STILL WAITING

my due date has come and gone...

my big pregnant belly has not...

My Saint

Last weekend Aunt Patty ventured up to Santa Monica for the weekend. She arrived late Thursday evening and was a great sport when we told her, that she couldn't "just peek in on Sarah Jane!" We're quite mean over in this neck of the woods. :)

Friday she spent the day with Sarah at the park so I could run some errands. On Saturday while Richard took Sarah for a bike ride to 2 different parks, she and I spent the entire day cleaning the house. You know, all those things you never get to, but that drive you crazy. And when you're very prego, they drive you even more crazy...

Let me just tell you, everytime I turned around she was doing some other chore that had been bugging me. I never even had to tell her where to begin. I had so much energy having someone else around to help out and it was a terrific day! Here's some of the magic she/we worked...

**detailed oven, microwave, stove, refrigerator & freezer

**scrubbed all the trashcans in the house

**cleaned the downstairs windows and screens

**cleaned the blinds in the kitchen

**hosed off the patio (Richard)

**did the dreaded, regular housework

**mopped all the floors (Richard)

**detailed the corners of the kitchen floor

**cleaned front patio and door

**cleaned the skylight and ceiling in the bathroom (Richard)

It looked amazing and thankfully we have been able to keep most of it looking just as spic and span. It's actually served as motivation at the end of each day to straighten the house up. I appreciate so much all that she did to help out. When we finished cleaning out Stitches room a couple weeks ago, I thought I was ready for the baby to come home, but after last Saturday I was really able to let out a HUGE sigh of relief. Now I am ready!!

THANKS AUNT PATTY

Happy 100th Birthday Santa Monica Pier

September 9th we spent the evening in Palisades Park celebrating the 100th year of the Pier.

All my favorites...

***My family

***Perfect summertime evening temperatures

***Fireworks. They haven't let fireworks off of the pier in atleast 20 years so it was quite the celebration.

hot, Hot, HOT!!!

While I'm sure my husband read this and thinks I am talking about him, this time, and only this time, I'm not. :)

Richard and I had the opportunity earlier this month to leave Sarah at the Steele's house for the weekend and we headed to Indio, CA. Why Indio? Because we were able to get a condo for very reasonable and all we wanted to do was hang out anyway. We had a terrific time. While we did take a few pics on Richard's camera, I am not posting any of them...let's just say, I look nothing like the title of this post. Maybe I'll regret this decision later, but for now, I am A-Okay with it! :)

We arrived Friday evening to humid, hot weather. We knew it would be hot there but figured the desert is a dry heat, which is more tolerable, but it was humid while we were there and thus it seemed really hot. We walked around the resort grounds Friday night and planned our weekend.

Saturday we attended a presentation about the timeshare program where we were staying. They paid us $75 and we got a yummy breakfast out of it. Totally worth 2 hours of our morning. We then headed into Palm Springs where we had Mexican food for lunch, went thrifting (what a nice, patient husband I have), and then headed up the tram to the top of Mt. San Jacinto where it was atleast 20 degrees cooler. If ever you are in Palm Springs, do this!!! There are miles and miles of hiking trails and in the winter you can even rent cross country skis, snowshoes, or sleds. Too fun! That evening we hung out in the Lazy River at the pool, ordered Dominoes pizza, and sat in our air conditioned condo and watched the movie Arranged.

It was a wonderful getaway before baby #2 arrives. Sarah had a fabulous time with the Steeles and didn't even know we were gone. If just the getaway wasn't enough the reception she gave us when we got back, was magical. I could almost leave more often just so I can see her so happy to see me! My heart melted!

Atchley Arizona Gathering

Each summer my father-in-law rents a house for an Atchley get together and every year we leave relaxed, happy, and glad for the time spent together. This year we all met outside of Flagstaff, AZ. To say I was not looking forward to the heat and desert 8 months pregnant would be an understatement, but let me just say, Flagstaff is perfect; surrounded by pinetrees and 80 degree weather. I loved it!

We always have a terrific time catching up with everyone. Richard has siblings more spread out than I do and so this is always our one opportunity to all (almost) be together. We were missing Ryan and Craig Steele this year. Ryan is on a mission in Mexico and Craig was in his first sememster at BYU and had classes.

