San Francisco

Brady had a work conference in California last week, so we made a fun little trip out of it. We left Stockton home with grandparents for three days (the longest we've ever been away from him! It was hard, but a much needed break.) We spent two days in San Francisco. The first day we took a city tour and got to see a lot of the main sites.


Golden Gate Bridge was awesome! Can't believe they built it in 1937! How did they do it?


We took a fairy over to Sausalito and had lunch. Such a quaint little town, wish we could've had more time to spend there!


The Painted Ladies. This was one of the highlights for Brady because these houses are in the opening shots of Full House. He was so stoked that Bob Saggett had stood in this very spot! So when we got back to the hotel we had to watch all the many versions of the opening song of Full House several times on YouTube. Brady thought the painted ladies were famous because of Full House. I probably just should've let him believe that, because he was very disappointed when I said they were famous before that show and they filmed the picnic scene there because the houses are a San Francisco icon.


Stockton Street.


Lombard street. Yes we are standing in the middle of the road and that car is about to hit us. But, hey we're all tourists, so they were understanding.


Chinatown. A lot of people say they love Chinatown. I was a nervous wreck there. (Of course I'm a nervous wreck anywhere in public after a certain incident that most of you already know about. ) I think it would've been different if it weren't starting to get dark at that time. I wanted to go in some of the shops, but I was so scared for my safety I just wanted to get out of there more than anything.

We had a very romantic dinner at Scott's Seafood Grill.

The next day Brady's uncle and his family met up with us. They live about an hour and a half away from San Fran. They took us around to more sites. First we went to Muir Woods. (How does Brady have only a T-shirt on and I have two awkward jackets on?)

The Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park.

The Conservatory was GORGEOUS! So many exotic and beautiful flowers. I love orchids and there were hundreds of them in there!

Japanese Tea Gardens with Brady's uncle and cousins.

The view of the city from the top of Telegraph Hill at sunset. It was BEAUTIFUL!

Coit Tower. Too bad it was closed for renovations :(

We ended our night eating at Bubba Gumps Shrimp company (sooo yummy) and topped it off with a ice cream sundae at Ghirardelli Square.

We spend that night at Brady's Uncle's house and went to church with them the next day. I flew out Monday morning and Brady stayed for his conference for a couple of days.

It was such a fun trip! And I definitely want to go back!

Halloween Festivities

The Friday before Halloween we went to Gardner Village. Stockton loved just running around and seeing all the witches.

He was facinated with the witch flying on a bike.

We celebrated Halloween on Saturday like most Utahns. During the day we went to Haiders and picked out pumpkins from their garden to carve.

The Haiders had a HUGE pumpkin they had grown in their garden, it weighed 86.2 lbs. Check out the size of that "plug" compared to a normal pumpkin!

Stockton loved the big Jack-o-Lantern! It was bigger than him!

Brady carved a scary pumpkin and I carved one that looked like Elmo for Stockton. (On a side note: Yes, that is my mom in the background. Why is she at my in-laws house you ask? Well, it's because they were on their way to my sister's house and wanted to stop and see Stockton in his costume, so they came over to the Haiders since we were over there.)

Stockton loved his Elmo pumpkin. Turned out pretty good.

And Brady's was scary! It looked great!

It was such a cold, rainy night. We only took Stockton trick-or-treating to two houses. Then we snuggled in and had "Dinner in a pumpkin."

It's basically ground beef, rice, mushrooms seasoned with Worcestershire sauce (or soy sauce, either one) and brown sugar baked in a pumpkin. My friend Eli first made it for us a couple of years ago and it's kinda become a Halloween tradition. It's so yummy!

We only had a few trick-or-treaters. I had enough candy to give each of them a whole bag... but I didn't... so we now have a life time supply of peanut butter cups.

After Stockton went to bed, Brady and I watched a scary movie called "Stevie." Why is it that we love to scare ourselves out of our whits? I don't know exactly, but it's tradition.

Trick-or-Treating at Mommy and Daddy's Work

Stockton was so lucky and got to go trick-or-treating at both Mommy and Daddy's work.


I don't know which one is the bigger nerd! I was laughing so hard when I saw this picture! Like mother, like son I guess. But, I'm not just any nerd. I'm a structural engineer... since I work for a structural engineering firm. My outfit is complete with a pocket protector and a University of Utah tie to add to the nerdiness.

