. Also, I was really hoping to visit friends and family in California sometime between Winter and Spring semesters, but Jeff was leaving during finals week and would be coming back only four days before I would start Spring classes. So I decided to be in California at the exact same time he would be in Baltimore. I found flights that left and came back within an hour of his on Tuesday and Friday. I was so excited to get to spend almost four days in California with my family before the baby is born.

Unfortunately AND fortunately, my dad had a very, very busy work week during the time that I was there. Jared has been working with him and they have been working nights, refurbishing Ross store bathrooms and fitting rooms, and sleeping during the day. My poor dad was so sleep-deprived for my entire visit, but he and the rest of the family are grateful to have so much work. I got to spend just a little bit of time with him the day I arrived and luckily, during that time, he got to feel his grandson kick. For the rest of the week, I just saw him occasionally for minutes at a time. He came along for the ride to the airport on Friday to spend a little more time with me, but was so tired that he spent most of the ride sleeping. I love my dad. He’s so great. Hopefully, he’ll be able to come visit when the baby is born in a couple of months and we’ll get to spend a little more time together.

After spending some time visiting with everyone the day I arrived, I borrowed my grandma’s (Mamal’s) car and drove down to San Diego to stay the night at Jackie and Shelley’s apartment. We stayed up late catching up; eating cake for Shelley’s birthday, which was on Saturday; and feeling the baby kick.

Stephanie (Shelley & Jackie's roommate) and I getting ready to sing Happy Birthday to Shelley

In all of the pictures, I was directly behind the cake so it looked like it was my birthday. For some reason, everyone thought that was really funny and that it would be hilarious if I pretended to blow out the candles for a picture, which is what I'm doing if you couldn't tell.

They insisted I balance my piece of cake on my belly. It was the first time I'd tried doing that.

The next morning, Jackie had class at 9:00 so I got in a couple of hours of work on the cross stitch for the baby’s room before we went out to breakfast at Mimi’s when she got back. We had a yummy breakfast and stayed at the table talking about every imaginable topic for a while after we finished.

We went back to the apartment and Jackie and Shelley responsibly worked on their papers for school while I kept working on my cross stitch on the couch next to them. (I finally finished the cross stitch on my last day in California. Now all that’s left to do is to add his name and birth date when he gets here!) That afternoon, I said goodbye and drove back to Yorba Linda. It was so nice of those girls to make time to see me even though they were so busy with school and work! I’ve missed them!

The finished cross stitch (except for his name and birth date, which I will probably add in the hospital after he's born)

Jackie and I just before I left

Shelley and I

The weather had been too rainy and windy to go out hiking and it was supposed to be that way again Thursday morning, but miraculously, we woke up to a nice, sunny morning. As soon as my mom woke up, we drove out to Fullerton to hike in the hills. It was so nice! And Jeff reluctantly let it and the same hike again the following morning make up for my not exercising on Tuesday and Wednesday. We have an ongoing little wager that if I don’t exercise for thirty minutes a day, Monday through Friday, I teach our Sunday school lesson by myself that Sunday. But since the weather got in the way and the hike took over an hour, I thought it should count.

Later that day, Katrina, Mom, Aunt Debi and I all went to the movies to see How to Train Your Dragon. It was so good! And as always, spending time with Aunt Debi was so fun! She’s hilarious! The baby performed willingly with plenty of kicks and squirms for Jared, Mom, Dad, and Katrina, but the long hike put him to sleep so he was just a quiet little lump the whole time we were with Debi. I couldn’t believe how long he was out for! It wasn’t until that night that he got really active again and the hike had a similar effect the next day. Hopefully, I can count on that as a way to put him to sleep after he gets here!

That night, Mom and I went to the Newport Beach Temple to do a session with Patrick and Ashley. They are such a fun couple! The session was wonderful and we had a tasty dinner at Islands afterward.

Friday, we hiked in the morning and when we got home, we decided to lie out in the warm sun in backyard for a little while. I looked so funny in my mom’s tankini, which barely covered my belly button! And I didn’t last long in the sun, but it felt really nice while it lasted! I got to spend a little time with Katrina, Jared and Jared’s sweet girlfriend, Kelsey. Then, I went to Target with my mom to get a few gifts for a bridal shower and for Aunt Debi’s birthday. While we were there, I found this cute onesie. We have two outfits that say something about “mommy” on them, but none about Dad yet so I had to get this one.

It was almost time to go to the airport so Mom, Dad and I stopped by Mamal and Papal’s house so I could say goodbye first and then I was off. It was such a great visit and I’m so glad I got to see everyone before the baby gets here. I love my family! Can’t wait to see them again when the little guy gets here!