We spent Friday in Sedona (which was hot, hot, hot, but beautiful) with the Mark Atchley clan + Kelly Steele. We went to Slide Rock and then sightseeing. We drove through an amazingly beautiful canyon to get to Sedona.

Saturday we headed to the Grand Canyon. Richard and I were there 2 years ago, but the views are just as incredible everytime. We ended up taking Sarah to storytime in Grand Canyon National Park and she loved it.

We wish we could see everyone more often! Sarah thoroughly loves being with her cousins and is constantly entertained. Most the time Richard and I have no idea where she is, but we always know someone's looking out for her.

Thank you Ron for providing us with these fun adventures. Next year's already on the calendar and we'll see you all in Carmel...now won't that be relaxing.

I had a realization this morning.

If I was having another C-Section, instead of trying for a VBAC, I'd most likely have a baby today.

But instead we're just playing the waiting game.

Summer Vacation--Idaho

Still catching up, but almost there...

This summer Sarah and I took a long vacation. Nearly 3 weeks of travel. Boise, Rexburg, Ogden Canyon. Fun, fun, fun!

We started off in Boise where we gathered with all of my extended family (minus 2 cousins) to celebrate my Papa's 80th Birthday. It was a surprise party and boy was he surprised. It was wonderful to be all together and to see so many people come from all over to celebrate the wonderful man that he is. Lis and I made outfits for the grandkiddos and that was fun to do. They looked so darling.

After we stayed and played in Boise for almost a week, we headed to Rexburg to spend the weekend at my sister's house. I love being at Lisa's house. They live in a big, old house on a big corner lot with huge trees that provide ample shade and there's always something to do in that big, green yard. The kiddos had a blast. The real reason we headed to Rexburg was twofold; 1) The Relay For Life Walk, that my sister participated in and 2) for Millhollow yogurt and sandwiches.

A year ago Sirri had a cancerous tumor removed from her chest. Luckily they caught it in time and she is now cancer free. We went to support Lisa in her all night affair of walking to raise money for cancer. It was a wonderful experience. Next time I'd like to be on the team as well, but this wasn't my year for that.

The morning Lisa finished the big walk we packed up the car and drove to Wolfcreek up Ogden Canyon for a week of swimming with the family. Richard met us here and it was a long day as we waited for him to arrive. Sarah was super excited to see him and so was her mommy! SUPER EXCITED!!! We really did spend most our time in the pool. All the kiddos love the water so we had a blast. Richard and I spent Wednesday in Salt Lake. We attended a session at the temple, which was so amazing and then went to dinner at The Roof. It was a nice little date; something we rarely get these days.

On the 4th of July we spent the day, my birthday--33, doing all kinds of things. Richard, Lisa, and Kendon ran a 5K that morning that had obsticles and such. They said it was really fun and again, I wish I could have participated. Then we went to a small town, fourth of July celebration and then spent the rest of the day, after lunch at Hires Hamburgers in downtown Salt Lake (my parents ate there 33 years ago--the night before I was born), at the This is the Place Monument. They have an entire pioneer city with activities for the kiddos. It was a blast and we could have spent longer there, but my little family had to get on the road and head in the direction of home. We didn't get out of the Salt Lake area until around 5:30 and we weren't sure how far we'd make it, but we knew we didn't want to spend all of Sunday in the car. Our main goal was to avoid as much Vegas to LA traffic as possible. My amazing husband ended up with lots of energy and my amazing daughter was an angel in the car, so we ended up making it home at 3:30 am. Sarah even let us sleep until 9 and so we felt pretty good on Sunday.

It was a fabulous vacation and just what summertime is all about. Family---we miss you all and are glad for the memories!!

What's In The Recipe Box?

In my struggle to update this blog with all of our backlogged pictures and adventures I stumbled upon this video we took in June.

Wow, how Sarah has grown up since then.

This video was turned the wrong way but my friend Tauna showed me how to turn it the right way. Thank goodness, since I have others I took with the camera accidentally facing the wrong direction.

Not only will the recipe box make me teary-eyed one day, so too will this video. Priceless!!!

My grandma puts together recipe boxes when we get married and then attaches that little picture of herself, and says "Hi honey!" It is one of my most treasured things! So glad it makes Sarah happy too.

Thanks Grandma!!!