California

At the end of March, Luke and I spent 5 days in California. It was wonderful to get to spend time with some of my favorite people and relax all week. And this time, I actually got to spend more than 2 minutes with Patrick and Ashley!

Driving down alone with Luke was an adventure. And not one I would choose to repeat any time soon if I can help it. He was actually very well-behaved and patient for the most part, but it is always best to have one driver and one baby entertainer, especially when you get stuck in rain and stop and go traffic for the last hour and a half of the drive.

The morning after we arrived, Luke, Katrina and I visited with Mamal and Papal at their house for a while. We had such a nice talk and Luke loved seeing them. I'm so lucky to have such kind and generous grandparents.

That night, my friends Shelley and Sara stopped by for a visit. I love them! They always make time for  a visit when I am in town. And this visit was especially fun because from the moment Sara walked in, Luke couldn't take his eyes off of her. I've never seen anything like it! It was like love at first sight. As soon as he saw her, he smiled big, laughed, bounced up and down excitedly, and tried lunging for her. When she held him on her lap, he very seriously tried repeatedly to touch foreheads with her. We were all dying laughing as we watched him lean in and touch his forehead to hers and when she held him out, he immediately tried to do it again.

 

Sara was cracking up like the rest of us, but Luke's face remained completely serious.

Eventually, my mom took him away, but he just stared across the room at Sara until I took him upstairs to bed.

The next morning, Mom and I took Luke on a beautiful hike with Mom's hiking buddy Tabby, Tabby's daughter Kelsey, and their dogs, Frankie and Diesel. I had Luke strapped to my chest in the baby carrier and he was in heaven. He was so excited to be outside and he laughed and kicked like crazy every time he caught a glimpse of one of the dogs. At one point, when we were going down hill, I slipped on some pebbles and the 20 pounds of baby on my chest caused me to fall forward. I used my left hand to hold Luke close to me and put my right hand out to break the fall. Luke didn't hit the ground, though his face came within a couple of inches of it. My left leg, however, got all scraped up since my left hand had been occupied trying to save Luke, rather than stopping me from falling. And somehow, through all of this, Luke didn't even flinch. He just acted as if nothing happened  and we hiked on. We hiked for well over an hour and Luke only whined a little bit when we started to cut into his nap time. 

That afternoon, Grandma took Luke out into the backyard and let him play in the pool. He loved it! He laughed and screamed and splashed with both hands. And randomly, he would stop splashing and try to dip his head into the water. Such a little weirdo.

Trying to dunk his head. Grandma really had to put some muscle into it to stop him.

That night, we all went out to eat at Islands. Sadly, Jared had other plans, but everyone else was there, including the always busy Patrick and Ashley. Katrina, Mom, and Dad beat Patrick, Ashley, Luke, and I there and Katrina claimed Luke's kid menu and crayons before we got to the table. She refused to give them back. But Luke didn't mind. He spent most of the night screaming and turning himself around in his high chair.

Back home, Luke was pulling all of the lemons out of the bowl on the dining room table and trying to taste several of them through the skin. So Mom, Katrina, and I cut one open and gave him a taste ...

By his face, you would think he wasn't a fan, but the crazy boy went back for seconds.

On Wednesday night, I got to enjoy a couple of hours with my friend Lisa. She had only been home from her mission for a couple of weeks and it was so fun to see her again after so long. We used to get together  for lunch or just to chat sometimes when we were at BYU together before her mission. She got to meet Luke for the first time when she came over and then the three of us (Lisa, Luke, and I) went to institute. I didn't exactly fit in being married with a baby in a class full of single college students, but everyone was very welcoming and the lesson was amazing. Luke did great, but the class was an hour and a half long and with about 20 minutes left, he started getting a little noisy -- happy noisy, but noisy nonetheless. We went out in the hall to wait so we could take Lisa home afterward. In the hall, Luke made plenty of friends. He was in a really good mood and nobody can resist a smiley baby.

A really cool thing happened while Luke and I were entertaining ourselves in the hall. We were walking along the wall looking at all of the pictures that were hanging up. We came to one of Joseph Smith. It was a large drawing of the prophet from the shoulders up. And I said, "Look Luke, this is is Joseph Smith." As soon as Luke saw the picture, he got so excited. He smiled huge and started laughing and reaching out to touch his face. I swear he recognized him. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure how that works. I don't know how long babies remember things from before they came to earth, but I think Luke knew who he was looking at in that picture. I think he thought, Hey I know him! I was with him just a few months ago! It was a pretty sweet little experience.