The two Sesame Street characters. The funny thing is, this guy's last name is Burt. So it was actually a pretty hilarious costume.

All the Reaveley Engineer's folk in their Halloween garb.

I switched costumes for Brady's work. Their trick-or-treating was a WAY bigger deal and there were tons of people there and so many fun things for the kids!

People had all kinds of decorations and music. Stockton is obsessed with pumpkins. So he liked this little pumpkin decoration.

One section of cubicles was even made into a spook alley.

Stockton loved it. This room was only lit by a black light. Stockton liked it when I smiled at him and my teeth were glowing! He was pretty enthralled!

We saw this tall pumpkin dude on stilts. Stockton very was frightened/fascinated.

Stockton knew just what to do. Take the candy and put it in his "buck-ock" (bucket.) He got all sorts of candy. Most of which he cannot eat... so that means mommy and daddy have to eat it!

Another Elmo? What the?!

It was such a fun day for Stockton. He was way into it. I'm sure next year will be even better!

Quick Visit from Anna

Anellina came for a quick visit a couple of weeks ago. They only had a little while to play together so they got right to it!

They were screaming and havin' a blast together!


Pretending to be airplanes.


Loving being with Grandma.

Talkin' on the phone to each other.

These kids LOVE each other. It's so much fun!

Happy Birthday Brady!

We celebrated Brady's B-day a couple of weeks ago. He got a new camera for his birthday. He took it out of the box and there were already pictures of Stockton holding a "Happy Birthday Daddy!" sign on the camera!

Unfortunately we all got a stomach bug , and we were all sick for his birthday. We had a fun night planned, but it didn't pan out.

So Brady took a day off once we were feeling better and went fishing with his dad. The fall colors were gorgeous and they had a great time.

Brady had a little bit of birthday luck as well. He caught the biggest rainbow trout he's ever caught! It was 25" long and it was some good eatin'!

We went out to dinner with Brady's family to his favorite place, SkyBox.

Stockton was so hyper, and everyone helped keep him entertained.

Happy Birthday Brady! We love you so much and appreciate all you do for us!

Lagoon

A few weeks ago my sister and I took our kids to Lagoon at the spur of the moment. The weather was perfect and it was so much fun!


I took the older kids on a couple of the big rides. This is in line for "The Bat." I told Ashley and Emily to look scared... and these are the faces I got. (It's actually pretty typical, because Ashley isn't afraid of anything!)


Stockton on the ONLY ride I could get him to go on by himself. After this my sister took him for a little while and it freaked him out to be away from his mommy. So after that he would only go on rides with me. So he wouldn't go on the boats...


...but, he went on the mini Tidal Wave... go figure. He loved being with his cousin Brock. He says "Bock." He had to have "Bock" in his sight at all times. It was so cute!




Frightmares was going on and there were some pretty scary things hangin' around.


We went on this new ride Odysea, well it was new to me at least.

Stockton loved it until he got squirted in the head with a stream of water. Mommy didn't realize she had to control the the fish we were riding in to dodge the spitting sea animals!

So then we thought we'd go on the carousel... pretty safe right? Nice and calm for Stockton... no spitting dolphins or anything.

Stockton choose this horse to ride on. I should've taken the first clue that it was a bad choice because it was the tallest one on the whole ride. Stockton was scared while we were strapping him on, but there was a funny guy next to us that told him to "Hold on tight!" and got him to laugh.

But, then the ride started. Oh boy! Stockton was NOT havin' it! He started to bail off the horse, but he was strapped on. I was trying to hold him on, and he was kicking and screaming and pulling at my hair, knocking my sunglasses off, I could hardly reach him on the horse, it's goin' up and down, we're going round and round, and my sister is laughing her head off at me. Then they STOPPED the ride for us!!!

I switched Stockton to a much safer, stationary, and LOWER tiger. And off we went, it was MUCH better the second time around.

Stockton didn't dare ride the cars, but he braved Puff the Magic Dragon. This was his face the whole ride. (Reminds me of the home videos we have of my brother Dustin on Thunder Mountain Rail Road when he was five.)

And notice the death grip on the bar. But, after the ride he would clap his hands and say "Yay!!!!" So I guess he liked it.

We all piled in for a train ride.

And after that, Stockton was pooped. It was such a fun day and we created so many fun memories!