Thursday morning, I went for my daily run. Katrina very kindly babysat Luke for me every morning so that I could go out for a nice long jog through hilly Yorba Linda. My knee had been bothering me for a couple of weeks - ever since the weather got warm enough in Flagstaff for me to start running outside again and I was so excited that I ran 7.5 miles without stopping my first time out. I think I overdid it a little and my knee hadn't quite forgiven me yet. I had been wearing a brace and trying to land lightly on my right leg each time I went running. Up until Thursday morning, the pain had been very mild and I'd still been able to run every day. I just couldn't bring myself to stop running after I'd waited so long to start again. At the beginning of my run that morning, I felt absolutely no pain so I stopped holding back, picked up the pace and felt amazing as I ran the first 6 miles. But about a half a mile from the house, my knee suddenly decided to give out on me. There was no pop or crunch, I just suddenly started to hobble and had to stop. I walked the rest of the way home and limped around the house the rest of the morning. By the afternoon, I was no longer limping, but for some reason, this knee injury felt like a foretelling of things soon to come. I inherited my mom's bad knees and she had to stop running when she was 30 because her knees couldn't take it anymore (fortunately she still hikes for hours on end with no problems) and although I'm only 23, I don't know how many more years of 7-8 miles a day my knees have left in them. I'm not giving up just yet. As I'm writing this, it is just over two weeks later and I have been doing EA Active 2 on the Wii instead of running since then. My knee feels almost 100% so if it is warm enough next week, I will try running again. I love, love, love running and I'll be sad when I can't do it anymore, but I'm grateful that I still have plenty of options for exercise and I will still always be able to get out for long walks and hikes in the fresh air and sunshine. There's nothing quite like the feeling of running, but at least I can get pretty close. 

That afternoon, Mom, Katrina, Luke and I made a quick trip to Corona Del Mar beach. It was getting pretty cold in Yorba Linda when we left so we thought it wouldn't be very nice down there, but we were pleasantly surprised. It was beautiful! We spent some time playing with Luke down by the water and watching the pelicans fly overhead. Luke loved it and as always, I felt so at home back at the beach. It is definitely one of my very favorite places to be.

Luke loves his fun Aunt Katrina

It was so funny to watch the wind blow Luke's hair straight up.

I let a wave soak my feet and the bottoms of my jeans. It was cold.

I lifted Katrina up onto that wall. Everyone was very impressed by my amazing strength.

Luke loved to watch the pelicans fly by.

Watching the pelicans

 

After the beach Mom took us out to lunch at Pei Wei and to a magical place called Wonderland Bakery, where we each got a delicious cupcake.

Immediately after we got back to the house, I put Luke down for a nap and drove out to Fullerton to hang out with my awesome sister-in-law, Ashley for a while. I almost never get to see her for more than an hour or two when I visit and I don't think I've ever been one on one with her so it was really nice to have her all to myself and just talk for a couple of hours. Patrick came home and joined us for a while before Ashley and I went to Golden Spoon for some frozen yogurt and to continue our chat. I wish Patrick and Ashley (and everyone I love as long as I'm wishing) lived closer to Jeff and I. I just love spending time with both of them and I know we would have a lot of fun together.

Luke and I started the long drive home the next morning. He did really well for a while, but around nap time, he started to get pretty grumpy. I put him in the front seat so he could see me and I could feed him a bottle. It seemed a lot safer than being stressed and distracted and constantly looking and reaching back as I drove and drifted occasionally out of my lane. I drove especially carefully and we were both happier. Little did I know, having a child seat in the front seat is illegal (I thought it was just unsafe in  case of an accident) and a cop pulled me over and gave me a ticket. Bummer. I have yet to receive it in the mail and I'm afraid to find out how much it will cost us. 

I had to leave Luke in the back seat for the final 4 hours of the drive. Fortunately, he slept for 2 of them, but then he cried for most of the last hour. We were both really happy to finally be home. Luke recognized where we were. He laughed and bounced in my arms as we walked up the stairs to our apartment and I told him, "Daddy's in there! We're going to see Daddy!" We were both so happy to see Jeff. We had both really missed him (I think that was the source of Luke's particularly bad sleeping and picky eating while we were in California). I can't say we were excited to be back in Flagstaff instead of California, but we were sure happy to be back home with the husband and father that we love so much.